Disney Cruise - A Day at Sea

After the marathon we didn't have much time to relax because we had to be at Port Canaveral (adjacent to Cape Canaveral) to board our boat before it left. Every one gave me a few minutes to recuperate and then we were off to the hotel room to pack up. Justin had rented an "accessible" shuttle to take us all to Port Canaveral so when it showed up we loaded up our gear and off we went. 

You can imagine what a production it is to get three thousand people onto a boat in a single afternoon but they had it well organized. We had tags for our baggage so we dropped off the bags and miraculously they just showed up in our rooms. We made sure to keep our swimming suits so we changed and then went to explore the boat. What a very cool boat. There is no way I can remember everything and there were many facilities that we never used but the places I can remember off the top of my head are:

- a theater where they had live plays every day. They had a family oriented play just after supper and then an adult oriented performance around ten after the kids were in bed. Everyone would go see the family play and then we would put the kids to bed and one of us would stay with the kids and the other three adults would go to the adult play. The cool thing is that it was a Disney Cruise all events were clean even if is was geared towards and adult audience. 

- a movie theater which Lisa and I only used once. We can see movies anytime.

- A small bar where they had small shows. We saw a few shows there but we only went to performances that looked really good because it was a bar. 

- Two water slides, one for the most daring and one for the less adventurous.

- Three pools, and adult only, a kid pool and a splash park. Children with diapers were only allowed in the splash park. Since we had two kids in diapers that was a disappointment.

- A doctors office. I didn't need the doctor for the marathon but my cold was bad enough that I went to see what drugs I could get. 

- Three very cool restaurants plus several smaller kiosks where you could order food 24 hours a day. The restaurants were only open during meal times. 

- A huge kids play center where you could drop off younger kids.

- A teen center where teenagers could hang out.

- A basketball court plus a number of games such as Foosball and Ping Pong.

In addition to the actual facilities they had three decks where you could sit and enjoy the sun and the views. One of these decks had a huge movie screen on the funnel and the soundtrack from the movie was played over loud speakers. Several nights after everyone was back at their rooms I would go for a walk along the upper deck and enjoy the fresh air. Some times I would walk with someone else but several times I just went and walked alone. It was a very peaceful way to end the day. The weather was gorgeous during the entire ten day cruise.

Our rooms were really quite nice. Not very big but I've stayed in smaller hotel rooms. I really like the cool decoration on the couch.

Our first night we ate in the restaurant called "Lumiers" after the candlestick in "Beauty and the Beast". It was the swankiest of the three restaurants and the one we ate at the most. 

We had the same waiters every night of our stay. This is Miroslava and she is from Slovakia.

The lights in Lumiers had cool glass roses in a cylinder under the light. It looked very cool. 

Me and myt buddy Cameron spent a lot of time together. I slept on my shoulder during nearly every one of the evening shows. 

Check out Justin on the stairs going to the water slide. He has his arms spread wide. The big water slide had you stand in a glass capsule and the floor would drop out and you would fall straight down. They had a count down to prepare you. Justin wanted to mix it up a little so he told the operator to not open the trap door on the signal but to surprise him. I coped him and that made it much more interesting.

It was Kira's goal to spend as much time in the Sun as she could. 

It was my goal to go down the water slide as often as I could. 

The splash park had water spouts all over the place which would randomly spout water and surprise you.

Evan got really good at putting his finger in the water spot and directing the water towards people to get them went. He would point it at complete strangers. 

They hosted a diaper dash in the main lobby for kids who could not walk. Cameron is such a faster crawler we though he was sure to win. 

 He got off to such a fast start we were confident that we had the medal in the bag. 

 Half way through the race with a wide lead he found the cheering crowd irresistible so he stopped right in the middle of the track and stared at the hundreds of onlookers.

Since the cruise was just a couple of weeks after Christmas we brought our Christmas gifts with us and exchanged presents. 

This night (Monday night) was formal night so I brought my tux for the occasion.

With the kids all dressed up how could we not take a picture.

Dinner on Monday night was in the restaurant called "Animators Palette". The walls were all covered with large screens. On the screen random Disney characters were drawn. Each stroke of the pencil was recorded and in some cases the lines were erased. Finally the drawing were filled with color and the characters would start moving and play a segment from the movie that the scene was in. It was very fascinating and made it tough to focus on eating.  

On this night we got a surprise visit. We ate all of our meals with friends of Justin and Kira,  Matt and Sheena Smith and their family who also came on the cruise. We had by far the largest table in the room so Micky naturally made his way to our table and danced right in front of  Piper who was very intrigued. Coincidentally I went to school with Sheena's mother. 

