A Short Vacation

Hey everyone, I have some vacation time and I wanted to take a little trip. I hadn't visited my godfather in a while, and I haven't seem mskate in a while either. Since they live in the same state and there was a holiday weekend, I worked it out with them to take a little trip to see them. Here's the adventure I had.

Friday I took a half day off work. I had a half day of vacation time and I wouldn't have made much better time if I took a whole day. I packed up all my stuff the night before and left from work. It's not like it would have been that much more of a drive since I live close to work, but I didn't want to get tempted to "take care of some stuff at home" because I tend to do that. It was a 4 hour drive with some stops along the way. Not many, but still some. I stopped at a Walmart and picked-up special beer for my brother and dad. There's this one beer they really like that's not available in our state, so I picked-up a case for them. I also wanted to see if there were any videogame things I can't find at my own stores (amiibo, DLC cards, etc.). Unfortunately they didn't. A funny thing was I was asked by a salesman if I had one of their local utilities suppliers (trying to sell me theirs). I told him which I had and he was confused, because it's out of state. He did recognize it though, so that was funny.

After some more driving I arrive at my godfathers house. My godbrothers (age 10 and 4) and godsister (age 7) were out playing, so they were the first to see me and really happy. I got out and gave everyone a hug. They helped me unpack my stuff and take it in. After all my driving, and difficulty sleeping the night before out of excitement, I needed a break. I just lied down for about an hour. Not really a nap, just "clear my head." After that I played monopoly with the kids, because my oldest godbrother loves monopoly. We had dinner later, and did some more playing. My youngest godbrother enjoyed climbing on me, because he's at that age. It's come full circle, because at that age my godfather was my human jungle gym, and now I'm the human jungle gym for his son. After the kids bedtime, I visited with my godfather and his wife for maybe an hour. It was nice having some adult conversation after kid time.

Now for Saturday. We went to daily mass as part of their daily routine. After mass we played more monopoly, because that's what they like. After lunch we cut down some dead trees. That was interesting. I remember last time I visited we did some demo work. It was pretty fun taking down the trees; demolition with chain saws, I felt so manly. The kids also enjoyed it, because it's not every day you cut down a tree. We originally were just going to take down 2 of the dead trees, but we ended up taking down all 4. After taking the trees down I suggested we take a break. It was cold, and while we weren't FEELING tired, I knew we needed to take a break because one's body does not get fatigued the same way when the environment is cold (I find it's a "go go go go go then BAM! can barely move" as opposed to a gradual fatigue with all other temperatures). What was really cute was my godsister wanted to make everyone hot chocolate. That really hit the spot. After our little break we chopped up the trees into logs for their log cabin project, as well as chop the limbs up for disposal.

Dinner was quite fun. We had a camp fire weenie roast. They have a little above ground fire pit with a cooking rack. I helped build up a fire. One of our traditions is our families go camping every summer (I've talked about it before), so having a little camp fire at home was fun for everyone. I did a lot of the cooking, because I like camp fire cooking. I had like 3 hot dogs, it was good. After dinner and the fire it was time for the kids bedtime. After they went to sleep we got the surprise tucked away. My godsister is getting a new bed for Christmas. Right now she shares a room with her brothers, and here's another cool full circle thing. When I was growing up my godfather had a bunk bed for when he had guests with kids stay with him (and with our camping friends, that happened kind of often); now his kids are using that bunk bed. Back to the story, their mom found a bed on craigslist and we had to find a way to keep it hidden. The headboard and footboard weren't that difficult but the part the mattress sits on was going to be difficult (it was the size of a twin mattress). Since we played hide and go seek the night before, I knew some of the good hiding places. I found we could stick it behind the deep freeze and it would blend in with the wall and shelf already there. Hopefully it lasts until Christmas.

Sunday was a quick day with them. Their oven went out so I helped move the new oven from the garage to inside the house. After church I said my goodbyes because I had to go see mskate. They didn't realize I wasn't going to stay for lunch, but they understood I had other people to see on my trip (well, everyone above the age of  9 for sure). The drive to mskate's wasn't that bad. She's about an hour from my godfather's. I gave her a call when I was maybe 30 minutes away and we made plans on what movie to see. The options were The Nutcracker and the 4 realms or Illumination's Grinch. She wanted to see Nutcracker more than Grinch (she doesn't care much for Dr. Seuss), but being a good friend she offered an alternative in case I didn't want to see Nutcracker. However, since I will probably see Grinch on my own and probably wouldn't see Nutcracker alone, I said we should see Nutcracker. On the rest of my drive I came up with a funny Seuss rhyme about what we were seeing.

