Cast: DH, who's pockets magically get much deeper when he's on vacation.
Me, loving every minute and eating more on this one trip than any two people should be allowed to.
DS Ben, age 8, who has the energy of 6 children and won't "make a nice smile" for the camera.
__________________________________________
Day 1:
Did I mention I was terrified of flying? But you know how it is when you have small children... you have to put on a brave face for them so as not to transmit your weaknesses to the next generation. That's what I was doing as we prepared for our 7:45 am flight. It didn't help that the plane was listed as an M-80. Go look... it doesn't say MD-80, it says M-80!
This was Ben's maiden voyage aboard an airplane and I was just a little bit worried about two things: kids tend to be rather vocal when they're scared, and you never know what's going to come shooting out of their body parts when they're under stress. He's not prone to motion sickness, but you just never know.
Take off and landing are my favorite part of flying, it's all that time in between that freaks me out. So I was very pleased when we'd made it more than half way with nothing but the smoothest of sailing. I began to relax, enjoyed what view we had, and laid my head back for a little nap. Just as I was beginning to meditate in earnest, we dropped like a rock! Every single head snapped up to see what was going on, and my eyes must have been bugging out of my head. DH stayed cool, which I found so irritating since we'd almost lost our lives, and the captain came on to tell us we'd begin our descent, a fact that had become obvious to everyone on board.
We arrived safely, got our rental car, and were delighted to find our luggage had arrived at the same airport we did. Just a quick word about rental cars. We rented through Dollar, since it saved us about $40 over the nearest quote at other companies. By the time I'd hiked the 8 miles to the Dollar counter and stood in line while the people ahead of me picked out colors, options, interiors, tire brand... I'd have paid the extra $40 and gone with the Emerald Club.
Driving towards Disney we began to smell the smoke from the wildfires, and went through one area that looked like thick fog. But by the time we drove past that wonderful Welcome sign, it was bright, clear, and a sunny 90 degrees.
We checked in, got to our room, which was Cabana 8B at Coronado Springs, ground floor and non-smoking just as I'd requested, changed into our swimsuits, and headed to the pool. Oh, the glory of that cool, refreshing water! The moans of pleasure that escaped us, involuntarily. We soaked, we floated, we savored the relaxing wet feel of it until we were forced to immerge and dress for our PS at OHana.
For those of you who've never been to OHana, everyone becomes "cousin" as soon as they enter the room. Our red-headed, freckled, southern accented cousin showed us pale, blonde, Germanic, mid-western accented folks to our table. The first thing Ben did was check under the table for gum. Sure enough, there was a hard, stuck-on bit of it, which he promptly pointed out to our dark haired, olive skinned cousin who'd shown up to take our drink order. They made a real ceremony out of chipping it off, bit by bit, using my dinner knife. Happily, she did not hand the knife back to me when they were finished, but brought me a fresh one when she returned with the iced tea.
When she showed up moments later with a platter full of food, the gorging began in earnest. We groaned and rolled our eyes, stuffing dumplings and chicken wings into our mouths as fast as we could, bits of honey lime slaw flying to the floor as it missed it's mark. Ben requested another bowl of rice almost immediately, (his grand total would come to 3 bowls of rice and two bowls of chicken wings) and we cheered with delight as our dear, dear cousin forked heaping mounds of beef, pork, and turkey onto our plates, being careful to keep the shrimp far away me, bless her heart. It about killed me not to grab them and swallow them whole, just to savor that sea-tasting delicacy one last time before it poisoned my system and they'd be forced to rush me off for medical attention.
As we ate we watched the coconut races, had the best hula-hooper right in front of us, and talked with the Ukulele Guy from Hawaii. He told us he'd been to our home state of Michigan once, to pick up a load of Christmas trees. Seems Hawaii gets all their Christmas trees from Michigan. This particular year he and a bunch of musicians and a couple of dancers came to MI, did some shows, and went home with two 747's loaded with trees. What a nice little story. We were so proud of our contribution that we decided to order another round of grilled meats
We ate and ate and ate and when we could eat no more we started in on the pineapple chunks, bathing them in sweet carmel sauce, letting it drip down our chins and not even wiping it away in our haste to begin on the next piece. We had 3 helpings and our shame was complete.
