Princess Half Marathon Race Day

Its Race Day!

Amy wanted to do this race as a reward to herself for a major job promotion.  Trista thought it a wonderful idea so she also signed up to race. Since then all of us have been dreaming of this day.  I joined the Cheer Squad so that I could take pictures of our racers in front of the castle.  So here is our tale of the Princess Half Marathon Race.

I wake up at 3:15 AM in a fever of excitement.  The alarm is set for 3:30 so I shut if off to keep it from waking Lew.  I quickly dress in my race clothes including a winter coat since I plan on sitting in front of the Disney castle for some time.

At 3:30 I don't hear a thing from Amy's tent so I quietly call for Amy.  I get nothing.  At 3:35 I try again and what I get is Nate crying, "Mommy something is outside our tent!"  Amy bolts upright and quiets Nate while I explain that it is just Grandma.  I go sit in a chair and wait for Amy.  She tries to quiet Nate, but nearing 4:00 she brings him to the trailer where she leaves him in my bed to rest with Grandpa.  Off we go!

After race event road-closure adventures, we manage to arrive at the Epcot parking lot where we quickly split up.  She heads to Gate G to meet Trista and I go to the monorail to catch a ride to Magic Kingdom.  I meet a man who is spending his time working on the doors of the monorail to keep them running during the race.  The front of Magic Kingdom is full of people waiting for the gates to open.  Finally at 5:30 they open and I go quickly to Gold Cheer Squad Section.  It is at the corner of the castle and the turn to tomorrowland.   Here is the picture of the castle from where I sit on my stool waiting for my girls.

 We watch the starting gate on a fellow Cheer Squad person's smartphone.  It is all quite exciting.  It is 5.7 miles from the start to the castle.  The first gate was released at 5 a I get to see the Gate G runners start on the phone.  Then I simply cheer the runners until Amy tells me they are at the 5 mile point.  I start watching and then....here they come!

They spot my chair right away and slow down for me to take a quick pic of them and the castle.  I can't see the screen so it isn't quite right!

Trista takes a shot of Amy with the Cheer Squad.

You can see our mouse clappers.  I lose mine at the very end of the race!  Nuts.  I try for the leaving the castle shot, but it was too far away for me to tell when they exit.

Then I'm off to get to the finish line.  Two monorail rides and a long walk takes me to the race's end.  I am there 20 minutes before they cross the finish line.  I see Amy, and get a pic of Trista as she crosses.

Next is finding them in the crowd.  We manage to meet up and here are the ladies with their medals.

And a done cheering Mom.

It was great fun and I would do it again.  I'm so proud of "my ladies!"

Halloween Scene Disney

September 7-14 at the Mouse

I did my duty on Jury Duty on September the 4th and on the fifth we decided to leave and go to Florida.  The crowd forecast for Disney was very low so we thought we would take a chance on it.

We arrived on Saturday the 7th to a HUGE crowd at Magic Kingdom due to a special event.  We decided to skip the Kingdom on Sunday and simply go to Animal Kingdom.

Animal Kingdom  ( N 28.35318  W 081.58836)  -various days we went there first thing in the morning.

Wow we had water rides open!

And different creatures going along the paths.

The rides were walk on for sure in the morning.

The baby giraffes (two of them) were out and about.

Along with our favorite---watching the surgery---this is a Mandrel getting a hysterectomy.

Along with dances before the parade.

Magic Kingdom
Is all decked out for the fall even though it was very hot.
Even the Mouse was dressed for the season.

We went to Magic Kingdom lots of times, either in the morning or evening.  Crowd level was just what we love.  For two days Space Mountain was closed but we did get to see the inside instead!

Epcot ( N 28.37801 W 081.55018)
We went Soaring many times and looked at the plants while waiting for the fast past time.

Fort Wilderness ( N 28.40869 W 081.55755)
 It was nearly empty.  In our loop of 50 sites, 7-13 were occupied.  Some evenings the horses came by but other times they didn't.

Typhoon Lagoon   (N 28.36498  W 081.52759)
It was very hot.  We would quit around 1 PM most days and I would go to a water park.  I greatly preferred riding the big wave at Typhoon Lagoon.  It was a blast. I would be on the top of the wave.  This is about the right crowd level.

We greatly enjoyed our time at the mouse and in the future, if a hurricane isn't in the picture, we might very well go again in September.