Day 5 - Goodbye Florida (sniff)

Our final day in Florida began fairly early with laundry and breakfast. I made everyone eggs and bacon and managed to completely burn the bacon in the microwave. It was a plate of blackened, smelly strips of carcinogen and I grabbed the plate (burning my thumb badly in the process) and tossed it out the back door onto the patio lest the smell overcome us inside. My mom's landlord happened to stop by unexpectedly to get something from the house and I suddenly remembered the plate of burnt bacon out on the patio. I ran to the back door and scooped up the mess, tossing it into the trash can, hoping that she hadn't seen me. My mom's neighbor stopped over for a visit with her dog and to ask my mother for the thousandth time to consider staying forever....she is seriously taken with my mom and thinks she would make a great addition to the neighborhood on a permanent basis. My mom was having some computer issues, specifically, internet access issues and the neighbor was the cause of it all. She did have wi-fi at her trailer but was not using it appropriately so mom asked if I would go check it out for her. The neighbor was willing to allow mom access to the wi-fi and so I went over to her place and in about 2 minutes figured out the problem (yay me!) and got her wi-fi up and running. Back at mom's place, she was thrilled to note that she now had internet access! (I learned that a few days after we left, the neighbor re-secured her wi-fi for some reason and mom was left in the dark again). So, finishing up the laundry, Lulabell and I packed for home. It was a real challenge as we had acquired some things to take home but we got it done and soon were headed to the airport. Lulabell had been complaining of an upset stomach, but this in and of itself is not abnormal for her. She often complains of a stomach ache, probably due to some GERD she has had her whole life. I downplayed it and told her to keep her mind off of it. Soon we were waving goodbye to grammy who had dropped us off and we went into the airport to make our way to our gate. Lulabell's bag was pulled out and we had to go to a table to have it searched. "Is this your bag?" the TSA guard asked my daughter, who looked to me for support. "I packed the bag" I told the guard and wondered what in the heck could be in there that would draw their attention. After rooting around in her bag the guard finally pulls out a bottle of suntan lotion that I had forgotten I packed in there. "Did you forget that you can't pack liquids over 3 ounces?". Sheepishly, I admitted that I had and cursed myself as my $10 bottle of suntan lotion was now garbage. Oh well, we repacked Lulabell and headed to our gate. Lulabell was still not feeling well and I had her sit at the gate while I went to procure some food for us to eat on the plane. I found a Burger King and got sandwiches and drinks and headed back to the gate. I realized then that we were sitting at the wrong gate and hurriedly moved her and our stuff to the correct gate. A man noticed what I was doing and figured out he was at the wrong gate too! We sat and ate our food and waited to board the plane. Finally, we got up to get in line when Lulabell suddenly announced she was going to be sick. I hurriedly pointed her to the ladies room and she made a beeline for it where she was unceremoniously violently ill. My mind raced as I tried to figure out what to do, do I abandon our place in line to help my daughter? I stayed where I was and she returned looking pale and sweaty. She felt it was the hamburger she ate and said she felt a little better now. We boarded and found our seats with her at the window, me in the middle and a nice lady on the aisle. The plane soon took off and we settled in. They served a light snack and Lulabell ate a little of it but very soon began to look a little green around the gills and headed to the restroom where her little snack made a return appearance. Meanwhile, I had asked our seatmate if she wouldn't mind switching so that my sick daughter had quicker access to the restroom. She readily agreed. However, this turned out not to be a good idea because I think she was just as sick as Lulabell and we were pretty much up out of our seats constantly so she could use the restroom. Lulabell returned and we settled in again but before long she announced once again she was ill. I glanced aft to see if the restroom was available but there was a line and so I grabbed the air sickness bag and shoved it at her, where she proceeded to fill it to the brim. I