Off to Florida- Tuesday, August 19, 2014

When the summer started, we weren't expecting to take a big trip.  There was a lot of things going on in 1812 re-enacting that would have us take a bunch of little trips.   That soon changed.  The girls want to see  "Diagon Alley," the new Harry Potter section in Universal Studios as well as the new portions that have been added to Fantasyland in Walt Disney World.   Julie did the math and made the reservations for us.  We'll be staying right at the two parks-- first Universal, then Disney.  It will be the grand finale of our summer vacation.

We counted our trips up earlier this summer.   This trip will be Emma's 7th trip to Disney parks.  It will be Anna's 9th.  It will be the 16th time for Scott, including the trips he made with his family when he was younger.  Julie will have been to Disney on 18 or 19 different trips. (We're not even sure how many times she went when she was younger).  Of course those numbers aren't all to Disney World in Florida.  They also include trips to Disneyland in California and Disneyland Paris in Europe.

This morning, we got up, took the dogs to the kennel, got the car parked, checked our bags and got an early lunch at the airport.  The people on the right side of the plane got to see one of the crew do the "Ice Bucket Challenge" as we were waiting to takeoff.  Our first flight went fine, and Scott and Anna thought they saw the Hudson River.  We could see a lot of the city of Boston as we were landing, and Scott thought he could see the Bunker Hill Monument.  We were in Boston Logan Airport for a few hours layover.   We killed time there and ate an early dinner.  Then we were off to Orlando on our next flight.  We arrived safely, with nothing unusual happening.  Anna and Scott got our checked bags while Julie and Emma got our rental car.  (We thought about using other forms of transportation since we're staying on property at both Universal and Disney, but Julie wanted the peace of mind and convenience of having our own car, even if it was for just a few short drives.)  

We stopped at a supermarket to get some breakfast food for the next few days and then made our way to Universal.  We're staying at the Cabana Bay Beach Resort, which is themed in a 1960s retro theme.  It looks a lot like a place where you'd expect to see the Rat Pack playing.  The colors and motifs are all just a little tacky, just ugly enough to be cute.  Julie had a little problem at the parking lot. She had to swipe our room key in order to get the bar to raise, but she jammed it in the wrong slot, and it got stuck.  It's the key with Emma's name on it so we're going to blame it on her.  There are several big pools around the hotel, and the girls decided to go swimming before bed.  They swam in the pool and went around the "Lazy River" a few times.  

We also received sad news today.  Emmy, Uncle John's oldest dog, had to be put to sleep.  She was a great dog that he's had for years, but she has been having health issues recently.  We were all sorry to hear that.

Home from Mackinac- Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2014

We were up at 6:00, got packed quickly, and were checked out by 6:30.  Julie didn't want to take any chances.  The first ferry was at 8:00.  We walked the 3/4 of a mile to the docks, pulling our luggage behind us, and carrying Scott's gun.  We got to see the town with virtually no one on the streets.  We watched the brig Niagara as she pulled out from the docks and head out to the open lake.  Our ferry left on time.  We had a long a way to go today, and had several things to be back for at 6:00.