Here are Peter and Grace on our Thanksgiving trip to Florida. I didn’t take too many pictures on the trip, but here’s a link to the ones I did take.

For the kids’ Spring Break this year, we went to Florida and had a jam-packed week. We were busy, but with plenty of time to relax. Our schedule included swimming, a kids museum called the Imaginarium, an amusement park, a little bit of shopping, a boat ride to the beach, mini-golf, lots of eating, Passover Seder and the kids’ favorite activity: riding in the golf cart.

Peter in a hurricane simulator with 45 mph winds, which is really a tropical storm simulator.


Grace with her head in an alligator’s mouth. She does look a little nervous.


Laughing on the Dragon Coaster. The kids rode this 10 times.


Grace on the beach with a bucket and shovel.

Here’s a link to all my photos from the trip.

This year Passover coincided with Spring Break, so the kids and I were in Florida for the first night of this Jewish holiday. My mom’s community holds a large seder in their clubhouse with over 130 attendees. My mom is on the committee that plans the event, now in its 7th year, and she is responsible for working with the chef to pick the dishes for the dinner. She shares her recipes with him and he figures out how expand them from serving 8 to serving 130.

Traditionally, the youngest child asks the four questions, which are answered throughout the ceremonial service before dinner, but since they were the only two kids in attendance, they divided the questions between them. Watch the short video to see what a great job they did.

Part of the service involves putting a drop of wine on the plate for each of the plagues brought upon the Egyptians, and here are my 10 drops on the saucer.

The food was fabulous, and included turkey with cranberry sauce, brisket, potato kugel, tsimmis and broccoli.

And here’s a picture of Peter and Grace with my mom and stepdad, Bob.

Here are Peter and Grace on our first night in Florida.

Upon arriving in Florida, the first thing Peter and Grace did after lunch was go to the pool.

Today we went to the Cole Bros. Circus, which bills itself at the World’s Largest Circus under the Big Top. We had tickets in the front row, so the view was great. It was the first circus I have ever seen in a tent. I have only seen the circus at indoor arenas, so it was fun to be under the Big Top. This was definitely a full circus, featuring Chinese acrobats, motorcyclists, trapeze artists, clowns, horses, elephants, poodles, and The Human Cannonball.

Clown 1

Clown 2

Clown 3

Grace with cat face paint

Zarina, The Human Cannonball

Peter on a boat ride on the Estero River

Grace walking on the beach

Grace taking a break during Golf Safari

Peter taking a break during Golf Safari

Final Scores:
Grandpa Bob (Lives on Golf Course): 40 (1 Hole in One)
Grammie (Lives on Golf Course): 45 (1 Hole in One)
Me: 46 (No Holes in One)
Peter: 49 (2 Holes in One)
Grace (arm in cast): 55 (2 Holes in One)

Grace at night

We had a pretty quiet day today. We slept late, ate breakfast outside on the deck (or lanai as they say in Florida) and watched the Parade in HD. We finally went out in the golf cart and drove down to the river. I was speeding along at 18 miles per hour.

We went to the putting green where the kids got some practice shots in. Peter is determined to beat me at miniature golf tomorrow.

After a quick snack we stopped off at the butterfly garden. Grace was sitting in the golf cart and honked the horn. I saw a big splash out of the corner of my eye. I told the kids I thought it might be an alligator. We waited and watched the pond. All of a sudden I saw the eyes and nostrils of a small alligator. I pointed it out and the kids got nervous. We saw it began to swim back to shore, and the kids said let’s go. I put the pedal to the metal and sped away in the golf cart at something under 18 miles per hour (No gator photos, as we were moving too fast).

And finally, we had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner (out) at the Club restaurant here in my Mom’s development. We have been having Thanksgiving dinner at the club for the past 8 years. My mom decided that she would rather spend time with us, instead of cooking for two days, so we started going out. Tonight she said, maybe next year I’ll cook for Thanksgiving. We will see.