This morning was Weigh-In Wednesday, and it was good. I weighed an even 247 this morning. Since I didn't weigh in last Wednesday, I can't really report on a week's loss, but Friday I was 252.something. I think on Saturday I was back to around 249. I would say that I lost about two pounds this week, which is amazing considering a lot of the week involved a lot of restaurants. It also involved a lot of walking, so I guess that saved me. Now we are going away for two and a half weeks, so I have no idea what that will do to my weight. Probably nothing good. I am packing my scale, so I can keep an eye on it.
Today was too busy to even sit down to the computer until tonight. Here is what I did:
7:10 a.m. Left for Quest for a 7:30 fasting blood draw
8 a.m. Ate oatmeal and black coffee at McD's for breakfast
8:45 a.m. Took my car to All Cars for a big oil change, tire rotation, new wipers, and general look-over while I waited
10:10 a.m. All Cars told me I had a big staple in one tire and it needed a patch before our trip.
10:30 a.m. At North City Tire waiting for the tire to get patched
11:30 a.m. Went to the bank for some cash for the trip
11:45 a.m. Picked up a load of Central Florida brochures of things to do to take to Evey in September
12 noon Had lunch out near the nail salon
1 p.m. Gel manicure, pedicure, waxing
3:45 p.m. Gassed up the car
4 p.m. Shopped for last minute trip-related items at Wal Mart
4:30 p.m. Collaped in bed for a much needed nap
5:30 p..m. Got up from nap and started laying out clothes to pack for the trip tomorrow
6:15 p.m Went out to dinner at Slice of NY for pizza. Yum!
8:15 p.m. Home and packing. UGH! I hate packing.
9:30 p.m. Done packing. Time to write this blog.
10 p.m. I hope I'm in BED!!
I canceled my synagogue choir rehearsal for tonight because otherwise I would have been out from 6-10 p..m. and the packing wouldn't commence until after I got home. I just knew I couldn't do that.
So, tomorrow we are heading north. We will be in Florence, SC tomorrow night and my brother Mark and his wife Carol are driving out from Myrtle Beach to meet us. They did this once before! It's so nice. We will have dinner together, stay in the same motel, and then have breakfast together Friday morning before we take off for Baltimore. I have not seen them in a year, so this is GREAT!
We will not be returning until July 16, and we will be doing so many fun things on this trip. I am taking my laptop and will write some blogs and post some pictures along the way. I probably won't write another blog for a few days though. I'll see how tired I am each night. LOL!!
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Pajama Day
Yesterday turned out to be a pajama day all day. We canceled all our plans because of TS Debby, so I never got dressed because I never went anywhere. We were supposed to meet friends at the Kona Cafe in the Polynesian yesterday morning for a fantastic breakfast. Nope, didn't go. Then I had an appointment at our synagogue to pick up a keyboard. Nope. Next we planned to go see the new movie Brave. Skipped it. Then we were going to the gym for our weights and walking on the treadmill. Nope! In fact, the community closed the gyms and restaurants due to weather yesterday. And finally, we were going to go to a double header minor league game in Lakeland with our NARFE group. That was also canceled, of course. Instead, I took a lot of naps! It was just a slow, sluggish day. In the evening we watched the Glenn Close movie, Albert Nobbs, which was fascinating. It's Solivita's Thursday night movie this week, Debby permitting, but we'll be driving north for a two and a half week trip and will miss it.
Tropical Storm Debby was supposed to go to Texas, but yesterday she turned right and is going to cross Florida. She is only moving at 3 miles an hour, so it's going to take an entire week to do it. This means lots of rain for a week. Not too long ago we were all worried about how low the water levels were in all the storm ponds. Not now. Now we are watching them rise to the edge and hoping they don't overflow too much. Things sure do change fast in Florida.
We hid in the closet for half an hour yesterday for the first time, too. Our weather radio went off and said a tornado was in Winter Haven, about half an hour from here, and heading to Poinciana, our town! I put two dining room chairs in the master bedroom walk in closet, along with two bottles of water, our cell phones, our wind up radio, and our books. We just sat in there reading until the warning time had passed. That was an interesting event. We never had a tornado in our immediate area, but the weather radio was busy all day and night.
