Getting back from Florida meant that it was time to officially face the big move to Pittsford. We had to start settling in to our "new normal" in preparation for the start of school, though in the end they wanted to stick around at home a bit longer, mostly for the food, I suppose! We have come to realize the boys will miss each other, which is probably the biggest irony of this whole thing. Playing together on XBox will help, but the more time we can manage together, the better. Hopefully we can find some weekends and evenings to spend together, though a little case of COVID (or two) has already put a crimp in that plan. But more on that later.
Amyway, we spent most of the week after we got back together at home. We had a lot of appointments to catch up on after a week away, and then in the middle of all of that, my dad--fresh from the kidney stone debacle--broke his ankle. He took some sort of misstep around the house and is now in a boot for a while. Unfortunately, it meant they couldn't take a trip planned for a couple weeks later to Wisconsin for my uncle's celebration of life. I did offer to come stay with my dad if my mom wanted to ride there with my cousin, but given the myriad of potential issues, my mom felt better about staying. We did get to see her the following Saturday at Kevin and Lori's TCU season opening party, which was a fun change of pace.
The following Monday was my birthday. The big 4-8. Yikes. I decided ahead of time to take that day off and finally do a long-overdue meetup with Heather and Mason (and Peter). We had been planning to go to Strong Museum (again) because there was a Peanuts exhibit there this summer that was coming to an end, and both being from Peanuts households, we thought it would be fun. Unfortunately, my birthday ended up being a gross, rainy day, which put a kink in my plan to finally get out into the board game garden at the museum (as it's never open when we're there at night or in colder weather). But we had a great time nonetheless. Since we had been to the museum around the new year, we had already done a lot of things and could just let Mason do whatever he wanted to do more of!
His favorite thing by far was this little stage. We sat there many times watching him "perform" and serving us fake popcorn!
Our favorite map fan also wanted to drive in the car with a "GPS"!
He also had fun making messages to send across the top of the pirate ship, and of course loved running through the crooked room!
The Peanuts room had some very cute photo ops!
Waiting for the Great Pumpkin!
Linus made a blanket fort!
Joe Cool himself!
Plinko to determine Franklin's schedule!
Schroeder's piano!
The whole gang!
In Snoopy's doghouse!
Selfie with Chuck!
We had a lot of fun, and it was a great way to spend my birthday, with the friend that has known me the longest and my godson (who started Kindergarten the following week...like, how?!). When I reunited with my guys that evening, we decided to go to a new place for dinner, Moo'd Burger Bar. It had great gluten-free reviews, and the food was indeed delicious.
My birthday week was another busy one, including Carter's latest infusion and a ton of work to complete, as I was still catching up from vacation. I also had a fun plan for Carter's last official summer lunch. We headed to the Pizza Hut in Brockport because they offer the buffet for lunch two days a week! Like, the real buffet that hasn't really existed since before COVID! It ended up being a bit of a wait--no surprise, it's popular!--but it was pretty much just like I remember it. Carter definitely enjoyed himself!
The next day, we all went to the zoo for the first time in a long time, as the Knighthawks were participating in an event. I don't think we'd been there since maybe early pandemic times. It's sort of depressing that they still haven't built the tropics building that they were supposed to have built forever ago. I miss the orangutans and the aviary and the charm of that old building. Even with the natural playground that's there now, it just feels like a big empty space where that building used to be. We were so excited to see the otters, as they have different ones than in the past that are so much more active. We had a blast watching them wrestle and chase one another.
The lizards seemed to like the windows that day...
These frogs all nestled in the plant cracked me up.
The red panda was adorable...
...but the penguins were pretty much as inactive as usual.
We saw the sea lions from above and then saw the polar bear.
She looked a little bored.
The lion is so regal.
The baboons gave us a close view of their interaction.
We saw the giraffes and zebras, too. No great pictures, and honestly, after Animal Kingdom Lodge, seeing them was a little less exciting than usual. We practically lived with them for a few days, after all!
I thought this lizard was pretty cool looking!
