Orlando Vacation Part II, Day Seven

The “work” part of Papa Bear’s “working vacation” kicked in. He had meetings all day, so the Cubs and I were on our own. Did a little swimming in the pool after breakfast, then up to our room for deli (delivered) and some phone calls. The rain in Georgia hit the two feet mark (since Friday?!?), and some of it continues to invade our basement. While waiting for lunch to be delivered, I talked to our insurance agent, filed a claim with our insurance company, and touched base with friends and family in our area.

BooBoo and Brother Bear at the beach.

I took the kids to a local beach for a bit. There were lots and lots of live sand dollars in the sand where we were wading.

Boo tried chasing down a few pelicans in the water, but was not successful (probably a good thing). In his typical style, Brother Bear managed to charm a young lady who arrived with her family shortly before our departure. Amazingly, he was reticent to leave, but our time had expired.

Papa Bear was back in our room by the time we arrived, and then had to leave for a dinner meeting. I ordered pizza for delivery to our room, and Brother Bear had a great time tracking our order from beginning to appearance at our door. I don’t care what anyone says about Domino’s Pizza, their website ordering is cool.

During our evening check-in with our neighbor, we found out M and recruited her teen-aged son and his buddy to haul our couches out of the basement and squeeze them into our very crowded garage (I can’t even imagine they found the room). She also spent several hours with a rented carpet cleaner sucking water from her basement carpet and ours (isn’t she the loveliest?). I drop-shipped three large bottles of Sol-U-Mel to her, ‘cause I figure between our two basements we’re gonna need a LOT of de-odorizing. Papa Bear has decided we’re going to tackle reclaiming our basement ourselves, rather than pay for a professional crew (estimated uninsured cost $1,000), so we’re going to need all the deodorizer and de-fungifier we can get. Maybe I should order some Sol-U-Guard while I’m at it…

Orlando Vacation Part II, Day Six

We packed up and headed for Fort Myers.

The highway.

Bear Cubs wedged in. We travel light (ha).

Papa Bear at the helm.

Due to an unexpected detour in the form of a certain child needing to make a pit stop, coupled with one of those “tricked ya…can’t get back onto the highway in the direction you want to” exits, we ended up taking back roads much of the way to Ft. Myers. As a result, we ended up eating lunch at McDonald’s, where T-Bear had a record-breaking 14 unit meal. An average meal is usually between 2 and 6 units, and I really don’t ever want to have to give T-Bear that much insulin in one shot again.

Our new digs are quite a bit smaller than our last. One bedroom with two beds, one bathroom (a bit larger than the last), a living area with one TV, and a mini-bar area. Two small closets and one dresser inspired some creative unpacking on my part, but we managed to settle in. Papa Bear and the Cubs enjoyed the pool for a bit before we all got dressed and met Uncle E (Papa’s boss) and his youngest son, and two of Papa’s work associates for dinner. We went to Dock Ford’s, a very cool sea-front seafood restaurant. Service was great, and food was greater. The Sanibel Sunrise was just about the BEST fruity rum drink I've ever had; full-out fresh juices, and not too much rum. Yum. Thanks to Uncle E’s gifts to the boys, we were serenaded by obsessively and frequently recurring squishy farting noises on the drive there and back. T-Bear had so mastered his Flarp technique (after much practicing) that by the time we got back to the hotel he was averaging one fart every two seconds. Boo got some Flarp stuck on his pants. Not sure how to get that stuff off.

I called our neighbor, M, to check in and see how things were. A foot of rain in a matter of days had drenched Georgia, and some of that rain ended up in our basement. No “flooding” per se, but enough water to make for a squishy carpet. And, Boo’s beta fish, Data, finally kicked the bucket after a couple of weeks of floundering. T-Bear woke to stomach pain about an hour after we’d all gone to bed, so we were up testing BS and keytones, and managed to get him some relief in a warm bath. No more McD’s for us, thank you.

I'm supposed to be on vacation.