Late Afternoon Boat Ride

Yesterday, my uncle called me to ask if I could help him install a GPS and radio in his boat. I gladly said "Yes" and planned to leave early today to help out. Unfortunately, Susan wasn't feeling good and changed the plans on me. By early afternoon, she was feeling better, so again, the plans got another update. She packed some snacks and drinks in the cooler and we hit the road to Sanford.

When we arrived, Uncle Dave showed me his new gear. He had a new Garmin GPSMap 420 and a high-power Coast Guard approved radio. I was ready to climb in the boat, which was on the trailer in the driveway, and start looking for the perfect mounting location, but Susan was hungry and started making sandwiches. Within minutes, the thought of going out in the heat completely slipped my mind.

After lunch, Dave mentioned that it was getting late. If we wanted to go for boat ride, we'd need to leave soon. That caught me completely off guard. I thought we were going to work on the boat, not go play in it.

We jumped in the Honda and followed the boat to the marina. Shortly after leaving the subdivision, I could see something swirling around inside the boat. A second later, a white thing the size of a large grapefruit rose from the boat and started flying towards us. I slowed down, then pulled off the road to see what it was. Susan jumped out and ran back to grab it. It turned out to be a Styrofoam ball. I cannot imagine its purpose for existence.

Back on the road, we quickly caught up. A few minutes later, we arrived at the marina. After some quick maneuvering, the boat was in the water, we were on-board, and we were idling our way out into the lake. We turned to the west and headed for the I-4 bridge. We slowed for the no wake zone, passed under the bridges, passed by the power plant, and continued up river. On our way, we passed many others, enjoying the afternoon on the water. The one thing I didn't see - still - was an alligator. When we reached Marker 99, we turned around and headed back to the marina.

Back at the C&D B&B, we enjoyed a nice salad, some breaded shrimp, and baked potatoes. Andrew, Cathy, and Dave took turns drawing pictures on the tiny chef's chalkboard and trying to figure out what each were drawing. Gin stopped by to give something to Susan. We finally got on the road around 9:00.

Local Flight With The Family

For the first time in Vero Beach, I took the family for a short flight around the area. I rented a Piper Warrior from a local FBO to maintain proficiency and invited them along for the ride.

The weather looked a little questionable in the morning, but in Florida, it usually changes rapidly and, unless there's a thunderstorm, it's really not all that bad. By 12:45, it looked dark and uninviting to the west, but nice to the east.

We arrived at the airport at 1:00 and met Ken and Dennis. Ken started me on the required paperwork while Dennis, my instructor, copied my certificate, license, and medical. About fifteen minutes later, we were loading our stuff into the Warrior.

The flight was a basic checkout and included some slow flight, a power-off stall, and some steep turns. We ended up heading northwest because the clouds had moved quite a bit in the short time we were preparing for the flight. After the maneuvers, we headed east towards Sebastian, but there were skydivers in the air, so we diverted north to Valkaria. After a quick touch-and-go, we turned south back to Vero Beach. I mentioned to Dennis that I wanted to get three landings to be current, so we did another quick touch-and-go at Sebastian. Then it was back to Vero Beach.

As soon as the propeller stopped turning, Andrew stepped forward into the gap between the front seats and said, "I want to go flying again." We unloaded the plane while Andrew played with the controls and asked me the purpose of each instrument. It was nice to get out, and up, with the family again.

End Of Summer? Not Quite

With Labor Day past, summer is officially over in most parts of the country, but not Florida. Andrew has not forgotten the deal we made early this summer. After our first visit to the North County Aquatic Center, we told him that we could go once a month. Every month since, he's reminded us of this deal on the first day of the new month.

This weekend, we decided we'd go back to the pool one last time. After tomorrow, the activity pool will be closed for the season. We thought about going Saturday, but the forecast included afternoon thunderstorms, so we decided to try Sunday instead.

This morning, we packed a lunch and our swimming clothes, then headed for church. As soon as church finished, Andrew and I were ready to go, but first we had to stop at the snack table and grab some cheese puffs. They had cookies, too, but they looked like they might have nuts in them, so we passed on them. Susan was chatting, as usual, so we went outside to start the car and crank up the air conditioner. A few minutes later, we were on our way.

We arrived at the pool right around noon. Surprisingly, there wasn't much of a crowd and we easily found a table with an umbrella and chairs; not that we'd actually use them. We quickly changed out of the church clothes and into swimming suits and headed for the activity pool.