With bellies sagging, we stumbled out to the monorail for a digestive spin around the loop. CM Zach-- who was kind enough not to mention the stains all over our shirts and the Overstuffed Tourist bloat that was beginning to make our flesh roll over the tops of our shorts in an unseemly way-- flagged down the front of the monorail for us, and to our utter delight he took over as captain. As we pulled out of the docking area, Ben decided to ask The Question that had been occupying him all afternoon.
That sweet voice of my baby chimed up and said "Mom, there's a Love Bug by the window here. Why are they called Love Bugs?" Captain Zach smilied, waiting to hear the answer.
I said "Because they're in love."
Then Ben said "Why do they look like two bugs?"
Captain Zach smiled bigger and I said "Because they are."
Then my boy said "Why are they together?"
Captain Zach was showing teeth by now, and I said "Because they love each other."
"Why aren't they going anywhere?" was the next question, and as Captian Zach began to snicker I replied
"Because they're busy"
Now, he's a smart boy, so the next question was the obvious one. "Mom, what are they busy doing?"
With a loud nose-snort and rude giggling coming from Captain Zach's general direction, I gave the only answer I could under the circumstances.
"Meditating."
My belly was far too full for a better answer than that. It seemed to satisfy, and we finished the rest of the trip happily chatting with Captian Zach who, even if he's not helpful when it comes to keeping a straight face when the chips are down, turned out to be one heck of a nice guy.
Walking back to our room later, we noticed what looked like a small animal scurrying down a lamp post. It stopped at the bottom and was still. We walked slowly over to it, wondering what it could be. As we approached we saw that it was the ashy, charred remains of a palm leaf. Black and curled and as big as a dinner plate, it was a sad reminder that while we were bathing in the beauty of our resort in the moonlight, the fires were blazing, not all that far away.
Next: Epcot, Coral Reef, and One Angry Encounter
Me, loving every minute and eating more on this one trip than any two people should be allowed to.
DS Ben, age 8, who has the energy of 6 children and won't "make a nice smile" for the camera.
__________________________________________
Day 1:
Did I mention I was terrified of flying? But you know how it is when you have small children... you have to put on a brave face for them so as not to transmit your weaknesses to the next generation. That's what I was doing as we prepared for our 7:45 am flight. It didn't help that the plane was listed as an M-80. Go look... it doesn't say MD-80, it says M-80!
This was Ben's maiden voyage aboard an airplane and I was just a little bit worried about two things: kids tend to be rather vocal when they're scared, and you never know what's going to come shooting out of their body parts when they're under stress. He's not prone to motion sickness, but you just never know.
Take off and landing are my favorite part of flying, it's all that time in between that freaks me out. So I was very pleased when we'd made it more than half way with nothing but the smoothest of sailing. I began to relax, enjoyed what view we had, and laid my head back for a little nap. Just as I was beginning to meditate in earnest, we dropped like a rock! Every single head snapped up to see what was going on, and my eyes must have been bugging out of my head. DH stayed cool, which I found so irritating since we'd almost lost our lives, and the captain came on to tell us we'd begin our descent, a fact that had become obvious to everyone on board.
We arrived safely, got our rental car, and were delighted to find our luggage had arrived at the same airport we did. Just a quick word about rental cars. We rented through Dollar, since it saved us about $40 over the nearest quote at other companies. By the time I'd hiked the 8 miles to the Dollar counter and stood in line while the people ahead of me picked out colors, options, interiors, tire brand... I'd have paid the extra $40 and gone with the Emerald Club.
Driving towards Disney we began to smell the smoke from the wildfires, and went through one area that looked like thick fog. But by the time we drove past that wonderful Welcome sign, it was bright, clear, and a sunny 90 degrees.
We checked in, got to our room, which was Cabana 8B at Coronado Springs, ground floor and non-smoking just as I'd requested, changed into our swimsuits, and headed to the pool. Oh, the glory of that cool, refreshing water! The moans of pleasure that escaped us, involuntarily. We soaked, we floated, we savored the relaxing wet feel of it until we were forced to immerge and dress for our PS at OHana.
