Orlando, FL - Day 1

When you have that feeling that you've forgotten something when you leave the house, you probably have. Especially when it's 7am and you're on your way to the airport. The adventures started already when we left the house. The kids were packed, we were packed and we were running late as usual (It probably didn't help that I played hockey the night before- a possible explanation for me moving a little slowly). About 5 minutes in to our drive to the airport, R realized that she had forgotten her glasses.

"Oh well, that's okay. Everything will just be really blurry for a few days, then." Well, what's the point of going to Disney World and Universal Studios if you can't see? So I turned the van around and returned home. We picked up R's glasses and headed out to the airport once, again.....not realizing that I had forgotten my checkbook, as well. Not something you want to leave at home when you're going on a trip.

The 180 minute plane ride was grueling as could be expected with a 4 year-old and a 19 month-old. But we survived (barely) and arrived in sunny Orlando where it was a balmy 80 degrees. NOT the perfect weather for jacket, jeans and long sleeves. But when you're leaving an area where it's 40 degrees, how do you dress?

So already when we disembarked the plane, we were all already uncomfortable, sleepy, tired, and hungry. Now add to that hot and sweaty. Next order of business: collect luggage and get the rental car. Sounds simple enough, right? For those of you who have never driven at Orlando, FL international airport, let me say that it is a little stressful. The signs to return to the terminal are about as confusing as trying to navigate the Los Angeles freeways. The signs read:

"Return to Terminal A, far right. B, far left." So you go right. Then,

"Return to Terminal A, far left. B, far right." What? Crap! So you change 3 lanes over, almost ramming the 2 cars flying up behind you in your blind spot. Then,

"Return to Terminal A, far right. B, far left." Dammit, I was just there! You try to change lanes back, but too late. You're leaving the airport. Then you have to decide if you'd like to leave the airport via the north exit, or the south exit. Uhhh.....what difference does it make?

After 2-3 laps of this I finally got the hang of it and made my way back to the correct terminal where R and the kids were waiting. Kev waited there with R so that she wouldn't be left all alone with the kids. That was super cool. The next 5 minutes or so was spent loading up the car, getting the car seats installed, and....figuring out where I was going.

Which brings me to another point: always know where you're headed from the airport. The Top Gun Maverick "Fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants" thing doesn't work well in these situations. I was planning on following Kev to the hotel since we were all staying at the same hotel. And being that he was driving a minivan and I was driving an SUV, it should be no problem keeping up.

Wrong again. That guy has a lead foot regardless of what vehicle he drives, so needless to say I lost him. More stress. I quickly asked R to help me navigate via her Maps app on the iPhone, but of course we were in a location where the iPhone couldn't get a good signal. So much for fancy shmancy iPhone 3G blah, blah, blah. More stress. At that point I got a little snippy, but unrightfully so. So I kept my mouth shut and just drove.

About 20-30 minutes later we reached our destination, the Sheraton Vistana Resort where I met up with my good buddy from residency, Kris and his family. By that time it was 3-4pm. Too late to do anything interesting with kids, so we just got some take-out and called it a night.