The One With the Big Blue World

  Orlando, Florida, United States
Monday, August 6, 2007

001 - Hanging Out in the House

Today I woke up at 8:00, fell back asleep and was up again at 10:00, and then fell back asleep and was up again at 11:00.  Each time I fell asleep I kept having weird dreams about this kid I went to high school with and haven't seen in three years.  It was very, very weird and it seems like every year in Orlando I have random dreams about people I went to school with but haven't seen in a long time.  When I finally got up for good I unbraided my hair and got ready in my room while I watched the end of Spongebob, an episode of Phil of the Future, and the beginning of Cory in the House.  Shut up, they were entertaining at the time!
 

002 - Hanging Out in the House

When I was done getting ready, mom and dad left to go to the Loyalty Homes office to pick up our money, and then go to Wal-Mart and through the car wash.  Mike woke up at 11:00 and went online while I finally had breakfast at 12:30.  I had more chocolate Lucky Charms and grape juice.  Mmm, mmm good.

005 - Hanging Out in the House

Then I really just hung out.  Today was our first Epcot day and Epcot is my absolute favorite park.  Actually, besides Manhattan, Epcot is my absolute favorite place ever; I love it!  So I wanted to get there early and have the whole day to walk around and explore and go on rides, but my mom and dad don't like getting to the parks until late.  At 1:00 I called them to see what was going on and they had gotten $980 back from Loyalty Homes - half of our money plus the $200 security deposit.  I was still pissed off that we hadn't gotten all of it back but after them continuously insisting that we weren't getting any money back, I still felt like we'd somewhow won.  I asked my mom when they would be back and when we'd be leaving, and first she said that she didn't want to leave for Epcot until 2:00 and then she changed it to 2:30.  What?!  Ugh, come on!  It's the greatest place in the world and we're just wasting time here!  To pass some time I sat out by the pool for an hour, again just putting my feet in and listening to the Disney songs on my MP3 player.

006 - Hanging Out in the House

Mom and dad were back by 2:00, and I went with mom to walk Oreo around the complex for a little while.  It was definitely hot out but it really wasn't too bad.  It was the humidity that sucked, but again, it really wasn't that bad.  Last summer New York had been going through an extreme heat wave while we were in Florida and the same was true now.  It was hotter and more humid back home than it was down in Orlando!

010 - Epcot

We finally left for Epcot at 2:30 and were in the parking lot by 2:50.  We parked towards the back of the lot in section C, but I always find the Epcot parking lot to be the smallest.  If you're parked at the end of the parking lot at Epcot it's still a pretty short walk to the front gates.  We should have just walked but there was a tram waiting so we hopped on it.  We were some of the first ones on it and we had to sit there and wait for everyone else pulling into the parking lot to get on it for a good ten minutes.  We could have walked in five!

013 - Epcot

After ten minutes of sitting there and waiting for the tram to leave, we finally started our little ride and were at the front gates within five minutes.  Next time we'll definitely just walk!  The only thing I hate, hate, HATE about Epcot is that they can't seem to get people through the gates as quickly as they do in other parks.  At every other park we walked right in, but every time we were at Epcot (for the past three years) the longest line we've waited on was just to get into the park.  The lines are always huge and really backed up.  It took us ten minutes to get into the park, and when we got to security the woman who checked my bag looked at Mike's Yankee hat and shirt and said, "I'm sorry, sir, I'm going to have to confiscate those."  I laughed and asked if she was from Boston since let's face it... most people not from New York hate the Yankees due to how purely awesome they are.  But she was from Washington State and she said that she's a huge Yankee fan and didn't have a Yankee hat or shirt so she wanted to take Mike's!  It was so funny!  Gotta love those Yankee fans.

016 - Epcot

When we finally entered the park I couldn't have been more excited!  It really is one of my favorite places in the word, and it's all four of our favorite park so it was good to be "home."  We walked up to Spaceship Earth and had to take some pictures.  We were taking pictures of ourselves in pairs when a woman came by and asked if we wanted her to take a picture of all of us, and then we could take a picture of her family with their camera.  Sounds good!  So she took a picture of the four of us, and I took a picture of her and her two daughters.  I did that a lot on this trip.  Whenever I saw a family splitting up to take pictures of themselves I always stepped in and asked if they wanted me to take a picture of them all together.  I just thought it was a nice thing to do.

