A week ago today Heather & myself left for a trip to Florida. The main reason for the trip was to visit with some of Heather’s FL based relatives. A few live in Europe and would also be flying in this week. The plan was to hang out periodically through the week and then meet up for a grand party on Saturday evening. The plan worked!

We arrived after an uneventful $80 flight via JetBlue (During which I watched the NY Giants victory parade). We took a walk in downtown Orlando, grabbed some grub, played in the hotel’s jacuzzi & pool & turned in kinda early (for a vacation anyway). Wednesday we met up a few cousins at Blue Springs state park. They normally have manatees a-plenty in the winter but with the near record-breaking heat, the hot-spring river didn’t draw them the way it normally would and we saw only two sea cows. Well, we really only saw a nose. Every 5-10 minutes they expose a nose, take a breath and dive back under the water. Exciting! Sometimes they blow bubbles too! The highlight of the trip was meeting Margot – the most recent addition to the family. She’s a very tranquil soul who only gets fussy when startled by flash photography & sudden rides in a rented minivan. From Blue Springs we drove East to New Smyrna Beach where we’d be staying at a B&B on the intracoastal waterway. We were promised pelicans & dolphins & saw both frolicking (aka fighting for food) in the waters. We took a nighttime walk on the beach, found a few local geocaches & had a very enjoyable evening.

There were only two solid dates on the calendar: The Party & The Launch. Thursday at 2:45 we planned to be somewhere near Cape Canaveral watching the Space Shuttle Atlantis take off. It was just a happy coincidence that there was a launch this week but we couldn’t have planned it better. The weather was dicey early on but it cleared up and the NASA declared everything was Go for liftoff. We took our time driving down Route 1 (yeah, the same one we drive on in NJ) and marveled at the lack of traffic we were supposed to be hitting. We did hit some congestion but after driving in Joisey this Florida stuff was non-traffic. We decided to view the fireworks from Space View Park in Titusville just across the water from Cape Canaveral. You can get closer if you don’t mind waiting a few hours to leave on the 2-lane bridge that serves as the only way on/off the island. As it was we did just fine. As we overcompensated for the traffic we were 2 hours early so we busied ourselves with finding local geocaches & shopping. I’m happy to report that we were able to discretely find a cache in the very park where everyone was waiting around to see the launch. Behold my stealth! The shuttle lifted off on time & without incident. It wasn’t as impressive as I hoped and the high humidity dampened the sound but it’s still quite a sight to see and I’m glad to have seen it.

That evening we headed a bit further South and met up with the only cousin we hadn’t yet seen and her impressive family. Amy & Greg have 6 kids. They range from a few months old to 9 years. I’m still reeling from the energy of that many kids in one place! Fortunately they’re all well behaved and you can use your grill all year in Florida so the “meet & meat” was a complete success. On the way home Heather couldn’t resist stopping off to find a geocache named “Bovine Royalty” which advertised itself to be a magnetic key-holder stuck on a dumpster behind a Burger King. Hey, they can’t all be out in nature, right? We found it easily and had a snack afterwards so it’s all good.

The next day we returned to Orlando by the scenic route. VERY Scenic! We took the backwoods routes to make sure we went past some swamps so we could take an air boat ride. They zip along the swamps propelled by a huge fan in the back. We had an 90 minute tour with Airboat Bill & saw quite a number of gators. At one point our boat was surrounded by about 2 dozen! They were just babies, but it pays to remember that The Mammagator is nearby and watching VERY closely. If you ever find yourself where there be swamps I recommend a tour. Besides seeing lots of cool critters we also learned a good deal about the local Seminole tribes, their shell mounds and the local animal & plant life. While out in the boonies we discovered a roadside stand selling a local delicacy – Goober Peas AKA Boiled Peanuts! They’re easy to make – just soak the peanuts for half a day then boil them in a tasty broth (salty, savory or cajun). They turn out more bean than nut but very tasty. Later, we met the folks for a nice Italian dinner. Yeah, the days were full!

By this point we were just about worn out and ended up sleeping late. We spent a few hours in the morning in one of the city’s more famous parks (Lake Eola) and a lesser known one (Fern Creek). Getting to explore a part of the city where tourists don’t normally go was an exciting proposition. While taking a walk to snag a geocache I spotted a guy spray-painting the side of a shoe store. He was being paid by the store to add urban chic to the area. For lunch we ate in a famous local eatery without knowing it was historic until after we got home. “Beefy King” predates all other fast food in Orlando and makes a sweet hot ham & cheese. Yum! Because the majority of the family was going to be in town this weekend Sherry organized a huge party (hosted by her beau Hutch). The shindig featured a nice place, tons of food and lots of interesting people to meet. If Heather & I didn’t have to get up early for our flight we could have stayed a lot longer.