Today we HAVE to go out, no matter what. Well, unless my cleaning lady cancels. She is coming at 1:30, and she does not like us to be home when she works. So we are going to try to go see Brave this afternoon at Downtown Disney. Then we are going to have dinner at Sweet Tomatoes, right near Downtown Disney, because it's the last Tuesday of the month. That's always the day that our synagogue gets 15% of the receipts as a donation if you show up and turn in the special voucher. Hopefully Debby will let us do those things.
Yesterday, because of the slug-like day, there was absolutely NO exercise. The most I did was get out of bed and walk to the kitchen. Haha! I ate pretty well, at least my three meals were perfect, and I only had an apple for a bedtime snack. I ate a few extra things in the afternoon, like finishing off the box of Reuben's Honey Bunches of Oats with the rest of the milk. It was only about half a bowl, but it was SOOOO delicious! I didn't really track my calories, but I bet they were a LOT less than any day in the past week. LOL! I'm down another four tenths this morning to 247.2. I hope Sweet Tomatoes doesn't mess that up too much because I'd like to have a nice loss for this crazy week.
Stay safe and stay dry if you live in Central Florida.
Here's a few more pictures of us with Reuben on his last day, slogging through Debby's downpours.
Tropical Storm Debby was supposed to go to Texas, but yesterday she turned right and is going to cross Florida. She is only moving at 3 miles an hour, so it's going to take an entire week to do it. This means lots of rain for a week. Not too long ago we were all worried about how low the water levels were in all the storm ponds. Not now. Now we are watching them rise to the edge and hoping they don't overflow too much. Things sure do change fast in Florida.
We hid in the closet for half an hour yesterday for the first time, too. Our weather radio went off and said a tornado was in Winter Haven, about half an hour from here, and heading to Poinciana, our town! I put two dining room chairs in the master bedroom walk in closet, along with two bottles of water, our cell phones, our wind up radio, and our books. We just sat in there reading until the warning time had passed. That was an interesting event. We never had a tornado in our immediate area, but the weather radio was busy all day and night.
Today we HAVE to go out, no matter what. Well, unless my cleaning lady cancels. She is coming at 1:30, and she does not like us to be home when she works. So we are going to try to go see Brave this afternoon at Downtown Disney. Then we are going to have dinner at Sweet Tomatoes, right near Downtown Disney, because it's the last Tuesday of the month. That's always the day that our synagogue gets 15% of the receipts as a donation if you show up and turn in the special voucher. Hopefully Debby will let us do those things.
Yesterday, because of the slug-like day, there was absolutely NO exercise. The most I did was get out of bed and walk to the kitchen. Haha! I ate pretty well, at least my three meals were perfect, and I only had an apple for a bedtime snack. I ate a few extra things in the afternoon, like finishing off the box of Reuben's Honey Bunches of Oats with the rest of the milk. It was only about half a bowl, but it was SOOOO delicious! I didn't really track my calories, but I bet they were a LOT less than any day in the past week. LOL! I'm down another four tenths this morning to 247.2. I hope Sweet Tomatoes doesn't mess that up too much because I'd like to have a nice loss for this crazy week.
Stay safe and stay dry if you live in Central Florida.
Here's a few more pictures of us with Reuben on his last day, slogging through Debby's downpours.
Monday, June 25, 2012
Tropical Storm Debby
All of Florida is going to be feeling her effects for the next few days. It's stalled between two fronts and going nowhere. I must say that I'm not unhappy that I don't have to go drive in it or walk around in it wearing a poncho. It will be pleasant to stay inside, safe and dry, all day.