had to call the flight attendant to help me with napkins and they provided us with several more bags. Finally the restroom cleared and I deposited the bag and its contents in the garbage. Finally, we landed in Cleveland and Lulabell made straight for the restroom once more. I knew she was not going to be able to make it to the next gate so I flagged down a cart and driver and we jumped on and zoomed at about 70 mph to the escalator. We got to the top of the escalator where another cart was waiting and we zoomed to our final destination. Thank God for those carts because it was like a mile to the next gate and she would NEVER have made it. We arrived at our gate about an hour before our scheduled departure and relaxed. Our flight was on time, according to the little sign over my head (scheduled to leave at 5:00PM). At one point Lulabell looks at the sign and asks "mom, why does our flight say 8:00 PM now?" I laughed at her and chided her for trying to trick me....and glanced up at the sign where it did indeed say 8:00 PM. I did the classic double take and even took off my glasses to clean them so I could be sure I was really seeing what I thought I was seeing. Sure enough, the gate attendant finally gets on the overhead to announce that our flight was now postponed until 8:00 PM (3 HOURS LATER!) because there was no flight crew available and that they were now flying them in from Harrisburg....WTF???? Well, that's just great. Of course, out of all the passengers receiving this news, some took it well, and others took it not so well. Some man, who looked like he would be more comfortable sleeping under an overpass than taking an airplane walked up to the gate and began to berate the poor lady, claiming that he had a "very important meeting" that he "could not miss!" (yeah right). Well, there was really nothing to be gained from yelling, as I could see it. We did have the diversion of watching a family with 3 badly behaved boys under the age of 6 slowly begin to unravel and the astonishing moment of when the oldest boy stood his ground in front of his grandmother, hands on his hips and SCREAMED horrible things at her. Mother was talking to the gate attendant at the time but when she heard him screaming at the grandmother she whipped around, grabbed his arm and MARCHED him into the ladies room and I seriously hope she put the fear of God into him for his little scene. Soon the attendant announced that Continental felt so bad about the delay that they were offering food vouchers so we could eat dinner, on them! Yippee! Lulabell was feeling better by now and decided she wanted to try to eat. I tried to call Stu and let him know what was happening but for some reason, my phone decided to go all wonky. There was a picture I had never seen before on my wallpaper and I couldn't access my contacts - seriously strange. It was like I had a stranger's phone or something. Lulabell's phone was dead as she had forgotten to plug it in the night before. I finally reached him and asked if he thought he could make it to Cleveland as we had a delay. I truly did not think this was going to happen as it had been so long since I myself had driven to Cleveland airport that I couldn't even begin to tell him how to get here. I then went to the attendant and asked if perhaps they would provide a rental car voucher and I could just drive home (about a 90 minute drive) instead of waiting 3 hours to fly to Pittsburgh and then having an hour drive from there. Unfortunately, while this sounded like a stellar idea to me, alas, the airline did not think much of it and I was denied. Oh well, we waited it out and finally got on the new plane at about 9:30 or so. The flight only takes about 30 minutes and the flight attendant did not even get out of her seat. Finally, we landed and Stu and Peaches showed up right on time to pick us up. Hugs all around, with Peaches begging to see what I had brought him. I made him wait though and we headed home, arriving at close to 11:00 PM - it was a good thing I decided to take that day off too, huh? Lulabell was still feeling a bit queasy and so I decided she could stay home from school the next day to recuperate. So, our trip, after such a long time in planning and waiting for it to happen, was over. It was such an awesome trip and the only thing I regretted was that Stu and Peaches couldn't share it with us. However, after regaling Stu about the wonders of Disney, he is now determined that we will be making a trip soon to go as a family, perhaps next summer. That sounds great to me!

