Woke up this morning after a LATE night the night visiting with family. We all slept in a bit and didn't get rolling until 10am, which was okay because a. we knew today's plan was to go to Epcot Center and b. we knew that as resort guests, we would get 'Extra Magic Hours' for Epcot today that meant we could go there until midnight if we wanted to.
We didn't get rolling on the bus until 11:30 and I think we hit Epcot just after noon. I remember that the bus driver this morning was pretty funny ("gate to go home is Gate Six...that's 2 times 3, or 6 times 1, or 8 minus 2...Gate 6!"). The first thing we did was to get a cart for Gabe to ride in (these things are worth their weight in gold). For $15/day, you -cannot- go wrong with a kid cart at Disney. We took a lot of photos at the front of Epcot's 'big ball' and under it and all around it really. :)
Our first stop was to head to "The Land". We wanted to ride "Soaring", a virtual hang gliding experience that was supposed to be pretty spectacular. Because I'd heard that the lines for this could be long, I wasn't surprised to see that the line was 70 minutes long when we got there, but we went in anyway. This turned out to be a good time to go actually; when we left the line was like an hour-and-a-half long. We stood in line for a long time there, but they have huge screens along the walkway where everyone in the line can 'play' various games (it uses an outline of everyone to 'do' various things.) One game, we all flapped our wings in unison and leaned back and forth to glide a bird through a race. Ours was winning until right at the end and we ended up coming in a close second place. :) There were other little games like this that really helped pass the time.
Soaring was a pretty cool experience. Basically, they take everyone in seats and hang them in front of a huge panoramic screen where you're shown a beautiful first-person view of various hang-gliding scenes. You fly low over water, and can feel the cool mountain air. You fly over a California orange grove and can smell the oranges. You fly up around a beautiful waterfall and over the ocean and near the Golden Gate bridge and generally all around the San Francisco Bay area. On updrafts, your seats tilt and sway and generally make you feel like you are totally flying. At the end, you fly over Walt Disney World, over the Magic Kingdom, and even over Cinderella's Castle, where Tinkerbell herself comes out to do a quick fly-by. It was really cool and Gabe LOVED it.
After Soaring, we were starving, so we hit the restaurant in The Land for some grub. We considered going to some other exhibits there, but in the end, we felt we'd spent enough time in that building for a while and headed out.
Gabe wanted to go to the big ball and go inside it, so we headed over to Spaceship Earth. I'm so glad we did! This ride had almost no line and what line there was moved super fast! It was a blast of a ride and totally updated from when I was there as a kid. There was a lot of computer interaction and we even got a cool little movie about how our future would be based on our own preferences and interests.
We next went into the Innoventions hall, where Gabe played with some music-making (huge) robots, played with a firetruck, and generally checked out lots of cool inventions and hands-on tech toys. We saw that it was starting to look a little stormy, and we knew that it could cut loose at any time, so we headed to "The Seas", to experience "The Seas with Nemo & Friends". The line for this ride was basically non-existent. We strolled pretty much right up to our 'clam'. The Nemo ride was a fun one with lots of interaction from everyone from Finding Nemo. It exists right in the middle of the aquarium area and we all spent the next couple of hours looking at fish, dolphins, crabs, divers, etc. Gabe colored some cool dolphin cut-outs at a kid's craft station and we generally had a blast taking photos and looking at sea life. Outside, it continued to rain in a downpour that started just as we were parking the kid cart outside before the Nemo ride. Eventually, we felt we'd been inside long enough and decided to buy ponchos and brave the rain, no matter what. So we bought some Disney ponchos and suited up and went out in the deluge.
The rain kept going as we made our way to the Imagination Pavilion, where we took a cool ride into the imagination (Journey Into The Imagination with Figment). Figment, a little dragon, and, and John Cleese of Monty Python fame, led us on a somewhat psychedelic ride, complete with upside down houses and all sorts of fantastical stuff. It let out at a Kodak-sponsored photography exhibit, where we could take photos of ourselves and play with them, etc. We were starting to get hungry again and though we knew most restaurants in 'big circle of nations' thing would be reserved, we decided to take a walk in the rain and check it out anyway.
It was basically a long walk in the rain though like 10 different countries. :) We didn't really stop and take in anything, it was just too much work and we were too hungry and exhausted. In the end, after that whole walk, we basically just bought two margaritas in "Mexico" from a stand and called it a World Tour. :)
We did, on the way out, stop at an -enormous- Disney store where we got some souvenirs. I bought a cheap Mickey Mouse watch in the Animal Kingdom and that got me thinking that a -nice- Disney watch would make a cool heirloom-type souvenir, so I got one there. I wasn't sure it was the one for me though, and I ended up leaving it in the box until I could visit Downtown Disney to compare their watch selection with those from Epcot.
After our shopping spree, we headed out. It was around 9pm as we were walking out and the fireworks were going off over the lake. At this point, though we were tempted to take in the fireworks and the rain had basically stopped, we were all just completely exhausted and still hungry and decided to hit an early bus back and get some dinner at a resort restaurant.
The bus ride was nice. Everyone was at the fireworks. We got back and got a little dressed up, thinking we could just hop down to the restaurant in our resort, but it was closed and the only other place nearby that was open was apparently a cafe-style place in Jambo house, about a 10 minute walk away. We were all ready to stop walking for the day, so we went back up to our room and had some leftovers and basically are passing out now.
Disney is a tiring place, even for grown-ups. :) All-in-all, we all had a great day and braved the adverse weather with ponchos and smiles.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Day 5 - Hollywood Studios and Back to the Magic Kingdom
Day 5:
Today started out at 8:30am and we all had breakfast in the room. We got down to the bus stop about 10am, but the buses were running really slowly and we didn't actually get to Disney Hollywood Studios until around 11:30ish (which kinda sucked, but oh well. :) We went straight to the thing Gabe wanted most, the Tower of Terror (a haunted hotel based on a Twilight Zone theme, complete with intro by what appear to be Rod Serling that describes how the hotel had an entire elevator and wing mysteriously disappear one night.) There was a bit of a line, but it twisted around in the shade, so it wasn't too bade. Unlike the Haunted Mansion at the Magic Kingdom, this ride took the 'scary' bits a little more seriously. Gabe didn't like the ride experience much. There were lots of ups and downs (the tower is basically an elevator ride where you get scared during a weird up-and-down rollercoaster-type thing) and it scared him a bit, but I think he was just soaking in the experience and that saying he didn't like it was really his way of saying 'wow, that was intense!'. We explained that it was -supposed- to be a bit intense and about the concept of a "thrill ride" and he thought it was a pretty interesting idea that people would go to entire parks where almost every ride there was made to make you feel that way.
