Back from vacation and HP5
Jun. 26th, 2003 04:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixie*gets home*
*catches up on e-mail*
*skims LJ friends list for an hour before deciding to give up (sorry)*
So. Back from 2.5 days of sun, sand, and sea in Orange Beach (Gulf Shores), Alabama. Had quite a bit of fun.
Monday
8-hour drive down. ~350 pages of HP5 read along the way. Dinner at a crappy seafood restaurant called "Hazel's" that was basically a seafood-centric version of Shoney's. Pictures of & wading in the Gulf of Mexico. Drove across the Florida state line just 'cause it was fifteen minutes away. Hiked around Perdido Key State Park (or Bird Santuary, or something like that) for a bit. Looked for the "beach mouse," which is "one of the rarest mammals in North America." Didn't see one. Unsurprised.
Tuesday
Morning: More beach. Hard to get excited about water when you can't swim, but interesting nonetheless. Got wet up to my waist.
Afternoon: Drove to Mobile. Saw countless palms, palmettos, date palms, banana trees, Spanish moss, and other tropical foilage along the way. Mobile is very pretty when seen from across the bay. The I-10 causeway across the bay is also very cool. Went to see the USS Alabama and USS Drum (WWII battleship and submarine, respectively) and various airplanes. Got to climb around on the boat and sub, which was v. v. cool. Made lots and lots of JAG associations, along with various Trek associations, when on the ship and sub, SG-1 associations upon seeing USAF fighter jets, and more JAG associations when seeing USMC fighters.
It occurs to me that I may watch too much TV.
Evening: Reading on the beach (yay cool breeze!). ~100 more pages of HP5 read.
Wednesday
Morning: Drove to Pensacola 'cause we thought there would be something interesting there. Were totally wrong. No time to go to the Naval Air Museum. Turned around after a few minutes.
Lunch: Really excellent pizza at a place called DeAngelo's.
Afternoon: Dolphin cruise around the intracoastal waterway on a modified houseboat. Saw dolphins swimming around. Found the fact that four dolphin-watching cruise boats converged on two dolphins where were swimming after a tiny shrimp boat extremely amusing. Decided that shrimp boat people probably worked for all the dolphin companies.
Evening: Dinner at Tacky Jack's, a neat restaurant/bar situated over a bay. If you've got a boat, you can dock there and have dinner. Souvenir shopping and beach reading afterward. ~150 pages of HP5. Dip in the pool at the hotel. Meh.
Today
Up at 4:30. On the road by 5:30. Actually getting somewhere after various stops and doubling back for forgotten hotel receipt by 6:30. Home around 2. Finished HP5 on the way home. Really, really tired now.
Overall
Quite enjoyable. Ocean is v. v. nifty.
*
Ramblings about random, random things:
* I love Tonks! New favourite character!
* Ron and Hermione are so gonna end up together. (Although Hermione/Harry wouldn't bother me. Figures that the only thing I can multi-ship for is about a bunch of kids.
* Okay, 12 inches of parchment? Assuming a roll of parchment is approximately the width of a sheet of notebook paper, that's 36 lines (assuming their handwriting is about what would fit on a piece of college-ruled paper). I usually get about 11 words per line when I hand-write something. Multiplying the two gives you 396 words. BOO-HOO. [/sarcasm] Give me a break. I had so much more to write in high school... *rolls eyes*
* Okay, in HP1, wasn't it established that using another person's wand to do magic generally didn't work out? Here everyone's switching wands around like crazy. Did I miss something? (I grant you, my memories of PoA and GoF could fit on the head of a pin.)
* Can I work in the Department of Mysteries? It sounds so cool!
* My mental image of Cornelius Fudge is of the actor who played the Australian Ballroom Dance Federation president in Strictly Ballroom. Hee.
* Dumbledore had me crying like a baby during his confrontation/conference with Harry at the end.
* Getting odd LOTR resonances with the "second war is beginning" business at the end. Good resonances, though.
*
And okay, I'm cracking. Can someone rec me some really good fic featuring McGonagall? Also, fic recs with Dumbledore or Sprout as the main character would be welcomed.
Off to go watch the SG-1 Monday Marathon that I recorded. Assuming I don't fall asleep first, anyway.
