Holiday Detour

The best laid plans and all that...

Really, we did have the best laid plans. We arrived in Philadelphia for our friend Michael's wedding to Remi - a lovely celebration that incorporated the richness of their heritage with modern, personal elements. The chuppah (wedding canopy) was especially moving; Michael and Remi were wrapped in her grandfather's tallis (prayer shawl), connecting them to family and friends but sharing an intimate moment in the midst of their wedding. Since Michael is one of my oldest and dearest friends, it was an honor to be a part of such a great celebration.

So our best laid plans were to get up in the morning, meet a friend for lunch, drive up to Montreal, spend a couple of days there and see some friends, then drive back to Toronto to spend time with my family. We spent an afternoon with my grandparents, having lunch and sorting out a cell phone contract (yes, my 85-year-old grandparents have a cell phone, although neither texts and them picking up the phone is sometimes hit or miss). We had dinner with my brother, took care of some errands, and then hit the hay. When we woke up the morning after the wedding to watch the news and get ready to head north, we did a weather and relaxation shuffle.

I'm no great converter of Fahrenheit to Celsius, but I do know that if somewhere is 85 degrees, it's hot, and if somewhere it's 55 degrees, it's not. Waking up on that sweltering Philadelphia morning, we threw caution to the wind (and threw out our plans), and made a plan to head to Florida.

I know it's a bit different, Montreal and Florida, so let me explain. I've been bugging James about a proper sit-on-a-beach-and-read vacation, and he's responded with some gentle nagging about Disney World. The last time I was at Disney World, I was precisely 12 and a half years old (it was my "half birthday"), I was with the Toronto Childrens Chorus on a tour of Florida and wore a fanny pack with light blue jeans (as evidenced by the photo on the right - I'm the kid wearing a backwards baseball cap in the middle, and my brother is rocking the jean jacket on the right; what the contents of the brown bags are is a complete mystery), and really thought I had jumped very clear of the Disney bus. My husband, on the other hand, spent several summer vacations in central Florida and was keen to show me what I had missed all those years ago.

With a GPS and updated wardrobe (thank goodness), we set out on I-95. We tried to push through as much as possible, clapping whenever we crossed a state line (and not clapping when we accidentally drove into New Jersey). We spent the night in Savannah, Georgia - neither of us had been there and James had never set foot in Peach paradise - and spent the morning there before continuing our drive and crossing one final state line.

We got do Disney very quickly, and stopped only once in Jacksonville to put some gas in the bug-splattered car. For those readers who know us, we've not always been known as the plan-in-advance people; we left our hotel plans to chance and were incredibly delighted by what we were able to get.

I can't say how much we're enjoying Disney. Staying at the resort is a post on its own, and the parks we've done so far (Epcot and Hollywood Studios/MGM) have been brilliant. We've taken loads of photos, videos and collected all the little bits (as well as my epic spanking on the golf course by a much more capable James) - a video recap is already in the works. I'll leave it at that so far, because there's so much more to say and it would take an hour just to go through all the fun things we've done, and I want to save it for the mega holiday post.

Sometimes, you have to roll with a bit of a chance. We've not been doing that for a while, and the excitement of picking a spot on the map and going for it will not likely be repeated for a long time to come. It's nice to be able to do this spontaneous vacation and hang out with each other, and I'm looking forward to seeing my family on the weekend.