Right away, I could tell something was bothering Andrew. He wasn't his normal, excited self. Then I realized what was bothering him. The day before, he skinned his ankle pretty badly while running in floppy sandals. It was so large that it took two bandages to cover the wound. He was very concerned that the bandages would come off in the pool and get stuck in the filter. Susan and I offered to pull them off, but he was afraid it would hurt too much. So instead, we tentatively went from the one area to another, trying to find something he could do without worry. Eventually, I started to get frustrated with the situation. We spent money to be there and this was the final day for the activity pool.

By now, we'd worked our way over to the the big pool and I was trying to get Andrew to have some fun in the water. I would stand on the edge and pretend to be blown over by a big gust of wind, or fall off a ladder into the pool. Susan joined me and soon Andrew was starting to have some fun. Each time he jumped in the pool, the bandages worked their way closer to falling off.

Susan and I figured that a few jumps from the diving board would surely take the bandages off. Sure enough, after two or three jumps, they were gone. Andrew came to me as quickly as he could go, without running, and showed me his naked ankle. And then he asked something completely unexpected. He asked if he could jump off the high dive.

The previous times we've been to the pool, the high dive was closed, but not today. Lots of people were jumping from it, including some small kids. Needless to say, we were pretty surprised and a little concerned with possible outcomes, but we said yes. Susan went first and waited in the water below the board. Andrew walked to the end, looked down, thought about it for a few seconds, then changed his mind and went back down the ladder. We congratulated him on his courage to try. I wasn't sure if he'd try again, but in the past, he's always had to build up to new challenges, and I thought that was a great first step. Sure enough, five minutes later, he was ready to try again.

This time, I could tell he was ready. He boldly walked to the edge, made sure Susan was ready down below, and leaped off. Susan helped him swim to the side of the pool. A small group of parents near by congratulated him and Susan got a high thirty, then a high thirty five from Andrew. I'm so impressed with how he pressed through his initial fear and overcame the challenge.

By 2:00, the sky darkened dramatically to the west. It was pretty obvious that our day at the pool would be ending soon. We decided to try to get as many runs down the slide we could before the pool closed. After three runs, the storm was right over top of us, yet we hadn't seen any lightning yet. Regardless, we headed for shelter and decided to call it a day. Within ten minutes, the horn sounded and the pool was officially closed. Since it was not yet 2:30, everyone got a pass to come back; good for about six weeks. Too bad the activity pool will be closed, but then again, I don't think Andrew will mind at all.

Vero Beach Sea Turtle Sculptures

Ever since moving to Vero Beach, I've been intrigued by the sea turtle sculptures that are placed all around town. Last week, my nephew Gabe was talking about them. His family was staying at the Driftwood Resort, which has a couple sculptures within close walking distance. I was inspired to try to find them all, take pictures, gather information, and place the information on a Google Map. Searching the web, I found Turtle Trax. The turtles are sponsored by local companies and painted by local artists and the proceeds support Mental Health Services.

Today, we were at the spray park at Royal Palm Point for a birthday party. The park is home to "Peace On Earth". Here are the pictures I took while there.

From Sea Turtles

From Sea Turtles

I added the pictures to my new public Web Album. I also started working on my Google Map that shows all the locations around town. As time permits and the weather cooperates, I'll make my way to each location and get my own photographs and add them to the map. I've already discovered that the location from Turtle Trax is not accurate, so it will take some time to track them all down.

An Afternoon At Disney World

Today we finally did something we've talked about for many months; we rode the Disney World Monorail. Since we were in Sanford again, we decided to drive down to Disney World. To avoid paying for parking, we parked outside Planet Hollywood and waited for a bus to the Disney Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. The monorail has stops at three of the Disney resorts: the Grand Floridian, the Contemporary, and the Polynesian. We chose the Grand Floridian because the name conjured up an image of southern elegance. After ten minutes, the bus arrived and we stepped on board.

The ride on the bus was great. Along the way, we passed several Disney attractions. Before reaching the Grand Floridian, we picked up passengers at the Disney Wilderness Lodge. This lodge looks fantastic. If we had more time, we would have stopped to look inside. As the bus pulled away, I noticed a group of deer near the horticulture Canadian Geese. After a few seconds, I realized that the deer were actually living, breathing animals. At Disney World, it's easy to assume that everything is make-believe.

As the bus approached the Grand Floridian, my image of southern elegance came to life. The building was truly stunning. I felt like I was going back in time and arriving at a southern mansion. We followed the fence-lined path toward the stairs leading up to the monorail platform, only to find that they, like most things in Disney, were purely for show. We continued towards the main entrance and our jaws dropped as we entered. The entryway opens to a large, open floor surrounded on all sides by five floors of open balconies. The second floor contains shops, while the remaining floors have guest rooms. A large, open elevator on the right side of the floor and a wide, wrapping staircase connect the main floor to the second floor. An immense chandelier hangs from the ceiling five stories above.

