Since we decided to buckle down and not travel,
we've been to Hawaii, Europe, Ottawa, Niagara Falls and Disney.
Wow, you should really not travel more often.
Five out of three people claim to be bad at math.
Guess I'm a quarter of them.
Half of this TR is going to be 90% mental.
A photo that bespeaks of our quiet nature.
Something sedate, mature, intelligent... sublime and refined.
This'll do.
Nicely done!
Last year, I took Elle (my eldest DD) and her friend Dee on a road trip
to Niagara Falls for a dance competition.
On the way, we visited Chicago, the Christmas Story house in Cleveland,
Cedar Point, and of course, Niagara Falls.
I even managed to squeeze in a couple of DISmeets along the way.
Kay got a trip to Fargo, ND.
Wow. How often does she bring this up to her therapist?
Oh, man, that's just perfect!
"Valley Fair or Disneyworld?" I wheedle.
"Valley Fair." She replies.
Did you strike her from the will, right there?
I questioned her about it some more and eventually she admitted
that since there was no real hope of going to Disney,
she'd stick with Valley Fair.
Ah, a realist. I withdraw the question.
I was disappointed, but I knew enough not to argue with my wife.
Whoa. How many dope-slaps does it take before you realize this?
One in a million...so I'm sayin' there's a chance.
"You're Mom and I were talking and she told me
that she couldn't go to Deadwood either, now."
(Head all the way down... accepting the inevitable now.)
"Which means that there's more dates that I can look at,
so I did and we're going to Disneyworld."
(Head snaps up. Did she hear that right?)
I hand her the package with the flight and hotel confirmations.
She bursts into tears of happiness.
Yep. That was satisfying.
Well done! I love it.
If you can't torment your children, then why did you have them?
Good question. I think it was for tax purposes.
So by charging me up front, I actually saved a bit of money.
Disney. Always making sure to save their customers some money.
They must only do that for the Canadian customers.
She thought about it for a second and said.
"Can we just take a day and spend it at the hotel?"
A chill ran down my spine.
All I could think was:
"Do you have any idea how much this costs...
and all you want to do is stay in the room????"
But what came out of my mouth was, "Yes."
Admirable restraint. Not sure I could have done the same. I'm starting to understand the Fargo thing.
Example: If we waited 15 minutes for a bus and then waited 2 minutes to board,
waited 3 minutes before it left and it took 25 minutes to get to destination...
The correct answer for that one trip would be 15 minutes. i.e. The wait time.
But are we there yet?
I was so pleased to see that the forecast for the entire week was rain.
Not partially cloudy with a chance of showers.
Just. Rain.
Yay. I thought Disney did a better job of controlling things than that.
Ruby works in a building that is on airport property,
even though her job has nothing to do with the airport or airplanes.
Conversely, I do not work at the airport or on airport property
and my job has everything to do with airports and airplanes.
Go figure.
This sounds suspiciously like government work.
We piled our luggage into the car and zipped over to Wendy's to get her a burger.
Hey, wait! I thought you learned your lesson during that Toronto getaway!
I placed the suitcases upside down on the conveyor belt
and watched them disappear into the bowels of the airport.
Hopefully to be seen again.
I hate that feeling.
I've never, ever lost a bag...
but it's still rather disquieting to see them disappear like that.
Really? I'm always thrilled I don't have to lug it all over the airport anymore.
"It's because most bags have wheels and when the bags get to the end of a belt,
the wheels can hang up and just spin. It creates a jam."
Look at that. I learned something today.
We each got our favourite, a Vanilla Bean Frappuccino... double blended.
Vanilla, milk and ice. With whip cream... of course. No coffee.
You know, you can just get a vanilla ice cream cone much cheaper.
Which results in people bringing everything they own in oversized carry ons.
I hate.... hate having to sit for hours with no leg room.
And if you don't get on the plane first, you're not going to find any room left
in the overhead bins.
Nope, nope, nope and nope.
Seriously. This world would be much better if I didn't have to deal with other people.
"Hi, I'm one of the passengers off the Winnipeg flight
and we're connecting to the Orlando flight.
What are our chances?"
I'd say more like one in a million.
Well, with one thing and another... I never did get around to it this time.
It's such a hassle. Type out a letter, find someone who can notarize it, blah, blah, blah.
I guess I can see it for a parent with a baby or toddler,
but Kay is almost 15 years old.
She can speak for herself, ya know.
Just skip it.
You already see how this is going to go, right?
Sadly...yes.
Customs agent: "Are you constipated?"
Me: "No that's just my "serious" face."
Customs agent: "Do you have a letter from the mother allowing the child to travel with you?"
I felt a cold chill as if Death himself was dragging his nails down my spine.
After almost 15 years of solo travel with a kid, I was finally being asked for THE letter.
And I didn't have one.
Me: "Uh, I don't have one."
He became completely still (so did I), looked me square in the eye
like a jackal sizing up a particularly tasty hunk of flesh and said:
"You don't have a letter? I can't let her into the United States without a letter."
No, but I do have two dollars...and a Casio.
Don't forget to get your gumball... I mean, Disney Transportation Wait Time guesses in!
Let's see....divide by zero...
Add the remainder...
Subtract from both sides...
Do the hokey-pokey...
I'll go with 240 minutes.
By the way, how many beans does it take to make a bowl of Irish bean soup?
239.
Why?
(Said in an Irish accent) Because one more would be too farty!
Bonus questions!
It's no secret that we do get to Disney eventually.
Do we make our connection? Or do we make a later one?
Or do we get down the next day? Or something else?
What's your guess?
I'm going to guess you get delayed enough to make another connection later that day.
You may recall that I told you I booked POP Preferred Pool View.
Kay's preference was the top floor, so that's what I asked for in the booking.
I didn't fax or phone in the request, just put it in when I booked.
What floor did we get? And was the room ready when we got there?
Top floor, and yes, the room was ready since you were delayed for the connection.
over to this TR! 
)
dashed all my hopes, but realized I can try to plan a solo for next year sometime and go and now have more time and resources to figure it out! Still heartbreaking! haha my mommy time away has to wait!
It's hard to go back afterwards too.
