Amelia Island - Sunrise, Service, Skeet and Surf...and Airport Edition

Waking up Monday morning, the clock may have said 6:00 but my body definitely still felt 5:00. The time difference was only an hour but of all the hours, the one between 5 and 6 can be the difference between good morning and get out of my face until I have found caffeine. Half way through attempting to reconcile hair that dried over night betwixt pillow and head, I hear LeAnn yell "sunrise" and throw open the drapes. Having spent so few mornings waking up ocean side, it had not even dawned on me that we were missing the sun rising against the Atlantic.

Breakfast was held in the heated seaside tent, however, as we moved into the conference hours, we found ourselves in the air conditioned rooms meant to keep speakers in suit jackets from risking dehydration by way of sweat. Minus one suit jacket, I was feeling a little less than temperate and so, during a break, I set out to find some cider. I had seen a pot of it when we checked in and therefore headed towards the front desk. The cider was not where I had remembered seeing it and so we started to glance around, wondering if I had imagined said cider in my mind. Seeing us, a concierge asked if we needed help. We mention that we are looking for cider and without hesitation he says, "I will find you some" and takes off in a hurried walk. It may just be my lack of experience with all things money, but usually when I say "I am looking for the cider" the response involves annoyed glances and "I don't know"s. Never once has someone taken off in a sprint to attend to my request. LeAnn and I just looked at each other and almost in unison stated that this SO beats Holiday Inn Express.

BOA put on an excellent conference with sessions very much in keeping with the information I had hoped to reap from the two day trip. Monday night, they had the makings of a seaside event for the conference dinner. There was steak and shrimp, chicken and oysters, salad and gumbo and on and on. As part of the on and on, they had fried green tomatoes. Seen the movie? Yes. Ate the tomato? No. I grabbed a few, thinking that I would give it a try and have to say, they were amazing. I have no idea how to make them or where you would even go in Oklahoma to eat them, but I have to tell you that if I thought the tomatoes would have kept, they would have been missing one platter that the Ritz would have just had to throw in with incidentals.

Speaking of incidentals. As with most hotels, to use their wireless service they charge a fee. I paid for 24 hours thinking that I would just not sign on once it expired. That night I had no issues, nor any next morning. However, that afternoon, I could not, for the life of me, get the computer to connect. Being the self-sufficient computer user my husband has groomed me to be, I worked through troubleshooting 101. Reboot the machine. Release and renew. Reboot the router. Finally I give up and call the business center who sends a technician my way after I make it clear that there is nothing they could suggest that I in all my wisdom have not already done. When the technician arrives, I quickly get him in the loop as well, surely impressing him with my technological expertise. He looks at it, walks over, flips on the hall light and says "Give it a shot". Up the internet loads. Right.

Along with the food, they had set up a skeet shooting area for us to shoot laser skeet. The guns were real but equipped with lasers in the stead of bullets and little "ping" noises in the place of kick. Five would step up to shoot at a time and as per usual would have two shots per pull. Having never held a shotgun before, I was not expecting much when LeAnn decided that she wanted to jump in and play. The good news: I apparently rock at fake skeet. The bad news: LeAnn had safety issues and spent most of the game hearing "Number 1, do you have your safety on?" It is understandably hard to hit the skeet when your gun doesn't fire and her grand total came in at an impressive 1. On the up side, she did tie the number 2 gun who had no safety issues at all. The crowd behind jokingly called me Sarah Palin as my score climbed. Apparently they were not aware of a game called "Duck Hunt" I owned as a child. And they say video games are a bad influence. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to impress a bunch of bankers relishing the open bar.

Tuesday morning I was definitely feeling the shirley temples and inordinate amount of smores from the night before. Not needing to hear the session on global capabilities, LeAnn and I decided to instead spend at least an hour on the beach before leaving later that day. How can you be that close to the Atlantic and not at least get your feet wet? I had stopped on the walkway to take some pictures and she had wandered ahead when I hear her making some commotion and pointing at the ground. I hurry over and find this:

From the look on her face I don't think she was certain whether it was dead or alive. Most certainly dead. The thought crossed my mind about taking it with me, but some how I imagined it a hard sell to the TSA screener. Zoologist or no, that tail could be used as a weapon. Your one-legged brother will just have to be disappointed. When put on the spot, I can never think of the good lies (see: headless hamster).

We did manage to get our feet wet and through underestimation of wave strength, a bit of our jeans too. Nothing says comfort like wet jeans on a cold, windy day. The wind was strong and had just enough bite to keep you aware of its presence but not enough that you wish it to leave. The sky was clear so the sun warmed your cheek as the sand crept up between your toes. In the summer I am not much of a beach person. Have never been big on watching people roast in the sun and have a rather strong fear of sea creatures eating my feet. However, on a day like that day, I could have thought of nothing better than to be on that beach.

We left Tuesday afternoon to jet home in time for work Wednesday. Walking into the Jacksonville airport, I needed to run to the bathroom before boarding the plane. I would just like to say how hard I smiled at the sight of a bathroom, no longer only for the ideal woman, but for women of all shapes and sizes. Even those of us who've had two kids and even more s'mores.

It was hard to leave the Ritz life behind. After only two days, I had already grown accustomed to the toilet phones and beckon call service. I had told my crew, in jest, that it would ultimately be okay as I was sure they would be willing to run at get me cider upon my whim and fancy. In fact, I suggested that Patrick just go ahead and change his title to Laura's Personal Concierge, a task Roxanna stated she would jump right on. Having forgotten about the conversation, I was sitting at my desk Wednesday morning, barely awake when I smell a cup of cider over my shoulder. Sure enough it was Patrick, with Roxanna and others hanging in the door. I am so thankful to be surrounded by people who make me laugh.