Tag: florida (Page 2 of 2)

A lazy morning here on the island, so I’ll share a few details of our trip so far to keep me from having to write 5000 words about it when we get home. Of course, I may end up writing more than that this way, but that’s your gain!

Ok, the drives down were uneventful. Sure, everyone was cranky by the end of each day, but there were no major issues. Not having been through this before, I didn’t realize that all the Catholic schools in Indianapolis have spring break at the same time. So, until we hit the Florida border Saturday morning, we saw more Indiana license plates than any other state. When we ate breakfast at our hotel in Valdosta that morning, the dining nook of our hotel was dominated by families with Indy Catholic school gear. We even saw people from St. P’s, although we didn’t know them.

Same thing once we got to the resort we’re staying at. We saw St. P’s people and folks S. knows from growing up. And, coincidentally, we have good friend staying a five-minute walk from us. I had heard that everyone from our home school district comes to the same spot a little further down the coast on their spring break. It’s weird to see so many people who we can run into twice a day and drop off and pickup 19 hours from home.

I keep running into people who are KU fans or from Kansas City, too. In our first hours here, just as the Big 12 championship game was about to start, I saw a kid, maybe 10 or 11, wearing a full, alternate red, Jeff Withey uniform. We’ve run into KU fans while walking the streets, had a guy who grew up in a small Kansas town come say hello during dinner last night, and heard our waitress, who had an Eastern European accent, tell some other patrons, who were apparently from Kansas City, that she had lived there for several years.

Like I said, this is probably nothing unusual to those of you who have come to Flordia or Texas for spring breaks in the past. But it’s weird to me.

Yesterday had the ingredients for disaster but turned out to be a great day. We met our friends on the beach and, after about five minutes of sun, the clouds began blowing in. Soon the skies got dark, the wind picked up, and it began to spit rain. We decided to wait it out, because that’s what you do in Florida, right? While we were waiting, and as thunder got closer and closer, we saw some dolphins maybe 150 feet out from the shore. The girls screamed and jumped up and down and pointed. A few minutes later we saw some more. Eventually we saw a solitary dolphin maybe 30 feet out, slowly cruising down the shoreline. More screaming and pointing. We started walking with it, and it came a little closer. We walked farther and he came closer still. Soon it was 10-12 feet away and we could see its belly as it flipped on its side. I’d never seen a wild dolphin before, so I thought this was incredibly cool. You can imagine how amped up the girls were.

The dads headed back to our spot and while there, watched as a dolphin cruise boat went by and a pod of 7-8 dolphins took turns leaping through its wake. It’s like the dolphins are on the tourism board’s payroll. While we were watching the show, the girls and moms were still walking with the first dolphin, who eventually got within five feet of the beach. Between that and all the shells they were finding, the girls were beside themselves in happiness.

Soon the skies opened and we had to scurry over to our friends’ place. They have a large home for their entire family, which includes a screened-in pool. These are pretty common down here, but us hayseeds from Indiana had never seen them before. Once the lightning passed we threw the girls in and swam in a heated pool as the rain poured in from above. It was a strange, but delightful, experience.

Those are the highlights so far. It is still cloudy this morning, but is supposed to stay dry. We’re going to sneak our friends into our resort’s pool later. The girls want to go shelling again, but low tide hits in the middle of the night so we can’t hit the ideal times for the best shells. But I’m sure they’ll add to their already impressive collections.

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We are off. To Florida. Again.

I know.

We are spoiled rotten, and our daughters are going to grow up to be contemptuous brats that complain because they’ve been pamered their entire lives.

I mean, who goes to Florida twice in two months?

It was an unexpected combination of factors that has us well on the way to Captiva Island by the time you are reading this. We felt a little silly going south for spring break when we were just at Disney. But the combination of factors seemed like a sign that we should take advantage of this opportunity. You never know when the things you always thought you could do later are no longer options.

So wish us luck. We’ll be in the van 12-13 hours today and spend the night in Valdosta, Georgia before continuing on to Captiva on Saturday. We will then spend a week in the pool, walking the beach, and enjoying the sun (we hope). And next Friday night/Saturday we’re busting out that 18-19 hour return trip in one epic drive. If you go to church, please pray that we don’t kill each other or lose our minds that day.

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We haven’t taken a ton of family vacations over the years. But when we have we’ve always been fortunate to have safe travels and good times at our destination. Our luck held up once again and we had a fantastic time last week on our first (and still expected to be last) trip to Disney World. I’ll do my best to sum up the week without forcing you to read for half an hour.

We flew down Tuesday, leaving Indianapolis when it was a brisk 9°. We made it safely to Orlando¹ and headed to our hotel, the Buena Vista Palace, right across from Downtown Disney. The hotel was a little older, giving off a bit of a 70s-80s vibe, but was in good shape and was sparsely occupied. We were a quick 15-minute bus ride from the Magic Kingdom and only had to cross the street for shopping and dining.

Wednesday we got up bright and early and arrived at the Magic Kingdom shortly after the gates opened at 9:00 am. The girls got First Visit buttons at the ticket window, which they loved, and then we took the monorail across to the park, which they also loved. OK, they pretty much loved everything about the next 72 hours.

We strolled down Main Street, USA, taking in all the images we had seen on TV for years. There was Cinderella’s Castle in front of us, so of course we snapped a few pictures. The girls had their heads on swivels looking for any characters that might be buzzing around that they could grab for autographs. We worked our way back to the new Fantasyland section of the park and hopped on our first ride, Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid. Ooohing and aaahing commenced.

