Miranda and Matthew's Place: 07/04/12

This year was the big trip to Disney. Matt is seven, Miranda ten, the perfect ages. Everything has been planned out to the finest detail. Flights booked, car transportation to and from the airport, rental car, hotel on Disney property, studied the bus routes, reviewed and re-reviewed the dinning plan, nothing could possible go wrong. I even read Susan Veness’s book, the Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World.

The trip was going to be perfect. We would start at Angels Aunt and Uncles in Flagler Beach, spend three days there and then head to Disney for Four days and four nights. Just like Chevy Chase in Vacation, I had ever route mapped, printed out Disney park maps and planned every step.

Day one, arrive in Orlando, drive to Flagler Beach.

After dinner, head to the beach for some swimming.

Day two – Get up early and go to the Alligator Farm in St, Augustine. Later - Meet some friends at the beach.

Day three – July 4^th. Go to Merritt Island in the AM, then NASA, then see some friends. Later that night, back to the beach for the fireworks.

Day Four – Well you get the picture -

How could anything go wrong..... Everything was right on schedule on Day one. Right down to the minuet.

Day Two –of the perfect plan - well except for few little tiny items.

1) Kids don’t like to get up early on Vacation.

2) Kids don’t like to do things in the Heat.

3) Kids don't care what your plans are.

Ok, just a little set back. But we can adjust…. A little late start to the Alligator Farm, but we made it home in time to go to the beach and meet with Dennis and Lee.

Day two for the most part was also a success - a nice day at the alligator farm, some good eats, good day with uncle Joe and Aunt Betty and we had time to catch up with Dennis and Lea.

Day Three – Day three was the turning point. By now the heat was starting to get to us. Moving a little slower, not eating as much and drinking like fish. Do fish drink?

This was a big day, lots to do and we had big plans. Go to Merritt Island to the wildlife perseve, head over the NASA KSC then back to spend some time with friends in Flagler and then off to the fireworks.

The not so perfect plan was starting to fall apart, we were almost two hours behind schedule to the Merritt Island Wildlife Preserve. No biggie, we can make up the time.

Dad disappointment number one - Do you know there are next to no birds in the nature preserve in July – Duh…. They all few north! And for Gators and other cool things, it’s just way to hot, there all under water and hiding. When I was here seven years ago in February, the place was packed with Gators, Birds, Bugs and other things the crawled, slithered and bite. It was awesome. Ok, write that one down, no more Florida preserves in July.

Ok, enough with the nature lets go to NASA. It’s a beautiful day, the sun is shinning, just a few clouds – cool, NASA will be perfect, and we still have lots of time to see the place, take the tour and get back in time to see friends. Famous last words.

We pull into the Kennedy Space Center, parked the car and started the long walk to the visitors center. Hey, is that sky starting to get a little dark?

We get to the entrance, pay our $120+ dollars admission and start walking to the first building. Now there is nothing in this building, it’s just a staging area with some AC and maps to the attractions. BOOM – the entire building shakes and the skies open up. And it’s not just rain – ½” hail is bouncing all over the concrete and they don’t want anyone out of the building. BOOM BOOM, and the building shakes some more, now you can’t even see the other buildings. Lighting is all around us, nothing in the building two see and we have just paid $120 to see a lightning storm. Well it did clear up just over an hour later. But now, everything was out of whack – the tour busses were backed up, folks were a little upset with Mother Nature and taking it out on the poor KSC folks. But, we’re there, and we were going to make the best of it. We hopped onto a tour bus and headed out to the observation deck.

Dad disappointment number 2. I was at NASA KSC in 1992, the tour was great, you got to see REAL stuff. Well that has all changed. Now you go to the amusement park equivalent of NASA. Lots of mach-ups, models and electronic stuff. But hey, Matthew and Miranda were having fun.

Wow!! Look at the time – I never make it back to Flagler in time to see friends – we are still on the bus tour and it is 4:00pm. I wanted to be back by 3:30. So much for plans.

We finished out NASA and were back to the house by 6:30pm. Just enough time to get ready for the fireworks. Everyone, back in the car…..

Did I mention, we have not told the kids that we are going to Disney. So here it is, 11:30pm, we need to start packing to leave early tomorrow morning. So I guess we need to let the kids know or they will be wondering why we are packing.

Angela and I walked into the room where the kids were getting ready for bed. They were exhausted from the day. Matt was falling a sleep on the floor. I called them over and said we had some very sad news. The both starred at me, I could see Miranda was thinking – now who died. I said in a quiet voice – “Guys, we have to pack, we need to leave early tomorrow”. Miranda replied in a soft voice – why Dad. In the same said quiet voice I said, “Because we have to go to Disney tomorrow”. It took a second or two to register to what I just said, and there were no screams… But, it sure did take them forever to get to sleep. I’m guessing some where around 1:30am they hit the sack.

Tomorrow - Up at the crack of dawn and the Disney plan would begin - 4 days, 5 parks - no problem, I have a plan.

Day 1-3 pictures: