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Kim’s parents, Ron and Joan, picked us up from Kim’s grandma’s on Saturday and we went to stay at a time share in Indian Rocks Beach west of Tampa. Over the next few days we were very busy sight seeing and having fun around Florida.

Sunday we went to an auction, saw the sponge docks, and bought some stuff at a gigantic flea market. The auction was fun though none of us bid on anything. It’s probably a good thing that Kim didn’t have a number or I think she might have started using it just for fun.

The only unfortunate part about doing all this is that we had to drive everywhere, and as everyone in Florida told us many times, traffic is terrible. The main problems are that lights are 3-5 minutes long and they’re everywhere, and too many drivers are either over 60 and pay no attention while driving along at 40 mph or they’re crazy and drive along at 70-100 mph (not a good combination). Thankfully, Ron did all the driving so Kim and I were spared dealing with all the traffic. He even managed to avoid a fender bender accident that happened right in front of us.

Monday Kim and I gave her parents their Christmas present, a kayak trip to see the manatees! Read more about that in my other post. Kim and I also opened gifts in the stockings that her parents had brought for us.

Tuesday we went to Myakka River State Park. We saw an amazing amount of birds including the roseated spoonbill, vultures, and many varieties of herons and egrets. We did a boat cruise of the lake and also saw alligators! They were basking on the river banks to soak up the sun and some of them are huge. We saw some swimming in the water and some walking on the land. I can’t get over how much they look like dinosaurs. After the chilly boat cruise we did a canopy walk where we climbed up a tower so that we could get a nice view over all the palm trees. On the way home we stopped at an injured bird sanctuary so we got to see most all the birds we had been looking at in the wild up close and then some.

Tuesday night Chip, a friend of ours from California, had flown into Florida to be with his family for Christmas so he met up with us and we went out with him and his brother Ray. We went to a cool Irish pub with a thatched roof in downtown Tampa. It was fun to catch up with Chip and meet Ray. On the way home Chip avoided an accident with a crazy driver who decided to change 3 lanes of traffic going 40 mph on the freeway with no warning and without looking to see that there were cars behind. Crazy people.

Wednesday we went to Ybor City, the old Cuban district in Tampa. We saw part of the museum and then went to find Cuban food for lunch but had a hard time finding it and settled for Italian.

Finally we said our goodbyes and Kim and I got on the plane to go home.

Kim and I surprised her parents with a Christmas present of a kayak trip to see the manatees, also known as sea cows. We drove up to Crystal Springs and rented four kayaks. They didn’t have all their kayaks in so I ended up with a crocodile kayak. How cool is that?!

We paddled around in the calm waters of the bay for a while, watching the pelicans that dominated a little island. Then we decided to head out to find manatees! The open water was a little choppy and it was hard going. Fortunately, the series of canals where the manatees could be found wasn’t far away.

The manatees move out of the cold ocean waters and into areas with warmer spring water for the winter. They have zones surrounded by boueys that they can go in without being bothered by humans. They’re curious and social animals though and come out to see what people in the water are doing.

We passed the first spring and didn’t see any manatees so we paddled on to the second, and there they were. I immediately jumped in with mask and snorkel. There were three manatees in the area, a mother, her baby, and a grey one that did it’s own thing. The baby was especially curious and would come up to everyone who got in the water. The mother would always be just a step behind it. I rubbed the baby’s back and it rolled over so that I could rub it’s belly. By this time, Kim and her dad had had enough of watching and also jumped in. Kim’s mom stayed with the kayaks.

Kim swam with the manatees about a year ago, but they intimidated her at the time so she didn’t touch them. Manatees are harmless, with no teeth, but they’re very large and obviously more agile in the water than people, making them seem a little threatening. However, this time Kim worked up the courage to get close to them and touch them.

The water from three natural springs was pouring out of a stream nearby, so we waded up the stream to see the area. It was a beautiful, peaceful, secluded area with crystal clear water. After splashing around for a while we ate and headed back out to the open bay.

We were headed to another manatee spot, but the wind was making it choppy and hard to get anywhere to we turned around and went back to the springs. Kim’s mom decided to jump in at this point. She touched the nose of the baby as it came up to her and yelled and swam away. The baby started chasing Kim’s toes since she had painted them with sparkles.

The tide had changed enough so that we could get our kayaks into the stream where the springs were so we paddled back into the area to see the other sections. Finally, we decided to head back since we had already been out almost 4 hours and needed to return the kayaks.

We saw some more birds on the way back and got some fun pictures. We returned the kayaks, changed clothes and headed back to Tampa, hungry and a little tired, but having enjoyed the day greatly.

We flew into Tampa and rented a car to drive to Sarasota where Kim’s Grandma Keane (her real name is Corinne Lavorgna) lives with her boyfriend Bob. Kim’s grandma lives in a manufactured home community for older people. Since we got to Florida at 6 in the morning traffic wasn’t bad. The car rental would have only been $20, but we aren’t 25 so it was $45. Lame.

