Hopefully this will whet the appetite as I continue to edit photos...
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Me: Nathan. Or Nate, if you’d like. 27, long-time Disney Park fan. Likes to joke around and plan Disney trips. Recently married to…
DW (is that right?): Erin. 28. Love of Nathan’s life.
Previous Disney World trips: 1 in March of 2007, staying at Port Orleans – French Quarter, with me, Erin, Mom, and Dad.
We’ve been planning this trip and the wedding for about 18 months – as long as we’ve been engaged. Where did we get engaged? Disney World, of course! (We’ll revisit that later.)
So! After a lovely wedding (I’ll post pics as soon as I get them) and a whirlwind day-after brunch that we planned in the park, we were off to my parent’s house to pick up our luggage and head off to the airport. Without further ado…
Day 0.5: Saturday, September 27
Once we made our way back to Mom and Dad’s, we finished packing one or two things, reflected on the wedding and the day-after party, and loaded up the car. Around 3:00 p.m. we hit the road and headed to the Portland International Airport. We needed the help of the entire family to hoist our 4 large bags and our 4 carry-on bags. Luckily, we booked tickets before the airline knocked down the number of checked bags from 2 to 1 per person. We would need them!
After checking in and saying “Bon Voyage” to our bags, we tried to say “Bon Voyage” to my parents. I think Mom wanted to hang out for a little bit, so it was kind of hard getting her to take the hint that we had to go through security and start our honeymoon. I felt bad, but hey it’s our honeymoon.
We went through security – which was a breeze, I highly suggest flying on Saturday late afternoons or evenings – and headed to the Alaska Airlines lounge. We caught them just as they were starting to clean up. Erin had a glass of Riesling and I had a Longboard. We grabbed some cheese and crackers and sat down to watch the airplanes taxi.
After it was clear they were closing up for the day, we scuttled on out and made our way to Gustav’s for dinner. At Gustav’s, Erin and I split a thing of cheese fondue and fish ‘n’ chips. Very good – and the fish ‘n’ chips were huge. Also, Erin discovered her new favorite delicacy: Fondue Fries. Sounded odd to me, too – until I tried them. Mmm, mmm, good.
We licked our bowl of fondue clean, drank a few more diet cokes and waters, and started to head out. I was discussing how odd the new five-dollar bills look – can that 5 be any bigger – and decided that I should leave the odd Monopoly money for the waiter and take the normal looking fives with me. Just to be safe… We headed over to the bookstore, didn’t see anything, and decided to wander over to our gate.
It was at our gate that we learned about the death of Paul Newman – CNN was on the televisions. Erin and I both said that it was a shame, cracked our books we brought with us and patiently waited.
After boarding the puddle-jumper that would take us north to Seattle, we were up in the air – then landing again. This was a very short flight – and anyone flying on the West Coast: Horizon offers free beer and wine! Score!
We toured the Seattle airport for the better part of our layover. I got a diet coke at Wendy’s; Erin got a Hi-C or something similar. After touring some shops we went to our gate and found the place we needed to be. We decided to stop at the Chili’s across the way for a bite to eat. We slid in as soon as they were closing their doors – even though we passed a “No Burgers” sign on the way. (It seems they were out of burgers – and I love burgers.) Erin ordered a hot bean dip thing which came with what must have been a whole bag of tortilla chips. It was served in a piping-hot, miniature cast-iron skillet. It was also served about 15 minutes before my food. I ordered the Buffalo wings, failing to notice they were boneless Buffalo wings. These were fine – but they could have fed about 9 people. I stopped shortly into my pile of boneless Buffalo wings and sipped diet coke until Erin was sick off of reheated bean dip. It was soon time to board our plane to Orlando…
Now, something you should know – we flew first class. Which was something we never dreamed of doing, and something we decided we would only do once in our lives – so why not spend a little more to do it? After all, it
is our honeymoon…
We took our seats in row 2 of first class and quickly enjoyed the bounty of leg room. The arm room was discovered soon after. Erin fell asleep as soon as she put her head on the faux leather headrest. She purchased a little pink neck pillow at Target for the trip, and I think that is what put her out so quick. Also, it was an 11:00 p.m. flight.
Something that impressed me: The flight attendants came by before the plane started moving to take our drink orders. So, as soon as they could stand up in flight they brought us our drinks. Before Erin fell asleep, she ordered a glass of red wine. I did the same – I cannot remember the variety, but I’m assuming it was a Shiraz. Whatever it was, I ended up drinking both glasses – I didn’t want Erin to spill it on herself while asleep.
A bread and cheese plate soon followed, along with a little digital movie player. We were soon at cruising altitude – so, I adjusted my seat, turned my watch forward 3 hours, and silently enjoyed the leg room. I would also fall asleep, miss the fruit plate, and wake up on the other side of the country!
Next up… landing in Orlando! Checking in to the Grand Floridian! Lizards! Mimosas! And more!!
