Summer Vacation Reflections

I began blogging about the antics of my family in the summer of 2006, when we took, arguably, our first "real" family vacation.  It was a trip out to California to visit Uncle Addison, Aunt Amy, and our friends Tim & Karey Rees.  I found it fun to document - like a diary - that first trip, and I've been blogging several times a month (sometimes several times a week) ever since.

Now, four years later, Miles and Emery are just starting to be old enough that they enjoy looking back at past trips, and "events" on the computer.  But we have also been printing our blog into a book each year (using Blog-2-Print), and having a hard-copy diary of our experiences as a family has become something we are thankful to own.  Truthfully, as much as I enjoy tech, I am somewhat skeptical that this blog will be around (in this form) 50 years from now for my kids.  But I figure a book is something that can be easily passed on to my kids, and their kids, etc.

My closest friends and colleagues know I love technology, and I love documenting things with photos ... and blogging in real-time.  I did a little of that on this most recent summer vacation (from my phone).  But for the most part it was just a random picture here or there, with very little description/documentation for our family to look back on in future years.

So for any of you who check-in on this blog for an occasional "quick" update on life at Casa de Teague ... this post will not be for you.  This one is really more about documenting our summer vacation adventure ... for us to reflect on in the future.  So, you've been warned.  This is going to be long - and is purposely long so we can make a meager attempt to capture (and later remember) what a great trip it was.

So, here it goes ... my official recap/reflection:

First, and foremost, I have to start by saying:  THANK YOU GRAN / MOM!  We loved traveling with you, and we so appreciate all you did to create/enhance our family vacation.  Of course your presence was the most important part of this.  But your generous support of the trip, and the invitation to join you on the cruise, was truly a blessing for Miles, Emery, Kristen and myself.  Words really can't thank you appropriately.

I did blog earlier a little bit about our stop in Atlanta on the way to Orlando.  So I'll bypass those wonderful moments and jump directly to our arrival at Disney World.

I'm sure there are millions of people who have driven long distances to Disney that feel the same way I do when I say this: the huge WDW gate that you drive through on your way to the resort is a big relief!  After months of planning, and a lot of "are we there yet?" kinds of questions from the back of the mini-van ... this gate if a welcome sight indeed! I will also add that I've driven under this gate many times before with groups of high school music students, and each time I've done it I've thought to myself, "Some day I'll bring my own kids here."  So this is - I suppose - an opportunity to state that as much as I love my job, being at Disney World with my family was very much a different kind of Disney experience - and one that I suspect I will always remember regardless of how many more times I bring students in the future.

In our early preparation for the trip Kristen and I had planned to stay "off property" at an Orlando area hotel.  Over time the plans evolved differently (thanks Gran) and after passing through the gate we were following signs to the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

We had heard great things about AKL from friends who had stayed there, and we were not disappointed in the least.  I mean, how often do you stay in place where you open your bedroom window, walk out on the balcony, and see giraffes and zeebras walking 100 feet away?  It was pretty amazing.

A part of our annual family vacations/car trips is a scavenger hunt game played in teams.  Typically the teams are adults vs. kids ... but this year Miles & Emery adopted Gran on their team.  We were on the look out for the typical road-trip stuff like state licensee plates and welcome signs.  But we all decide on other iconic (or just quirky) things to look for during the trip, and when you see that thing you call it out and your team gets 'x' number of points.  Some things are repeatable, which makes the game more fun and allows a team to 'come back' days later after going behind because the other team found a special item for a lot of points.  For example, anyone who saw a Red Toyota Prius - at any time on the trip - would get 5 more points for their team.  When created the list of scavenger hunt things that we would search for during our two-week trip, one of the large ticket items was the first person to see a giraff from their hotel room.  I didn't win many points for my team during the trip ... but I got that one!  (By the way, the Gran/Miles/Emery team won the hunt in the end: 655-610.)

