Here I am soaring at an altitude of 10,000 feet creating a blog entry from my cellphone on the Samsung Notepad App. Not quite sure how this is going to work out, but I am just too excited not to share the events of today. My wife and I decided to surprise the children with a trip to Florida via flight. They were expecting to drive down, but this time things are different.
My parents retired about five years and moved to the sunny state of Florida. Up until today, we have driven cross country with children from Pennsylvania on the average of once every 6 months. My wife and I decided to change things up on this trip by flying to Florida in style with the family on Southwestern Airlines. We are also going to spend 7 days at Walt Disney World Resort after spending two days with my parents.
My wife has been extremely excited about this Walt Disney World Resort vacation because I presented it to her as a well deserved gift. She has had an undying passion for the Walt Disney World ever since I met her 16 years. I must admit I used to love going to Walt Disney World equally as much as her, but have soured towards the theme park over the years due to inflated cost.
After much deliberation, my wife decided to have a scavenger hunt around the house where the children found various clues. Eventually the clues led to a big cling wrap ball with candy and treats wrapped up in it at different layers. After some time, the kids reached the center after taking about 5 turns of 10 seconds each and found the luggage tags. They just threw them to the side and failed to read them. I looked over at my wife and she said ‘not yet’ to me, ‘there is more’.
At this point like a good husband, I got up and walked into the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. The temptation to spill the beans was too great and I know myself. I got about halfway through my cup when I heard the children yell out that we were flying. It made sense to them then because we traditionally drove down overnight immediately once they arrived home from school and this was already the next day. The oldest was excited, the middle child was nervous, and the youngest is sick.
No family trip is complete with out one of the kids getting sick and almost ruining everything. She was a little soldier and persevered even though her stomach was aching with some type of virus. Thank God it wasn’t a full blown stomach virus with vomiting and bathroom runs every 10 minutes. We would have surely had to postpone the trip then.
The airport went as smoothly as possible with all the added security measures after 9/11. To be quite honest, the kids did a good job not being too excited and following every instruction given to the best of their ability. Once through the TSA checkpoint, we headed down the flight terminal and found a seat.
The youngest gave us a bit of a scare when she requested a drink. My wife brought her a Gatorade and she immediately said that she needed to throw up. My wife rushed her to the bathroom and all she did was use the facilities fortunately. We realize that we are blessed and the situation could have been much worst, if not disastrous.
Once it was time to board the plane, my wife’s research paid off. Even though we were registered as boarding group B, we were able to board as a family because the youngest was under 6 years old. We handed off the stroller and found seats directly across from each other.
As usual, the excitement of take off was infectious but suddenly died off to in-flight boredom not much different from a road trip. The sky turned from clear blue to being filled with clouds that looked like someone threw a bag of cotton balls in the air. The middle child who chose to sit with me asked what were the white things. With a brief chuckle I told her they were clouds.
So here we are soaring above Georgia heading to Florida to start our well deserved vacation. I sure hope things go off with out a hitch and we can surprise the kids on Tuesday morning when my wife tells them about Walt Disney World Resort Vacation.
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