We went to Pixar Place next. The place was a -bit- like actually being at Pixar Studios in Emeryville, but on a smaller scale. We hit the Toy Story Mania! ride next. There was an extremely long line, but it was inside and cool and in Hollywood Studios, there is an awfully lot of concrete to radiate out the Orlando heat. The interior was designed with huge toys all around, as though created by toys (or maybe by a small boy for use with his toys) and definitely made you feel very small and 'in character'. At the far end, a huge animatronic Mr. Potatohead stood and told jokes and generally acted as a barker at a carnival, which was what this ride was supposed to be like. He was entertaining. After like an hour in a line, we finally got to the ride. The whole thing turned out to be a neat interactive 3D shooter game made to look like the midway at a carnival. Everybody got a 'gun' mounted on their cars that 'fired' darts/balls/etc. at shooting gallery-type screens that kept track of your score. I eventually figured out how to shoot really fast and ended up with 130,000 points, which I thought was pretty good, until I saw that the high score was over 350,000, for the -day-. Hehe.
After that experience we were dying of starvation and wanted to go to the "Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater", but it was full, so instead we went next door to the "ABC Commissary" and had some fish and chips and a coke (ugh, my diet! :) We went to "Star Tours" next. Gabe was a little worried during the ride, but eventually loved it. Again, there was a bit of a long line. We -just- missed having almost no line; there was a "Jedi Academy" show going right outside that was packed with people, but I had to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately, by the time I got back , the Jedi show was done and all those people had gone directly into the Star Tours ride and the line was like 5 times as long. Ugh. The ride takes place (in a full-motion flight simulator) on a pretend flight to Endor for a tour, but our Pilot, "Rex", got us lost from the start. Went on a wild ride, ending up in some battles and flying through some asteroids and even right next to the Death Star itself. In the gift shop, Gabe built his own two-ended light saber and we are having it delivered to the hotel for free tomorrow so we don't have to carry it around all day.
By that time we were getting a little tired of Hollywood Studios. It's a great place and all, but just doesn't have the appeal for us, Gabe included, as some of the other places. It was hotter, the lines were longer, and the rides a bit more grown-up. So, we left there and got on a bus to go to the Magic Kingdom.
It was about 3:30pm and Gabe wanted to get a trip through Haunted Mansion and I wanted to hit the Pirates of the Carribean ride before we met up with Jason and Markay later that day. So we took a bus to the Transportation Center where we switched to the monorail. Ever since I was a kid and visited Disney, I'd wanted to ride the monorail; and it was cool! The views are excellent (and very unique) and the ride is very smooth and quiet. We went -through- the Contemporary Resort and got to see inside there, which actually looked a lot nicer than I'd expected.
Once we got to the Magic Kingdom and went inside, we saw Chip and Dale signing autographs and giving pictures, so we stopped to get Gabe his first autograph. While Gabe and Lisa stood in line, I shot some interesting shots around the area. We eventually got some good pix and signatures from C&D and headed in. We went to Cinderella's Castle to take some photos and then went to the Haunted Mansion, at Gabe's insistence. (As I recall, when I was a kid and visited the Haunted Mansion, I went through a few times in a row because it I thought it was cool too! :) We went next to the Pirates of Caribbean ride. Gabe wasn't sure he would like it. The beginning has a definite haunted house vibe and of course the entire beginning sequence as you roll past the skeletons of dead pirates to the droning piratical voice from the heavens going "Dead men tell no tales!" over and over again, so it was easy to see how he'd get the wrong idea. Once in side though and he that it was awesome. We spent a lot of time in gift shop there, but got some neat things for Gabe.
After we left there, we went to Ye Olde Christmas Shop because we got caught in thunderstorm while heading back to the bus. While in the Christmas ornament store we found cool ornaments and got a couple to commemorate our trip, but were stuck without any way to get back without getting soaked. While we were milling around all the breakable ornaments, Gabe busted one accidentally. It wasn't any big deal, but he was exhausted and got a little upset (everyone sort of went "ohhh!" real loud and I think he was a bit embarrassed) so he got a big choked up over it. I told him it was really okay and accidents happen, but he was -exhausted-. Finally everything was okay, we decided to just make a break for the buses and if that meant get wet, so be it (we needed to get back), so we packed up all our stuff into store bags (our electronic stuff needed to be protected from the rain) and walked out in a light (cool) rain. We were pretty wet when we got to the bus stop. We hit the bus and headed back to the hotel.
We called Jason and Markay when we got back to our hotel. They were -just- then leaving Busch Gardens (it was about 8pm). We ordered pizza from a local joint, thinking it would be there by the time everyone got to the hotel (they were about an hour away), but it was late and there was a huge ordeal to get a missing cheese pizza that went on throughout the night until we finally got it at, no kidding, around 12:30am. But we had a lot of things to eat that -did- make it and we finally got everything and ate and hung out for several hours. Everyone just sort of hung out together, kids included, and we had a great time. Around 11pm we went down to the pool and stayed until almost 1am! Needless to say, we are all exhausted!
Overall, it was a truly excellent day. We went to -two- Disney theme parks, got to hang out with my brother and sis-in-law and their family, and wore everyone out with fun activities all day long. I think we might just sleep in tomorrow!
ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....
