Trippin'

Actually, dun trippin'. :-)

The Quipper family just returned with me from my latest Florida business trip. The family had lots of fun, taking in the Flamingo Gardens and Wannado City, among other things. We experienced extremely cold temperatures in northern Florida coming and going from Ft. Lauderdale, but enjoyed the days in between.

To experience more of the vacation, be sure to visit Mrs. Quipper's site as she reminisces about parts of the trip. I have some other observations here.

Thou shalt not covet

After I left the corporate office on Friday, we drove up A1A for a while, on and off of several of the islands. Wow, are the houses on the intracoastal awesome! Great views, big houses, big, BIG yachts. Someone owns them. I want one. (Okay, really, I'd like to go on one. Don't want to own one.)

After seeing some of the California coast and the Florida coast, I realized I liked the Florida coast better. It is more accessible.

Exercise? When?

I was able to spend some time in the hotel pool with the kids. 30 minutes, maybe. Boy, was I pooped aftewards. I felt like I needed to sleep for 10-12 hours. My asthma makes it tough to get into a pool, but I realized I need to do more than I'm currently doing to say in shape.

Sad Story

When putting away our bags to leave a Georgia hotel, I was approached by a 7-8 year old girl, asking for help getting a coin out of the nearby vending machine. I was able to get the coin for her.

She then proceeded to ask me if I had a quarter I could give her, because she couldn't get what she wanted out of the machine. I told her she should ask her mom or dad, to which she replied, "I don't have a dad." I told her she should ask her mom then, and I prepared to enter the elevator with several bags. She started telling me something else, then started asking another question. She stopped herself, and said, "Oh, never mind."

After I went to the car and returned to the room to collect more bags, Mrs. Quipper told me that this girl proceeded to ask the two maids and Mrs. Quipper for change, too, and they all told her to ask her mom. Undaunted, she looked for someone else to ask.

Oh, what did she want from the vending machine? Coke. At 7:30am. When continental breakfast and beverages were served for free on the first floor.

Some entrepreneurial character would say she had gumption, and wouldn't stop til she got what she wanted. Unfortunately, the only way she was going to get it was to usurp her mother, or do it without her mother's knowing and by asking others for handouts. (Or worse yet, she had her mother's full support for this activity.) Trolling the hall of a hotel, looking for strangers walking out of their hotel rooms, asking them for money. It was sad.

The Best For Last

We made it home safely after altering our route on Sunday. We chose not to drive through the wild, wooly mountains of West Virginia. The roads and the truckers are intriguing enough in good weather, and we decided not to risk it. So, we extended our route by 3.5 hours to travel through Tennessee and Kentucky instead. We didn't see snow flurries until we got north of Columbus, OH. No problems on the drive. Hurrah!

I took today off work as part of my vacation time. It was fun to see the kids playing in the snow, finally having a chance to use two of their Christmas presents - a snowball maker and a snow brick maker. Here we are, mid-February, and the kids finally had enough snow to play in. They had a great time.

Off to work again tomorrow.