Orlando Trip Day 5: Day Of Rest

7:30 a.m. - ZZZZZZZZ

8:00 a.m. - ZZZZZZZZ

8:30 a.m. - I would still have been asleep had it not been for an exploding bladder and hip joints that after several hours in the same position seem to take great pleasure in reminding me that I am not in my twenties anymore. We had decided the night before that we had reached theme park overload. We had initially planned on going to the Kennedy Space Center today, but after looking at the brochure, it appeared to be much more geared to an adult audience than would hold our children's attention. Add that to the extreme exhaustion some of us were facing and we decided that today was a day off.

9:00 a.m. - After a shower and some stretches to try and stop hurting so much, I am still the only one awake in a totally dark condo room. I have a very tough to deal with condition where I am unable to sit still in a hotel room on vacation. I can sit and do nothing very easily when I am home, but on a vacation, I struggle desparately. Oh wait, I hear Abby getting up. We go down to breakfast.

9:15 a.m. - While we are gone, Shannon and Braden crawl out of bed. Unfortunately for them, breakfast only lasts until 9:30 and they miss it. Fortunately, we have enough left over boxes from the last several days to make sure that everyone gets fed.

9:45 a.m. - I waited so long that Igor is gone by the time I arrive for my morning constitutional. Well, that is a shame.

10:30 a.m. - Finally, after almost 11 hours of sleep, we go in and wake a snoring Logan. This is just further confirmation that today being a vacation day is a good idea. Poor kid.

11:03 a.m. - Head down and swim in the hotel pool. We have been at this lovely location for four days and have yet to take advantage of their huge pool. Well no longer. We are gettin' in. AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!! Oh yeah, it is November. That pool was freezing. I stayed in for about...15 minutes and then I was done. I sat in the sun and read my book. Shannon (who enjoys swimming much more than I do) stayed in and we stayed at the pool for about 45 minutes. By the time we were done, Logan's whole face had a bluish tint to it. Yeah, it is time to go.



12:25 p.m. - The main agenda item for the day is to go to the beach. We know if we drive east we will hit a beach and so we load the kids in the car and we head off. The road to the beach goes by the exit to the airport. This means two things. One, we have to go through several toll booths to get there. We end up paying $11 total just to drive to and from the beach. That doesn't include parking. I am so glad once again that toll roads have not caught on out west. I suppose we have something similar here. It is called the Indian Casinos. Put them by the side of the road and almost every driver pulls in and drops a load of money. I appreciate all those who pull and take care of my toll for me so that the Native Americans don't get the toll idea for the reservations.

Second item, I didn't notice this the night we drove in from the airport, but the name of the road that the airport is on is Boggy Creek Road. Am I the only one who sees an issue with the word Boggy and airport in the same sentence?

1:32 p.m. - We are crossing bridges over rivers larger than Thatcher. Be careful Toto, we aren't near the Gila any more. We also pass several cruise ships getting ready to depart. After that recent ship that had to be towed in after it lost power added to the books I have read that turn cruise ships into floating death traps, I find I am not that tempted to turn off and get on.

1:41 p.m. - We arrive in Cocoa Beach. Look its Major Nelson and Major Healy. Wonder what hijinx they are trying to keep from Dr. Bellows from finding out about. If you don't get that reference, your childhood was woefully inadequate and you didn't miss enough school to watch Channel 5 in the afternoons.

1:45 p.m. - Before we hit the beach, we are starving. Hey!!! It is a Mexican restaurant. We are feeling homesick for some cheese and grease so we stop and head inside. The food was actually very good although I get the sense that they cater to an older clientale. The food and salsa had all the spice of a Bristol Palin Foxtrot (Cool, the blog's first Dancing with the Stars reference). But there were beans and there was cheese and we loved every minute of it.



2:37 p.m. - We get to the beach and although it is looking windy and stormy outside, it is surprisingly warm. The beach is a little crowded, but for a Veteran's Day, not bad at all.