Kim’s grandma worked the day we got there which worked out well because we just passed out in the sun by the pool and slept while the old ladies did water aerobics. Kim’s grandma came home and made us her famous lasagna (like Lavorgna, ha ha). It was vegetarian spinach lasagna, and Bob would have none of that so he at spaghetti and sauce with meatballs. After dinner we went to swim in the pool and sit in the hot tub.

The next day we went to Kim’s grandma’s favorite beach, Siesta Keys. It was really nice with white, fine sand. Then we went to the pier and there were dolphins jumping around in the water! Pelicans were flying everywhere and old men were fishing. I think the birds in Florida were one of the coolest parts of the trip. There’s so many birds everywhere! Grandma Keane took us to lunch on the water at Sharky’s and I had calamari.

Kim’s grandma wanted to take a picture of her and Bob in the hot tub and send it out as a Christmas card, so we pulled a palm tree behind the hot tub, put some ornaments, and took the picture at night. We developed the pictures at Walgreens the next morning.

Kim’s parents showed up that afternoon. They had driven down from near Daytona Beach. Everyone talked for a while and then Kim’s parents, Kim and I went to a time share condo on the beach near Tampa.

This weekend we headed into the mountains again for some snow shoeing. The drive was a little easier this time since we just went to Steven’s pass and started at the Pacific Crest Trailhead. It was snowing most of the time and very pretty, except that you couldn’t see very far with all the snow coming down. We hiked in until we had to turn around so that we got back to the car before dark. We built a snowman at the spot we turned around. Bridgid fell into a little stream while she was crossing a log, but only got one foot wet. Brian somehow wasn’t tired on the way back so he gave Kim a piggy back ride for a few dozen yards. That seemed to wear him out pretty quickly and made for a funny video. I spun some donuts in the parking lot. Kim even gave it a try. It’s actually pretty hard to spin out in an all wheel drive vehicle.

Today Brian, Brigid, Kim and I went snow shoeing at Tonga Ridge in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Fresh snow had just fallen and we were all eager to get out and enjoy it. This was really the first time that I’ve had a chance to take my Subaru Forester on some fun roads. We drove all the way to the trail head even though there was a lot of snow and nobody else was going up that high. We got within 100 yards of the trailhead and I managed to get into a ditch and get it stuck. Some other snow shoers helped us push it out. All in all, I was very impressed with how it handled in the snow, but next time I need to have some chains and a snow shovel.

The hike went up through some trees and then followed a ridgeline with some really nice views. After hiking in for about a half hour we had to break trail since nobody else had gone farther. Kim and Brigid both had new snow shoes, so it was good that we had a chance to use them in some fresh snow, even though Brigid didn’t like her new shoes. The views were terrific and it was a gorgeous sunny day. Brian kept running down steep slopes and then regretting it while Kim kicked little snowballs down the slope. We would have liked to go longer, but we had to turn around so that we could get back to the car before it was dark. We saw some nice skylines as the sun was setting. I ended up stuck behind a long line of Jeeps that were loaded with Christmas trees and driving really slowly. Actually, there was a group of Jeeps and all of them drove slowly and didn’t go anywhere cool all day. One funny thing is that someone said they saw a Hummer get stuck and a Jeep had to pull it out. We were all pretty tired after driving back.

We stayed with Kim’s Grandma Josephine Arszyla and her Aunt Mary Anne and her cousin CJ for Thanksgiving. As soon as we got there it was time for Kim’s grandma’s favorite game, Skip-bo. Kim won pretty much every game, something she attributes to skill, although I disagree.

Abbie, Kim’s NRME friend from college, and her boyfriend Adam stopped by that night to visit and we went to El Sombrero for dinner. There was live mariachi music which was fun, but once they started repeating songs it got a little old. We all caught up over dinner and had a lovely time.

The next day we picked up CJ from school, and Kim got a chance to keep up her image as the cool cousin. Afterwards we went to pick up our vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner and drove around sightseeing Connecticut.

Later that day the other Abbey (notice the different spelling, at least it think they’re spelled differently) picked us up and we went to see Chris and Megan’s new condo. They completely remodeled it and it looks really, really good.

The next day was Thanksgiving and Mary Anne finally got to stay home. We ate a LOT and then we went out to rake the yard just for some exercise. It was a nice day out so it was fun just to rake leaves. We walked around the neighborhood and the woods. Lots of Kim’s family, great aunts and distant cousins, have houses just down the street from her Grandma.

Finally, it was time for us to go back home. We flew back the day after Thanksgiving because that was the cheapest time. It was nice to have a weekend at home before going back to work too.