Today started out at 8:30am and we all had breakfast in the room. We got down to the bus stop about 10am, but the buses were running really slowly and we didn't actually get to Disney Hollywood Studios until around 11:30ish (which kinda sucked, but oh well. :) We went straight to the thing Gabe wanted most, the Tower of Terror (a haunted hotel based on a Twilight Zone theme, complete with intro by what appear to be Rod Serling that describes how the hotel had an entire elevator and wing mysteriously disappear one night.) There was a bit of a line, but it twisted around in the shade, so it wasn't too bade. Unlike the Haunted Mansion at the Magic Kingdom, this ride took the 'scary' bits a little more seriously. Gabe didn't like the ride experience much. There were lots of ups and downs (the tower is basically an elevator ride where you get scared during a weird up-and-down rollercoaster-type thing) and it scared him a bit, but I think he was just soaking in the experience and that saying he didn't like it was really his way of saying 'wow, that was intense!'. We explained that it was -supposed- to be a bit intense and about the concept of a "thrill ride" and he thought it was a pretty interesting idea that people would go to entire parks where almost every ride there was made to make you feel that way.
We went to Pixar Place next. The place was a -bit- like actually being at Pixar Studios in Emeryville, but on a smaller scale. We hit the Toy Story Mania! ride next. There was an extremely long line, but it was inside and cool and in Hollywood Studios, there is an awfully lot of concrete to radiate out the Orlando heat. The interior was designed with huge toys all around, as though created by toys (or maybe by a small boy for use with his toys) and definitely made you feel very small and 'in character'. At the far end, a huge animatronic Mr. Potatohead stood and told jokes and generally acted as a barker at a carnival, which was what this ride was supposed to be like. He was entertaining. After like an hour in a line, we finally got to the ride. The whole thing turned out to be a neat interactive 3D shooter game made to look like the midway at a carnival. Everybody got a 'gun' mounted on their cars that 'fired' darts/balls/etc. at shooting gallery-type screens that kept track of your score. I eventually figured out how to shoot really fast and ended up with 130,000 points, which I thought was pretty good, until I saw that the high score was over 350,000, for the -day-. Hehe.
After that experience we were dying of starvation and wanted to go to the "Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater", but it was full, so instead we went next door to the "ABC Commissary" and had some fish and chips and a coke (ugh, my diet! :) We went to "Star Tours" next. Gabe was a little worried during the ride, but eventually loved it. Again, there was a bit of a long line. We -just- missed having almost no line; there was a "Jedi Academy" show going right outside that was packed with people, but I had to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately, by the time I got back , the Jedi show was done and all those people had gone directly into the Star Tours ride and the line was like 5 times as long. Ugh. The ride takes place (in a full-motion flight simulator) on a pretend flight to Endor for a tour, but our Pilot, "Rex", got us lost from the start. Went on a wild ride, ending up in some battles and flying through some asteroids and even right next to the Death Star itself. In the gift shop, Gabe built his own two-ended light saber and we are having it delivered to the hotel for free tomorrow so we don't have to carry it around all day.
By that time we were getting a little tired of Hollywood Studios. It's a great place and all, but just doesn't have the appeal for us, Gabe included, as some of the other places. It was hotter, the lines were longer, and the rides a bit more grown-up. So, we left there and got on a bus to go to the Magic Kingdom.
It was about 3:30pm and Gabe wanted to get a trip through Haunted Mansion and I wanted to hit the Pirates of the Carribean ride before we met up with Jason and Markay later that day. So we took a bus to the Transportation Center where we switched to the monorail. Ever since I was a kid and visited Disney, I'd wanted to ride the monorail; and it was cool! The views are excellent (and very unique) and the ride is very smooth and quiet. We went -through- the Contemporary Resort and got to see inside there, which actually looked a lot nicer than I'd expected.
Once we got to the Magic Kingdom and went inside, we saw Chip and Dale signing autographs and giving pictures, so we stopped to get Gabe his first autograph. While Gabe and Lisa stood in line, I shot some interesting shots around the area. We eventually got some good pix and signatures from C&D and headed in. We went to Cinderella's Castle to take some photos and then went to the Haunted Mansion, at Gabe's insistence. (As I recall, when I was a kid and visited the Haunted Mansion, I went through a few times in a row because it I thought it was cool too! :) We went next to the Pirates of Caribbean ride. Gabe wasn't sure he would like it. The beginning has a definite haunted house vibe and of course the entire beginning sequence as you roll past the skeletons of dead pirates to the droning piratical voice from the heavens going "Dead men tell no tales!" over and over again, so it was easy to see how he'd get the wrong idea. Once in side though and he that it was awesome. We spent a lot of time in gift shop there, but got some neat things for Gabe.
After we left there, we went to Ye Olde Christmas Shop because we got caught in thunderstorm while heading back to the bus. While in the Christmas ornament store we found cool ornaments and got a couple to commemorate our trip, but were stuck without any way to get back without getting soaked. While we were milling around all the breakable ornaments, Gabe busted one accidentally. It wasn't any big deal, but he was exhausted and got a little upset (everyone sort of went "ohhh!" real loud and I think he was a bit embarrassed) so he got a big choked up over it. I told him it was really okay and accidents happen, but he was -exhausted-. Finally everything was okay, we decided to just make a break for the buses and if that meant get wet, so be it (we needed to get back), so we packed up all our stuff into store bags (our electronic stuff needed to be protected from the rain) and walked out in a light (cool) rain. We were pretty wet when we got to the bus stop. We hit the bus and headed back to the hotel.
We called Jason and Markay when we got back to our hotel. They were -just- then leaving Busch Gardens (it was about 8pm). We ordered pizza from a local joint, thinking it would be there by the time everyone got to the hotel (they were about an hour away), but it was late and there was a huge ordeal to get a missing cheese pizza that went on throughout the night until we finally got it at, no kidding, around 12:30am. But we had a lot of things to eat that -did- make it and we finally got everything and ate and hung out for several hours. Everyone just sort of hung out together, kids included, and we had a great time. Around 11pm we went down to the pool and stayed until almost 1am! Needless to say, we are all exhausted!
Overall, it was a truly excellent day. We went to -two- Disney theme parks, got to hang out with my brother and sis-in-law and their family, and wore everyone out with fun activities all day long. I think we might just sleep in tomorrow!
ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Day 4 - The Animal Kingdom...and a Family Visit
Day 4 started out for me a little earlier than the rest of the crew here. I woke up at 7:30am, an hour before my alarm was set to go off. I guess I was excited about our first "full" day at Disney. :) I was still exhausted from the day before, so I decided to treat myself a bit; I filled up the bathtub (which is also a whirlpool tub) in our bedroom bath with super hot water and flipped on the jets and just sat there reading about the Animal Kingdom we would be visiting that day for about 40 minutes. Eventually, I got too hot and had to get out, but it was a very relaxing way to start off the day. I got up and showered and woke up the crew about the time we had originally planned to wake up, 8:30.
