gw_lit
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2003
- Messages
- 924
Cast:
Me: many previous trips to WDW
DW: a few previous trips to WDW
DS5: first trip to WDW
DS2: first trip to WDW
Dateline: May 8, 2004 (still not any more timely!)
Disclaimer: No Disney in Day #2
Day #1 can be found here.
Well, we woke up in Florida, so all is not bad. Oh yeah, there's ARCF SIL, all is not so good. Apparently we didn't line up our luggage correctly last night, so she had to re-arrange all of it (alphabetically by height, I think). DW & I just rolled our eyes. Knock yourself out, Sis!
We ate some breakfast, spent a while just hanging around the house in the morning, and then planned on heading to the Melbourne Zoo for part of the day. ARCF (that's Anal Retentive Control Freak, if you didn't read Day #1) SIL made us a picnic lunch so we wouldn't have to buy lunch at the zoo. She wasn't going to go with us (we both pretty much try to avoid each other), it was just our family and my brother and Danielle. Plus, she could stay home and collect our luggage when American delivers it. Oh yeah, they never did call about our luggage, let's give them a call. After hearing, "You're call is important to us, please stay on the line and next available operator will be with you" about a gazillion times. (Hey, the call is important to me too you have my luggage--I hope.) Seems our luggage made a little side trip to Columbus, Ohio. How? According to the AA agent they had no idea. Great, thanks, that makes me feel secure. They promised it would be delivered by 5:00 p.m. I sure hope they're right!
On the drive to the zoo, my brother tells us, "Oh yeah, Danielle (she was almost 4 at the time) gets freaked out by animals." Uh, bro, we're going to the zoo, what do you think they have there? They have a membership at the zoo, so it really wasn't a surprise to him, or her. (I love zoo memberships, most have reciprocal admission, and since we have a membership to the LR Zoo, we got in free at Melbourne great deal, plus you help support a worthy organization stepping off soapbox now.)
DN wanted to go see the giraffes and my brother told me that you could buy Purina Giraffe Chow (actually wafers) and feed the giraffes. Sounds good to me, let's go. A little about our boys. DS5 is very introspective, thinks a lot, very cautious, very smart, and very shy. DS2 is just the opposite, he's our hell on wheels! An incredibly sweet boy with no fear, he'll jump into anything and is already the start of my ulcers thinking about him as a teenager. After purchasing our giraffe wafers, DS2 took off like a shot towards the giraffes. You're up on a platform so everyone is eye-to-eye with the giraffes. DS5 was a little more cautious, but loves animals, so he slowly headed up to the giraffes. Their cousin (DN) was back in the corner as far from the giraffes as she could get its a zoo there are lots of animals, remember ZOO=ANIMALS. Have you ever seen a giraffes tongue? Imagine a big, wet slab of strip steak about a foot long jumping out at you that's a giraffe tongue! Both of our boys loved feeding the giraffes, but didn't really like getting licked by a slab of strip steak.
Oh yeah, the giraffes are really close!
So after hosing off and disinfecting the boys, and prying DN off the fence, we went off to explore the rest of the zoo. It really is a nice zoo, not too huge, but plenty to see. It really is a good size for small kids.
After eating our gourmet PB&J picnic lunch packed by ARCF SIL, we head over to the train. (Are you seeing a theme here?) A really nice train ride, as you get see parts of the zoo and animals that you can only see from the train. As soon as we pulled back into the station, DS2 started with "again, again". Nope, DS2, we have to get off now, we'll have plenty more trains on this trip.
It was time to load back into the minivan and head back to my brother's house. And when we got there, surprise!!! We had our luggage. Of course, SIL decided to run some errands while we were gone, so they just left our bags by the front door. Thanks, Sis Love Ya, Mean It.
Brother grilled some burgers and we enjoyed a nice relaxing meal. After eating, DW & I suggested we take the kids down to the harbor to see if we could see some manatees. But, it was 7:30 by the time we were ready to go, and DN has a bedtime of 8:00. ARCF SIL wouldn't let her go since it was too close to bedtime. Hey, Sis, its vacation lighten up a little bit! No chance, so we promised the boys we'd see manatees at SeaWorld tomorrow. And of course, DS5 had to ask, "Will we see Shamu?"
Click here for Day #3: SeaWorld, saying bye to the family and arriving at the Poly!
