The last vacation before parenthood.

Allison and I booked a trip a while back, knowing it would be the last vacation we would have before Baby C comes along. We decided to use the timeshare points and pick a beach location someplace close. We ended up at Casa Del Mar in Ormond Beach. Not a 5 star place, but it was right on the beach and had a nice pool.

I’m getting head of myself, let’s backtrack a little bit. Thursday night we packed up all our stuff, clothes, books, towels & beach supplies. We forgot to pack a camera! Can you believe it? The pictures will be provided by Flikr or Google image search.

Friday morning Allison and I carpooled, I dropped her off downtown then headed to work. We used to carpool to work every day when we worked together and it was a nightmare. One of us would always be cranky and always drive the other one crazy. I was expecting the worst, but it was a good drive. A funny thing happened on the drive to work, the traffic guy on the radio Kevin Balldinger (for real, that’s his name) was going over the traffic in the different parts of Orlando and he goes “If you’re traveling from Clermont to Downtown, the coast is clear, no traffic what so ever.” Allison and I looked at each other like…whoa! He’s talking directly to us. Then he continued, “If your pregnant, have a snack.” Ok, ok…he didn’t say that, but I was expecting him to. (they never mention Clermont traffic)

The work day crawled by and we finally started our drive out to Ormond Beach at 5:00. There wasn't much traffic, so we checked into the hotel and headed to Stonewood Grill We met up with a girl Allison went to elementary school with. They found each other on Facebook recently and she lives with her husband in Daytona, so they met up with us. She is always reading the blog and making comments, so since Tuesday I had been calling our dinner date "Fan Fest 2009!" One night only, Friday, Friday, Friday!!! Fans of Baby C’s blog unite! It was a fun dinner. Steve the waiter was on top of his game and was a really close talker. We spent 3 hours eating, talking and just hanging out. We came up with a few inventions over the course of the night. The best, by far had to be the moth ball flip-flops. They protect your feet from deadly/painful rattle snake attacks. The kid’s version light up and have bells on them. Before you even ask…no, we were not drinking.

Saturday had its ups and downs. First up, we got to sleep in. Oh, the sweet glory of sleeping in! I slept until 8:45. I loved it. We keep being told to sleep while we can, so we did. We headed out to breakfast at IHOP. First down, 30 minute wait. After breakfast, back to the hotel. We got ready to hit the beach…lathered up with sunscreen, carried a few chairs, bottles of water, books and an umbrella to the shore. Got all set up, and decided to test the water. It was cool, but felt good. I looked back to make sure our stuff was good. I may have it mentioned in an earlier post that I have issues and I always think people are going to steal my stuff. So I look back and there is a kid and his father chasing our umbrella down the beach. The wind kicked up and pulled it right out of the sand…whoops.

So I get the umbrella back in the sand, get in the chair, book ready to read then….ka-boom! Thunder. Look to my left and right, the sky was darkening quickly. Ahh we have a few minutes…I don’t see any lightning. Then wouldn’t you know it…lightning out to our left. Ok…I think it might be time to pack up…We pack up, start to walk back and then the sky opened up on us. Why is it that people hate getting rained on? Half of these people were just in the ocean splashing around…and now they are running to get out of the rain. I understand if they were running from lightning, but they were running from the rain and covering their hair. Really? Is the rain water worse for your hair than the sea water you were just frolicking around in?

We sat in the room for about 20 minutes and gave it another try. We set up, sit to relax and read…then sure enough…MORE lightning, thunder and rain! ARRRGH, back to the room for an extended rain delay. We watched Babe and had some Pizza Hut. We decided the beach wasn’t happening today, so we hung around the pool in the light drizzle for the rest of the afternoon.

For dinner we headed down to Daytona and hit the Daytona Beach Pier Restaurant. It was a very interesting place. They had a ski lift from the boardwalk to the end of the dock. People were dropping their shoes and yelling down at people. The waitresses varied from cute 18-20 something girls to 40 something women, who looked like they spent too much time in the sun over the years. A bartender wearing a bikini and black knee high furry boots and a hostess that kept asking Allison if she wanted more chips & salsa. The food was really good. We headed to Pirate’s cove mini-golf where I beat Allison by 5 stokes. She would have had me beat, were it not for her two 7s in the back 9. Ouch. Then we had ice cream and called it a night.

It's probably a good thing I forgot the camera. I can't think of any safe way to get Allison's belly in that hole in order to take a picture of Baby C.

Sunday the weather cooperated and we spent the day on the beach until about 2:00. We headed to Friday’s for lunch…and wouldn’t you know it, more strange people. The table next to use had two couples and a 2 year old. One of the guys was blabbing away on the phone loud enough for the whole restaurant to hear him. Then when he hung up the phone…he was a know it all, a loud know it all with a truck driver mouth. We couldn’t wait for them to leave.

We ate then it was time to pay the bill. This is the last of the strangeness that happened on the trip. I saw the waitress walking by out of the corner of my eye and went to give her the check back. I didn’t realize her hands were full, she had just cleared the table next to us. She goes, “I’ll take it now, here…just put it in my apron.” And she stuck her leg and body out. I thought to myself, this girl used to be a dancer, exotic. I moved the straws out of the way and put the check into her apron. I felt the urge to cop a cheap feel and slip a dollar into her garter, but that must be her night job or maybe her day job a few months back, not that day and not at Fridays. I was glad to get out of there.

All in all, we had a great time. It was fun and most importantly relaxing. It was great being in our own bed last night. Birthing classes start tomorrow, bring it on!!