Voyage 2011-2012: Chapter 5

07 Jul 2012, Our Marco Vacation, 25 55.254 N/ 081 43.71 W

We have a family tradition. All of the USA Todds pack their bags and head for our timeshares at Marco Island Florida. We have been doing so for over 25 years. Marco is a place of relaxation, playing with the grandkids, and enjoying the water. Sadly, Mr. Collin could not attend as he had Boy Scout stuff to do. We missed him and he us. Hopefully, we will all be together next year.

We usually are in Marco during the 4th of July so it is standard duty to do the fireworks thing. The city has a great display and we on the beach add a little of our own. The Todds are a sparkler family so there is not much bang around us. The kids really enjoyed the sparklers that Chris picked up in Naples. Some of our neighbors were using more powerful stuff which would occasionally rain on our head.

We get free Hobie Cat rentals here at the Charter Club. Bob and Chris have been taking the boats out for years. We even tipped one over many years ago. We took turns taking the kids out. Both days the weather was pretty calm; maybe too calm. The wind would often die just as we were trying to return to shore. Hard to miss the swimmers when you have no steerage-way. But we managed.

The kids were great. Lilli and Lauren were doing great in their swimming skills. Emily was always a good swimmer. Only Grandpa is a pitiful swimmer. The three of them played together well. They would camp out on our bedroom floor several nights and just giggle...and giggle...and giggle. We had calm time around 4:00 pm where we all relaxed on the porch. Didn't last long though.

We were lucky to see some fabulous thunderstorms over the Gulf. It is always a sight to see when the lightning explodes over the water. We had several days of excellent thunderstorms. Not bad. But soon our week was up and the Todds went back home to Wilmington, Vienna, and Richmond. Sadly, it is probably not in the cards to see Emily and Lauren for a while as our August vacation together probably will not happen. However, we will see Lilli, Collin, and their parents in a couple of weeks when we go on a Disney cruise with the gang.

28 Jul 2012, Thew Summer Disney Cruise, 28 24.834 N/ 080 37.704 W

We packed our bags again and drove to Florida again to start our cruise on the Disney Fantasy. The Disney line of ships are the most attractive of the cruise ships and the Fantasy maintains that tradition. The port operations were not quite as smooth as before; actually we discovered that most of the features we loved so much two years ago were a bit lacking this year. Maybe we are getting older or maybe Disney spirit is getting a bit tired. Who knows. But we had fun!

Here in the USA, we overuse the word 'outsourcing' but we are often reminded that Mickey has been outsourced. The ship was built in Germany, the company is headquartered in the UK, the entertainment originates in Canada, less than 5% of the crew are USA. Only the passengers are in-sourced. That is the world of cruising industry. Even Mickey Mouse!