We all had some breakfast (Gabe and I ate maple oatmeal and I ordered coffee and bread up from room service for us all to share). One thing I have to say about the room service here; they take their sweet time getting to you (okay, two things, the automatic 18% gratuity really sucks.) So all in all, we are not overly satisfied with the in-suite dining options here. With the long delay for getting breakfast finished, we didn't end up getting up and headed to the bus stop until around 10 and with the long delay from waiting for the bus, we didn't even get to the Animal Kingdom proper until about 11am, which sucked because we'd been in contact with Jason and Markay about meeting them for lunch at around 1pm. We were in line for the first thing we did there, which was to ride on the Kilimanjaro Safari when we decided to call Jason and let them know we were going to skip lunch and hopefully would be able to meet up with them later. They were very cool about it, I think they were still in sightseeing mode at Seaworld also, and we went on with our day.
Our first experience was the safari ride. It was in the Africa section of the Animal Kingdome, which is really a huge animal preserve. The safari had a huge line, but it was really fun. The experience was very immersive and you really felt like you were on an African safari, complete with talking to park rangers over the intercom and even being shot at by poachers (we were helping the rangers who were in an overflying plane. :) We saw lots of awesome African wildlife up close and personal (with no visible separation between the open-air car we were in and things like white rhinos, giraffes, hippos, gazelles, elephants, and even lions and cheetahs. After the safari, we went on the Pagani Forest trail, which was basically a nature trail that looks like you are traveling through some African research stations. We saw gorillas and hippos and lots of interesting birds and reptiles. Obviously, Gabe was loving it and we were glad we went to that place during the heat of the day, because the entire thing is basically inside a dense rain forest, where the humidity was high, but the shade was dense enough to keep us cool.
After this, we were getting a bit hungry, so we stopped at a place in "Africa" called the Tusker House Restaurant. It was a super-nice buffet and we all had a great meal. This helped lift our sagging moods a bit and as we headed to our next stop, we were all well-fed and excited. We left the Tusker and went to Discovery Island, the center of the Animal Kingdom where a huge 140-foot tall man-made "Tree of Life" dominates the entire area. The tree is enormous to say the least, and inside it we saw a movie (it has a 420+ seat theater inside it) called "It's Tough To Be A Bug", a cool 3D experience (not blue/red either, some sort of polarized glasses experience...I could actually see this one, at least mostly) where Flik, the ant from A Bug's Life acted as MC to a whole host of bugs as they talked about how hard it was to be a bug. The show was amazing and extremely immersive, with bugs 'shooting' acid over the audience, crawling under seats, flying over seats, etc. Hopper, the 'mean' character from A Bug's Life briefly stole the show when he tried to 'get' all the humans for all the damage they try to do to bugs (attacking us with fly swatters, insecticides, and even black widow spiders that fell from the ceiling), but then he was almost eaten by a huge on-screen reptile and we were all miraculously saved. Whew! Gabe loved it!
Next we headed to "DinoLand U.S.A." where we traveled back in time in an authentic "time machine" to 65 million years ago and just -barely- made it out alive after being attacked by a huge carnataur and narrowly escaping the destruction of most of the planet by an meteor impact. Another close call! Gabe loved it too! :)
Lastly, we headed to "Asia" where we hunted the Yeti on "Expedition Everest", where Gabe got his first ride on a really awesome roller coaster. The line was long, but it was worth it to hear him say "I don't like this...I think I'm going to die" and then later admit that he loved it!
After this was over it was time to head back. EVERYONE was tired. BUT, we decided to ask Markay and Jason and the kids to just join -us- at our hotel and they did! They came over about 6:30pm and we all had a blast. The kids played for a while and went outside to see the wildlife at the hotel when Jason and I went to the store and then we all went swimming for like 4 hours in the hotel pool. It was a fantastic night and now we're all spent and heading to bed! :)
Day 3 - A Little Surf and Sand and Sun...A LOT of Fun!
Day 3:
Another super-eventful day. We had an incredible day today!
We started out early with breakfast on the waterfront at our hotel again, but this time we woke at ab out 8:30 and were eating by 9am. Gabe wanted more time on the ocean and we had to hurry to get that done before our late checkout at noon. We ate a good breakfast and he and I collected a bunch of shells near our hotel before we all headed down to the beach around 10am. Had a great time at the beach. Gabe and I swam and collected some more shells, played in the sand some, and did some boogie boarding and generally had a great time. We actually saw some storm clouds rolling in on the horizon and just before it started raining (about 10 minutes before) we spotted a tornado out in the ocean pulling up a big waterspout. Everyone on the beach started to clear out as the rain started, and we needed to get going anyway, so we headed back to our hotel.
At the hotel, we had to rush a bit to get everyone cleaned up and get all of our stuff packed up before noon, but we did it! We ended up checking out about 12:15 and were on the road for Orlando right afterward.
The drive to Orlando was pretty uneventful. Gabe slept in the car and Lisa and I talked the whole way. The weather wasn't that great and it was sprinkling pretty much the whole way. We pulled into Kissimmee, FL about 3:00 and had some photos developed (the dolphin pix) while we ate lunch at a Macaroni Grill that happened to be right there. The food was good (and cheap!) and after a good meal (with nasty water) we got our photos and headed toward our 4pm check in at Disney's Animal Kingdom Resort (Kidani Village).
We checked into our hotel right at 4:00pm and right away I could tell this was going to be a nice, NICE place. Definitely very upscale and there is a lot of stuff going on. We checked into our Villa (which is a one-bedroom, two-bath suite and were really wowed by its elegance and African theme. Everything about this place is themed, from the LIVE African wildlife (zebras, giraffes, etc.) right outside the hotel lobby, to the drum circle I stopped to participate in on our first tour of the place.
