Gabrielson - August 2006

Cast of characters: Marjorie (43), Gary (50) and Brynna (18)

August 9, 2006

Hey, it's our 20th wedding anniversary! I think we spent it fairly nicely too.

We actually had a bit of a sleep-in, my wakeup call was set for 9:15. I got ready and the others slowly woke up. Then we headed to Boatwrights, here at our resort for breakfast. Brynna and I had been looking forward to banana-stuffed french toast for quite a while and this was our chance to get it. It was soooooo good. When we were done, we went back to the room and packed up most of Brynna's stuff as she's spending tonight at her apartment. She works very late tonite and has a "graduation" ceremony/picnic tomorrow when she'll received her grad ears. No, parents are not allowed, it's only for the participants.

Once we dropped her off, we came back to our resort and had a lovely swim in the very warm water. It was again a very hot and rainless day. I think it peaked around 95 again and I have a red face and chest to prove it. We then had to change quickly and sped off to Epcot as we had a reservation for the Coral Reef. Firstly though, we went to Guest Relations and picked up our "Congratulations" buttons in honour of our anniversary. We were treated so nicely by everybody in the park because of them too. We went to the Living Seas and checked out all the fishies, then we went to the restaurant. There they seated us tankside, as previously requested and gave us personalized menus wishing us a happy anniversary. That was really nice. So we ordered awesome martinis and a wonderful meal which included shrimp for Gary and a reuben sandwich for me. All that and cheesecake too! Not long after we had been seated we were approached by a diver with a Happy Anniversary banner that I had requested a few weeks ago. It was so neat, the diver kept throwing rocks up from the aquarium floor to simulate confetti.

After rolling out of there, we walked through Innoventions, sent a few email postcards and then proceeded to walk around World Showcase. Big mistake, it was way too hot, and it was well after 5:30 by then. The sun never goes away! We walked around as quickly as we could, popping in and out of various shops to get some air conditioning. Listened to a Beatles tribute band for a bit, they were very good and we did see "O Canada" the circlevision movie at the Canada pavillion. It's outdated but great scenery and of course I applauded when they showed Vancouver/Vancouver Island.

We decided it was then time to get the heck out of the oven and went to leave the park. Before we did though, we did "Leave a Legacy". So next time we're back at Epcot, we'll be able to find our anniversary photo.

Got back to the room around 8ish and just decided to veg again. The heat just takes it all out of you so we needed to recharge. Now I'm off to grab a bite to eat as it's been a few hours since our lunch at Epcot.

August 10

Ah, a lovely day to spend wet. We took off for Typhoon Lagoon around 8:30 and managed to get in on early magic hours ahead of the mad dash. Found a place to plunk our towels and then headed out to the lazy river; who wants to walk when you can ride? After half a loop, we got off and went over to Crush'n Gusher. Well it was fun and especially more fun if you managed to stop your bum from dragging on the bumps! We did two different runs then my legs didn't want to go up the stairs again.

From there we tried a few of the normal type Storm Slides. They were most fun as well. Then onto the family raft ride, then a single raft ride. Back to the lazy river to get back to our starting point and then we headed out to the wave pool. Well, what a good way to learn how to ride waves, if you got the rhythm. It took me a bit, plus several dunkings before I managed to get it right. Then after a while a huge surf wave came out and just about threw me to the bottom, gotta learn how to ride those things too! We went to our chairs and dried off a bit and then decided 3 hours at a waterpark was plenty.

Went back to the room and showered then headed out to one of the outlet malls we hadn't been to in Orlando. Got a few more Disney souvenirs and tried to find some shoes I really wanted but had no luck with my size, rats. Also had a bit of lunch too.

Got back to the room and had a bit of a rest, watched lots of news about the terrorist plane plot and decided what we were going to be able to bring in our carryons on Saturday.

We left the room around 6:30 and went to MGM with the thoughts of riding coaster one more time and then going over to the Magic Kingdom for fireworks and food. Well, one of Brynna's co-workers, Jimmy, gave us several rider switch passes so we ended up on coaster 3 times for me and 2 times for Gary (he'd had enough). It was fun spotting Brynna at the different positions, even took a photo of her. She was most excited that she'd seen Joey Fatone, checked his harness twice! (Member of N'Sync). Brynna also gave us a pass for Tower of Terror which we did do and then we left the park around 9. Decided we didn't want to rush over to MK so we went to Downtown Disney instead and tried Earl of Sandwich for a late meal. Yum, they have the best sandwiches, definitely worth trying another time. We then walked around DD for a bit, then headed back to the room for some much needed sleep!

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