Fantastic Voyage

We're baaaaaaaaack. We got home about three hours ago from Florida, after our second full day of driving in a week. Needless to say, I'm friggin' exhausted. A quick recap before I go catch some well-needed Z's.

We left last Friday, hitting the road at 9 a.m. Everything went pretty smoothly until we got past DC around 6 p.m. and hit some serious bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic. It took us three hours to work our way through that mess. For some reason, every time I was behind the wheel, the conditions worsened considerably. First it was the aforementioned rush hour, then later during the overnight, it was a thunderstorm. Whatever the case, we got to the condo in Orlando at around noon after taking a break to grab some breakfast along the way. We met up with my bro-in-law Matt and his family, whose condo we were sharing and Matt's brother-in-law Mike and his family, who were staying next door. We took the kids down to one of the pools and hung out for a while. But from Sunday through Thursday, we got up early and hit a different Disney theme park: MGM, the Magic Kingdom, the Animal Kingdom and Epcot. The kids had a blast and we were wiped out by the heat and all the walking by the end of each day, but it was definitely worth it. We kept things economical by eating breakfast and dinner at the condo most days and bringing sandwiches to eat in the park, thereby avoiding the expensive food. All we paid for was parking, beverages and the occasional ice cream or popsicle. We went on some good rides: Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Expedition Everest, Runaway Train. The kids met a lot of their favorite characters and had fun just being with each other.

The weather was typical Florida: 90s and humid every day, but broken up by a thunderstorm almost every day. I got three morning runs in around the golf course at our condo (didn't play any golf, though), but nothing too strenuous. On Thursday night, Deb's mom looked after the kids while we went out with Matt and Tricia. We went to MGM for dinner and then the Boardwalk for a beer, but we were so tired we got back to the condo by 11. Friday, we took it easy in the morning and then hit some of the Disney stores in the afternoon before heading over to MGM in the late afternoon to catch a few more rides. We went to the Fantasmic show in the evening, which was a combination animation/fireworks/lightshow/character performance that we all enjoyed, although the kids were up waaaaay past their bedtimes.

Yesterday, we hit the road around 9 again and made much better time, benefiting from it not being a workday. We hit some nasty rain along the way, but for the most part it was pretty decent. We actually met up with Matt and his family on the North Carolina-Virginia border and had dinner at an Applebee's before getting back on the road again. Deb drove more this time around than the last, but I got my third wind to drive from the end of the New Jersey Turnpike to the Massachusetts border. We got home and unpacked and are in the process of unwinding, which means I've gotta go lie down right now. And then it's back to the grind tomorrow. Hooray.

P.S. Mucho congrats to my good buddy Briggy and his wife Beth, who had a baby girl named Amelia on the 29th. Amelia joins forces with the mighty Owen, who was born just after Hannah back in '02. Well done, folks!