August 17, Sunday
I
got up this morning at 4:45 AM so that I could be ready to leave for the
airport at 6:45 PM. However, a little after 5:30 PM I got the notification that
the flight was delayed by 45 minutes so I was pretty annoyed because we
could've had an extra 45 minutes of sleep but oh well. We took some extra time
getting ready and I think it was about 7:20 AM when we left. We got to say
goodbye to the boys and have a family prayer together. Michael drove us to the
airport and dropped us off. Emily had a hard time saying goodbye, especially to
Jonny and Michael, but she's doing OK. I think by the time we got the bags
dropped off and through security it only took us about 20 minutes. We had a pretty uneventful flight so that was good.
We landed a little bit early but it took a
long time to do everything. We had to wait at baggage claim for a while before
they even started running the belts. While we were waiting, Andrew called on
Messenger so we talked to him for a little bit. We all wished him a Happy Birthday because it's already Monday there. Dad was driving around and had
to wait to pick us up. We drove straight to the hotel and checked in. We talked
to Andrew on the drive over to the hotel but then said goodbye once we got
there. By the time we got checked in, it was already 7 PM. Dad had to use a QR
code to pay for the parking. It was a bummer because I really wanted to go to
church with Emily tonight but it just wasn't going to work out. She was hungry
and wanted to get some food at IHOP. We
didn't go to our room after checking in and went straight to the restaurant
instead. Michael texted me and said that Charlie was on so we got back on the
call for a few more minutes while we sat and waited for our food. We enjoyed
our meal and went back to the hotel to get into our room.
I really liked the room. It had a small but useful kitchen and a big closet.
Papa came over to our room and we
played Spades. By 9:30 PM, we had a prayer and he headed back to his room and
we got ready for bed. Even though it's only like 7 PM Arizona time, we are
exhausted and want to get to bed early so we can get up and start our day early
tomorrow.
August 18, Monday
It's
weird that today was Andrew's birthday but we already celebrated with him
yesterday basically. I did a social media post for him today.
Emily and I got up at 7 AM. We went down to breakfast around 8:15 AM and made
it in plenty of time for her to check in. Her check-in was at 9:20 AM and she
had to wait outside for like half an hour before they let her go inside where
it's cool. She was so hot and sweaty waiting outside. Dad and I found a place
to park and sat in the AC and waited for her. When she was done, we drove around and
got the suitcases out and helped her take them up to her room.
Her roommate Hope and her mom Rhonda were
already there so we said hello and introduced ourselves. She's from Indiana and
she graduated with a business degree from Ball State. All the girls in that
apartment have graduated from college so that was nice. The girls in the other
room are Caroline and Emily. They were all very sweet. Emily spent some time
organizing her things and then it was time for her background check.
Cool artwork at Apprentice Hall, where she had her background check
Dad and I waited for her while she did that and
then we headed to lunch. We decided to go to Disney Springs which was probably
a mistake because it was enormous but it was kind of fun to go there. Right away, we came upon the restaurant called
Summer House at the Lake. They had a cookie bar that I wanted to try.
Emily got a pizza and Dad got a salad. I didn't
want any of the food so I just got some cookies and shared them with Emily and
Dad. The prices of food around here are ridiculous.
After that, I wanted to try Gideon's bakery but the line was 15 minutes long.
Disney Springs
I decided I'd rather go to Amarette's Patisserie
and get the cookie dough croissant so that's what we did.
Then we walked back to the car. Next, we went to Target and did some shopping. Emily gave me
and Dad a list and we got everything she asked for and met up with her. Then we
got a few more things. I helped her pick out a comforter and a mattress pad.
They didn't have a twin XL but I figured that the twin would be fine and it
was. Then we took everything back to her apartment. There was so much to carry
but we somehow got it all in one trip. It had been raining but thankfully, we
avoided it.
She spent some more time getting organized and
we helped her put away all the groceries.
Then it was time to leave for our dinner
reservation at Ale and Compass. This is where she will be working as a seater. It was a beautiful restaurant.
The serving sizes were pretty small for Dad and
Emily because they got the fish of the day.
I got a New England seafood pot pie. It sounded
weird but it was actually delicious.
We also got some truffle fries which Emily
barely ate any so she took those home. And then we also got some Parker house
rolls which were absolutely delicious. We were all stuffed and we left there
and walked out to the back a little bit to see the water and the boardwalk and
then we went back to the car.