Pin trading:  One thing I had noticed on previous trips with the band was the pin-trading that many children (and some adults!) were engaged in during their Disney stay.  A tip I read online before we left was to buy a lanyard and some random pins BEFORE you leave.  It saves you paying the high prices for lanyards in the park, and - with eBay - you can buy a bunch of pins very inexpensively.  So we tried it.  Worked out great.  Both kids picked out a lanyard online back in April, and I eBayed 20 pins (10 for each).  A couple of the original pins I purchases still remain on their lanyards - but most of them were traded away to 'Cast Members' or other friends they met in the park.  They had a blast with this!

Sunday: Magic Kingdom (morning) / Hollywood Studios (evening)

Our itinerary changed several times as we tried to put a schedule together for the week.  But I'm glad we ultimately decided to visit the Magic Kingdom first.  We got to the park before the gates opened as thus witnessed the train arriving with the characters and watched their 'open the park' ceremony - which I had never seen.  It was a fun way to start the theme-park tour that would be our week.

After taking the obligatory family pictures on Main St. USA, we headed for Tomorrowland where the kids and I rode Space Mountain before the lines became ridiculous.  Then it was on to the Speedway for the race cars.  This was a fun parent moment for me because I remember MY grandmother taking me to the Speedway on my first trip to Disney World back in 6th grade.  So to see my mother - now a grandmother and at Disney for the first time herself - riding on the cars with Miles and Emery - was really fun.

We tried to plan most days so that we could return to the hotel in the afternoon for a swim (or at least to put our feet up for a couple of hours) before then heading back out to a different park at night.  This plan worked out really well for us.  The days were long, but very enjoyable/manageable.  On Sunday night, after our break, we went to Hollywood Studios for dinner and then to see the evening show 'Fantasmic.' We had dinner reservations that night at the Disney Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre, which is indoors - but set up to feel like you're at a drive-in movie in the 1950s.  You sit in cars and you are served your dinner 'under the stars' while you watch clips from bad Sci-Fi movies of that era.  Tons of fun!

Monday:  Downtown Disney & the Power of the Dollar

We purchased a 4-day park hopper ticket, but had budgeted five days in Orlando.  So on the second day we "recovered" from opening day stimuli by taking it easy in the morning at the pool, and then later heading over to the "Downtown Disney" area.

I told a friend after we returned that we were glad that we waited until the kids were in elementary school before we took them to Disney.  Our self-imposed rule was that everyone had to be able to "transport without a stroller, feed themselves, and wipe independently."  Once at the parks, I learned another great reason to wait unti the kids were a little older was you can teach them how to 'budget' money ...

I had read in a book before departing that the best way to avoid all the "Daddy will you buy that for me?" questions was to give your kids a specific budget before you leave and allow them to make decisions about how they want to spend the money.  This worked really well for us.  Kristen's mother had given each child roughly $50 for personal spending money.  They earned another $20 doing odd jobs around the house, etc. before we left.  So each had a budget of $70. The first day in the parks Emery saw a guy with balloons and said "Daddy, will you buy that for me?"  It was of course hard to not just melt and buy it for her.  But instead I reached down deep and offered, "Sure honey, we can buy that today.  It will cost about $10 of your spending money.  I'm happy to take you over to that man and you can buy the balloon.  Is that what you'd like your first purchase to be?!"  I was totally positive (even though I thought it would be a poor spending decision) and held my breath to see how she'd respond.  I guess I expected her to be crushed that I didn't offer to shell out my own cash for the balloon.  Instead she paused, thought for a very brief moment, and then very cheerfully said, "You know ... I dont think a balloon is worth $10.  I think I'll wait for something else!"  And then she skipped down the street. Yea book/chapter about budgeting ... thought Dad.

So this is all to say that our day at 'Downtown Disney' was where the kids made some decisions about how they wanted to spend their money.  Both bought a couple of new pins for their lanyard.  Emery tried on what seemed like 50 variations of Mouse Ears before landing on the pair she tried on first - pink plaid embroidered with her name.  Miles found a baseball bat at 'Team Mickey', and had it engraved with his signature.  I thought all of the their purchases over the course of the trip were great choices.


