Pre-Vacation

I've been putting off the act of sitting down and writing about our vacation, but I think the time has come. Plus I need to get it out before I forget about it.

Let's start with the pre-vacation antics.

We spent the night before our flight at Rob's dad's house. It was not the most restful night but we did have a giggly time cutting into the top tier of our wedding cake. I lugged it into work in my carry-on (sucker was HEAVY!) and stored it in the fridge downstairs. It was risky to say the least. After all, I've seen people in that office stampede over things much less delicious than a pound cake from Stocks. But I figured with all the foil and plastic wrap around it, it was practically unrecognizable.

I managed to get the cake to a safe fridge later that day, namely my father-in-law's. We knew it would be chancyto carry the entire cake in my carry-on since according to the lovely woman Rob spoke with that morning, the icing counts as cream, and you can only have so much cream in your carry-on. Sigh. So I bought a piece of Tupperware and we decided to slice it up and take only as much as we planned to eat the day of our anniversary.

That night, after Rob's dad had gone to bed and we were looking forward to the prospect of sleeping on recliners, we unwrapped layer after layer...after layer...of plastic wrap from around our mummy of a cake. Until there it sat, unwrapped, in all its sugary glory.

Rob grabbed a large knife. We were both apprehensive. After all, it had sat in a freezer all year. And we heard recently from two newlyweds that their cake "smelled like feet". If you're reading this, you know who you are.

But we cut into it, my hand over his. I wish I had taken pictures. We cut two fairly sizeable pieces and put them in the tupperware. Then, well, I couldn't help myself. The cake looked so golden and wonderful, and had cut very well (not like that means anything, but I was looking for any rationalization I could get my hands around at that moment). I just had to take a paper-thin sliver and see how well the cake had held up. Rob saw me doing this and watched my face.

I couldn't believe it! It tasted incredible! I threw my arms over my head in triumph (still holding the knife, which in hindsight may have been really dangerous) and laughed joyfully. Of course Rob had to know just what was going on, so I let him in on it but giving him his own tiny piece. We both laughed and kept tasting it.

"Are we totally jinxing our marriage by eating this right now?" he wondered around a mouth full of deliciousness, crumbs falling from his lips.

"That would be lame," I answered, licking sugary icing from my fingers.

Then we had to rewrap the darn thing. It took a long time. We intended to retrieve it when we got home. Of course, we forgot. Not like we needed it after the week-long foodapalooza we participated in. Still, I will always remember giggling over our illicit cake tasting that night.

Several hours later our driver came to pick us up. It had not been an easy night (I ended up on the floor) and I woke up feeling stuffy and gross. But I felt the same way last year on the day we left and I wound up feeling great, so I tried to ignore it.

After a quick freshening up, we were on our way! At 4:00 in the morning! Hooray!...or something...

Still, everything went really well getting through security, and off we went! Well, to our gate. Where we stared out the window at the dark sky. It was only 5:00 and our flight was at 7. It was cool, though, because Air Tran starts boarding super early so at least we felt like we were doing something.

After a seemingly endless flight surrounded by children in meltdown mode (including one with a suspiciously stinky diaper sitting somewhere in our general vicinity), we were there! In Florida! So close to the Mouse!