Day 4 - Florida - Goodbye Disney World

Too soon our last day at Disney World was upon us. My brother-in-law J and nephew J had to leave as they had another baseball game to play. That left my mom, me, Lulabell, my sis L and nephew C to pack up and check out. We took a last look around at our home for the last 2 days and I regretted not getting a chance to swim in the beautiful pool - Lulabell was upset at this too but we just didn't have time. We checked out and found our way back to the real world and stopped at Cracker Barrel for breakfast on our way home, which is a treat for everybody, right? We didn't get home until about 3 PM or so, which didn't give us much time to relax before we had to scoot over to my sister's house as Lulabell and I were having dinner with them and my dad that evening. I had seen my dad briefly on Thursday night and what I saw worried me a great deal. I had known that he had lost weight but when I saw him Thursday night, I was a little shocked. He has basically wasted away. The weight loss does NOT look good on him as he has always been a robust guy - not hugely overweight, but stocky and healthy-appearing. I instantly became suspect at his denials that he was "fine" because after 20 years in the medical field, I know he is not "fine". My dad has always had a thing about doctors and I know had not seen one in many, many years prior to his current situation. Now that he is on Medicare and medical insurance is not such a big issue, I hope that he is taking care of things. I noticed he had some lacerations and bruising over one of his arms and when I grabbed his arm to take a closer look I was shocked at how thin and frail his arm felt. We compared strange skin lesions (I have a patch on my leg that two doctors have yet to diagnose) and he showed me his legs and again, what I saw worried me. He definitely has some circulation issues, to say the least. In contrast, my dad's SO (significant other) M looked like a shining star next to my dad, and she has her own health issues she deals with, but looked at least 10 years younger than my dad! In short, my dad's health is definitely an issue and my sister and I are beyond worried. We are both in the medical field and we can tell, just by looking at him, that he is ill. The bad thing is, he won't tell us what's wrong with him and basically blows us off. That evening we all met up at my sister's house and my sister had a lovely surprise for me - a new bag! (my backpack had basically disintegrated at Disney World). She had given the exact bag to my mother for her birthday and I fell in love with it - especially as it is my signature color (lime green). She saw how much I liked it and she went and bought me a new one! THANKS! We all headed to the beach for dinner, with Lulabell and I riding with my dad and Lisa, M and C in the other car. It felt a little stiff trying to talk to my dad, what with the white elephant of his health just staring at us in the face, but we made small talk and parked and walked towards the restaurant. It was lovely and we sat the two kids together at a table on the patio and we took a table nearby. Dinner was nice, although the food wasn't what I would have expected a nice place on the beach - but we enjoyed ourselves and decided to take a nice walk on the pier just outside. We walked and talked a bit but then my dad was getting cold (this in and of itself is a huge thing - my dad is NEVER COLD) and so we headed back to the cars. I kind of expected that they would come back to L's house to visit some more but my dad wanted to get home and so we said our goodbye's right there on the beach. I wasn't sure how to feel about all this but my sister had been dealing with it for sometime and we both feel that we won't push him, he will tell us when he is ready. We all headed back to L's house with a quick pit stop at the store to get some dessert. My brother-in-law and J soon arrived from their game and we sat and talked a bit and had dessert. Then, it was time to say our goodbye's as Lulabell and I were heading home in the morning - it was over too quickly and we were sad to put an end to our visit (Lulabell cried in the car on the way back to grammy's). We had a fantastic time with them and I renewed my resolve that someday my sister and I would actually live near one another in the future. Back to grammy's for Sunday night TV and relaxing, washing our clothes to get ready to pack them up for the (sniff) trip home. Tomorrow, day 5 of our trip and the fun of traveling with a sick child - UGH!

Day 3 - The Magic Kindom!