From the second floor, we found our way to the monorail stop. After a few minutes, a train arrived, but was on the opposite track. After another few minutes, another train came through in the opposite direction. Finally a train arrived on our track and we eagerly climbed aboard.

The gold train took us first past the Magic Kingdom, the through the Contemporary resort, and on to the Transportation and Ticket Center. At that point, we got off the gold train and boarded the red train to Epcot Center. We rode this train around the 'white death star' two times, then jumped on the silver train back to the Grand Floridian. We soon realized that we were on the Magic Kingdom train instead of the resort train. We quickly switched once again and returned to the Grand Floridian.

The sun had set and we enjoyed watching lightning bolts illuminate a distant cumulonimbus cloud. From the Grand Floridian, we tried to watch the fireworks over the Magic Kingdom, but they were blocked from site. We caught the next bus back to Downtown Disney.

We got off the bus outside Planet Hollywood; the 'blue death star'. Susan and I wanted to see inside, but Andrew was reluctant when he saw the UFO that was crashed into the entrance. We convinced him that it would be awesome inside and in we went. We walked up the stairs to the top of the sphere, then took the elevator back down to the bottom.

By that time, it was 10:00PM and we still had a two hour drive ahead of us. Andrew announced that he would like to fall asleep, and quickly followed through with his plan. We arrived home just after midnight.

Making Rakott Krumpli

I had the opportunity to help make one of my all-time favorite Hungarian dishes. It is a casserole consisting of potatoes, eggs, pepperoni, and sour cream. Here's how it is made:

Ingredients:

• 1 tub sour cream
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 5 pounds red potatoes
• 1 dozen eggs, hard boiled
• 1 package pepperoni
• 1 pinch of salt

Steps:

• Lightly grease a casserole pan with oil spray
• Peel and boil the potatoes until soft
• Mix the olive oil and sour cream
• Add a layer of sliced potatoes to the casserole
• Lightly salt the potatoes
• Add a thin layer of sour cream over the potatoes
• Add a layer of pepperoni over the sour cream
• Add a layer of sliced eggs over the pepperoni
• Repeat two more times
• Finish with a layer of sour cream
• Bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees

Enjoy

Mom's Visit

On Thursday (8/13) night, Mom's flight arrived in Orlando at 9:30PM. We arrived at the airport early and Andrew watched the hotel elevators go up the wall and down into the floor. When Mom's flight arrived, Andrew and I walked down a hall alongside a glass wall separating the incoming passengers from those not flying. When we saw Mom coming, Andrew got very excited and said, "Grandma!", then raced along the glass wall to the meet-and-greet area. When Mom arrived, he gave her a great big hug. I love how freely he shows his affection.

Her visit overlapped that of the Haksch and Pearce family, so we had to get creative with our plans. The early plan was to spend Friday with the whole clan at Holy Land Experience, and Saturday at one of the Disney parks, since it was free on my birthday. After looking at Disney prices, we decided against Disney, simply on principle. How can they possibly justify their prices, especially in this economy? Apparently, people are willing to pay that much. With Disney scrubbed, we thought about doing the Holy Land Experience on Saturday. If we could get 15 people to agree to go, we could get a group discount. The initial head count sounded like we might meet the quota, but after asking around, we came up short and scrapped that plan, too.

Friday (8/14) was boat day with Mom, Aunt Cathy, Uncle Dave, and Gin on Lake Monroe, on the north side of Sanford. We were met at the dock by a pair of volunteer safety inspectors from the Coast Guard. The lady was very nice as she went through her checklist of items. She offered some tips and best practices and told us how to avoid getting eaten by alligators. Out on the lake, we were surprise by the color of the water. It was very dark and tinted brown; it reminded me of a cola. After driving around awhile, we decided to throw out the tube. Andrew and I jumped in first. As usual, Andrew loved it completely. Next up was Gin and Susan, with Andrew on Susan's lap. Finally, Mom and Aunt Cathy went for a ride. Back at home, Mom and Cathy worked on canning green beans.

After dinner, I wanted to go to Downtown Disney. Susan made plans with her family and we headed south. Aunt Cathy and Uncle Dave decided to come along, too. The parking lot was extremely full and we had to drive past three entrances before finding one that was open. While parking, we were separated from Cathy and Dave. A quick call and a bit of walking later, we met them near the AMC movie theater.