And this was a very pretty bird!
We got a good view of the rhino...which made me think of the time I saw a tranquilizer dart in the one rhino's butt on our way out of the zoo.
We got a lovely view of one of the elephants, too.
On our way out, we stopped to get the underwater view of the sea lions. It was cool because there was a service dog there and the sea lions seemed really interested in it!
We went to Buffalo the next day to stop at the outlets (of course) and celebrate Craig's dad's birthday (and mine). And with that, we just had a quiet Labor Day and summer was over. Tuesday started a whole new world...but I'll get into that in another post!
Monday was our last day. It was definitely a bummer. I think we've determined that an eight-day vacation would be ideal--four park days and four resort days (although two of those would be partial travel days, too). This felt better than last year, but with the park days (which were amazing), it didn't feel like enough resort time. I actually think the Brits that come in for 2-3 weeks are really doing it right, but that is definitely not doable for us!
Our first order of business was packing up. That was a challenge given the many things that were bought while we were there, but we managed. We made it out pretty early, all things considered, dropped off our luggage, and headed to Olivia's for breakfast. I saw this little guy on the way out. He was showing off his colorful neck!
Olivia's is always more than I want to spend for breakfast, but it's always SO good. Their biscuits are amazing! And we really did need one more meal there during our limited stay.
We did some pool time after that. As I was waiting for everyone to change, I noticed this hibiscus. They were everywhere last time we were there, and I hadn't seen any this time. I wasn't sure if it was just that we were there a few weeks later, or if the plants literally didn't exist anymore. After seeing this, I was even less sure. But I did remember seeing ones in that area last time, so I was very happy to find this one!
This flower is a little more chaotic, I guess, but when you look at it, it's really pretty. Apparently it's a giant crinum lily. The exotic foliage is one of my favorite things about these trips, but I wish there would have been more this time around.
I always like my pool views, and we had a great shady spot this time! I probably could have laid there all day.
We got in a couple last slides and decided we were ready to move on to the next thing. The boys actually wanted to play pickle ball! I couldn't imagine doing that in that heat (we tried tennis once and I was dying), but they hung in there for a while.
While we were waiting, I took a little detour over to the hammocks, which I always only seem to remember exist right at the end of our stay. I figured I'd give it a little test run while I was over there. It was a nice few minutes and hopefully I'll remember sooner next time!
After they wrapped up, we headed over to Disney Springs on the boat, en route to Port Orleans for lunch. While we were waiting in line for the Port Orleans boat, I was taking a drink of water and Carter somehow elbowed my water bottle. It's a metal one and it jammed into my teeth. I pretty quickly realized that it had chipped something. I could feel some rough spots, but thankfully the chip wasn't super big. Obviously I wasn't too happy about it, but it was an accident and at least it didn't really hurt--at least not like there was something that hit a nerve or anything like that. It did rub a bit on in the inside of my mouse, but it could have been so much worse. I pushed through my annoyance and grabbed the Mickey ear picture at Port Orleans with my "new" smile.
It's hard to see, but it's the bottom of the second tooth to the right of center
Unfortunately I wasn't able to get an appointment until over a week after we got home, but it was a very quick filing-down to fix it. I think I talked to the dentist longer than the actual repair took!
We grabbed lunch, and while Jacob decided not to get his beignets, Carter and I got an order to split later. They're just too good to pass up. On the way back to Disney Springs, we hit the lizard jackpot. There was this big one on a rock near the boat dock, and the fence nearby had at least a dozen hanging out on the rails!
We thought about doing a couple things at Disney Springs, but I'll be honest--between the heat and my very heavy backpack (which of course had to get searched at security...ugh)--I didn't think I'd make it too far, and what else did we really need anyway? So we hopped right back in the boat line and headed back to Old Key West for the last time. This lighthouse is always such a welcome sight when we arrive, and what a pretty view to leave with.
The view of the hospitality house building is so lovely as well. Craig had been eyeing up a painting at the one Disney art shop that looked like this, but I feel like I should just enlarge this one and call it good!
