What I did on my Summer Vacation (2005)
Jul. 9th, 2005 10:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jcfialaTo start with, American Airlines lost my luggage, and was singularly unhelpful about getting it back. Tammy and I won't be flying with them again anytime soon. (My mom's quote was to the effect that this was the worst customer service she'd seen in a long time.) We're rather tired of the whole idea of flying, quite frankly.
We flew out last Sunday, computers in hand, most everything else packed up for the trip. I hadn't been out to my Mom's annual beach retreat for a number of years, partially because Tammy doesn't see the beach as anything special, having grown up near it. But I wanted to go this year - my brother Bill's wife is leaving him, and since he was going to be out there I wanted to see him. Unfortunately because of schedule stuff I'd only get to spend a day or so with him, but at least I'd see that much.
Arriving in Washington Dulles, we were told that the bags would catch up with us, and that they'd send them on to a closer airport and have them delivered. So, we rented our car (a nice speedy two-door Monte Carlo) and sped on our way to Ocean City, Maryland. Everything else went pretty well - we were exhausted when we arrived, so we pretty much just watched a little tv and turned in.
Monday was nice - hung out with my brother a bit, and then went uptown to see the fireworks. We got invited to a friend (Andrew) of my brother's whose parents-in-law have a 17-th floor apartment in an uptown condo. We happily went there (less crowded, better view), and discovered from that vantage point something interesting - the low-lying cloud cover that was covering the island prevented the fireworks from being seen. Bright little red lights would fly up into the clouds, and then they would flash colors as things went bang. Thousands of dollars of complicated fireworks, and it was largely wasted - I bet they weren't happy with that. After that we retired to the ocean side of the apartment, and got to watch the volenteer fireworks - which because of lower detonations, were much more interesting to watch than the professional ones. There was so much going on, that we almost got whiplash looking up and down the beach. (It was also fun to watch the activity die down as the cops in their beach truck wandered down the shore, only to pick back up again when he'd moved on.)
Stayed up late talking with Bill and James and Anderew and others, which was nice. Bill and James had to leave around 3am to make Bill's flight home at 7am, so we all just stayed up to the middle of the night, and then I saw them off.
The next day was the beginning of worry about the luggage. (Let's put it this way - I currently don't have the luggage now, much less then.) Ugh. Tammy got so worked up about it that my Mom took over, which is good - I've got too much of Dad in me to be really effective with mindless buerocracy, but Mom's pretty good at it. Basically, I got to spend far too much of my vacation shopping for cheap replacement clothes, and not enough hanging out and relaxing. What was worse for Tammy is that she's not a reader like the rest of us, and all of her beading equipment was possibly lost.
Bright spots of the week were there - I ate a number of stunningly nice meals, for one. I got to hang out for a while at a used bookstore that I'm exceedingly fond of for a while on Tuesday - It's around 71st or so. The owner of the store is interesting - we were talking and he revealed that he's not really interested in being by the ocean, but his wife was. So, she enjoys the beach, and he enjoys running the shop. Lots of mass market paperbacks - good beach reading. I found a copy of 'Ghost of the Grand Banks', which I found to be absolutely marvelous, a copy of 'Tuesdays with Morrie' which I found to be not quite that deep but an easy and quick read, and a copy of 'Blood' by Michael Moorcock, which I'm looking forward to.
It's fun to hang out with my Mom and Beth, which were the only other two people in the condo with Tammy and I all week after Monday. Beth and my Mom are very similar, which makes sense - they were very close roommates at college. Very similar in a lot of ways, but with enough differences to make things interesting, I guess.
Finally did get to hang out at the beach a little on Wednesday. Very relaxing, really. Tried to go into the water a bit, but it was very cold, so I didn't go any deeper than my knees. Brr! But it was nice to get a little sun there. (Got more walking around looking for clothes.) Got some walking in on the boardwalk over the week too, but unfortunately not as much as I'd have liked. Tammy kept getting tired, partially because her medication was in the missing luggage.
Thursday I got a little depressed. All I'd been doing all weekend, that I could see, was shop and eat, and although I'm fond of eating, doing nothing but shop and eat was wearing me down. Tammy finally got me moving by dragging me out for some Miniature golf, which was fun. (I won!) I really did just need to get out and do something different, and that was enough. (And then we went to dinner. ha! But steamed crabs, so good. Mmm.)
Friday dawned storming - rain falling, choppy waves. We were going to spend the day driving back to Dulles and flying home, so we got up early and watched parts of Claire pass by. But by the time we were actually leaving and starting our drive, the rain had mostly passed. I don't get many chances to drive in the rain here in dry Colorado, so the few times that I was passing through bits of storm were actually pretty welcome.
The drive went by fairly well, and we got to talk to a baggage person, who revealed that American had handed the bags off to US Air (which we'd heard), but that US Air was apparently using some new company to move bags which was turning out to be very bad at it (which was new). So, we flew back home.
I mentioned being tired of flying, right? Tried to talk AA into giving us first class tix for the way back, but no luck. :(
So, we got home. Today Tammy had to work, so I puttered around the house getting things in order from the week we were gone, and then went out and did a few errands.
I'm not sorry we went - although I wish we'd packed maybe a few essentials in our carry-on bags. I'm very glad to have gotten the chance to see Bill and James and Beth, and it's always nice to spend time with Mom. But you know, I think I'd be more relaxed if I'd spent the week here in Denver.
