Florida Family Fun For Five Fabulous......um......People

Well I'm home and mostly rested. For those that didn't know or chose not to read my last post Rachel and I flew down to Florida for the weekend and surprised mom. I still have no idea how we pulled it off. Rachel bought the tickets at the first of the year and somehow neither I, Rachel, Paul or Dad slipped up. Not that there weren't close calls but as you can tell in the video in my last post she had not even an inkling we might be coming. The trip was worth it just for the sheer Chuck Norris level awesomeness of the surprise.

Of course, an added bonus was the four days in sunny Florida. The parents put in a pool last year and we took full advantage of it. I spent a good 2 hours reading on the pool deck and swimming with the dogs Saturday before I realized that I was in fact out in the sun and with somewhat (read extremely) pale complexion I had to get in the shade.




We got to hang out with my aunt Deborah and my cousin Erin too which was cool. The only time we've seen them in the last couple of years has been during weddings and funerals when there was not time to visit. Of course, the wimps thought the 70 degree weather was too chilly. Rachel and I laughed at them regularly.

I picked up a couple of good books from the old man. It helps to have one who works for Borders and gets advance copies and whatnot. He also managed to score me a baseball signed by Derek Jeter. His store is a mile from the Yankees spring training facility and they get players in all the time. I'm not a Yankee fan by any means but the guy is from K-Zoo and seems like a pretty cool guy so I'm kinda pumped. But here's the kicker from this story, the week before Jeter was in the store that giant pusbag prima-dona known as A-Rod was in the store signing copies of his children's book. Some kid brought in one of his baseballs but the jackass refused to sign it. I guess the kid just dropped the ball on the floor and took off. My dad picked up the ball and when Jeter came in asked if he would sign it. One more example of why Jeter is currently working his way through the Hollywood A-List dating service and A-Rod is destined to wind up pinned beneath the wheels of a truck full of cow manure. Karma's a bitch dude.



Well anyway, the weekend was a big success. Sunday night even wound up like one of those movie scenes where the family gets together for the first time in years and has one of those crazy nights where everyone acts like they're all on one of their old childhood vacations. Of course, it helps when Rachel and I have the combined maturity of an 8 year old but one thing is for sure, us Wades know how to have a good time.

Unfortunately we also know how to eat and Florida is chock full of great places to practice our art. Let's see, Chik-fil-A and chinese food on Friday; killer seafood and mom's spaghetti followed by 2-for-1 Guinnesses and fried alligator bites at the bar on Saturday; waffles, omelets, leftover chinese food and salmon patties on Sunday with everything finished off by a trip to Denny's before we left for the airport on Monday. I'm afraid I gained back a few of those pounds I lost. But when I only get down there once every year or two I'm going to enjoy the culinary offerings. I'll just have to hit the treadmill a little harder for a while.

One more thing; are you guys aware that Detroit sucks? I mean come on, is there a more worthless city? Does anything work in that town other than the Tigers and the Red Wings? Wow, not my favorite place. Can you tell we had a few problems while flying out of the lovely motor city? I mean the hotel we got on Thursday night had a 12 bullet point leaflet in the room with tips on how not to get robbed while staying at the hotel. Holy crap. Not cool.

Well, thanks for stopping by. For your troubles I give you the greatest music video of all time.


GET HIM A BODY BAG JOHNNY!! YEAH!!!