Vacation, all I ever wanted; or It's a small world after all

Spring Break has come and almost gone, and we are nearing the home stretch for the school year's end. When we return Monday, we only have nine more weeks of school!

Getting off the island was a nice, much needed break. Despite a few hiccups before departure (including realizing the day before travel that my leave paperwork---the paperwork I had submitted and received signed way back in February---did not have a return date, and was, in fact, the wrong form), we had a smooth departure. The plane left on time. The rental car was ready and no hassle. We managed to find our way to the vacation rental in the Orlando area without a GPS or cell phone. Living without both for almost 2 years makes it easier to not rely on technology to get us where we need to go. Common sense (and a map print out) led us to our Spring Break destination.

As with our last visit home, I felt like an outsider coming back to the US. I know it really isn't fair to call Disney a true representation of how people behave and dress and act "back home" in the States. But seeing so many people with the same questionable fashion sense (short shorts and cellulite NEVER mix), and hearing people scream at their distraught, overly-tired 3 year olds to "get it together" when it was hot and crowded was a little disconcerting. I realized that two years of freedom for my feral child does not prepare him well for visiting very crowded parks. He kept wandering off to explore everything on his own---I love that living here has fostered such a sense of adventure and independence, but that same sense of adventure doesn't bode well when we had to chase him down non-stop. He doesn't have a sense of "stranger danger," which I always thought was so overblown when living back in the US. However, he also doesn't see the need to stick to our sides, and this unfortunately is something we have to work on when visiting large, crowded places in the future.

We had a great time visiting and catching up with four generations of family. My parents rode the same rides with the kids that they rode with my sister and me in the 1970s. Seeing the expression on my eight year old's face after riding Space Mountain was, well, awesome. It was a combination of shock and excitement and wonder and surprise. He says it was his first time on a roller coaster---how is this possible? But back in Texas, we never made the 3 hour trip to Ft. Worth for the Texas State Fair, and we never went to Six Flags with him, so this is probably the truth. Space Mountain isn't bad for your first roller coaster---I rode it when I was eight, too, and I still remember the thrills and scares and excitement of it all.

We spent several hours visiting grocery stores (by choice, something I would have never done when I lived in the US), and we even found a mall in Jacksonville. Who knew that there are still malls around? I thought they had all died out. That same sense we had last summer of being overwhelmed and then resigning ourselves to the fact that we just don't need everything we want was strong this time, as well. I would love to haul back a cooler full of food we can't get here, but I think most of it would end up spoiled and uneaten once we got it back. Instead we settled on eating out---a lot. We gorged ourselves on sushi---the eight year old ate more than the adults---and our first meal in the states was, ironically, Cuban food. I ate my first donut in almost a year. It was heaven.

Coming back to a slower, more simple life would be a lovely thing if it were not for the absolute disaster that is often traveling on and off GTMO. Coming back started early---we were told the airport opened at 430 for checkins, all checkins needed to be no later than 730, and we would have an early flight. I don't mind getting up early if the system works as it should. But this time, it didn't. The computers were down at NAS JAX so we checked in and had no boarding passes or luggage checks (just a big sticker with our last name stuck to the suitcases). When it came time to board, the few folks who did get boarding passes from the early morning connection were stuck with an airport full of people wandering aimlessly about, trying to figure out how we were going to be seated on the plane. Once two large groups of people were standing about on the tarmac to load---I always feel like the Beatles or someone flying Air Force One when traveling with the military, since you walk out on the tarmac and walk a huge staircase to enter the plane---the airport realized that there was not enough fuel in the plane. Everyone was driven like cattle back into the airport, more sitting around, more chaos, and finally, we boarded the plane, almost an hour late. THEN the airline realized that there were more people in the plane than on the manifest, so we had to raise our hands when our names were called and somehow they figured out who wasn't on the list. Seriously---we had to raise our hands one at a time while the beleaguered flight attendant mispronounced most of our names. Other than the time we flew SAHSA to Honduras for our honeymoon, when we didn't get a boarding pass and quite literally ran to the plane to get a seat, I've never experienced such confusion. We finally got home---almost four hours later than planned. We were exhausted. The husband went to the NEX to get much-needed staples to find out that the dairy and fresh produce sections were almost empty. It felt like a slap in the face to have to struggle so hard just to get back and find out that, again, the grocery store is sorely lacking what we could get less than 24 hours before back in the US.

But we aren't in the US. We're in US-Cuba, so it is what it is.

One more thing---traveling to the US had some nice surprises in seeing people we didn't expect to see. My oldest son ran into a schoolmate and they had a great time hanging out on rides. He is too kind to say so, but I know he liked hanging out with a teenager for a day instead of old folks and a much younger brother. One of my oldest, dearest friends was in Orlando for a work event and we met for a few hours at Epcot. Living all over the country and now overseas makes it difficult to keep up with childhood friends, but she has always managed to find a way to seek me out when I'm back in our hometown, and seeing her again, if only for a little while, was really exciting. We also saw other GTMO families on Spring Break in the parks. It seemed like there was a part of home---both my new home and my old home---in Disney.

I guess you can say that It's a Small World After All.

Checking out the Haunted Mansion from onboard the Riverboat. He loved both.