Making memories

We had the chance yesterday to drive down to Orlando (from Jacksonville where we are this week) and spend the day at Disney World. We have been several times in the last 10 years, mostly due to the generosity of some friends who work there. This was no exception. Free all day park hopper passes for the whole family are no small gift . . . nearly $400 worth of tickets. We went to DW for our honey moon in 1996, then back again 4 years later with my sister and brother-in-law, then about two and a half years ago, and then again this year.

The excitement began as my kids started recognizing various characters painted on the signs in the parking lot. We parked in Pluto, row 23. They would shout out with glee, “There is Minnie Mouse!!!” People on the tram around us would giggle and readily forgive the loud outburst.

As we entered the park itself we quickly secured a double stroller. Best $18 I have spent in a while. No whiney kids complaining about how tired their legs are to dampen the day. We spotted a few different characters roaming about, but decided not to wait in any of the lines for a chance to take a picture with any of them. A ride on “It’s a Small World”, “Dumbo” (this part was especially fun since one of my wife’s earliest memories is going on that ride with her mother at around age 3, and she got to do that with my son when he was almost 3 and this time with my daughter when she was only 2 weeks away from her third birthday, keeping the ‘tradition’ alive), the Carrousel, the “Barnstormer” roller coaster for kids, the go-karts, and a visit to Mickey’s house were all thoroughly enjoyed. An expensive meal of burgers and hotdogs to fill our stomachs and then we were off to Epcot for more fun.

We arrived at Epcot and roamed around for a while. We saw some of the displays, and then went on “Spaceship Earth” (inside the giant ‘golf ball’ as my son called it, where my daughter promptly fell asleep inside after about a minute), ‘Test Track” (just us boys went on that one due to size and motion sickness issues for the girls) and then over to a new ride called “Soarin”. That one was fun, but the hour and a half wait (in spite of the sign out front stating only 20 minutes) was a bummer.

Time left for a giant ice cream sandwich and then off to dinner with our friends at the ‘Official All Star Café’ restaurant at the Wide World of Sports resort. Thankfully it was not at all busy there because the kids had not had naps (except for the brief one my daughter had inside the golf ball ride) all day and were in that ‘wired up due to lack of sleep’ mode. It was not too long after getting in the car before both were fast asleep for the two and a half hour ride back to our residence for the week.

A fun day and some fun memories. And all made possible by the generosity of friends.