As I left Mexico, I saw a cute little family in front of me at a drink stand. It looked like the Momma, who looked really familiar, was either buying her kids a drink OR buying herself a Big Ole Margarita. I thought it looked like GeorgiaAristocat, but I was unsure so I didnt do a shout out. If it was her, I would see her in a few anyway.
I made the lovely short walk without any kids weighing me down to Norway. I saw Grammy first and she yelled out my name. I found her wearing Shers belt, aka skirt. This skirt was worn by Sher on a DisMeet she had up North with Grammy, Horsey and Pooh. We heard about this skirt for weeks. Sher was sportin a short one and we all knew about it. It was a good thing though because Sher works hard to be so tiny, so she deserved a short lil skirty. Even if she did buy it in the Juniors department. Grammy has got some rockin good legs, so she looked glorious in the short little skirt that we all knew so well. It was a funny way to start the meet!
Haley was already there too and looked cute as a could be in her sporty pink hat. I asked her how she felt yesterday, if she was tired and/or hung over. I cant remember her answer, but I think she felt better than I did after our girls night out. Fsumarchief and GaDisneyGirl, AKA The Whirlwind Trippers, were also there. They are married and have a sweet little guy. Read their TR! These people will make you jealous because they go to the World a lot! Mark can never spell my name right when he types it fast
.it comes out as Firck every time. So, of course he said Hey Firck when he saw me. They are such sweet people! Rhonda is just a tiny little cute thing and she and Mark are just the type that you automatically feel comfortable around.
Everyone else started to slowly trickle in. Jami appeared with the famous cookies that her friend makes. She talked about them in her trip report starring The Fixer and the Cookmaster and my mouth just watered for one based on her description. Now here I was with her and actually eating one of the cookies I had drooled over several months ago! Go and find her TR! It has more pixie dust sprinkled, or shall I say dumped, in it that it is awesome! Jami is awesome and a genuinely sweet soul. I could tell that about her before I ever met her. She told me all about their night at the Cali Grill and their mid-night ride on Splash! I was dying! You must go and read Dorkapalooza by Ash and hear about this night. Jami showed me Zzubs photo on her camera. Apparently they think he made a guest appearance in their boat!
I got to meet Backstage Gal, Marita. Thankfully Marita was able to break away from work and join us! I also met Javamom and CrashDad. It was CrashDads first visit ever to the World! Java is the sweetheart that makes us our cute avatars. She made mine! She is sooooo crafty. Java also made a T-Shirt design for the meet and several of the girls printed it off and made Maelstrom
.Is a Fastpass?!?! shirts! I think in the pictures you can see that Jami, Java, GeorgiaAristocat and Sher are wearing theirs. Good job Steph! Java is headed to Disney for Christmas! I'm sure her TR will be fabulous as this is the first time they are taking thier children!!
I met some Dissers I had never heard of before, Shelly and Skippy. Ash arrived and I got to hear all about her ankle, poor thing. Yak came along and handed me a whopping big bag of peanut free granola bars from Canada for Lil Frick! I told you she is a sweetie!
Sher arrived and found her skirt on Grammy! Funny funny. Horsey made it! She was looking cute as ever. Kpk89 and her husband Doug found us (she has an awesome TR The Meanest Mommy going that she just finished! Check it out!!). I had heard all kinds of rumors that she was feeling ill and like she was going to pass out and that she needed to eat. Im not sure what happened to you Kimmie, but Im glad you made it!
After all the fun greetings, we made our way over to the playground and got a lovely group picture!
Oh wait. That is from the wrong DisMeet. This is from Lous Birthday party. My bad.
Now I cant sit here and tell you everyones name without making a mistake. So I wont. Horsey do you remember how funny it was getting this picture taken?!?! Even though we were melting and we stood there for a long time, it was just fun!
