Thursday Thirteen - Memorable Vacations

Thirteen Things about Michael Thirteen Memorable Vacations 1. Sometime around 5 or 6 years old, we went to visit my grandparents who then lived in Buffalo, NY. We went to Niagara Falls and Toronto. 2. Sometime also before third grade we went to went to Williamsburg, VA. It stuck out to me so much I went back for my honeymoon and again for my fifth wedding annversary. The Loch Ness Monster at Busch Gardens is STILL a favorite roller coaster. 3. Sixth grade - 1983 - we went to Orlando and visited Disney World within the first year that EPCOT Center was open. We got back just in time for the opening of Return of the Jedi. 4. Way too young to remember, I was 9 months at the time, in October 1971 we visited Marineland near St. Augustine, FL and Disney, on the SECOND weekend it was open. 5. September, 1998 - NYC. All on my own, I travelled to NYC to see some shows, including Deborah Gibson performing as Belle in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway. I met with a friend and we went to Atlantic City. I won $3300 on a slot machine at Caesar's Palace! 6. Las Vegas, February, 1999 - Flew out with a friend to meet 9 other friends because Deborah Gibson was touring in Funny Girl. The show went on hiatus at Christmas and did not come back (a producer pulled out). We still went and had a great time for this long weekend. We even went to Hoover Dam too. 7. Cancun, Mexico - October, 1997 - it was a reward for my office and it was this or a short cruise. I took my Aunt Tina (more like a cousin) as she had just endured a divorce and I came back with a broken vertebrae after being thrown from a horse while riding on the beach. My doc back home had no idea what the pain killer they gave me was! 8. Key West, FL. - November, 2001. I went down with the Parrotheads of Central Florida for the Meeting of the Minds, the annual Jimmy Buffet Fan Convention. I got all the partying out of me and the day I got home, I got engaged to my Amy. 9. May, 2002; March, 2005; September, 2005; May, 2006 - Our four Caribbean cruises! First and fourth were trips with the Pentz family (my in-laws) on Disney Cruise Lines. The second was on Costa, with my father and his wife, a quieter, older crowd, and the third was half a cruise due to a hurricane that delayed our departure from Saturday to Tuesday. 10. Summer, 1992 - Marco Island, FL. I was working for Marriott resorts in Orlando and got an employee rate for the resort in SW Florida. It was hot, and the sand was so white it was blinding in the sunlight. 11. December, 2003. Chattanooga, TN. I took Amy for a weekend away from home to do the touristy things. We went to Rock City atop Lookout Mountain, we went to the Tennessee Aquarium and IMAX and visited a nice mall there. 12. Summer 2003, Nashville and Jackson, TN - Amy and I went to see her friends and her college town. We spent 2 or 3 days in Nashville and loved the country music hall of fame and the Opryland Mall. We ate dinner with live music on Broadway in Nashville. From Jackson we drove to Memphis to see the zoo and enjoyed it a great deal too. 13. April, 2004 - London, England. I was a student teacher at a high school in Orlando and their two magnet programs were in International Studies and Drama, so for Spring Break I was a guest/chaperone for their trip. We saw several museums and churchs and saw plays in the West End (my first viewing of Les Miserables and Cats) and in Stratford-on-Avon I fell asleep while watching the Royal Shakespeare Company perform MacBeth. I DID enjoy some fish and chips from a street vendor in Stratford though!