Day 39: Cheesecake and Sparkling Apple Cider

Traveling can be fun. However, often the getting where you are going can be a slow and painful process. There are always lines to wait in and delays at the airport. Once you get onboard the plane, there are always “interesting” neighbors who either ignore you, talk too much, or as in my case today, cough on you during the course of the whole 3 hour flight. The only thing that makes it worth it is the reward at the end. For me it was the beautiful wife and 4 little munchkins that picked me up from the airport. Now I have mentioned more than once during this blog how much I love and miss my family. But since it is my blog, I will say it again. They are awesome and I am so grateful to be blessed with such an amazing family. I love you guys!

Due to the 100 degree weather, once I got home we decided to fill our day with indoor activities. The older girls (and Sue I think, although she might not openly admit to it), had really been wanting to go to East High school where High School Musical was filmed. So we went. It was so amazing to walk down the halls and step foot in the gym where Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez had once walked. I could hardly stand the excitement. It was the fulfillment of many hopes and...okay, enough of the sarcasm. Actually, it really wasn’t all that exciting and the school was pretty dirty. However, I think the kids enjoyed it and if nothing else, we can finally check that one off the to do list.

After a quick lunch, we went down to the Gateway for a mid-day movie. We went and saw the new Pixar movie, Wall-E. The kids seemed to enjoy it as evidenced by the fact that all of them, the little guy included, stayed in their seats and watched the whole thing. There were some slow parts (robots don’t talk all that much) but overall it was fun and the air conditioning felt great.

Finally, in the evening, after dropping the kids off at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, Sue and I went with her family to the Mandarin for dinner. It was really nice to see everyone and the food as always was great. Thanks to all of you who came.

As a final surprise, I had arranged to leave the kids at my parents overnight so that I could take Sue on an overnight getaway. We spent the night at the Anniversary Inn. It was nice to have some time alone. The Inn itself was a little cheesy (it has different themed rooms such as the gondola room that we were in) and seemed a little dated. However, the complimentary cheesecake and sparkling cider were delicious. We watched some movies and caught up on some sleep. Actually, Sue is still asleep as I write this post. I may have to pry her from the bed before check-out time. Oh well, she deserves at least one night without someone waking her up. There will probably be plenty of long nights for her before I finally make it home. So I will just let her sleep. Sweet dreams honey.

Sue relaxing on the gondola

Breakfast...another one of the highlights