Vacation, All I Ever Wanted

We love our vacations here at The Norah and Dad Show. This week, we talk about our favorite family trips. We also reminisce about some less than stellar vacation moments that still made for some memorable experiences. The discussion also takes a bit of a turn that we did not expect that harkens back to our episode about our dogs. (Sorry.) Finally, we do a quick debrief of Norah's mock trial competition from last week.

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Intro music written and performed by norah marie.

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Question? Ideas for a future episode? Email us at norahanddadshow@gmail.com.

Intro music written and performed by norah marie.

Transcript

Dad 0:00

Hey Nora,

Norah 0:01

Oh dad.

Dad 0:02

what are we talking about this week?

Norah 0:03

Today, we're going to talk about vacations.

Dad 0:19

welcome back to the Nora and dad show as always I'm dad. And with me, I have You have a good week.

Norah 0:27

Yeah.

Dad 0:28

Should we do a little mock trial debrief before we get into our topic of the week?

Norah 0:32

no, thank you.

Dad 0:33

no, thank you. you. don't think your team did very well.

Norah 0:38

Um, that was the collective decision.

Dad 0:42

I watched the competition. I. thought you did fabulously. I think you were the best. I mean, I'm like incredibly biased, but I thought you were the best. Part of what I saw from your trial. I thought the other team that you were competing against was probably a little more, they were definitely more experienced. Probably a little more. polished too. I think they seemed older.

Norah 1:07

They were more mature

Dad 1:08

So let's, let's back up. So it is a competition. You are going as another school and there are judges with like, uh, uh, there are some actual, like, real, like capital J in, in the black robe judges that judge these things. But for the most part they're, there they're either, teachers from other schools, from other teams, uh, coaches, or they're practicing attorneys that volunteer their time and. Or law students, your particular round, there were two judges, there was a presiding judge and a scoring judge, and your presiding judge, was just an absolute mess. I mean, it was over zoom. And so we could see the. We could see that his name. And so I Googled him while I was watching your competition because I was, uh, annoyed at his, I was just annoyed. And when I Googled him, the first thing that came up was the fact that he almost got disbarred, like 10 years ago. He lost his law license for a year. it was his third. Time. He had been, brought up on ethics charges this is a, I mean, it's a competition, but it's also a learning experience for you guys. And I think lesson number one is they should not have lawyers with incredibly questionable ethics judging your competition. It doesn't send the right example to, to you kids that I don't know, just I was very, I was very. Disturbed that somebody, who was like one, one step away from not being a practicing attorney anymore was allowed to judge your competition. And I know they have a hard time finding judges for these things and I get it, but like the baseline competency test for judging a high school mock trial competition should be not having your law license suspended.

Norah 3:02

I would agree

Dad 3:04

that's my 2 cents. By the time this episode airs, you will have your results of, how your team did or we can share them next week. but you don't, you don't think you're going on to states?

Norah 3:14

I don't think any of the teams think we're going on the state, which is unfortunate.

Dad 3:19

so anyway, good luck. I just, I just thought you did a great job.

Norah 3:22

thank you.

Dad 3:24

You are very welcome.

Norah 3:26

very fun, even though it was frustrating. It was

Dad 3:29

you can witness, you can witness for me any time. So you said this week changing topics, you want to. talk about vacations? We have spring break coming up, in a few weeks. Our plans right now, or our, with COVID numbers coming down, we're thinking of doing something for spring break. I think our plans right now are kind of in flux, but I work solely so I can earn enough money so I can pay to go on vacations. I love going on vacation,

Norah 3:58

I also enjoy vacation. I don't work, but

Dad 4:02

but you will happily ride my coattails and have me take you places.

Norah 4:05

yes, I will.

Dad 4:07

And I think sometimes to the chagrin of you and your brother, the vacations I like taking are, I don't want to call them working vacations because we're not working, but they're like, Well, I don't, we don't do sit on the beach

Norah 4:20

They are intense vacations.

Dad 4:22

They're not

Norah 4:23

Yes, they are.

Dad 4:25

We go and

Norah 4:26

wake up early and we do. Yeah, we do stuff.

Dad 4:29

cause you go places and there's stuff to see.

Norah 4:32

There's no downtime.

Dad 4:34

There's

Norah 4:35

there's some downtime.

Dad 4:36

No, there's some downtime, Well, especially now that you and your brother are older, we can certainly build in downtime for you guys where we don't have to like watch you.