*catches up on e-mail*
*skims LJ friends list for an hour before deciding to give up (sorry)*
So. Back from 2.5 days of sun, sand, and sea in Orange Beach (Gulf Shores), Alabama. Had quite a bit of fun.
Monday
8-hour drive down. ~350 pages of HP5 read along the way. Dinner at a crappy seafood restaurant called "Hazel's" that was basically a seafood-centric version of Shoney's. Pictures of & wading in the Gulf of Mexico. Drove across the Florida state line just 'cause it was fifteen minutes away. Hiked around Perdido Key State Park (or Bird Santuary, or something like that) for a bit. Looked for the "beach mouse," which is "one of the rarest mammals in North America." Didn't see one. Unsurprised.
Tuesday
Morning: More beach. Hard to get excited about water when you can't swim, but interesting nonetheless. Got wet up to my waist.
Afternoon: Drove to Mobile. Saw countless palms, palmettos, date palms, banana trees, Spanish moss, and other tropical foilage along the way. Mobile is very pretty when seen from across the bay. The I-10 causeway across the bay is also very cool. Went to see the USS Alabama and USS Drum (WWII battleship and submarine, respectively) and various airplanes. Got to climb around on the boat and sub, which was v. v. cool. Made lots and lots of JAG associations, along with various Trek associations, when on the ship and sub, SG-1 associations upon seeing USAF fighter jets, and more JAG associations when seeing USMC fighters.
It occurs to me that I may watch too much TV.
Evening: Reading on the beach (yay cool breeze!). ~100 more pages of HP5 read.
Wednesday
Morning: Drove to Pensacola 'cause we thought there would be something interesting there. Were totally wrong. No time to go to the Naval Air Museum. Turned around after a few minutes.
Lunch: Really excellent pizza at a place called DeAngelo's.
Afternoon: Dolphin cruise around the intracoastal waterway on a modified houseboat. Saw dolphins swimming around. Found the fact that four dolphin-watching cruise boats converged on two dolphins where were swimming after a tiny shrimp boat extremely amusing. Decided that shrimp boat people probably worked for all the dolphin companies.
Evening: Dinner at Tacky Jack's, a neat restaurant/bar situated over a bay. If you've got a boat, you can dock there and have dinner. Souvenir shopping and beach reading afterward. ~150 pages of HP5. Dip in the pool at the hotel. Meh.
Today
Up at 4:30. On the road by 5:30. Actually getting somewhere after various stops and doubling back for forgotten hotel receipt by 6:30. Home around 2. Finished HP5 on the way home. Really, really tired now.
Overall
Quite enjoyable. Ocean is v. v. nifty.
*
Ramblings about random, random things:
* I love Tonks! New favourite character!
* Ron and Hermione are so gonna end up together. (Although Hermione/Harry wouldn't bother me. Figures that the only thing I can multi-ship for is about a bunch of kids.
* Okay, 12 inches of parchment? Assuming a roll of parchment is approximately the width of a sheet of notebook paper, that's 36 lines (assuming their handwriting is about what would fit on a piece of college-ruled paper). I usually get about 11 words per line when I hand-write something. Multiplying the two gives you 396 words. BOO-HOO. [/sarcasm] Give me a break. I had so much more to write in high school... *rolls eyes*
* Okay, in HP1, wasn't it established that using another person's wand to do magic generally didn't work out? Here everyone's switching wands around like crazy. Did I miss something? (I grant you, my memories of PoA and GoF could fit on the head of a pin.)
* Can I work in the Department of Mysteries? It sounds so cool!
* My mental image of Cornelius Fudge is of the actor who played the Australian Ballroom Dance Federation president in Strictly Ballroom. Hee.
* Dumbledore had me crying like a baby during his confrontation/conference with Harry at the end.
* Getting odd LOTR resonances with the "second war is beginning" business at the end. Good resonances, though.
*
And okay, I'm cracking. Can someone rec me some really good fic featuring McGonagall? Also, fic recs with Dumbledore or Sprout as the main character would be welcomed.
Off to go watch the SG-1 Monday Marathon that I recorded. Assuming I don't fall asleep first, anyway.
