Max in Florida: the finale

By the end of Thursday the 24th, we had finished up with the part of the vacation where everyone did everything together. The next day, we picked up the 12th and final member of our posse at the airport and registered the five men for the Scrabble Nationals. I was playing in the 2nd division, my three coworkers were playing in the fifth (one person) and 6th divisions (two people) and the only non-public servant was actually playing in the top division. Divisions are assigned by ratings so getting the chance to play in the top division is pretty impressive.

The tournament lasted 4 days and had us each playing 28 games of Scrabble. Everyone had a good tournament based on expectations with three of us finishing in the money (the two division 6ers finished 3rd and 10th and I finished 2nd in my division) and four of us leaving the tournament rated higher than when we had showed up. My performance ended up putting me in the top 10 in Canada and top 50 in North America - yahoo! (Dear Max - your daddy is a total geek. Love, Dad.) We had a really good time and might have a date for 2010, when the next edition of the tournament will be held. However, by then Max will be 2 and so he will require his own seat to fly...I smell a roadie.

While all of the nerds were off flexing their cerebral cortexes, everyone else carried on with their wonderful vacation. The moms and kids got to enjoy a lot of pool time in the mornings and then went out for special outings during the days. These included trips to a farmer's market in downtown Orlando, the world's biggest McDonald's (seriously), and a couple of outlet shopping malls. Lots of R&R was had and good deals were found. Holly is an expert bargain shopper so Max ended up with a pile of super-cute new outfits for next to nothing. (Dear Max - your mommy will teach you the definition of "deal". Your daddy will teach you how to anagram it into lead, lade and dale. Love, Dad.)

So that was that for Orlando - a wonderful week of adventures, Scrabble, hot weather and hanging out with friends! Here are some pictures from the back end of our trip.

Here is the whole NSC 2008 posse. Max was the only one unable to stay awake...



Max and daddy chillin' with the director of the National Scrabble Association.



Mom and Max with the star of Supersize Me:)



Max at his most curious. In the background: a typical swatch of hotel room floor in any of the three rooms with babies.



The NSC 2008 posse (minus mommy) chowin' down at Cracker Barrel.



Max practicing for a lucrative future career in the entertainment industry.



Max, pooped after a long day. Note the amusing "bum in air" sleeping pose.