Norah 4:44

well, yeah, that's what we do in here. And, um, the N no, it was, yeah, it was when

Dad 4:51

been to Vienna We were never in, we were never in

Norah 4:54

Or what about Florence? That's what I was thinking of when we were in Florence and you and mom went out to get drinks and Donovan, and I just stayed in the apartment.

Dad 5:01

yeah. So that was the last vacation we took, which is now three years ago, which is, well, I take

Norah 5:06

went to

Dad 5:06

We went to. We went to Philly, to see grandma and grandpa. we went to Georgia. last summer, which was, I mean, we had a kind of a cabin in the woods and that was a vacation. Um, and that was a sit and that was a sit around and do nothing vacation.

Norah 5:19

Cause I didn't go hiking with you.

Dad 5:21

Yeah. Cause you didn't go hiking with us

Norah 5:23

Ryan and Donovan and Marcela.

Dad 5:25

and the dogs, I guess we took the dogs home. No, we took the dogs hiking with us. So you didn't even hang out with the dog.

Norah 5:31

Nope.

Dad 5:32

But the last, like big vacation we took would have been three years ago, coming up in March was to Italy. Before that we went to, we've been when we were in Germany also a couple of years before we went

Norah 5:47

and France. And.

Dad 5:52

We've done. Hilton head a bunch. When you were younger Hilton head, South Carolina, like beach beachy, that would, Those were lay around, like in the beach house kind of vacations.

Norah 6:04

are my favorite types of vacations.

Dad 6:06

So

Norah 6:07

We went to California too. That was fun.

Dad 6:10

oh, I forgot about California. We did. When Donovan did his study out at Stanford, we did our two weeks in California where we flew into LA spend a few days in LA. And then drove up the coast and ended up in San Francisco with stopping Pasa Robles and a stop in Palo Alto. And then finally in San Francisco. And that was a really fun trip, but probably also the single worst vacation experience we ever had was on that.

Norah 6:42

Y,

Dad 6:43

When you found that we had an extra, we had, we had an, we had an extra visitor in the, in the Airbnb.

Norah 6:49

about this. I thought you're talking about when Donovan fell,

Dad 6:52

No, no, that was, yeah. I mean he tripped coming down from the Hollywood

Norah 6:55

let me still has a scarf.

Dad 6:57

And he still has a scar from that and he bled and he was not feeling so great. And we still had like another probably mile and a half to walk with him, with his knees, all with his knees, all scraped up and banged up. No it was our last full day in Los Angeles. We spent the day at Disneyland, which was a lot of fun. And we came back from Disneyland. It was, I don't know, late, like, I don't know, eight, nine o'clock at night. And we were packing up to get ready. Cause we were driving out the next morning, leaving LA to drive up the coast. Was a one bedroom Airbnb in Hollywood and you and daughter and had the sleeper sofa. And I will say it was not the nicest Airbnb we've stayed in over the years and it was. Yeah, I had to go to target and buy towels. Um, it was, it was not, it was not as advertised the Airbnb. The reviews made it and the pictures made it look, look, and sound much nicer, than it was.

Norah 7:49

there was a pool though, a very small pool.

Dad 7:52

the pool. Wasn't very nice either. and so. You were you and Donovan were living room mom and I were in the bedroom, getting our luggage together so we can get out early the next morning for our drive. And you screened like the loudest scream I've ever heard. You scream in your life. And earlier in the week, somebody walked into our Airbnb by accident. They had. They had the wrong number and they thought they were walking into the right apartment and the building, and it was hard door wasn't locked and they walked in. And, and so I assumed when you screamed that a stranger had wandered back into the apartment. And when I came out there was, a cockroach on The wall.

Norah 8:30

biggest bug I have ever seen in my entire life.

Dad 8:33

Yeah, we could have sounded that thing and a written it up the coast to San

Norah 8:37

scaling up the wall next to the television.

Dad 8:40

Yeah. So I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a Tupperware out of the kitchen and I knocked it off the wall and then trapped it under the Tupperware and then crunched it. And, um, yeah. And it, yeah, it was. And what was gross though? Is that where there's one cockroach like cockroaches, there's never

Norah 8:59

they live in packs.

Dad 9:01

They live. I mean, if there's, if you see one, there's probably thousands living in the walls and that's just a fact. And so now we're thinking like, what do we do? Because we were out all day with our luggage. Kind of open in the apartment and we don't want to be bringing any cockroaches either with us, for the rest of our trip, or even worse home, back to Ohio, that's trapped in our luggage. And so your mom is dumping the luggage out and going through everything to make sure there's no strays, no stowaways in our luggage. we're throwing all of our clothes into plastic bags and we literally just like left in the middle of. We were not going to sleep there with those bugs or that bug

Norah 9:43

We found a hotel in Malibu, right?