We did a lot of research and picked last week knowing it was A) already a short week for M. and C. at school and B) would not be a busy week at the parks. We were right on with that second assumption. We didn’t have to wait more than 10 minutes for any ride or show over our three days at Disney. Our longest delay was for our shuttle bus Wednesday afternoon after one skipped our stop and we had to wait for 45 minutes rather than 15. It was sunny and in the low 70s, so if we had to wait it was the day to do it.

We spent about four hours at the park Wednesday. That night we went over to Downtown Disney for shopping and dinner, where the girls got their obligatory mouse ears.² A very solid first day.

Thursday was set to be our busiest day. The girls had brunch with the princesses at Epcot. S. and her step-mother took them to that while my father-in-law and I waited at the hotel. We met the ladies at the Animal Kingdom in the early afternoon. As we approached each other from opposite bus stops, M. and C. ran full speed towards us, screaming about how great every single minute of the brunch was. The princesses were awesome! They had the best eggs ever! The got autographs and pictures with all the princesses! There was a Mexican Donald Duck! You get the point.

We spent a few hours in Animal Kingdom, which was super cool as well. We took the Dinosaur ride, which was a little rough, very loud, and was apparently a little scary to one of the girls. When we exited the ride and walked by the screens with the images snapped of us during the ride, six of us were looking around at the dinos while M. sat with her arms gripping the safety rail and her head ducked beneath them. Apparently she sat like that the entire time. She got some courage later, though.

We went home for a few hours then headed back to the Magic Kingdom for the night time events. We barely made it in time for the Electrical Parade. After that we hung around for the nightly fireworks show, which was spectacular, of course. After that we ran into our only crowd issues of the week. Apparently everyone who goes to any of the parks during the day crams into the Magic Kingdom at night for the shows, and then tries to get out at the same time. It was like the entire crowd from a Colts game trying to get out of one exit gate at once. It was amazingly crowded and everyone was right on the verge of getting frustrated. But after a couple tense moments everyone started moving and we got out of the park surprisingly quickly.

We spent Friday in the Magic Kingdom again, knocking out Adventureland and Frontierland and finally riding the Tomorrowland Speedway cars. In Frontierland we took M. and C. on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster. We weren’t sure how they would do, but, keeping with the theme of the week, they loved it. It’s not a crazy coaster with loops and huge drops, but it’s a lot bigger than the dinky kids coasters they’ve gone on at the church festival around the corner each summer. As soon as we got off M. said she wanted to ride it again and again, and if she ever came back to Disney that would be the first thing she rode. So I guess it worked out ok. L. drove me on the Speedway and spent the entire time giving a running commentary on our status in the race, how we had to catch C. and S. in front of us, and how we were going to win the championship. She’s a funny kid.

We said goodbye to the parks and returned to the hotel to spend a little time in the pool before the sun set. There were three pools, but only one was heated. As nice as it was, it was not warm enough to be in an unheated pool. Fortunately there were mostly adults sitting in the sun and the warm pool had only a few kids in it, so the girls were able to splash around for a while. There was a small lake around the hotel, and the banks were full of all kinds of cool birds looking for fish and other critters to eat. The girls laughed and laughed when they saw a couple ducks sitting at the end of one of the pools.

The weather was perfect the entire time. It was a little chilly Wednesday morning, but each afternoon the temperature pushed well into the 70s. As I said, the crowds were completely tolerable. We were constantly thankful that our schedules allowed for us to go at a time when the parks weren’t overrun with families and the lines were crazy.

A friend asked if I had become a Disney convert. I wouldn’t go that far. I had a good time, and love that the girls loved it. They said that Thursday, with the princesses and safari and fireworks, was the best day of their lives. I was fascinated by the logistical miracle that is Disney. From the clever disguising of the lines to the easy access to everything that is important, it’s an amazing place just to look around and observe how it works. But we have no plans to go back. This trip was crazy fun, but S. and I agree that it’s a one-time thing and we have other places we want to visit as a family while the girls are still little.

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There’s no easy way to say this, so I’m just going to let it rip: we’re going to Disney World tomorrow.

I didn’t go when I was a kid. My parents were never in position to afford it when I was little. And I wasn’t ever into anything Disney. In fact, the contrarian streak in my personality could probably be traced back to my early loathing of Mickey and the rest of the Disney gang. And thus I figured there was no real reason to take my kids.

My stance has softened, though. We’ve been talking about taking this trip for about two years and the timing finally worked out right to do it now.¹ As I mentioned two months ago, we let the girls know about the trip the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. They were excited, but the anticipation of Christmas kept it in the backs of their minds. Once we got past the holidays, though, and we started putting stickers on the calendar to countdown the days until departure, things changed.

They’ve been in rare form the last 48 hours or so. If there’s a wall within their sight, odds are they’re bouncing off of it. Our patience has been tried many times, but it’s not like we can say, “If you don’t calm down, we’re not going to Disney on Tuesday.” I think even L. would see right through that. So we’re hoping they can chill just a bit and get through the next 28 hours or so until we arrive at our hotel without making us lose our minds.

We don’t have too many concrete plans. We have three days in the parks. We’ll probably spend most of that time in the Magic and Animal Kingdoms. The girls have a breakfast date with some princesses on Friday. My in-laws are joining us so we’ll have more adults than kids.

All our friends who have been keeping telling us what a great job everyone at Disney does making sure the kids have a great time. And even parents who were anti-Disney like me said they ended up having a great time. So I’m doing my best to approach with an open mind and make it a fun, memorable trip for all.

I don’t know if I’ll get a chance to update the blog or not while we’re away. If not, you know I’ll post a complete summary upon our return.

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