Tuesday: EPCOT (morning) / Magic Kingdom (evening)

Tuesday we were back out to the parks, and at the gates of EPCOT for their opening.  Miles, Emery and I went directly to "Test Track" while Kristen and Gran took all the tickets over to "Soarin'" and got fast-passes for later in the day.

All the attractions we did were enjoyable.  Save "Mission To Space" for Gran and Kristen ... who bravely tried to do the "Easy" version of the ride with Emery while I took Miles on the "Advanced" space adventure.  One of my favorite quotes from the whole vacation was from Kristen who was telling me how she pretended to enjoy Mission Space during the ride because she could tell Emery was getting a little wigged out, and she wanted her to stay calm.  But after the ride was over, and we were all back together, Kristen began her accounting of the adventure by stating, "I've been a good mom ... I haven't told the truth until right now!"

I think "Soarin'" was the unanimous favorite for the day.  But the surprise runner-up was the trip through the aquarium at "Nemo and Friends."  I had no idea that the Disney aquarium was the second largest in the USA.  They have a 'ride' there that is really calm (so Gran and Kristen loved it).  Everyone rides in a sea-shell, and it tracks through a building much like "It's A Small World."  But the ride takes you through this huge aquarium ... where there are of course thousands of cool fish.  But Disney found a way to use video projectors to project characters from Finding Nemo into the tanks and it gives the appearance that both the real fish and the animated fish are interacting with one another.  It was crazy cool.  I had heard about it, and was skeptical it could work ... but it did!  Then, at the end of the ride, you exit out into an aquarium (2nd largest in the USA) that has giant picture windows to see dolphins, etc.  But what happened next was really amazing.  We went into a small theatre for a show called "Turtle Talk with Crush."  There is a screen at the front.  As you walk in they seat all the kids on the floor in front of the screen, and parents/adults sit on benches in the back of the room. The surfer-dude turtle from Nemo, Crush, comes on and talks to the children.  Somehow Disney controls the animation of Crush so that he can see, hear and interact with the kids in the room.  Not many things surprise me when it comes to technology, but this did!  Miles, who was seated right in the center, in a bright yellow shirt and a white baseball cap, caught Disney's attention, and Crush started talking to him and asking him questions.  A woman with a mic came over next to him, kneeled down, and he started interacting with the animation on the screen by answering Crush's questions.  I pulled my camera out of my pocked really fast when I realized what was starting to take place, and got most of it on video.  I'll bet Miles talked to Crush for at least two minutes.  Afterward he was really thrilled.

If there was ANY portion of our time in the Disney parks that felt slightly less-than-ideal, it was Tuesday night.  It began wonderfully, with a great dinner at the Polynesian Resort.  We attended the Spirit of Aloha" dinner show, and yours truly got up on stage and did the hula with his children.  I think Gran's favorite part of the night was seeing Kristen and I dancing when they invited up couples who were celebrating anniversaries.

We had planned to return to the Magic Kingdom after the dinner to see the fireworks.  When the dinner show finished we walked to the monorail.  Out of service.  Hummmm.  That's interesting; that doesn't usually happen at Disney.  That's alright, we'll take the boat across the harbor, I thought.  Walked to the boat dock.  Long lines (because the monorail was down).  The boat pulls up and the driver announces he's having trouble with his engine and he can't cross back to Magic Kingdom.  To Disney's credit, they immediately sent a fleet of buses to the Polynesian to transfer everyone.

The real fun came in the middle of the Electric Light Parade when the skys opened up and it poured.  I'm sure Disney would have cancelled the parade had it been raining at the time the parade was supposed to start.  There was so much water it actually because comical and fun.  We were all soaked.  The rain delayed the fireworks for a bit, and we all wondered if our night of transportation challenges has just been foreshadowing to cancelled fireworks.  Many people began to walk for the gates ... but we stubbornly remained - hopeful.  Soon enough the lights in the park went out, thousands cheered, and we were treated to an amazing display of pyrotechnics standing right next to the Walt Disney/Mickey statue in front of the castle.  Even in rain soaked clothing - at 10:30 at night - it's hard not to smile when those fireworks start dancing to the music.

