kenny the snowbird

This is Cool Kenny on vacation.

Okay, technically it's his Grammy Shirley who is the snowbird - as she migrates south from Boston to Florida each winter. We felt that the snow around here had become quite enough, thank you very much, so we decided to migrate too (if only for a long weekend).

In a nice bit of weather shock, we left Chicago where it was around 28 degrees, and landed in West Palm Beach (on our way to Delray) where it was around 80 degrees. Somehow we coped.


Hint: this bird is not native to Chicago.

We weren't the only members of the family to converge in South Florida. Cousins Danny and Elise came in from St. Louis, Aunt Idelle came in from New Hampshire, Cousin Harriet came in from Boston, and Aunt Claire and Uncle Sherman made their annual migration from Israel. In addition, we got to see the Alters and even Uncle Maishe.

With all of the family obligations, we didn't do much sightseeing, it was mostly group gatherings to "ooh" and "aah" over (and around) the boy. Lucky for Kenny, he isn't opposed to such things, and can actually be quite the ham in front of a crowd (which is ironic in a kosher home, but that's a post for another time).


Kenny knows how to play to a crowd.

This time around, Overboard and I decided to book a room at a local hotel, so we got a suite that was listed as having a bedroom, kitchen and separate living room. This would be perfect, as we could put Kenny to bed at night, but retire to the other room to hang out and watch TV without disturbing him. Alas, the room was more like a loft, with all of the aforementioned rooms in one big space.

Consequently, we were forced to go to bed when Kenny did. Factoring in being on Eastern Standard Time, we were able to stay up an extra hour, but that still meant going to bed around 8pm and getting up around five or six. Let's just say that's a lot more sleep than we're used to. It was nice, but kind of odd. I don't think my body knew what to do with the extra rest.

I'd tell you all kinds of stories about what we did, but like I said before, it was pretty low key, so I'm bereft of too many exciting stories. Or any exciting stories, really. However, Grammy Shirley did score major points with the Percy the Train she got Kenny. He proceeded to play with it non-stop, rolling it over any and every available surface.


Kenny the engineer.

Kenny also received a fun new puzzle from the Alters and a dinosaur and book from Aunt Idelle that took a little warming up to. I tried to show Mr. K the joys of orchestrating "dinosaur attacks" on unsuspecting trains. This was pretty popular, especially when accompanied by the appropriate dinosaur sounds.

When we flew home Sunday we were greeted in Chicago by a thermometer that read zero degrees, with a nice windchill of, I don't know, -46 or something. At least it felt that way. Again, a bit of weather shock.

You can check out all our triptacular Florida pix here. Enjoy!