We took a quick tour. Checked out the courtyard and pool areas and quickly realized that Gabe wanted to see something magical tonight, so we decided to go to the Magic Kingdom for a few hours. What a great idea! Suffice it to say that we had a truly magical time. We only hit a couple of rides (we all went on the Haunted Mansion and Gabe and I did Splash Mountain before the light parade started (they call it “Spectromagic”. We had front-row seats and Gabe sat on my shoulders the whole time (I'm glad he's not 7 or 8, but still, 50lbs is a lot! :) Afterwards, we made it down just in time to see the most spectacular fireworks display I've ever see right over the castle. It was nothing short of awe inspiring. No way I could do it justice with mere words, so I won't even try. Even a video wouldn't do it, you just had to be there; it was truly magical. Gabe even said to Lisa as we were leaving “this is the most magical vacation I've ever had”. Seriously, the fireworks made me get a little teary-eyed they were so good. Anyway, they were pretty awesome, okay? ;)
After the fireworks, we started a short-lived but serious hunt for some grub, but we ended up having to get our ride back to the lodge and just order room service (at 11:30pm!) We are all going to be wiped out tomorrow...it's 1:17 in the morning and we are just getting to bed.
ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Day 2!
Day 2 started out a bit slow. We all slept in and we didn't get moving really until around 10am (us first, then Gabe) and even then, we took a lot of time getting out the door. By the time we eventually went to go get "breakfast" it was really lunch time. We tried getting breakfast at a nearby IHOP, but the line was 45 minutes long for some crazy reason so we grabbed a cab and headed up to Pier 60, a few blocks down the road.
Before we left, we decided to check out a local kid-friendly activity, a "pirate cruise" on a rather piratey-looking boat out into the ocean. Gabe had seen these guys the first morning we were here and we were happy to see that they had a 2:00pm tour. I called in a reservation for the 2pm tour and we headed out to go eat just after that.
We ended up at another Crabby Bill's. This one was actually fairly different than the smaller version we'd gone to the day before and we all chowed down on some great seafood. After our excellent meal, we headed down to Captain Memo's. We stood at the dock for a while and they started boarding about 1:30pm or so.
We had a blast on this little cruise! Okay, so first off, we got our picture taken with the Captain and as we were some of the first ones on board, got to sit in the foredeck with a family of 7 from Scotland (only 10 people allowed up there and it was first-come, first-served seating). We had the best view on the ship and took lots of great pictures. From the start of the trip, all the kids and Gabe went down to the main deck of the boat and started playing games. The crew really kept the kids occupied throughout the entire trip with tons of fun games. They all got water pistols and shot all the adults (who were happy to get a little wet in the heat!) and then hunted down one of the guests who dressed up in a pirate outfit. They told pirate stories, studied maps, talked about buried treasure, -hunted- for buried treasure on board the ship (and everybody found some), they all got pirate necklaces, even played musical chairs for prizes. There were free drinks for everyone (sodas, lemonaide, etc. for the kids and free wine and beer for the grown-ups!). Toward the end of the trip, we spotted a pod of bottlenose dolphins swimming out to sea and amazingly, the Captain turned the ship around to follow them! We actually sort of trolled after then for a about 20 minutes or so, watching for them to surface and directing the ship toward them at a slow, non-threatening pace. Eventually, we literally got right up on top of them and Gabe was probably in the best seat in the house to just look right down and watch these amazing dolphins right there in front of the boat. We got some great photos and everyone was happy with their dolphin experience when we finally turned around and headed back to the dock. Overall, the cruise was a total success and we would highly recommend it!
Since the cruise was a bit long (2 hours), and since we had planned to visit Lisa's friends Amy and Matt again later in the evening, we had to hurry to get cleaned up. Their house is about 30-45 minutes away from our hotel, so by the time we got there it was around 6:30pm or so. They had volunteered to watch Gabe for us for a few hours so that we could go out and have a little date while we were here. So after about 30 minutes of hanging out with them, we headed out to find a sunset and a nice dinner.
We went to Madeira Beach, which is just north of Treasure Island. We had to do a little walking, but eventually found a great stretch of beach where we took a stroll and watched the sunset. We went back to a little place along the boardwalk called "Scully's" and had a relaxing dinner.
We ended up picking Gabe up and were back on the road by around 10:30 or 11:00 after a short visit. Gabe had a blast with Amy's kids and they made lots of crafty things for him to take home as souvenirs and mementos. Gabe has definitely made some new friends! :)
After a long drive home, we are turning in to get a good jump start on the day tomorrow. It's going to be busy! We have a late checkout (noon) planned and Gabe wants to get a little bit of time on the beach again before we leave for Orlando. Tomorrow we check into our Disney hotel and start our Walt Disney World adventure!!
Lots to do! Time for sleep! :)
Before we left, we decided to check out a local kid-friendly activity, a "pirate cruise" on a rather piratey-looking boat out into the ocean. Gabe had seen these guys the first morning we were here and we were happy to see that they had a 2:00pm tour. I called in a reservation for the 2pm tour and we headed out to go eat just after that.
We ended up at another Crabby Bill's. This one was actually fairly different than the smaller version we'd gone to the day before and we all chowed down on some great seafood. After our excellent meal, we headed down to Captain Memo's. We stood at the dock for a while and they started boarding about 1:30pm or so.
We had a blast on this little cruise! Okay, so first off, we got our picture taken with the Captain and as we were some of the first ones on board, got to sit in the foredeck with a family of 7 from Scotland (only 10 people allowed up there and it was first-come, first-served seating). We had the best view on the ship and took lots of great pictures. From the start of the trip, all the kids and Gabe went down to the main deck of the boat and started playing games. The crew really kept the kids occupied throughout the entire trip with tons of fun games. They all got water pistols and shot all the adults (who were happy to get a little wet in the heat!) and then hunted down one of the guests who dressed up in a pirate outfit. They told pirate stories, studied maps, talked about buried treasure, -hunted- for buried treasure on board the ship (and everybody found some), they all got pirate necklaces, even played musical chairs for prizes. There were free drinks for everyone (sodas, lemonaide, etc. for the kids and free wine and beer for the grown-ups!). Toward the end of the trip, we spotted a pod of bottlenose dolphins swimming out to sea and amazingly, the Captain turned the ship around to follow them! We actually sort of trolled after then for a about 20 minutes or so, watching for them to surface and directing the ship toward them at a slow, non-threatening pace. Eventually, we literally got right up on top of them and Gabe was probably in the best seat in the house to just look right down and watch these amazing dolphins right there in front of the boat. We got some great photos and everyone was happy with their dolphin experience when we finally turned around and headed back to the dock. Overall, the cruise was a total success and we would highly recommend it!