--------------------trivia-------------------

Our ship weighed 90,000,000 pounds

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Disney Cruise - The Marathon

As you may have noticed from the numerous Facebook posts, I've been training for a marathon. Last summer Justin invited Mom and I to join them on a cruise. We couldn't think of anything better than spending ten days with our grand kids and in the Caribbean to boot. How could we not go? Justin then invited me to run with him in the Disney World Marathon which happened to be on the same day that we were to board the boat. I really enjoyed the last marathon so I thought that was a good idea as well.

The only problem with running a marathon is the numerous hours it takes to train properly. I suppose if I were twenty years younger I might get away without training but there is no way I could do that now. My last marathon took me 5 hours and 7 minutes and I was so upset that I didn't get under 5:00. I don't care if it is only 4:59 I just want to say 4 something instead of 5 something.

I was very diligent in my training and I was ready and quite confident that I would beat 5 hours. Well as luck would have it, the week leading up to the marathon I came down with the flu and a bad cough. I was so mad. I actually felt pretty good but I was congested and had a runny nose. I loaded up on vitamins and hoped for the best but alas, the morning of the marathon I still had the flu.

Mom and I caught our plane on Friday morning (January 9) and luckily we had a direct flight to Orlando. Justin signed up for the Goofy so he had to be in Orlando earlier in the day. The Goofy is if you run the half marathon on the Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday. You really would need to be Goofy to do that. They also have a 10K on Friday and a 5K on Thursday and if you do all four you get a medal called the Dopey. Quite appropriate don't you think?

So if you run the half marathon you need to register by 7:00 the night before. Before we boarded our flights Kira texted us to let us know that their flights were all changed. When Mom and I landed we checked Kira and Justin's flight and there going to be landing in just a few minutes. There was no way he would be able to register by 7:00. We made our way to their gate and watched them walk off the plane. Justin was very worried about registering but he called and found out that they would let him register the next morning early so the poor boy who had been up all day had to get up the next morning at 4:00.

Because we were staying in the Disney Hotel we didn’t need to wait for our bags.  We simply boarded a very cool Disney bus and the Disney people picked up our bags and delivered them to our rooms for us. It was really nice.

Kira and Justin had ordered the Pirate package so when we got to our rooms their room had a cool surprise. It had been attacked by Pirates and the boys followed a treasure map to a small chest full of treasure. They loved it and it was neat.

The next morning Mom and Kira stayed with the kids and I went and cheered Justin on as he completed his half marathon. I thought Florida was supposed to be in the subtropics but it was pretty darned cold. I am really glad that I took my coat. I just about didn't.

Justin and I went back to our rooms and then we separated. Mom, Kira and the kids headed to the park and Justin and I went and registered for the marathon. 

We decided the kids might enjoy the Hollywood studios park the most so that is the park we went to for the rest of the day. They had some pretty cool rides and shows. My favorite one might have been the stunt cars. You would be amazed at what they can do.

Because Justin and I were running the marathon the next morning we didn't stay up too late on Saturday. I always have a very difficult time getting up early but because I was nervous and excited about the race, as soon as my alarm went off I was wide awake. I had all of my clothes laid out so I wouldn't wake up Mom and Cameron (Cameron slept with us every single night that we were together) and just as I was tying my shoes Justin gently tapped on my door and off we went.

The morning was much warmer than the day before and that is good because I was really worried about freezing. Justin is a much faster runner than I am so he was assigned the “F” corral as his starting position and me being much slower was assigned the “K” corral. Lucky for me, Justin figured that since he had already run a half marathon the day before he wasn’t going to set any speed records so he decided to run with me in the “K” corral. Coincidentally Justins friend Matt (who was on the cruise with us) was also in the “K” corral. He was also doing the Goofy. 

They started the race sending off a new corral about every five minutes. You knew when a corral went because they set off fireworks each time.  Finally it was our turn and off we went. 

This race was definitely much more crowded than the St George Marathon was.  It was so crowded that people had a signal for stopping. It was so packed that if someone just stopped running and started walking he would get ran right over by the people behind him. If you wanted to stop you would move over to the edge of the road, raise your hand high in the air so everyone could see you and then could start walking.  

I don’t know if it was good or bad but running with Justin inspired me. I ran quite a bit faster than I normally would. In my training runs I would start out around a 9:30 pace and gradually slow down to an 11:30 pace.  Justin kept trying to go faster but I held him back to a 9:30 but amazingly I kept it up until well past ten miles. As long as I didn't go faster than 9:30 I had no trouble keeping up the pace either. I loved it and it was a lot of fun running with Justin. He was high fiveing the crowds and he would stop and take pictures of the Disney characters that they had along the side of the roads every two or three miles. 

