What Do You Do With a Nine Pound Lemon?? LINK TO NEW TR!

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Saw this on the Disney blog today. Very fitting for this trip report, I thought!

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/11/lots-of-lemon-at-the-land-epcot-living-laboratory-harvests-lemon-that-weighs-15-pounds/

 

[jenseib]

How funny!

 

[anjalee6]

The article is too funny. Very appropriate!

 

[marDgreen88]

Oh no! So sorry about your awful night... that sounds so scary.
I hope your morning was ok and you haven't had any sleep trouble since!
Oh, I saw that about the 15 pound lemon on the Disney Parks Blog too, (I follow that religiously ) and I definitely thought about this TR! I honestly will probably think about it next time I'm on Living with the Land. These TRs, they just stick with ya!

 

[brookelizabeth]

Finally caught up!!!

I have a bazillion things to comment on, but that would take all day! I'm enjoying it all!

So sorry to hear about the anxiety attack right before the race. UGH. I hope you are able to sneak in a nap and don't have to deal with that again for the rest of the trip.

 

[PopArtGal]

Your pictures look amazing!

And the party looks like a lot of fun!

 

[PopArtGal]

awe sorry about your anxiety attacks. I do feel that way sometimes before I go to bed.

 

[dvc4life]

Nikki - just getting caught up on our TR. What fun you had while at F&W. And I want to thank you for the tip on the Margarita's on the rocks from the CS stand in Mexico. I enjoyed getting those over the frozen ones very much!

Your costumes were adorable. Our daughters want us to dress up next time we go, but I don't know. That is just more stuff to try and pack to take with us. We'll see what next year brings.

Loved the fireworks photos. Great job. Looks like you are learning your new camera with no problems.

And sorry to hear about your sleepless night. Those nights really suck. It's like your mind just won't shut off know matter how hard you try to shut it down. Hope it doesn't affect your race too much.

 

[PopArtGal]

And I have to say that most of the time, I sleep with the tv on

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

The costumes turned out so great! After hearing about your sleepless night, I am definitely on pins and needles to hear how the next day went!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Oh no! So sorry about your awful night... that sounds so scary.
I hope your morning was ok and you haven't had any sleep trouble since!
Oh, I saw that about the 15 pound lemon on the Disney Parks Blog too, (I follow that religiously ) and I definitely thought about this TR! I honestly will probably think about it next time I'm on Living with the Land. These TRs, they just stick with ya!

I honestly haven't had any trouble sleeping since. I was definitely scared I would but I've been fine.

Finally caught up!!!

I have a bazillion things to comment on, but that would take all day! I'm enjoying it all!

So sorry to hear about the anxiety attack right before the race. UGH. I hope you are able to sneak in a nap and don't have to deal with that again for the rest of the trip.

Two days down and two days left....and a nap was a MUST the next day!! ...which also happened to be the 40th so it was just so crazy!

Your pictures look amazing!

And the party looks like a lot of fun!

Thanks Christy!

awe sorry about your anxiety attacks. I do feel that way sometimes before I go to bed.

It totally sucked!

Nikki - just getting caught up on our TR. What fun you had while at F&W. And I want to thank you for the tip on the Margarita's on the rocks from the CS stand in Mexico. I enjoyed getting those over the frozen ones very much!

Your costumes were adorable. Our daughters want us to dress up next time we go, but I don't know. That is just more stuff to try and pack to take with us. We'll see what next year brings.

Loved the fireworks photos. Great job. Looks like you are learning your new camera with no problems.

And sorry to hear about your sleepless night. Those nights really suck. It's like your mind just won't shut off know matter how hard you try to shut it down. Hope it doesn't affect your race too much.

Sooo glad I could help with the 'rita tip! Fitting the costumes in our carry-on bags was definitely some added stress but it all worked out. You could always do something simple.

And I have to say that most of the time, I sleep with the tv on

The costumes turned out so great! After hearing about your sleepless night, I am definitely on pins and needles to hear how the next day went!

Coming up!!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Day 3 - Saturday October 1, 2011

Soooooo after a very long and pretty scary night, I was up and ready to go when I heard Erin come out of her door. I told Tom I was leaving and he asked me one more time if I was sure I was okay to do this. I assured him I'd be fine and most likely gave him some last minute instructions on what to do at the opening of the MK that morning!!

Erin and I walked to the car and pretty soon, we were entering the Animal Kingdom!

Oh, did I mention it was pitch black?! Like, "middle of the night, stars still out" dark outside! It was also quite cold, in my opinion but that's just me!

So followed the caravan of cars and unlike the impressive parking ballet I found at epcot, it was pretty much "find a spot." After finding a spot, we didn't really know where to go so just walked towards the crowd of people. There was a really long line and for some reason we got on it!

We asked a man dressed as a viking to take our picture.