017 - Epcot

It sucked not getting to go on Spaceship Earth!  It's one of my absolute favorite rides.  Mike's not a big fan of the slow-moving dark rides, but he always talks about how cool Spaceship Earth is and how much he likes it.  It was definitely weird not getting to go on it.  I had been so upset when I found out that it would be closed during our trip.  It didn't make sense to me to do a big renovation in the middle of the summer, during one of the biggest peak seasons, but whatever.  I'm glad it's getting updated since it was slightly outdated but I really, really missed going on it.  I can't wait to ride it next time, with all of the new renovations!
 

019 - Epcot

We made our way into the park and just kind of moseyed around.  The tip board said that nothing but Soarin' and Test Track had long waits which was expected.  We stopped to take a few pictures and to admire one of the fountains.

020 - Test Track

We passed Mission Space and saw that both sides, the intense and the less intense training missions, had a ten-minute wait.  Dad, Mike and I wanted to go on the less intense version and I wanted to go on now since the line was so short, but everyone else wanted to head over to Test Track.  At least that's a ride that we all go on.  There was an hour wait listed and the fastpasses weren't for a long time off, so we just go on line.  At least the line didn't extend past the front door, which we've seen in the past.  The line was long but at least we were inside in the air-conditioning the whole time.

025 - Test Track

The line moved pretty fast.  I've actually never waited on this line before.  When I went with school in March of 2001 we had walked right on and in 2005 we had used fastpass every time we went on it.  There's a lot to look at here!  The soundtrack is of all different car noises which got kind of annoying after a while, but it was still a fun wait.  There was a little girl behind us with her mom, grandma and big sister, and she was celebrating her 4th birthday.  She had just come from the Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique and she had a ton of makeup on, extensions in her hair, and a big Belle gown on.  It was the funniest thing ever!  She was adorable but I couldn't help thinking of Little Miss Sunshine!  She was cute, though.
 

024 - Test Track

I also noticed that through the entire line, a lot of people got off the line and came back, or a lot of people made their way through the line to meet family who was ahead of them.  I know whether or not this is OK is a big debate on a lot of message boards, but it really wasn't a big deal.  Normally this would annoy the crap out of me but whenever we saw people doing this throughout the entire trip it really didn't bother me at all, as it had on past vacations.  I don't know if I was just in a better mood now than in past years or what, but it just wasn't a big deal.  Some adults left with small kids and then came back, and some people came with either older adults or little kids to meet their family on line.  It didn't make the line any longer and hey, why bother getting all bent out of shape over a family emergency?  No one should be punished for a little kid having to go to the bathroom while waiting on an hour-long line.  It just wasn't a big deal.

038 - Test Track

We were on the ride within a half hour and it was great!  I always love this ride but I liked it even better this time than I have in the past.  I love the part when you go through the curves at different speeds.  It's so much fun!  I'm also always amazed at how fast it feels like you're going during the outdoor part of the ride.  A lot of people drive a lot faster than that but it feels like you're going so fast since you're not closed into an actual car.  It was great and we all really loved it.  Best of all, even though there was an hour wait listed, we were off the ride within forty-five minutes.

039 - Test Track

The interactive area at the end of the ride was packed so we only walked through quickly.  Back in 2005 it had been empty so we took pictures in all the cars, but it was too crowded to do so now and we didn't feel like waiting around.

040 - Mission Space

Done with Test Track, we made our way over to Mission Space.  I had always wanted to try Mission Space but was too afraid to go on it after hearing about so many people getting sick or even dying on the ride.  I was psyched to hear that Disney had added a less-intense version because now we could all ride it!  Well, at least dad, Mike and I could.  Mom hates simulators.  We made our way over to the ride and there was only a twenty-minute wait listed for the green, less-intense side of the ride so we hopped on line, stopping to take some pictures outside first.

041 - Mission: Space

When we got inside the wait time was changed to only ten minutes which was awesome.  I was so nervous, though!  I knew that this ride was less intense than the regular version, but I still thought it was going to be pretty crazy.  There was a lot to look at on the short line that kept my mind off of how nervous I was.  I loved everything they had along the line - especially the huge circular device that had different rooms in it that showed how a space shuttle is set up, and how everything stays in place while upside down.  That was cool.  What I didn't like about Mission Space was the rest of it.  The pre-show was really, really long.  Really long.  And it wasn't very exciting... it just seemed repetitive.  When we finally got into our little car I moved all the way down to the right, Mike was in the middle and then dad was next to him with the left seat open.  We took off and flew around.  That was it.  It was one of the weaker simulators we've been on.  It was fun how everything was interactive and we got to pretend we were flying our little rocket ship, but other than that it was a dud.  None of us were thrilled with it or found it to be that exciting.  There's got to be a lot more to the regular version.  I still won't go on it since I don't want to die on it, haha!  But I don't know if we'd bother going on the green version again.
 
