Vacation part 2

Tuesday, as I said in my last post (ages ago, I know...) was Visiting Day.
First we visited with Ken's Uncle Jim and Aunt Kay in Ocala at their retirement community. They have a lovely semidetached house and a very friendly community--they gave us a tour (including the library, where I met one of the librarians!) and we met several of their friends. They also took us to Sholom Park, beautifully landscaped (Picture is of Ken and Jim walking through the park). My favorite part was the meditation garden with roses, other flowers and plants, and periodic places to stop and read short plaques with meditative quotes.
We also talked a lot--about their involvement in the community with adult education, about our child-pursuit, and old family stories. I enjoyed getting to know them better and sharing about our lives.


Then we visited Tom and his parents, Ellie and Russ (whom I haven't seen since before they moved from NJ to FL eight or so years ago). We got a tour of their house (in Dunellon, not too far from Ocala) incuding Ellie's ever-growing teddy bear collection. We caught up on all kinds of stuff ranging from my career to how Tom's youngest brother and his wife were doing and had a delicious dinner at a local Italian pizza place where Russ pulled an excellent trick to have the waitress give me a blank bill with a smiley face to "pay for dinner."

Tom drove back to Orlando to stay with us for the rest of the trip in our luxurious resort condo.

Here's Ken in "Japan" at Epcot.

Wednesday we went back to Epcot, this time with Tom. After years of thinking about it when going to Renaissance fairs and other places, I got a henna tattoo in "Morocco" It's finally faded out after two weeks but was worth it.

We also saw "Soarin'" which really made you feel like you were hang-gliding up and down the California coast, sometimes in the clouds, sometimes dipping down into a valley or just above a group of surfers. Tom's dad Russ had recommended it--many thanks to him!

Thursday we went to Kennedy Space Center. We took the special historical tour (guess whose idea that was?) and got to see wonderful old, old computers and launchpads as well as the usual tour. The Apollo I site hit me kinda hard as I'd read a children's biography of Gus Grissom and was saddened to hear he and his two companions were killed in the fire. There's a wonderful plaque on the launch structure to all those who made the ultimate sacrifice so we could go into space. That's Tom at the site in the picture above.

We also talked with Kenneth, a volunteer tour guide who'd worked at NASA in the 50s and 60s and told us stories of the old days.

Friday through Sunday we spent at Orlando's tiny but very enjoyable science fiction convention. It was great--like a science fiction family reunion. Lots of authors famous, such as Robert J. Sawyer, and not, or not yet, such as Yvonne Wisdom, a pixieish dark fantasy/horror writer who is also a librarian!! We had some great conversations and I got her second book, personally inscribed. I went to awesome panel discussions, most notably "What Makes a Human?" along with others on religion in the future and sex in the future: particularly alien sex (with each other and with humans) and an art show with more dragon and cat art than I've ever seen! I got one of each: a beautiful blue-and-pale-gray Chinese dragon and one of two cats wearing amulets sitting on magic books. The latter may go on my desk at work.
Oh, and I got to watch Torchwood, this truly excellent science fiction show my friend and colleague Mathew told me about. It's spun off from the new Dr. Who series (which has better special effects than the old one) and has excellent plots and characters.
And of course there was a masquerade with people in costumes...

Spending time with Tom was one of the best parts of the vacation, though. I really hate my best friend being so darn far away. And Ken and I had our first full week of vacation together, and our first full week of vacation in years--much needed and wonderful for our togetherness and our mental states! ::happy sigh::