Wilderness Lodge & Magic Kingdom

This year's trip to Disney World was a quick one - only three nights - but full of fun new experiences.   We stayed one night at Wilderness Lodge in a two-bedroom villa (after some itinerary rearranging due to my misread of the summer baseball calendar and a limited supply of available studio and one-bedroom villas on short notice).   Wilderness Lodge is opening a new "Copper Creek" section on Monday, so the pools and public spaces had many updates since our last stay here in 2013.   We especially enjoyed the new bar and grill area overlooking the water.

  

 

After settling in and grabbing lunch, we took the boat launch over to Magic Kingdom for our FastPass rides.  We were expecting the oppressive heat, but seriously it was no joke.  We stayed for about three hours and then took a pool break until dusk.  Before and after there were thunderstorms.  The weather was seriously crazy.  We remembered to pack our Disney Park water sprayer/misting fan and got a lot of use out of it trying to keep ourselves from melting.

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived in time for the new fireworks show: Happily Ever After.  It has a lot of castle projections, unlike its predecessor, Wishes.  We had a great view, and I absolutely loved it!   We also snuck in a ride on Splash Mountain, souvenir shopping (stuffed Pluto for William and Christmas ornaments for me) before the Kiss Goodnight and heading back to Wilderness Lodge for bed.  

 

  

 

 

 

Fourth of July Weekend

For the long 4th of July weekend we did a lot of fun stuff around the area.   After many years of considering a trip to our neighboring town of Lisle for their "Eyes to the Skies" hot air balloon festival/carnival, we finally made it to the EARLY morning balloon launch.  We learned, however, that they very rarely launch the balloons due to weather.  It was a beautiful morning but apparently the wind (which we could not detect) would have blown the balloons toward the O'Hare flight path.  I'm guessing that air traffic is just so heavy around us that it rarely makes sense.  We had fun watching them fill from outside the fence and then walking through/under them for a view.  William chose not to ride the tethered balloon so we left from there to hit up Starbucks and then the farmer's market.  We were home and unpacked and veggies washed by 8 a.m.!

Our annual subdivision parade on the 4th was fun as always.  William walked with the Cub Scout group and their water guns!  The boys got John pretty good!  Wish I had a picture of that!  Afterwards we played at the pool.  I made strawberry mojitos with fresh ingredients from my garden (and rum borrowed off a neighbor)!

 

Tiskilwa Farm Alpacas

We made our third visit to my partner's alpaca farm downstate for Deloitte Day at the Farm.   William had really been looking forward to it, because he had so much fun fishing last year.    This year was another successful fishing day!   Not to mention the baby animals, pony rides, S'mores, and tractor/Gator rides!

 

 

Yankees Game

I made my annual Yankees baseball trip this week.   It ended up being a beautiful night, and it was a lot of fun to catch up with clients and co-workers.   And I don't know about you, but margaritas, chips and guacamole are really the way to go with stadium food.  No hot dogs for me, thanks.  

But what I was really thinking as I flew back home after 4 hours of sleep was how thankful I was that I didn't have to get on another plane for three weeks.  And after that trip, I have no flights currently booked.   In the 13 weeks between April 14 and July 14, I will have flown 19 flight segments and spent 26 nights away from home.   That's a lot; even for me and even for all the fun I've been having.   Hooray for sleeping in my own bed!

Summer Vacation - Legoland

On our way back home, we made one more stop:  LEGOLAND in San Diego.   William has been asking to go back since our June 2015 trip, so we surprised him for his birthday with the gift of a stay at the LEGOLAND Hotel and one day in the park. Everything was awesome!  Although the hotel common areas smelled like sweaty kids and a cruise ship dining room, our room was very clean and comfortable.   John and I had a king size bed in the adult area and William had bunk beds in his own alcove.   Our bed was super comfy, and his were super fun!  The room came with a tub of Legos to borrow, bottled water and juice pouches, and a daily treasure (Surprise! It was Legos!) in the safe that had to be unlocked with a code William got by solving clues in the lobby. 

   

Our day began super early!  Well, it wouldn't have been so early except our flight from Kona was super delayed.  We got to the hotel at 2 a.m. and woke up at 7:30.  We wanted to be at the park for our hotel guest privilege of an extra hour before park opened.   It worked out great because we did two rides on the new Ninjago ride and then a few other rides before going back to the hotel for our free breakfast buffet.  After brunch and a little rest, we headed back into the park for the water park.   It was super crowded and the pavement was hot, but we made our way to the Chima wavepool for some fun.  After we did that and a family raft slide ride, we changed and headed back into the theme park for rides and dinner and a look through Miniland.

William was excited to see replicas of many of his spring travels:  New York City's skyline; the monuments in Washington DC, Pier 39 in San Francisco, a farm in middle America, a Star Wars rebel base. . . oh ok, not the last one.   One day ended up being enough to see and do what we wanted at LEGOLAND since we had been before.   And at 8, except for the Lego creations, William has outgrown most of the rides and activities.  That's what I was expecting, so I'm glad we snuck in one more visit while we were on the west coast before he got any older.