When the ride was over we met mom in the Mission Space Training Lab area and looked around.  Again it was a lot more crowded in there then it had been in 2005, but we still had time to make a video postcard.  Mom had made one on her own while we were on the ride and then we all made one together to send to ourselves and my Aunt Stacy and cousin Alison.  It came out so funny!

042 - Club Cool

After Mission: Space I noticed that Club Cool was right around the corner.  In 2005 it had been closed for renovations and I had heard a lot about it and wanted to try it.  None of us had ever been in there.  We walked over and it wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be.  I remember seeing pictures of the old Ice Station Cool and it looked like you were walking into an igloo.  Now you just walk into a big store with most of it full of Coke products.

043 - Club Cool

It wasn't packed in there but it was pretty crowded and we had to walk around to a few different drink dispensers until we found an empty one.  We all took cups and I went for the Krest Ginger Ale from Mozambique, my mom went for the Fanta Kolita from Costa Rica, and my dad automatically went for the Beverly from Italy!  The Beverly is known for being bitter and gross and people usually have to trick their family into trying it but he just went for it.  He filled his cup all the way up and gulped that bad boy down...

044 - Club Cool

It was officially the funniest thing EVER!  The face he made was priceless.  PRICELESS!  Oh man... good times.  He wasn't expecting that at all and it took sipping lots of other drinks to get the taste out of his mouth.  My Ginger Ale, on the other hand, was pretty good!  Not the best since I'm not a fan of Ginger Ale but it wasn't bad.  We all took turns trying all of the different sodas, and a father and daughter from Louisiana came up to us and warned me against trying the Beverly.  At this point I hadn't tried it yet but after all of the comments and warnings I just had to try it!  They also told us that a lot of the other ones were really good and they were!  The two best were definitely the Lift Apple from Mexico and VegiBeta from Japan.  I didn't think I would like those but they were great.  I wish they sold them around here!

045 - Club Cool

Then I had to finally try the Beverly.  I took a little bit in a new cup and took a sip... and it really wasn't THAT bad!  The aftertaste was a lot worse than the drink itself.  After all the warnings and negative reviews I must have built up the grossness factor too much in my head and the reality just didn't live up to it.  I wouldn't want to gulp it down and drink it all the time, but it wasn't as hideous as I had expected.  All in all, Club Cool was a lot of fun!  We only spent ten minutes in there but on our next trip I definitely want to stop in there more than once.  We joked around about going to get something to eat and bringing it back here to get drinks, haha!  It was cool to see what Coke products people around the world drink.  Fun stuff.
 

046 - Illuminations Fountain

When we were done in there we ventured back out into the heat.  An Innoventions fountain show was going on so we stood around for a few minutes to watch it.  I love the music; it really fits in with the Future World atmosphere.

050 - Journey Into Imagination

Then we made our way over to the Imagination Institute.  Journey into Your Imagination is one of the only things I remember first-hand from our trip in 1992.  The ride was different back then but it's still fun to ride it now.  It always brings back memories!  We aren't in love with the ride as so many people are, but it's cute and we like to go on it at least once each trip.

051 - Journey Into Imagination

We walked into the pavilion and, as always, there wasn't a line.  We walked right through the line and got onto a waiting car.  The cars are pretty small, though, and this is where we met the one mean cast member.  The car was full of people with only one little row left and there was NO ONE behind us.  Literally no one.  Instead of letting us get into the next car so we could sit two to a row, she made us all squish into one row.  It was a tight fit, and would it really have killed her to let us go in the next car?!  Ugh, whatever.

057 - Journey Into Imagination

The ride was cute.  It's not my favorite, but I always liked how Figment is a representation of the "figment of your imagination."  I always thought that was cute.  I also like the part when you go through Figment's house and everything is neon and upside down!  And that skunk smell... Ew!  When the ride was over we quickly walked through Imageworks.  In 2005 we had gotten our picture taken with a HUGE camera and then gotten a copy.   It was really cool!  We wanted to try to get another picture but the whole place was packed so we just walked through and made our way out.

