Grown-Up Vacation - Day 3

Our last day started by snoozing in (no kids to wake us up!!) and then walking next door for brunch and the crew meeting. Helle laid out a great spread for us....

And then it was time for the crew meeting. Everyone gathered on the back porch as the a storm moved in. While the crew (that was still in FL) spent hours planning and discussing the coming race year, I lounged in the living room reading a book. After the meeting My Man and I went with some friends to have lunch. The weather wasn't nearly as nice on Sunday as the the days before. It was cool, windy and rainy.

We left for the airport in the late afternoon and caught our flight. We made good time...until we arrived at O'Hare. We spent 1 hour and 45 minutes sitting on the tarmac waiting to get into the gate. Suprisingly, all of my fellow travelers and me were very understanding about the delays - there were some pretty big winter storms on the East Coast causing delays. However, once we FINALLY got into a gate, our patience was awarded with major annoyance. We expected to be sitting on the tarmac for a long time because the terminals would be full of travelers. But imagine our suprise that the terminal was practically empty! None of us (even the pilot complained) could believe they left us sitting out there all that time when there were so many empty gates.

Overall - it was great to get away without the kids - I highly recommend it! And they had a great time too staying at home without us. We look forward to doing this again next year!

Grown-Up Vacation - Day 2

On day two we got up - had breakfast and then drove south to __ to go for an airboat ride. Now I've never done this before - and always wondered what it would be like. Want to know? It's loud. And bumpy (at times). It's also a lot of fun. I wonder if it would've been scary during alligator season (summer)?

Mike, My Man & Me were in one boat & the others had to go in a different boat. I took a lot of photos of trees with wicked branches..and then afterwards we went to lunch and I took pictures of birds! (see the big fat pelican?)

To get to & from this ride we had to drive down Alligator Alley (again, not in season so we didn't get to see any). This highway is also a panther sanctuary so there were panther crossing signs! Of course, didn't see any of those either - but it was cool to see the signs.

Once we were back at the house it was time for more team building activities. Again, it was the red team vs the purple team (go red!).

The first game (the name of which I can not remember) involved throwing two golf balls attached to each other w/ a string at a PVC pipe frame. You can only throw holding onto one ball and the goal is to wrap them around the frame as many times as possible. Or in some cases, just get the durn things to land on the frame!

I was pleased as (spiked) punch to take 3rd place for the most points! And, of course, red won, again. :o)

Our third and final team building exercise was to transfer as much water as possible from one bucket to the other using two PVC pipes with strategically placed holes in them. But we couldn't use anything but our team members hands and the pipes. Of course our fearless leader (Helle) later told us we could've gotten creative & shoved a shirt or something in the pipe (we all swear she told us to ONLY use our hands!). This time the purple team won.

By the end of the evening prizes were given, stories were told and each crew was honored with an award for their dedication to the Can Can Duex.

Overall, Saturday was a much tamer evening than Friday - I think we're all getting to old for this! LOL

Grown-Up Vacation - Day 1

My Man is a sailor and that means many weekends during the summer are spent racing on Can Can Duex. What does that mean exactly? It means many weekends alone with my kids. Which on one hand can be fun...and other times, pure torture.

So I consider this racing hobby of his to be his "summer job". Without this summer job we wouldn't have our "excuse" to go on little vacations (5 days on Macinac Island, a weekend in Michigan, etc.). So in all of our years together, I tolerate his weekend job.

Last year we were invited to the first (annual) Can Can Duex crew party at Captain Clem's house in Florida. But we couldn't go (because the kids were not invited and we couldn't get a sitter). But this year is a different story! So we got to go to the 2nd annual crew party...and we left at 6AM, Friday, February 27. We were the last ones to arrive.

We flew into Fort Myers and a taxi picked us up to take us to Ft Myers Beach where the Holiday was docked (& everyone else was already on the beach). We hit the beach and had lunch and met up with the rest of the crew.

Since everyone already had at least a day of drinking on us - we started right away. By the time we were ready to head back to Cape Coral we were ready to party. The boat ride back home was fun - we saw dolphins off our bow and there was a rumor of manatees (but we didn't see any of those).


When we got back to the Sands Blvd Inn (Capt Clem & Helle's house) we saw the 300 lb ice luge waiting for us. If you've never experienced an ice luge..then you are missing out! But this wasn't just any ordinary drinking game - this was a team building exercise (remember, this is a CREW party!). First, you take your shots on the luge, then you run up the hill to the side yard & have to lasso a post. And EVERYONE was doing this! We were split into two teams - the red team & the purple team - spouses on separate teams (I'm on the red & My Man on the purple).

I did pretty good on my practice toss - but after my shot on the luge & running up the hill to do the lasso - I was too far gone. So after my 3 trys (or did we get 5?) I hadn't completed a single toss. I think Capt. Clem made it on his first try!

This game went well into the evening so the only left to do after this was drink, eat, drink, drink and pass out (which is what My Man...and others...did).

It was great to have an entire day & evening where we didn't have any kids relying on us for anything - no one following us around asking for stuff, able to use the bathroom alone (you know what I mean if you're a parent!). Meanwhile, my kids were home with a sitter having a fabulous time - so much though that they didn't really even want to talk to me when I called to check in.

Tune in tomorrow for day two!