Sundays over the last few weeks have been the wife’s “I’m trying to study for the GMAT so take our daughter out for at least 4 hours PLEASE days”, or as I like to call them “let’s see how long the kid can survive without mommy days.”
So far, I’m doing pretty well and I’m really enjoying the time alone with my daughter. We’ve been to the movies (survived about an hour of “Meet The Robinson’s” before she told me “All done! All done!!”), Birthday Parties (nothing like getting the kid high on sugar and then coming home), and of course plenty of visits to the neighborhood lake and park.
This past Sunday we paid a little visit to the L.A. Zoo -- a place we have a membership for but have only been once. We were a little jaded on our previous visit last summer; it isn’t nearly as cool as the San Diego Zoo. But whatever, it’s cheap, it’s close, and I can brush up on my gringo Spanish since that’s about all you hear while there (in fact, I think the animals speak Spanish too!)
The only scary part of the visit was hanging out in the Kids Corner (Reardon toddler room, I think it’s called) and some other toddler who looked like she had leprosy (with scales, scars, and dried blood all over her face, and maybe some kind of mutant pink eye with legs...) tried coming over and kissing my kid with a drooling open mouth –I screamed (quietly) and quickly yanked my daughter away and then moved to the far side of the room (checking for Gremlins.)
Great – now I’m “one of those parents.”
After months of debate, research, investigating recommendations (a huge thanks to those who sent me loads of info) and weighing options, we’ve finally figured out where we’re going on vacation late next month – Fiji.
Yup, nothing like dragging a near 2-year old on a 10.5 hour flight (thank God its a redeye) to a far away place that just had a military coup last December, and some outbreak of something in some remote area.
But on the bright side, the UN folk are vacationing there right now, we found out the “bloodless” coup isn’t affecting the posh resorts (or really anybody), and the outbreak of something is on a small part of one of the main islands (we’re going to be on a private island.) The wife and I have been aching to go for years now AND we got a sweet deal because tourism has taken a hit (but it’s rebounding.)
We've met many Fijians over the years on our travels around the South Pacific (they're really friendly people - even more than Canadians, eh) so the way I look at it, the people need the tourism more than ever right now (and did I mention I got a sweet deal?)
Hopefully I don’t come back with leprosy, because that would really suck.