062 - Future World

We walked around Future World and tried to decide on what we wanted to do.  We were getting kind of hungry and we wanted to eat at Sunshine Seasons in The Land so we made our way over there.  On the way, though, we saw that the new Nemo and Friends ride had only a twenty-minute wait.  I've heard of it having really long lines since it's a new ride so twenty minutes sounded great.  We changed directions and headed over to The Seas.

063 - The Seas with Nemo and Friends

Wow, that line's LONG!  There was no one actually on the line, but the line itself is huge.  If you ever go to get on line and the line reaches all the way back to the entrance, you've got a LONG wait ahead of you!  At least it was air-conditioned and there was a lot to look at.  The line makes it feel as if you're on a boardwalk at first and then you go underwater.  A fun touch was a little rowboat hanging from the ceiling, making it look like you were in the water under the boat.

070 - The Seas with Nemo and Friends

We were on the ride within three minutes and all three minutes were spent just walking through the empty line.  Mike and I got in a Clam-Mobile with mom and dad in the Clam-Mobile behind us.  What a cute ride!  It's short but very, very cute.  I loved the part of the ride where everything was pitch black and the glowing neon jellyfish were floating all around us.  It was awesome!  There was one part that really stuck out, though... the part where you get caught in the currents with Crush.  The water and bubbles were swirling by so fast that it really felt as if we were flying through the water.  It reminded me of a simulator and mom had to close her eyes at that part.  It was the weirdest thing, though, because the water was moving so fast that at one point it felt like the cars we were in had stopped moving sideways and were now going up and down, and then it felt like we were moving in the opposite direction in which we were.  I had to lean out of our Clam-Mobile and look at the wall to see which way we were going.
 

071 - The Seas with Nemo and Friends

The part where the big neon piranha jumps out at everyone to try to eat Nemo was actually pretty scary!  I also loved the ending where it looks like the Nemo characters are all in the fish tank with the real fish as they all sing "Big Blue World."  It was the cutest thing ever!  At the end of the ride we walked around the rest of The Seas for a little while.  I wanted to go up to the top floor to see the aquariums and the Manatees but everyone else was hungry and didn't want to bother.  I didn't mind since we have the NY Aquarium right here in Coney Island.

073 - Future World

At around 5:30 we finally made our way over to The Land.  It was crowded in there and I was worried about getting a table to eat.  I didn't need to worry, though, because Sunshine Seasons wasn't crowded at all.  The food court area's huge so we got a table right away.  We sat right between Soarin' and Living with the Land.  Soarin' had a 90-minute wait and the line for Living with the Land was only five minutes long.
 

075 - Sunshine Seasons

Mom and dad saved our table while Mike and I went to see what we wanted to eat.  We looked at the little menu board first and then we walked around to each station to see what they were offering.  Everything looked and smelled so good!  After we picked out what we wanted Mike went to save the table while mom, dad and I got the food.  Mom and I shared a turkey and Munster sandwich and then we got the Chinese platter of sweet and sour chicken, Mongolian beef, broccoli and white rice.  Mike also got the turkey and Munster sandwich while dad got the Chinese platter with sweet and sour chicken, spicy chicken, mixed vegetables and white rice.  The food came to $50 which was pretty expensive for counter service.
 

077 - Sunshine Seasons

The food wasn't even that great.  Actually, the turkey and Munster sandwich was DELICIOUS!  SO good!  I'd definitely get that again.  Mom, Mike and I all loved it.  The Chinese wasn't very good, though.  We have MUCH better Chinese food here in the city.  I'm not a huge Chinese fan anyway, so it just wasn't my favorite.  If we come back I'll definitely get the sandwich.

078 - Living With the Land

When we were finished eating and after we had thrown out all of our garbage, we took the short walk over to the Living with the Land boat ride.  It's a cute ride that we always like to do at least once each trip but it wasn't a must-do for this one.  In 2005 the line had been HUGE and we had to fastpass it in order to get anywhere near the boats.  It was crazy!  This year, though, there had been a five-minute wait posted the entire time we ate and when we finally got over to the ride we walked right onto a waiting boat.  There wasn't any line at all!

079 - Living With the Land

We got right onto our boat and waited two minutes for some more people to trickle through the gates.  That entire side of The Land was EMPTY!  Before we knew it we were off on our journey through the land.  I had completely forgotten that they got rid of the live tour guides and the ride is now narrated by a voice-over on the sound system.  I liked it MUCH better this way.  With the live tour guide, your experience really depended on the excitement of the tour guide.  If you got a boring, uninterested tour guide, you were in for one boring, uninteresting ride!  This way the guide was always perky and knowledgeable, and the ride just seemed like a lot more fun.

