So I'm still searching for pics from my 2004 CP. I did manage to find a bunch of pics from when my dad came down in 2009 just before I left Orlando, since I had to use my parents' computer to fix our wireless router once the stupid tech left after basically telling us that it wasn't the phone company's fault that our DSL wasn't working, even though once he switched the boxes, it worked perfectly fine.
Anyway!
So in early January 2009, I lost my job at Disney. I'd been looking for other work for months, since my hours got cut because of the economy, but I couldn't find anything. I talked to my parents about it and decided to give it another two weeks and if I couldn't find anything, they'd buy me a plane ticket home and my dad would come down to give me two extra suitcases, since that was cheaper than driving or shipping. We've flown Southwest for years. That's what wound up happening (obviously), so the last weekend of January, my dad came down.
As we were staying at my apartment, he rented a car. Now, most people would rent a "normal" car. Not my dad. He was in the mindframe of "I'm going to Florida, it's going to be nice and sunny and warm..." Either that or the desk clerk successfully upsold him. Either way, he pulled up outside my apartment driving this:
And, naturally, as soon as he left the airport with the top down, it started to rain. Also, since he had a map from
1987, he got very lost and had to call me. I bought him a new atlas this year for his birthday. He didn't think it was funny.
When he finally got to my apartment, it had stopped raining, so he put the top back down. He unloaded his things into my apartment and said hi to my roommate and got a soda. As I started to pack some of my excess stuff in his extra suitcases (he packed lightly so he could just do a carry-on), we talked about what we were going to do over the weekend. He wanted to go to the parks, but I didn't have my maingate anymore and I didn't want to try and get a hold of anyone to ask them to get us in. We decided to go get some lunch and figure it out from there. We went to this awesome Chinese place by my apartment and decided to go to Downtown Disney and walk around.
So that's what we did. Of course, once we got there, it started to rain again. I don't remember what all we did, but I know we stopped in a bunch of the stores, and definitely World of Disney.
After a while, we decided that we wanted to go and see some of the resorts. We left the car at Downtown Disney (with the top up) and took the Disney bus to a resort.
Wilderness Lodge!
My dad's a carpenter, a hunter, and we own a cabin in the northwoods of Wisconsin, so I thought he'd like to see it. He LOVED it.
A few years ago, we completely remodeled our basement. He installed an electric fireplace, so he absolutely loved the enormous fireplace in the lobby.
He also likes trains.
We explored the lobby and spent some time walking around the grounds. We found our way over to the pool and the beach and, at some point, found a forgotten poncho on the ground. It was one of the Disney ones. My dad decided to keep it. Somewhere after finding the poncho, we decided to go to another resort.
We took the bus... somewhere? I don't know where, because the next picture I have is of my dad in the front of the monorail
Which, by the way, he also loved.
Apparently, we got off the monorail at MK and then walked down to the boat launch. I guess I was trying to show my dad all the various ways of transportation or something
It was full, so we had to wait for the next one.
This time, we were heading for the Grand Floridian. When we got off the boat, he stopped on the dock, looked around, sniffed, and said, "I smell steak." I said, "Yeah, that's Narcoossee's" and pointed to it. He went over and looked at the menu, since we were both getting hungry, and then walked away once he saw the prices
My dad loved the lobby here.
He also loves antiques, especially cars, so when we wandered out to the bus stop and saw these, he had to have pictures.
After that, we took the bus back to Downtown Disney to grab the car and head home. We were both starving at this point, so we stopped at the McDonald's by my apartment and got dinner there.
I think the thing I'm looking forward to most is just the cheddar soup from Canada. I've never had it! I'm also really looking forward to trying the cheese fondue, but I couldn't find a picture of it 
I'm at 47 days and 3 hours until my plane leaves 
. Can't wait for food and wine. I agree that you just have to snack around the world.
I don't think that'll ever happen, but you never know 
I plan on snacking around the world, but just in case I'm hungry again late in the evening, I do have that stop at Casey's planned. If I don't use that credit, I can use it in the morning at Pop or something.
I wonder if they have the pretzel bread at the booth, but if they don't, I can always run back to Germany and get a pretzel. I like pretzels and cheese 
.
) and the mini-TR is great!! 