The reflection was just too perfect!
We killed time before our ride to the airport, just hanging out in the hospitality house, eating beignets, and enjoying my last bottle of iced coffee that I didn't get to drink for breakfast when our food went missing. Unfortunately, the Dole Whip machine never got fixed, or else I would have had one of those for the road, too. Eventually it was time for our ride, but we did get our traditional family photo, just not on our traditional bench (someone was using it). Six feet away is acceptable!
Once we got to the airport, we had to cross our fingers for Jacob's security screening again. Fortunately, his passport was waiting in our mail when we got home, meaning it was now in the system and the screening was pretty quick and uneventful. We headed through to the gate and settled in pretty early to charge phones and relax. While we were sitting there, my mom called me and said that my dad was likely heading to the emergency room for some bad abdominal pain. One of them was supposed to pick us up, so hopefully it would be a quick visit and everything would be ok. In the end, it turned out to be a kidney stone with some false alarm GI symptoms (darn you, red Slurpee!). The kidney stone will have to be surgically removed next week. Not great, but at least something that had a fix!
Carter and I grabbed some dinner in the terminal, and before we knew it, it was time to leave. I ended up spending most of the flight reading my book on my tablet, but I did have some entertainment out the window. The sunset was lovely.
This distant thunderstorm somewhere over Georgia was quite entertaining...even if I had to take video while practically clotheslining Carter!
The flight was otherwise uneventful and before we knew it, we were back in Buffalo. My mom was able to take a break from the emergency room to grab us. My dad was stable and close to being discharged, and honestly, the break was probably nice! She dropped us off at the house to grab the rest of our stuff, and we headed back to Rochester since we both had to work the next day. It was a late night, but worth it to be back.
I have a lot of thoughts about this trip. For starters, there are so many things that perplex me about Disney. How do people wear pants? How do people afford to go for a couple weeks? How do they afford giant families? How do they afford alcohol? I'm always shocked by the amount of money that's spent there and wonder--especially in this economy--how even that many people can do it. We couldn't if we couldn't use the DVC points. I'm still not sure this trip was particularly wise, because we also got hit with a wave of expenses related to the apartment and all of that at the same time (paying bills was NOT fun last month), but I'm still glad we did it.
I realized when I was there that I really don't take those trips for granted. I really do savor each and every moment in the bubble. Life needs more magic, and Disney is full of it. I love all of the little things--the details at the resorts, the efficiency of the bus system, the beauty of the parks, the fun of the rides, and every fun memory we make. I wish food wasn't so expensive, and I wish it was easier to go at a time of year where it wasn't so hot, but otherwise...I just love it. I soak in every moment on the balcony, every walk through the resort, and every gorgeous photo op. I feel oddly at peace there in the midst of a crazy, chaotic vacation. I don't know how else to describe it, but with every trip it gets harder to envision a year where we don't go back. We are trying to put it off next year and go every other year, but we'll see how that goes. When we do go back, we'll have a lot of thinking to do about how we want to structure things again. Could we do another park-less trip? There are so many things that will be coming up new there, so it will be tough to avoid them for long. Resort time is pretty nice, I have to say. Speaking of which, we learned our lesson that Old Key West is our happy place and it should always get the majority of the days if we split our stay. We liked the experience of Animal Kingdom Lodge, and the beds there are better, but it didn't feel quite the same until we got back to Old Key West. Their slogan is "Welcome Home!" and it couldn't be more true.
So, it's been a pretty crazy three weeks since we got back and I guess that will be coming in the next post or two...
When we came out of Star Tours, the Golden Hour was in full swing! The lighting over Star Wars Land was lovely.
We had accidentally missed our Millennium Falcon Lightning Lane, but the line wasn't terrible anyway, so we headed there. However, it turns out they still accept it even if you miss it, so on we went, even quicker than we thought! We unfortunately only ended up as gunners, as Carter really wanted to drive and prove he was better at it than Jacob! However, that ended up being just as well because I realized as I was sitting on the ride that it was check-in time for our flight home and I needed to do it ASAP as I didn't want to get a terrible boarding group. I ended up spending most of the ride trying to log in, only to get a text from Craig in the middle of it that he had checked us in. Whew. Not exactly how I wanted that to go, but at least both things were accomplished regardless.