Since the cruise was a bit long (2 hours), and since we had planned to visit Lisa's friends Amy and Matt again later in the evening, we had to hurry to get cleaned up. Their house is about 30-45 minutes away from our hotel, so by the time we got there it was around 6:30pm or so. They had volunteered to watch Gabe for us for a few hours so that we could go out and have a little date while we were here. So after about 30 minutes of hanging out with them, we headed out to find a sunset and a nice dinner.
We went to Madeira Beach, which is just north of Treasure Island. We had to do a little walking, but eventually found a great stretch of beach where we took a stroll and watched the sunset. We went back to a little place along the boardwalk called "Scully's" and had a relaxing dinner.
We ended up picking Gabe up and were back on the road by around 10:30 or 11:00 after a short visit. Gabe had a blast with Amy's kids and they made lots of crafty things for him to take home as souvenirs and mementos. Gabe has definitely made some new friends! :)
After a long drive home, we are turning in to get a good jump start on the day tomorrow. It's going to be busy! We have a late checkout (noon) planned and Gabe wants to get a little bit of time on the beach again before we leave for Orlando. Tomorrow we check into our Disney hotel and start our Walt Disney World adventure!!
Lots to do! Time for sleep! :)
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Day 1
Wow! WHAT A DAY!
Today started off a bit late. Lisa got up at 9:50 (Gabe woke Lisa up with "I'm having a hard time with this stupid suitcase"...he was trying to get his underwear out and had everything all over the floor. :) I got going about 10:10 and we all made it down to the hotel restaurant about about 10:30. We found a seat outside, right next to the water, and sat down. It took a while to get started with our breakfast because Gabe was so into the goings on in the water. We were sitting literally a couple of feet from the concrete wall next to the water and down a few feet below, there were lots of seashells to collect. We finally all got some food ordered and I helped Gabe down to the waters edge so he could fish shells from the sand. He's really taken an interest in shell collecting; all day long we collected shells and when he went to a beach store today, he made sure to buy a big shell as a souvenir. We saw a lot of seagulls and a very crafty egret that came down to try to get some handouts (the egret was especially funny, being so tall he could stand on the ground and still look down at the table of some nearby customers, but when the waitstaff were around, he would duck down under the level of the tables until they left). As we left, the seagulls massively swarmed our leftovers and the egret immediately dug into what was left of Gabe's waffles.
We went back upstairs after breakfast so we could get ready for a day at the beach. We all spent some time getting changed and cleaned up (none of us had showered since our long travel day the day before.) We finally got our act together and went walking toward the beach.
Our hotel sits about 500 feet from the edge of the actual beach. Even though the hotel's patio is right next to the water...but the water next to the hotel is in a sort of inlet to the gulf where ships come and go to get to the open water of the Gulf (Gabe was really fascinated by a huge pirate ship we saw going out to sea during our breakfast. We are going to see if we can take him on that trip tomorrow if things work out.)
We got to the beach and realized we had no towels! Luckily, there were umbrellas (that came with two chairs) for rent (for $18 for the afternoon) and we got one of those because face it, you need shade on the beach in Florida. It was a great investment and we were really glad to have it all day as we came and went to and from the water.
Here's where our umbrella was located (from my Blackberry's GPS).
And HERE is the GPS fix from our balcony.
Our time on the beach was a ton of fun. Gabe was a little intimidated by the salt water and powerful waves at first, but he soon got used to the idea, at least in limited doses. He and I dug a really nice sand castle and I bought us a boogie board which Gabe learned to ride really easily (I helped him get going and he would ride the waves all the way in to the shallows...probably rides of up to 50 feet or more). It was a pretty hot day and we spent all afternoon swimming and riding the board and playing in the sand and water and generally having a great time, returning from time to time to the cooler shade of our umbrella for rest and water. By the time we were heading back at about 2pm or so, we were all hot and tired and extremely salty and sandy.
We came back here and took showers and cleaned up. We went for a little walk to "Crabby Bill's Crab Shack" and had a great little late lunch/early dinner. The whole day was a little skewed timewise and really, what we ate at 3pm there was more like lunch than anything else. Our view from Bill's was great, we were on a second-floor balcony and all we could see was water, sandy beaches, and palm-tree lined streets. Gabe was a tad out of it and was clearly starving. He spilled his entire water glass twice all over the entire table; I really think he was just too exhausted to concentrate on what he was doing. We are definitely going to have to keep a careful eye on how tired and hot he gets during the week to keep things fun for him (and us).
We went back to our hotel where were to meet some of Lisa's friends from high school. We met her friend Amy and her family (Matt, her husband, and her three children Austin, Luke, and Savannah) and her other friend Karmin. Both girls were super nice and all the kids had a wonderful time playing with Gabe. We spent the whole afternoon playing in the hotel pool (we threw the Waboba ball I recently bought online all over the pool; that is a really fun little toy!) and visiting with her old friends (and Amy's family). It was a super nice visit and we all (re)made some new friends.
By the end of the day, Austin and Luke were telling us about all the fun Gabe would have if he could come visit tomorrow (Amy offered to watch Gabe for us for a little while tomorrow so that we could go out and have a little evening to ourselves). We may take her up on it!!
After Amy left, we hung out with Karmin for a while and had a few drinks and a little evening meal for Gabe and I. Gabe was exhausted and was happy to munch messily on watermelon that Amy bought and Pringles "Cheezeums" (he basically claimed the Pringles can with "These are mine!") Lis and I took some photos of the sunset and said our goodbyes to Karmin and we all went upstairs to get cleaned up and ready for bed.