Dad 9:46

We did find a hotel in Malibu. We were calling hotels from the car. We just got in the car and drove in the direction of San Francisco up the coast. And yeah. And so we were calling hotels from the car and we found one, and we walked into the hotel. It was a really nice hotel in Malibu, but we walked in we looked, we looked like homeless people. We had our. Stuffed in like plastic garbage bags and plastic target bags. And it was about 1130 at night and we just looked, we just looked Haggard. and the guy behind the desk, he took, he looked at us walking in. And he kind of shook his head and he goes, I'm supposed to charge you 35 bucks to park the car, but we're just, we're just, we're just going to give you that for free. Why don't you guys just go up to the room and get some sleep? It was really nice of the guy, but it was, it

Norah 10:33

I remember that,

Dad 10:34

we were just a hot, not just a hot freaking mess. So, that, was our, I would say my worst vacation experience.

Norah 10:44

Oh, I have another bad memorable

Dad 10:46

Oh, go ahead.

Norah 10:47

when you're in Hilton head that one time. And there is that dead lizard in the middle of.

Dad 10:53

Oh, there was, we walked into the rental and it was just yeah, there was a dead smushed lizard just on the middle of the, in the middle of the floor.

Norah 11:02

or there's also, okay. This is going to be a little trigger warning if you don't like vomit. I remember another time I went to Hilton head. I don't remember if it was the same. He went to that one crab restaurant. I don't remember what it's called, but I know it has in the.

Dad 11:16

The cross, not the Krusty Krab, but create the crusty crabs on SpongeBob. I'm the crazy grab

Norah 11:20

it's crazy crap. And they had the most like mouthwatering delectable butter in the entire world. Like it tasted like cake batter and I just ate spoonfuls and spoonfuls and spoonfuls of the butter with no bread. Just, just by. And I got home and we were walking up the stairs to, do you remember this?

Dad 11:47

I do.

Norah 11:48

You're walking up the stairs to the door and she just like heaved over and you know what? This is going to be gross, but the vomit did not taste bad because the vomit tasted like the butter.

Dad 12:01

That's horrendous. You know, this is, this is our 12th episode and now two of The 12 we've talked to, so one out of every six episodes on average, we, uh, we cover vomit. So sorry

Norah 12:11

to do it next. Uh, what

Dad 12:13

Yeah. For episode 18, we'll have to hit the uh,

Norah 12:16

can talk about fructose malabsorption syndrome.

Dad 12:19

Ooh, there you go. That's six exciting.

Norah 12:23

Celiacs.

Dad 12:24

So now that we've gotten, now that everyone thinks we take these horrendous vacations with bugs and dead lizards and vomit, um, that's actually not true because we've taken some amazing trips, right? what is your, what, what's your favorite trip that we've taken?

Norah 12:41

Um, well, I liked Georgia because I got to spend time with my boyfriend. So that was cool.

Dad 12:46

Not my favorite trip, but go ahead.

Norah 12:48

well, yeah, that, that, that was probably the best part of that trip. and then I'm trying to think of what I like to roam a lot and just like Italy as a whole. Cause the food was really good in the places that we stayed were really nice.

Dad 13:03

Italy was a rock

Norah 13:04

And we got to see cats in that little place where

Dad 13:07

and you didn't, you didn't, you didn't even mind that we walked like eight miles.

Norah 13:12

No, cause I got gelato after every

Dad 13:13

W there was lots of gelato to be had. yeah. we went to the Largo, I think it's called the Largo de Argentino, which is the, uh, ruins that Caesar is, rumored to have been murdered. there, and now it's like cat sexual airy. There's

Norah 13:30

There's like little veterinarian. Inside of

Dad 13:32

Hundreds of like hundreds of stray cats that live in an, in these ruins are sunken below ground. You can actually walk in them. Although I read that they're going to open them up so you can actually start walking in the ruins with the cats.

Norah 13:43

we go back? They were so cute.

Dad 13:45

would, I would love, I would love to go back. Yeah. And in Florence we stayed in, um,

Norah 13:52

uh,

Dad 13:53

Dante Dante. His house was the house that belonged to Dante, the 13th century Philosopher. and author and poet. and we stayed at his house and there was a plaque hanging up on the wall. Written in, I mean, in Italian, but I've translated into English, had explained, how Dante, his family owned that building back in 12, something, something, and that Dante actually lived there so I think the bottom line is, um, if you can swing a trip to Italy, highly, highly, highly recommended,

Norah 14:22

and if you have celiacs, every restaurant has gluten-free or almost every restaurant like the real, the real deal restaurants.