We moved the party on in to the Maelstrom entrance. Guess what. Hardly a soul was in line. Didnt need a fast pass after all! I was in the back of the line and Horsey and Ash were up in the front. I remember Horsey yelling Fricky! Come up here with me! So, I hurdled the railings to pass the crew and get up front with my girl. I looked so lady like. Fortunately I didnt bust it in front of everyone.
Heres our picture before we took off on our journey. It looks as if I really did do those three tequila shots. Heres proof.
It also looks like Ash did a few shots with me. Boy is she ever excited about this ride. Actually, we all look drunk. Me looking the worst. Arent you all glad that Im not afraid to post a bad picture? This one is just comical to me. Thank you Ash for the picture that you actually swiped from Grammy! So, thank you Grammy for ALL of these lovely shots.
Heres the rest of the crew. You can tell everyone is super stoked about the ride!
This was my very first ride on Maelstrom and it was THRILLING! Me and my large bag of peanut free Granola bars sat by Ash. I finally got to spend a little time with Ash and all she could do was scare me about the ride. Kidding. But she did tell me we were going to go backwards over the falls. She thinks I believed her
.but I didnt. I had an awesome time sitting by her and behind Horsey. They are such fun people. Our whole boat had fun screaming and finally riding the ride that Mel and Zzub had questioned the fast pass validity of. They became the main reason why we were all there together. We missed you guys, the founders of the very first Maelstrom thread that brought all of us wacky people together. One simple conversation between the two of you ended up being the reason I was in this boat with my new friends having a jolly good time. Many thanks sweet friends!
After the ride, I got my land legs back and started saying my goodbyes. I had to get back to my family. I hated to say goodbye, but I did knowing that I would still be in touch with these funny folks and laughing right along with them again as soon as I returned home. Horsey told me to hurry because they were about to close the theatre doors and I would get stuck in the movie. I wanted to stay. I wanted to eat lunch with them and have margaritas with them and watch Illuminations with them
.but my time with these sweet people had come to an end. I hugged her bye and then I ran off. If you were there and I didnt get to give you a proper good-bye, I am so sorry.
I quickly walked back to Illuminations East to meet the guys. I wondered how many times Mr Frick had lost the children while they were in there. Theyre bad to run off in that place because they get so excited! I found them easily and they were having a blast. Mr Frick was glad to see that I hadnt gotten kidnapped by my cyber friends. I told him all about the meet and thanked him again for watching the boys so I could run along and play for a bit.
We drug the boys out of Innoventions and went to grab some lunch. That we had to pay for. Bah.
The funny thing about our last trip here a year ago was that Lil Frick LOVED his sandwich at the Electric Umbrella. We learned on that trip that the EU food was nothing to write home about, but the little guy had gotten #5, a Philly Cheesesteak, and his tiny little picky eater self hammered down on that sandwich. For months after we had returned from Disney, we would be in the car and he would say Momma, do you remember #5 at Disney? I really want that sandwich again. It was good. Im not kidding. I would crack up. We could be at a restaurant and he would say Do they have #5 here?. Bless him. He loves #5. So, even though I had ADRs at the Garden Grill for one last character meal, we chose to go to the Electric Umbrella again to get the little guy his #5. He was so excited.
Mr Frick waited a loooooong time for our food and they boys and I snagged a table upstairs. We could look out our window and see the Balzac stand below us. We had fun giggling at people as they played with the balls. Some would doink their family members in the head. Some were very uncoordinated. It was fun to people watch.
We finally got our food and Lil Frick enjoyed his #5. I got a #5 as well. I didnt so much enjoy it.
We were down to our last hour at Disney. It was time to split up and ride our last rides. Mr Frick took Lil Frick to Soarin and I took Big Frick to Test Track. We had a great time ruining someone elses picture, again, by making funny faces before we busted through those doors.
On our way back to the meeting place, we dashed in to Mouse Gear so that I could finally buy myself a souvenier. I went a little crazy. Much like I always do when we are leaving. Let me tell you what I bought.
I got these cereal bowls.
