Saturday, October 29, 2005

Nova Scotia revisited

More vacation stories. A few years ago we went to Halifax, Nova Scotia where I attended a radiology meeting. The entire family came along. Getting there was a challenge - tight connection at O'Hare but breathlessly made the flight to Bar Harbor, Maine. Crossed the Bay of Fundy by boat to Nova Scotia. Rented a van and drove to Halifax. Peggy's Cove was breathtaking. Since this was an "economy vacation" we stayed at TUNS (Technical University of Nova Scotia). All seven of us were in dorm rooms with a public shower. Sounds crazy, but one of our chief forms of entertainment was solitaire. We had several decks of cards and would play for hours. One of the funniest incidents took place in the cafeteria. A maintenance man was there every morning for breakfast. One of his favorite expressions was, "Well, cut my legs off and call me shorty!" David, armed with his best Arkansas accent asked the waitress, "Maa'm, could I have some jellllllllllllly?" She looked a little puzzled and then responded, "Did you mean jaaaahm?" in her very Canadian accent. Well, there were laughs all around. Simple stuff, but memorable.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Vacations revisited

Julie suggested I revisit some old vacation stories. One of the top 10 took place at the Peabody Hotel in Memphis. Chuck, Lori and David shared a room and Julie and Jennie stayed with Pat and me. Julie and Jennie were about 6-7 y/o at the time. We shared a double. Since the beds weren't queen or king-sized, we decided it would be more comfortable if Pat and I split up and slept with either Julie or Jennie. Pat chose Jennie and I chose Julie. My last instructions to Julie were, "If I begin snoring in the night or crowding you, just kick me." Well, everything went well the first part of the night, but about 1 A.M. I awakened from a very deep REM sleep with a huge wave of nausea, deep visceral pain and profuse sweating. Julie had done as I suggested, viz. kick me. The most unfortunate thing for me, is that her kick could not have been more perfectly aimed and delivered to the "bidness"/business. To say it was a memorable night is a gross understatement. Not pleasant, but memorable.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

Table for Seven

A few years ago the McClains were on "holiday"/vacation @ Hilton Head. One evening all seven of us loaded into the van (we were driving over to SC in those days) and headed out for dinner/supper. Seeing a promising building with fancy facade, we sent David in to inquire about a table for seven. He returned a few minutes later with one of those "looks" on his face. How were we to know that Adelphia is not an upscale restaurnant, but a cable TV (Nation's fifth largest??) franchise? Why was it funnier to the rest of us than David? The reason that story is on my mind is that we're going there again soon. We will miss Chuck, Stacy, Charlie and Zach, but J is coming this year and we'll have loads of fun.