Vacation, Natural Disasters, and Books

toLet's start with vacation.  It was time to hang with the mouse this year down in Orlando. Yeah, I know. We're always down in Orlando hanging with the mouse, but it's just what we do. We flew down back on the 19th of August. And then everything went to heck.

First, there was the earthquake. These are not particularly common up in the northeast, and when they do occur, they're quite small. I cannot imagine what the folks in the Pentagon were thinking as they evacuated.  It makes me shudder.

While this was occurring, we were watching the weather channel every day, keeping an eye on some hurricane named Ilene. It skipped right on by Florida--we had a bit of wind and that's all--and then launched itself up the coast and wrecked a lot of stuff.  The coast of North Carolina, Virginia, etc. It slammed into Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York and left devastation throughout New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, and flooded the heck out of Vermont.

Here's a picture of St. Clare's Hospital in Denville, NJ, where my daughter had her tonsils out years ago. It was taken from an upper floor. The circular drive that surrounds the flag pole is the front of the hospital. What you don't see is the road in front of the hospital, the huge parking lot just beyond the electric & phone wires, or the great big field beyond it near the scattered trees. That's all Rockaway River in this picture.

Last Thursday, we knew the storm was coming and going to hit the tri-state area on Sunday, so we moved our flight from Sunday to Monday. By Saturday, even the Monday flight was cancelled. We got in our rental car Sunday morning, and drove the 20 hours north to get home on Monday, with one overnight stop in northern Virginia. We avoided I-95 once we hit South Carolina, since it is close to the coast. The kids behaved pretty well, thanks to the DVD player we bought at Walmart before leaving early Sunday morning.

New Jersey was a mess. The Rockaway River (see the picture above) had washed away part of I-287 in two  spots, and flooded Denville almost completely. We couldn't pick up our little black pug from the place she was staying in Denville until Tuesday because the road leading to the place was under water. Fortunately, the place was on high enough ground that it stayed dry.  The Passaic River has left unbelievable devastation all over the northern part of the state. Below is a picture of the very large and popular Willowbrook mall in Wayne, NJ. Yes, that brown stuff is river. That's a big mall with a huge parking lot completely under water.

IRENE PORRO / SPECIAL TO THE RECORD

Things are drying out, although it's going to take a long time before folks fully recover.

On the bright and non-hurricane related side, I devoured Cold Vengeance, by Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston. Man, do I love Pendergast novels. My mini review is on goodreads. I also re-read Josh Bezell's, Beat the Reaper on my Nook. What an awesomely fun book.

And when I returned, the library had my reserved copy of Death Sentence (Escape from Furnace 3), by Alexander Gordon Smith. The Escape from Furnace books are like Peanut M&M's. Or regular ones if you're allergic to nuts. 

Well, at least a volcano didn't sprout up in Northern New Jersey while we were away.

Harry Potter - The Experience

I have returned from Florida in August to a swampy heat in Northern New Jersey that matches the Orlando and Boynton Beach sweat levels. We hit Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure this time, with one a la carte day in Disney's Magic Kingdom because the family was seriously Jonesing for the mouse. But this isn't about the mouse. This isn't about the Simpson's or Mummy ride at Universal. This is about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. All I can say is ... dude. They paid some serious attention to detail when they built the place.

When you walk in the joint, you first find yourself in Hogsmeade station. You must provide your own posing kids, however.

The Hogwarts Express

The station timetable

Once you're in Hogsmeade proper, there's loads to see.

Zonko's Joke Shop

Hogsmeade Shopping

Zonko's has a mix of their traditional items as well as some of Weaselys' Wizard Wheezes, but I suppose since they only had room for Hogsmeade, and not Diagon Alley, where the Weasely boys' shop exists, I won't complain. There were supposed to have been Pygmy Puffs, but it appeared as if they were fresh out.

Puking Pastilles - yum

The ol' extendables

More shops. Even the simple storefronts had living window displays, from quills that magically wrote on parchment themselves, to self playing cello's.

Just a storefront, but the window displays were alive

Honeydukes - Yum

And inside Honeydukes!

We got a Godric Gryffindor card	Pepper Imps
Yes, you read that right.	Cauldron Cakes!

Then, we have Dervish and Banges. The deal is you can either go in the backdoor, or head into Ollivander's first, which is connected inside. And just outside is the Owlery, where you can mail your letters, Hogsmeade postmark included.

The back entrance	Wizard Chess, anyone?
Neville's Gran apparently shopped here	It seems wrong to be able to buy one
Need a quidditch set?	Inside Ollivander's
The Owlery - Owl Post, don't you know.	Somebody got a howler!

And then there's both the Hogs Head, where the beer is cold, and the Three Broomsticks, where the feast is hearty, and the butterbeer comes in two types - frozen and frosted. There are owls and house elves about, so keep your eyes on the shadows.

