Going Home :(

I am writing this as we are sitting at the departure gate for our flight back to Winnipeg. I will fill you in on our last couple of days.

Sunday:

We spent most of the day with our friends Nick and Amy and their son David. Mike golfed with Nick and his friend Wayne at Rio Pinar at about noon. I was quite pleased with shooting 76 including an even par 36 on the back nine. Of course Nick had to show me up by making an eagle 2 on the 410 yard last hole. We went from there to Nick's place for a lovely dinner and good times with our good friends.



This is the boys with their friend David. His favorite class at school is Latin. He is 11 years old.

Monday:

Angie and the boys went to Typhoon Lagoon as this was the only day of the trip when the thermometer approached 70 degrees. Both boys got lots of sun and they looked like tomatoes when they got back to the room.



Here are the boys giving the girls directions to the beach.

I managed to get another golf game in at Championsgate, which is attached to our hotel. It is a Greg Norman designed course which plays home to the PGA Father/Son Classic each fall. I managed to get it under 80, but just by one shot.

We have a couple of sad boys here at the airport. I think they are excited to watch the Canada hockey game on the flight, so there is a little consolation in our heading home.



Here's a final picture with the boys and their good pal Mickey.

In a new Hotel

We have made the move to the Omni Hotel at Champions Gate just west of Disney. It's a beautiful hotel and Angie has managed to wrangle us the freshly squeezed orange juice delivered to our room every morning. It's a little cool this morning, but we are expecting a balmy high of about 55 degrees today. SInce it's been a couple of days since my last post, I will give a short update.




Here we are at the Magic Kingdom our first morning. It was a cool morning, but it was nice to be there and Angie cried right on cue as we walked down Main Street USA.






Day 2:

Angie and the boys spent most of the day at Downtown Disney and Mike went golfing at Rio Pinar with Nick. In the above picture, Gus and Jack are enjoying their treats at the"build your own treat" store. The evening was spent at Chili's having a nice meal with Nick's family including his wife Amy and son David, Have I mentioned that I have never had a bad meal at Chili's.

Day 3: The forecast was for cool and wet, but we decided to forge on. The morning was spent at Animal Kingdom. Despite a light drizzle we enjoyed the Safari ride. The boys took a ride on Kali River Rapids and came out fairly dry. Gus decided to take a chance on Expedition Everest and ended up going on it 4 times. First Haunted Mansion and now this. He is becoming a man.


The rains came in the afternoon, but with Jack's abundance of optimism, we decided to head over to Hollywood Studios. It was pouring when we got out of the car and styed that way for the entire visit. We went on the Movie ride and got into line for the Toy Story 4-D ride. The ride was great, but the best part was waiting 45 minutes in dry conditions. While we waited in the dry conditions, Angie walked all the way across the park for Fast Passes for the Tower of Terror. She was pleased to find out that since the ride wasn't that busy, she wouldn't need them.

Gus again showed his manhood,(pardon?), by going on this ride 3 times. Jack of course would have gone on it 20 times if he could have.

That evening, Mike watched the Olympic opening ceremonies while Angie took the boys back to Epcot for a few more hours. They didn't get back to the room until midnight.

Day 4:

We checked out of Disney's Port Orleans and had a few hours before checking in to the Omni. We decided to go shopping for a bit and we all bought something we wanted. Gus bought a pillow, Jack a video game and Mike got a pair of underwear. Since we still had a couple of hours, Mike decided to take a trip down memory lane and we took a drive to Titusville. Mike used to spend his winters there.

The drive started by driving through the beautiful town of Bithlo. The towns highlight is the race track where they feature figure 8 races with school busses. We were wondering if the kids are still in them during the races.

In Titusville, we took a drive through town and decided to have lunch at Dogs-R-Us. It was an interesting crowd. Many of the local patrons appeared to from "The Beverly Hillbillies" before they got to Hollywood.



Here are a couple of guys from the next table.

After about a hour, we managed to make it out and back to Orlando. We checked into our room and had a fairly quiet evening. Another meal at Chili's and back to the room. Sunday will include golf for Mike and then dinner for the whole family at Nick and Amy's house.

First Picture

Here is a nice picture Angie took from the plane on the flight down.

First day at Disney

We got up early this morning in order to get a good start on the day. We were all up about 6:30 which is 5:30 Winnipeg time. We had breakfast at the hotel and had a nice breakfast there. We were soon on our way to pick up our Disney passes at the Port Orleans Hotel. This is our home for the next 3 nights. We got lucky and they let us into our room at 8:30 in the morning. We unpacked and were on the way to the Magic Kingdom.


We went on lots of rides in the morning including Pirates of the Caribbean, Thunder Mountain Railway, Haunted Mansion, and the hall of Presidents. Angie and Jack took a couple of turns on Space Mountain while Gus and I took a turn on the Wedway People Mover. (lamest ride at the park)

After a quick break at the room and a nice meal at The Orlando Ale House, we made our way to Epcot. We went on Planet Earth, Living on the Land, the Canadian Pavilion, and finally Test Track. We learned the benefit of going as single riders. that way we could go on 2 or 3 times in the time it normally takes to go once. Gus and Jack each went 4 times on the ride. We are back at the room after the long day and are looking forward to a well deserved rest.

Stay tuned for more updates tomorrow.

On Our Way

We started our adventure today with our flight to Orlando. It was a pretty quiet flight with a few bumps, but nothing too serious.

We arrived about 7:45 local time and were in our car and on the road by 9:00. We weren’t up for much action tonight, but did have supper at the worlds largest McDonalds restaurant.

We checked into our hotel for tonight, The Hampton Inn, and should be asleep by 10:30. We have a big day planned for tomorrow with a full day at Disney and staying at the Port Orleans resort.

Check back tomorrow for more reports.