Florida 2013: Part 1: The beginning

My dad took us to the airport. We loaded everything up in his jeep and headed off. He had specific instructions to not let our pitiful garden die, not let the house flood, and not let the dogs dehydrate. All very difficult since we had a SUPER leaky faucet that required that we turn off the water main all of the god damn time.

On the way to the airport three hours ahead of schedule, of course, dad asked if we had watched the news. Well, we had been very busy taking care of last minute details, feeding the dogs, watering the potted plants, calming excited little boys, packing last minute things (like contact solution, glasses, stuffed animals, etc.), and giving dad any food that was going to spoil before we got home.
“What’s on the news?” I ask.
“Oh, something about flight delays.”
Sonuvabitch. WTF?

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare only to find out that a computer glitch had delayed flights all over the place. Not just our airline, but EVERY airline all over the nation. For hours.

We were supposed to leave around 11am and arrive in Florida around 7pm. We left SLC closer to 3pm, arrived in Denver and had more time added on, and arrived in Florida around 2am. We took the shuttle to the hotel and fell into bed exhausted.

Well, this all really screwed with my plans. Yes – I had planned every possible thing so that we could cram as much fun into our trip as possible. We were supposed to be up at 7am and at Disney Studios by 9am. Instead, we had to go to the airport to pick up our car. We slept in. We made our lunch for the park. We finally got out the door with claims of “I can’t breathe!” and questions of “What’s wrong with this air, mom?” The humidity was quite a shock to the system. We had a good talk about the science of water being suspended in the air even though you can’t see it. By the end of this discussion, and by the time we had walked from the hotel front doors to the car, we were all dripping with sweat. UG!

We finally made it to Disney Studios, and the fun was about to begin. Here’s a shocker for you. Bub didn’t like having everything planned and didn’t understand why we couldn’t just walk hither and yon to which ever ride we wanted. It was very obvious to me that some sort of plan had to be used. And, Disney experienced friends the country over told me that a plan is necessary. Otherwise, loads of energy would be wasted walking back and forth with no reward. With two six year olds who whine. It’s not like the rides and attractions are right next to each other. And, she didn’t do any of the research to figure out what was kid friendly or what was actually going to be appropriate for us. She just wanted to do it on the fly. Um, no.