We got a year's worth of dating in yesterday: an easy stroll along palm tree lined sidewalks, fancy dinner at Bahama Island (tikki torches aflame!) with live reggae music, 18 holes of pirate-themed mini golf, and a late night movie. I felt like I was living someone else's life. Not only having no child in tow, but all things we did are things we don't really do. The real versions of us anyways. But there we were yesterday doing them. In flip flops.
The day before that wasn't any more believable. We're not really into Disney. Or into spending insane amounts of money on entertainment or transportation. So we spent the morning debating our options, concluding that the only thing really to do was go for a run to the nearest water park. Because it was a slightly cooler day for Floridians (80 degrees and overcast) we were one of the only ones there. Sprinting up flights and flights of stairs, then shooting down slides on bellies, tubes, and various forms of water crafts, giggling and screaming in turns. When I say slides, please picture roller coasters in water slide form. There were ones with speakers and strobe lights, ones with sudden drop offs I completely lost my breath on, ones so high it took us a good five minutes of hiking to reach. I realized this must be what playground slides feel like to Anna.
It was fantastic to have absolutely no lines, but a little bizarre being the only ones at at place obviously built to handle about 1000 times more people. We got to know all the life guards. And wave at the Japanese business men on a tour of american theme parks.
That evening it was an elegant dinner with foreign language program directors from around the country. I was not planning on it being that entertaining, but it in fact was just that. In my experience, those with interest in or a capability to speak another language generally have a fascinating life story and perspective, and if not that, delightful travel stories they're usually more than willing to share.
And then we were asking our driver about the Haitian education system and hearing his ideas on corruption in his country and climate change on our way to the Orlando airport.
I must admit I never tire of staring out the window as I leave ground and climb through clouds without any effort whatsoever on my part. I still think air travel is a miracle.
“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.”
―Robert Louis Stevenson
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