Me: many previous trips to WDW
DW: a few previous trips to WDW
DS5: first trip to WDW
DS2: first trip to WDW
Dateline: May 8, 2004 (still not any more timely!)
Disclaimer: No Disney in Day #2
Day #1 can be found here.
Well, we woke up in Florida, so all is not bad. Oh yeah, there's ARCF SIL, all is not so good. Apparently we didn't line up our luggage correctly last night, so she had to re-arrange all of it (alphabetically by height, I think). DW & I just rolled our eyes. Knock yourself out, Sis!
We ate some breakfast, spent a while just hanging around the house in the morning, and then planned on heading to the Melbourne Zoo for part of the day. ARCF (that's Anal Retentive Control Freak, if you didn't read Day #1) SIL made us a picnic lunch so we wouldn't have to buy lunch at the zoo. She wasn't going to go with us (we both pretty much try to avoid each other), it was just our family and my brother and Danielle. Plus, she could stay home and collect our luggage when American delivers it. Oh yeah, they never did call about our luggage, let's give them a call. After hearing, "You're call is important to us, please stay on the line and next available operator will be with you" about a gazillion times. (Hey, the call is important to me too you have my luggage--I hope.) Seems our luggage made a little side trip to Columbus, Ohio. How? According to the AA agent they had no idea. Great, thanks, that makes me feel secure. They promised it would be delivered by 5:00 p.m. I sure hope they're right!
On the drive to the zoo, my brother tells us, "Oh yeah, Danielle (she was almost 4 at the time) gets freaked out by animals." Uh, bro, we're going to the zoo, what do you think they have there? They have a membership at the zoo, so it really wasn't a surprise to him, or her. (I love zoo memberships, most have reciprocal admission, and since we have a membership to the LR Zoo, we got in free at Melbourne great deal, plus you help support a worthy organization stepping off soapbox now.)
DN wanted to go see the giraffes and my brother told me that you could buy Purina Giraffe Chow (actually wafers) and feed the giraffes. Sounds good to me, let's go. A little about our boys. DS5 is very introspective, thinks a lot, very cautious, very smart, and very shy. DS2 is just the opposite, he's our hell on wheels! An incredibly sweet boy with no fear, he'll jump into anything and is already the start of my ulcers thinking about him as a teenager. After purchasing our giraffe wafers, DS2 took off like a shot towards the giraffes. You're up on a platform so everyone is eye-to-eye with the giraffes. DS5 was a little more cautious, but loves animals, so he slowly headed up to the giraffes. Their cousin (DN) was back in the corner as far from the giraffes as she could get its a zoo there are lots of animals, remember ZOO=ANIMALS. Have you ever seen a giraffes tongue? Imagine a big, wet slab of strip steak about a foot long jumping out at you that's a giraffe tongue! Both of our boys loved feeding the giraffes, but didn't really like getting licked by a slab of strip steak.
Oh yeah, the giraffes are really close!
So after hosing off and disinfecting the boys, and prying DN off the fence, we went off to explore the rest of the zoo. It really is a nice zoo, not too huge, but plenty to see. It really is a good size for small kids.
After eating our gourmet PB&J picnic lunch packed by ARCF SIL, we head over to the train. (Are you seeing a theme here?) A really nice train ride, as you get see parts of the zoo and animals that you can only see from the train. As soon as we pulled back into the station, DS2 started with "again, again". Nope, DS2, we have to get off now, we'll have plenty more trains on this trip.
It was time to load back into the minivan and head back to my brother's house. And when we got there, surprise!!! We had our luggage. Of course, SIL decided to run some errands while we were gone, so they just left our bags by the front door. Thanks, Sis Love Ya, Mean It.
Brother grilled some burgers and we enjoyed a nice relaxing meal. After eating, DW & I suggested we take the kids down to the harbor to see if we could see some manatees. But, it was 7:30 by the time we were ready to go, and DN has a bedtime of 8:00. ARCF SIL wouldn't let her go since it was too close to bedtime. Hey, Sis, its vacation lighten up a little bit! No chance, so we promised the boys we'd see manatees at SeaWorld tomorrow. And of course, DS5 had to ask, "Will we see Shamu?"
Click here for Day #3: SeaWorld, saying bye to the family and arriving at the Poly!