It's not weigh-in Wednesday, that's coming soon, but I am still going to report on it. We must surely have walked a lot more with Reuben than with Lowell and Emily. In the four days that they were with us, I gained nearly 7 pounds. I dropped a few on the one day between their visit and Reuben's. Last Tuesday morning when Reuben arrived, I weighed 249.4. I was happy because it was down from 252.8 or so last Sunday morning when Lowell and Emily left. So this morning I am 247.6. I was pretty happy about that. In his six day visit, I LOST weight! Wow! I'm very happy about that. We ate fantastic dinners five nights in a row and also five great lunches in a row. But there was SO much walking! Now for the next three days I will be eating most, if not all, of my meals at home in a controlled and low calorie environment before we start our trip north on Thursday. I will have the opportunity to eat well and to eat out while we are gone on this trip. Hopefully, I will lose, but I'll be happy if I maintain.
I hope everyone in Florida stays safe and dry all day. Stay inside if possible because the tornado watch is still out there.
It's not weigh-in Wednesday, that's coming soon, but I am still going to report on it. We must surely have walked a lot more with Reuben than with Lowell and Emily. In the four days that they were with us, I gained nearly 7 pounds. I dropped a few on the one day between their visit and Reuben's. Last Tuesday morning when Reuben arrived, I weighed 249.4. I was happy because it was down from 252.8 or so last Sunday morning when Lowell and Emily left. So this morning I am 247.6. I was pretty happy about that. In his six day visit, I LOST weight! Wow! I'm very happy about that. We ate fantastic dinners five nights in a row and also five great lunches in a row. But there was SO much walking! Now for the next three days I will be eating most, if not all, of my meals at home in a controlled and low calorie environment before we start our trip north on Thursday. I will have the opportunity to eat well and to eat out while we are gone on this trip. Hopefully, I will lose, but I'll be happy if I maintain.
I hope everyone in Florida stays safe and dry all day. Stay inside if possible because the tornado watch is still out there.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Exhausted, but Happy!
Reuben is back home by now. It was a fantastic six days, but Mark and I are pretty tired. Reuben was, too, because he said he might sleep until 2 in the afternoon tomorrow!
He had six days here and the weather was Good, Bad, Good, Bad, Good, the Worst! At least it was consistent. Today it just poured the entire day from morning until night. We wore our ponchos, but we just got soaked anyway. The good news is that the crowds are light on bad weather days, but the rides keep running. We had no trouble getting everything done today.
Here are a few more pictures of his visit to WDW.
He had six days here and the weather was Good, Bad, Good, Bad, Good, the Worst! At least it was consistent. Today it just poured the entire day from morning until night. We wore our ponchos, but we just got soaked anyway. The good news is that the crowds are light on bad weather days, but the rides keep running. We had no trouble getting everything done today.
Here are a few more pictures of his visit to WDW.
Friday, June 22, 2012
We're still going strong!
Our plans for WDW with Reuben have been going wonderfully well. We are tired but happy. I just wanted to post a brief blog with some pictures to show what we've been up to. At this point, we are half way through, 3 of 6 days down. Today we are heading out to Animal Kingdom.
As for my weight during this time, not good. No matter how much walking I've done (and I've done A LOT!) I've eaten even more. I have gained a pound a day. Three full days and I'm up three full pounds. Wednesday would have been weigh-in day, but I didn't do it. We got up Wednesday and rushed off to Epcot, so today I took the time to weigh-in. I am 252.3, up from 249.4, so that's just about exactly three pounds. We had our big, fancy dinner at Le Cellier last night. It was so fantastic, but it included a lot of bread. They served a basket of amazing pretzel bread. I had never had anything like it! We also had desserts. Yum. Well, there's nothing to do except keep walking and doing my best.
Meanwhile, Lowell and Emily took off for California early this morning. I hope they have a fantastic time with Evey and Eric in the next few days. I can't wait to hear all their stories and see all of their pictures.
OK, here's what you've been waiting for, some fun pictures from the last three days! Enjoy!
As for my weight during this time, not good. No matter how much walking I've done (and I've done A LOT!) I've eaten even more. I have gained a pound a day. Three full days and I'm up three full pounds. Wednesday would have been weigh-in day, but I didn't do it. We got up Wednesday and rushed off to Epcot, so today I took the time to weigh-in. I am 252.3, up from 249.4, so that's just about exactly three pounds. We had our big, fancy dinner at Le Cellier last night. It was so fantastic, but it included a lot of bread. They served a basket of amazing pretzel bread. I had never had anything like it! We also had desserts. Yum. Well, there's nothing to do except keep walking and doing my best.
Meanwhile, Lowell and Emily took off for California early this morning. I hope they have a fantastic time with Evey and Eric in the next few days. I can't wait to hear all their stories and see all of their pictures.
OK, here's what you've been waiting for, some fun pictures from the last three days! Enjoy!
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Reuben arrives today
Our Maryland rabbi's son, Reuben, is arriving today at 10 a.m. for six whirlwind Disney days. He is "one of us," that is a Disney Geek! As a young boy, he was interested in Disney and eventually talked his parents into a summer vacation at Disney when he was 10 years old. That trip was enough for his parents but only whet Reuben's appetite for more. Over the next 7 years, we spent a lot of time talking Disney to him and sending him the D23 magazines when we finished with them. Once we moved down here, we made the offer to host him for a vacation. It was scheduled originally for last summer, but about two weeks before he was to fly down, he was hit by a pick up truck and broke his leg. OUCH! Everyone was VERY grateful that it wasn't something worse, but it did put that Disney trip off by an entire year. Now he is finally on his way to that magical Disney vacation.
Mark and I are just hoping that at 61 years old we still have the strength to do six straight days with a 17 year old!! LOL!! We shall see!!
I'm going to post our schedule here so you will know where we are each day, but I'm very sure I will not have the time or energy to sit and write any blogs for the next six days. Don't panic! I will be back on Monday.
Our Agenda is...
Tuesday, June 19: Pick Reuben up at airport at 10 a.m. and head straight to Magic Kingdom to do as much as possible before taking the boat over to the Polynesian for dinner at the Kona Cafe. Our reservation is for 7:25 p.m. After dinner, we will explore the resort a bit and then watch the Magic Kingdom castle fireworks show, "Wishes," from the Polynesian's beach. We did this for our anniversary last winter and it was a lot of fun.
Wednesday, June 20: All day at Epcot with dinner in the Chinese pavilion at Nine Dragons at 6:45 p.m.
Thursday, June 21: Start out at Magic Kingdom and then go to Epcot for a very special dinner in the Canadian pavilion at Le Cellier. This is a dinner that the rabbi and his wife are buying for us as a thank you for hosting Reuben. Thanks, Jonathan and Mona!
Friday, June 22: Animal Kingdom all day with dinner at Yak and Yeti at 6:15 p.m.
Saturday, June 23: Hollywood Studios all day with a special bonus for Mark and Reuben. The Disney fan club, D23, is doing a special thing called a Fanniversary for D23 members and one guest. Mark is the member, and he's taking Reuben as his guest. All we know is that it is in the air-conditioned theater where we saw the Star Wars shows and starts at 11 a.m. Other than that it's been very hush hush. I'm going to sit in the shade and read a book while they are in there! We will leave the Studios in time to go to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma's at 8:15 p.m.
Sunday, June 24: This is the last day. Sniff. We will hit Magic Kingdom when it opens and then take the monorail over to the Contemporary for lunch at The Wave at 12:20 p.m. His flight leaves at 6:30 p.m., so that means leaving the area around 3:30 or 4 to get over to the airport. If we still have the energy and time, we will probably go back to the Magic Kingdom after lunch just for a final farewell.
Whew! I'm tired now just thinking about it, but I'm also very, very excited. Mark and I haven't done such a complete Disney vacation ourselves in years and years. We will feel very much like tourists! The weather is going to be perfect today but much more typical of summer for the rest of the days with highs in the low 90s, chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon, and plenty of humidity. We will carry our backpack with rain ponchos in it, wear hats, drink water, and use sunscreen. It's just the way it used to be for us when we came down with our kids in the summer. Good times!