2:43 p.m. - Logan hits the water and doesn't stop screaming in delight for the next...basically until we leave. We had debated whether the kids should wear their swimsuits or not. We almost made them change. Good thing we didn't because before we know it, Abby and Braden are up to their chests taking on wave after wave. This was definitely a good call.







3:12 p.m. - Logan tires of running in and out of the waves, so he and I start building a mountain. Because of the way the sand drops on our mountain as we try to make it higher and higher, it ends up resembling Splash Mountain. So for the rest of the day, that is our private sense of accomplishment that we share between us and congratulate each other on several times. We built Splash Mountain.





3:51 p.m. - We need to go. If for no other reason, Logan is shaking. Not his arms or teeth chattering. He is in full body tremors. Yet neither he nor the other kids have any interest in leaving. Our first experience in the Atlantic Ocean was a huge success.





4:03 p.m. - As we are getting in the car, I notice on the window, a decal mentioning that cars needing a cleaning will result in the renter being assessed a $125 cleaning charge. I then look over at my children covered in sand. We are in trouble.

4:37 p.m. - The dead racoon on or beside the road count reaches 7. Just for a 45 mile ride and back. Seven dead racoons. I can't say I had even seen a racoon prior to this trip and if I had, it was definitely in the confines of a zoo. I still can't say I have seen a live racoon in the wild, but the dead ones are piling up faster than I can keep track. For an urban area, it is a little crazy here. I mean you can't go near any body of water because of the snake and alligators and varmints (I have always loved that word and opportunities to use it come up so rarely) are dying by the wheelbarrow load along the highways. The entire trip I always had an eerie feeling that I was just a few feet away from a whole other world I didn't want to know about. The dead racoons indicate I am right about this.

5:38 p.m. - Not sure what we want to do tonight, so we decide after everyone has showered to head over to Downtown Disney. Downtown Disney is basically an outdoor mall with a lot of Disney stores and no Victoria's Secrets. You will get many opinions on what is the best store that you can find at Downtown Disney, but to me, the debate is pointless. It is the Haagen Daaz store. End of discussion. Anyway, we get in the car and get going.

5:46 p.m. - Hey, we have arrived and did not get lost at all. Good job us. We had contemplated going to see MegaMind, but once we arrive, we don't want to rush in and eat quickly in order to make a movie so we decide our evening will consist of walking around Downtown Disney and taking in the sights while trying to find a decent place to eat that everyone can agree on. That is way harder than it sounds.

5:52 p.m. - Wait, they have a Cirque du Soleil theater here with a performance tonight and tickets are available. Shannon has always wanted to see them so we walk over with the idea we may just go.

5:54 p.m. - Yeah, we aren't going. When the cheapest tickets available are $87 per person, we flinch. I don't know what we thought they would cost, but clearly an unplanned $400+ evening was not on the agenda. Darn. However, Shannon told me if it was just the two of us, we would have been going.

6:03 p.m. - We stop in at a store that sells nothing but refrigerator magnets. How unbelievably pointless...and yet we spent at least 12 minutes in there. I must admit though that the full scale size chili dog magnet was my favorite.

6:24 p.m. - Dang it, we have lost Shannon again. How does this always happen when we are walking along a store lined sidewalk? Ok, we found her. She was in the candy apple shop. That was pretty darn impressive what they can do with a green apple on a stick. We wanted to take a picture, but I didn't bring the camera (pardon me for not wanting to lug around the camera bag for three hours out of six days on our vacation. I thought we were going to a movie anyway). I heard about the lack of camera no less than 10 times the rest of the evening. Finally the comments stopped and we just had dirty glares from Abby that said everything.

6:48 p.m. - We are now debating on our third overpriced restaurant and decide yet again...no. We will keep looking. Now Abby has two things to be mad at us about. She is starving and we have no camera. These previews we get of life with a teenager are very heartwarming.

6:57 p.m. - We happen upon a stage with a band dressed in 17th century costumes complete with powdered wigs, playing classical music with a techno bop keyboardest as part of the ensemble. Apart from the powdered wigs, it is actually pretty cool if not a tad bizarre.

