The Flip Side

Sometimes I try to see places the way I saw them for the first time. (Despite my hellish airport experience yesterday -- which I didn't finish writing about, but it involved getting lost trying to get out along with the other issues -- I really like my Orlando vacation place. I wouldn't live in Orlando because of the traffic, but since I've been coming here more (for the past few years) I've seen some of the charm that helps me to understand why people would live anywhere in Florida that isn't near the water.

The first time I came here, I still lived up north. My sons, my mother, my grandmother, and I came to visit Orlando, Kennedy Space Center, and Marco Island in (I think) 1998. We went to Disneyworld, and it was the twenty-fifth anniversary. It was also my first time, as it was for all of us except my mom, and we all got our badges that said "My First Visit!", which was especially funny when my grandmother, who was in her mid-eighties, stood next to my youngest son, who was about four. Disney made me nervous then with the huge crowds, and it makes me nervous now, sort of for the same reasons. Then I was worried I would lose track of one (or more) of my kids; now I just don't like to be surrounded by so many people. I have this weird "thing" that causes me to always look for exits and always know I could get out if I needed to -- even if I don't need to.

Anyway, in my early days of visiting Florida, it had a different feel. Also I would say that different parts of Florida have "different feels". Jacksonville feels like home because I've been there so long (although I have to admit that every time I fly up north and the plane starts its descent over the Virginia countryside, I get misty-eyed), but I'm still discovering new places -- or places that are new to me -- all the time. On those occasions I become a tourist in my adopted hometown. I like that. Everybody is a tourist at some time, unless you never leave home! I love to do daytrips, as I did a few weeks ago when I experienced several towns I'd never been to that were within two hours of my home. I don't remember where I was going with all of this, but it's getting late and I'm tired. I'll just say this: get out of your four walls every once in a while, even if you don't go far.