Orlando Vacation Part II, Day Six

We packed up and headed for Fort Myers.

The highway.

Bear Cubs wedged in. We travel light (ha).

Papa Bear at the helm.

Due to an unexpected detour in the form of a certain child needing to make a pit stop, coupled with one of those “tricked ya…can’t get back onto the highway in the direction you want to” exits, we ended up taking back roads much of the way to Ft. Myers. As a result, we ended up eating lunch at McDonald’s, where T-Bear had a record-breaking 14 unit meal. An average meal is usually between 2 and 6 units, and I really don’t ever want to have to give T-Bear that much insulin in one shot again.

Our new digs are quite a bit smaller than our last. One bedroom with two beds, one bathroom (a bit larger than the last), a living area with one TV, and a mini-bar area. Two small closets and one dresser inspired some creative unpacking on my part, but we managed to settle in. Papa Bear and the Cubs enjoyed the pool for a bit before we all got dressed and met Uncle E (Papa’s boss) and his youngest son, and two of Papa’s work associates for dinner. We went to Dock Ford’s, a very cool sea-front seafood restaurant. Service was great, and food was greater. The Sanibel Sunrise was just about the BEST fruity rum drink I've ever had; full-out fresh juices, and not too much rum. Yum. Thanks to Uncle E’s gifts to the boys, we were serenaded by obsessively and frequently recurring squishy farting noises on the drive there and back. T-Bear had so mastered his Flarp technique (after much practicing) that by the time we got back to the hotel he was averaging one fart every two seconds. Boo got some Flarp stuck on his pants. Not sure how to get that stuff off.

I called our neighbor, M, to check in and see how things were. A foot of rain in a matter of days had drenched Georgia, and some of that rain ended up in our basement. No “flooding” per se, but enough water to make for a squishy carpet. And, Boo’s beta fish, Data, finally kicked the bucket after a couple of weeks of floundering. T-Bear woke to stomach pain about an hour after we’d all gone to bed, so we were up testing BS and keytones, and managed to get him some relief in a warm bath. No more McD’s for us, thank you.

I'm supposed to be on vacation.

Orlando Vacation Part II, Day Five

Note: I’ve broken Day Five into a few bites for ease of digestion.

Magic Kingdom. Kids loved it, of course. The Weather Fairies graced us with some blessed cloud cover in the afternoon, so it was not so brutally hot. It took a full ten minutes for my camera lens to clear after I took it out of the backpack.

Lovely effect of fog on lens.

We started out with the train tour of the park, then headed for Frontier Land.

Boo and T-Bear on the train.

Boo pretty much had his fill of exciting rides at Sea World, but T-Bear eventually agreed to go on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (twice) and Splash Mountain (my favorite). And, of course, you can’t keep Brother and Papa off of any exciting ride. We all went on Pirates of the Caribbean, but T-Bear and I skipped The Haunted Mansion, T-Bear waiting anxiously at the exit for Papa, Brother and Boo to return safely from their adventure (Boo wasn’t scared at all, and had a great time).

T-Bear anxiously awaiting his family's safe return.

We had sticker shock for lunch. In addition to being exorbitantly expensive, the meals are just too bloody big for anyone with a normal appetite to finish. Too much food and overpriced is a deadly combination. It just sucks a little part of my soul away to pay that much for a meal and then to have half of it wasted to boot. Dinner wasn’t quite as bad, because we ordered fewer meals and shared them. Still expensive, but not as much went to waste. Done grumbling now. Note to self; check out other diners’ meals before ordering, so I know how big the portions are.

Other stuff we saw and did (in no particular order): Swiss Family Tree House, The Magic Carpets of Aladin, The Enchanted Tiki Room, Jungle Cruise, The Hall of Presidents, “it’s a small world”, Peter Pan’s Flight, Cinderella’s Golden Carousel, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Pooh’s Playful Spot, Donald’s Boat (Boo got completely soaked), The Barnstormer, Tomorrowland Indy Speedway (I just about passed out from the fumes…can’t they convert to electric or propane?), and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.

May I just pause a moment and say how mind-boggling huge is Disney’s … I don’t even know what to call it. It’s kind of a city with no permanent residents whose sole industry is entertainment and retail. I honestly had no clue how many parks and attractions and Disney Stuff there was here, or how long it would take to drive from one end of Disney to the other. You could spend a month here and not see everything. I can’t imagine what that would cost.

Overall, it was a very successful, very full seven-hour day. No melt-downs, and T-Bear's BS stayed pretty well in check. I've pretty much concluded that heat pushes his numbers higher, and I'm just not that great at estimating carbs on the fly. But, I managed to stay pretty stress-free and enjoy a great day with my family. What else can you ask for?