We stood in that line for about 15 minutes before we learned that was the line to meet Mickey and Minnie. They were leaving in a few and we weren't even close to the front so we got off and meandered around the parking lot for a little, mixing and mingling with the other runners.

Eventually, we made our way towards the signs for the different times and I decided this would be our spot!

And eventually the sun started to make an appearance!

There was a DJ playing and trying to pump up the crowd but it was just too early!! Just before 7am, we sang the National Anthem (which I LOVE!) and we were OFF!!

For having had no sleep, I felt surprisingly good! The DJ started playing some Danny Elfman music (which I also love!) so I was pretty hyped up! I'm thinking it was something from Beetlejuice. We started running around the parking lot and Erin and I pretty much stayed together. It was also at this point that I realized my camera SUCKS!

Eventually, we were at the front of the park and I realized pretty quickly that we would have to stop and take pictures a LOT! Good thing Erin had her camera because mine was being put away.

As you can see, I was starting to pull ahead of Erin so she let me hold her camera so I could snap away as I was running.

CMs were cheering us on.

Even looking at all my pictures, I honestly can't remember the route we took. All of a sudden, we were backstage and I had no idea how we got there, then we were onstage again and I don't know where we entered from. It was weird! So here are some pics I took both on and off stage!

This father/daughter team was in front of me and the dad kept saying, "Way to go Brook!" "You got it Brook!" It was so cute! And I loved their wings!

As you can see, people are running in both directions so you would run to the end and loop back. This was back by the train tracks to Rafiki's Planet Watch.

Took a pic of myself as I was running....

Back of the train station....

As I was looping back around, look who I "ran" into!!

I pulled her out of the line and had her come run with me again! I told her I would slow down so we could stay together. Just then, I looked up and caught these birds in flight!

And look! We hit Mile 2 already!

We entered the park again somewhere near Kali River Rapids. (I guess I'm remembering more than I thought!) I know because we soon came to the bathroom and decided we needed to make a stop! Haha!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

After a quick bathroom break, we kept on track and were soon passing Everest!

As we came around the corner by Dinoland, there were two very enthusiastic CMs cheering us on! Not only were these people at work WAY earlier than usual but they were genuinely excited for us! Loved it!

I took a quick pic in front of Chester and Hester's store, as it's Tom's favorite!

And then we passed Dinosaur....

And got in line to take a pic with Donald dressed as a dino! Clearly, we weren't going for time on this race!

Somehow, we ended up backstage again and I was so intrigued by all these bikes! What were they were for?!

And then a loooong road back to the finish line.

My FAVORITE part of the whole race was when we reached the grave diggers! I'd seen pictures of them from the first Halloween 5K last year but wasn't sure they would be there again this year. They had the longest lines out of all the characters but there was NO question about waiting! When it was our turn, we asked if we could do a special pose!

And then, we had to dance a little!

The sun was still waking up...

Back side of Everest...

Finally we got to the 3 mile mark. Hmmm, 57 minutes....not great time! But who's counting! We were having so much fun!

Before we knew it, we were at the finish!

They took our pics as we ran, hand-in-hand, through the finish and were given our medals.

Once the race was over, I had one thing in mind......the 40th at the MK! So we made our way to the car. When we parked, we used this yellow post as a way to identify the lane where the car was. Found it!

And a random stop sign happened to be there so, of course, I had to pose with it.

And we were on our way back to the resort to quickly shower and BOOK it to the MK!!


Up next: Did we make it on time for the 40th festivities?!?!

 

[Dream426]

Congrats on finishing the race. You girls should do the NYC marathon next year. Wouldn't be as much fun as this one though...haha How did you do it on no sleep? Well Disney can do that to you. I have done so much as Disney World on no sleep. Looks like you girls had fun though. Love the clear (and blurry) pictures.

 

[ronnmel]

Congratulations on doing the 5K! Seems like you really enjoyed running and all the little details that came with it.

 

[taymacsmom]

Nikki,

Looks like you and I had the same plan for Saturday. I scoured your pics to see if I was in any but no. Didn't that loop behind Rafiki's seem to go on forever? I kept asking my sister, "When are we going to turn?" We also booked it back for showers and MK. Looking forward to more.

Kelly

 

[marDgreen88]

Good for you for doing that whole run on no sleep! I think I would have literally died.
I guess Disney makes everything special, even a 5K! I love that they had Dino Donald and the gravediggers! That is too cool! Can't wait to hear about the 40th festivities... and I'm sure it was a zoo!

 

[kent285]

Wow-nice job! And with no sleep...that's amazing!

 

[jenseib]

Yay for doing the race! Love the pictures along the way too

 

[Tinkerbellie16]

I'm glad the run went well after such an awful night. Looks like you had loads of fun! I would LOVE to run Disney!!! I have to put that on my long list of things I STILL haven't done at Disney that I want to do!