Jay Thomas VS. The Curse of the Blaker Vacation

In my last blog I talked about the beginning of the 2nd BLAKER VACATION(a vacation that happens when my wife and I travel with our friends the Bakers).  Well now for the rest of it.  Did the Blaker curse show up again?  You betcha!

After our more than rough start getting to Baltimore or more specifically Ellicot City, we arrived a little after noon on Friday, July 29th.  Dylan met us at the airport and took us to grab lunch at a place that has a lot of noodle dishes.  I think it was called Noodle shop or Noodle Factory or something along those lines.  I got the same noodle dish Dylan got because it sounded good.  I got mine with Shrimp.  When we got to Heidi and Dylan's appartment we all sat down and ate.  I noticed my mouth was starting to hurt a bit and I was sweating.  I forgot Dylan likes really HOT food, me? Not so much.  That mixed with Heidi having the air set at 80 degrees explained the sweating.  Really?  80?  Trying to thaw an iceman?

 We hung around the house and watched Breaking Bad that first night.  Amazing show BTW.  I was hooked almost instantly.  Well not instantly, at first I was more concerned about the burning in my mouth but once that subsided I was all in for Breaking Bad.

Saturday we hung out at the harbor of in Baltimore and it was a lot of fun.  There was anime/comic book convention somewhere near by, this was evident by all the people in costumes.  They were very strange but fun.  Captain America was also there.  Did I mention I was wearing my Captain America shirt?  I ducked out of his sight as fast as I could.  My shirt mixed with the chair was like a magnet.  Luckily I escaped.

The rest of the vacation consisted of us hanging out, watching Breaking Bad and eating.  We ate at a place called the Crab Shanty.  It was fantastic.  Most importantly hanging out with two of my best friends was a lot of fun and relaxing.
 

I look like I'm about to be shot by a guy from HALO.

On the last day things got interesting again.  The apartment complex that the Bakers lived in was being cleaned so there was a working hosing down the windows and porches right outside.  I told Heidi I was going to just watch the guy when he cleaned her porch.  She got nervous and begged me not to do it.  Then when the ladder hit the porch I got really excited...until the guy actually came up. I felt awkward and decided not to look at the man.  We just tried to watch Breaking Bad while he loudly hosed the sliding glass door RIGHT BEHIND ME.  I got really creeped out.  That said, he did a nice job.



We said our goodbyes and headed to the airport.  Next stop home....or was it?!

Mother nature, being the very nice lady she is decided to wait until we were already on the plane to make a THUNDERSTORM DELAYING OUR FLIGHT FOR OVER AN HOUR THUS MAKING US MISS OUR CONNECTING FLIGHT IN MEMPHIS.  REAL NEAT MOTHER NATURE!

When the plane arrived in Memphis we noticed that my chair looked a little different.  Aw shucks, the right foot rest was missing.  That's neat.  Super cool.  Terrific.  They lost it, so I just dangled for the night.  Thanks Delta.  Appreciate it.  The airline couldn't put us on a new flight until the next day so we had to stay at a Comfort Inn.  They teased us too, the guy that drove our shuttle van kept referencing the Marriot and even drove up to it, only to keep driving past some menacing looking trees right to the Comfort Inn.

Ok it wasn't this bad.

Then on Tuesday we got on our flight from Memphis to Des Moines.  Pretty uneventful flight(The way I like it) except for our flight attendant who was CLEARLY hungover and couldn't fully remember her whole seatbelt/exits/condescending bs schpeel.

I mean really?  A two year old could figure this out.

It was a good vacation despite the Blaker Vacation Curse showing up at the beginning and end of the trip.  Before we got in the house on Tuesday afternoon, Heidi called and started talking about ideas for a third Blaker Vacation....possibly to Vegas or Hawaii.  The Blaker Vacation III?

A Hawaiian vacation didn't work so well for the Brady's, how could it work for us?!

EPILOGUE:

Delta Airlines called me on Friday afternoon and told me they found my foot rest and they were sending it to me.  How they lost it for 4 days, I have no idea, but it's on the way home.