Disney vacation

I am sitting here in our beautiful resort condo after a wonderful day at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Let me back up though to the start of our vacation. It actually started back around June when we made arrangements to pick the week and where we would stay. We were able to get this great place that we are staying in through friends of ours in church. Instead of going all the way back to the beginning I'll just go back to the first day of the actual vacation. Saturday morning after a rather stressful week at work I woke up around 0530 and was unable to go back to sleep. I got up and went to the kitchen to start the coffee. We had plans to go to breakfast and then go pick up our rental car so i figured i would wake Kim around 0700. She actually woke up earlier than that and after some coffee and getting ready we went to breakfast. After a really nice breakfast at the Coffee Shop we went to the airport to pick up our rental car.

When i got home with the car Kim was still not ready to go but then i really didn't expect she would be. After a little more primping packing and prodding we were ready to go. It was now around 1000 and we were ready to get on the road. After a short time of prayer we pulled out and headed for Disney. The GPS was programmed for our destination and the estimated time of arrival was shown as 1600 hrs. That was destined to change before we arrived.

The actual trip wasn't bad at all but at our age you need to make a few more pit stops than the GPS allows. We were doing fine till we got near Orlando and i misunderstood the direction given by that sweet voice coming from the GPS. We wound up going the wrong way on I4 but instead of yelling at me the sweet voice recalculated our position and suggested a few extra turns to get us back on course. I love modern technology. By this time it was getting dark, there was a lot of traffic, i had no idea where we were going and i was getting hungry. Needless to say i was starting to get a bit cranky. After pulling into a Walmart because that sweet voice sad we had reached our destination, we finally found the Polynesian Isle Resort. After checking in at around 1730 ET we checked with guest services to see where we could go to get something to eat. We got some perky gal who definitely had to much caffeine and tried to sell us a time share with the promise of cheap Disney tickets. Remember i said i was tired hungry and cranky? I very nicely made that clear and walked out with our room key and a map to the local eateries.

After bringing our luggage to our room we went to dinner and then returned to our condo. Kim absolutely loved the place. We took some pictures before we made it our own and just sat and enjoyed the peace and quiet. By this time, around midnight, we were really tired and just fell into bed and went to sleep. We awoke the next morning and i was starting to feel like i was on vacation. After a few cups of coffee and waiting for my bride to get ready we headed out for some breakfast and shopping. Since this place has a full kitchen we decided to go to the Walmart we saw last night and pick up some items we would need during the week. After shopping we headed back to the condo,unpacked and went out to tour the grounds which are beautiful. After our walk we sat out on our patio, did some reading, relaxing and just enjoying vacation. Now i felt like i was on vacation. Kim prepared a nice dinner that evening and then we just continued to relax, and i was loving it. We still hadn't decided what we were going to do concerning days at Disney, etc. We walked up to the office to see what tickets were available and the person there gave us a phone number to call at Disney to get some ideas. The tickets are very expensive and we wanted to see what possible deals were available. As Florida residents we were eligible for a discount and when we found out how much it would be our jaws dropped and we bought the tickets over the phone. PTL, He delights in His children's happiness.

On Monday we awoke at 0600 after a wonderful night of restful sleep to begin our day of Disney fun. We had some fresh coffee prepared in our own kitchen and Kim prepared scrambled eggs and banana bread for breakfast. She didn't make the banana bread, after all she is on vacation too, she bought it before we left home. We finished getting ready and headed out toward Disney. Where we are staying is about four miles from the entrance to Disney so we were there well before they opened. We found out where we needed to go to get our three day pass we purchased the night before and started to wait on the first line of many. We decided to start out at Animal Kingdom since we had never seen it before. We took the Safari tour, saw a variety of animals in the wild and enjoyed many of the shows they offered. We had a wonderful time and though we were tired we were still able to stand on our feet and walk back to the tram which would take us to our car. We had a great time, the lines weren't very long, the attractions were wonderful and though tired as i said, we weren't hurting as much as we thought from all the walking.

After returning to the condo, we prepared some grapes and cheese and crackers and returned to the patio and talked about our day and what we wanted to do tomorrow. We decided we would go to Epcot since that has a lot of the things we enjoy. Kim reheated some food we had in the fridge for dinner and after a nice shower i decided to sit and blog my vacation thoughts to this point while Kim goes and takes her shower. So far this is right up there with cruising. Stay tuned for further updates.