SUMMER SUMMARY

Some time in July I was gone and I finally returned to Toronto...here is my recap of my summer.  This anecdote covers my stay in Tampa, St. Petersburgh, Palm Coast, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Washington D.C.

The first week I had to get reacquainted with American lifestyle, which is not hard to do since Canada has a similar lifestyle minus the gun shops.  In Florida it is particularly interesting since there is a state bill saying it is ok to shoot someone on the street as long as they are deemed to be 'threatening'.  Yes, intersting indeed.  Another adjustment was the loss of a metropolis setting.  It always amuses me when we drive by a trailer park here.  It is like a separate society within the region.  Selling dead people's clothes along the road is definitely har-har and scary.

I finally met Jack, the newly acquired cat of Alicia.  He is a beautiful black cat...but he bites a lot.  There would be times when he would go after my sensitive toes.  So now she has Tiger, the old aggressive cat who loves to smack people and Jack, the biting youngling who wants to play all the time.  Put these two together in the same room is sheer entertainment.  They love to fight all the time and it is like the cat version of Holyfield and Tyson.  Tiger throws constant right jabs and follow-up with a swift left hook to the belly.  Jack retaliates by going for the jugular with his mouth.  At the end of the rounds, it goes to the scorecard and Tiger wins by a unanimous decision of 30-27.  He was stronger, active and always in a dominating stance.  For some odd reason Jack loves to fight in a submissive position by laying on his back or side.  Jack now resides with Alicia at her apartment and Tiger stays at the Barton's crib.  All in all, they miss each other as playmates.

Tiger and Jack : )

Over this trip I have tried to stay in shape but me thinks it is counterproductive when I go to a bloody buffet every other day.  Another great difference between Florida and Toronto is that there seems to be a buffet at every street corner In the Sunshine State.  To creat equilibrium to my unhealthy eating habit, we purchased an awesome tennis racket for Alicia and a couple of baseball gloves.  My right-hand glove cost me 80 effing American dollars because it happen to be the only one available.  Damn me for not being conditioned to catch left and throw right handed.  It is still a good investment; just like the $350 CDN I spent on skates which I only used 10 times up to date--I owned them for three years now.  Anyhoo, back to topic; during the month we did play tennis and catch as often as we could.  Alicia loves tennis and she demands we play daily.  On days we were unable to play, she would be mad at me.  We play tennis for about three hours daily and leave at 9:30 pm.  There was this one time she was adamant about getting one more point, we did not leave until 11:30 pm.  There were even times when we played in the bloody rain!  So yeah, we played religiously.  For someone who played tennis seriously for only a couple of weeks, she did amazingly well.  I can honestly say she has a sweeter backhand than me.  I gave her my blessing to find a new tennis partner to hone her skills and give me a greater challenge next time we play again.

For about a week, the family took a road trip to Washington D.C.!  We saw most of the memorials and took a wad load of pictures.  Since I'm lazy to write full sentences now, I'll just bullet it.

DAY 1

• drove 10 bloody hours
•      even with all the rest stops, me butt was hurting...probably had a concave ass at this time
• stopped at Georgia Visitor Center and was amused when I listen to the locals talk with their sexy accent
• drove through the Carolinas where there was a horrible rainstorm

Welcome to the Carolinas eh?  This was what Mrs. Barton was driving through.

DAY 2

• drove three more hours to our hotel destination in Virginia
• visited Washington's crib at Mount Vernon
• made a stop at the Arlington National Cemetery
•      took extra notice of JFK, Robert Kennedy and the Tomb of the of the Unknowns

Washington's Crib @ Mount Vernon...I wouldn't live in it...looks haunted.

Arlington Cemetery

Eternal Flame of JFK

Tomb of the Unknown

DAY 3

• Our adventure in D.C. begins!
• made currency exchange with a crappy rate...can one say ARRGH
• used the Metro Subway System...similar to Toronto's own except has like 10 very complicated lines
• visited some of the Smithsonian Museums
•      Castle
•      National Air and Space Museum
•      National Museum of Natural History
•      National Museum of American History
• made a trip to most of the memorials
•      Lincoln
•      Vietnam
•      Korean
•      FDR
•      World War II

VS

Subway system of DC and Toronto

Museum of Natural History

The Pentagon flat located within the Museum of American History

Mr. Emancipation Proclamation

Vietnam Memorial

Korean Memorial

FDR

The family unit at the FDR memorial

World War II Memorial

DAY 4

• tried to get tickets for the Washington Monument but failed because tickets were gone by 8 am!
• attended the Capitol tour
•      observe the Falun Dafa groupie protesting
•      because of a threat or tip of danger, the police barricaded a large proximity near the Capitol for an hr...lucky us eh?
• saw the white house
• bought a gazillion souvenir
• went to the Jefferson Memorial
• had dinner at an awesome Southern Buffet...very yummy and found out taco constitutes as southern food here

Washington Monument

the Capitol

Falun Dafa groupie in front of the Capitol

The president's crib

Jefferson Memorial

DAY 5

• began our long trip back home
• stopped at a hotel in South Carolina

DAY 6

• butt hurt so much, forgot to diarize today's event, but do remember making it back to Palm Coast

All in all, my summer vacation was wonderful and now I'm ready to get back to normal in Toronto.  The following pictures are put here for kicks.

One of two earrings I got her for our 2 year anniversary

I got this autographed picture for her some time ago...me thinks past Christmas

Warning: LOTS of pictures so I hope you have hi-speed.