Day 4 - Dr. Scholls

Day 4 was a double Park day… 1/3 at Disney Hollywood Studios and 2/3 at Epcot. To make sure I was prepared for this marathon trek, I called upon my personal chiropractor and Dr. Scholls. We started out at the nearest Walmart. They were out of the ‘prescribed’ heal supports. Hmm…guess I’m not the only one in town with their heals on fire. We did find the next best thing and we were off to Hollywood Studios.

It was my kind of crowd today…small. We had almost no wait times at several rides and shows. One ride we did go on was the Rockin Roller Coaster. The picture below says it all. It was indoor and fairly dark so you couldn’t see what was coming…which was probably a good thing. After being launched from 0-FAST in mere seconds, the next thing I noticed was my chin pressed against my chest and spinning around like a cork screw. It was an exhilarating experience. Jake went on it twice and even my mom went on it.

We then watched the Beauty and the Beast show. Abbie and Julia just loved their ‘twirling’ dresses and costumes. We left the Park after about 4 hours and went over to Epcot. A Disney Park about 3 times the size of Hollywood Studios, but with Dr. Scholls holding me up… so far so good.

The weather now is around 82 degrees, minimal wind, with 2 clouds in the sky….little ones….thin ones. Once again Aaron had the map and plan down to the nearest minutes. We went over to the Test Track ride. We all went on it. Julia sat with Aaron and Sheila and proclaimed that she was going to do the steering. Well there was no steering wheel but she absolutely loved it. The thing about Epcot is it is a learning center. After every ride or show there is an area of additional things to see, read, and experience…who does this? I mean the offering is nice but with 3, 5, and 8 yr. olds, it’s all about the rides.

Several rides later, it’s getting dark and time to prepare for the laser light and fireworks show but first it’s dinner time. We now start to make our way around the world showcase of the different countries and Dr. Scholls is starting to show signs of fatigue. We started at Canada and decided to eat there. As we got closer to the door we noticed a lot of Canadians standing outside. Apparently the restaurant was booked for the night and nothing available. Didn’t know the Canadians had such good food. So we carried on and ended up of all places…the American Adventure. We had authentic American bacon double cheeseburgers and chicken strip meals. They were delicious. The Americans sure know how to make a burger. If you are ever in America, you have to try their burgers.

The light show was fantastic with a lot of special effects and sounds. It makes you happy and forgetful of your plan to chop your feet off when you get back to the condo. So now we are about 8 miles from our van. Okay maybe one. But by now I’m ready to fire Dr. Scholls and start crawling back to the van. But wait..my precious 3 yr. old looks up at me and says..”Daddy…I’m tired and I want up.” So I hoist her on my shoulders while thanking the Lord that I know I have feet to carry my daughter. What an awesome day.

Rockin' Roller Coaster

Beauty and the Beast show

Epcot

Day 3 - Serenity Now

Day 3 we took a break from the Disney parks to travel east to the Kennedy Space Center. We took a 2.5 hour bus tour around the launch complex and was an amazing site to see. My feet never enjoyed a bus ride more than this. The kids enjoyed seeing several wild alligators all over the place in the ditches. Space Shuttle Discovery was out on the launch pad and preparing for lift off in a few weeks.

We learned many interesting facts. Like the safest distance to view the lift off is 3 miles out. If you were to stand just 400 ft. away, you would be instantly killed from the heat. At 800 ft., your body would explode from the sound waves hitting you. A few of the adults and Jacob took a launch simulator ride. That was awesome. We went into the simulator with about 30 seats and strapped in to our seats. With large screens in the front, we were taken through the countdown procedure and were tilted backwards to a 90 degree angle looking straight into the sky. During lift off, the simulated violent turbulence and forces were incredible and when the last external fuel tank was let go, it felt just like a peaceful glide in space….and then all the lights came on with a women’s voice telling us to exit to our right and to watch our step. Watch my step?...I’m still trying to just stand up.

Another interesting moment was hearing about John Aaron. A distinguished NASA engineer who was credited for saving the ill fated Apollo 13 mission that Tom Hanks flew on. He was an EECOM with a responsibility for the electrical, environmental and communications systems on board the spacecraft. But a little known fact was that just four months earlier John Aaron had saved the Apollo 12 mission when, during launch, the rocket was struck by lightning—twice. The second strike knocked the CSM's fuel cells off line, sent the guidance system spinning, and scrambled telemetry to the ground. With warning lights blazing and alarms sounding, it looked like the crew would have to abort the mission, just seconds after liftoff.

Aaron was in the EECOM's seat for the launch, and as he watched the scrambled data ripple across his console, he was suddenly reminded of a ground test he had seen a year earlier where an electrical malfunction had caused a similar problem. The crazy pattern of the data on his console was something only he recognized. And, thanks to hours of research he'd put in after the ground test, he knew how to fix it. He uttered the terse command, "Set S.C.E. to Aux," to his flight director, Jerry Griffin. Griffin, like everyone else in mission control, had no clue what that meant. Nevertheless, trusting in his EECOM, Griffin ordered the command to be passed up to the crew immediately. The corresponding switch was flipped on board and valid telemetry was restored. With valid data, Aaron could see that the fuel cells were off line, and with a second command to reset the cells, Apollo 12 was on its way to moon. The incident cemented Aaron's reputation as a "steely-eyed missile man."

