It's Like We Know What We Are Doing

It seems like a vacation isn't really in the works until the hotel has been booked. I've been putting off the hotel for longer than I wanted to. I'm not really sure why. I'm sure part of it was because there was a bit of concern about spending the entire time in Memphis. The other part was that I actually had to pay for this part. Yeah...paying for the trip is always the worst part. Last week Elias and I discussed the trip. "Do we want to just go to Memphis?? Or do we want to go to Nashville and Memphis??" The answer...Nashville and Memphis. This gives us not a lot of time in either place. But it also knocks out two places where we've never been. I think it also is a bit of a relief for the parents. Not that they're particularly worried. But it might give them some piece of mind. So now the real planning begins. The days have been laid out (leave here, stop here, hotel here, leave again, drive again, hotel again, home). The hotels h...

Orlando was a week ago. It feels like I was just there. It also feels like I've been home forever. It doesn't help that I've been sick. The Duffy Crud (as I've been calling it) has hit me harder than I expected. The throat is still sore, but the rest is over...I hope. The leg is still problematic, but the Chiropractor will be visited on Monday. That only means...it's time to plan the next trip. The next trip is happening sooner than I'd normally like. But apparently, Elias and I have a new tradition. Spring Break Trip. I'm not sure how this tradition started, but yay!! I think... This year, it's a road trip to Memphis!! Many people have tried to steer us away from Memphis. "It's not the best place to go." "There's a lot of poverty." "It's not suitable for kids." I'm not sure how I feel about this. I've never been to Memphis. There's a lot of history in Memphis. And it might no...

We Came. We Saw. We Conquered. Then we collapsed into a heap. That's what happens after a Disney Vacation. I may go once a year (or so), but I still believe I have to have every moment planned out. Which is great...on paper. In practice...it's just hard. Saturday, February 12th at Hollywood Studios - 8a-12n The day started the same as the last few. Up early, breakfast of champions, to the park. We had to get there early to go to Toy Story Mania. Cause the lines are crazy. We moved like gazelles and got in line for the ride. 15 minute wait and Fastpasses for later in the day and we were good to go. I'm happy to say I was victorious in both games!! Yes, pictures were taken. No, Scott didn't take the news well. We had decided to go to Lights, Motors, Action and then head out for lunch. It wasn't quite time for the show, so we went to see the Muppets. Bad idea. We were both so very exhausted, so a dark theatre was bad. We didn't completely ...

I was pretty sure we left Chicago to get warm. What happened to the warmth?? Friday, February 11th at Epcot (Center) - 8a-10p This is the day we've been waiting for. Foodageddon. There were just too many places we wanted to eat. We knew it would be hard to resist the lure of the food in World Showcase. But we also knew that sharing was the answer. Before the food orgy, we did have some Segwaying to do. Oh, Segway. I had done the Around the World Segway tour last year. We had both done a Segway Chicago tour last summer. And now it was time for us both to take the Around the World Segway tour. We arrived at Epcot early. We almost had the park to ourselves. Even better, we found out that there would only be five of us on the tour!! Yeah!! There was just one thing we didn't count on. How freaking cold it would be. There was no drizzle like we had yesterday. But man, I wished for the drizzle. This was just cold. And my coat and gloves...in the car. Argh!! ...

If you put a bird on something, it's art!! Thursday, February 10th at Magic Kingdom - 815a-830p I can sometimes be a moron. I know it's a hard thing to realize, but sometimes it happens. Like when a sign says "Location You Want to Go - Turn Right" and I look at it an think, "Here??" Nevermind that you're going to the Magic Kingdom and the road is labeled "World Drive" Nah...I'd much rather go past that exit, cause I'm sure there was another one. Nope. That was 15 minutes of my life I'm never going to get back now. So we hit MK a little later than expected. We still spent 12 hours at the park. Unfortunately, MK day was a little on the gray side. Scratch that. The rainy side. It would go from drizzly/spitty (ok to be outside) to downpour (need to take refuge in Haunted Mansion and The Hall of Presidents). But it was the first day at Disney!! No matter what, we would be happy!! We had done just about everything in ...

Even though I know I'm in the Hufflepuff house. A Weasley could be in Hufflepuff, right?? Wednesday, February 9th at Universal Studios - 830a-2p Harry Potter. Harry Freaking Potter!! We missed HP during last year's trip. By a day or two. And I was bitter then. But I shouldn't have been. I'd been seeing the coverage (blogs and podcasts) about HP. And it wasn't necessarily good news. Not that the section of the park was bad. Far from it. It was about the crowds. The Crowds!! Happily, we're going 10 months (or so) after the opening. And we're going during the off season. Hopefully that'll help us out. There was a bit of a snafu with the tickets, but once that got finalized, we were in line before the opening of the park. The plan was easy enough. We walk through the gates and we get to the Harry Potter section. We would shove kids...trip the elderly...whatever it took to get us to the ride earlier than everyone else. The only proble...

And it was awesome!! Tuesday, February 8th at Kennedy Space Center - 930a-3p We got to the hotel late last night. And as always, it was hard to sleep on the first night of the hotel stay. It also didn't help that Snorey McGee was in the next bed over. But I was the moron that didn't bring ear plugs. The morning started off a little later than expected due to the ticket situation. We were getting tickets from a station and I hadn't received them. But a quick stop at Starbucks started the morning off right. We got our tickets and we started the drive to Kennedy Space Center. KSC was everything I thought it would be. We took a tour that got us close (relatively speaking...we were 3.5 miles away) to the Space Shuttle that was on the Launch Pad. I've known for a while that I won't ever be able to watch a live shuttle launch. And for that, I'm profoundly disappointed. But I was able to see the shuttle on the launch pad. It wasn't a full on view (...