It's a Hogs Head	It's an actual non-animatronic Hogs Head
A feast at the Three Broomsticks

We are getting very, very close to Hogwarts now. Let's go for a quick ride on a hyppogriff first, and see what we see.

Hagrid's Hut

Buckbeak, a.k.a. Witherwings

Hoggy Hoggy Hogwarts. 

Mirror of Erised	Potions classroom down in the dungeons
Keeping the mandrakes under lock and key in the greenhouse	The portraits move and talk!
The Sorting Hat	The house points hourglasses seemed a bit lame, though

What the pictures don't show you are the headmaster's study, where Dumbledore warns you about the differences between what is right and what is easy; nor the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, where Harry, Ron and Hermione explain what's about to happen. These holographic images are amazing, but don't appear on camera, likely due to the flash. Curses, you flash. My son snagged a picture of the Fat Lady portrait on his phone, thought. As for the Forbidden Journey ride through the castle... it breaks a LOT. But we rode twice, once after waiting 90 minutes, and once after 30. It's really, really cool. You sit in this bat-like contraption with your feet dangling, and zoom through the castle and then outside through the castle ground, into the middle of a quidditch match, and then every which way, trying to avoid dementors, while not losing your lunch.

There are also some performances going on outside.

The girls of Beauxbatons performing

These folks can sing. So can the toads

What a great experience. It would naturally be even better if it wasn't ridiculously crowded, but at least it wasn't the opening month. My son got himself a snitch and a dragon, and both kids purchased their very own wands at Ollivander's. I snagged a Gryffindor scarf. As Ron would say, "Seriously good haul this year."

We're off to see the wizard

Just a quick note to say we're heading down to Universal Studios Orlando tomorrow. I cannot wait to check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I can almost taste the butterbeer ... think I'll have mine frosted while waiting to procure a wand at Ollivanders. Lunch at the Three Broomsticks should be good, and maybe a morning pastry at Honeydukes. I wonder what the kids will buy at Zonko's or Dervish and Banges. Methinks mine own wallet will be lighter.

I'll take loads of pix, and post some up here when I get back. Until then... Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain.

A Vacation is Indicated

Last week seemed to race by, and this week is dragging. I mean, seriously dragging. The day job, a.k.a. the thing that pays the bills, is a pressure cooker at the moment. We spend about eight or nine months preparing for and recovering from three months of insanity. Those three months get underway in a few weeks.

I can't decide if the build up is worse than the actual busy months themselves. It sure feels like it this year. Of course, thinking this way will jinx it up real good, and as bad as I think it is now, it's about to get worse. A lot worse.


Knowing how crazy thing are about to get, and with the kids about to go back to school at the beginning of September, we usually pile into the family truckster and head off to Wally World. Forget eMail. Forget the Blackberry. It's time to recharge ye ol' brain. We're splurging this year and actually jetting to Florida. Jetting sounds so much snootier than flying, doesn't it? Then again, we're going on JetBlue, so it's not exactly hoity-toity. Hopefully, we won't have a flight attendant lose his or her mind. But, if we do, it'll be exciting!

Also, this time it's not Wally World, but Universal Studios Orlando. The Harry Potter lines notwithstanding, I can't wait to ride Forbidden Journey, taste a frozen Butterbeer, and maybe get lucky and have a wand choose this wizard. The Simpsons ride looks to be mighty cool as well. I know I'll ride Spider Man and Men in Black about a million times and then Poseiden's Fury at least once. Actually, having read the entire Percy Jackson series since I last went to Universal, it'll have a whole new meaning.

Writing-wise, well.... While Urban Mythos is out with a couple of agents (one partial, one full - yay me!), my creative mind is slacking off a bit. I attended WriteOnCon, which was brilliant. I've been spending a lot of time on YALITCHAT (another awesome thing), and have put myself on vacation from the WDC YA critique group until September.

My sasquatch notebook will be traveling on vacation as well. This trusty composition notebook is the bed upon which Urban Mythos was conceived. I'll be fleshing out my next novel on the plane and by the pool at the hotel. Soon, trusty green notebook, soon we'll be together again. And yes, one way or another, this next novel will have Zombie Mermaids.

Tourists in D.C. and a Man Eating Plant

We just got back from a whirlwind four day weekend in Washington D.C. I am BEAT! We went everywhere, getting around on the Metro, by foot (with a pulled leg muscle - ouch), bus, and once by car... I'll come back to that. Let me just say these two words before I continue: Cherry Blossoms.

'Nuff said. The place was as crowded as Manhattan during Christmas week.

We arrived Thursday, checking into our hotel in Arlington, then grabbed the Metro (D.C.'s very clean, very nice rail/subway system) to the Smithsonian stop. We hoofed it over to the Holocaust Museum, where we'd fortunately purchased our tickets to the permanent exhibit in advance for a buck each. If you are in Washington, this is a must-see, head-shaking, mind-numbing place to visit. It should leave you with these words in your head: Never again.