Dad 14:30

Yeah, which is crazy because, we were nervous, because Donovan, has celiac disease And is, uh, on a really strict gluten-free diet. And you think like Italy and he's also picky. but you think like Italy, the home of pizza and pasta, is going to be like a gluten paradise and every restaurant has gluten-free. Pizza and pasta. And the deal is, is that because pizza and pasta are so essential to their culture? the Italian, the, the, the, no, the, well, yeah, the Italian government subsidizes the cost of gluten-free pizza, and flour for, Italians that have celiac disease. And so there's, gluten-free. Everywhere. So it was like the best because the kid lives could live on pizza anyway, but it was like the best vacation food-wise because we never had to worry about what he was going to eat because every restaurant, he could just get himself a gluten-free pizza and everything worked out just fine. And then, then we can walk and stop and get our gelato and go about our business.

Norah 15:32

No. I had crazy salads, like everyday for lunch.

Dad 15:36

Uh, it was the best. Uh, can we go back to.

Norah 15:39

Yeah. I want to go to France.

Dad 15:41

Uh, we've been, we've been to France too. When we visited,

Norah 15:45

better now.

Dad 15:47

when we visited, um,

Norah 15:49

Oh, I have another vomit story.

Dad 15:51

oh, for goodness. Go ahead.

Norah 15:53

So when we were in France, We were in Paris to be exact. We went to this restaurant and as we have stated, Donovan is a very, very picky eater. So the rest of us were just eating our food as we do. And on the, uh, like menu, it said, what was it? It was like a flummoxed blank

Dad 16:12

fromage belong, which I

Norah 16:14

blank, which is white cheese.

Dad 16:16

There was really nothing else on the menu for Donovan to eat. So the kid eats cheese. We're like, dude, we'll get you some cheese.

Norah 16:22

okay. So they bring out this like chalice of just like white goop.

Dad 16:29

It was like a giant silver chalice

Norah 16:31

it was chalice of white and goop. And the waiter kind of looked at us like we were insane when we ordered it because he knew what it was, but we did not know what it was, the stupid little Americans. And

Dad 16:45

from us. Blog is basically like, is basically like, um, more liquidy sour

Norah 16:51

I think what it is it's I forgot that sandwich has called, but it's like the sandwich that ha it's like a toast with hands.

Dad 16:57

Crook croque.

Norah 16:58

Yeah, I think that's the sauce that goes with Cole, miss you.

Dad 17:01

Yeah. Well, whatever it was, Donovan was having none of

Norah 17:04

Well, cause we said we had to eat it. You said he had to take a bite of it

Dad 17:08

well, because I didn't want to be rude because the waiter brought it out and

Norah 17:11

this chalice, it was so special looking

Dad 17:14

it was, and I'm like, dude, just do me a favor and just try it and you don't have to eat it if you don't like it, but please try it. And so he took a bite and he immediately started gagging and then vomited in his hand at the table. And it was so,

Norah 17:28

I have, I have another vomit story from that trip. So when we,

Dad 17:36

the hymens world travelers and vomiters.

Norah 17:39

so we were in, I think we were driving. From Germany to France, maybe it was vice versa. Now you're driving from Germany to France and we stopped at McDonald's in Germany because in the morning at MC they, unlike in the states, they clean their fryers every morning.

Dad 17:56

Oh, I remember this.

Norah 17:59

so, and Donovan really, really wanted to try and gluten-free McDonald's French fries. So we went there in the

Dad 18:03

Yeah, so, so the D so, so, so the deal is for people that don't understand the way celiac disease works, if something with breading goes into the oil, then the oil becomes. contaminated. and so anything else that goes in there, even if there's no gluten in what goes into the fryer after something like bread, it does, then that thing gets contaminated with the gluten. So go ahead.

Norah 18:23

Okay. So, yes, so we got our fries and Donovan at the time didn't really drink much besides milk. So we ordered him a McDonald's like milk, which comes in those little containers. So we get in the car and he still has his milks. He hadn't finished all of it and he started drinking it and he says, it kind of tastes weird. We were like, oh, maybe that's just German milk. Maybe you're not used to it. And then he's like, I don't want to drink the rest of it. So we're okay. And then. I don't know. I don't remember how long it was. Just the most disgusting noises came out of Donovan's mouth and strain of puke. And we were, we were all in this. It was like a bright blue van. There was a lot of us in there and the

Dad 19:06

It was the eight of us, so that, yeah, so we, we, we were staying, we were staying with our friends in Germany. Um, our German daughter, Sarah, who was an exchange student to live with us for a year. We were staying with her family in Germany. So it was her, her sister, her parents, the two of us, your mom, um, your brother. Yeah. Um, in this van that the Youngs had rented. Cause we were going to Munich for a couple of days and get.

