Summer 2012 (by Randy)

The beginning of the mess was the initial flight from Abu Dhabi to JFK.  Friday afternoon, lightning knocked out an FAA installation in New Jersey, setting it on fire and resulting in an evacuation.  This single event shut down all three NYC airports for several hours.  Our Etihad flight flew in circles for a while before it was diverted to Boston to refuel.  After sitting on the tarmac for two hours, we finally flew to JFK.  Our fourteen-hour flight had become eighteen hours, and of course we missed our connecting flight to Tampa.  Fortunately, the airline put us up for the night—at the swanky Marriott way over in Brooklyn.  That would be the lone bright spot all weekend.  The next day, we returned to the airport—on our own dollar since the airline’s transport failed twice to pick us up.  The airline could not get us to Tampa—or anywhere in Florida—for two days.  So we stayed an additional night in NYC, this time at our expense.  Anastasia and Talula finally got a real meal—and then got food poisoning from it.  Both were up all night getting sick. 

The next day, evening actually, we finally got on a flight to Tampa (two days later than anticipated), but a hurricane just off the coast nearly diverted another flight of ours.  A day later, after a successful but quicker-than-originally-planned visit with Grandma in Winter Haven, we headed south to Arcadia to see Mom.  Talula got car sick—twice—on the hour-long drive.  From Arcadia, we drove to the Gulf coast town of Punta Gorda, but that hurricane had stalled out on the coast, flooding much of the town.  We had to take an odd route to the hotel, but we checked in.  The following day, Mom came to the hotel to visit.  We walked along the waterfront as waves pounded and flooded the park.  A news reporter interviewed Anastasia and me about our experience there.  Then it was Christine’s turn to get sick, and the next evening, I got sick.  Talula would also get sick one more time during our week in Florida. 

The drive to South Carolina was mercifully uneventful;  no one was ill, and the girls weren’t too fussy about being in car seats for the eight-hour drive.  Anastasia and Talula loved seeing Dad and his dog Fluffy.  Talula was especially cute, calling Dad “Grandma” (or, in her words, “Gand-ma”), which we thought was too funny to correct, much to Dad’s chagrin.  Our first weekend there, Becky, Dale, and Trip drove down from Virginia to visit.  We ate seafood, visited downtown Beaufort, and hit the beach at Hunting Island (we made frequent trips to that beach during our two-and-a-half week stay in Beaufort), where we saw a shark who was extremely close to the shoreline.

Other highlights during that part of our holiday:  hiking around Pinckney Island, where we saw many birds and a few alligators;  eating at Hudson’s Seafood Restaurant on Hilton Head Island (other favorites for food include Barbara Jeans on Lady’s Island, Johnson Creek Tavern on Harbor Island, and of course Jalapeno’s Mexican Restaurant in Savannah);  seeing all the animals at Oatland Island Wildlife Center;  playing with the girls at parks in Pigeon Point and on the waterfront in downtown Beaufort (a good location for dolphin spotting);  and taking evening walks with Dad and Fluffy around the neighborhood (a good location for deer spotting). 

We then flew from Savannah to Denver, Colorado, spending two nights in Boulder with Christine’s college friends Andrea and Kim, their spouses, and their children Collette and Grant, both about Talula’s age.  We enjoyed exploring Boulder;  the children especially enjoyed throwing rocks and fallen apples into the river, and they were able to play in the water as well.

From Boulder, we drove seven hours to Durango, Colorado, where Christine’s brother Vince was getting married to Holly.  Both the rehearsal dinner and the wedding reception were memorable;  in both places, the girls had a chance to dance and play.  The wedding itself was on a mountaintop overlooking the city, a beautiful location even though a storm threatened to dampen the celebration.  Many in the wedding party rode bicycles down the mountain to the reception afterwards;  the bride and groom rode a tandem bike. 

Other highlights in Colorado:  taking the train from Silverton to Durango (dramatic scenery over river gorges and mountains);  meandering through an enormous farmers’ market downtown;  watching two helicopters fly by the rental house, pick up water from a nearby lake, and drop it on a forest fire about two miles away (we were never in danger, thank goodness);  relaxing in the hot tub and the pool at the rental house;  and being visited by deer and chipmunks outside the house on a regular basis.  Christine might add an additional highlight:  while I watched the girls, she jumped a series of waterfalls at Cascade Falls.  The water was very cold and at times fairly deep, and once you start jumping the falls, you cannot turn around. 

After a week in Colorado, we drove three hours to Alberquerque, New Mexico, flying from there to Evansville, Indiana, to stay with Christine’s parents for two weeks.  Highlights in Indiana:  pool party at Janet’s;  rides and water park fun at Holiday World and Splashin’ Safari (Anastasia rode the kiddie roller coaster twice, and Talula is finally old enough to enjoy some of the rides as well, plus everyone likes the water park);  chasing the dog and seeing the chickens at Grandma and Grandpa Meunier’s house;  a Tempel gathering at the Meunier residence with quite a few kids (oh, and two of Christine’s brothers loading up an eggplant with fireworks to see what happens);  the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis (the girls enjoyed the dinosaur, train, coral reef, and Egyptian ruins exhibits, among others);  and enjoying a German meal (sans children) in Jasper with Christine’s high school friend Blake.

From Indiana, we flew to Frankfurt, Germany, for the last few days of our summer vacation.  We mainly stayed with Lynn Jones, a former AISA colleague who now lives outside Frankfurt, but we did spend one night at a bed and breakfast in Colmberg, just under a little castle where quite a few deer wander around.  We also explored the medieval village of Rothenberg, which, like Boulder, Colorado, had a few apple trees that provided fruit missiles for the girls.  We enjoyed downtown Frankfurt, along the river, with its parks, old churches, and outdoor restaurants (German beer, schnitzel, bratwurst…yum!), but the highlight for Germany was a visit to Neuschwanstein Castle (the inspiration for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle) in the Bavarian Alps.  It took a while to get parked and buy tickets, but it was worth it.  We saw two castles that day:  first, we toured the nearby Hohenschwangau Castle, and then we took a horse carriage ride up to Neuschwanstein.  Both were pretty impressive, and the fun part was putting on the girls “princess dresses” for Neuschwanstein.  It was a long drive back to Frankfurt, but I drove on the autobahn, a fun experience.  I topped out at 165 km/hour (about 102 mph), but for the most part I drove around 135-140 km/hour (85-90 mph).   Our stay in Germany, and our summer holiday as a whole, ended with a wine festival near Lynn’s home in Neu Isenberg.  We had some good food, met a few of her colleagues, and listened to some German music while the girls played pretty hard and climbed part of the stage.  Talula somehow managed to get to the top and got stuck. 

Aside from a very tight connection in London, our flight back to Abu Dhabi was uneventful.  We arrived home to find that our nanny Noy had cleaned the flat very well and left us a basket of fruit—a nice touch and a friendly welcome home after a long summer.  It is good to be home, but no, we’re not ready for school to begin just yet.