Friday, February 19, 2010

Peter goes to Africa

What you see here is Peter preparing for his trip to Africa by showing Dil his beloved 'animal journal'. That's right - Africa. For Christmas, Opa promised Peter a vacation to anywhere he wanted to go. Peter chose an African safari and completely shot to hell any hopes I might have had at giving him a cool vacation in the next ten years. Disneyland sucks, Dad.

The morning started out like any given day; Mama was making Tommy cry and David was prancing about in a robe with power tools. What? That's normal, isn't it?

While Destructo Dave was off drilling holes into our cat or God only knows what, I ran a bath for the globe trotter. Apparently, Peter was so excited about getting clean for the locals in Namibia that he somehow forgot to remove his shirt before jumping in. Man, that is one excited moron.

It will be Peter's first time ever being away from Mama and Papa. Sure, he's had the occasional sleepover where he's called up crying a little girl for Papa to bring him his coveted bunny, but he's never been gone longer than one night. And, let me just state for Angie's record that I will not be jumping on any damn flights to Africa if Peter suddenly discovers that he is missing anything life-shattering like his snuggle bunny. I seriously doubt it, though, because this time, unlike the last, I supervised Angie's packing of his safari kit. Once bitten, twice stupid.

I have to say, Peter didn't appear to be that sad about saying goodbye to his family.



Maybe it was the lollipop. Or the headbutt that he had received this morning from Tom or that David had found a pair of scissors and decided to cut the tail off of Peter's favorite snake. Doesn't matter, though; he seemed genuinely unsad. Happy, actually and if I'm honest like I always am - ecstatic. Angie was finding it a bit difficult to see how easily Peter could leave the nest, but I think I helped console her with my parting comments. Yeah, whatever, bird - ba-bye. Come back in the spring.

At least we could take comfort that Barb was joining the safari. I can't dwell on that thought too long, though, because I've seen her on good nights. Enough said?

It was a night flight, so we ignored concepts like 'traffic' and left for the airport with exactly enough time to get there. By doing so, we arrived with exactly enough time to park, check in and board.

I can normally read people fairly well, so I could tell Opa was getting a little nervous when we tried parking. We pulled up next to a car that was parallel parked in the middle of two open spots and effectively blocking both of them. The couple inside were busy scrutinizing a map and oblivious to my revving the gas as a subtle sign for them to move their ass into one of the two spots they were hogging.

In a move that still impresses me, Opa simultaneously honked the horn, rolled down his window, whistled, frantically pointed at the line that clearly divided the two parking spots, and somehow managed to still make the 'coo coo crazy' sign with one finger as he shouted at the perplexed driver. And Peter learned a new word.

I'd probably have gone with a different tactic, but since time was of the essence, I have to agree that this was the most effective way of securing a parking spot, which also ensured a successful departure.

The curious parking incident was followed by a mad dash for the ticket counter. It was at this point that I tried to say ba-bye to my little bird.

It was hard to let go, but I wasn't about to induce another vein-popping episode by holding up the flight crew any further. I had time for one quick photo and one long hug good-bye. It just wasn't long enough.
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Ladder Talk:
[Peter finally came down from his happy high and conked out on the plane before Barb could do Ladder Talk]
1) What was the best part of your day?
David: When I picked the flowers today for you.

2) What was the worst part of your day?
David: When Peter is gone and I can't not play pirate ship all by me self.

3) What would you like to do tomorrow?
David: To play with you tomorrow.

2 comments:

  1. wow wish i had an opa to take me on Safari

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  2. @ Medwyn - I'm sure your pictures would be awesome if you were to go on a Safari. If David goes in two years, maybe I can convince Opa to bring along a photographer :-)

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