An APRIL Adventure in Autism: 2008 (8/8) Time to Say Good-Bye....

[MRYPPNS]

(Well, three of us relaxed. Billy kept pacing up and down across the floor and wouldn’t lie down, no matter how hard we tried to coax him.) Sitting still for so many hours strapped into his seat must’ve been very difficult for him and he just needed to burn off some steam.


I did my best to keep him quiet… Ed had dozed off while watching TV… but I was feeling pretty sleepy myself. I tried to read a magazine, but my eyes kept crossing and I'm sure I must've dozed a bit myself.

I so thought this story was heading to the 3 of you falling asleep and Billy wandering out of the hotel room. How scary would that be!

I have a feeling that in the future we might make that same long drive to Orlando from NH....but I'm stopping for orange juice!

 

[Hedy]

Woohoo!

 

[chicagoshannon]

Oh no little glasses of orange juice. That's how we always know we're there (we always drive, 19 hours)

The check in person at the hotel was probably reliving the highlight of her life to you. I'm guessing that kind of excitement doesn't happen very much for her.

 

[mom2mek]

Love seeing that sign....

Sara

 

[irish dancer]

irish dancer: Tricia took Irish dancing lessons for a few years and even won a medal once! Then she decided she'd rather devote her time to soccer. Only problem was, her dad/coach had to keep telling her not to point her toes when she kicked!

Kathy

LOL, who did Tricia take lessons from? Irish dance is a pretty small world. I started when I was 7yrs and have taught for nearly 20yrs now.



I LOVE Ed's old WDW photos. You should check out this thread if you'd like to see more old photos (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1117864), it is a LONG thread but you can jump around and still see a lot. One thing I've noticed in those pics and Ed's, it seems the face characters didn't wear wigs in the past. You should post these over there too, that crowd would LOVE to see them I'm sure.


There's nothing like that feeling of driving through the WDW arch upon your arrival.

 

[Charleston Princess]

Love the photos of Disneyland in the early days!!!

What an interesting conversation with the check-in clerk!

Thank goodness you had an uneventful evening, and I bet you were all beside yourselves with excitement at seeing the signs (I know we always are)!

The reading teacher in me wishes I could see the title of Tricia's book!

 

[KathyRN137]

chicagoshannon: They do look different with their own hair! And yes, I did miss that OJ!!

mrsksomeday: Oh, I'd love to see "little Bill!!"

Hedy: I do hope you find those pictures; you'd probably get such a kick out of them!

mousescrapper: Yes, Snow White looks very "natural" there. I'm so glad AR found these pictures!

MRYPPNS: Ack!! That would have been horrible!! Sorry, didn't mean to alarm you!

Dreamer & Wisher: Thank you! Little Eddie has done lots of growing since then!

mom2mek: for the sign!!

Charleston Princess: Tricia was reading a series book, Emily Winsnap and the Monster from the Deep, by Liz Kessler. I bought her the series for the trip. She practically inhales books!!

irish dancer: Thanks for the link... I rarely stray far from the TR boards!

Tricia studied at Schade Academy of Irish Dancing, here in NJ. She wants you to know that she won more medals and was annoyed that I only mentioned the one she took for first place!!

Thanks again for reading!!


Kathy

 

[mrsksomeday]

Aww poor Billy with all that stored energy, that had to be hard on him. I love that Walt Disney World sign.

The kids have grown so much since we met them, it will be a long time until Bill and I see them again and that makes me so sad .

 

[KathyRN137]

The kids have grown so much since we met them, it will be a long time until Bill and I see them again and that makes me so sad .

Just one more reason to plan one more trip!!


Kathy

 

[irish dancer]

Kathy - what a great Irish dance pic of Tricia!! LOL about the medals, when they are kids it's all about the hardware. While I don't know the Schades personally but they have a very nice school with very good dancers. I'm glad Tricia enjoyed it.

 

[moparop]

Those pics of Ed at Disneyland are priceless! No wonder Aunt Rae wants to be with your family. Disney and Ed are etched in her memory together!

One of my favorite things about staying at hotels is the homemade waffles for breakfast. We have a waffle iron and it gets used regularly around here... but there's something about the waffle at a hotel - yummo!!

My grandparents lived in Florida when we were kids and we drove to see them every spring break. My highlight of the drive was stopping for our orange juice at the welcome center. I feel your pain in not being "allowed" to stop!

 

[KathyRN137]

moparop: It was funny...I'd never seen waffles as part of a Continental breakfast before! It was a yummy surprise. And if Aurt Rae doted on Ed when he was little as much as she dotes on our kids, then it's no wonder he's spoiled!


Kathy

 

[KathyRN137]

CHAPTER SIX: Welcome Home!


It wasn’t too hard to find Old Key West Resort. Even if we hadn’t had the directions printed out, there was an abundance of signage that led us to our destination. What a relief to see that we had finally arrived!! The kids cheered and Tricia cried out, “Huzzah! Huzzah!” (What book did she get that from??) Billy’s arms were waving wildly over his head and we all winced as he let out a particularly ear-piercing stream of “EEEEeeeeEEEeee!!”