We woke Saturday morning to bright sunshine and warm breezes. My brother-in-law J and nephew J had arrived late the night before and it we greeted them with enthusiasm! We showered and dressed when my sister announced that she had no shoes for her son J! He had arrived in his baseball outfit and cleats and she had unfortunately not performed her motherly duties and packed any real shoes for him! (She also forgot to pack socks for her husband - for shame!). We decided a trip to the shoe store was in order and so L and I and the kids set out for Wal-Mart. L had asked about the location of a Wal-Mart and was told by a staff member there was one "just down the road". So we set off, leaving J and my mother to fend for themselves. It was about 9 AM or so at this point. L figured with traffic and whatnot, we should be back by 10 or so. (hahahahahaha). We left Disney grounds and headed towards Orlando seeking Wal-mart. However, it was certainly not in the location expected by my sister and we drove and drove and drove (for miles and miles and miles) and STILL did not find a Wal-Mart. I kept suggesting we pull over and ask but my sister apparently didn't hear me. We found a discount store and all piled out of the car and into the store where we assaulted the clerks with "where are the shoes?" questions. Alas, there were no shoes to be found there. They told us about a Nike shoe store up the road (my sister's eyes lit up at the word NIKE) and off we went. I thought we should try to find the Wal-Mart store still as I was hoping to buy a pair of shorts for myself to wear to the Magic Kindom. When I pointed this out to my sister, she told me "well, they HAVE shorts at the Nike store for God's sakes" in her most withering voice. I answered back smartly, "well, they don't have BIG GIRL SHORTS, do they?" and she conceded defeatedly that they most likely did not (HAH!). On our way to the Nike store, in answer to my prayers, we spotted a SUPER TARGET store and apparently these words also make my sister's eyes light up. We made an illegal U-turn and swept into the Target store parking lot. We flew threw the nearly empty store and found the shoes where my nephew immediately found a cool pair of skateboard shoes that he fell in love with, much to my sister's chagrin. I hightailed it over to the "big girl clothes section" and started searching for appropriate shorts, but could not find ONE SINGLE PAIR OF SHORTS! My God! Where are the shorts??? I grabbed a sales clerk and dragged her over to the big girl section and challenged her to find me a pair of shorts....she also could not locate any shorts. I was mystified and angry and my voice started to rise as I wondered aloud how a freaking SUPER TARGET store in FLORIDA for God's sakes, didn't have any shorts....??? The clerk slunk away and my sister came over and asked brightly if I had any luck???? One glare from me told her I hadn't and she turned around and INSTANTLY found a rack with perfectly nice shorts on it (how did she do that?). I grabbed a pair and we ran to the registers. We decided that we were now famished and needed to eat something before we returned to the park and stopped by McDonald's for takeout. We headed back to the park and when we returned it was nearly 10:45 - Mom and J had a lovely, leisurely breakfast at the hotel, although their 2 breakfasts cost more than our 6 breakfasts had cost at McDonalds! We gathered our belongings and headed to the buses to go to the Magic Kingdom. We didn't have long to wait and finally, we had ARRIVED! We headed straight to the scooter rentals and mom and I obtained our scooters in no time. I really felt glad that I made the decision to rent the scooter and my sister was glad because now we had double the space to pile our belongings on! The sunshine was warm and our spirits were high as we passed into the park and began our trek towards Cinderella's Castle, which loomed in front of us. Main street was packed as the parade had just ended and it was quite difficult to maneuver the scooters around people. I found it quite astonishing that people really didn't look out for scooters and would walk right in front of me without hesitation, necessitating some quick stopping and starting on my part. We headed to Monster's, Inc laugh factory first and afterwards we made a delightful discovery. My sister stopped to talk to a cast member at the entrance to Stitch's Great Escape and she told us, because of the "handicapped" members of our party, we could go to City Hall and get a special pass that would allow our entire party to have what amounted to a group fast pass to ALL the rides. Well, my sister hightailed it down to City Hall as we waited for the rest of the group to come out of one of the rides. When she returned, she showed the pass to my brother-in-law, whose eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning! He KNEW what this meant...that we could ride and ride and ride and never have to stand in line! WOOOHOOO! We decided to test it out on Space Mountain and boy, did it ever work - we got right on the ride - no waiting! Space Mountain is DEFINITELY my favorite ride at the Magic Kingdom. We also took a ride on the overhead tram which was nice and cool and had expensive wieners, chips and pop for lunch ($8.50 per person!). After lunch we hit Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain and several other rides. They