EDIT: The bags are now in our possession - but some genius opened them a little and then left them out in the rain, so there's a number of damaged books we've got to talk to the airline about tomorrow and we've got to wash a load or two of clothes that should be clean. Don't fly American Airlines if you can help it.
We flew out last Sunday, computers in hand, most everything else packed up for the trip. I hadn't been out to my Mom's annual beach retreat for a number of years, partially because Tammy doesn't see the beach as anything special, having grown up near it. But I wanted to go this year - my brother Bill's wife is leaving him, and since he was going to be out there I wanted to see him. Unfortunately because of schedule stuff I'd only get to spend a day or so with him, but at least I'd see that much.
Arriving in Washington Dulles, we were told that the bags would catch up with us, and that they'd send them on to a closer airport and have them delivered. So, we rented our car (a nice speedy two-door Monte Carlo) and sped on our way to Ocean City, Maryland. Everything else went pretty well - we were exhausted when we arrived, so we pretty much just watched a little tv and turned in.
Monday was nice - hung out with my brother a bit, and then went uptown to see the fireworks. We got invited to a friend (Andrew) of my brother's whose parents-in-law have a 17-th floor apartment in an uptown condo. We happily went there (less crowded, better view), and discovered from that vantage point something interesting - the low-lying cloud cover that was covering the island prevented the fireworks from being seen. Bright little red lights would fly up into the clouds, and then they would flash colors as things went bang. Thousands of dollars of complicated fireworks, and it was largely wasted - I bet they weren't happy with that. After that we retired to the ocean side of the apartment, and got to watch the volenteer fireworks - which because of lower detonations, were much more interesting to watch than the professional ones. There was so much going on, that we almost got whiplash looking up and down the beach. (It was also fun to watch the activity die down as the cops in their beach truck wandered down the shore, only to pick back up again when he'd moved on.)
Stayed up late talking with Bill and James and Anderew and others, which was nice. Bill and James had to leave around 3am to make Bill's flight home at 7am, so we all just stayed up to the middle of the night, and then I saw them off.
The next day was the beginning of worry about the luggage. (Let's put it this way - I currently don't have the luggage now, much less then.) Ugh. Tammy got so worked up about it that my Mom took over, which is good - I've got too much of Dad in me to be really effective with mindless buerocracy, but Mom's pretty good at it. Basically, I got to spend far too much of my vacation shopping for cheap replacement clothes, and not enough hanging out and relaxing. What was worse for Tammy is that she's not a reader like the rest of us, and all of her beading equipment was possibly lost.
Bright spots of the week were there - I ate a number of stunningly nice meals, for one. I got to hang out for a while at a used bookstore that I'm exceedingly fond of for a while on Tuesday - It's around 71st or so. The owner of the store is interesting - we were talking and he revealed that he's not really interested in being by the ocean, but his wife was. So, she enjoys the beach, and he enjoys running the shop. Lots of mass market paperbacks - good beach reading. I found a copy of 'Ghost of the Grand Banks', which I found to be absolutely marvelous, a copy of 'Tuesdays with Morrie' which I found to be not quite that deep but an easy and quick read, and a copy of 'Blood' by Michael Moorcock, which I'm looking forward to.
It's fun to hang out with my Mom and Beth, which were the only other two people in the condo with Tammy and I all week after Monday. Beth and my Mom are very similar, which makes sense - they were very close roommates at college. Very similar in a lot of ways, but with enough differences to make things interesting, I guess.
Finally did get to hang out at the beach a little on Wednesday. Very relaxing, really. Tried to go into the water a bit, but it was very cold, so I didn't go any deeper than my knees. Brr! But it was nice to get a little sun there. (Got more walking around looking for clothes.) Got some walking in on the boardwalk over the week too, but unfortunately not as much as I'd have liked. Tammy kept getting tired, partially because her medication was in the missing luggage.
Thursday I got a little depressed. All I'd been doing all weekend, that I could see, was shop and eat, and although I'm fond of eating, doing nothing but shop and eat was wearing me down. Tammy finally got me moving by dragging me out for some Miniature golf, which was fun. (I won!) I really did just need to get out and do something different, and that was enough. (And then we went to dinner. ha! But steamed crabs, so good. Mmm.)
Friday dawned storming - rain falling, choppy waves. We were going to spend the day driving back to Dulles and flying home, so we got up early and watched parts of Claire pass by. But by the time we were actually leaving and starting our drive, the rain had mostly passed. I don't get many chances to drive in the rain here in dry Colorado, so the few times that I was passing through bits of storm were actually pretty welcome.
The drive went by fairly well, and we got to talk to a baggage person, who revealed that American had handed the bags off to US Air (which we'd heard), but that US Air was apparently using some new company to move bags which was turning out to be very bad at it (which was new). So, we flew back home.
I mentioned being tired of flying, right? Tried to talk AA into giving us first class tix for the way back, but no luck. :(
So, we got home. Today Tammy had to work, so I puttered around the house getting things in order from the week we were gone, and then went out and did a few errands.
I'm not sorry we went - although I wish we'd packed maybe a few essentials in our carry-on bags. I'm very glad to have gotten the chance to see Bill and James and Beth, and it's always nice to spend time with Mom. But you know, I think I'd be more relaxed if I'd spent the week here in Denver.
EDIT: The bags are now in our possession - but some genius opened them a little and then left them out in the rain, so there's a number of damaged books we've got to talk to the airline about tomorrow and we've got to wash a load or two of clothes that should be clean. Don't fly American Airlines if you can help it.