We enjoyed a complimentary buffet for breakfast and hit the airport early. Then the flight was delayed for wind & snow in Newark. A few phone calls later we learned that it wasn’t snowing in Newark so this proves that even the airlines have no idea why their flights are delayed. Turns out there was a good deal of wind over New Jersey and our flight had to make an extended approach which caused lots and lots of turbulence. This created a definite need for the fancy blue bags they stash in the seat pockets. I wont elaborate but to say that there was a shortage of those bags and it was not a pretty scene. Back on the ground the weather was also pretty nasty – 30s, wind-chill in the 20s & snow flying sideways. Welcome back to Jersey! We got home at a reasonable hour and I spent a few hours unpacking, unwinding & logging cache finds. Oh, and of course looking through the pictures that we had taken. This here is a link to the full photo gallery. Enjoy!

A while back I wrote about my difficulty getting Eagles tickets & mentioned that the only way to get them is to spend. So I spent. I spent a lot. But… I got to see the one football game that I’ve been trying to see for many years – the Eagles vs the Dolphins.

Back in May when I bought the tickets it looked like a good match-up. The Dolphins had made great strides last year and sported one of the better defenses in the NFL. The Eagles returned most of their starters & are a perennial powerhouse. Yeah, on paper it looked great! Then the regular season started. Players dropped like files and both teams disappointed their fans. Oh well, at least they were pretty evenly matched and it would be a good game!

The weather report the day before said “Cloudy” but they decided that “Cold and raining” would be more fun for us so that’s what we got. The four of us arrived via car-pool (parking is $20) at about 11 AM. We setup the grill, fought the lighter, the wind & the drizzle and eventually managed to cook up some tasty burgers & dogs. We eventually made our way into the stadium and found our seats. I managed to get section 104 – Row 3! It’s a nice experience to walk down… way down… to your seat past all of the season ticket holders & people that got lucky (but not THAT lucky) the day tickets went on sale. Its even nicer to realize that you are seated right in front of the cheerleader station. Sweet!

The rain came and went throughout the afternoon. Corey had the foresight to grab all of the rain-ponchos he had – 3 – which left one of us wearing a trash bag begged from one of the Linc’s Sanitation Supervisors. Necessity… mother of invention… yada yada. If Dry is the bottom line it’s all good. The rain came and went throughout the game but it never rained hard enough to really mess up the game or turn the cheerleader’s outfits transparent so it was basically a wash. I was even able to take the poncho off towards the end of the game.

Speaking of the game… it wasn’t a great contest. McNabb got knocked out in the 2nd quarter and the rain already slowed down the offenses. The Dolphins rookie QB had a typical “First NFL Start” kinda game – it was horrible. They usually are so I’ll withhold judgment on his future in the league. The only big play excitement came on a kickoff return by the other Dolphins rookie of merit Ted Ginn. His TD was the only score the ‘Phins could muster. Brian Westbrook for the Eagles did most of the damage for his team and had a huge day running the ball despite the less then optimal conditions. There was plenty of near misses & action to go around and one thing can be said of a low scoring affair – it keeps the game clock moving. Before I knew it the final whistle had blown and the game was over. The final score was the Philadelphia Eagles 17, the Miami Dolphins 7.

We hung out while the crowds dispersed and watched the final game interviews being conducted by the Eagle’s locker room tunnel. When the crowds died down we shuffled out of the stadium. I said goodbye to the Linc. I’ll most likely never be back considering the price of admission. The other thing that bothered me was all of the empty seats. I couldn’t believe that people would have the ultimate honor of just being here and still desert their seats before half time. I cursed them for not being real fans but what I was really thinking was that they just didn’t pay as much as I did. I though the same thing when I heard all of the bickering and complaining (“What happened to McNabb?” “He hurt his #$%&* vagina again.”). I know that for the past 75 years of Eagles football history the “fans” have measured themselves by the level of their own self-hatred but it just didn’t sit right with me this time. It was as if nobody was even having a good time. Know how many “Fly Eagles Fly” chants I heard? Only one. I must have heard it a dozen times the last time I caught a game here. No, I saw more spirit from the smattering of Dolphins fans and it’s sad really. So I said goodbye to the Live NFL experience. Even if I could get tickets for $90 I don’t think I’d be back. Maybe after a few losing seasons the “fans” will be humbled but by then the cost of admission will be too high for me to even give a shit. The NFL is no longer an option for the average man.

After fighting to get out of the parking lot (Tip: Park RIGHT by the exit. Worked very well for us) we made our way down the road to [local eatery] where we partook of some heavenly Philly Cheese Steaks. We sat in the impromptu Dolphins section and I got to commiserate with my fellow Phins Phans. Good grub too though I think I still prefer Pats. So the day ended on an up note. We drove back to Reading with minimal difficulty. That night a blanket of snow fell across the town. Snow is pretty rare in mid November but it was somehow fitting. I had schlepped two cameras to the game and eventually had the film developed. The result of said development is seen throughout this entry. Click on any of the pictures to see the full version or click HERE to jump to the full gallery. Check back here in 3 years when the Eagles play the Dolphins again – but in Miami this time. Maybe I’ll try to get tickets to that game. . .

Here’s a few more random pictures. Click HERE to jump to the full gallery.