let's jump into Disney posts... Day 1

I have finally finished editing the photos I took. We were in FL from 11/6 through 11/13 and each day we spent some time at Disney. Even the day we drove down there, we checked into our condo and then went over to Downtown Disney, a shopping area with restaurants. That evening, we did not realize we wouldn't get back there again during our stay. I may have spent more money had I known that! Ha Ha!
On Saturday Nov 6th, we left home at 6:40am and got to the condo in Orlando at 4:00pm. Not a bad trip for us. The kids are very used to being strapped into a car for a long day's trip. We stayed in a very nice 2 bed/2 bath condo in a resort close to Disney. Having a bedroom and bathroom for the kids was wonderful - as well as having a real washer and dryer in the unit and a full kitchen. If we had stayed on Disney property, we would have paid almost twice as much for a value room. That would have been just one room with not even a dorm sized fridge. No regrets staying off site!!

We actually went to Downtown Disney that evening just to be sure we knew how to drive from the condo to Disney property. Turns out, the website's name was pretty darn accurate. "disney2miles". The resort was 1 mile off the main route. After you drove that mile to get back to the main road, the "Disney 1 mile" sign was right there. Being an off season trip, we never spent more than a few minutes going from our condo to the parks.

So, we walked around a little, doing some window shopping (ear pics above. Both kids tried them on, but really didn't like wearing them so we skipped those purchases) until we got to the Lego store. No window shopping there - that place was much more hands on and age appropriate! They had bin upon bin of Legos to play with. The kids found the bigger ones and spent a long time playing. They never even discovered the smaller versions. I kind of wish they had to see if they are truly ready for the tiny ones.I just loved this wall of Lego people. It was hanging behind the cash registers. I should have asked them if I could come back there to take a couple pictures. It was that cute.Just some of the bins of bulk pieces for sale.

Woody is completely made of Legos. They had several huge statues outside, too. Really cool!

After shopping, we stopped for dinner at The Earl of Sandwich. Before going to Disney, I had read dozens of websites and reviews and message boards and reference books. This place had been praised as having good sandwiches. (hence the name) And, Disney frequenters raved about the Holiday Sandwich. Well, being in early November, the sandwich had just been added to the menu for this season. Lew & I both ordered it. Toasted.... turkey, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce. I will admit, it doesn't look all that great in the photos, but trust me... it was delicious.

By now, the kids were pretty tired and they were less than thrilled with their sandwiches. All the sandwiches were toasted for starters. So, Carl's turkey and cheese wasn't what he was looking for. And, Gretchen's toasted peanut butter & jelly on a homemade roll might as well have been monkey tails with liver pate on them. Luckily, I was able to take the top of her roll off and when she saw the sandwich as open faced, then it looked like something she could possibly eat without dying. Phew! She ate all of it! (It was sooo good!)

Luckily, they had fresh fruit and the kids inhaled that! Melon for Carl and strawberries for Gretchen. It was a perfect combo fruit cup!!

After dinner, we wandered a little more. We picked up a map for the machines that make those pressed pennies for souvenirs. And made a couple pennies. It was about 8:00 pm when we headed back to the parking lot. On our way out of the Downtown Disney area, Gretchen looked around and said, "Wow. There are a lot of people who stay up late!"

When you consider that we got her up at 5:30am and those kids refuse to sleep in the car unless it is pitch black out (so that's right - they did not sleep at all) I guess 8:00pm feels pretty late!

This night, we would gain an extra hour of sleep due to the fall-back time change. It also meant it would start getting dark on us one hour earlier each day on vacation.

The kids woke on Sunday, 11/7 at 5:07 am. I could hear them talking.

Gretchen: "Carl, are we still on vacation?"

Carl: "Are we going to Disney World?"

I'll pick up with Sunday morning and tell you all about that day in the next post.