Random Pix at The Magic Kingdom

In The Hall of Presidents

My final thoughts about our day at Disney relate to my experience in The Hall of Presidents. I’ve been to the production at Disneyland in California, where President Lincoln delivers his Gettysburg Address, and have been moved by it despite the theoretical hokeyness of the entire concept. I mean, how weak do you have to be to get teary-eyed watching an animatronic machine move around to a recorded voice? But, I do. And, the Orlando presentation was even better. Disney just has a knack for pulling out emotions, and their Hall of Presidents production is no different. With a series of photos, clips of speeches, and narration by Morgan Freeman, it’s very effective. President Lincoln stands from his chair and delivers his speech. But the final sequence is the best. Every President of the United States, right up to and including President Obama, shows up all together, some speaking, some not, all making subtle movements, each spotlighted and introduced in turn. T-Bear actually gasped, pointed, and whispered “That’s Obama!” The illusion was so effective, as we left Brother Bear asked me why all those presidents didn’t get tired standing there for the whole show.

But, as cool as it was for me to see my President up there, I was actually kind of anxious during the time leading up to his introduction. And, when it came time for his introduction, there was an additional pause during which President Washington stood, gave a short speech, and then introduced President Obama. I was literally anxious about what the audience would do when his name was spoken, and how my kids would react if anyone in the audience did anything disrespectful. It’s really stupid and unfortunate that I should even have this question in my mind, but the events of the past several weeks, the nastiness of the healthcare debates, the rude, angry people showing up at townhall meetings, topped off by Senator Outburst disrupting President Obama’s speech to Congress, has left me apprehensive and doubtful about the capacity of my fellow citizens to show basic respect and courtesy for one another and for their leaders.

My mother has told me that she and my father were living in Georgia when President Kennedy was assassinated, and how appalled she was when her neighbors threw a party to celebrate. A part of me never wanted to believe that story, that Americans would ever be so horrid as to rejoice in the murder of their own democratically elected leader. But there is a significant part of me now that has been forced to acknowledge that similar parties would be thrown by many Americans, not just in my new home State of Georgia but all over our country, if President Obama were ever killed. It is a very sad thing to have to admit about the country that you love.

In the end, the audience in The Hall of Presidents was courteous and respectful, and we all quietly filed out at the end of the production. I tried to explain to Brother Bear that the presidents were mechanical on the inside, not really people, but I think that was too much for him to grasp. I guess that’s the magic of Disney, isn’t it?

Orlando Vacation Part II, Day Four

Bums. We’re all bums today. Especially me. Barely made it downstairs in time for the free breakfast buffet before it closed. Took breakfast up to our room because there was no place to sit downstairs (Saturday rush). Kids watched TV all morning. Papa Bear napped. I read and wrote. Set up a “do it yourself” sandwich station at the in-room dinette for lunch. Papa Bear took the cubs to Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Odditorium while I did a load of laundry. Sticker shock: one load of wash at the hotel’s mini-laundromat cost $2, one load of drying cost $2, and one box of detergent (one load) cost $1 in quarters. Ouch. That’s $5 for one load. Except the detergent dispenser ate my first $1, and I had to fork over another $1 to get my detergent. So, that’s $6 for one load of laundry. And, they don’t even have a change machine in there. Buzzards. I’m supposed to be on vacation. Note: Elves do not visit your room if you stake it out and refuse to leave it. Had a nice dinner at The Crab House. I took the boys for a little night swimming in the pool, then a little wine for me and Papa Bear, and a little sleep. Nice.

Orlando Vacation Part II, Day Three (Redux)

Note: I realized my first post about this day was short and lazy. Sorry. Here’s my “do over”.

Sea World. The kids LOVED it. Got there about 10:00 am and left about 6:00 pm (closing time). Lots of walking, pretty brutal heat and humidity, but we held up well enough. I seriously debated sandals vs. tennis shoes, and was grateful the tennis won out; my feet would not have easily forgiven me if I’d gone with less support.

Papa, Brother and T-Bear hit the Manta roller coaster. Despite a last-moment panic attack, T-Bear stuck with it and had a great time. And, that was the extent of his exciting rides for the day. In the mean time, Boo and I hit Journey to Atlantis, that being Boo’s only adventure ride of the day. Papa and Brother rounded out the thrill rides with the Kraken, and all of us took the Wild Arctic helicopter ride (yes, we were pretty much all nauseated when we got off). Shamu’s Happy Harbor was definitely more Boo and T-Bear’s speed, but I was bummed the water spouting part was not working.

Brother Bear and Papa Bear on Atlantis.

If the pic looks a little fuzzy around the edges, that's because my camera lense fogged up when it went from the comfy environment of my backpack (there was an ice pack in there to keep the insulin cool) to the heat and humidity of the Florida environment. I somewhat resembled my camera lense most of the day.