There were a few more things Emily
wanted to get so we stopped at Walmart and we split up again. This time all
three of us split up and got what we needed and got that done. Then we dropped
her off at Flamingo Crossings East and then we headed back to our hotel.
August 19, Tuesday
I'm
grateful we're having such a fun time at Epcot! Dad picked Emily up and brought
her over to our hotel and we had breakfast. We left the hotel around 8:15 AM
and parked in preferred parking.
Emily and I got stopped at security. I wish we
had remembered to take our umbrellas out of our backpacks. Oh well, I didn't
take that long. We got through that and quickly got into the park and they were
already lining up for rope drop for people to go toward Guardians of the
Galaxy, which is what we wanted a rope drop today. We waited in that
line for about an hour so that wasn't too bad at all for that ride. Apparently,
they had started it late so there was quite a line built up but once they got
moving it was fine.
Inside the ride queue
We had so much fun! Emily and I were pretty disappointed that our song was
Disco Inferno again. I've only ever ridden it twice and it was the same song
both times. Oh well. After that, we headed over to Soarin. It was only a 10
minute wait. It's really more than that, but it wasn't too bad. We wanted to go
on Living with the Land next but it was broken down. We went to
Journey into Imagination with Figment. It was a very strange ride but still
pretty cool.
Dad asked the lady how long it's been around and
she said since the park opened but it had a refresh. He asked when Epcot opened
and she said it was 1981. We headed toward the World Showcase. We decided we should see if we can get into our
Biergarten reservation earlier. We got there at about 11:45 AM. They said they
don't open until noon but they could get us in earlier so they switched it for
us.
We really enjoyed our lunch! There was so much
food and it was absolutely delicious! They had chicken and pork schnitzel so of
course I had those. I also loved the pretzel bread, macaroni salad, veal pot
roast, and especially the caramels with apples with caramel dip.
They told us that there would be a program in an
hour at 1:15 PM so we ate slowly and took our time between going up to
the buffet so we could wait for the show. That was really cute. They had four
guys playing in a band and they invited people up to dance to the polka. I
tried to convince Emily to go dance but she didn't want to. They played on
different instruments and even the long horns. I really loved the desserts as
well. It was a delicious meal and I'm glad we got to
go.
I stopped in the caramel shop and
got a couple things to enjoy later. Then we headed over to Norway so we could
go on the Frozen ride. I
really liked the ride!
The little shop with all the Frozen merch was so cute. They had a display of the little bobble heads
that I had heard about on social media. I almost forgot to look up for them and
I'm so glad we happened upon them. They are called Hoptimists and they're
constantly moving up and down, but they cost $20 apiece even for the smallest
ones so we didn't get one. I would've bought one for Emily if she wanted it but
she said no.
Next, we headed back over past Germany and to
France. The wind started blowing pretty badly and we could tell it was going to
rain. We headed over to the patisserie and it started raining. Emily
wanted her ice cream so she went there and then it immediately started raining
harder. She had to get her umbrella out. There was almost no line at the
patisserie but it was impossible to find a place to sit. Dad and I got a few
treats and then we finally were able to get a table. I got the raspberry
macaron but it had these little blobs in it that were lime flavored that I
didn't like but I ate the rest of it. Dad got a croissant and a chocolate
mousse with strawberries. Emily joined us and we all sat and ate our treats.
We decided to head back and go to Living with
the Land. That was only a short 10 minute wait and we enjoyed that. We found
out that you can do it behind the scenes tour for $39 a person.
Then we headed over to Guardians of the Galaxy
to ride it with our lightning lane. It was kind of
nice that this morning we got to go through the whole queue and then this
afternoon we got to go in the lightning lane. They have you start in the big
room with the little show with Terry Crews and Glenn Close. Emily and I were
thrilled that we got Blondie's One Way or Another and not Disco Inferno again.
After that, we went into the Creations shop to
look for the Rapunzel Mickey ears. She found it right away but it was $35 and
she didn't think it was worth it because she doesn't like wearing them anyway.
She didn't think that was enough to get them just to display.
I had to check out this treat that I read about, but I didn't buy one.
After that, we headed out. Dad
drove us to the hotel and dropped us off and we said our goodbyes and then he drove home. Emily and I came
up to the room and relaxed for a bit. We walked across the street to Lime Fresh Mexican Grill. I got a steak
taco and Emily got two shrimp tacos and some chips.
She gathered her things and we had a
prayer and said good night and she walked back to her apartment. My plan is to
get to bed early so I'm well rested to go to Hollywood Studios tomorrow.