were awesome as well. The crowds were huge but again, no waiting in line for us! We then went to the Haunted mansion and although we did have to go through the main line, it moved fast and we could remain on our scooters. We then were diverted to the handicapped line at the entrance, where we left the scooters and walked a short distance into the mansion to wait for our escort. We made it in and I really enjoyed this ride as I remembered it from my trip here in 1972 when I was 7. It had really made a big impression on me at that time. It was about 4 PM by this time and our thoughts had turned to dinner - my brother-in-law J decided he wanted a big, fancy, sit down dinner in the park and we decided to make reservations at a nice place. Unfortunately, our reservations weren't until 8:20 or so! We thought this would be fine as we could get a snack or something to tide us over and continue to enjoy the park. The only bad thing, according to my sister, was we would miss the fireworks show....damn. So, we headed out into the park and re-rode some of our favorite rides. By 6:00 we had wandered back to the restaurant and were trying to decide what snack we could have that would get us through until dinner TWO HOURS later! Nothing seemed good to us and finally, my mother told my sister just to go into the restaurant to see if perhaps they could seat us earlier than our reservation. Miraculously, the next thing we know, L is waving us over....it worked! We could eat NOW!!!! We hurriedly parked the scooters and made our way inside where we were seated at a lovely table overlooking the street out front. We ordered our drinks and then our server brought us rolls and salad, which we devoured instantly - mmmmmm, so good! Our dinner was family style, meaning, they would bring us platters of food and it was all you could eat, so if we ran out, they would bring us more! The first dish he brought was all meat, roast beef, turkey and ham and it was delightful, with homemade mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, mac and cheese. We fell on the food like ravenous lions, grunting with pleasure at every bite. We ate till we could eat no more (at least until dessert was served), which was a delightful apple cobbler and ice cream. Finally sated, we sat there congratulating ourselves on the way we handled things. My sister decided she needed to get my mom to the prime viewing spot for the fireworks, right in front of the castle, so they took the scooters to mark our territory, while my brother-in-law and I sat with the kids. We were going to meet my sister at Pirates of the Caribbean in about 30 minutes. My brother-in-law decided he needed to find a bathroom RIGHT NOW (dinner had kicked in I guess) and took off, leaving me with the kids and the check (actually, my wonderful brother-in-law had treated us all to that lovely dinner - thanks J!) Unfortunately, the bathroom at the restaurant was inadequate for J's needs (only one stall) and he hightailed it out of there in search of a more appropriate one. The kids and I sat outside watching the crowds and waiting for him to return. We finally met up down the street and headed over to the Pirates ride. There was absolutely no line as the crowd was already queuing up on the street for the fireworks and we got right on. It was quite entertaining and I managed to snag a 30% off sweatshirt for my son when we finished the ride. We scooted over to our fireworks-watching site and waited for it to get dark. Finally, Tinkerbell flew out of the castle and down into the crowd (this was actually a real live person!) and the fireworks started in all their glory. Very, very nice and lots of oohs and aahs from the crowd. We had decided (learning from our experience the night before) that instead of rushing off to the buses after the fireworks were over, that we would linger in the park and ride some more rides to avoid the crowds. We decided we HAD to ride the race cars, another ride I remembered from my youth. Mom didn't want to ride this one so we waited in line with the rest of the crowds and after about 15 minutes, finally made it to the cars. I insisted Lulabell ride in her own car and this kind of freaked her out a little bit, but she did and off we went. These cars were MUCH harder to control than I had remembered and I had a devil of a time pressing the gas pedal - it was very hard to push! In fact, I got a horrible foot cramp and kept having to switch feet to power the car - not enjoyable! Finally, the dumb ride was over and I looked back at my sister in her car and mouthed "I GOT A CRAMP!" she smiled and nodded and waved at me. We got out of the cars and I limped to the walkway. My sister asked me what was wrong with me and I said, "i told you, I got a cramp!" My sister said, "Ohhhh, I thought you said you had to CRAP!" and we doubled over in laughter at that. So, our wonderful time in Disney World was coming to a close and really, we had the best time ever. My mother told us many times that it was her best birthday ever and she would never forget it. I would just like to say thank you to my family because without them, the trip could not have happened and without them, it would never have been as much fun....thank you to my mom, J and L for everything - you guys rock! Tomorrow - our fourth day as we leave Disney World and head back to the real world.

Day 2 - Disney World!