082 - Living With the Land

Regardless of how many times I go on this ride I ALWAYS forget about the different climates you go through in the beginning.  I've been on this ride four times now and I still forgot about the thunderstorm, desert, rainforest and farm scenes and I love those!  I made sure to take some pictures so I wouldn't forget for the next time.

100 - Living With the Land

Then came the greenhouses.  These usually get old fast but I found it a lot more interesting this time with the automated narrator.  I don't know why but it just went by a lot faster and seemed a lot livelier.  Funny - it seemed livelier without a live tour guide!  I always love the Mickey pumpkins so those were another highlight of the ride.  They didn't have any full-grown ones but they had lots that were still "earning their ears."  It was so cute!  This is a great ride made even better by the lack of a line.  Good stuff.

109 - Canada

We were off the ride by 7:00 and decided to head back to the World Showcase.  We weren't planning on walking around back there tonight but I really wanted to see the O Canada Circlevision 360 movie and it was supposed to close for renovations the next day.  So we took a walk back there and I was sad to see that they had actually closed the movie a day early.  I guess I'll just have to see the new film next time!  We walked around Canada a little bit and Off Kilter was playing.  I know they have quite a following and I had never seen them so we hung around for a few minutes to check them out.  They were good but nothing special.  I guess it's just not my type of music.

113 - Soarin'

At 8:00 we made our way back to The Land.  All day there had been a ninety-minute wait for Soarin' so we decided to just wait.  Regardless of when you're at Disney there will ALWAYS be a huge line for Soarin'!  We knew that we'd have to get there really, really early to get on a shorter line or get a fastpass so we figured we might as well just wait.  We got on line and it was a lot shorter than it had been in 2005 so we didn't feel too bad about waiting so long!
 

115 - Soarin'

All I have to say is that waiting on line for Soarin' was some of the most fun I had on the entire trip!  I know you wouldn't expect waiting on a line to be fun but it really was.  The last time we were there the big screens overlooking the line simply showed pictures of different climates and information about each one.  The pictures were gorgeous but let's face it... they were pretty boring.  Now they have a new game for everyone to play.  Everyone stands around one of the five screens in front of them, and everyone has to lean their entire bodies one way or the other to play the game on the screen.  One game involved a bird flying past different obstacles, one game had a bunch of bubbles on the screen that you had to wave your hands to pop, and one game had dirt on the ground and you had to use your hands to raise the dirt and create different terrain.

116 - Soarin'

It was SO much fun!  Everyone got so into it and everyone on line really got to know each other.  I think that's what made it so much fun - usually you wait on line and talk to your family and just go about your business but here everyone was talking and laughing and leaning on each other and just really getting into the game, celebrating our wins and patting each other on the back after our losses.  It was amazing seeing such a huge group of people come together like that.  There was a family of two adults and their grown son from Portugal behind us.  In front of us was the cutest father and son pair from China.  Next to us were a group of teenage girls from right here in New York.  We all talked and laughed and took pictures of each other and were "all in it together."  It was truly magical.  Only at Disney!  What a good time.

117 - Soarin'

I had noticed that one of the girls next to us was wearing a Manhattan College shirt.  Manhattan College is located a half-hour away in the Bronx and I have a few friends who go there.  I was going to ask her if she went there but everyone was screaming and playing the game so I didn't bother.  After forty-minutes we finally made our way to the second line of the ride, the line that you wait on before you see the pre-show.  Yes, there are four different lines for Soarin'; it's insane!  Anyway, it was much quieter and calmer here so I asked her if she went to Manhattan College and she said she didn't but she had friends who did.  Then we all went about our business and I wound up asking my mom and dad a question about Nelly Bly.  Nelly Bly is a little amusement park right here in Brooklyn.  It was one of the first amusement parks in the world and it's great for kids.  The girl with the Manhattan College shirt heard me mention it and asked where we were from since she also grew up going to Nelly Bly.  When I told her we were from Brooklyn she said that she and her friends were from Nassau County, twenty minutes away on Long Island!  How cool is that?!  It's a small world after all... haha!
 