7:03 p.m. - YEAHHH! Free chocolate samples at the Godiva Chocolate store. We walk right in, get the sample and walk right back out. I am sure we are not the only ones.

7:18 p.m. - All too often situations come up where I feel totally inadequate as a parent. Fortunately, the times where I get to see total heartbreak in the eyes of my kids over my parenting skills are not so common. However, here we are. We went into a hugh Disney toy story that had all kinds of hands on stuff. You could make Mr. Potato Heads and play with footballs or basketballs. They even had a make your own lightsabre station. Logan was drawn right to it. He just started playing and the rest of the family was near by looking at other things. Suddenly, Shannon is coming quickly and says to me as she passes that she can't find Logan. She is headed to the back of the store so I go immediately up to the front. It can't have been more than 5 minutes, but I see him near the front cash register, sitting on a display case with his head against the wall. You can see in his eyes he is completely scared and heartbroken. Tears are pooling in his red little eyes. For a moment, I can feel all of his fears in me and I feel terrible.

I walk up and hold out my hand. When he finally sees me, the look of relief is overwhelming, but it is still taking him a little bit to pull himself out of the place he has been. There are so many things that at that moment and in the moments since that have come to me about the symbolic nature of that moment that I will not go into here. But let's leave it at, I never want to lose my family. And I don't want to be the reason they are left with feelings of complete abandonment. Ever!

Afterward, Logan told us that as soon as he realized he couldn't see any of us, he went straight to the manager and said, "I'm lost." I'm glad we taught him that much. He is such a wonderful little boy. I love him so much and that look on his face when I found him before he had seen me is forever etched in my mind. I'm not going to lie, I am tearing up now thinking about it. What a weenie I am. But in light of the tragedy that has occured in our community this last week to a young boy just his age, it causes one to be a little philosophical and emotional. Moving on.

7:32 a.m. - There is a Disney pin store right across from the toy store and so that is our next stop as we dabble in pin collecting. Unbeknownst (I always feel like speaking in an English accent with my nose poked way up in the air when I use that word...which isn't that often, I promise.) to me, I must not have offended my young son too much with the above incident, because he pulls Shannon aside when he sees a "World's Best Dad" pin and tells her he wants to get that for me for Christmas. She let me know what had happened so that his five year old efforts to hide what he had just purchased would not prompt me to ask questions. Good call on her part because it actually became pretty difficult to ignore his efforts at concealment. As he stands there with his hands behind his back trying to look innocent, it was all I could do not to laugh. Fortunately, Shannon finds a place to stow the pin and he can come out of super stealth mode.

7:51 p.m. - We are now beyond starving and have run out of options. We decide to try this place called Earl of Sandwich. Boy was that a good call!!! My Carribean Jerk Chicken sandwich was one of the best sandwiches I have ever eaten. So the advertisement for which I will get paid nothing portion of this blog is for anyone who has the opportunity to eat at the Earl of Sandwich. Do it!

8:38 p.m. - We make it back to our car in the parking lot with no issue. We found it no problem. However, we did see a family that was experiencing our Monday night as they could not find their car. They had also apparently lost their mother in the process. I have never felt so bad for someone because I could relate and yet felt so grateful that it wasn't us again.

8:49 p.m. - Wow, we are back at the hotel. In under fifteen minutes. Has this been possible the entire week?

9:30 p.m. - I had to run to Wal-Mart, but Shannon stayed back and got the kids into bed. Once they were down, apparently that Mexican food had quite an effect. She sat in front of the TV craving chips and salsa while watching the Latin Grammy's...in Spanish. When I returned, we watched a bit together. No idea why. But we are certain we cannot ever move from Arizona as it is apparent that we cannot go long periods of time without proper Mexican food. If we do, weird things will begin to happen.

10:45 p.m. - I say good night to my legs who share with me a message of gratitude for not having to walk all day on concrete in a theme park. I don't mention to them that we are back at it in the morning. They will find out soon enough.