Like I said, what a day! We have another long day (Day 2!) ahead of us tomorrow here at Clearwater Beach before we head off to Walt Disney World on Monday morning. Time to get to bed! :)
Today started off a bit late. Lisa got up at 9:50 (Gabe woke Lisa up with "I'm having a hard time with this stupid suitcase"...he was trying to get his underwear out and had everything all over the floor. :) I got going about 10:10 and we all made it down to the hotel restaurant about about 10:30. We found a seat outside, right next to the water, and sat down. It took a while to get started with our breakfast because Gabe was so into the goings on in the water. We were sitting literally a couple of feet from the concrete wall next to the water and down a few feet below, there were lots of seashells to collect. We finally all got some food ordered and I helped Gabe down to the waters edge so he could fish shells from the sand. He's really taken an interest in shell collecting; all day long we collected shells and when he went to a beach store today, he made sure to buy a big shell as a souvenir. We saw a lot of seagulls and a very crafty egret that came down to try to get some handouts (the egret was especially funny, being so tall he could stand on the ground and still look down at the table of some nearby customers, but when the waitstaff were around, he would duck down under the level of the tables until they left). As we left, the seagulls massively swarmed our leftovers and the egret immediately dug into what was left of Gabe's waffles.
We went back upstairs after breakfast so we could get ready for a day at the beach. We all spent some time getting changed and cleaned up (none of us had showered since our long travel day the day before.) We finally got our act together and went walking toward the beach.
Our hotel sits about 500 feet from the edge of the actual beach. Even though the hotel's patio is right next to the water...but the water next to the hotel is in a sort of inlet to the gulf where ships come and go to get to the open water of the Gulf (Gabe was really fascinated by a huge pirate ship we saw going out to sea during our breakfast. We are going to see if we can take him on that trip tomorrow if things work out.)
We got to the beach and realized we had no towels! Luckily, there were umbrellas (that came with two chairs) for rent (for $18 for the afternoon) and we got one of those because face it, you need shade on the beach in Florida. It was a great investment and we were really glad to have it all day as we came and went to and from the water.
Here's where our umbrella was located (from my Blackberry's GPS).
And HERE is the GPS fix from our balcony.
Our time on the beach was a ton of fun. Gabe was a little intimidated by the salt water and powerful waves at first, but he soon got used to the idea, at least in limited doses. He and I dug a really nice sand castle and I bought us a boogie board which Gabe learned to ride really easily (I helped him get going and he would ride the waves all the way in to the shallows...probably rides of up to 50 feet or more). It was a pretty hot day and we spent all afternoon swimming and riding the board and playing in the sand and water and generally having a great time, returning from time to time to the cooler shade of our umbrella for rest and water. By the time we were heading back at about 2pm or so, we were all hot and tired and extremely salty and sandy.
We came back here and took showers and cleaned up. We went for a little walk to "Crabby Bill's Crab Shack" and had a great little late lunch/early dinner. The whole day was a little skewed timewise and really, what we ate at 3pm there was more like lunch than anything else. Our view from Bill's was great, we were on a second-floor balcony and all we could see was water, sandy beaches, and palm-tree lined streets. Gabe was a tad out of it and was clearly starving. He spilled his entire water glass twice all over the entire table; I really think he was just too exhausted to concentrate on what he was doing. We are definitely going to have to keep a careful eye on how tired and hot he gets during the week to keep things fun for him (and us).
We went back to our hotel where were to meet some of Lisa's friends from high school. We met her friend Amy and her family (Matt, her husband, and her three children Austin, Luke, and Savannah) and her other friend Karmin. Both girls were super nice and all the kids had a wonderful time playing with Gabe. We spent the whole afternoon playing in the hotel pool (we threw the Waboba ball I recently bought online all over the pool; that is a really fun little toy!) and visiting with her old friends (and Amy's family). It was a super nice visit and we all (re)made some new friends.
By the end of the day, Austin and Luke were telling us about all the fun Gabe would have if he could come visit tomorrow (Amy offered to watch Gabe for us for a little while tomorrow so that we could go out and have a little evening to ourselves). We may take her up on it!!
After Amy left, we hung out with Karmin for a while and had a few drinks and a little evening meal for Gabe and I. Gabe was exhausted and was happy to munch messily on watermelon that Amy bought and Pringles "Cheezeums" (he basically claimed the Pringles can with "These are mine!") Lis and I took some photos of the sunset and said our goodbyes to Karmin and we all went upstairs to get cleaned up and ready for bed.
Like I said, what a day! We have another long day (Day 2!) ahead of us tomorrow here at Clearwater Beach before we head off to Walt Disney World on Monday morning. Time to get to bed! :)
Day 0 - Great Summer Vacation, Here We Come!
Well, Day 1 of our awesome Florida vacation was incredibly busy and Day 2 is almost over too, so I guess it's time to make a post!
Day 0
Yesterday was our "travel day" and it started early (for me). I had to give a training presentation to basically everyone who works at Red Hat in support who lives in South America. That lasted a bit longer than anticipated because some folks joined late and we spent the rest of the morning in a mad rush to get our final odds and ends taken care of (first my work odds and ends, then all my final bits of packing and preparation). We got Jasper ready for a trip to Chad's and turned off everything in the house and finally hit the road about 2pm and got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. I was really surprised at how easy it all was to get through the airport actually. Parking was a breeze, we had no major problems with the bags. We got our bags checked in outside, bypassing a long line at the Southwest ticket counter and were through airport security almost as fast as we could walk there. Gabe was in great spirits the whole day and we were all having a great time. We got to our gate without hassles; Gabe loved riding in the tail end of the shuttle train at DIA and watching all the cool lights and spinning fans on the walls as we made our way to Concourse C. We stopped by McDonalds (Concourse C's food choices are pretty limited and we were in a bit of a rush). Lisa and I got fish sandwiches and Gabe had some chicken nuggets. After touring the gate for a while and looking out windows, we finally got onboard our plane.
There was a little bit of worry about getting three seats all in a row (Southwest has a weird boarding arrangement), but I was early in getting our boarding passes the previous day and we managed to get three good seats together behind the wing where Gabe could see out the window and look at the landscape easily. We had a bit of an annoying neighbor in the form of a little girl who sat directly behind Gabe who literally sang some of the most annoying songs the whole way there. I had to laugh when Gabe (who was at the time watching the movie Transformers on the MacBook) turned around to her and said, "Would you PLEASE shut up!" I figured out a way to bump up the volume on Gabe's headphones a bit more and he seemed not to hear her afterwards, but it was pretty funny stuff. :)
Gabe got sick as we landed (poor fella) and hurled just a little bit into a barf bag. He seemed okay after we touched down though and I worked with him, wiping off his face with a wetnap and fanning him with an emergency card and generally trying to keep his mind occupied with happenings outside the window.