118 - Soarin'

Ten minutes after that we were finally lined up to watch the pre-show.  I love this pre-show!  You know why?  Because of Patrick Warburton, otherwise known as PUDDY!  That's right, none other than Puddy from Seinfeld.  Normally this would have just made me laugh, but not this year.  This year Mike and I had a special connection with this pre-show.  Earlier in the summer we had met and gotten to hang out with Patrick Warburton at the Underdog World Premiere at the ESPN Zone in the city.  Patrick was our buddy!  Our buddy, Puddy!  Haha!  We got a good laugh out of that and remembered all the fun we had at the premiere.  Good times.
 

122 - Soarin'

Then, after an hour-long wait, we FINALLY made our way into the theater.  In the grand scheme of things the wait wasn't bad at all.  It was shorter than the wait time listed and we had so much fun playing the game and getting to know everyone around us.  It was definitely worth it.  Making the line even more worth it was the ride itself.  Could anything possibly be any better than Soarin'?!  I know there are some people who don't get it, but I'm definitely part of the ranks that could just live on this ride.  It's AMAZING.  We were seated in the middle row on the right side and even the "foot birds" dangling down above us didn't bother any of us.  There was an older woman sitting next to Michael who kept making us laugh.  She asked Michael if the ride was scary and kept saying it would be his fault if she got scared.  She was so cute, and she wound up loving the ride just as much as us!  It's literally the best ride ever.  I can't get over how gorgeous the cinematography is and how realistic of a ride it is.  I had worn flip flops this day so I got to take my shoes off and leave them on the floor, and I LOVED just lifting my bare feet in the air as the breeze gently blew past us and the scent of pine trees and oranges filled the room.  MAGIC... that's what Soarin' is.
 

123 - Sunshine Seasons

After the ride we all ran into the bathroom in The Land.  I just had to take a picture of the sign by the sink.  It CRACKED ME UP!  I guess it's useful... just in case you forget how to wash your hands.

124 - Sunshine Seasons

We had seen the Butterfinger Cheesecake at Sunshine Seasons when we had eaten earlier but we were too full to try it.  Well we weren't too full now!  They were closing the pavilion but they let us through to get a piece of cheesecake, and we found a seat in the emptying Land pavilion.  It was pretty good!  It wasn't as good as I thought it would be but it was still good.  I'd get it again!

127 - Future World

At 9:15 we started heading out of Epcot.  It had been an amazing first day at my favorite park and one of my favorite places in the world.  I love Epcot!  I took some pictures on the way out but my camera had been dropped so many times over the years by this point that it didn't take great night pictures.  I just got a new camera, though, so that's taken care of.

129 - Future World

There was a tram waiting to leave when we got to the front of the park, but it was still waiting around for more people so we just decided to walk.  I've always said that the Epcot parking lot is the smallest of them all and I still stand by that.  It took us three minutes to walk to our car at the back of the parking lot and we beat the tram!  We were back at the house by 9:30 and I was exhausted!  It had been a long day and we got a lot done.  We couldn't let our California Rummy competition fall to the wayside on the second night, though, so we had to play!  We got the cards and sat down at the table when a huge, gross bug scurried across the kitchen floor.  AHHHHHHHHHHH!  I have the worst bug phobia ever.  EVER.  Florida is not a good place for me!  We had seen one or two of these bugs around before so mom and dad decided to run out to Walmart to get traps.  We didn't know what kind of bug it was but we knew it wasn't a roach or anything too gross so it wasn't too bad.  We had also just realized that there was a Walmart only five minutes away so it was fine.
 
Mom and dad left and I went online to talk to some friends.  Then I just looked around online and mom and dad called a half-hour later.  They said that they had been talking and they didn't want to go to as many Disney restaurants as I had planned.  I couldn't believe they were doing this again!  For the past two years I had planned ADR's and showed them each and every one.  Then, when we were finally on the actual trip they had decided against going to a lot of them.  Ugh!  I was so frustrated and annoyed but there was nothing I could do about it.  And after spending a whole lot more money on the house than we had planned I couldn't blame them for not wanting to spend a lot of money on food.
 
Mom and dad were back by 11:00 and we were all exhausted!  We had to finally play cards though, so we played and Mike won.  Again!  We were done by 1:20 and I was way too tired to take a shower and start braiding my hair.  Mike took a shower while I took my makeup off in mom and dad's bathroom and then everyone went to bed while I watched a To Catch a Predator repeat and Next.  Two quality shows... haha!  I was asleep by 2:30.