Orlando

Our trip up to Orlando was a success, as well as a failure.

Success: Staying with Max, Jaimie and Remus (think of Remus as a big fluffy blanket with a mind of it's own. His goal in life is to lie on top of things, including us).

 

The two dogs got along, but weren't the best of buddies. Remus saw Mckinley as something that took up valuable space and attention. Mckinley saw Remus as something that stole the ball from her and as competition for her food.

Max and Jaimie were able to get us into Disneyworld for free (thank god too, because it would have ran us almost $200 for us to get in for a day!). We spent Sunday there, from 8am to midnight. Max has a system down that enabled us to do all the best rides first thing, without any wait. He knew all the best tricks, the best food, the history and stories behind the rides, and all the shortcuts around the park. We couldn't have hired a better guide. We had a TON of fun, though we were completely exhausted and beat down by the time the day was over. Here's a shot of the four of us at the Magic Kingdom waiting to get into Country Bear Jamboree.

We marveled at the small things that we had taken for granted when we were living on land; dishwashers, sleeping in the same bed together, ethnic food (we found an AWESOME Indian restaurant and went there two days in a row), department stores, I could go on. Our week off of the boat was easy living!

We spent a day at a climbing gym. We were surprised that we did as well on the wall as we did, considering we haven't climbed in over six months. My cousin, Andy, came over the the house one night to have dinner with us; we made sushi. We also had a regular visitor in the downstairs bathroom the somehow kept making his way back inside....

We had a fabulous time staying with Max and Jaime. We hated to see it end. Our mission to see the space shuttle launch didn't work out as we had hoped. We woke up at 4:30am on the morning of the launch (running on a few hours of sleep), drove a couple hours to get there, spent seven hours there waiting, only to hear it was delayed 2 hours before launch. We are still bound and determined to see the shuttle launch, we just aren't sure exactly how we want to make that happen at this point. It keeps getting delayed every time we check, so we'll call it once they have some kind of 'definitive' date set for it again. If that ever happens.

A quick snap shot of what our drive home is like....

Finally, here's a picture we took from a local bar at the harbor the evening before we left. I'm posting this picture just because it cracks me up every time I see it. This little guy is one of eight, in this photo he's sleeping. In a hat. One a table. In the middle of a bar with a live band blaring out music. His owner referred to him as, "The fetus of a what a real dog began as".