Kim and I flew back to Connecticut for a week vacation and Thanksgiving. Kim’s friend Effie Tomasio picked us up at the airport in Hartford. We spent the day visiting Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, a village made up to look like they used to in the 1700′s. Effie is planning to have her wedding there in June so we wanted to see the facilities and just do something fun. After we spent a few hours wandering around the village we went back to the house where Effie and her fiance Jack Cahill are living in Southington. Abbey Assunto, Mike Zanetti and Lindsey Matteo both stopped by to visit and tell us all the Southington happenings, and Effie made us fajitas.

Over the next few days we saw a lot of people that Kim has missed. Dan came up from New York to have dinner with us at a Chinese restaurant and hang out. . We’re trying to get him to come visit us in Seattle because we think he’d like it a lot.

The next night we went to Steve’s apartment and he and Roslyn cooked us, Jack and Effie, and Megan and Chris dinner at Steve’s apartment. The food was great and after we all ate Chris started a drinking game. The game was each person mixes a drink out of the assortment of alcohol available, and then everyone drinks it. People came up with some surprisingly good drinks considering most of it was totally random concoctions. Kim’s drink was voted best drink of the evening though, but I already can’t remember what she put in it.

Effie and Jack both had to go back to work on Monday, so Kim and I went to visit Darleen, the manager at the soup kitchen where Kim used to volunteer. We went to help out, but there were already more than enough people to help serve and everything. Darleen told us about how great it is to be the ‘cool’ grandma.

One of my favorite parts of the vacation was that we slept in every day. I think we got between 9 and 11 hours of sleep a night and it felt wonderful. Part of it was that was that we were going to bed at a normal hour Eastern time and waking up at a normal hour Pacific time.

Jack and Effie left for Florida on Wednesday so we went to Kim’s grandma’s house to spend some time with family for Thanksgiving. Kim and I walked to her Grandma’s along the old railroad tracks that have been converted into a walking trail.

Brigid has already started moving some of her stuff in and she officially moves in the 16th, so we’re getting her room ready by painting it and taking out some of the kid things. The room has stickers and little kid stuff attached to the walls, so we’re removing it all and painting. One of the shelves had a stripped screw and I managed to put a hole in wall while removing it, which means that I got to learn to patch drywall! It was easier than I thought it would be. We recently learned that it’s good to have an accent wall when you’re painting a room, so you paint one wall a different color to accent the room. I’m not totally sure why, but it does kinda look nice. We had some paint left over from the previous owners that we used so all we had to do was buy some paint brushes and rollers.

After I unscrewed the shelves and blinds, Kim and Brigid did most all the painting which left me free to work on building the compost pile in the back yard. I cleared out a section behind our fence under the really big bushes. I setup some free wood pallets, strapped them together with big cable ties, and added some hinges for a door. All our yard waste is composting wonderfully. If you stick your hand in the pile it’s really warm. This will be great for our garden next spring.

Last night Kim and I went to see a show at the Crocodile Cafe. One of Kim’s favorite artists, Erin McKeown, was playing. I’ve seen her before at the Folk Life Festival in New York, but I liked her more this time. Her set was way too short though. She was playing when we got there and only did a few songs. They were good though, just a girl and her guitar. It was way too crowded too. I really don’t like going to see music in bars because most people are there to drink and not listen to the music. There’s always a lot of people talking, smoking, wandering around, and distracting from the music.

The other band was the Waifs and they were fun too. They were kind of country sounding from Australia. The two singers are sisters and look very much alike. They also play guitars and the harmonica, and then there’s the rest of the band playing drums, guitar and base.

After a while we were tired of standing and being around way too many people all jostling for a better spot, so Kim bought Erin McKeown’s new CD and then we took the bus home.

I’ve been trying to setup an IP phone at one of the owner’s houses in Idaho since I started working at Krekow Jennings. He has been avoiding doing it until recently, and in the process of trying to walk him through the setup over the phone, the whole house network went down. Time to fly me to Idaho!

Now I know what you’re thinking, whoop-de-do, Idaho, but I found out that the Sun Valley area isn’t your normal Idaho. This is a community for the rich in the famous. It’s got all the amenities of living in nature (ski resorts, hiking, mountain biking, privacy) with culture (private schools, theater, live music, mansions). I may want to live there once I’m rich and famous.

I did have to work for a while, but the rest of the time was like being on vacation. Karl and Kathleen were very hospitable and cooked nice meals for me. They were constantly busy, running errands, making phone calls and taking care of their kids, but in between all this we had some nice conversations.

I had to spend the night since there’s only one flight back to Seattle everyday, and I had my own guest house to retire to at the end of the night. They had 800 channels of TV but I couldn’t find Comedy Central so I gave up on TV and read before bed. The next day was beautifully sunny and we went on a hike near the Ernest Hemmingway memorial.

I slept on the flight back and got back to Seattle just in time to go home for the weekend. I can definitely handle occasional travel for work, but I think consistent travel would be exhausting and frustrating. It’s always nice to mix things up and not be at a desk all day though.