Disney World, Day 7

On Friday, the one place we hadn't been, ironically, was Animal Kingdom, where our lodge was. So we took the shuttle over to the park area. My notes are thin and this was a few weeks ago now, so I will do my best to recall what we did. (Emily reminds me I already missed one of our favorite rides from the previous day, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, a roller coaster that Kate did NOT want to go on, but at the end was like, Wheeeeeeeee!!!!" This also reminds me of the DoleWhip, which was a pineapple flavored ice cream snack that was fantastic. But I digress.)

Perhaps the coolest thing about it was this massive Tree of Life, a huge structure which looked real but had all these animals etched/carved into its trunk. Really cool. Then it was off to DinoLand, USA, where we did a couple of rides and blew some money on Carnival games. Eh.

But the day really picked up with the animal safari, where we rode a bus through a whole bunch of different animal areas, and lunch at Flametree Barbecue, where I ate some fantastic ribs (sorry, animals!) and had one of the week's better lunches. Then we did "Everest," a ride which was supposed to be scary and I figured, no big deal if Kate can't do it, I will let Emily go with Jack. Instead we both did it, and good thing because it was one of the best rides of the vacation. You felt a chilling wind in your, uh, hair, and seemed to be attacked by a Yeti that destroyed the track in front of you, forcing you to go backward. Great fun.

The safari was cool for the gorilla, and the climbing monkeys, and the elephants, and the giraffe that walked up about 5 feet away from us. And then we finished up there and went BACK to Hollywood Studios, so we could do the Toy Story and Star Wars rides again. And finally, done with all that, we had dinner at the 50s prime time cafe, where all the tables were like being in your grandmas kitchen or an old TV show, the waitress called you hon and cracked wise to you and your kids (Jack didn't know what to make of her; couldn't tell if she was serious or kidding when she took away his toy at the table and lectured him about his elbows). The menu, of course, had meatloaf, fried chicken, and chicken pot pie, or a sampler with some of each -- my choice.

We enjoyed colorful drinks, huge desserts which you ordered from a menu on slides in a old time Viewfinder, and the kitschy decor, which felt entirely authentic. I don't remember if we squeezed in one more ride...think we thought about Toy Story, but the wait was too long, and bed was calling. What do you know, I remember more about that last full day at Disney than I thought.

Swim!

Drove to Ithaca, New York this past weekend for the State swimming championships. Jack had qualified in one event, the breast stroke, and so we drove four hours, stayed in a hotel, and fought through the masses of people at Ithaca College to watch our son swim for 25 seconds, after which we'd get back in the car and drive another 4 hours back home.

The first day felt like a huge waste of time. Directions were poor and our 4-hour drive ended up being 5 hours. We got to the college to watch Jack's team finish up its Saturday events, only to find they'd already ended and there was a 2-hour break before the next session. Skipped the team dinner because it was going to be late and we didn't want to keep Jack up. (Plus there was a Pizza Hut directly across the parking lot from our hotel!) We ate pizza, watched a TV Land Gilligan's Island marathon, and wondered why we were there. Throw in a really bad night's sleep (Jack and Kate, who had shared a Queen bed without so much as a cross look for a week at Disney World, bickered over who got to sleep on which side, fought over the middle pillow, and tossed and turned for enough of the night that we finally gave up and separated them around 3 a.m., with me moving over to Jack's bed and Kate moving into ours.

(They slept better after that, but we didn't. At one point I woke up to find Jack sleeping on top of my HEAD -- yes, he was using my skull as a pillow. C'mon, man!)

But the next morning we were starting to feel the enthusiasm, which continued and increased when we arrived at the college. We watched Jack do warm-up laps and dives with his team, both of which were shaky -- his dives are always shaky, and on the laps he seemed to have trouble staying in a lane, frequently drifting over to collide with people coming back the other way.

Half an hour before he was scheduled to swim, he was calling to us from across the pool, so I went to meet him, only to find he'd made his way up to where we were sitting. He was hungry, and had to go to the bathroom, and evidently didn't want to wait on one and couldn't find his way to take care of the other. We gave him a handful of Fritos, I took him to the bathroom, and said oh by the way Jack, good luck, you're swimming in 20 minutes!

