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A while back our friends, and travel companions, Nancy and Paul, had invited us to join them over the holidays at one of the Disney Resorts. Our 10-year-old grand-daughter, “Mads,” joined us for this adventure, but only found out she was returning to Walt Disney World a couple of weeks before we left. While I plan to do a more in-depth post (or series of posts)about this adventure, here is a very short synopsis of our trip. I have several posts to upload related to work that too place on the barn project starting in January, but wanted to at least have a short post about our holiday travels in the correct chronological position.
We left for the long drive to Florida on Monday, December 26, picking up our middle grand-daughter on the way. We stopped for the night in Chattanooga, Tennessee and arrived at our destination in Orlando the evening of the 27th.
On the 28th the three of us visited The Magic Kingdom.
On the 29th, all eight of us spent they day doing a private escorted VIP experience at Universal Studios, Orlando. This was our first time there, and we were both surprised and impressed with the place. The Harry Potter area was probably the highlight, but the whole place was amazing. No doubt being on a private VIP experience enhanced our perception of the place. Our host, Robbie, kept track of how many rides we went on, and the calculated that we had saved 33 hours of waiting in line. Wow.
On the 30th and 31st we visited the theme parks on our own while Paul and Nancy spent time with their family members.
On January 1st, all eight of us spent the day on a private, escorted VIP experience of the four Disney World Theme Parks, starting with the Star Wars area at Hollywood Studies. It was a first-time experience for Mads, and she was suitably impressed. Indeed, compared to her visits when she was 6 and 7 years old, she had found the courage to try rollercoasters and fell in love the experience. In the end, it was mostly her, me an Evan (in his 20’s) who did the rollercoasters.
On the 2nd, the three of us spent a bit more time in the theme parks during the day but returned to the resort for dinner. Around 6 PM we headed to The Magic Kingdom and staked out a viewing spot for the evening show, which is done by projecting amazing animated images onto the castle, using it has a screen.
We started the return drive home on Tuesday, January 3 (2023). We spent that evening in Macon, Georgia, and the next evening in Covington, Kentucky just across the river from Cincinnati, Ohio. We arrived home the afternoon of the 5th, after first returning our grand-daughter to her parental units and younger sister.
The barn project was not on our minds (much) during this time away, as we were visiting “the happiest place on earth” with our 10-year grand-daughter while hanging out with our friends and Eastern/Atlantic travel companions, and their family. No progress was made on the barn project during this time, nor was any expected. We knew before we left that the roll-up doors had been delayed until the end of the month.
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