Spring Break 2008 - click on the pics to make 'em full size

Wow, its been 2 months since I updated this? Well, a lot of life happened. The highlights are Aaron made the Varsity tennis team at Strath Haven HS, we did our spring break trip to Florida and had a fantastic time and I still don't have a paint scheme finalized for the RV-8 BUT I do have a date of 21 April at the paint shop. Here's some random photos of the trip. We started off spending the first night in Fayetville NC at the Meades. Old Florida friends of ours. Shannon is still in the Air Force working special ops and spending a lot of time TDY at MacDill AFB. Darby, their 'baby' is now a beautiful teenager as you can see from the macbook photos. She said she wants to go to the Air Force Academy and become a physician. Right now she has to settle for rock climbing, basketball and soccer. I hope some of that go get 'em military attitude rubbed off on my kids a bit. There must have been something in that Brevard County water we were all drinking back when all these families we know were just parents and no kids. Everyone had kids and they are all good looking and smart! It's also not surprising that most of the families we visited were all in the Air Force at Patrick AFB and we were all young officers. There is something special about military. You can never really leave it. Needless to say we hit a lot of spots and didn't have the camera handy everywhere we went or every house we stopped at to say hi to old friends. Florida brought out its best for us: Great weather for a change, great food and great friends who still look the same but man how their kids have GROWN taller and older looking!

We had a wonderful evening at the Acostas. The girls went from cute little waist highs to little women. How did that happen? Here they are dressed to go to their dance class.

And here are Avelina and Alexandra in Cocoa Village just chillin out. These kids are just so well mannered and pretty. Does Avelina's eyes ever stop sparkling or that smile ever quit? Alexandra is going to attract a lot of boys. I hope Rick is ready for that...she's in HS now so its going to start any second! Probably already has but Alexandra is smart enough to keep a thing or two from Dad.

Yes, the weather was chamber of commerce pretty much the whole time. I got to spend Sunday at the Tico Airshow in Titusville, most of Monday flying around with Rick Caldwell while the everyone else was in Cocoa Village, Wednesday was the obligatory Ron Jon's surf shop, dinosaur store, beach walking and eating type day, Thursday it actually rained in the morning which was our Golf Day so that got rained. Instead I went to Patrick AFB and hung out 3 or 4 hours reminiscing over the years I was stationed there as an engineer working on the "Eastern Test Range" before and after it transitioned ESMC to the 45th Space Wing. They took down my tennis courts and left it a parking lot! Bums. Thursday night we spent at the Broomfields. Aaron and Chris got hot rod rides in their Factory Five Cobra replica car. I WANT ONE! And I want their house. It's still an amazing place even after all these years. I'd definitely have a float plane (probably just an ultralight type deal made a couple miles away at the Rockledge airport) if I had this spot. To be able to walk out onto their private boat ramp each night would be amazing. OK, boat dock picture coming. This is the Indian River and that's Merrit Island in the background. Below is Sarah, Katie and Rachel on their Gazebo on their "beach"! Tough life... We're so proud Katie stuck with tennis and now plays for Viera HS. They all started out in little tot tennis at Suntree Country Club.

Well, I could go on and on - so I will a little more to prove it. We also had dinner at the Bergins and they are also just another one of those super special families. Dave still works at the Cape as an engineer, the two oldest are getting electrical engineering degrees at USF, the third 'baby' (that's how I remember him anyway!) is in high school now and wants to be a physician. Mom is a nurse so this one, Adam, must have more Mom than Dad and no doubt will be better off for it! The youngest, Christopher, will no doubt turn out well too. All smart kids with wonderful manners - just like their parents. Simply amazing. Jean's Birthday was on Wednesday so Wednesday night we had dinner at her boyfriend Don's house. Very nice house and he was a gracious host. I can see why Jean hangs out by his heated pool a lot! The restaurants in Brevard county blow away the ones we have around here. Philly area is WAY overrated when it comes to restaurants and shopping. I have to mention that my old Schoolies seafood restaurant at Cape Canaveral is long gone. The new owners/new building version looked like it didn't make it and was closed down - I ate there once and they couldn't begin to match the cool hole in the wall 'dump' ambiance and awesome taste the original spot was famous for. No finer fresh fish sandwiches were ever made but across the street is a good second place restaurant, Grills Seafood Deck & Tiki Bar. We like it a lot too and luckily it's still there. Their conch fritters are still the best ever the huge public boat ramps are still there as well as the local for hire fishing boats so it's a fun place to hang out. If there were any ELV or shuttle launches it would also be a perfect spot to see them while eating and drinking. On the day we went we got to see a loggerhead turtle swim up to the ramp and check us out. I would be remiss though if I didn't bring up Taco City. The Hombre is still damn good and we like it so much we went there twice. Luckily it's still mostly a local place and still has the local atmosphere. Most of our beach shots were shot behind it. Here's a slideshow with all the pictures we took.