Also on Friday, Lowell and Emily are flying out to San Jose, CA to start their week's vacation. They will spend a few days with Evey and Eric, have a trip to Monterey, visit San Francisco, tour Alcatraz, and then go to Sonoma for a few days with our friend Kelly (sadly Laverne will be out of town) in order to tour wineries. We hope they send lots of pictures of all these adventures.
One last thing: I wasn't as good yesterday as I had hoped. I didn't do any exercise at all. I was just so tired that I took a nap when I should have been going to the gym. I didn't stay under 1200 calories either, but I did stay at 1500. I'm sure that was SO much less than I had been eating that I dropped three and a half pounds yesterday. My dinner Monday night at Cohen's was deli meat, full of sodium. I'm pretty sure some of the weight loss was just the result of retaining fluid. This morning I was 249.4. I also won four games of Mah Jongg, which is HUGE for me! It was a good day yesterday, so we feel ready to start our big adventure with Reuben today.
In order to save calories and money, for this trip Mark and I are making a pact not to order any appetizers, desserts, or alcoholic drinks on this trip. With Lowell and Emily, we frequently indulged in all three, but Reuben is underage, so there's no need to worry about having wine and cocktails with him. Also we just need to be a little more frugal for these six days, saving it up for our road trip up north that starts next Thursday.
OK, that's it for now. I'll get back to you with lots of pictures after Reuben's vacation is over. We are heading out in five minutes to go get him. Whoee!! I'm very excited.
Mark and I are just hoping that at 61 years old we still have the strength to do six straight days with a 17 year old!! LOL!! We shall see!!
I'm going to post our schedule here so you will know where we are each day, but I'm very sure I will not have the time or energy to sit and write any blogs for the next six days. Don't panic! I will be back on Monday.
Our Agenda is...
Tuesday, June 19: Pick Reuben up at airport at 10 a.m. and head straight to Magic Kingdom to do as much as possible before taking the boat over to the Polynesian for dinner at the Kona Cafe. Our reservation is for 7:25 p.m. After dinner, we will explore the resort a bit and then watch the Magic Kingdom castle fireworks show, "Wishes," from the Polynesian's beach. We did this for our anniversary last winter and it was a lot of fun.
Wednesday, June 20: All day at Epcot with dinner in the Chinese pavilion at Nine Dragons at 6:45 p.m.
Thursday, June 21: Start out at Magic Kingdom and then go to Epcot for a very special dinner in the Canadian pavilion at Le Cellier. This is a dinner that the rabbi and his wife are buying for us as a thank you for hosting Reuben. Thanks, Jonathan and Mona!
Friday, June 22: Animal Kingdom all day with dinner at Yak and Yeti at 6:15 p.m.
Saturday, June 23: Hollywood Studios all day with a special bonus for Mark and Reuben. The Disney fan club, D23, is doing a special thing called a Fanniversary for D23 members and one guest. Mark is the member, and he's taking Reuben as his guest. All we know is that it is in the air-conditioned theater where we saw the Star Wars shows and starts at 11 a.m. Other than that it's been very hush hush. I'm going to sit in the shade and read a book while they are in there! We will leave the Studios in time to go to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma's at 8:15 p.m.
Sunday, June 24: This is the last day. Sniff. We will hit Magic Kingdom when it opens and then take the monorail over to the Contemporary for lunch at The Wave at 12:20 p.m. His flight leaves at 6:30 p.m., so that means leaving the area around 3:30 or 4 to get over to the airport. If we still have the energy and time, we will probably go back to the Magic Kingdom after lunch just for a final farewell.
Whew! I'm tired now just thinking about it, but I'm also very, very excited. Mark and I haven't done such a complete Disney vacation ourselves in years and years. We will feel very much like tourists! The weather is going to be perfect today but much more typical of summer for the rest of the days with highs in the low 90s, chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon, and plenty of humidity. We will carry our backpack with rain ponchos in it, wear hats, drink water, and use sunscreen. It's just the way it used to be for us when we came down with our kids in the summer. Good times!
