These are things I forgot to weave in to the narrative but dang it! I wrote these down in my little notebook and I won’t let that go to waste.
While cruising Florida we saw a Mickey Mouse shaped power line tower and a bald eagle. Mom spotted them because she doesn’t like to look at the road much while she’s driving.
Upon arrival at the Nickelodeon Hotel, the kids immediately had a foot race around the open air corridors around the rooms. Alice ended up sad because she fell behind and the boys hid from her as soon as they were out of sight. Personally, I would have been OK with more than one race.
Charles expressed his musical talents as well. We bought small personal pizzas for the boys for some meal and Charles kept his as a drum. He later acquired another one and some chop sticks and did some serious drumming. Here’s a video of Charles deciding to hide instead of drum when he noticed my camera.
Charles also made beeping noises to the tune of “Ode to Joy” while driving, until Bear couldn’t take it anymore.
In an effort at official music, Mom had packed Corwin’s violin and Charles’ cello along for the trip. For Thanksgiving, Mom declared that we would have child music or there would be no pie for the kids. This lead to much sadness, but then mostly acquiescence. Except for Charles who broke down in tears because he ended up going last. Still, we finally managed to get about 5 minutes worth of playing out of him, which is the only time the cello or violin was used the entire trip.
Charles and Alice got to see oranges in trees and cotton in the field, plus lizards in the wild —