We're not going to see Dr. Seuss
I know you don't like him because his words are too loose
Instead we'll see the cracker of nuts
A movie I know we will like luts.

When I arrived I told her my little rhyme. It got a chuckle. We said hello and I set-up her Christmas tree timer. It wasn't too long before we went on our way to the movies. The Nutcracker was alright, I'd say worth a rental, but nothing really worth going to the theater for. After that we did some charity Christmas shopping (she had to get play-doh, and I helped pick out a fun set) and explored the down town. She wanted to explore there kind of since she moved there but didn't want to go alone (and since she's a smaller woman and there were some slightly sketchy stores, I don't blame her). It was a nice little downtown though. We went to a used book store where I got a batman and superman compilation comic. She wanted to get something for her brother but wasn't sure what. Since I like a lot of the same things as her brother, I picked out a comic book adaptation of Batman Forever. I don't remember what she got for herself, but she liked it. It was a cute little book store, full of all sorts of books, and a trap door that lead to the cellar. After the book store we went to the goodwill across the street. Unfortunately I didn't find any unique VHS tapes, or videogames, so goodwill was a bust. At the end of the street there was a music store, with CDs and vinyl. I looked through the vinyl comedy section and found a Steve Martin album and a Monty Python album for cheap. I bought them. We also saw the Coco soundtrack on vinyl, and it was a really cool picture press. Neither of us bought it, but it was cool to look at.

After our adventure we had dinner. We considered going to this Irish Pub that was in the down town, but after looking at the menu online we decided against it. Instead we went to one of the bars we found on our little adventure. I had a super grilled ham sandwich with fried onions and barbecue sauce and one of the house cocktails. Mskate had a cheeseburger with a gluten free bun and a diet coke. When she ordered the options were red, pink, or no pink. She got a little confused and said red. After ordering I made sure she really wanted a rare burger. Turns out she got a little confused because she's only used to rare, medium, and well done and she really wanted no pink. When our waitress came back with our drinks I told the waitress about the mistake. Our dinners were good, and so was my drink. When we got our bills she was kind of surprised my dinner was cheaper than hers even though I got a drink. Well the hamburgers are more expensive and the gluten free bun added some money. After dinner we went back to her place and watched The Greatest Showman. I hadn't seen it, and it was really good.

After the movie I left for my hotel. I booked one that I thought would be close, but turns out it was on the other side of the city (and it's a wide city). The fun thing about the hotel was they had on demand, and nickelodeon. Since I have playstation vue I no longer get nickelodeon, so I was able to watch season 9 SpongeBob. Yay. During the middle of the night the smoke alarm in my room started chirping, so I had to change rooms, at 2AM. That was an experience, but at least I got a bit of an upgrade. I left the luggage cart in my room all night.

Now it's Monday morning. I slept in and had some continental breakfast. I got fruit loops and ate them while I watched SpongeBob in my room. Afterwards I checked-out and went to the videogame store that's close to her. I bought 16 PS2 games and a PSP game. They were cheap and kind of all over the place in terms of genre. The guy behind the counter asked if I was filling out a collection. I told him how I'm working on a complete north American set, and how I'm 20% of the way there (2100 games for a complete set, and I have 400). He asked if I have one of the most expensive games yet (which came in recently and was on their ebay page); I chuckled and said "no, right now I'm working on getting all the cheap stuff." I always enjoy bringing a big stack of PS2 games to the counter and seeing what the clerk says. After the store I went on my way home. I wanted to check out this entertainment center with arcade and go carts and more that I passed on my way down, but when I got there I found out they're closed on Mondays. Oh well, I needed to get home anyways; not because anyone was expecting me, but I had to get ready for work on Tuesday. I did find a goodwill on the way home, and found an interesting collectors edition of Jurassic Park and The Lost World Jurassic Park; what makes them interesting is they're a 2 tape set with the movie on one tape and bonus features on the other tape. All in all it was a really fun trip. I look forward to the next little adventure. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.