monarchsfan16
<font color=green>Holy smokes, the DIS is a big pl
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2003
- Messages
- 6,462
Part 4
April 24, 2005
Its about 5 am when I wake up. I realize the wake up calls not coming for 3 ½ more hours. But I cant sleep. Finally I ease out onto the balcony and stare at the moon, watching the golf carts fly along the service road. Other than that, and a few very early morning taxis, everything is peaceful. Around 6 I come back inside, and get dressed. Ive decided to go exploring, while everyone else sleeps. About 6:30 as I ease open the door, determined to see the first geyser eruption of the morning, my stepdad comes back into the room. Apparently Im not the only one running on adrenaline this morning.
He and I both go exploring. We walk down to the boat dock, snapping pictures and watching the sun come up over Bay Lake. We are amazed by every detail of the lodge, from the footprints in the sidewalk, to the Mickeys in the hallways and the details on the lamps. We catch the 7 am geyser. Not quite like the real Old Faithful, but still very cool, especially with the sun coming up over the lake in the background. We return to the villa to find that mom has finally woken up. Mickey and Stitch call and blast the two younger ones out of bed. We get ready, planning to be on the road by 9:30. Today, our first day in Florida is not to be a Disney day, but a day visiting my grandparents at The Villages, the retirement community they have been renting a home at for the past 2 months.
About 9:30 we hop in the car for the ride to The Villages. It is an hour and a half of following roughly 200 motorcycles up route 27. It seems this is motorcycle weekend in Leesburg (just south of The Villages). Well have to keep that in mind if we ever plan a visit there again. We arrive at the Villages and realize the directions we have printed from mapquest are wrong. We have printed directions to the post office in the town square, not to my grandparents house. Oops. A small mistake but they come find us and we go to Ruby Tuesdays for lunch. After a filling lunch, and small talk with the grandparents they decide the best way to show us the town is by guided TROLLY tour. Yup, Trolly. So off we went.
An hour later we were done with the trolly. The Villages is a nice place, but I dont think I could ever handle that lifestyle. Maybe my opinions will change when Im retired, but for now Im perfectly happy not going to see any world champion whistlers in the town square. After the tour we followed Grammy and Grampa to the house theyd been staying in, which was cute. We had ice cream and then said our farewells, claiming we wanted to beat the traffic. This was a Sunday. We all wanted to really get the vacation underway, though, and we knew Grammy and Grampa would be joining us at the Lodge at the end of the week.
So we headed back to Disney. Took a little less time, since we hopped the highway this trip (no more motorcycles for us), and got back in time for dinner in Roaring Forks. The weather was cool, but we were in Florida (and were tough northerners too) so we decided to hit the pool, or at least the hot tub anyway. We spent about 20 minutes in the hot tub, decided it really was too cool for the pool (cold wind) and dried off. Someone, though had stocked the towel bin with non pool towels. We think they were hand towels since they wouldnt even fit around one leg. But oh well, were in Disney. We RAN back to our room, took hot showers, set the wake up call for 6:30, and hopped in bed. Tomorrow we will finally, after 38 months, be back in the Magic Kingdom.
Next: Part 5- Magic Kingdom
April 24, 2005
Its about 5 am when I wake up. I realize the wake up calls not coming for 3 ½ more hours. But I cant sleep. Finally I ease out onto the balcony and stare at the moon, watching the golf carts fly along the service road. Other than that, and a few very early morning taxis, everything is peaceful. Around 6 I come back inside, and get dressed. Ive decided to go exploring, while everyone else sleeps. About 6:30 as I ease open the door, determined to see the first geyser eruption of the morning, my stepdad comes back into the room. Apparently Im not the only one running on adrenaline this morning.
He and I both go exploring. We walk down to the boat dock, snapping pictures and watching the sun come up over Bay Lake. We are amazed by every detail of the lodge, from the footprints in the sidewalk, to the Mickeys in the hallways and the details on the lamps. We catch the 7 am geyser. Not quite like the real Old Faithful, but still very cool, especially with the sun coming up over the lake in the background. We return to the villa to find that mom has finally woken up. Mickey and Stitch call and blast the two younger ones out of bed. We get ready, planning to be on the road by 9:30. Today, our first day in Florida is not to be a Disney day, but a day visiting my grandparents at The Villages, the retirement community they have been renting a home at for the past 2 months.
About 9:30 we hop in the car for the ride to The Villages. It is an hour and a half of following roughly 200 motorcycles up route 27. It seems this is motorcycle weekend in Leesburg (just south of The Villages). Well have to keep that in mind if we ever plan a visit there again. We arrive at the Villages and realize the directions we have printed from mapquest are wrong. We have printed directions to the post office in the town square, not to my grandparents house. Oops. A small mistake but they come find us and we go to Ruby Tuesdays for lunch. After a filling lunch, and small talk with the grandparents they decide the best way to show us the town is by guided TROLLY tour. Yup, Trolly. So off we went.
An hour later we were done with the trolly. The Villages is a nice place, but I dont think I could ever handle that lifestyle. Maybe my opinions will change when Im retired, but for now Im perfectly happy not going to see any world champion whistlers in the town square. After the tour we followed Grammy and Grampa to the house theyd been staying in, which was cute. We had ice cream and then said our farewells, claiming we wanted to beat the traffic. This was a Sunday. We all wanted to really get the vacation underway, though, and we knew Grammy and Grampa would be joining us at the Lodge at the end of the week.
So we headed back to Disney. Took a little less time, since we hopped the highway this trip (no more motorcycles for us), and got back in time for dinner in Roaring Forks. The weather was cool, but we were in Florida (and were tough northerners too) so we decided to hit the pool, or at least the hot tub anyway. We spent about 20 minutes in the hot tub, decided it really was too cool for the pool (cold wind) and dried off. Someone, though had stocked the towel bin with non pool towels. We think they were hand towels since they wouldnt even fit around one leg. But oh well, were in Disney. We RAN back to our room, took hot showers, set the wake up call for 6:30, and hopped in bed. Tomorrow we will finally, after 38 months, be back in the Magic Kingdom.
Next: Part 5- Magic Kingdom
