Vacation, Part Two

Halfway Through

So, it’s Wednesday as I write this, though I have no idea when I’ll post it because I have no easy internet access. Husband had to make the last payment to the guy we bought the apartment from by pirating internet service in a Holiday Inn parking lot, but that’s neither here nor there.

We’re having a wonderful time doing absolutely nothing. Monday started out with (of course) swimming. The apartment we ended up with is almost directly across from one of the pool complexes in this resort, so we suited up and headed out. The girls are getting to be really good swimmers, and it’s far more fun now to have them in the pool than it’s been in recent years; while I’m still very watchful, I don’t have to be “Hyper-Hoverer” anymore - I pop some goggles on them and send them on their way. Anyway, we passed the morning in the water, then headed in for sun curfew by driving over to Downtown Disney and catching a matinee of Cars.



Neither Husband nor I thought we’d ever bother seeing this one - the previews were not enticing and the whole concept seemed lame to us. We needed to get out of the sun, however, and this was a good thing to do while hiding out, so we went, and I’m glad we did. It wasn’t Disney/Pixar’s best effort - that, in my mind, is a two-way tie between Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo - but it wasn’t a waste of two hours. On our way home, we nicked some internet access in a hotel parking lot and then found an all-you-can-eat buffet for dinner.



Yesterday, we spent nearly the whole day at the resort’s newest water attraction, “River Island.” It’s a sprawling place with three, no, make that five different pool areas all connected by a meandering, slow current “river” that runs in circles through the place. For four dollars a day, you can rent a tube to ride the river. There are two giant water slides (that Beanie was too short to ride), an arcade, a splash fountain, several restaurants and a general store within the complex and it’s very easy to spend the entire day which, of course, is the point. About halfway through, a girlfriend of mine came to visit with her sons - one of whom I hadn’t met yet - and we had a lovely afternoon. I came back with a little too much sun, but I think I managed to escape a serious burn because my husband is so diligent about hiding between eleven and three. Still, the backs of my arms are hot and sensitive - I figured out that the odd burn pattern was thanks to my riding in the middle of the tube for most of the afternoon.


Today was another glorious “do nothing” day, though it’s one of two days where we have events scheduled. We started the morning with a Disney character breakfast at the Cape May Cafe in the Epcot Beach Club resort. I really like character breakfasts because, for the most part, they’re really low-key and the food is really fantastic, even if it is too expensive. The first time we came to Orlando with the girls, we only did a character breakfast - they were too little at the time to spend the money on theme parks they wouldn’t remember, but Punkin Pie wanted to see Mickey, so we figured the character breakfast would be a good way to break into the whole Disney scene. I still have pictures of Beanie - all of eleven months old or so - leaning WAY out of her high chair toward me while a character - it may have been Goofy - loomed behind her. She’s gotten over her fear of larger than life critters in clothes, though, because she nearly knocked Chip off his feet this morning going in for a hug. It was a lovely time, and I’m glad we did it.

After a quick trip through Target - I’m looking for light jackets for the girls and Husband wanted an s-video cable so we could hook the computer to a t.v. to show DVDs we’d brought - we headed back home. Wouldn’t you know it - NONE of the t.v.s in the place - there are three of them - will accept an s-video input, so the girls had to watch Ever After on my 12 inch computer screen (at least the computer’s good for SOMETHING - I’m still miffed about not being able to connect to the internet). While we hid out from the sun - the girls and Dad watching the movie, Mommy sacking out for a nap - a quick and pretty spectacular thunderstorm rolled through. Once that cleared up, we went over to the pool for our daily swim (having promised the girls that they could swim EVERY DAY, weather permitting). We went to the pools across from our apartment this time, though - River Island gets crowded in the afternoon when people come in from mornings at the theme parks. The girls had a great time swimming and playing on the water slide. Dinner was in our apartment - spaghetti and sauce with some veggies and ranch dressing - and I write this on the porch while Husband is playing nine holes just outside our porch.