For those of you who've never been to OHana, everyone becomes "cousin" as soon as they enter the room. Our red-headed, freckled, southern accented cousin showed us pale, blonde, Germanic, mid-western accented folks to our table. The first thing Ben did was check under the table for gum. Sure enough, there was a hard, stuck-on bit of it, which he promptly pointed out to our dark haired, olive skinned cousin who'd shown up to take our drink order. They made a real ceremony out of chipping it off, bit by bit, using my dinner knife. Happily, she did not hand the knife back to me when they were finished, but brought me a fresh one when she returned with the iced tea.
When she showed up moments later with a platter full of food, the gorging began in earnest. We groaned and rolled our eyes, stuffing dumplings and chicken wings into our mouths as fast as we could, bits of honey lime slaw flying to the floor as it missed it's mark. Ben requested another bowl of rice almost immediately, (his grand total would come to 3 bowls of rice and two bowls of chicken wings) and we cheered with delight as our dear, dear cousin forked heaping mounds of beef, pork, and turkey onto our plates, being careful to keep the shrimp far away me, bless her heart. It about killed me not to grab them and swallow them whole, just to savor that sea-tasting delicacy one last time before it poisoned my system and they'd be forced to rush me off for medical attention.
As we ate we watched the coconut races, had the best hula-hooper right in front of us, and talked with the Ukulele Guy from Hawaii. He told us he'd been to our home state of Michigan once, to pick up a load of Christmas trees. Seems Hawaii gets all their Christmas trees from Michigan. This particular year he and a bunch of musicians and a couple of dancers came to MI, did some shows, and went home with two 747's loaded with trees. What a nice little story. We were so proud of our contribution that we decided to order another round of grilled meats
We ate and ate and ate and when we could eat no more we started in on the pineapple chunks, bathing them in sweet carmel sauce, letting it drip down our chins and not even wiping it away in our haste to begin on the next piece. We had 3 helpings and our shame was complete.
With bellies sagging, we stumbled out to the monorail for a digestive spin around the loop. CM Zach-- who was kind enough not to mention the stains all over our shirts and the Overstuffed Tourist bloat that was beginning to make our flesh roll over the tops of our shorts in an unseemly way-- flagged down the front of the monorail for us, and to our utter delight he took over as captain. As we pulled out of the docking area, Ben decided to ask The Question that had been occupying him all afternoon.
That sweet voice of my baby chimed up and said "Mom, there's a Love Bug by the window here. Why are they called Love Bugs?" Captain Zach smilied, waiting to hear the answer.
I said "Because they're in love."
Then Ben said "Why do they look like two bugs?"
Captain Zach smiled bigger and I said "Because they are."
Then my boy said "Why are they together?"
Captain Zach was showing teeth by now, and I said "Because they love each other."
"Why aren't they going anywhere?" was the next question, and as Captian Zach began to snicker I replied
"Because they're busy"
Now, he's a smart boy, so the next question was the obvious one. "Mom, what are they busy doing?"
With a loud nose-snort and rude giggling coming from Captain Zach's general direction, I gave the only answer I could under the circumstances.
"Meditating."
My belly was far too full for a better answer than that. It seemed to satisfy, and we finished the rest of the trip happily chatting with Captian Zach who, even if he's not helpful when it comes to keeping a straight face when the chips are down, turned out to be one heck of a nice guy.
Walking back to our room later, we noticed what looked like a small animal scurrying down a lamp post. It stopped at the bottom and was still. We walked slowly over to it, wondering what it could be. As we approached we saw that it was the ashy, charred remains of a palm leaf. Black and curled and as big as a dinner plate, it was a sad reminder that while we were bathing in the beauty of our resort in the moonlight, the fires were blazing, not all that far away.
Next: Epcot, Coral Reef, and One Angry Encounter
I guess I'm gonna have to try Ohanas. I keep hearing great things about it. Looking forward to more.