Mick-eeeey, We're Home!

The guard at the gate greeted us with a “Welcome Home!” and we turned into the parking area. Everyone was really anxious to get out of the van… our heinies were hurting so bad!! There were lots of cars parked in the Hospitality House lot and we had to drive around a bit before he found a nice shady spot under one of the many palm trees. It was a bit of a walk, but frankly, we really needed to stretch our legs anyway.



Parked under a Palm... Ahh, yes, Vacation!

Ugh! I was so stiff! I was halfway to the Hospitality House before I could walk completely upright! It was definitely after three o’clock, so I was hoping our room would be ready and we could get inside right away. Billy was practically running to get to the little TV area near check-in. We had stayed here in 2006 and, by golly, he remembered right where it was and made a bee-line for it. Before you could say, “Mickey Mouse,” he had kicked off his sneakers and flopped down onto one of the couches!


Welcome home, Billy!


Check-In Desk:

I was busy checking in at the time and didn’t take these pictures on that day, but I did want to show you “Papa’s Den,” the quaint, highly-themed little sitting area at the HH fashioned after Ernest Hemmingway’s home in Key West.

I had purposely not requested anything special for our studio accommodations this time around. I have found that, unlike the other WDW resorts, the DVC resorts never fufill my requests anyway, so I figured that perhaps a little reverse psychology might work. (If I didn’t make any room requests, maybe we’d get the best room ever!!)



Well, we were given a first-floor studio in the Turtle Pond area, # 4110. Eh, I wasn’t crazy about being on the first floor… I’m always afraid one of those little lizard things will get in… but it was no biggie. I do remember looking at our location on the resort map and being a bit concerned about noise coming from nearby Bonnet Creek Parkway, but the CM checking us in reassured me that the noise was buffered by lots of trees and that the map was deceiving in how close the highway appeared. Considering that I was so weary I could have been happy with just about anything that was ready, I took her at her word, collected our information packet and our KTTW cards and went to gather the rest of the clan.


Breezeway between the Hospitality House and Olivia's Cafe:

Normally we would have been assisted by Bell Services but since, (1) we had the van and a parking space would be waiting for us right outside our villa, (2) we were on the first floor, so there were no stairs to deal with, and (3) we simply did not want to wait even one minute longer to get into our room (!), we decided to take care of our own luggage. After prying Billy away from the cartoons, we trucked on outside and hopped back into our trusty van for the short ride out to Turtle Pond Road.



I love all the pastel colored buildings trimmed with white gingerbread here! This resort is so pretty... so laid-back and relaxed. We turned into one of the little cul-du-sac parking areas near our building and pulled into a parking spot. So far, so good!



Our building:

Our offspring in front of our building:

We each grabbed a bag and began looking for our studio. We eventually found it at the corner of the building, surrounded by palm trees and heavy shrubs. The afternoon air smelled wonderful and was filled with the sound of birds chirping and insects buzzing. Tricia saw two or three little lizards along the way, which made her very excited! I was excited (and a bit apprehensive) as we reached our door. There's always those few little butterflies in the stomach as you slip that key card in the door for the first time!


Would my room assignment reverse psychology work??

Kathy

 

[irish dancer]

Ugh......another cliff hanger!

We stayed in OKW in Nov 2007, those villas are very spacious and I loved the patio. We too were in a first floor room which made me nervous but it worked out great and parking right by our door was another plus.

 

[LuvindisCruiser]

Yay, your there !
I love all the palm trees. To me, palm trees signify, VACATION !

 

[preschoolmom]

Your reports always leave me wanting more!!!

I loved riding along with you (we stopped at the famous orange juice stop on our way down ).

Can't wait for the next installment!

(Thanks for writing your reports - I really enjoy them!)

 

[karriemouse]

karriemouse: Hello! Wow! A trip to WDW and a Disney cruise, both in the same year! Yay!

Kathy

Hi Kathy!

Well it's only a tiny Disney cruise - we're starting with the three day one to see how we cope with it. Not if we like it, that's a given!, but how we (OK mainly me due to balance issues) handle the possibility of sea sickness. DD15 and I have vivid memories of being sea-sick off Bermuda 3 years ago...

And - even more excitement - I've just booked to see Nickelback the night before we fly in May! Woo-hoo!!!

Sleep??? I can do that on the plane - it's a long enough flight!

 

[kaysmommie]

Hi Kathy,
OKW looks beautiful, making me rethink SSR. I love tropical theme the best. I'm with you on the first floor room I don't want any critters visiting me. Looking forward to hearing about your Studio.

 

[mom2mek]

Awww...that resort looks so lovely! I hope your reverse psychology worked....don't leave us hanging too long, K?

Sara

 

[jcc0621]

Gee, a cliff hanger...What a surprise