After the luncheon, Christa had another seminar...so I hit the hotel pool again...swam and lounged about for a bit of a tan...Ran out to get gas and smokes then hooked back up with my dear old friend about 1600...Ira Glass then did a live "radio show" for us, on which was discussed issues about ethnicity in National Public Radio and the necessity of risk taking in radio today...

Terry treated Christa and I to Dinner at one of the hotel resteraunts--a most noble and graciously accepted offer.  He was quite taken with me--several times referring to me as an honored or noble guest, etc.  I guess it's because Christa had put in such good words about me--I can't see as the man got enough of me to formulate such a high opinion so soon...So I could only grin and nod thankfully...feeling quite odd still.  I didn't have a whole lto to say to him the entire time he was around, but at dinner at least, I was abel to comment on Glass and how KHSU was so perfect an example of risk taking and ethnic audience...being in such a liberal environment as Humboldt...

After dinner the three of us boarded a bus to take us and the other conference members to the final display--a rendition of Peter and the Wolf done as  radio news story--with the Orlando philharmonic...It was really cool...Then there was a couple clips of an upcoming special on PBS about the history of Jazz...a 19 hour, ten part series I'm looking forward to trying to get into friends TVs to see.  Finally there was a short jazz set by Terence Blanchard and Nancy Wilson...the latter two items done as a tribute to Louis Armstrong...

Simply put--the whole conference, that I saw, was amazing.  I took a lot away from just the little I saw...(and mroe than just the free food and cds!). 

Christa and I returned from the show and wandered about the marketplace/boardwalk nearby...then crashed about midnight...I had told her my plan to leave sunday night--due to the fact that I would need to leave so early monday morning, I might as well just leave sunday night and get a head start...In light of this, we decided to hit the beach for the sunrise sunday morning...

So we grimaced and set the alarm clocks for 0400, left the hotel at 0430, and made it to Cocoa beach around 0530.  It was still semi-dark and the sunwas obscurred by low clouds so we played about a bit and talked some more...took pictures and mroe pictures--the sand, the crabs, the waves and ocean and birds.  A dolphin poked itself out of the water a bit a couple times and Christa was in awe--it was her first time seeing a dolphin it turned out...

So, bewildered by what had already been an awesome weekend, and a lovely start to my last day, we stopped at Waffle House for breakfast.  (Another first--Christa had never eaten at one --they don't exist in cali--at least that either of us have ever seen)

And then, Epcot Center...Christa's first time to Disneyworld and we had only one day for one park...Having been before it was easy to discard Fantasy Land, being so inferior to Disneyland in LA, and MGM/Universal Studio not being nearly the experience as Epcot...

It was funny at Epcot.  Usually I have film left over after a trip...Sunday was the first day I ever had to ration film...

For me it was really cool...not just to be at DisneyWorld again after five years, but to see things I had missed the first time--like Spaceship Earth (it was closed in 94) and the ferry ride and the GM Test Track (which SUCKED btw--kept breaking down--the last part on the actual test oval was cool though--went pretty fast!)...It was incredible to be there with Christa.

At Innovations--one of our first stops it beign so close to the entrance, there was an entirely too touchy feely man working...He was quite stupid as well--We had brought Pete...Christa's stuffed Bear childhood an present friend with us.  This man crept up behind us, and cried "ouch! He bit me!".  He asked what it was and we told him a bear--then he proceeded to ask if it was supposed to be a dog or a rabbit or...Then he, quite literally now, fondled our shoulders as we turned and high tailed it out of that place...the guy was freaky.

I had an advantage over christa...I was far more insulated against scant sleep than she was, due to my being in "Travel Mode" and her having a wearing last year of school...She was quite dead around 1500...but forced herself to go on.  We hydrated more frequently, got pretzels, and took a short nap at the American Heritage production...I had been fightign the sleep monster but lost it not too long into it...she fought it too, but, seeing me cold clocked out next to her, she gave up...

It was a refreshing nap and I power charged th rest of the day...she was still tired though...but never complained.  Even still I insisted we stop and rest whenever possible and we drove on with our DisneyWorld Mission. 

Our last stop was Norway and then the fireworks display...Following which was the colsure of the park and our scraamble to find the right bus back to the hotel...From where Christa was able to finally reach her friend Crystal, whom she'd known online since '95 and would be staying with that night (her last night at the hotel was saturday--she'd received a scholarship from NPR for the conference).  So I took her over there--her friend and boyfriend left to hit the bars while Christa and I made our goodbyes...

Which was, of course, hard.  It always is, but we managed.

I got in my car and hit the road, making it just into South Carolina before I racked out in my car for a few hours...made it home to Fort Bragg just after noon.  Ate lunch, checked my email, and crashed for another five hours or so...

Today...today I spent all day recording an administrative separation board proceeding, something I have to make a summarized transcription of by friday...yay me.  Tomorrow I'm jumping...broken toe and all...it's mostly healed up now--didn't bother me at all Sunday even after walkign on it all day...so we'll see.  I'd rather stay off it, just in case, but it seems they think I'm a pay loss as of 1 June now, not 1 July...OK, so I'm jumping ;)  My profile says nothing about jumping so...

With everything said, I had a really wonderful weekend.  Last Memorial day I spent up in DC, seeing monuments, Les Mireables, and having good cheer with friends from AIT.  This memorial day I spent in Orlando, seeing Christine Lavin, Terence Blanchard, other NPR guests and productions, the sunrise over the Atlantic, and Epcot Center with my truest and my the best friend I've ever had.  With that track record, next year I'll be ?????
 

I think the only thing that could top these last two years would be to spend memorial day at home...in California.
 

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