Like a Kid Again

Spring Break 2012 came and went very quickly and now we're already in April with only 40 days of school left.  To get back to our spring break, we took a quick trip to Florida to visit Andrew's dad.

The last 2 years, Andrew and I have not had the same spring break.  You'd think being a 'suburb' of Madison, that our school holidays would line up, but they don't.  So after Rick moved to Florida, Andrew spent his spring breaks in Lakeland, where I was not able to join him.  This year we were tired of not being able to take a spring vacay together, so Andrew took some personal days at the beginning of my break and we spent a long weekend visiting Rick and Susan in Florida.  Lakeland is about halfway between Tampa and Orlando, just about in the middle of the state.

From Friday to Tuesday, it was rather quick, but we squeezed A LOT in.  As we drove like maniacs to Milwaukee after school on Friday and barely made our flight, the rest of the trip went smoothly.

On Saturday, we drove to Dunedin to watch the Toronto Blue Jays take on the Atlanta Braves.  It was just nice to be at a ball game with a hot dog and beer in hand on a beautiful day.  I forget how much I LOVE baseball, doesn't matter when, where or who, I do love baseball.

That night we had a delicious meal at Bonefish.  My tuna was phenomenal.

The next day, we took a drive to Clearwater to head to the beach!  Clearwater brings back wonderful memories, as I spent 2 New Years there cheering on our Hawkeyes, in the Outback Bowl.  That was the best bowl and we always had so much fun.  But I digress....back to the beach....

We spent most of the day just hanging out and people watching with the sound of waves in our ears and sand in our toes.  It was glorious.

Oh, but speaking of Hawkeyes, we thought we saw Adrian Clayborn who plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but we didn't.

Anyway, just driving down the main drag brought back so many wonderful college memories.  We ate dinner at Frenchy's and had a wonderful ocean view.

On Monday, we took some time to sight-see around Lakeland.  They have a cute little downtown area with bars, restaurants and shops which is just adorable.  We stopped at one of the several lakes to take a picture.

Rick and Ange

 Ange and I.

Later that afternoon, we went to DISNEY WORLD!!  It was wonderful.  I hadn't been in years and the minute I saw the first sign, I was pumped.  Susan, Rick's girlfriend, works at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Magic Kingdom, so got tickets and did a whirlwind park hop to 3 different parks in one afternoon/night.

First up: Hollywood Studios.

The first ride we went on was the Tower of Terror.  It was a quick line and we had to go.  Andrew and I realized we had never been on a roller coaster together.  When we got off the Tower of Terror, Andrew just laughed and said I'm a talker and a screamer.  We then headed to Rockin' Roller Coaster.  I love this one!  It's so fast and fun.  We laughed though, because inside there were band posters.  It was Rascal Flatt, Jonas Brother, Justin Bieber, Selina Gomez, Queen and other teenyboppers we didn't know--some of these are not like the others.  We could see who their main demographic was.  

Next: Epcot

The first thing we did was Mission Space.  There are two levels, orange and green.  Andrew and I choose the orange level, the harder level, that warns you about a million times that it's intense.  Well, let me just tell you, we should have listened to our gut as we're going through training.  We were in a "space shuttle" and through the whole thing, I'm pretty sure we were spun, flipped, tossed, turned.  It was awful.  I felt so disoriented throughout the whole thing and even worse when we had to exit.  We took a while to get our sea legs back.  I know I said it earlier, but it was just awful!

We got a snack, then dinner, then headed out of Epcot.  Unless we were ready to do a Nations Pub Crawl (which we weren't), we were done with Epcot.

 Epcot at Night.

Last Up: Magic Kingdom

We got there just in time to see the Electrical Parade.  I seriously felt like a kid again.  After that was done, we herded over to the castle with a million of our closest friends and waited for the 10:00 fireworks and Wishes show.  Boy, was that cool!  I don't think I've ever seen it and it was awesome.  They lit the castle, Tinker Bell flew out and the fireworks were fab!

 Waiting for the Wishes Show to begin.

 So pretty....

 OOhhhhh.......

 AAaahhhhhh......

As we did not want to try to exit with ALL the young children who's parents tried to keep them awake for the show and were all simultaneously melting down, we decided to hit up some of my favorites.  The lines were short and we hit up a couple rides pretty quickly.  We went on the Goofy's Barnstormer and our all-time favorite roller coaster Space Mountain.  That was a little longer line, but totally worth it.  You can't argue the pitch-black, black-light, high-speed awesomeness of Space Mountain.

Susan and Rick on Barnstormer

To end the fantastic evening, we headed to It's a Small World.  I have such wonderful memories of Disney, especially this ride, that we had to go!  It was nearly midnight and no line.  We had the boat to ourselves.  It was wonderful, and I sang the song for the next 3 days.  Sorry for getting it into your head now...

All of us on It's a Small World

It was a wonderful long weekend and so great to get away for a quick trip.  Thanks Rick and Susan for having us!  Hopefully it won't be so many years until the next time we see you.