As his event approached, Emily was getting more nervous. Me too, worrying about him missing it entirely by getting stuck in a bathroom or falling off the block and being disqualified or somesuch. But no; when it came time, he was there on the block, and started at the right time and everything. We were just hoping he wouldn't finish last...

And he won!

Afterward, we caught his eye across the pool. He raised both arms in the air in excitement and triumph. He ended up finishing 7th overall (he won his heat; there were three in total) out of 30 swimmers; safe to say dramatically better than we dared hope.

We drove home with an extra energy; the four hours seemed like a lot less. We were still excited about his performance; he I think was still excited about the cool new-fangled Soda machine at the restaurant we stopped at for dinner. I got 3 hours of great classic and alternative rock on upstate New York radio. Jack and Kate got a couple of hours of sleep. And we had a state champion (well, 7th) swimmer.

Disney World, Day 6

You wouldn't think we could top the Universal day, but Day 6 was pretty great, too. I woke up to the sound of Jack cracking up from the balcony, because he and Emily had just seen an ostrich poop outside our window. High comedy!

We had breakfast at "Cinderella's Table," which meant we dined at Cinderella's castle at Magic Kingdom, and were treated to visits from all the different princesses. Kate had a blast and it was fun for me, too! They were all pretty awesome and friendly, I guess that's probably more important when hiring than being the spitting image or anything, although that doesn't hurt. Jack didn't want to get his picture taken with any of the princesses, understandably, but he ate OK.

Edit: OK, Emily has requested more color from the breakfast. Well, the truth is that one of the Princesses, Ariel, was kind of flirting with me! Oh, she hid it in her innocent questions about my t-shirt, which had a bizarre dodge ball logo on it, but clearly she liked the Richardsons a little more than everyone else in the room. But eventually we had to leave and she had to return to the ocean, so this Disney fairy tale would not have a storybook ending.

Spent the day doing rides, mostly ones we'd done on our first trip to Magic Kingdom. Nothing made the notes but I'm pretty sure we had fun.

We powered through the day but stuck it out even when we got tired, because this was the day we were going to take in the parade and fireworks that happen at Magic Kingdom every night. We lined up on the street at a good spot (Emily had researched it) to see everything, then chose another spot when about 200 cheerleaders (there was a competition in town) crowded up against us. But apart from the jostling and crowding, it was by and large a happy, excited atmosphere. A Disney character skit was going on on the castle steps. Fun.

And then as it got dark, the parade began. Slow moving vehicles covered with lights, marching soldiers and dancers, characters - Captain Hook, Tinkerbell, Mickey, Minnie. Then a light show on the castle itself, and fireworks above it. Awesome. Kids loved it, we loved it.

Late night, long day, but a good one. We took the shuttle home with kids sleeping in our laps. It was a day of princesses, rides, parade floats, light shows, and fireworks.

And ostrich poop.

School interlude

I went into the school today to make some copies for an upcoming after-school course. While I was in the office (I was there for a couple of hours), I saw both kids, and their teachers.

I saw Kate's class lining up for recess. She waved happily to me, and I waved back. Later she told me she wanted to come and give me a hug. So I gave her a hug.

I saw her teacher, Ms. Naselli, who has told us before that she loves Kate. (Kate loves her, too.) I asked how Kate's day was going. Ms. Naselli told me how they have a reading group, and Kate, after the group was over, was excitedly telling about how well a new kid had done with the reading. Ms. Naselli said to her, Kate, that's really nice of you to be so happy for him. Kate kind of gave her a strange look, like it was no big deal for her to feel that way. "Well, he did a REALLY GREAT job!" So, Kate's really nice.

I saw Jack lining up with his classmates for lunch. As usual, he was talking and laughing with a couple of them about something or another. I waved to him, he waved back.

A few minutes later I saw his teacher, Ms. Gullotta. Asked how he was doing, if she liked his new haircut (he got a buzzcut yesterday). She said it looked great, but apparently Jack got teased by a couple of older kids, 4th and 5th graders, that morning about it. She said he was a little sad then. That the other kids in her class weren't giving him any problems, they all liked it. That it was just older kids teasing, like seniors do to freshman. I told her to tell Jack he could come talk to me if he wanted. He did, and I asked how he was doing, what the kids were saying, so on and so forth. He said they were saying he was bald.

