August 07, 2006

I'm Officially a Tourist in My Hometown!

I never thought it would happen to me, but it did. I have officially become an American tourist...in the town I grew up in. Having technically lived almost a thousand miles away from my hometown of Panama City, Florida for roughly six years now (with the exception of 10 months in a small town nearby and an additional four months last summer), I returned with my family recently to "enjoy" a few days on the beach and in the sun.

The "fun in the sun" didn't exactly work out since we had to leave a few days early with the passing of my grandfather (Please keep my grandmother and my family in your prayers during this time.), although we were able to take a few of the nine days we spent in Florida and relax.

The problem is that my folks now live an hour away from where I grew up and the town they live in, while peaceful and tranquil in a Mayberry kind of way, is also extremely boring for anyone under the age of 55. Because of this, we have to drive at least an hour to go to one of our three choices of "exciting" towns which include Dothan, Alabama; Panama City, and Tallahassee. 

Well, on this respective trip, we decided to go all out Panama City Beach. And as we did, something horrible began happening to me: I suddenly became Clark Griswold! I suddenly became the All-American tourist dad with all the seashells and tee-shirts and I stopped only short of the fanny-pack! I don't know how it happened! I don't know how I suddenly turned into my father on every family vacation we ever took until I was twelve. And yet, somehow, it happened.

I realized I had just done the unthinkable: I had become one of THOSE people. That's right! I had become a tourist! 

Now, what's the problem with tourism? you might ask. Well, nothing in and of itself. When you happen to have grown up in a tourist city (as any native New Yorker or Hawaiian can tell you), through the years, you develop a certain growing disdain for tourists. You see, for the tourists, they have it great: they get to get away from work, get out of town, reconnect with the family, etc. But for the poor city dweller, the tourists are the reason the city dweller's roads are clogged, the reason all their favorite restaurants are packed with two-hour waits, and the reason that most city dwellers decide never to go anywhere remotely near the actual tourist destinations (in this case, the beach). I hope that makes sense.

(Oddly enough, I now find myself a "city dweller" again where the "tourists" are now the Griswalds coming to Branson!)

Perhaps now you can understand my predicament. I have now gone from being the "city dweller" in my hometown to being one of the people that I couldn't stand six years ago. I now became the reason Panama City's actual "city dwellers" couldn't access their roads, their restaurants, or their beaches. In other words, I was officially a Canadian. (No offense to my Canadian readers!) 

I should also mention that my fourteen-month-old daughter hated the beach. And I mean she hated it! She was miserable the entire time we were there. She kept saying "No! No!" to the waves as they washed along the shore. So, not only was I an inconvenience to my hometown, but now, I'm an inconvenience to my own kid! Sheesh! How does a guy win with odds like that against him?

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to watch National Lampoon's Vacation!

05:27 Posted in General , Travel | Permalink | Comments (0) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this | Tags: Beach, family, vacation, humor, trip, Blogosphere

March 27, 2006

Just Got Back

Just got back from a weekend retreat with the staff from my church. We loaded up yesterday at 12:30 PM and headed to St. Louis where we attended a Saturday night service to get ideas of what-and-what-not-to-do for our upcoming Saturday night adventure in September. I'll post more tomorrow when I'm not so beat.

We did, however, stop in at the Cunetto on The Hill in St. Louis following the service at Church of the Shepherd. It is probably one of the tastiest (and best priced) Italian restaurants I've eaten at in a long time. My friend, co-worker, and restaurant/food critic Matt has a full review of the place on his blog. The photo is also his. If you happen to be in the St. Louis area, go check this out.

We then headed on to Cape Girardeau in Southeast Missouri where we stayed at the Hampton Inn and I had a snoring contest with our Associate Pastor Jim (who happened to be eating all you see on the left). We loaded up this morning for a conference at UMC Megachurch, LaCroix. That experience was good, and I'll write more in depth on both of the church experiences later. For now, though, it's off to bed.

04:25 Posted in Random , Travel | Permalink | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this

March 20, 2006

No Wi-Fi at the Barrington Hotel

So this past weekend, I was asked to lead worship for an ALPHA retreat. Alpha is a sort-of "Christianity-101" course that different churches of all denominations can participate in. I'll perhaps post my thoughts on the content in the future.

Anyway, I signed on to lead worship for the retreat. One of our guitar players in the church decided to accompany me. They put us up (and held the retreat) at the Barrington Hotel, and the leadership put my wife and me up in one of their nicest jacuizi suites. It wasn't the newest hotel around, but it was relaxing in the room, I must say. Even though our daughter was up all night the first night because she was still sick (thanks to all of your prayers, she's much better now), at least we were in a nice room.

There was just one problem: the hotel didn't have wireless internet - well, they did, but it was only on one computer kiosk and cost nearly $10.00 per hour to use (so of course, they didn't have it in the room). I thought most hotels had Wi-Fi in their rooms (free of charge or something like that), but apparently, the Barrington hasn't gotten the message yet. Oh well, not that I have room to complain, but that is why I didn't update until now. Have a good day.

15:35 Posted in Travel | Permalink | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this