Family, Fun, and Florida

I beg forgiveness for my lack of posting in over a month - my "traveling four of the last 5 weeks" excuse is finally over - and I'm back to update on those weeks I was gone. We'll start with Thanksgiving...

First, I have to say how much I think my family is totally rad! It doesn't seem to matter where we are or what we're doing, we still manage to have one heck of a good time. A few years ago my parents went to Florida for their anniversary and bought a Marriott time-share condo in Orlando. We decided right after they came home that we need a family trip to visit the condo... and other things in Orlando (of which there is no shortage!). Thanksgiving provided an awesome opportunity. We flew out on Saturday, November 21st from three different airports (Oakland, Tucson, and Salt Lake). We were able to arrange our flights so that we all had layovers in Vegas; we flew as a family in the back of a Southwest plane from Vegas to Orlando. I had only ever flown (that I remember) with my mom and with Julie... we had never flown anywhere together as a family - this was a real treat!

(I would like to say that the flight made us crazier than normal... but that would be lying. ;0)

It was especially fun for us to spend some time getting Caylee familiar with each of us. I think she had a pretty good time, floating from person to person - and always back to her Mama!

We got checked in to our resort, slept in the next morning before we started our real adventures at DisneyWorld's Magic Kingdom. To enter the Magic Kingdom, you had to take either the Ferry or the MonoRail over this huge lake. It's a lot bigger than DisneyLand, with many of the same rides. I loved the other parks, but I think the Magic Kingdom will always be my favorite! All totaling, I think we came to this park at least three separate times over the next six days... sometimes just after dark (the perfect opportunity to see Cinderella's glittering castle!). We probably went on Space Mountain three or four times each... and of course riding in the Mad Hatter's Tea Cups with Dad is ALWAYS an adventure (we often hear "I've never seen anyone go that fast!!")!

Monday we decided to conquer the Animal Kingdom. This was the perfect combination of a zoo and theme park. When you enter and exit the park, you walk past this huge man-made hand-carved Tree of Life, so named because of the many creatures carved into the trunk. You could probably spend hours and not find all the different carvings! We took a wild African safari, were chased up a Matterhorn-like Mountain by a Yeti (coolest ride!!), and went back in time to find an Iguanodon while trying to avoid the Carnitaurus (that's us in the front row of the jeep... probably our second or third time on the ride - yes, it was just that scary!).

EPCOT was our Wednesday adventure. (EPCOT is an acronym for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow). We were able to travel through eleven different countries, sampling foods in several of them. We also rode Soarin' Over California (one of my favorite rides ever!), went and chatted with Crush from Finding Nemo (this was really cool - live animation that we figured was somehow connected to read facial features from the guy doing Crush's voice!), and explored the Seas - an aquarium with dolphins, manatees, rays, and all kinds of fish. Caylee discovered that she really likes fish!

Friday we went and explored Disney's Hollywood Studios... for a very short time. This park is probably only 1/4 the size of the Magic Kingdom, but I swear it had just as many people there! Mom, Julie, Kimmy, and I rode on Hollywood's Tower of Terror while Dad and Spencer took Caylee to meet the Little Mermaid. After that we went over to watch the Muppets in 3D... and then tried to leave but we got caught in the Block Party (parade featuring all the Toy Story characters riding a bunch of HUGE alphabet blocks). We stayed for the Block Party, did a little shopping... and then decided we were done.

Aside from visiting each of the DisneyWorld parks, we decided we wanted to get a glimpse of Florida too. On Tuesday, we packed in the van and drove out to the coast. It took us an hour an half to get there (give or take); Julie, Kimmy, and I used our pent-up creative juices to entertain ourselves in the back of the van - we used three carabiner lanyards, and some other odds and ends, to latch together a clothes-line/pulley system that we could probably make some money off of given the entertainment value... (I don't think Kimmy has recovered.)

On the north end of Cape Canaveral (where Kennedy Space Center is located) there is a wildlife refuge. We drove out through some coastal wetlands and identified so many types of birds that I think we'd be hard-pressed to remember them all! Caylee was simply loving this day; she was walking all over the place and pointing out all the fun things to see!

I consider myself a fan of birds. I just really like them... a lot. When we were kids, Mom would take us girls out to a Waterfowl Management Area out on the Sacramento River Delta and we would see all kinds of birds that we considered novelties. Growing up near the city, seeing seagulls and pigeons on a regular basis was not really that cool... but the birds like egrets and herons were fascinating to us. Little did we know that the "seagulls & pigeons" of Orlando are birds like egrets and herons... They were EVERYWHERE!! They would scavenge food from anyone willing to feed them, but they were also elitists. They didn't like popcorn - they liked the meat from our turkey legs! This bird was hanging out in Tomorrow Land a the Magic Kingdom; it flew right over us at one point and if we'd been with someone much taller they would have been kicked in the head!

Going out the Wildlife Refuge was fun because we got to see these birds that were everywhere in large quantities. Just driving around Orlando and then going out to the refuge, we saw tons of egrets, herons, storks, cranes, spoonbills, ibises, anhingas, grebes... They were seriously everywhere!

In addition to the many numbers of birds that we saw, there were these huge yellow spiders, alligators along the banks, and wild dolphins swimming in a canal! We're also pretty sure we saw a manatee swimming in the canal!

I think I could travel to Florida every winter. It was beautiful there - warm, but not too hot or muggy. Out on the wetlands there were trees covered in Spanish Moss. Everything was green... simply beautiful! And there were literally lakes and ponds everywhere! Arguably sunsets are "best" everywhere... just different depending where you are. But Florida staked it's claim near the top of my "best sunset" list!

On our way back from the Wildlife Refuge, we stopped at a boat dock to put our feet in water that was "Atlantic". The water was SO cold! It was funny because people always complain about the Pacific Ocean being cold... but this water sure felt a lot colder! Caylee put her feet in and then was contorting every way possible to keep her feet out! It was so cold, but still peaceful, blue, and beautiful!

Thursday was awesome. After spending the morning exploring the parts of the Animal Kingdom we'd missed, we found the only restaurant open (Boston Market) and everyone ordered their Thanksgiving Dinner! We took it back to the resort, ate, played some games, and then finished our Thanksgiving back at the Magic Kingdom.

I feel very blessed that I get to spend so much time with my family. Not everyone has that ability, and not nearly as often as I do. I think that the best part about getting older is having the flexibility to take advantage of the opportunities I am given in my life. Even with all those opportunities, I still wish we were able to have them more!

Florida was amazingly fun and beautiful. I haven't always spent Thanksgiving with my family, but I know that it really is the best way to celebrate a day of thanks. This was our first BIG family vacation of this kind, but it is supplemented by so many other moments... small adventures, quiet days at home... it doesn't really matter where we are, my family manages to create the best memories for everyone!