Also on Friday, Lowell and Emily are flying out to San Jose, CA to start their week's vacation. They will spend a few days with Evey and Eric, have a trip to Monterey, visit San Francisco, tour Alcatraz, and then go to Sonoma for a few days with our friend Kelly (sadly Laverne will be out of town) in order to tour wineries. We hope they send lots of pictures of all these adventures.
One last thing: I wasn't as good yesterday as I had hoped. I didn't do any exercise at all. I was just so tired that I took a nap when I should have been going to the gym. I didn't stay under 1200 calories either, but I did stay at 1500. I'm sure that was SO much less than I had been eating that I dropped three and a half pounds yesterday. My dinner Monday night at Cohen's was deli meat, full of sodium. I'm pretty sure some of the weight loss was just the result of retaining fluid. This morning I was 249.4. I also won four games of Mah Jongg, which is HUGE for me! It was a good day yesterday, so we feel ready to start our big adventure with Reuben today.
In order to save calories and money, for this trip Mark and I are making a pact not to order any appetizers, desserts, or alcoholic drinks on this trip. With Lowell and Emily, we frequently indulged in all three, but Reuben is underage, so there's no need to worry about having wine and cocktails with him. Also we just need to be a little more frugal for these six days, saving it up for our road trip up north that starts next Thursday.
OK, that's it for now. I'll get back to you with lots of pictures after Reuben's vacation is over. We are heading out in five minutes to go get him. Whoee!! I'm very excited.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Four Glorious Days
I have had no time to blog since Lowell and Emily arrived. I will now try to catch everyone up on all of our fun, but before that let me mention the weight thing. I spent two solid weeks, from Wednesday, May 30 to Wednesday, June 13, following my diet plan to the "T." I walked in the morning, did weights, swam, and kept the calories at 1200 or less, often 1000 or less. I was rewarded with an 8 pound loss, going from 254 to 246. I did all of that in order to have some leeway to put a bit back when the visitors and our trips started on June 14.
It worked perfectly. I lost the 8 in two weeks and then in just 4 days I put back almost 7. I looked back at a previous blog in which I wrote that I had hoped all the walking would off set some of the calories. I don't think it did. It was pretty depressing to see how fast it goes back on compared to how hard it is to take it off. I only have today to behave myself before our next guest, Reuben, comes tomorrow. There will be six days with him, then three days by ourselves where I will behave, followed by two weeks of travel to MD, NJ, and NY. My plan worked, but I put the 8 back on so much faster than I thought I would. Now I don't have much leeway for the rest of the time. Sigh.
Now for the fun stuff. Our time with Lowell and Emily was terrific. Here's a short version of all the fun and some pictures.
Their arrival was tough. They were scheduled to land at 2:55 p.m. on Thursday. We got there at that time and learned they had been delayed out of Baltimore because the plane had to have tires changed. The Arrivals board had them listed for 3:40. We got lattes at Starbucks and settled down to wait the forty minutes. Hm...4 p.m. and no sign of the plane. The board still said 3:40. I went to Information to ask and learned that the huge thunderstorm we were having caused the airport to close temporarily, so their plane was diverted to West Palm. The new arrival time was 6:06. OK, we didn't mind waiting another two hours, but our tickets to the 6 p.m. Cirque du Soleil show were now wasted. Although they said they were nonexchangeable and nonrefundable, we made a few phone calls and an email and were rewarded with new tickets for the next night's show instead. I LOVE Disney customer service! They finally landed safely, and we went to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma's. Fantastic.
Friday was the wine tour, which was awesome. It took longer than we anticipated and then we had the 6 p.m. show of Cirque to attend, so we didn't get to do the airboat or swim. Well, maybe next visit. When we returned from the show, we ate a delicious Shabbat dinner of Tofu Lo Mein that Mark had made earlier. Delicious!
Saturday was Animal Kingdom and Epcot. It was mid-80s, no rain, light breeze, low humidity, and low crowds. It just doesn't get better than that at a Disney theme park, so they had the BEST experience possible.