Day 2 in Florida started VERY early - 5 AM to be exact. We were excited to begin the extra special part of our trip and packed our bags. We got to my sister's house right on time (grammy is NEVER late) and picked up L and my nephew C. My brother-in-law and J would join us later tonight as they had a baseball game that day. So, we headed out and were on the road by 6:15 AM. It takes about 3 hours to Orlando from my sister's house so we settled in for a long ride. About halfway there we stopped for breakfast on the turnpike and then continued our journey. It wasn't long before we saw the magical entrance and then we really began to get excited. We were headed to the kennels first as my mom was going to board her dog Lily there for the two days we would be there. The kennels were quite lovely, clean and friendly and though Lily didn't want us to leave, we were confident she was in good hands. That taken care of, we headed off to find our hotel. We were staying in the "value" hotel called All Star Movies and after several wrong turns, my sister finally guided us to the right place. It was all very disneyish and we parked and went inside to register. The hotel was large and absolutely crawling with people. L and my mom went to register and I took the kids to the lobby gift shop to see what we could find. I immediately found hats for me and Lulabell and a cool little ID card thingie on a retractable line for C, who was thrilled. I was surprised to find that Lulabell's hat was on sale for $5! What a bargain. So, with our gifts we headed back to the front desk to wait. L and mom completed the registration and we decided to head right to Epcot as our rooms were not quite ready yet. So we gathered our things, parked the car and headed to the buses that would take us to the park. It was already hot at high noon and I was glad for the hats. Mom is wearing oxygen now and has to rest frequently but we were fine and pretty soon our bus arrived and we boarded, excited to be starting our adventure. In no time at all we were pulling up to the park and we exited the bus to begin the long walk up to the ticket lines. Mom had to rest every now and then but we made it and purchased our tickets. We immediately headed to the scooter rentals and mom was soon ensconced in her little scooter, which we immediately filled to the brim with our bags and supplies. We headed immediately to the center of Epcot, the big round golfball, which is actually a ride, Planet Earth. We were pleased to discover that having a scooter was going to be a big boon as we were immediately escorted to the handicapped entrance of the ride, where we literally waited 2 minutes before we were inside and seated on the ride! YIPPEE! Mom is our golden ticket! The ride was a slow moving car in complete darkness with fun computers in the cars that required us to answer questions and such. Very enjoyable. The ride soon ended and L wanted us to head to the Land section of the park so we could go on the ride, Soaring - a simulated hang-glider ride that was supposed to be awesome. Unfortunately, there was no handicapped entrance and we had to stand in line like the rest of the people. This line took us about 65 minutes and we were entertained by huge movie screens that we could play games on. Still, it was a little tedious standing there and unfortunately, somebody very close to us had a gas problem and periodically we were treated to noxious fumes that we couldn't escape from. My sister kept accusing me but I think it was the strange boy and his mother ahead of us that were the culprits. At one point, L sat down on the ground and her head was strategically placed exactly at the level of the kid's butt in front of her and I made sure she was aware of the danger she was in. Soon we were escorted into the ride itself, mom parked her scooter and walked to the actual seats where we were strapped in right in front of a huge screen that curved around us. The ride lifted us up and the screen started and suddenly, we were flying over the Golden Gate Bridge! It was tremendous and there was wind and sounds and even smells to experience. This was a knockout ride and lasted for about 10 minutes. Truly, it turned out to be just about my favorite ride at the park. We exited the ride and found ourselves inside a huge room where we made our way down to the lower level and decided we needed to eat lunch, along without about 1000 other people with the same idea. After some confusion about what to eat, we finally got our food and then the trek began looking for somewhere to sit down to eat. We had sent the kids out earlier to scout for empty tables but they came up empty-handed. Finally, L found a table that would accommodate us all and we gratefully sat down to eat. We finished up and headed to the elevator that would take us back up to the level we needed. Mom was still a little iffy about steering her scooter and nearly took out a little kid as she backed onto the elevator but we made it and pushed the buttons. We