By the seat of our pants

We just got back from a family vacation, where nothing really went as it was supposed to. I was supposed to be going up to compete in a Try-a-Tri, but that didn't happen due to my back situation. As it was, I was really glad I didn't try to push it because by just walking around on vacation and making it to the gym ONCE to do my back exercises, I had some rough spots...

Mostly, I had it bad the first day, the day after PT driving to Detroit to pick up MacTroll. By the end of six hours, my back was on fire. I ended up in the backseat for the rest of the drive. Then when we got to Toronto, I had a mental list in my head of all the things I wanted to do that I thought the boys would find fun. But I had over planned in all of my excitement. No worries.

We spent all day Friday on Centre Island on Toronto Island Park at an amusement park. Then we rented a Surrey bike and biked the other parts of the island (stopping to let X-man play at a park). We came back, got the boys some ice cream, returned to Centreville kiddie park and ate ice cream while X-man waded into the kiddie wading pool. When we got home, X-man was pooped. MacTroll ran across the street to a store and brought them back some food to make sandwiches for dinner. Then we played in the hotel pool (which had a toddler area with toddler toys next to it that X-man fell in love with -- why, I don't know, but he did).

On Saturday, we had to get up early to go back to the island. We were watching our friend Dri do the triathlon, and she did amazing. She placed in her age group and had a massive improvement over when she did the same race last year. She also inspired two other friends to do it with her. X-man watched Dri mount her bike and then he wanted to hit the beach. So, MacTroll took him to the beach to play. I went back and forth between the two trying to be as supportive as possible.

By the time we were ready to go, my back needed a break. We got on the boat and I got to sit a bit. Then when we got back to the room, we cleaned up and took off for Pickle Barrel for lunch. After lunch, we went to the Toronto Zoo, which is an insanely large zoo. I hadn't had enough to eat or drink, apparently, and felt like I was going to pass out by the horses, so we found me a veggie hamburger to eat in Africa and waited for my blood sugar to perk up before moving on.

After the zoo, X-man was done. He just wanted to go back to the room at the Westin and chill out, so we did. Then MacTroll went out for dinner with Dri and Ian of the North while X-man and I went to play in the toddler play area again (he's big into serving food lately, so we were in the kitchen for 40 minutes or so). Afterwards, we got a special snack and tried to watch Marmaduke on Pay Per View. But the TV crapped out. I called down to the front desk, but there were all kinds of parties going on that weekend, so  no one called back. We read books and went to bed.

On Sunday, I got up and worked out in the gym. I did my back exercises, showered and then we ate a big breakfast at the hotel buffet and got in the car and started driving. It was raining off and on, and my back started cramping... so we decided against spending the night in a tent on the grounds. So we drove right by the park and continued on to Ann Arbor. MacTroll cashed in some of his hotel points for a night at a Four Points Sheraton, and we wandered out out to eat at the Jolly Pumpkin. Then X-man had some Superman ice cream at Kilwin's.

The next morning we took off for Indianapolis, where we ate lunch at the City Café, and then visited the Indianapolis Children's Museum. Now we're home, a day early... It was kind of an impromptu vacation, and I'm glad we were able to be flexible, not just because of my physical limitations but because we could still come up with places we wanted to be and could enjoy as a family.

On the other hand, it makes MacTroll and I long for time when we can go to cities without having to scope out restaurants that will serve X-man what he wants to eat and us what we want to eat (because often times those are two very different things).

It would also be nice to sleep past 7:15 a.m. on vacation.

We came home to the full length mirror I had bought at Ikea lying broken and shattered on the floor. I'm not sure what happened, but we hadn't had a chance to mount it on the wall, so it must have fallen over thanks to a cat... Sigh. Guess I'll have to go back to Ikea alone some time.

So, not exactly as we planned, but still full of fun together time. We have one more day, and then it's back to the grind. The big surprise is that MacTroll doesn't have to travel on Wednesday, which is nice, because other than vacation, he's been gone the entire month this month, and had anticipated being gone the rest of the month, too.