Travelling Adventures with Duncan and Danica : 2014

Monday, March 10, 2014

Back to 6 Feet of Reality

So, our vacation was lots of fun and we've made lots of memories. Our trip home was fairly uneventful with the exception of my Mom briefly losing their passports (they were later found in the returned rental car). Our flight was delayed by 25 minutes and we decided that the funny flight attendant was related to his personality and not to any Southwest airlines policies but it was decent anyways. The weather on the drive home was fantastic, though I should note that nearly anything would have been better than what we drove to Flint in. What a shock it was though to arrive home to the snowbanks which are still taller than me in places and likely taller than Danica in the not so deep spots. It certainly snapped us back to reality sooner than we were maybe ready for.

Here are the last of the photos:

Duncan and Danica posing with a Lego Chima character

The family with Buddy

Miniland version of Washington, DC

A waterfall near Cypress Gardens - note the lego alligator, sea otters and deer

Duncan with Buddy and Max

Danica and Duncan with another Lego Chima character

Robert on the Lego Chima Quest for Chi ride by himself (my mom and I had already gone with Duncan who was on his 2nd way around with another boat of people; I told Robert to wait until he got back and they could go together but he didn't)

The LEGOLAND entrance (on our way out)

Duncan and Danica in a Lego Treasure Chest

Danica and I on the Safari Trek - that is a Lego Zebra in the background

Robert pretending to eat an orange off the tree

Friday, March 7, 2014

Lego, Lego and More Lego

Today, our last day in Florida (boohoo), we visited Legoland. Unfortunately, so did a few schools apparently. Lucky for us there was no rain in spite of predictions to the contrary, but there was quite a breeze, making it rather cold (relatively speaking - I know those of you back home would slap me for even pretending today's weather here was cold).

'Lego' means 'play well', which is exactly what we did today. It felt like we went non-stop but there were still plenty of rides, shows and even whole villages that we missed during their shortened winter hours. Plus there were areas which were currently closed for renovations. The creativity and realism of the buildings, creatures and the like is astounding; I wish someone had told me that Master Lego Builder was a career option when I was in highschool!

Earlier this week they reopened Cypress Gardens and the Florida Pool on-site but we ran out of time to check them out. The gardens and waterfall we did see were quite stunning though Lego-fied with alligator, fox, otter, squirrel and deer sculptures. Miniland is always fascinating to me and this one was no exception with their miniature versions of Las Vegas, Kennedy SPACE Centre, New York, Florida cities and Washington, DC complete with the Obama family (just to name a few). Apparently the tallest structure in Miniland is the Empire State Building whereas the smallest were the pigeons in NYC. If all the bricks in the Lincoln Memorial were lined up end to end, the line would be two miles long; if the bricks in the capital building were stacked, the tower would be nearly six miles high.

Duncan enjoyed the Legends of Chima, which in my opinion would have been more enjoyable on a hot, sunny day as it took us hours to dry off today since we were too cheap to use the $5.00 people dryer. He also had a great time riding the roller coasters with Daddy. Danica, still traumatized from Everest and Dinosoar at Disney, was reluctant to try very many rides, preferring Beetle Bounce and the Safari Trek, as well as climbing on and posing with all the sculptures throughout the park. Both of them were delighted to repeatedly trade their minifigures with the Model Citizens (staff members ). Grandpa stuck mainly to people watching, though shocked us all when he agreed to ride the Islands in the Sky with us given his huge fear of heights.

Curious, we had to give in and purchase some apple fries for a little snack. I don't typically like cooked fruit but these were rather tasty. Just as they sound, they are long, thin slices of apple, deep-fried and coated with cinnamon sugar and served with whipped cream. I know all nutritional benefits have escaped these treats, but it is nice to pretend that they're a health food since they're made from fruit.

On our way back home, we stopped by the side of the road to check out the orange trees and although we were tempted, we took only pictures. We then popped into a candy/marmalade shop and picked up some freshly squeezed orange juice, citrus jellies, and chocolates. Robert has been searching for these jellies for years and until today has been unable to find the right ones.

Tomorrow we head back up north, to that great white country we call home. It is hard to believe that our vacation is over already though I am pretty sure our feet can't take much more. The kids get another week off upon our return as their March break started today. Robert and I are right back to work though. I will post the last of the photos once we get back home.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Truly Magical

We headed back to the Magic Kingdom yesterday to see some of the things we missed our first time through. Our plan was to go slightly later so that we would last until 8 pm to catch the fireworks, only to discover that the earlier parade and fireworks were not scheduled last night; we were sure there was no way the kids would last until 9 o'clock for the parade and 10 o'clock for the fireworks (keep in mind that our kids are usually in bed by 7 pm or so), but we were wrong. We spent over twelve hours at the Magic Kingdom yesterday.

Upon our arrival, we attempted to secure fastpasses (aka best invention ever) for our top 3 choices for the day but were not successful; even worse was that my mom had to wait in the fast pass line to not get our choices as long as we did to meet Mickey Mouse himself! That also meant that we had to be prepared for long waits to meet the princesses we hadn't met last week. And little did we know that much of the state of Louisiana closes down and thus visits Florida during Mardi Gras, making the crowds much larger than they had been last week. My parents brought their ereaders with them for their wait-time entertainment but my dad's needed charging so he had to resort to people watching (and likely some talking too, knowing my Dad). It was truly amazing to all of us how the kids could wait in line for hours to meet the characters when a walk in the mall is accompanied by whining about sore feet, boredom, fatigue and the like. We managed to meet Mickey, Rapunzel, Snow White, mermaid Ariel, Tinkerbell and Rosetta, Merida, Belle, Aladdin and Jasmine. We snapped photos of Gaston and Cinderella's evil stepmother and stepsisters but didn't wait to meet them.

Take note of Duncan's shirt in the photos. At the entrance to one of the rides or character greetings, the cast member asked if we were really from Canada. When we told her we were, she was completely flummoxed to realize that we could speak English. Like my penpal from Maine in grade 5, she assumed we only spoke French and likely figured we live in igloos and drive dogsleds to school.

Family photo with Mickey Mouse

Grandpa made a friend on Main Street after missing most of the Dapper Dans' show.

Duncan and Danica with Rosetta

All of us with Tinkerbell in Pixie Hollow

Duncan and Danica with Aladdin and Jasmine

Drusilla, Anastasia and Cinderella's evil stepmother

The kids with Rapunzel

The kids with Snow White

Which one is the real Gaston?

Voila - there he is!

We also met Ariel in her grotto.

Merida was just as feisty in person as she is in Brave.

A highlight for me was Enchanted Tales with Belle, where Robert and my dad were recruited to be Knights in Armour, Danica to be Chip the Teacup and Duncan to be Philippe the horse. It was fun to see them act out the story of Beauty and the Beast. Danica has decided that It's a Small World is her favourite ride whereas Duncan was pretty partial to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

I was excited to try the Dole Whip that I had read so much about and was definitely not disappointed - pineapple soft serve - mmmmm.

Luckily, our timing meant that we were in the perfect spot to see the Main Street Dance Party parade and my parents secured rocking chairs on the theatre porch for the Electrical Parade later on. The kids were ecstatic to see that Frozen has been included in the Celebrate the Magic show on Cinderella's castle. The fireworks were amazing - a truly magical way to end our Disney World visit.