waited a few minutes and finally figured out that we hadn't moved. We determined the elevator was broken and exited where we started to inquire about a different elevator. Unfortunately, that was the only one and we were told to be patient because it was slow. So, we headed back onto it and finally made it to our desired floor exited into the bright sunshine. We headed to Nemo's Undersea experience and again, had almost instant access to the ride. This was a lovely ride and we headed to the next one. It was probably about 4 o'clock by this time and I was feeling an uncomfortable burning sensation in the bottoms of both my feet. I was determined to ignore it though and we continued our trek through the park, stopping for ice cream. We were heading to a new ride (Test Track) and Mom decided she didn't want to go on this one. We were disappointed because we knew without her, we would have to wait in line with the rest of the peons. Finally, a light bulb went off and I figured out that I could ride the scooter as the designated handicapped person, thus assuring our good place in line. So, mom sat on a bench and I got on the scooter. My sister insisted that I had to wear mom's oxygen as well, which I was hesitant about as I didn't particularly want to stick that thing up my nose (no offense to my mother). However, she persisted and I relented and off went went to the ride. Sure enough, we were escorted right to the front of the line and I parked the scooter and walked to the cars. The attendant walked up to me and asked if I thought I would be able to walk down 3 flights of stairs if an emergency occurred and I had to exit the ride. I didn't know what to say, but said "would I have to walk UP 3 flights of stairs?" in my sickest, most pathetic voice. He assured me it would only be DOWN the stairs and I told him that I thought I could make it, with my sister snickering in admiration of my acting abilities next to me. We got on the ride and it was great, like a race car zooming along. We got out and I staggered to my scooter and hurriedly donned my oxygen, just to make everything look good. We headed back to mom, victorious in our scheme. We decided then to head over the countries at Epcot and began the long trek. My feet were definitely burning again and I was afraid to take off my shoes for a look at what was causing this pain. The evening was cooling down and Lulabell and I realized we had left our sweatshirts in the car. We felt we would be fine as we had come from subzero weather and it would only get down to about 60 or so, which was like a heat wave for us. The sun was setting over the lake and it was absolutely gorgeous as we meandered through country after country. By about 8 PM we were definitely hungry and headed to America for dinner. We grabbed our food and sat outside to eat in the dying light of day, enjoying an expensive dinner of hamburgers and fries. It was close to 9 PM and we decided to head to the lake to catch the fireworks. Somehow we got separated in the crowds and L, Lulabell and I tried to find grammy and C. We found ourselves next to a store and we just waited there while L went off in search of Grammy. The fireworks were just about to begin when I heard a god-awful crash in the store just behind me. I turned slowly to see what the commotion was and in horror noted that the source of the sound was my mother as she was dragging a display that had gotten caught in the wheels of her scooter. I rushed over to assist her while my sister stood in front of her, berating her for going too fast. The top of the display was filled with little glasses that were now falling off and crashing to the floor, one by one by one. My mother had thankfully stopped the scooter with the display just inches from crashing into the plate glass window. The store clerks had rushed over by now and were trying to untangle her from the display. I stooped down to try to pick up the shattered glasses, or least get them out of the way so my mom wouldn't crush them with the scooter. The clerk turned into some sort of demon as she growled at me "DO NOT TOUCH THE GLASS". I was taken aback at the tone of her voice but decided to do as I was told and backed slowly away. My mother by this time had been freed from the display and motored out of the store. My sister and I decided it would be best to distance ourselves from her and stood apart from her while the fireworks started over the lake. I looked back at mom and noticed a strange look on her face, one I knew only too well. It was a look brought on by the strain of trying not to laugh, with her body shaking with the effort of holding back the giggles. This set me off instantly and I burst out laughing. I walked over to her and when she saw MY face, well, that did it and we all three dissolved into those helpless giggles that you just can't stop. We have a history of setting each other off and everytime we looked at each other, the giggles started anew. Finally, the fireworks were over and we decided it was