Zeno's Bar & Grill
Monday, June 12, 2006
Grandaparents, Gators, and Gimlets (ok really Mojito's)
First thanks to Melanie for taking over last week on the blog. I’ve been in sunny (totally an understatement, can you say 97 degrees with the same humidity) Florida. The first part of our trip was spent visiting my in-laws who live in a retirement community. If our book is Mean Girls for moms, that place is Mean Seniors. It is just like high school, complete with turf wars over who is going to sit at whose table and a power mad principal cum cafeteria manager.
I hope that I never have to live in place like this. The bureaucracy and the surfeit of rules are stultifying. Over one lunch and one dinner (after which we all got stomachaches, no wonder these people are so feeble) we accidentally trampled on the following rules by doing the following: (1) trying to buy a soda at lunch; (2) wearing shorts at lunch (my husband); and (3) wearing shorts at dinner (my six-year old). We were told by the “manager” that we couldn’t eat in the dining room unless my son wore long pants. First of all, a better punishment would be the opposite: forcing us to eat there. Second, who packs long pants for their six-year-old boy when going on vacation in Florida? In June!! The manager called my inlaws the next day to reiterate the no shorts, no surly service, no lousy food rule.
As an interlude between the first and second parts of our trip we drove across the state to Naples, where my husband had a meeting. On the way we saw real alligators in their natural habitat of the Everglades. It was kind of scary to be that close to an animal that is capable of killing people. My daughter and I thought it would be okay to walk down to the pier to get a little bit of a closer look until one of the natives told us that the gators can run 30 miles an hour and jump right out of the water- yikes!
Our final hurrah in Florida was a fantastic stay at the Trump International. Donald, you’re hired! As our hotelier at least. What a fabu place (to quote Melanie). We had an ocean view room on the 29th floor, and most spectacularly they had a free kids club that the kids went to from 9am to 4pm, so I could sit at the pool enjoying a Mojito and a great book I’m reading called Pattern Recognition (thanks Sheri!).
All in all it was great week, but I’m happy to be home.
--Kelly
I hope that I never have to live in place like this. The bureaucracy and the surfeit of rules are stultifying. Over one lunch and one dinner (after which we all got stomachaches, no wonder these people are so feeble) we accidentally trampled on the following rules by doing the following: (1) trying to buy a soda at lunch; (2) wearing shorts at lunch (my husband); and (3) wearing shorts at dinner (my six-year old). We were told by the “manager” that we couldn’t eat in the dining room unless my son wore long pants. First of all, a better punishment would be the opposite: forcing us to eat there. Second, who packs long pants for their six-year-old boy when going on vacation in Florida? In June!! The manager called my inlaws the next day to reiterate the no shorts, no surly service, no lousy food rule.
As an interlude between the first and second parts of our trip we drove across the state to Naples, where my husband had a meeting. On the way we saw real alligators in their natural habitat of the Everglades. It was kind of scary to be that close to an animal that is capable of killing people. My daughter and I thought it would be okay to walk down to the pier to get a little bit of a closer look until one of the natives told us that the gators can run 30 miles an hour and jump right out of the water- yikes!
Our final hurrah in Florida was a fantastic stay at the Trump International. Donald, you’re hired! As our hotelier at least. What a fabu place (to quote Melanie). We had an ocean view room on the 29th floor, and most spectacularly they had a free kids club that the kids went to from 9am to 4pm, so I could sit at the pool enjoying a Mojito and a great book I’m reading called Pattern Recognition (thanks Sheri!).
All in all it was great week, but I’m happy to be home.
--Kelly
