So moving right along (yes, I am moving at a snail's pace, I know).
The plan had been to go to the Nursing Home to see Mark's mom on Friday night to say goodbye in case she passed while we were gone. As many of you know, she passed that Thursday night/Friday morning when we got the call at midnight. So instead, Mark left work early (they yelled at him for even being at work) and we did a few chores, went to dinner and called his Dad to see how he was doing. We then put all of the luggage but our last piece in Andy's car and were in bed by 9:30 as we had to be up at the ungodly hour of 3:30 (or I did anyway) to leave for the airport at 4:30 a.m.
Saturday at 3:30 in the morning arrived quicker than I thought it would and I literally jumped out of bed because our day had finally arrived. I took a shower, put on my make-up, did my hair and then woke Mark up. While he was showering, I finished packing the last suitcase with my make-up, curling iron, etc.
At 4:20 a.m., I went to make sure Andy was up and ready to go by 4:30. Mark walked the dog while I snuck the last piece of luggage in the car, along with my computer, my purse and my carry-on bag (Mark would be carrying the computer at the airport). At exactly 4:30 a.m., we were loading in the car with Andy driving and heading to O'Hare Airport.
At exactly 5:00 a.m., we were pulling up to this:
Andy helped us unload the luggage, gave us both a kiss goodbye and told us to have a great trip.
We found the skycap, and checked in our luggage. Now, here is where my WONDERFUL boss comes in. For those of you who read my PTR, you know that my boss upgraded Mark and I to First Class for our going and coming home. Being that we hadn't flown First Class in at least seven years, we forgot that our luggage was free. This was great considering we had three pieces of luggage this trip.
A couple of pictures before heading into security:
We headed to security, and yet another perk of First Class: our own line through security.
So between arrival at the airport, checking luggage and going through security we were done in exactly 25 minutes!
We left security and headed to our terminal/gate (love these lights):
And, you my DIS friends, all know where we stopped first:
Mark doesn't like Starbucks, so we stopped at another location (I don't remember the name of it) and we got him a coffee and a muffin:
Soon it was time to board the plane. Once on board and sitting down and the plane loaded, we were offered a beverage before take off. I never say no to coffee...and don't you just love that it is in a REAL cup???
In no time at all, our chariot
was taking off and we were airborne (do you think someone was either overtired or just excited we were finally going?)
Once we were at our altitude, the Flight Attendant came and asked what we wanted for breakfast. I had cereal and fruit (Mark ate my fruit) and Mark had something similar to an Egg McMuffin and a banana and a bagel (the Egg McMuffin thing was just okay he said...nothing special):
The flight was so smooth that I actually slept for about 40 minutes. Before we knew it, we were making our descent into Orlando and our happy place:
Before heading over to ME, Mark had to turn his new phone off "airplane mode" (as you can tell by the picture, he doesn't have a clue what he's doing...and still doesn't
).
We always stop for one of us to get a picture here:
And, of course, the "fake monorail":
That taken care of, it was time to head to the Magical Express. I was so excited for Mark to do this for the very first time. There were only a few people in line in front of us and we only waited five minutes for a bus. Unfortunately, we didn't get THE ME bus, but the Mears bus.
But that's okay, because we were still on the bus
And we got to see this:
Before you knew it, we were passing under that beautiful arch. I had too many big heads in front of me on the bus, so I got this picture instead...and it still tells me we are at Disney:
Up next, will we have a magical check-in at Old Key West?
AND I PROMISE TO GET CAUGHT UP ON ALL OF YOUR THREADS I'M FOLLOWING BEFORE MY NEXT UPDATE!