My Pre Trip report was a great outlet for my fears - so I will continue - thanks to the encouragement of Utahmama - Cast:
Me: old enough to know better, but wanting to be better!! Somehow lost sight of the mouse - came back big time - Knowing the only way to get back to Disney alone with DH was to run 13.1 miles
DH Hasnt run a marathon in 19 years... of course I didnt realize this until after the finish!! Very supportive, and he has come to the pixie dust side... if he asks one more time about signing up for '09 I'm going to have to....
Background
We are over 40 - close, very close to 50. We have been married 26 years and counting, started dating Valentine's Day 1977 - my High School Band did Disney - before cell phones, and dh found an itinarary and called the hotel we stayed at and asked me to Prom... and the rest is history... in the making!! We have 3 DK - DS soon to be college graduate
Hard of Hearing, and engaged to be married Jan '09 (so no Marathon Jan '09!) DS #2 Music Ed Major - Bassoon!! (mild hearing loss) and our surprise blessing DD 11 (more pics and background in link in Pre Trip Report)
Thursday Jan 10
You never get enought done the night before. Got to bed at 1AM, the 3:45am wake up call is EARLY!! But all goes well, and I went into the garage and found the red glow sticks... Stuff them in our carry on luggage (we didnt intend to check luggage, and there would be a WISH meet Friday)
DS#2 graciously offered (yes, he did offer, almost to the point of insisting on driving us to the airport!!) to drive us - and he was in charge of DD Thursday and Friday - getting her TO school at 7:30am and home Thurs 2:10, Friday 3:10 (band) that was the plan anyways...
Left the house at 4:35am and arrive at OHare at 5:10AM - Boarding Pass in hand printed the night before - will security let thru the glow sticks? (75 of them btw) or wont they... uh oh - "Ma'am you'll need to... take off your sweatshirt, it must be put in a tub" hmmmm
My swetshirt must be put in a tub, glow sticks ok - coat "NO NO MISSY!"To ze plane - 25 purple people - they stand out - they are mostly "coaches" and trainees apparently - I had red reports from the WISH come/event thread, and admired their fundraising for lekemia... but they can be "wild" yep, look at that guy - he shaved his head - but for the top splotch - its a MICKEY!! I tried to snag a pic, but to no avail - too many other shirts watching me...
will my 48" long makie it passed the sign as we board "only 37" bags allowed on board" and I checked AA site online, it said 45" - I took a chance.... no problemo
Take off fine - no movies on AA, but you get a whole full can of... DR PEPPER!! Dh slept, I read... and yes there was this dad that had his two kids in the row behind us, no adults by them - his wife and him were... 5 ROWS BACK - but would someone want to switch??? - - they didnt switch, and the boys were fine (young age 2nd or 4th graders I estimate)
Airport - smell the enthusiasm, run to monorail, but alas, I usually fly Ted/United, and forgot we needed to be in "B" terminal... finally get there - Line up for the ME pass and get in line for the BCV - and wait... and wait... 15 min until our line and the line next to us had enough people to fill that ME buss - (and we were the only ones that had carry on luggage, it really confused that driver, so dh of course tipped him!!)
ROOM READY - 441 -
We had a studio, I wanted to be close to EPCOT - and I can see the Eiffel Tower!! Nice balcony - nice room, no jucuzzi - but nice... real nice... and the difference between Pop and Deluxe - FEATHER PILLOWS!!
Wish I had packed the code to keep the a/c turned ON - how annoying it was to get hot, or walk into a hot room... it didnt take long to cool off, but still, I was constantly pushing buttons!!aldisneygrl and I had exchanged emails throughout the year, she is a PEEP who chose to grab her dd to do the 5K race with her on Friday - brave woman, after being stomped on by a Hockey Coach too!! So talking to her on the phone, I told her we'd get to the Expo as soon as we finished our lunch from Hurricane Hannahs - and we caught the boat to MGM, then the bus to the EXPO for our RACE NUMBERS (please, no one call them bibs to dh - dh is a runner, from the old school, and bibs were something they mocked back then I guess
RACE NUMBERS)I have to mention our captain on the boat - he was reading the 3ring binder and saying how he was supposed to say all of this as a speech, in 3 min - they remembered its Disney Studios, if they trip up and say MGM - "just seeing if you were paying attention" or "not all the signs are changed, we get to keep practicing" and he was funny corny - "You must be on the boat by 8pm, the next boat to come and get you from Studios will be at 8am"
the line to get the packet was 30,000 strong surely!!
They didnt want to let too many inside the packet pick up area at a time -
for some reason my line for my packet was non existant, if my number had been 100 longer - the line was 40 - 50 people strong!! DH wished he had ordered us the pins - esp since now on ebay they are selling high!!BAck to the room, put ice on my ankle, and grab the Champagne - and promptly fell asleep - luckily dh woke up at 7:25pm - our Ressies for Yachtsman Steakhouse at 7:30 - can I just say the Bread and roasted garlic here are well worth the trip??? OMG - BREAD!!! and do note that classy steakhouses know exactly what medium rare is - I'm so used to med rare being pink, it throws me off when it looks more rare then medium!! Then time for dessert - well the chocolate dessert looks good, but "mint gelato?" can I have plain chocolate? SURE!! WAY!!! ummm where has Gelato been all my life!! (gads I'd be pushing 300#'s if I'd discovered it sooner!!) On DDP with wine and tip our meal was $42.95 - the Australian Syrah was a perfect compliment to the steak -
Walking back to the room was romantic - lovely - peruse the meal at Cape May, my post race food, and dh's pre race food - YUMMM its all about food thank you very much!! Found out the Beach CLub Marketplace has GELATO - dh gets a refillable mug of Hot Chocolate, and a toasted almond gelato!! perfect
Get to room as Fantasmic and Illuminations are going - all from the balcony!!
(side note to couples only vacation - no Practical PJ's - even if the night before a huge event, dont pack them, nope, this may take another 26 years, so get the flimsy stuff out of the back of the drawer, and dust it off - its a requirement!!)
I'm very blessed!
It's great to have you as a "real life" friend.
The enormity of it all overwhelms me. I try to walk, but I just cry. Dh comes out of the shower, sees me crying, and I say, "I fell and I didnt get hurt" WHAT? "You fell and I didnt get a purse? I'll buy you a purse!" 