Wednesday: Animal Kingdom (morning/afternoon) / EPCOT (afternoon/evening)

Wednesday was the only day we didn't build a break into our afternoon.  We started at Animal Kingdom, which was of course very close to the hotel, and then took a bus over to EPCOT to explore the "World Showcase" in the mid-afternoon.

Animal Kingdom was great fun.  Again, using Kristen and Gran as a part of our 'fast pass' strategy, the kids and I headed directly to the "Expedition Everest" coaster while they got us passes for the Safari.  Miles and I loved the coaster.  (Personally, I think it's the best one at any Disney park.)  Emery really wanted to do, but got really nervous while waiting in the relatively short line.  To her credit she DID go on the ride, and at the end declared, "That was awesome!  Let's do it again!" So - while the line was still short, back into the ride we headed.  But this time, right as we were about to board the coaster, she flipped out and refused to get in the car.  So Miles enjoyed a front row trip with a nice high-school aged girl who agreed she'd help him find me in the gift shop at the end of the ride.  While I was frustrated to miss a second trip, a Disney worker handed me a pass that allowed me, and two others, to cut back to the very front of the line any time later in the day.  And while Emery never wanted to go back, Miles and I enjoyed the ride one final time on our way out of the park for the day!

When we returned to EPCOT in the late afternoon we headed directly for the World Showcase, and enjoyed walking around the various countries.  Dinner was at Tepan Edo, the Japanese restaurant.  Everyone enjoyed watching our chef prepare the meal at the table, and we met a very nice family from the northeast.  

After dinner we agreed that Kristen, Gran and the kids would walk around the various countries until it was time to see "Illuminations" when it got dark. I, being tired on my feed anyway, offered to go grab a seat on a bench that's located in an relatively hidden area behind the Fish and Chips place in England.  I was willing to sit on this bench for 90 minutes to ensure great seats to watch my favorite of all the Disney nighttime shows.   I headed for my goal, and got there in time to claim the last bench right on the water.  I had been sitting on a bench for no more than about 15 minutes when two Disney workers approached all of us and - with a smile on their face said, "I'm sorry, we're going to have to clear this area for a private party."  All of us who had planned to hold space here for great seats were pretty bummed.  Some folks were not very pleasant at that point.  I lingered just a bit longer than everyone else in the area, and then approached one of the Disney workers to ask her if she had any other suggestions for really great places to view Illuminations.  My inquiry (and my gut instinct to be polite and not act ticked off like everyone else who was grousing and walking away) paid off, because that's when she said, "I'd like to provide your family with a "Magical Moment" ... and then offered me 5 VIP viewing passes that got us to the water's edge in a roped off area with very few other people.  I've seen Illuminations five or six times now ... but always in the 'standing room only' throngs of people that line the perimeter of the lagoon.  So seeing it from this area was very special, and I felt very grateful to the 'Cast Member' who made it posible.  

Now that I think back on it, I'm realizing that her extending this offer was what actually allowed me to go back and find Kristen/Gran/the kids in France ... and that's when I got some video of them playing by the fountain ... and that video turned out to be some of my favorite of the entire trip.  So now I'm even more grateful to "Dorothy" the EPCOT Cast Member.  

Miles and Emery had so much fun playing in the fountain.  They got soaked, but it didn't matter; Kristen had a change of clothes for them.  After they changed Emery wanted to make a wish and toss a coin in the fountain.  I loved watching her hold the coin next to her heart ... and you could just see her really working hard on this wish in her mind before she tossed the coin in the water.