I said, No, I'm bald. You're beautiful. And he nodded and smiled and was OK, and went back to lunch. Later I saw him running around happily with his friends at recess. Kids tease. I remember.

Later, driving home with Jack after dropping Kate off, I said, so Jack, you're not too sad about the haircut, are you?

And he smiled and said, "No, we're twins!"

I love those kids.

Disney World, Day 5 Universal Studios

Let me say up front that it's no knock on Disney World that this was our favorite day of vacation. Some of it because we were really excited about Harry Potter, some of it was because our meals were so awesome, some of it was just chance and good timing and luck. And we had a really awesome week at Disney. But I'm convinced that if you go to Disney and DON'T do a day trip to Universal, you're missing out. (And even Disney might realize this, since they did in fact run shuttles or busses from Animal Kingdom Lodge, although we opted for a taxi to get there quicker.)

We were lined up at the gates about half an hour early, so that we could be the first ones in and race to the Harry Potter area of Islands of Adventure. (Which was naturally way in the back, like the milk at the supermarket.) Of course, once the gates were open, our line was the only one that seemed to have a problem reading tickets in the front, and we stood there steaming quietly (most of us) while the other lines happily moved forward. We finally got in and Jack and I raced for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. As we got closer, and saw the castle tops looming ahead, Jack got more excited. I snapped a couple of pictures of him in front of things -- Hogwarts Express, the gates to Hogsmeade, Hogwarts Castle -- and in all he was standing with kind of a goofy, cheerful grin, since I think he'd been thinking about this day for several months.

We wound our way in line through Hogwarts Castle, eventually going on a ride which pretty much blew away every other ride to this point. You were strapped into a seat like in Soarin' and seemed to be gliding over all of Hogwarts on a broomstick, but not only were you soaring but swooping up and down and sideways, evading dragons, Dementors, and other Potter staples. All along, the comforting and encouraging presence of Daniel Radcliffe on his own broom reassured you. Kate was too small for the ride (oddly; it was no tougher than some she'd been allowed on), so Jack got to do it twice -- once with Emily, once with me.

After that one, we did the Flight of the Hippogriff, which was a rollercoaster similar in design to many we'd been on, also awesome. You began with a steep ascent, then felt your stomach turn over as you rocketed down and around the loops. Kate loved this ride; we ended up doing it twice. After going through various shops (Jack got a stuffed three-headed dog, which I frankly couldn't believe they had, that he'd been talking about as his planned purchase for several weeks, and various other Potter-swag: chocolate frog, Sneakoscope, chocolate wand, every-flavor beans), we briefly left to go to Seuss Landing (Dr. Seuss land), which was skewed younger, but also a lot of fun. Kids got pictures taken with the Grinch, Thing 1 and Thing 2, and I believe the character from Oh the Places You'll Go! Really had fun there.

Then it was back to the Wizarding World for lunch at the Three Broomsticks. I got a Butterbeer which was fantastic and fish and chips, everyone else got, I dunno, probably the standard: chicken fingers, fries, whatever. A nice tavern-style meal in a somewhat dark but comfy and homey tavern that seemed like it belonged.

Two more things to do in Islands of Adventure: Jurassic Park, and Marvel Super Hero Island. Kate wanted no part of the Jurassic Park ride, which involved getting onto a rollercoaster-like ride that warned you you might get wet. But Emily had brought rain ponchos for the kids, so they slipped into them and we clambered onto the ride. At the slow parts you drifted past scenes of dinosaurs, which was kind of cool. But at the very end, a huge T-Rex seemed to be about to eat you, when you suddenly dropped straight down over a waterfall and got soaked. Possibly the biggest surprise of all the rides on our vacation and thus the most thrilling, although Kate carped about it for a little while afterward. But even she was in good humor about it, probably because Emily and I got more of the brunt of the experience.

The Spider-Man ride was OK, but it was pretty loud and garrish; more of a 3-D experience with explosions and stuff than a ride. We steered clear of Dr. Doom's fearfall and a Hulk roller coaster that the kids were probably too young for (and I was too old for).