We saw the Shamu show and the Clyde and Seamore (seal/sea lion/otter) show. While Shamu was more inspiring, I think I liked Clyde and Seamore better because of the frequent unplanned humor. As WC Fields said, “Never work with children or animals”, and Clyde and Seamore proved his point.

Sea World does a great job showing off their animals, and I especially enjoyed the under-water views. We saw penguins, dolphins, sharks, seals, sea lions, and many other critters underwater, but my favorite were the manatees serenely eating their heads of lettuce. One of the manatees had lost a large section of her tail to a boat propeller, as well as her right front flipper which had to be amputated after getting tangled in fishing line. She really embodied the hazards that these animals face in their natural environment, and I think Sea World is doing a good job educating the public about preservation.

We petted some rays and sharks (the dolphins were done with being handled by the time we got to them). I had an interesting parental moment when one of the rays swam straight up to Boo’s hands with his mouth wide open, apparently changing his mind at the last moment in favor of not tasting Boo’s fingers. It’s probably a good thing Boo couldn’t see the open mouth, or he’d likely be scarred for life. We fed sharks (not the same ones we petted), rays and seals, as well as a couple of very aggressive birds hanging out with the seals.

T-Bear and Brother Bear being their usual vivacious and groovy selves with the five-guys-on-stilts-with-drums corp. T-Bear's blurting out "You guys ROCK!" earlier in the show probably contributed toward their being chosen for audience participation. They really did rock, by the way.

I was really impressed with how well the kids held up under the discomfort of intense heat and humidity, as well as all of that walking. We only had one melt-down from BooBoo Bear, which lasted about 10 minutes. The cherry slushie blew T-Bear’s BS out of the water, but the rest of the day he was pretty stable. Walking in the heat and humidity is apparently not as energy-burning as swimming, so I think Disney on Sunday will be pretty easy to manage. Our magic backpack worked like a charm. It was the “welcome to T1” gift from the JDRF given to T-Bear in the hospital, which included Rufus. It’s bright blue, so it’s easy to spot in a crowd at a distance, and has an insulated compartment on the back, accessed from outside to keep insulin and an icepack (insulin spoils if it reaches 90 degrees, and at $150 per vial, you don’t want to risk letting it get too hot). I only had to add ice to the compartment once during the day, and it offered the added perk of keeping my lower back cool while I wore the backpack. Sweet. It has a roomy main compartment, and smaller compartmentalized front pocket, a net side pocket, and a pocket on the front of the left strap to hold your cell phone. Not that my cell phone did me any good, since the battery died three hours after I took it off the charger. Bugger.

This is what cotton candy looks like after it's been subjected to Florida's heat and humidity for about five minutes. It was reportedly crunchy.

So, after a long day of enjoyment, and purchasing rediculously large plush animals on the way out, we headed back to the hotel. Picked up pizza at a local place. The Elves had visited again. Ahhhhhh. Bath! Bed! Sleep!

Orlando Vacation Part II, Day Two

Free breakfast buffet, followed by pool. Snacky-lunch at pool, followed by pool. Followed by nap. The Hotel Elves came while we were out and cleaned up for us. Very nice. Dinner at a nice Italian grill restaurant. Yummy, yummy steak with mushrooms, and grilled veggies. The wine was pretty good, too. TV. Sleep.

Orlando Vacation Part II, Day One

So, Orlando. Our first trip to Orlando didn’t work out so well, what with T-Bear’s ER visit and subsequent hospitalization. But, we had pre-purchased tickets to Disney and Sea World which we were not able to use the first time around, and we kind of wanted to use them. ‘Cause they’re really expensive. Papa Bear has a business meeting (snort) in Ft. Myers next week, so this was a good opportunity to slip in another Florida trip. So, off to Orlando.

So, a seven hour trip in a rented minivan. Much roomier than our Tacoma, more comfortable for everyone, and less “touching” of children made for a fairly bicker-free drive. Nice. Split our listening time between The Blue Collar Comedy channel (satelite radio is interesting) and iPod selections. Our hotel room was gratis, thanks to Papa Bear’s copious collection of AmX rewards points (business travel does have its rewards - heehee). And, thanks to Papa Bear’s frequent stays at Marriott hotels for business (coupled with a reservation mix-up), our one-room-with-two-queen-beds was upgraded to a two-bedroom-suite-with-kitchen. Sweet (heehee). The kids have their own room with TV and bathroom, we have our own room with TV and bathroom, and a nice common living room and dinette with a third TV and hide-a-bed couch. If that sounds like a lot of TVs, it is. But, sufficient space allows for much lazy lounging, which I am enjoying at all possible opportunities.