Florida Trip with Matt

Wow it has been forever!! So my last few weeks will be in multiple posts. I keep track of key things to mention in my blog, but sometimes I forget to sit and write. I'll get into another weekly groove soon.

After over five months of being apart from my husband I finally went back to the US! After leaving on the 4th of July I was able to arrive the evening of the 4th of July and I'll tell you that Portland fireworks are crazy!! As the plane was landing you could see literally thousands of fireworks going off in all directions! It was a neat experience, but not as great as giving a big hug to Matt!

As we drove back to Eugene he told me that he discovered his car had been stolen just that morning! We hoped it might be a blessing if the police didn't find it and instead of trying to sell the car we could just get an insurance check.

We got a whole four hours of "sleep" on a couple of small pads Matt had as a bed at his sister's place before we had to leave to the airport the next morning. Our three planes to Fort Lauderdale, Florida took all day so we were more than happy to finally arrive. Unfortunately after getting our rental we discovered there were multiple Doubletree by Hilton Hotels and could not find the one with our actual reservation. After over thirty minutes of calling a whole bunch of hotels we finally found our reservation and were able to get to the right place.

The next day we were able to just sleep in and relax. Matt slept in for a LONG time, while I got to finally get some summer sun outside by the pool. It was super nice to have no plans and just sit around and do nothing for an entire day.

Sunday we went shopping around until it was time to get onto our short Bahamas cruise. The boat was a lot smaller than I was used to, but it was still nice. The food was good and later while wandering around we stopped in on the karaoke competition. It went on forever so we left early but we both really liked this guy from Venezuela who was amazing!

The Bahamas was awesome. When we first arrived our room at the resort wasn't ready but we still got to use all the resort amenities. So we swam in the ocean, the pool, jumped on the ocean trampoline and got yelled at (didn't know we had to pay), and took a great banana boat tour to see the dolphins and a rusty old ship that had actually been used in the Pirates of the Carribean. It was all fun until by the time we got into our room we could see how badly burned my shoulders and legs were.

As we got settled in our room and checked our email I found I had a skype message. It was the police - they had found Matt's car! Matt had given them his number as well as his sister's and my skype number, but apparently they didn't call his sister. Because we didn't get the message until later, the car was towed and stored until we could pick it up. We had to send his sister to the towing agency with a letter signed by Matt giving her authorization to pick up the vehicle and $275 for the towing charges! At least the car could be driven.

Right before the storm hit

Our second Bahamas day turned out to be quite a disappointment as our kayak/snorkeling tour got cancelled due to weather. It didn't seem that bad at first, but it started pouring later and was rainy most of the day. The real bummer was that I was so badly burned that getting wet made me FREEZING! I was shivering really bad everywhere. Still we did some shopping and were able to watch Jack Reacher on a big screen they had at the resort that night.

We spent our last hours in the Bahamas eating Domino's and feeding a huge group of birds. It was amazing how bold some would be and actually eat right out of Matt's hands. Finally it was time to get on the cruise ship.

These two got in a fight

Last day in the Bahamas

The cruise back to Florida we went for a fancier dinner place and ended up on a table where all eight of us didn't drink alcohol! How crazy is that! The couple across from us we also discovered are LDS members from Arizona (although they've been inactive for a few years)! Hopefully we inspired them to go back, they are an awesome couple.

We also decided to get involved in the Bingo night, which we never won even after playing three games with multiple bingo cards in play at once. It was a lot of fun though and there was hilarious girl in front that even the announcer made fun of. Apparently she asked "What time is the 8 o'clock show?" earlier that day.

Matt and I were pleased to discover we could get off the ship really early the next day so we would be able to get to Orlando quick. It was even better to discover our room was available at 11am when we arrived so we could drop our stuff off. The rest of the day we spent at Typhoon Lagoon and we spent our last couple hours at DisneyQuest. The water park was a blast, but we were so tired at DisneyQuest that it was difficult to enjoy all the video games and the build-your-own roller coast made us motion sick.

The next two days we spent at Walt Disney World focusing on all the rides that Matt hadn't ever experienced at Disneyland. I was determined to help him see that WDW is WAY better than Disneyland. Although I don't think I convinced him entirely we still had fun.

The first day we went to the Animal Kingdom (my fav since I worked there and I love animals) for the day and Hollywood Studios at night. The second day we did Magic Kingdom in the morning and hit Epcot early afternoon. I could talk about both days a lot, but instead I'll just show pics.

 

It rained both days from 1-4 hours, but luckily it didn't affect our ability to still do all the things we wanted to in the end. I'm very grateful to finding the Unofficial Guide To Walt Disney World and their touringplans.com website and Lines app that saved us so much time!! Seriously, if you are going to Disneyland or Disney World I really recommend their book and sites because it saves hours and it's amazing how much we were able to fit in without having to run all over and still have unscheduled snack, bathroom, and rain breaks.

It was sad to leave the vacation to go back to Eugene, but on the up side our 20 min break at Salt Lake City on the way allowed my dad to see me! He was able to meet us at the gate we got off and walk us to the next gate...and no his is not normally allowed so don't ask how he was able to do it. Since I won't be able to see him for a long time I was glad we had the opportunity at all. I'm also really glad we had some great luck on the planes and had an extra seat so we could actually sleep somewhat. Nothing like going back to Eugene and sleeping on the hard pads equivalent to the floor....

.......to be continued