I was struck by this story of how the Lord still uses people in times of crisis. John was the right man at the right time with the only answer to the Apollo 12 crisis and he stepped up.

After the NASA tour, we moved on down to Coco Beach. The kids had never seen ocean water as far as the eye can see and had a blast. They were not impressed with the taste of the salty water though. The sand and cold water felt good to the feet.

Tomorrow another park…Epcot.

Day 2 - Magic Kingdom

Day 2 started fairly early with arriving at the Magic Kingdom as the park opened. Aaron had the plan down out to maximize our time. The first ride we went to was the ‘it’s a small world’ ride. With virtually no wait, we walked right unto the awaiting boats with anticipation of seeing the world come alive with mechanized animatronics. As the classical ‘small world’ song started to grace our ears, it dawned on me that we were on another ‘water’ ride, that we did not have too good of luck with the day before. But the speed of this ride doesn’t even qualify as a walleye chop, so we were just fine. The kids loved it and the song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

Following Aaron’s plan, we moved from ride to ride with minimal effort, hitting them before the crowds could overtake them. The key latter in the day was the ‘fast pass’. The fast pass allows you to go on a ride by bypassing all the other sorry saps in line, cutting a 45 minute wait down to 5. Anyone can get a fast pass…just wait in a different line and they hand a limited number out for a certain time period. We started to hit a wall about 3pm with the hot Florida sun beating down on us hardened, below zero, northerners, and walking several miles by now. We pushed through to the last couple of rides by 6pm with the Splash Mountain and the Thunder Mountain Railroad. Either some of the group did NOT learn the lessons of yesterday or the hot sun caused them to forget but Splash Mountain was another chance to get wet in the name of fun. I elected to stay off and ‘take pictures’ of them. Dad elected to stay off and ‘watch Owen’. Abbie and Julia went on it with Mom. They loved it and wanted to go again. The Thunder Mountain Railroad was a wild roller coaster that they went on as well. I think they are starting to love the bigger rides.

The day ended trying to make our way through the mass of people to find a spot for the nightly parade and fireworks. By this time it’s 8pm and I’m looking for a bench. But in the name of fatherly duties, I hoisted Julia on top of my shoulders and watched a great parade. Jacob and Abbie worked their way to the front but near us to enjoy it too. What a great day.

The Disney World motto is “Where Dreams Come True”…..I’m not sure my feet are livin’ the dream right now.

Splash Mountain

Orlando - Day 1

The flight down to Orlando was relatively uneventful. Left on time and actually arrived 15 minutes early. We could not get all 11 seats together so the kids played musical chairs between the adults for about 2 hours of the flight. The next task was to get the rental vans. While at the rental counter, the guy made a deal for a large 12 seater passenger van that ultimately would save us half the renal cost...so what would you do? So there we were, all crawled into the 'people' hauler driving around central Florida.

Day 1 was Animal Kingdom.

We took an African Safari around and saw a bunch of wild animals and did a few rides. The kids did great and the weather hung around 75 degrees...probably 70 degrees warmer than home. The best ride of the day was the Everest Expedition. A roller coaster that stops in mid trek and goes backward for about 10-15 seconds and then starts forward making it way down the 'Mt. Everest' mountain. Jacob, who seems to have no fear of these things, went on it twice. I rode it once as did Vicky and it was a very fun ride.

The ride that could have used a little more thought was the Kali River Rapids. Yeah...I said 'river rapids'. Looked like a great ride for the whole family to go on. Getting closer to the ride we saw people coming off with some wearing ponchos, some appearing to be dry, and others a little wet. Their was a guy selling ponchos for $8 each..."ah..how bad can it be" I thought. Again our party was too big to all fit in the circular raft so we split up. Abbie and I together, and Mom and Julia with Jon and Sydney in one and Jacob in the other with Grandpa and Grandma, Aaron, Sheila, and Ann and Owen in the other..behind us. Oh the ride starts out nice and 'flowing like' but soon you are dropped off in the Utah Green River and if you are sitting in the ultimate wrong spot....you are soon drenched and the $8 ponchos look pre-tty cheap! Just ask my Dad. I mean, I had my share of water down my backside trying to shield Abbie, but my Dad?...well, he just plain got a full drenching shower in less than a second. He was not too pleased either. Let's just say the contents of his wallet are now laying out on the kitchen counter..drying. Jacob got pretty wet too...but he loved it.

Crocodiles at African Safari

Everest Expedition

Kali River Rapids -before-

Kali River Rapids -After-

On to day 2....

Orlando Here We Come

Leaving the COLD for 6 days for Orlando! Our plane leaves in about 2 hours and the kids can hardly wait..neither can we. We'll post updates..hopefully daily.