"Well, that was...sort of fun."

Those were my last words as we pulled away from our condo after spending last week in Perdido Key, Florida.

I should start by saying we've been lucky to have some pretty fantastic vacation experiences, especially while living overseas...Christmas in Venice, long ski weekends in the Alps, a "babymoon" on the beach in Thailand, side trips to Malaysia (on the way home from working in Vanuatu) and Bangkok (on the way home from working in Australia), a few extra days in Japan, lots of short trips within Europe...the bottom line is, we were extremely spoiled the last few years and we know it.

So now that we're on a much humbler income and I'm not traveling for work, our vacation options are much more limited. When we were trying to decide what to do this fall, we realized we could spend a ton of money we don't really have to fly someplace like the Caribbean or Mexico, or we could get a cheap domestic flight to Florida and go to the family condo (which Gretchen and her sister did such a good job putting in order this spring).

I've never been there, but Gretchen has always enjoyed it and we were excited to see the weather forecast for the week called for sunny days with highs in the 70s/80s. If nothing else, we could look forward to a week of relaxing in the sun. Well, as they say, be careful what you wish for. These ended up being the high points of our week in "sunny" Florida:

• It was gorgeous when we arrived, but when we went out to the beach all three of us couldn't stop coughing, and there were dead fish along the water line. As it turns out, there was a "red tide" along the coast that kills marine life and causes respiratory problems.



• The beautiful weather when we arrived gave way within 24 hours to two days of heavy rain, followed by three days of cold and cloudy weather...most of the time we were there, it was actually warmer in Washington than in Florida.




• Given the lousy weather, we spent much more of the week at the local library (which was actually a very pleasant surprise) 15 minutes away in neighboring Alabama than we did at the beach outside our back door.



• In the midst of this, I came down with a cold. By the time the sun came out, I didn't really care because I just wanted to lay on the couch, feel sorry for myself, and blow my nose all day.



• Did I happen to mention the neighborhood I grew up in was devastated by one of the big fires in San Diego? (By the way, if you're interested in this sort of thing, go to this map and click on the link for "92127"...I grew up right at the edge of the big cluster of burned homes just west of Interstate 15, basically right where the perimeter of the fire crosses West Bernardo Drive.) Needless to say, for a couple of days I couldn't pull myself away from the TV because I wanted what little news I could get from home on CNN and my BlackBerry didn't work in our condo. A couple of times Gretchen had to make me turn off the TV, in part because she didn't want Baby to grow up with some weird subconscious paranoia about brush fires.



• Baby seemed to have begun her terrible twos about eight months early.



• What little free time Gretchen had was spent shopping for things for the condo rather than actually relaxing.

Having said all that, we hate to complain about a vacation. In fairness, it wasn't all bad (even if it seemed that way when it was raining and 52 degrees). Among the highlights:

• We ate lots of good seafood...grilled, pan-fried, deep-fried, you name it.



• We went to a little nearby zoo one chilly day and happened to arrive just as they were bringing out their four unbelievably cute 11-week old baby tigers for play and exercise. Gretchen even got to pet a few of them:




• No one else got sick. Just poor ol' me. Wah.



• There were moments of comic relief. Like the time we were in a five-and-dime store to pick up some beach towels. Gretchen grabbed one that looked perfectly fine but fortunately decided she should check to see if it had a design on it. Good thing she checked, because I can just imagine the reactions if we were hanging out with Baby on this towel:
  
  
  It was also pretty funny when I hoisted Baby way up in the air while getting her out of the bath...and rammed her head into the shower curtain rod in the process. No, really, it was funny--the rod was flimsy so she didn't even cry--OK, so maybe you had to be there...



• The sun did finally appear the day before we had to leave, so we were at least able to soak in a few rays and take a walk on the beach:





• And perhaps most importantly, regardless of the circumstances, a week with my family was better than a week at work, hands down...