Getting there is half the fun.

I am on Vacation with my Family.  This is the first time since the advent of the SmartPhone I have actually made the conscious decision to “unplug” from work.  No e-mail, no phone calls.  Just me, my Family, and Walt Disney World!

After a full day if trying to do it myself, I called Disney in exasperation and just let them do all the planning.  I didnt want to hear about a gazillion options.  I wanted to get from any airport North of NYC to Orlando International.  I wanted Disney to pick us up and take us to our hotel.  I wanted that hotel to be the Contemporary Resort.  (A “Bucket List” item for me since the day I first laid eyes on the place in 1982 at the age of 13.)  No long drive.  No rental car.  No late-night drives to the hotel.  No worrying about food.  It’s all paid for.

We are here, but we almost didn’t make it.

We drove to Binghamton on Saturday morning to see Brady’s new apartment at SUNY Binghamton where he starts grad school in a few weeks.  Then we left for the Binghamton Regional Airport, forgetting to fill up on the way.  When we get back, we have 10 miles, according to my car’s computer, to find a gas station.  Hopefully, we will not need to invoke my AAA membership.  We arrived 2 hours before our flight, hich got delayed three times due to “weather” somewhere.  The plane from Newark couldn’t get to us.  Fortunately we had a 4-hour layover in Newark, most of which was eaten up by the delays.  We got to Newark in time to make our flight.

Speaking of things being eaten, at Newark we made a mad dash for our gate.  Murphy’s Law was in full force–our arrival gate was literally the farthest it could possibly be from our departure gate.  And the slidewalks were all broken, of course.  We had time, and so decided to get some food.  The Family had pizza, but I saw a Boar’s Head deli and ordered a custom sandwich on a sub roll.  On my first bite, I felt something hard.  “Oh shit,” was my first thought.  I had felt this before–a filling came loose!  No…no pain, no cavity, per my probing tongue, where there hadn’t been one moments ago.  Intead of probing my teeth, I readied my bite fr another chew and bit down on it again.  “Ow.”  (Not really.)  I spit it out onto my tray.  I don’t know exactly what it was, but it was jewely of some kind!  I brought it back to the counter, inserting myself in line at the cash register.  Not making a scene, I simply slid the tray forward and pointed.  The cashier looked, picked it up and took it to the kitchen.  I was assured I would get another sandwich.  (I did, and it was fine.)  I was also assured that no one in the kitchen had had jewelry on.  I suspect it was in the roll and probably came that way from the bakery.  I’ll let Boar’s HEad know about the incident, but I wont make a stink about it.  It’s not worth the aggravation.

Then we get on the plane.  Two young children, one each behind Amanda and myself, with legs just long enough that when they fully straightented them, their feet would jam through our seats and into our butts.  2 hours of this, on and off.  One child two rows up.  Or one row.  It depended where she wanted to be, moment to moment, and her mother, grandmother, and great aunt were going to let her go anywhere she wanted, the precious little princess, who apparently wouldn’t wear headphones and thus the people immediately around her were “treated” to the audio of whatever inanity she chose to watch on her tablet.  At some point one of the three matrons tending little Shmoopie unwillingly had to tell her something I’m sure she rarely hears: “no”.  All hell broke loose in the manner of kicking and screaming and crying.

And yet, all of that was worth it.  Our flight t Orlando was delayed, somewhat, but getting in very early in the morning means you aren’t fighting crowds.  We had no wait for the Magical Express, which left shortly after we boarded.  There was no line when we got the the check-in desk at the hotel, where the clerk greeted us with, “Welcome Home.”

I almost cried.

I love it here.  We are on Vacation.  And I’m going to have FUN, dammit!  ðŸ™‚

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