Once we'd finally done all we wanted to there, we headed over to the other half of Universal, primarily devoted to movie and other entertainment type properties. Stood in a way-too-long line for a Despicable Me 2 themed ride that in no way lived up to the effort. Next did the E.T. ride, which we had to do since the kids had just seen the movie, which was probably way more fun 10 years ago. But you felt like you were riding a bike in the sky, so the kids enjoyed it. The rides concluded at Simpsons World, which had a fun rollercoaster, lots of neat visuals, and an all around happy and fun vibe -- walking down the street you really felt like everyone was just enjoying themselves. That was also the case at Harry Potter, but not everywhere (some places you could feel the angst of the lines and whatnot). Really had a good time. The actual Simpsons ride, a fairly new one that had great effects, also yielded the best Kate moment of vacation. At one point you seemed to be swallowed by a giant Maggie (the baby). Kate's post-ride reaction: "I loved that ride. Except for when I got wet. And was inside someone's mouth!" Later, Kate would impress me by winning a stuffed Maggie at a carnival game -- nice work!

We sat outside and had a drink, and then the day was ending, and we decided to get dinner. Various ideas occurred to us, but we decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe on the outskirts. Turned out to be basically one of our best meals -- we were all happy, the food and beer were great, the waiter was this friendly old rocker dude who charmed both kids and us while looking and acting like he'd stepped out of a '70s rock movie. Sometimes we have bad luck at restaurants -- slow service, cranky kids, distracted waiters, whatever. This was like the opposite of all that.

While we were eating, the skies outside opened up. It rained pretty hard, so we clambered into what we had for rain gear and headed for the exits. Got lucky with a cab, made it home, fell into our beds, wet, tired. Happy.

Sometimes we get sidetracked. Looking at our phones. Planning some future activity. Reviewing some past activity.

On this day, from start to finish, we just kind of lived the day and enjoyed it.

That's probably a large part of why it was so good. I am going to try to do it more often, whether on vacation, or not.

Disney World, Day 4

Day 4 was an interesting one. We had planned our big, day-long trip to Universal Studios for Day 5, and knew that was going to be an early morning and probably late night (since we had to take a cab both ways, and didn't have FastPass options to avoid lines, so we had to be there when the park opened to get to popular things -- Harry Potter -- early). So we scheduled all of our Day 4 activities in the morning and early afternoon, and (since it was supposed to be a nice day) figured we'd go to the lodge pool in the late afternoon.

We went to Epcot, which according to the literature "Celebrates the Human Spirit." It had two main areas: Future World, which showcases technological innovations over the years, and World Showcase, which partitions the park into different areas celebrating the culture (and food) of different countries: Canada, Mexico, Japan, Italy, etc. We had a lunch reservation at Via Napoli in Italy, so there was a lot of Future World to get out of the way first.

Two rides stand out (there were others, no doubt, but these ones made the notes). First was Space Mission, which was like you were going into outer space as an astronaut. It was pretty funky and all looked real; you watched an introductory video narrated by Apollo 13's Gary Sinise and then strapped yourself into a shuttle which seemed to rocket you off into space. There was a lot of pressure -- very intense -- and I wasn't really sure how much I was actually moving. It recommended that younger kids do a less intense version of the ride, which Emily and Kate did while Jack and I were in the high-intensity one. I got through it fine and Jack loved it. Future astronaut? Who knows.

The second ride was one basically everyone had recommended, Soarin'. You strapped yourself into a chair and seemed to fly across the globe, over fields and mountains and oceans. Pretty fantastic. I'm really not sure exactly how much you move and how much you only seem to move, but it was very cool.

Noteworthy rides completed (Jack and I did another one that was only so-so, spinning out promises of future developments and technological advances that probably seemed pretty cool a number of years ago, although I should mention that Jack thought it was awesome, so good show), we headed to lunch. To get there we walked through a bunch of other areas devoted to different countries, being tempted by Mexican food (and margaritas), Oktoberfest style dancers, and various music, dancing, and comedy acts (including mimes!). By this point we were kind of hungry and had a reservation to catch. Food was fantastic and we all liked it; pasta for Kate, pizza for Jack, something delicious for us and awesome desserts. After that we didn't mind walking around just a little bit more (debating doing Soarin' again but the line was pretty long...) and heading back to the lodge.

