Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast

More Vacation Pics (Plus Needless Commentary)

It is a bright sunny day and a balmy 41 degrees here in Minnesota. Just a couple weeks ago, however, I was relaxing in temps in the mid to upper seventies. As I said before, part of what I like about vacationing is contrast--Which, I guess, is part of the reason why I can't see the point in ski vacations in the winter when you're from someplace like Minnesota that is already cold and snowy all winter (and part of fall and spring).

Anyway. Here are some more vacation photos in case you're chilled and snowbound and need some warmth.

I do not know what it is about palm trees that is so fascinating to me. How they tower so tall on trunks so thin? The fact that they grow such oddly fuzzy but tasty fruit? I do not know. The funny thing is that most palm trees look, to me, less "real" than fake palm trees I sometimes see in the atriums of malls and office buildings or on TV. This fake/real theme is one I have contemplated before while on vacation, and this vacation was no different.

Like this Mayan-style "temple," for example. The steps lead to the top of a huge water slide. From there you can slide down a clear tube through a tank where real live sharks swim around you. On the resort TV channel there is a program running in continuous loop that shows how this temple and other features of the resort were built. Great pains were taken to create cracks, crevices, and other aspects to make everything look ancient, worn, rediscovered. I spent more time than I am willing to admit pondering the various implications of this. And wondering why--on a resort with multiple pools, a "lazy river," several water slides and a huge aquarium--our hotel room contained a card asking us to please conserve water...

But then all this overanalysis and cynicism melts away once I recognize the gift of being able to see the world through the eyes of my daughters. This was their first time seeing an ocean. They have loved to talk about "The Ocean" for the past couple of years--speculating about how big it is, about how long it would take to get there, whether they would see Sponge Bob or whether he would be too deep under the sea for them to spy... For them, then, this trip will constitute a memory of their first trip to a real beach and real ocean. In fact, likely it will all be real--the cracks in the giant boulders, the sand, the waves, the sun, and spending hours on end with Mom and Dad.

Contrasts: Between the sun and sand there and the sun and snow back home; between my pointlessly applied analytical skills on a vacation resort and my more fruitful (and necessary) analytical dissertating skills; between the artificialness of the resort and the authenticity of our family togetherness. All in all we had a wonderful time. And this trip, not a single frog child in sight.

Merry Christmas!

Posted by perry032 at December 23, 2005 03:47 PM | TrackBack
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