Thursday: Hollywood Studios (morning/afternoon) / Hotel & Packing (afternoon/evening)

Wednesday had been a long day.  Thursday was to be our final day in the parks, and we planned to return to Hollywood Studios to do some of the rides.  When we had been there earlier in the week on Sunday night we had eaten dinner and seen Fantasmic, but we hadn't done many rides.  Kristen (who believed she had developed Pink Eye ... she had!) opted to sleep in and then head over to the medical clinic to be checked out.  Gran opted to sleep in as well, and linger at the hotel.  Miles, Emery and I were not deterred, and we were at Hollywood Studios for their park opening.  We quickly grabbed our Fast Passes for "Toy Story Mania" and then hit the "Rockin' Roller Coaster."  Both kids loved the coaster (more than the Tower of Terror ... which they both did ... but they were clinging to me for dear life).

To kill some time before our Toy Story Mania fast-pass we took the Back Lot Tour.  As we were walking into the line for the ride I was asked if I'd like to volunteer to be a part of a "movie" they were filming on the tour.  It was not until after I agreed that they ask me to put on the full-body wet suit!  It was a lot of fun nonetheless, and Miles and Emery did a great job with the camera trying to capture their father making a fool of himself in front of hundreds.

We wrapped up our time in Hollywood Studios with the Toy Story ride (I was the high score for the day at the time we left the ride!), and one more trip on the Rockin' Roller Coaster.

Friday - Tuesday: Disney Cruise on the ship 'Wonder'

A very special part of our trip, that had not originally been in the cards, was the addition of the cruise.  There are way too many wonderful things to say about the Disney Cruise.  Trying to write them down would be akin to a dissertation.  But a few highlights to remember ...

• Good food.
• Miles winning the Wii Bowling and Mario Kart tournaments (you’d think we let him play a lot of video games … really … we don’t …)
• More good food.
• Emery getting her hair braided.
• Dinner at Palo.
• Swimming with the stingrays on Castaway Cay.
• Even more good food.
• Snorkeling.
• Unlimited free ice cream.
• Sand castles.
• Dancing on the deck when the ship pulled out of port, and hearing the ship's horn blow the first seven notes of "When You Wish Upon A Star."
• The ‘Broadway’ caliber shows each night.
• Taking an animation class and learning to draw Mickey Mouse.
• Playing soccer on Deck 10.
• Swimming in a pool with a giant movie screen at night.
• An endless stream of character autographs.
• Relaxing on the ‘Gran-da’.
• Too much good food.
• Our server team.
• Pirates Night / Fireworks.

The cruise was really a 'once in a lifetime' kind of experience for our family, and we'll never forget it!

All in all it was a truly magical experience for the young, and a fantastic get-away from reality for the young-at-heart.  Having Gran with us made it all the more special.





The journey back to reality ...

We tried to aclimate ourselves to reality by adding one more side-trip into the trek back home.  That was to visit the Kennedy Space Center.  It was a ten minute drive from the ship's port ... why not?!  It was a great tour, and something I'd love to do again some day.

During our drive home we routed ourselves through north Georgia, and we were able to find the house that Grandpa and Grandma Teague lived in after the retired and moved away from Atlanta.  I have many memories of spending time at that house with my father and brother; it was fun to share that with my own children.

The trip wasn't without it's "moments" and "opportunities."  We - like all families I'm sure - experienced a few of the typical child melt-downs.  If I could create a Blooper Reel, these three moments stand out in my mind as comical:

- Brayer leaving a gas station in Florida with the back door to the mini-van open, turning onto the access road and seeing (through the rear view mirror) Emery's American Girl Doll ... as well as a bag of dirty laundry ... flying out the back and onto the highway.  Thankfully we had not reached the Interstate yet!

- Taking the kids down to the pool the first afternoon we arrived at Animal Kingdom, only to find everyone standing around the outside edge of the pool as some guy in white gloves, a mask, and a long pole/net was trying to fish something out of the water.  For those of you who have seen it, think about the Baby Ruth bar scene in the movie Caddie Shack.

- Arriving at our hotel in Athen's, GA after the first day of driving back toward Chicago.  A really nice Bed and Breakfast Inn that I had found last minute using the 'Kayak" iPhone app.  Great price for the rooms (way less than a typical Hampton Inn stay) but really up-scale.  Emery gets out of car, takes one look at the hotel and says, "This looks like a place for OLD people.  Are we leaving Gran here?!"