It was a nice swimming day, so we all went in the pool. Best thing about this was I managed, finally, to convince Kate to go down a slide she did not want to go down. And she finally did, LOVED it, and went down again and again and again. Laughing each time. We also went in a hot tub, their first time in an outdoor hot tub, and both giggled wildly at the jacuzzi jets. Then back in the pool for more swimming and more going down the slide. Jack and Emily knocked off before we did. Kate had to get one more run in for the day. Thrill seeker.

Dinner was a wretched experience as some sort of mishap in the kitchen resulted in our order getting lost. Not gonna dwell on it but after that we didn't eat in the cafeteria anymore. Fortunately the whole experience was magically washed away by Day 5, The Best Day of Vacation. Oops, I'm out of time for now.

Disney World, Day 3

On our third day, Monday, we had a very ride-heavy day lined up at Hollywood Studios. As I'm reminded, "Fast Pass" enabled us to skip long lines at 3 rides per day (saved the day at Space Mountain, let me tell you!). So we used ours at Star Tours, the Star Wars ride, the Toy Story ride, and the Little Mermaid show. Star Tours was pretty awesome; we sat in a shuttle which appeared to whisk us all over the galaxy, into light speed and through battles with Darth Vader, pod races with Ewoks, and other things (the ride was different each time we did it, which ended up being 3 times over the course of the week). Again it was one that Kate didn't want to do but ended up thinking was pretty cool. Third time we did it the "Rebel fighter stowed away on board" turned out to be Emily. I KNEW there was something suspicious about her!

The Toy Story ride was also awesome. You were sitting in a car which spun around as it traveled along a roller coaster track, and every so often it would stop and you would shoot at targets. We'd end up doing this ride twice more (Kate REALLY wanted to do it again), once waiting in an absurdly long line, but it was a lot of fun. The Little Mermaid show was fun, though I actually don't remember it all that well. A cool effect at the end where Ariel's tail transformed into legs, and a scary evil Octopus woman. Liked Sebastian too. I think Kate enjoyed it (it was mostly for her benefit) though she didn't like the Octopus lady any more than when she saw the movie (although she wasn't quite as scared this go around, I remember her hollering woefully as a 3-year-old).

We did a Muppets 3D show that was OK, with some good jokes but I think it went on too long. A big highlight was meeting characters, including Chip and Dale for the kids, and Woody and Buzz and Sully and Mike (from Monsters Inc.) for all of us. Got some great pictures and Woody and Buzz were particularly friendly. Emily seemed to enjoy her hug with Woody a little too much. I also got to hug him; it was kind of awkward. Not used to hugging people two feet taller than me.

After the Star Tours ride we hit the gift shop, where the highlight was assembling little R2D2 action figures. You picked your own colors and features (including, amusingly, Mickey Mouse ears or a Goofy Hat) and they bound it up into a plastic package just like in a store. Kind of neat.

Can't forget to mention the Great Movie Ride, basically a big riding tour through movie history, which Emily and I thought would be fun and the kids wanted no part of. Indeed, it was the kind of thing that was fun for adults who have seen a lot of movies, and most of it went right by the kids. Lots of gangster interaction and gunplay that didn't fly with Jack and Kate at all. Then there was an Indiana Jones bit where a gangster who tried to steal a golden idol was seemingly turned into a skeleton. I'd like to believe Kate isn't having nightmares about it, but...

At some points during the day the kids were talking about Harry Potter land, which we'd be going to on Wednesday at Universal. Maybe Emily mentioned being concerned about possible rain in the forecast. Jack said, "It's Harry Potter land. It's fine if it rains." Kate responded matter-of-factly, "Okay, if that's how it is."

That evening we had dinner at the Sci-Fi Diner. I guess the big deal about this was that you sat in a car while you ate your meal, in low lights while 50s movies trailers and cartoons played on the big drive-in screen at the front. All of the car-tables faced the screen; Emily and I sat in the back seat and the kids sat in front and colored and half-watched the trailers and cartoons. But the main thing in my notes is that they had our favorite beer from Colorado, Fat Tire, which we can't get in the Northeast. So, yay! Dinner was fine but lights were kind of low and the kids were beat. Kate slept on my lap on the bus ride home.