Sunday we had our Father's Day buffet at Stonegate Grille and then sent them to the airport. I would have been sad to see them go, but I know that we are going to Maryland soon and will see them several times while we are up there. The security line was pretty short, and they got out to their gate quickly. Unfortunately, the plane had multiple issues, so they sat in the plane for nearly two extra hours before taking off. UGH! Lowell said that is probably the last time they are going to fly on Southwest. I don't blame them.
Today I'm going to have a relaxing day, play some Mah Jongg, go to the gym, and eat healthy. Tomorrow we pick Reuben up at the airport at 10 a.m. and head straight to Magic Kingdom. I suspect there will not be a blog for awhile because we will be leaving the house early and coming home late, very tired, for six straight days. Tomorrow morning I will write a brief blog with our six day itinerary on it, so at least you will all have an idea of what we are doing each day. Then I guess there will be a big blog after he leaves with pictures.
Meanwhile, enjoy these pictures of Lowell and Emily's visit. It was FANTASTIC!
It worked perfectly. I lost the 8 in two weeks and then in just 4 days I put back almost 7. I looked back at a previous blog in which I wrote that I had hoped all the walking would off set some of the calories. I don't think it did. It was pretty depressing to see how fast it goes back on compared to how hard it is to take it off. I only have today to behave myself before our next guest, Reuben, comes tomorrow. There will be six days with him, then three days by ourselves where I will behave, followed by two weeks of travel to MD, NJ, and NY. My plan worked, but I put the 8 back on so much faster than I thought I would. Now I don't have much leeway for the rest of the time. Sigh.
Now for the fun stuff. Our time with Lowell and Emily was terrific. Here's a short version of all the fun and some pictures.
Their arrival was tough. They were scheduled to land at 2:55 p.m. on Thursday. We got there at that time and learned they had been delayed out of Baltimore because the plane had to have tires changed. The Arrivals board had them listed for 3:40. We got lattes at Starbucks and settled down to wait the forty minutes. Hm...4 p.m. and no sign of the plane. The board still said 3:40. I went to Information to ask and learned that the huge thunderstorm we were having caused the airport to close temporarily, so their plane was diverted to West Palm. The new arrival time was 6:06. OK, we didn't mind waiting another two hours, but our tickets to the 6 p.m. Cirque du Soleil show were now wasted. Although they said they were nonexchangeable and nonrefundable, we made a few phone calls and an email and were rewarded with new tickets for the next night's show instead. I LOVE Disney customer service! They finally landed safely, and we went to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma's. Fantastic.
Friday was the wine tour, which was awesome. It took longer than we anticipated and then we had the 6 p.m. show of Cirque to attend, so we didn't get to do the airboat or swim. Well, maybe next visit. When we returned from the show, we ate a delicious Shabbat dinner of Tofu Lo Mein that Mark had made earlier. Delicious!
Saturday was Animal Kingdom and Epcot. It was mid-80s, no rain, light breeze, low humidity, and low crowds. It just doesn't get better than that at a Disney theme park, so they had the BEST experience possible.
Sunday we had our Father's Day buffet at Stonegate Grille and then sent them to the airport. I would have been sad to see them go, but I know that we are going to Maryland soon and will see them several times while we are up there. The security line was pretty short, and they got out to their gate quickly. Unfortunately, the plane had multiple issues, so they sat in the plane for nearly two extra hours before taking off. UGH! Lowell said that is probably the last time they are going to fly on Southwest. I don't blame them.
Today I'm going to have a relaxing day, play some Mah Jongg, go to the gym, and eat healthy. Tomorrow we pick Reuben up at the airport at 10 a.m. and head straight to Magic Kingdom. I suspect there will not be a blog for awhile because we will be leaving the house early and coming home late, very tired, for six straight days. Tomorrow morning I will write a brief blog with our six day itinerary on it, so at least you will all have an idea of what we are doing each day. Then I guess there will be a big blog after he leaves with pictures.
Meanwhile, enjoy these pictures of Lowell and Emily's visit. It was FANTASTIC!
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