Arent they sweet? The only downer is that I discovered that they are NOT dishwasher safe. This girl doesnt much like washing dishes by hand. However, Ill suffer through washing these as long as we get good Disney memories while we are eating our cereal!
I also bought a Mickey head cookie cutter, a test track Mickey head antennae topper and two picture frames for the boys. Wherever we go on vacation, I always grab a picture frame for each of them and we put a picture of our trip in it and it lives in their rooms. It is much easier than scrap booking!
I hauled my big bag of goodies and ran, one last time, to meet the rest of our crew at Spaceship Earth. We had decided that this would be our last ride. It was our first ride when we got here and it would be our last. Remember, we love Spaceship Earth. As we were getting in line I heard someone call my name. It is my sweet friend Yak! She got in line behind us and rode the big golf ball with her friend from home who had come with her to the meet and was seeing Disney for the first time.
After our sweet final and wonderful ride, we went outside and I talked with Yak. Mr. Frick took our picture.
I was glad that I ran in to her before we left. We got to talk for a while which was nice! She also took our last family photo at Disney.
I have that look. The look that says Im sad about leaving. I also look a little pregnant. But that shirt was cool and in style. So I bought it. Even if I could wear it if I were 7 months pregnant.
Thank you Yak for taking our picture! It is rare that we have a photo with all of us in it! Especially at Disney!
We said our goodbyes to Yak and began the walk to the car.
Boo hoo. Our bodies were soooo tired and we really couldnt have lasted another day in the parks, but it was still sad to be leaving.
We began the long drive to the beach in North Carolina. We were headed to Bald Head Island, a place of total relaxation because cars are not allowed on the island. It takes 20 minutes on a cool passenger ferry to get there and Grandpa Frick, Mr. Fricks father, lives there. He had invited Mr Frick to play in the annual member/guest golf tournament and so we couldnt pass that up.
During the eight hour drive, I pulled out our laptop and sent out some messages to my friends who didnt make it to the meet. I viewed Shers live TR that was going on and saw pictures of myself and the girls from our girls night out. I thought to myself right then and there that I had to tell our story. We had such a wonderful vacation filled with lots of huge, cheek hurting smiles and laughter that I had to share it with you all. Plus, Horsegirl came up with such a great title for my TR that I had to commit to doing this. I pulled out my little notebook and pen that Yak had given me in my goody bag, and I wrote down everything I needed to remember for this TR.
We got to Grandpa Fricks house, which is on the river right by the Ferry station that night around 1 am. He just moved off the Island two years ago after going through three hurricanes. We barely said hello before we crashed. Early the next morning we caught our boat over to the Island where we rented a beach villa for the next five days. I take this picture every time we come in to the harbor.
We always get excited when we see this.
We did a lot of this
And we saw a lot of these.
And we were super happy when Mr. Frick went up to get the first place grand prize that he and his father won.
It was a great ending to a great trip! What a wonderful ten days it turned out to be!
In closing, I would like to say this
.
To my wonderful friends that traveled to Orlando to finally meet, I must say it was all worth it wasnt it?!?! I had a blast meeting you all and my only regret is that I didnt have more time to spend with you. I feel fortunate that I got to meet you all and I will never forget the good memories that were made! Ly/Mi! Lets do it again sometime!!!
To my wonderful friends who didnt get to join us, please know that you were truly missed and thought of often! These Maelstrommers are good people! Trust me!
To the folks who have stuck with me through this TR and who have been so patient for me to finish, thank you for reading and most importantly, thank you for all the kind comments! I hope somewhere along the way I have taught you something you didnt know or brought back a good memory for you or at least put a little smile on your face. I love reading Trip Reports and going to Disney with other families all while sitting here getting wicker imprints on my bum in the comfort of my own home. Here is a big thank you to all of you out there who have written or are writing a TR because now I know what a commitment it is. I had fun writing this for you and for me!
Im going to copy a favorite adios phrase from one of my Dis buddies!
Blessings!
Frick