A Sort Of Vacation

I write this blog from Cincinnati.  My wife, kids and I are here to attend the Midwest Home School Convention.  The wife is excited because (for some reason) she likes homeschool conventions.  We have attended the one in Indianapolis several times and we even attended one while in Texas (though it pales in comparison to the Midwest conventions).  This is the first time we have travelled out of state (well the state we were living in) to attend one and this is the first time that we have brought the kids along.  The kids are just excited that the hotel has an indoor pool.

Cincinnati is 3 hours away from our house give or take and (unfortunately) involved being in the enclosed area know as our minivan.  The kids used to travel well, or I should say great.  They made the 15 hour trip to Texas on multiple occasions with little complaints.  But something happened to them in the past year or so that turned them from travelling buddies into antagonistic foes.  We threatened and implied punishment but only when we put pool time on the table did they straighten up (pity we waited for 2 hours before we brought out the heavy hammer).

Attending this event means taking time off from work, something I don’t do very well.  This is partly due to my inability to allow others to do my work and partly due to the fact that I do not know how to enjoy leisure.  I was chatting with my back up at work just before logging off this afternoon (I only took a 1/2 day vacation today) and he suggested that we get some SkyLine Chili while we were in Cincinnati.  I told him that I would eat some on his behalf but had no real intention of doing so.  However, when we pulled into our hotel lot we noticed a SkyLine Chili a 1/4 mile down the road.  I told the wife of my conversation with my co-worker and just like that the dinner selection was made.

None of us had ever tried this chili before so it was a new experience.  Everyone else ordered Cheese Coneys but I opted for Chili 5-way.  Either my co-worker had talked up this chili too much or it really just isn’t that good but either way we were not impressed.  There was a bonus though in that they were offering 1 free Cheese Coney per person in celebration of opening day for the Cincinnati Reds baseball season.  So, even though the food only filled us up but did not satisfy us, we did not pay full price.

Based on the fact that my next 2 days will be filled with wandering around the Duke Energy Convention Center and attending workshops with kids in tow followed up by another 3 hour ride home in the van with the kids (without the ability to threaten removing pool privileges), I think (sadly) the chili might be the highlight of my “vacation”.

Jon