What I Did For Fall Break

Posted Oct 20, 2004, 9:38 AM CT

Yes, Fall Break.  Not Spring Break, Summer or Christmas Vacation – it’s new, Fall Break.  How things have changed since I was a kid!  Although growing up in Florida, I did not walk uphill both ways to school in the snow, but the school schedules have changed more than my hair since high school!  My son typically begins his school year sometime during the first week of August and gets out of school the second week in May.  He’s got a Fall Break, a Christmas Break, and a Spring Break+ other holidays –political, religious, teacher ‘work days’-- it’s crazy!  For years we fought it; we tried to ‘force’ a family vacation in between finishing Seminar and day one of his school, then come fall break -- we “worked” through it!  It’s amazing how totally productive you can be with your children in the office along side of you saying “look Dad, look Dad, look Dad”.  (Sarcasm)  I’d think to myself just 4 more days, just three more days…..and it was worse when he was in private school, because I was “paying” for this – “he should be in school”!  Oh, but not this year.  Instead of swimming upstream, we decided to roll with the tide in a big way -- a Disney Cruise aboard the Disney Magic!!

Kids love Disney World, it’s a sure thing.  The excitement and anticipation is rivaled only by Christmas!  Since Pam had left early to do a workshop in Orlando, Thomas and I were traveling together.  We scheduled a late Friday night flight [Pam scheduled our flights truth be known—it was the same one she had taken two days earlier].  Our Southwest flight however, was delayed a couple of hours, but it didn’t really matter, and we had a great time because we were going to Disney World.  (We did arrive Nashville International Airport early enough to get our ‘A’ boarding cards - very important; you can’t get those online when you are traveling with more than one person).  Then the funniest moment of the entire trip – at about 1:00 AM Saturday morning, Thomas and I were heading to the hotel with our driver who picked us up in a Town Car (Thomas was disappointed he didn’t have a Stretch Limo) and we’re driving down a deserted International Drive in Orlando.  Thomas is like a little puppy dog ready to wet himself.  “Dad, look Ripley’s Believe It or Not…..wow, look Dad, miniature golf…Dad look, the world’s largest McDonald’s, this place has everything!”  Then he dead pan’s (like his mom, Thomas is a thinker), “we used to live in Florida, right Dad?”  Yes Thomas.  “Dad, why’d we leave?”

That’s a fair question.  I love Florida, and I still consider myself a Florida Boy.  I love humidity.  The fact that you only have 2 Seasons – Summer and slightly cooler Summer was normal to me.  I love knowing that the ocean is always there, I love golf all year round, and I love being able to swim from April to August.  After Thomas was born however, priorities changed.  I wanted him to have the experience and relationships and memories of an extended family.  That’s one thing I missed growing up, and I was excited for him to grow up around Cousins, Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents.  No one was more surprised than Pam when I suggested we should consider moving to Kentucky, but four months after Thomas was born, on Thanksgiving weekend 1994, we took a bare bottom baby picture of Thomas on Pompano Beach to serve as our “Christmas / We’ve Moved card”, Pam checked into the Marriott with Thomas, the movers and I went to work, packed our office, home and belongings, and we moved our lives, our business, my new family to the Commonwealth!  We have four seasons here in Kentucky, one of them less than desirable – and three of them with transitional hazards (overcast, drizzly as it is today.)  Right now leaves are falling in my pool, and one of my biggest fall dilemmas—when to CLOSE the pool!   Yes, I said close the pool.  Back to the cruise.

It was great!  Thomas loved it!  We opted for a 1 ½ bedroom ship suite [big sounding name for small room on a boat], so were together a lot.  No phone, no fax, no email, no web-work, no UPS man, few decisions. We did what he likes the most, spending Quality Time together.  Ship life was very agreeable to me.  We played ping pong, ate, watched movies, slept in late, ate, watched live performances, swam, ate (without waiting 30 minutes), did shore excursion activities, played Bingo, ate, did karaoke, slept, played video games (while Pam was at the Spa), ate, went snorkeling, ate, some 20 year old told me how fat I was in the “abs” class, and we ate.  Upon our return to Orlando, we went to Universal Studios for the entire day capping off our 8 Fall Break days.  Yeah, FALL Break – Because a vacation is a terrible thing to waste!