Norah 19:30

not Paris.

Dad 19:32

Yeah, we're on our way to Munich and Donovan puked. Um, in the, in the

Norah 19:36

And we didn't have any napkins or anything with us. We, I think we just pulled on the side of the road and took water bottles and tried to get it out. Yeah. It was

Dad 19:44

and then we drove and then we drove with the windows open in the van to get the smell out. Uh,

Norah 19:50

So, um,

Dad 19:52

you have any more puke stories or have you run out of Houston?

Norah 19:55

I think that's it. I can't think of anything else.

Dad 19:58

that's fabulous. Well, this definitely did not go in the direction. I thought it was going to go in. I'm going to tell you, I thought we were gonna have a nice conversation about all the, the nice trips we've taken. And instead we got the world tour of vomit, but so be it.

Norah 20:12

Well, sometimes things don't work out the way you want them to.

Dad 20:15

sometimes, sometimes they don't. Um, where would you, like, where would you want to. go? This year 20, 20, 22 is out, I think, for a big trip for us. cause it's probably 20, 23 maybe. we can maybe think about doing a big trip again. You, you want to go to

Norah 20:34

I want to go to Southern France.

Dad 20:36

want to go to London and visit, Richmond where they filmed Ted lasso.

Norah 20:40

you can do that on the way there.

Dad 20:42

awesome. Um, Australia is like my bucket list

Norah 20:45

I'm scared of all the creatures they have there.

Dad 20:48

They do have like spiders the size of your head

Norah 20:50

I can't deal with cockroaches. I don't think I can deal with anything

Dad 20:54

I think before I pass off this planet, I think me and Australia are going to have to have a little, a little meet and greet.

Norah 21:01

trying to think of where else I want. I mean, yeah. I like, I like Europe. I'd like to visit all of Europe. I think that'd be cool. Maybe not

Dad 21:10

it would be cool.

Norah 21:11

yeah.

Dad 21:12

Let's hope that Russia doesn't burn it. All the grounds Croatia would also be

Norah 21:16

about going there.

Dad 21:18

Yeah. We've that's your, your mom's, homelands

Norah 21:20

Part of it

Dad 21:21

at least on part part, part of her Homeland.

Norah 21:23

of all of Europe is her home.

Dad 21:27

Yeah, we were supposed to go to Portugal when COVID shut the world down. We were like a week away from leaving for Portugal. And, COVID took that trip away from us. Right. I'd like to get back there. I had it all planned out. So all the work is done. I'm the, I'm the family travel agent. That gets you up at six in the morning so we can get out and see. But here's the thing though. So we got, you got up, you get out and you get out of. Apartment or the hotel early, you get to do you go to places like the Vatican before it fills up and you get to hang out in the Sistine chapel, which was gorgeous and like all inspiring and empty. Right. So like you get to do cool things. We don't just get up

Norah 22:04

no. And then you get to go home earlier.

Dad 22:08

Yeah.

Norah 22:08

No, I really liked Italy. I'd happily go back there.

Dad 22:12

All right. Well, if, any listeners have, stories of vomiting while you travel, uh, Nora and dad show@gmail.com. We'll happily take your stories. Maybe we'll read one on a future episode who knows? any, any more thoughts on travel

Norah 22:26

I'm good.

Dad 22:28

you're good. No more thoughts on travel. All right. thank you everyone for listening. if people want to find you somewhere, other than listening here, where do they find you?

Norah 22:40

um, you can find me at norm. Just places you can

Dad 22:46

all over Spotify, Instagram, Twitter, apple music, the word. All right. Um, you can find me at John Hyman. You find us@noraanddadshowatbuzzsprout.com. You can email us Northern dad's show@gmail.com. You'll find us in all the podcast apps of choice, where we would love your. five stars and kind words. So people know that we are something of. value to listen to, So, uh, we will be back next week with another hopefully vomit free

Norah 23:24

We will see. You never know.

Dad 23:26

Come back next week and find out cliffhanger. Everyone have a good week. We'll see you guys next week. Thanks for the conversation or I Love you

Norah 23:33

Love you too.