We hooked up with the Pearces and started walking past the shops. I particularly wanted to go inside T-Rex. We peaked inside and saw the animated 'meatosaurs'. Andrew decided that he did not want to go inside. I stayed outside with him, but then I saw the dinosaur bone digging area. I showed Andrew and he wanted to go play there. We walked into the restaurant, past the first 'meatosaur' display, and into the sandbox area. Andrew stayed and played for at least a half hour. After finally convincing him to get out and put his shoes back on, we walked through the rest of the restaurant. It is really quite amazing. The coolest part was ice cave area that changed colors every couple minutes.

The next fascination was the LEGO store. First we looked at each of the window displays, depicting major international cities, then we examined the life-size LEGO family and their dogs, and then we went inside. We were most impressed by the Star Wars collection.

Saturday (8/15), we stayed at the B&B most of the day. Mom & Aunt Cathy finished canning green beans. After dinner, we celebrated my birthday with a nice little cake that - thankfully - had two number candles rather than 42 individual candles.

Sunday (8/16), we went to the new church. Afterwards, we stopped to visit the Haksch and Pearce clans at the Driftwood Resort.

Monday (8/17), we went to the North County Aquatic Center. The Haksch and Pearce families met us and we drove to Sebastian. We arrived a little early and picked out tables with umbrellas. When it opened, we all played in the activity pool. As expected, the boys wanted to do the slide. Andrew and Susan went, then I joined them, and before long, everyone in the group (except Noah) had been down the slide at least once.

Soon I was starting to get hungry. I looked through the snack bag, but didn't see the bread. Caleb and I drove to the nearby Publix to get some. While there, I had to fight the urge to grab the "Buy one, get one free" chocolate covered doughnuts. We found some bread, and I picked up two 120 minute TracFone cards. Back in the car, Caleb realized that he had a message on his phone. It was Noemi; she wanted some Fritos. Back inside, past the chocolate covered doughnuts once again, we went to the chip row and found a family size bag of Fritos.

After lunch, I headed to the competition pool with Gabe and Caleb. I swam a few laps before Andrew and Mom came over. Andrew wanted to learn how to dive into the pool. With some tips from a lifeguard, I started showing Andrew how to dive. He put his arms above his head, bent at the waist and fell forward into the pool while I lifted his feet to follow his body. His 'dive' was more like a front somersault into the water, and he was loving it. Eventually, we worked our way to the diving board. Andrew and Mom watched while Gabe, Caleb, Peter, Susan, and I went off the board. Andrew wanted to join us. I asked him if he was sure and he said yes. I jumped in first and swam away from the board. He walked to the edge, jumped in, and swam to me. Before long, he was swimming to the side by himself.

Back at home, we fired up the grill and started cooking dinner. Gabe and I charbroiled a dozen burgers and a dozen hot dogs while Noemi made her special baked bean salad and a cucumber salad. We also had potato salad - Southern Style - from Publix.

Tuesday (8/18) was Mom's last day in Vero Beach. I had a few more items to complete on Aunt Patty's computer and Andrew needed to get his final HCT shot for school. We took Andrew to his pediatrician. He was extremely upset when he realized that it was time for his shot. It took both Susan and I to hold him still enough for the doctor to apply the shot in his leg. He screamed and struggled like we were trying to cut off his leg or something. Parenting question: How to convince your child that it won't be as bad as it seems? After the shot, I picked up some memory for Patty's computer while Mom and Susan bought some drinks at Dunkin Donut.

Once home, I installed the memory and was distraught when I found that it was showing up as 128MB modules instead of 256MB, as it was labeled. I called the computer store and they said that all sales are final and that the memory was not mislabeled. I disagreed, but they told me there was nothing I could do about it. I was about to explode, but I had no way to know for sure if the memory was mislabeled, or the computer BIOS was simply unable to detect 256MB memory modules. Luckily, Alex had a pair of slightly slower 256MB modules waiting at Aunt Cathy's house, so I decided to give them a try later. Mom packed her bags and we headed north to Sanford. I installed the memory from Alex and the computer had no problem recognizing it as 256MB modules, thus proving to me that the computer store in Vero Beach sold me mislabeled memory and refused to stand behind their sale; completely unbelievable.

I put the computer back together and we headed for the airport. We were hungry and had arrived early, so we grabbed a bite to eat. After eating, Andrew watched the elevators until it was time for Mom to go. We said our good-byes and went our separate ways. On the way home, Mom called Susan and told her to look in her book. Susan was confused, but started flipping through the pages. Eventually she found some cash hidden between the pages. Very sneaky, Mom! Thank you, we enjoyed your visit.