Around The U.S.A in 75 days

March 25

The kids with Little Poppa and Charlotte

Got in a little late last night after the drive from New Orleans….drove through 2 states, more rain and LIGHTNING, and, here’s a new one….toll roads…..Finally arrived to a mediochre KOA right off of the 4 and 27 freeways, got to bed and the alarm went off at 5:00 (Florida time….we still feel in a time warp having lost another hour on the way here)….Bill, Vic and Jim and Charlotte got here about 7:15 to take us to breakfast before we went to spend a “MAGICAL” day at the Disney parks…

The Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom

Beautiful weather, hot already…..We went to the Golden Corral Buffet and Christian was so happy, having recently discovered that at a buffet, he can eat as much as he wants!!! We had a nice visit with Jim and Charlotte and had to say goodbye to them….I wish we didn’t live quite so far away (we only get to see them once a year on their trip to Santa Rosa and we will miss that this year since we are on our trip, glad they were still here when we traveled through)…..and the race began to see as much as we could at all 4 Disney parks…..some say that we are CRAZY but hey we are only here for two days, ok……

Looking out at Expedition Everestt

We started at the Disney Animal Park on the safari ride which was really cool and then on to ride Everest Expedition (very fun!)….we watched the Lion King show (very impressive just like anything that Disney does)….we ventured over to Hollywood Studios so that the kids could ride Tower of Terror (even Christian went this time, this is Gracie’s absolute favorite ride) and we tried to get fast passes to Rock ‘n Roller Coaster and the new Toy Story ride (we got passes for one and they were all gone for the other)…..on to Epcot to explore some science and countries…..we ate at Mexico and rushed back to Hollywood Studios to ride the coaster…..awesome ride and we all had a blast!!! When we got off of the Rock ‘n Roll Coaster, Gracie begged me to do an activity that we were passing, so we slowed down to check it out and we started chatting with the cast member that was there….he asked us where we were headed next and we told him we were hoping to get on the Toy Story ride even though the wait was super long…not condusive to a one day trip…..so he starts to reach into his pocket and pulls out two pieces of paper and says, “Well, would it help if I gave you these passes? They are good for up to 5 people on any ride…” WOULD IT HELP?? WOW!!!! Would it ever!!!!! So, thanks to Arrin from Minnesota, we got to get onto the Toy Story ride that we would not have been able to ride….YEAH!!! That made our day!! From there we rode the monorail to Magic Kingdom in the hopes of seeing the Electric Light Parade and the Fireworks show…..halfway through the fireworks, I realized that we had not seen the princesses yet so Vic and I quickly figured out where they were stationed and I headed over there with Gracie while the others went to do some rides……being evening, I never thought that the lines would be long but when we got there we discovered there would be a little wait….oh well, a trip to Disney is not complete for my little girl without seeing the princesses so she and I waited…..Meanwhile, I am still nursing my stomach along and all day I have had stomach cramps so by this time I am doubled over at times…..not so fun…..when it was Gracie’s turn she was so excited to see that Aurora was first, she is her favorite! Next was Belle and then Cinderella, who was impressed with Gracie’s shirt because her picture was on it!!! She complimented her on the shirt and Gracie was beaming!! When we exited we came upon the Electric Light Parade on Main Street so we watched a little of it and Gracie commented, “Hey, how did Cinderella get into the parade so quickly?” ooops…..of course, by this time, my cell had died and so had Vic’s….Gracie and I went in search of the big kids and they were not at the appointed place of meeting……drat! We spent the next hour or so looking for them and they did the same…..Gracie got to ride the teacups and cars and we finally found them…..Not exactly how we planned the time at Magic Kingdom but it was still fun and the castle all lit up at night was so pretty, Gracie loved it!!!! It is so much bigger than Disneyland…..We gimped back to the ferry to ride to the cars (me doubled over in pain and Pam hobbling on her foot….she had stepped off of a curb the wrong way and hurt her injured right foot)…..Are we getting old or what??? When we got to the cars, it was goodbye and drive to the KOA…..did I say car? Yes, Bill graciously gave us his car to use while we are here and what a blessing that is not to drive the RV in Orlando!!! Thanks Bill!!! Of course, the minute that we got into the car every head hit the back of the seat and passed out….including Pam! I was fighting sleep big time and was so happy to pull into the KOA…tried to work on the blog but the internet is so slow here that it takes a long time to load one pic at a time…..fell asleep waiting for it to load…..sorry friends…..zzzzzzzzz