Orlando airport is a nice place. I've been to a lot of airports, but this was the only one I've ever seen that had charging stations and desks for laptops (and free internet access) all up and down the terminal (the charging stations even had USB chargers built into them for iPods and the like). It was late and the place was mostly quiet. We took a cool little elevated train that ran outside (rather than through a tunnel like Denver's) and delivered us to the baggage claim area. We got our bags without much fuss and we headed to the rental car agency.
We ended up with a nice little Dodge Caliber (in silver) and headed out of town toward Tampa and Clearwater Beach at just after midnight. The trip there was mostly uneventful. Gabe had a nice nap and Lisa and I talked the whole way there. I noticed that the cops were thick and we passed a LOT of pulled over vehicles; but then, I guess it was a Friday night around 'drunk driving' hour. We got to our hotel and I was pleasantly surprised to be reminded that we'd already prepaid for our rooms and that we were basically all set for checking in with no muss or fuss.
We have a really nice two-room suite here at the Holiday Inn. One side has been designated Gabe's while the other is ours. Both are well appointed with large flat-screen TVs, though Gabe's side is clearly meant as an add-on to the main bedroom look of ours (Gabe's side doesn't have a 'bed' per se, just a fold out couch, which of course he thinks is super cool.) It didn't take him long to take over his side and set up a lot of various play areas for the toys he's brought.
We all went out about 2:00am or so and hung out on the balcony for a while, looking off into the inky blackness that we all assumed was the ocean while we ate some vending machine snacks (cheeze-its, chex mix, and pretzels). Finally...after a LONG long day, we tucked Gabe in and headed to bed. As Gabe drifted off, he told Lisa, "Thank you" ("For what?") "I think this is going to be the best vacation of my whole life. When I grow up, I don't wanna work for Walt Disney as an Imagineer" "No?" "Yeah, I wanna take care of sick animals..." "You do?" "Yeah. I wanna be a vet." :)
Day 0
Yesterday was our "travel day" and it started early (for me). I had to give a training presentation to basically everyone who works at Red Hat in support who lives in South America. That lasted a bit longer than anticipated because some folks joined late and we spent the rest of the morning in a mad rush to get our final odds and ends taken care of (first my work odds and ends, then all my final bits of packing and preparation). We got Jasper ready for a trip to Chad's and turned off everything in the house and finally hit the road about 2pm and got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. I was really surprised at how easy it all was to get through the airport actually. Parking was a breeze, we had no major problems with the bags. We got our bags checked in outside, bypassing a long line at the Southwest ticket counter and were through airport security almost as fast as we could walk there. Gabe was in great spirits the whole day and we were all having a great time. We got to our gate without hassles; Gabe loved riding in the tail end of the shuttle train at DIA and watching all the cool lights and spinning fans on the walls as we made our way to Concourse C. We stopped by McDonalds (Concourse C's food choices are pretty limited and we were in a bit of a rush). Lisa and I got fish sandwiches and Gabe had some chicken nuggets. After touring the gate for a while and looking out windows, we finally got onboard our plane.
There was a little bit of worry about getting three seats all in a row (Southwest has a weird boarding arrangement), but I was early in getting our boarding passes the previous day and we managed to get three good seats together behind the wing where Gabe could see out the window and look at the landscape easily. We had a bit of an annoying neighbor in the form of a little girl who sat directly behind Gabe who literally sang some of the most annoying songs the whole way there. I had to laugh when Gabe (who was at the time watching the movie Transformers on the MacBook) turned around to her and said, "Would you PLEASE shut up!" I figured out a way to bump up the volume on Gabe's headphones a bit more and he seemed not to hear her afterwards, but it was pretty funny stuff. :)
Gabe got sick as we landed (poor fella) and hurled just a little bit into a barf bag. He seemed okay after we touched down though and I worked with him, wiping off his face with a wetnap and fanning him with an emergency card and generally trying to keep his mind occupied with happenings outside the window.
Orlando airport is a nice place. I've been to a lot of airports, but this was the only one I've ever seen that had charging stations and desks for laptops (and free internet access) all up and down the terminal (the charging stations even had USB chargers built into them for iPods and the like). It was late and the place was mostly quiet. We took a cool little elevated train that ran outside (rather than through a tunnel like Denver's) and delivered us to the baggage claim area. We got our bags without much fuss and we headed to the rental car agency.
We ended up with a nice little Dodge Caliber (in silver) and headed out of town toward Tampa and Clearwater Beach at just after midnight. The trip there was mostly uneventful. Gabe had a nice nap and Lisa and I talked the whole way there. I noticed that the cops were thick and we passed a LOT of pulled over vehicles; but then, I guess it was a Friday night around 'drunk driving' hour. We got to our hotel and I was pleasantly surprised to be reminded that we'd already prepaid for our rooms and that we were basically all set for checking in with no muss or fuss.
We have a really nice two-room suite here at the Holiday Inn. One side has been designated Gabe's while the other is ours. Both are well appointed with large flat-screen TVs, though Gabe's side is clearly meant as an add-on to the main bedroom look of ours (Gabe's side doesn't have a 'bed' per se, just a fold out couch, which of course he thinks is super cool.) It didn't take him long to take over his side and set up a lot of various play areas for the toys he's brought.
We all went out about 2:00am or so and hung out on the balcony for a while, looking off into the inky blackness that we all assumed was the ocean while we ate some vending machine snacks (cheeze-its, chex mix, and pretzels). Finally...after a LONG long day, we tucked Gabe in and headed to bed. As Gabe drifted off, he told Lisa, "Thank you" ("For what?") "I think this is going to be the best vacation of my whole life. When I grow up, I don't wanna work for Walt Disney as an Imagineer" "No?" "Yeah, I wanna take care of sick animals..." "You do?" "Yeah. I wanna be a vet." :)
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