Disney – Day 1
Hello blog readers. Let me apologize about not blogging yesterday. The condo in which we are staying does NOT have a wireless connection (and I didn’t find this out until we got back from the evening’s festivities, which I’ll talk about that in a moment).
Our day began in beautiful, north Valdosta; all of us were rested and ready to get going. We actually made extraordinarily good time, which was a bad thing. You see, our room was not supposed to be ready until 4p, so when we were about 30 minutes away at 1p, we had to think of something quickly. As we were driving down Route 27, looking at the citrus trees, MaryBeth wondered aloud whether there was such a thing as “U-Pic” oranges. Not 15 minutes later, what do you know? We find a U-Pic Citrus farm. How better to pass the time?
So we pulled off and picked ourselves a ¼ bushel of oranges – couldn’t ask for much fresher, eh? (I have to say, though, that I still prefer to pick apples, as it is MUCH easier to eat the <ahem> fruits of your labor when one is picking a fruit whose skin can be eaten.) Nevertheless, 10lbs of oranges and an hour later, we were back on the road again.
We arrived at the condo around 2:30p or so and, well, our room wasn’t ready. Hmmm…we had a car full of anxious children, luggage, and dry foods – what to do? SWIM! So we dug through the suitcases (which, of course, were in the most inconvenient part of the car) and got everyone’s swim suit. We swan in, what I am sure, was a heated (to bathtub temperature) pool for about 45+ minutes. After which, I got dressed and checked in.
We unloaded the car, unpacked, did an inventory, went shopping for remaining necessities, came home, made and ate dinner, and then we were off to the races. The plan was simple: head over to the Polynesian Resort and watch the Electric Light Parade (a water based parade of lighted floats) and then watch the fireworks over the Magic Kingdom.
What we didn’t plan on was the blustery, near hurricane force winds (well, okay, probably not THAT windy, but it was pretty darn windy), that impeded MY enjoyment of the evening. Hey? I’m in Florida – you know, sunny, WARM, Florida. Well, guess what? When the sun goes down, it’s not so warm. I was out in my short sleeve shirt and shorts and was FREEZING. (Have I mentioned that chemo makes me temperature sensitive??)
Well, I found a towel, wrapped it around myself, and tried not to shiver too much. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the beach outside the Polynesian Resort and did not even notice (I don’t think) the cool temperature. I endured and the gang saw the fireworks (I even was quasi successful at getting images (which, is difficult if one does not have a tripod). Then we piled into the car, got back to the condo, threw the kids into the bathtub, and everyone promptly fell asleep (except me, as I am sitting up late writing this blog in Word, so that I can upload it more quickly tomorrow).
There you have it: a somewhat brief exposé of Day one in Disney. I have embedded the slideshow below, but if you would like, you can see a larger version of it on Flikr here.
Tomorrow, the FUN really begins.
Merle