time to head back to the hotel. We giggled intermittently all the way back to the scooter rental place. The attendant approached us and I asked about a wheelchair that could take my mother back to the bus as she really could not walk all that way. Here is what he said (I think) "yesth, you can useth a wheelchair and then leave it at the busthsthtop where we will pick it up". Well, I didn't quite hear him the first time what with his lisp and all and said "okay....ugh, what did you say". He repeated himself once again and this time I caught the jist of it but was struggling mightily with myself not to burst out laughing in his face. I handed him the rental receipt and he said "oh yesth, I will alstho need your vistha card". I bite my tongue and retrieved my mother's vistha card to complete the transthaction (I mean transaction). So, we grabbed a wheelchair and headed to the buses. There was a HUGE line at the bus stop and we ended up waiting a good 30 minutes. Little did we know, because of the wheelchair, we could have bypassed the wait and headed straight to the front of the line (Disney is SO good to handicapped people), but we just waited and soon we were on the packed bus back to the hotel. It was about 10:00 by this time and we were whipped. I was barely able to walk by this time as my feet were just burning bricks of goo. But we made it to the rooms and found that they were adjoining so we could flit between our rooms. Lulabell kicked off her shoes and we were instantly assaulted by the worst sweaty foot smell that I had ever experienced. Even my sister could smell it all the way in her room and she came to the door to inquire what in God's name was that smell? I hurriedly instructed Lulabell to take her shoes outside and threw her socks into the tub with water and soap to let them soak. I sat on the bed and peeled off my shoes and socks to get a gander at my feet. Sure enough, I had HUGE blisters on the bottoms of both feet, which certainly explained the burning I had been feeling for the last 6 hours. I literally crawled to the shower to soak my feet. I was very disturbed as I knew tomorrow would be just as walking intensive as today was and how would I manage? I made the decision that tomorrow, I would be renting my own scooter as there was just no way I would be able to enjoy myself in pain. So, happy with my decision, we headed to bed, anticipating the tremendous day in store for us at the Magic Kingdom! Check back for day 3 tomorrow.

Day 1 - Florida!

Lulabell and I had planned a trip south to visit my mother at her "winter place" and see my sister and her family for a few days. What Lulabell didn't know was our plan to spend two glorious days at Disney World! We all kept it a BIG secret from her and it just about killed me to do it too. My sister nearly let the cat out of the bag when she told my daughter on the phone that "we have your Disney packet ready!" Lulabell thankfully didn't quite catch that and so the secret was kept to the end. We had a rather uneventful airplane trip down and soon we exited the airport in West Palm Beach into the glorious hot sun. We waited just a little while for my mom to pick us up and managed to change into our flip flops while we waited. Mom arrived soon enough and whisked us off straight to the beach! Deerfield beach is one of the prettiest beaches with parking right on the beach basically. Lulabell and I joyfully kicked off our flip flops, rolled up our pants and sprinted to the water. Our toes drank in the glorious blue-green surf as it rolled up the beach. I must admit the water was colder than I expected, but it was not cold enough to deter me from standing there, basking in the glory of it all. We hung out for awhile there, and then headed to grammy's place, which was in a trailer park, right on the intercoastal. It is a 2 bedroom, 2 bath, with a screened in porch double wide trailer, very comfortably appointed. We hurriedly changed into our "Florida clothes" and grammy served us some soup to tide us over until dinner (steaks on the grill, roasted potatoes and salad, YUM!) My sister and her family came by about an hour later and we quickly fell into the comfortable rhythm of family. My mother began cooking the steaks, which were absolutely the best steaks I have eaten! We sat and talked for awhile and then decided to break the BIG NEWS to Lulabell. We gathered everyone together and let her have it......stunned silence followed as she tried to figure out if we were kidding her...great delight finally hit as the news sunk in. We were leaving first thing in the morning to spend two wonderful days and nights at the Magic Kingdom! I was psyched because it had been 13 years since I had been there. Mom's birthday was Friday and she was able to get in for free! We finally said goodnight to my sis with promises to pick them up by 6 AM! Lulabell and I headed off to bed with visions of Mickey Mouse in our heads and the thrill that awaited us.... More tomorrow on our first day at Disney World!