Vacation in bullets

pictures

• Our first night in Florida was balmy, clear and so lovely. We met up with the gang (M, P, C, N) and hit the expo where we picked up our 1/2 marathon goody bag. Then we hopped a cab to Downtown Disney. The group told us stories of their adventure to sea world that day, and the laughter began.
• We went to a new restaurant called T-Rex – the atmosphere was great, the food decent (except for the burgers that C & P got), and the service not good at all.
• Friday morning took us to Universal Studios where we had a blast. The Simpsons Ride was by far the BEST RIDE EVER. We also did a Terminator 3-D thing, a (turned out to be) very funny horror movie makeup show, had lunch at Mel’s Drive-In, saw Jaws, lived through a Twister and experienced a Disaster by Frank Kincaid (where we got some of our best repeatable lines of the trip). 🙂
• We headed over to Islands of Adventure, enjoyed the Spiderman ride and were disappointed about the Jurassic Park rides (one was scary to most of the group and wet, and the other had too long of a wait).  We rode the Cat in the Hat ride, which brought the book to life.  [The park closed way too early for our taste. Next time we’ll get there earlier.]
• We ended our evening at a nice Italian restaurant. The food was good, but the service was abysmal.
• Saturday morning brought the 1/2 marathon and the flu to Mike.  Chris ran the 1/2 in one of his best times ever; Mike couldn’t even get out of bed. 🙁
• We headed to the Magic Kingdom that morning (poor Mike stayed in the hotel room to rest).  I seriously don’t remember being there before – I mean, I know I have been as a kid, but it wasn’t familiar to me at all! The castle is awesome, though!
• Mike tried to rally and join us, but after an hour, he headed back. 🙁
• The Pirates of the Caribbean was awesome, and the Astro Launcher rocket ride was hilarious.
• We left the park before we wanted to, since three of our group were going to Cirque de Soleil.
• Since Mike was still sleeping when I got back, I wandered the hotel grounds for awhile, then hopped the boat to Downtown Disney where I hung out and shopped.  It was totally fun! I caught up with N, M, & C on their way back from the show and we rode the boat back together.
• Sunday came EARLY.  And by early I mean an hour during which it is not fit for man nor beast to be awake – 4 AM.  But, we were there to cheer Chris on, and cheer him on we did.  I couldn’t believe the sheer number of people cheering on the runners, not to mention the number of runners!!! It was a HUGE crowd!!  We were able to see Chris at the start(-ish), mile 4 (same spot) and then miles 9 & 12.  After that he was in the parks and we couldn’t go in without park tickets, so we had some breakfast and headed to the finish.  He ran his second best time ever, and it was great to see him gliding by us to the end.  All in all, he ran 39.3 miles over the weekend.
• There is chatter about others of us actually doing the 1/2 marathon next year (as opposed to just signing up for it!). So we’ll see.
• We did lunch at Rainforest Cafe and then did some more shopping before calling it a day.
• The weekend was great – perfect weather (70s and sunny), and lots of laughter.  By far, my favorite thing about getting together with my cousins and their fabulous husbands is how much we all laugh.  There’s nothing better than having my stomach hurt from laughing too hard. 
• We came home to 8 inches of snow and are in the coldest weather that we’ve seen in a long time (high tomorrow is 5); we would have preferred to bring the boys to us in Orlando rather than us come home, but it wasn’t really an option.

Pictures to come!!