When we were done, we wandered over to the park around the Washington Monument and checked out the Cherry Blossoms. They are indeed gorgeous, and only in bloom for a couple of weeks. After meandering among the blossoms, we grabbed the metro across to Union Station where we boarded a bus for a 3 1/2 hour "Monuments by Moonlight" tour. We were able to get off and check out these national parks: Jefferson Memorial (breathtaking), FDR Memorial (stirring), Lincoln Memorial (doubly breathtaking), Vietnam War Memorial (sad), Korean War Memorial (equally sad and a little freaky), and finally the World War II memorial (huge).

We wound up taking the metro back to our hotel, getting there close to midnight. The kids were pooped. So were mom and dad.

Friday, we metro'd ourselves over to the U.S. Capital, where we got through security just in time to get on our tour. Having read the Lost Symbol last year, I couldn't wait to see the rotunda, particularly the Apotheosis of Washington. The entire place really blew my mind, and momentarily restored my faith in our elected leaders. Momentarily.

After the tour finished, we hiked over through the sculpture garden beside the National Gallery of Art, and then into the Natural History Museum. We saw dinosaurs. We saw the Hope Diamond. We were rammed in with a million other tourists there for the Cherry Blossom Festival. It wasn't entirely pleasant, but this is an excellent museum. After a brief respite with ice cream from one of a bazillion street vendors, we set out for the Spy Museum, which was AWESOME! This was so much fun, except for our feet aching like you wouldn't believe.

Saturday, we metro'd back into the city and took in the Air and Space Museum. The plan was to do this in the morning, then head over to the American Museum of History, because I wanted to see Archie Bunker's chair. Well, we were plumb tuckered, so we stayed at the Air and Space Museum for a while longer before checking out the sculpture garden at the Hirshhorn Museum. The wife loves these things and they do have some interesting sculptures, including some by Rodin.

Saturday night was the most stressful and most fun. After dinner, we were going to see Little Shop of Horrors at the Ford Theater! Yes, the Ford Theater, where Lincoln was assassinated.

This.... is not from the Ford Theater.



We got down into the metro station below our hotel and waited. And waited. And heard the announcements that the Pentagon stop was closed due to a police situation. There was a shooting of some kind at that stop and that for the next 1 1/2 hours, no trains would be going through. So, we had no way of taking the train. The hotel told us not to drive to the theater, because it's the Cherry Blossom Festival!!!! We couldn't get a cab, so armed with the family truckster, we ventured from the hotel anyway. The directions were bad, and we went around and around in Arlington for quite some time until we found our way.

Let me just say this. Yes, there was traffic. But, I'm used to driving in New York City for pete's sake! This was nothing. In fact, I got the brood there just in time. I, meanwhile, parked and missed the opening song, but they sat me shortly after. The show was great - I highly recommend it. What a great time - great music, funny, beautiful little theater. The presidential balcony is still there, by the way. And, we found our way back to the hotel.

This very morning, we set off for home, stopping at the National Zoo for some Panda time. That was cool. They are cute and cuddly, are they not?

And now I am exhausted and my feet are killing me.

Countdown to the mouse

I'm taking the family down to the promised land this Saturday. Yes, Walt Disney World. Work is hectic and stressful enough to warrant time away with a bunch of the fictional characters of my youth. And much as I love South Park, Mickey does NOT use profanity. At least not in front of the guests.

It's going to be hot as Hades. But it's the end of August in Florida, so what would one expect? The day after we get back, my son starts High School. *shudders at age* But, the beauty of going at the end of August is that much of the country has gone back to school already, so the lines won't be too long. This is a good thing, because in the sweltering heat, long lines = bad temper. It's a race to get into the next air conditioned ride or show!

We're flying this time, having driven the 2000 miles down the last couple of times, so it'll be quite the fast trip. On the other hand, maybe the airport irritation will remind me why we drive. I swear that Disney World is my kids' birth right. My son and daughter have visited nearly once for every year of their lives. I think one year, we went to California for a wedding and another year we went to Universal Studios, although we did hit Disney one night that trip. Basically, we're lazy as hell when it comes to vacation planning. We go where we know, and we know the mouse house.

I'd never been to Disney until I graduated high school, after which my folks took me down... on Eastern Airlines! This was also my first time on an airplane. Walter Cronkite was the voice in Spaceship Earth over at Epcot Center. It later became Robin Williams (I think), other names, and has since been completely rejiggered to modern-ness.

So what does this all mean to writing? A recent extremely positive rejection under my belt, I soldier on trying to get The Children of Midian published. The sequel - Return to Midian - is also done. The third book in that series - Abeo - is part way done, but I set it aside to focus on the next book and subject of my Birth of a Novel blog series. However, I'm stuck in the middle of chapter five, so unless I figure out where to take the chapter next, the blog series may not get updated before I head south. Or maybe I will, and explain why I'm stuck! Yeah, that's the ticket. I'd buy that for a dollar.

Okay - time to watch Warehouse 13 on the DVR!