Day 2 in Miami got a slow start.  We drug ourselves out of bed at about 10:00 and took our sweet time getting ready.  On the way to the beach we stopped and got some lunch at one of the thousand places along the beach you can eat at.  Then it was on to the beach for 6+ hours.  The constant wind, nice chairs and umbrellas make it easy to just sit and watch or sit and read for hours at a time.  At about 6:00 we headed in and got ready for some dinner.

We decided to try out the Tropical Mango.  This is a cross between a restaurant, bar, and club just down the street from our hotel.  What is cool is they have live entertainment all night.  Tuesday night was latin night and it was fun to watch the dancers and live band perform.  We stayed for a couple of hours before heading back to the hotel and crashing for the night.  Laying on the beach all day is exhausting.

Our flight to Miami left the Cincinatti airport at 9:05am.  We were told the drive to the airport would be about 40 minutes and after some discussion I was talked into leaving at 7:00.  (I hate not being at the airport way in advance just in case there are unforseen delays.  I get this from my mother.)  Anyway, I set the alarm for 6:00 and manged to get us on the road by 6:45 giving us another 15 minute margin of error.  Then, it happened!  As we drove up the airport terminal Heather realized she had left her driver’s license at home in Atlanta.

To make a long story short you need 1 government issued picture ID or two government issued non picture IDs to clear security.  Thankfully, the TSA manager was in good spirits and accepted 2 library cards as the required forms of non picture IDs.  With that speed bump behind us we caught breakfast at Chik-fil-a and made it the gate about 10 minutes before we needed to board the plane.

The flight was uneventful… the best kind.  When we landed in Fort Lauderdale we got our luggage and with only a 5 minute wait our shared van ride to South Beach was ready.  After stops at the cruise ship terminals the driver dropped us in front of our hotel.

Since the room was not ready yet, Heather and I decided to go get some lunch and explore a little bit.  Right at 3:00, and as promised, the hotel called and our room was ready.  The room is awesome, more on that later.  We quickly changed and were on the beach by 3:30.  The beach is literally 100 yards from the hotel and the hotel provides beach towels, chairs, and an umbrella as part of the nightly fee.  After about 4 hours on the beach we caught some dinner and called it a day.

Other than the little issue at the airport the day went very well and we are excited about the next couple of days doing nothing other than lying in the beach.

I have heard it said that all good things come to an end.  This past Sunday my streak of not eating a meal at McDonald’s ended.  I got caught in an unexpected situation where I needed to feed my family and McDonalds was the easiest choice at the time.  I guess that makes it not really my fault that the streak ended but it is over anyway.  Not that it is really a big deal, it was just fun to have an 8 year and 3 year old and be able to claim I had not eaten a meal at McDonalds in over a year.  Of course it may be coming up on 2 years since I have eaten at a Subway.  Not reason for that either… I just got burned out on it.

Author: Chad Kenny, Age 8
[unedited]

One foggy night a spaceship came down and landed on a U.F.O. land spot.  Out came underwear.  Wringed underwear, wrech underwear, knife underwear, knuckle underwear, and the terrifing great white underwear.  The next morning a group of specialists went to check it out.  These two boys named Josh and Val snuck along.  They got 2 pistols each.  They once knew how to use them but I am not so sure anymore.  While they were hiding in the back some underwear that like to wrestle came and beat up the guys in the front.  They decided to go fight because tey saw the underwear through a hole.  So they loaded their guns.  But before they could get out and fight the underwear punched the door open.  Val shot 2 out of 4  of the underwear.  Then Josh shot the other two.  They got out and ran towards the U.F.O. sight were they saw a underwear decorated ship.

What will happen next?  Stay tuned for Chapter 2.

I am back, settled into my new office (courtesy of an office prank), and beginning to plan my next vacation.  I had forgotten how nice it is to truly escape for a week and how it energizes you upon your return.  I actually turned my computer off on the Friday afternoon that my vacation started and turned it back on Monday morning when I returned to the office.  Yes, I had the blackberry but primarily used it to delete spam from my inbox so I would not have to do it when I returned.  I took no calls and I think I sent or responded to less than 5 emails all week.  It was awesome.

I also got to stay in a new Disney Vacation Club resort that opened on May 1 — Animal Kingdom Lodge: Kidani Village.  The room was awesome and overall the trip was alot of fun.  We have 6 adults and 7 kids in a 3 bedroom villa but as bad as that may sound it actually went really well.  I would do it again.  I plan to do a detailed review of Kidani Village very soon (complete with pictures).  Stay tuned!