Orlando Vacation

October 2006

We took the boy on his very first plane excursion to Orlando Florida. Afterall, what little person doesn't want to go to "the happiest place on earth."

Michele's family has a timeshare in the area so we availed ourselves of the opportunity to spend the week with our family: nanny, papa, cousins, aunts and uncles. It was a true family affair.

We limited our theme park time to Universal Studios and the sister park "Islands of Adventure." Incidentally, if you're planning a trip to Universal you would do well to purchase your tickets online. They run some fantasic deals on park admission that you just can't get anywhere else - much less at the park. So if you're planning to go, stop at the website first. We bought 7 day passes for less than $100 each.

Islands of Adventure has a "kiddie" area in which we took full advantage of the resources. In particular, we spent a bunch of time in Seuss Land and in the Curious George section.

The boy had a grand time in the ball pit area - there's this guargantuan play area where these little rubber balls abound for use in the air guns that surround the upper tier. They're dropped on you, shot at you, all kinds of things. The idea is that the kids collect up the balls in any one of several ways and is probably designed with the idea that kids of different ages will be inclined to play in different ways. Out little guy was intrigued with collecting up balls and putting them into the vacuum tube (which then sucks the balls up to the other kids who are shooting them at other people.

We spent a bunch of time at a little zoo like area complete with sound boxes replicatingthe sounds of animals. He's seen here behind bards - we hope this does not portend future transgressions.

We also took some time out to visit downtown Disney and the Disney Boardwalk Resort. Of course we made the obligatory stop at the Lego Land and took a ride on the rail road. As you can see from the picture, we were the only ones on board and jr. was not the least bit happy about the situation - there's $2 and 3 minutes of my life I won't get back!

We made face time with fairy princesses and Winnie the Pooh, which the boy really seemed to like a lot.

We of course took the obligatory pictures with as many of the characters as we could find: Buzz Lightyear, Shaggy and Scooby, Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2, and on and on.

We went out to the Polynesian enroute to dinner else where on the Disney property and had a wonderful time in the rental boats, as you can also tell from these pictures. The boy was sooo tired he wanted nothing to do with the water, even though he usually loves being out in the boats.

He spent time with Nanny and Papa touring the timeshare grounds and with Mom and Dad at "City Walk" was well.

We missed big sis something awful, but she did have school to attend. We thought about her often, sending txt messages and she made out like a little bandit when it came time for gives from the sunshine state.