When we came out, Golden Hour had transitioned to sunset, which was so pretty.
We passed one of the "grenade" Coke vendors on our way out of Star Wars Land and remembered that Carter wanted to get one of those to go with his Sprite from last time. The spherical bottles in fictional language Aurebesh (who knew?) are really cool!
We wandered back through Toy Story Land, which is always very pretty at night, and confirmed the Slinky Dog line was still too long.
While there were lots of other rides on this trip that I would have liked to ride, Slinky Dog was the only one that would have been a must-ride under any other circumstances. But between our limited park time and the rainy day keeping it closed for so long, leading to long lines the rest of the day, we really couldn't spare the hour and a half it would have taken to ride. Had we not had some other plans to finish off the night, or if this particular park had more non-essential rides to kill time on, I probably would have suggested we maximize our time by riding a bunch of other things and then hopping in line right before closing time, since you get to ride as long as you're in line before then. Oh, well.
We did wander around a bit more because I wanted to check the Indiana Jones store to see if I could find my African carving souvenir there, but unfortunately it was closed. We did get to see Echo Lake almost completely drained. Turns out the dinosaur doesn't have legs. The boat looked pretty funny, too.
Hollywood Boulevard looked gorgeous on our way out.
To end our evening, we decided to hop the Skyliner to head over to EPCOT. We figured we could maybe ride Journey into Imagination (since, as mentioned, Figment is one of our favorites). The sunset was so pretty as we took off, but unfortunately, we had a wrap on our gondola and it was hard to get a good picture. I took one through the little screen, and this was the best I could do.
I did get a slightly better through the side windows, though by then the color intensity had faded a bit.
Well, when we got to EPCOT, we realized the wait on the Ratatouille ride was actually pretty short, which was rare. We made the last-second decision to hit that one up while we had the chance for a short wait.
I was actually sort of happy we did because I had forgotten they had converted that ride to 2D, so no more glasses and probably less motion sickness for most people. I don't really think it made the ride any less effective. Apparently a week or two after we got back, they added some new, oversized props to the ride, like a cheeseboard and some other items to the last scene. I guess that's reason to ride it again next time!
When we came out, the fireworks show was just coming to an end. I guess we've never stuck around for it that deep in the park, because we'd never seen the end result--this amazing water feature:
We figured there was no sense rushing since the buses would be busy for a while, so we gradually made our way back toward the front of the park. I loved this lighted walkway.
We also stopped for a picture with Walt the Dreamer!
As the fireworks were over, Spaceship Earth resumed its light show, which allowed me to redeem the lack of good pictures a couple days earlier. I got some good ones!
Cameo by the streaking Monorail...I knew it probably wouldn't turn out but I sort of like it anyway.
Too many favorites! Just so you get the full effect:
I made Carter sit there for probably a bit longer than he would have liked, but honestly, the rest for our feet probably wasn't the worst thing. I finally consented to head out, though I did grab one more pic for the road, just because the moon above was too good to pass up!
Not for nothing, would it kill them to fix the rogue lights? They're wrecking my perfect pictures!
It's always sad to leave that view behind, and it being the last park of the trip made it a double bummer. Even if we had 2/3 of a day left in the bubble the next day, leaving the last park is the first step away from the magic and back to reality. Sigh. We headed back to the resort, and while I would have liked to check on the status of the Dole Whip machine (Key lime would have really hit the spot that point, but alas, I would have been disappointed), we would have missed it by a few minutes. Oh, well. Back to the room we went. Suffice it to say, there is no tired quite like Disney tired!
Melting into my bed, a happy but tired mess!
The real magic of Disney truly is that you can spend your trip exhausted, overheated, hangry, overstimulated, and newly poor, but you still love it so much that you can't wait to go back.
