And So It Begins

About 2 weeks ago, Melodia and I finally decided on what our plan would be for the return trip (for her and the kids) home to Buffalo.  We decided that we wanted a road trip adventure.

I flew home to Buffalo the next day and spent the following two days and nights working on planning the itinerary for this trip, dubbed, “The Adventure Home.”

After two solid days and nights of researching, googling, planning routes, booking hotel rooms, etc., I had lined up a five-day itinerary for our adventure. That itinerary began with me flying into Orlando, and Melodia and the kids, in a packed-up Jeep, ready for the return home, picking me up after driving from Tampa.

This morning, I stepped off that plane into the humid Florida air. Florida’s been pelted with (much needed) rain the last two weeks, and the heat and humidity are quite the contrast from Buffalo’s 40-degree nights and 55 to 68-degree days.

From Orlando, the first stop on our itinerary was just up the coast, off I-95, in the oldest town in the nation, St. Augustine, FL.  Melodia and I were married in St. Augustine on December 13, 2003.  Since our wedding day and honeymoon, we hadn’t had the opportunity to get back to that quaint little beach town (and tourist trap – but well-deserved).

So I scheduled lunch at the Acapulco Restaurant.  The Acapulco is a Mexican restaurant across the street from the water in St. Augustine.  It’s also the place where Melodia and I had our wedding reception.  We used their 2nd floor balcony to host our wedding guests, feed them, cut cake and celebrate together.

That said, the Acapulco has a special place with us. We had had lunch there together on a trip to St. Augustine when we were dating, and it was on that trip that I proposed, and on that trip that we had decided that St. Augustine would be the host city for our wedding. So in putting the Acapulco on the schedule as a lunch stop on the way home, I knew that it would start our trip with the right vibe.  After all, we wanted this to be “The Adventure Home.”

The Acapulco hadn’t changed much. The food was still great.  The atmosphere quaint, though the lunch crowd was limited today.  But one big change had occured.

That upstairs, outside balcony where we hosted our reception? Yeah, it no longer exists.  They built onto the restaurant on top of the balcony, adding a new indoor bar.  As Melodia and I looked at it, we were reminded of how things change.

But we were also reminded of how lucky we were to have had our reception on the balcony – and we were reminded of how perfect the weather had been for our outdoor wedding and reception.  It was wonderful.

It was rainy in St. Augustine today, but that didn’t stop us from stopping by a couple of places in the city.  We parked the Jeep in front of the Bed and Breakfast that Melodia and I honeymooned in, just across the street from The Lightner Museum, where we had been married.  Melodia stepped inside the Lightner to snap a picture of it.  On the whole, not much had changed in the 5.5 years, at least, as external appearances go.  And both Melodia and I marveled at the fact that what seems like only a couple of years ago to us, our wedding, was over 5 years ago here.

As we headed out of town toward the highway, we were thankful for the opportunity to have been in St. Augustine again. That town is a beautiful, little American city.  It will always be a special place for us, and holds memories we cherish.

We made our way through more rain and on into Georgia.  Heading up I-95, which parallels the Eastern coastline, we were headed toward Savannah.  But our plan hadn’t been to stay in Savannah.  Instead, we were heading for a beach community about 30 minutes east, on the far edge of the coast, through the many coastal waterways and islands. The place?  Tybee Island, GA – a small island, not big enough to hold a full 18-hole golf course – which is probably why I liked the idea of it.

We drove out onto Tybee Island about 5pm, arriving at our hotel, just across the street from the beach.  We checked-in, dropped off our bags, changed, and immediately took the kids to the beach.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, kids love the beach.  The water was a little cooler than Florida’s western shores, but not so cold that we weren’t willing to play in it.

Mami and Izzabelle sat back on the beach while McKinley, Wil and I waded through the water, looking at shells and sticks and everything else.  The texture of the sand on this beach is different from the Florida beaches the kids have grown used to.  The most noteable and fun difference for the kids? On this beach, their footprints stayed in the sand until washed away by the water.  Wil and McKinley spent a good deal of time making both hand and footprints.

These coastal waters are interesting.  They have a break about 100 yards offshore creating for 4-6 foot waves to surf.  And about a dozen people were out surfing today near the pier.  That’s of course, if you can call a 7-second ride surfing.

It’s certainly not what I’m used to seeing from my California days.  It seems these people have just caught the wave, popped up on their board, and have just enough time to turn it around and ride over the top of the wave to paddle out and catch the next one.  Just funny.  Call it, some of the shortest surfing I’ve ever seen.  But hey, who am I to knock the length of something?  If you love it, you’ll do it, even if it’s not the ideal.

I know I’d certainly love to stay an extra day on each of our trips’ locations, and make this into quite the slow ride home. But, I have to be back by Wednesday to teach, so I can’t afford to add those extra days.  But hey, when you love to travel, it’s about just finding time to do some of it.

So we played at the beach with our kids for a while tonight. After that, we walked home and the kids enjoyed a warm bath and some meatball subs.  Good times.

It hasn’t been all stress-relieving today. The body doesn’t magically shift from chaotic, stressful, hurry-up and finish x next task mode to slow down and relax vacation mode.  I learned long ago that we all live at a speed. Thinking that we can change that speed from moment to moment or day to day is ridiculous.  If we’re living fast hoping for Friday, then it’ll come fast, and so will Monday, too. One can’t live fast for Friday and slow til Sunday. One needs to find a way to live slow the whole week.

So it’s been somewhat of a challenge starting our adventure.  But this adventure is also a test adventure of sorts for us. For one, we’re learning what types of things should be on our travel “must pack” list.  We’re also learning about how to enjoy the moments we have.  We can’t be so worried about tomorrow, about the next step in the journey; we have to live the step we’re on, the moment we’re in… though McKinley has been asking to go to the zoo since I climbed into the Jeep… lol… but tomorrow, she’ll finally get to live that moment (in South Carolina), and the next day (in North Carolina) and the next day (in Virginia).  Yeah, we’ve lined up a couple of zoos. But on the whole, and even in teaching our daughter, one has to live each day in that moment, and hope that moment is great enough that becomes branded as memory, and that memory wonderful enough to earn a spot years later as, cherished.

Well, that’s day one of our adventure home.  Something that should take about 20 hours, and we’re about 5 hours in, and 360 miles down the road.  Here’s to more fun, more miles, and learning to slow our roll.