When mom and dad decided to upgrade their snowbird retreat to a golf resort outside of West Palm, it seemed silly not to jump on the train. Winter in Berlin had been cold and dark and the thought of lounging by the pool was just what the doctor ordered. Needless to say, the logistics added a bit more expert planning as we also couldn’t miss out on catching up with the rest of the family in Philadelphia.

After a successful graduation from Japanese school on the Saturday, we left the house at 5.30am to catch our connection from Berlin to Zurich to be followed by a 10 hour flight to Miami, acquiring of a rental car, and then heading north about an hour or so to the Wycliffe Golf & Country Club. Mom was prepared as usual with a ready to eat light meal of soups (Teo can never get enough) and we quickly settled into the club life routine. Morning breakfast, followed by gym/pool time, followed by lunch, on more than one ocasion a nap by me, and then into the evening meal/gin tournament, etc.

While rain passed through on an almost daily basis, we were outside every day. On top of our regular activties, we managed a Costco outing (for hotdogs and against Pop Pop’s recommendations mediocre pizza), a trip to the beach, some bocce games, and one of the top highlights: Teo and Kai getting their first driving lessons in the golf cart with Pop Pop. While the meals were always good, the second night ribeye grill with a sublime bottle of Singal Estate Cabernet 2013 from dad’s good friend won the gold. Of notable mention (not necessarily for the food, brisket was subpar) was the colorful second night Seder at the club, full with puppet re-enactments of the exodus from Egypt.

We had been told of the tales of the grand buffet and finally we descended for Teo’s birthday celebration which didn’t disappoint. On top of the full breakfast bar, there was a carving station (turkey and pastrami) and salads galore. And of course, you needed to save room for the soft serve ice cream. And since it was a birthday, Teo was presented with a massive piece of chocolate cake.

Our time in the cushy life in Florida was ending and it was time to head north. I had to return the rental to Miami, and of course my flight was delayed for over 3 hours, but luckily Michael was there to rescue the troops and took the boys for some awesome dumplings. As it seems to become a tradition, we went out to their local japanese restaurant with the whole crew for some epic sushi (this time we managed to order more conservatively) and of course some intense battles on the ping pong table.

We came back to mom and dad’s for a nice lunch and some real tennis this time — Kai managed to take both me and Michael down. The next day we were back in Bryn Mawr, and in the tradition of great passover innovations we served up some epic chicken schnitzel (made with kosher crumbs of course) which was a huge hit (a good thing mom and I did a grocery run to pick up some more chicken breasts) with only a few pieces to spare, followed by some belated birthday gifts.

Returning to tradition, I ended up buying season passes again to Great Adventure (as we were returning back in the summer) and decided to check out the scene over Easter break. It turns out there was a power isssue when we arrived, so we snuck out for a bit to check out Panda Express (Teo) and Taco Bell (Kai and I) and by the time we were back, things were rolling again. Due to the power issue, the park was relatively empty so we enjoyed rides without much lines until we had accomplished all the highlights.

For the last meal, dad treated us again to some epic steaks, followed by the last of the gin tournaments. As we were travelling fairly light and had a later flight than usual (due to the connection in Frankfurt) we took the train to the airport. With the new club pass, we were all able to make it into the lounge without Teo charming the staff and the boys feasted heavily on the snacks. Due to the Lufthansa strike (more on that later) the seats I had selected had been changed, and after some gentle negotiations with my new favorite purser Vladamir, we all managed to get upgraded to Premium Economy for the redeye.

Originally, we had a long layover in Frankfurt, so the plan was always to head into town and go to our favorite japanese cafe Imori. But due to a strike by the cabin crew, I had rebooked us back via train, so we had to drag our suitcase along. Thankfully my friend Mahdi came to meet us and we had a more luxurious tranfser to the airport (thanks Mahdi!). With the long train ride, a few us managed to get a bit of recovery sleep and finally made it safely back home with another super pickup by Chika.

At the time of this writing, it’s only 94 days until our next trip stateside. Can’t wait.