The Resort

Ok, let's get in to the resort we're at. Many years ago, through bad judgment and being married; I bought into this _____ Vacation Club. It's a great idea, actually. Instead of a fixed timeshare where you have to go to the same place every year at the same time, you can theoretically go to any of their properties at any time of the year. I say theoretically because after more than 10 years, this is the first vacation we've had with them. When we had time and money to go somewhere, there was never an available property where we would want to go. As you can imagine, this has left me rather pissed off. There's something about paying $131 a month and $600 in fees year after year without receiving anything in return that's irritating.
I'd given up. I'd signed and I'm paying it off but I figured on donating it to the Wisconsin Attorney Generals office ( the state our theoretical property is in) and let _________ tell them they can't have a vacation. Let's see how that works for them. Stacey hadn't given up and when ___________ called to offer 3 days in Orlando, she got them to tack on a few days of our time as well. Here we are.
In theory, an owners meeting is where the company informs you of it's new properties and procedural changes. In practice, it's a sales attempt. First, your “representative” tells you about all the new goodies in the Club and tells you how expensive it is to join now. Then her boss shows up with this great offer. For only $8k more, you get even more points and can do ever so many more things. What a deal! That didn't work so Corporate shoes up with somewhat less points for less money. That didn't work either. Perhaps it is dawning on them that you actually have to let people have vacations in order to sell them more vacation time.
Really, you should be proud of me. The sales staff is alive and unharmed and the police were not called.
The resort is actually beautiful. We have what amounts to a fair sized 2 bedroom apartment with jacuzzi, kitchen, washer-dryer and a screened in balcony where I'm writing this now. There are multiple swimming pools, gyms, fishing spots and minor restaurants a short walk away. It's a great place to veg out. It's only a few miles from Disney, Universal, many fine restaurants and all the other tourist traps. It's a good place if you can get here.
Sunday, it was off to visit Uncle Willys and Mame in Largo. It's a straight shot over to there inhibited only by the Florida highway system of magically appearing and disappearing lanes. The speed limit is 70 but that just slows up folks and makes them mad. The rest stops had many pictures of missing people and descriptions of poisonous snakes.
Uncle Willys is 87 and in pretty good shape. He uses a walker now but he's getting around ok. Mame is too skinny but doing well too. We got them to act as local guides to show us the area. We headed over to Tarpon Springs to eat Greek food. Stacey remembered being there as a kid. We had a fine meal with Uncle Willys and Stacey sharing a whole baked Red Snapper, Mame a hamburger wrap and myself a lamb shank with Greek spargetti. I sampled the fish bones and picked at the head. The waiter chided me for not eating the eyes.
We finished with great pastries and then Stacey and I walked around a bit and shopped. Uncle Willys and Mame moved to a bench where he could spend some time talking to complete strangers. It was then back to Largo and then Orlando. The visit was way too short.
I shall attempt to include some relevant photos. Next time , the theme park.