Florida, the remix.

More pictures means more posting! Dad flickr'd some more photos from our Orlando adventures, so there's more to talk about.

But we begin with the funny picture that greeted me as I logged in to flickr. Apparently there's another neighborhood iguana on Pine Island; here he is chillin on our dock. We had one of these a while ago when I was growing up. He'd just wander from yard to yard for years, eventually disappearing altogether. I'm glad to see another one has come to hang out. It seemed normal growing up, but now that I live in an urban setting, it seems odd to talk about how manatees would come up by our house to give birth, or how there's a gator in the storm drain across from my parents' house right now, or 'the girls' - the group of three peacocks that roam the neighborhood. Oh Florida...

But back to the Orlando adventures...

We begin with birthday dinner at my FAVORITE restaurant...Seasons 52. One of the (many) highlights of Seasons is their nearly guilt-free desserts. It comes in a double shot glass - how bad can it be? When my parents embarrassingly revealed that we were celebrating my big 2-5, they brought over their version of a birthday cake. Three tiers of their amazing desserts. ... and the angles sing.... ::heaven::

Tailored towards families with 2.3 children, a dog and a white picket fence who take their kids on the requisite Disney trip, the resort we stayed at was quite a glorification of Florida life. But after a long cold winter...I'll take it! Here is our little water taxi that took us from the hotel to City Walk, where we were able to drink, dance, and then drift home.

Forever scarred.
I have an older brother. For those of you with similar family situations, you probably instantly cower in fear and cringe at the memories. Stuffed in trash cans: definitely. Attacked with guns of all sorts - rubber band, squirt, paint ball : of course. Towel whipped almost every night doing the dinner dishes : naturally. Say the phrase "fart fairy" or "iron claw" and you'll find me fleeing like OJ.

Of course, this brotherly love extended to family vacations. Good luck trying to find a room with three beds...so we would always end up in a two-bed room. Eric on the bed, and Heidi on the floor, in a dresser drawer, or on luggage racks. Eric was kind enough to make up my 'bed' for me in the hotel before I got there.
Let them eat cake.
I also have a little update on how the cake did in the last day of travel. I handed off a repaired cake Saturday night, however the damned thing still needed to survive a night in the hotel and a 4 hour car ride back to PI. Apparently this is what it looked like when it arrived at the final destination...