One of the best parts of the entire race was somewhere around mile 7. We came around the corner and there in the distance was Cinderellas castle. It was all lit up with icicle lights and it simply glowed and it seriously looked like it was covered in ice. As we ran through the castle there was Anna and Elsa standing on the balcony waving to us. I waved back to them and they waved directly at me. 

Of course I was focusing all of my energy on running but Justin was having a ball taking all kinds of pictures and texting updates to everyone. 

The next cool thing along the track was when we got to run around a race track. By race track I mean a track for cars. At one point on the track they had fancy cars parked along the side that we got to check out. They had antiques, race cars and just some really nice sports cars. 

One of my favorite character visits was the Disney Villains. 

Life was good until about the 15 mile mark. That is when I started to slow down a bit. I still felt great and I kept running but I was losing energy. I wanted to walk but Justin kept encouraging me and I held out pretty good until somewhere around mile 20. Nothing hurt and I had plenty of wind but I could hardly pick up my legs. I started a run walk routine where I would walk for a minute or two and then run for five or six minutes but it wasn't long before I was walking longer than I was running. 

We came to a baseball diamond and I mean a legit one like the pro's play on. We ran around the ball diamond and not just the bases but around the outfield. I forced my self to run around the diamond because it didn't seem right to walk around the diamond. 

The race started and ended in the Epcot center so as we entered the Epcot center I knew the end was near. I tried to pick up the pace a bit and of course there was no way I was going to be walking on the final stretch to the finish line. You can't imagine how cool it feels to come around the final bend and you can see the finish line in front of you and then off to the side is your family cheering you on. I love it. It almost brought me to tears. I am really glad that Justin was there beside me taking pictures. Unfortunately there are not pictures of Justin because he was the only one taking pictures. There are lots of pictures of me but none of him. I feel really bad about that but what can I say?

From there we ran arm in arm to the finish line. The official time for the run was 5:17. That is ten minutes longer than my St George run. It felt like I had done much worse than St George but I guess my strong first half saved me. I am convinced that the fact that I was running with the flu sapped away much of my energy. I want to be upset that I did worse but when I got sick I was afraid I wouldn't be able to run at all so in the end I just feel grateful that I was able to finish let alone run almost as fast as St George.  I suspect there will be another Marathon in my future.

Justin's medals are his half marathon, his full marathon and his Goofy medal. It is a #10 because this is the tenth year they have done the Goofy Challenge. I of course only have the one marathon medal and I will hang it up next to my St George medal. I am quite sure I will never have a Goofy. We did hear about a "Coast to Coast" challenge that you can get if you run the marathon in Disney World and then a half marathon in Disney Land within the same year. I think I am going to go for that one. 

--------------------trivia--------------------

Will Smith is now older than Uncle Phil was at the beginning of The Fresh Prince.

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Brian and Britni

A few weeks ago we were treated to a visit from Brian and Britni (Dixie's kid). Apparently they travel just like the rest of the family. They had been at Legoland and asked if they could crash at our house for the night since they had to catch a flight the next morning. A reasonable person would have thought that meant that they would get here in time for dinner and then maybe leave for the airport after breakfast the next morning. Nope, that isn't how we do it in our family.

Brian and his family arrived shortly before midnight so we put the sleeping kids straight to bed and of course we wanted to visit with them for a little while. The two older girls woke up so while we were visiting they explored the house and came down stairs with a board game. One of the girls fell asleep during the game and the other one not long after we finished the game.

As we were visiting we realized that their flight the next morning was out of LAX which at the best of times is a 2 hour drive and it can be a four hour drive depending on the time of day. We also learned that their flight left at 6:00AM. That meant that they would need to leave somewhere around 3:00 AM.  Yes, you guessed it. At that point we decided to just visit until they had to leave. I don't really remember much about what we talked about but it was wonderful to see them and as far as I know they made it home in one piece.

--------------------trivia-------------------

If you shrunk the sun down to the size of a white blood cell and shrunk the Milky Way Galaxy 

down using the same scale, it would be the size of the continental United States.

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Christmas

This has been a very different Christmas for us. We had no kids at home. It is the first Christmas since 1981 that we have had no kids at home for Christmas. In case you're counting, we were married in 1981 and Kira was born in 1982. That is 34 years. We have made an effort to get our kids scheduled to come to our home one year and the in-laws home the next year. We have been fortunate enough to make that happen. It is great when they are all here but it's a bit of a bummer when they're all gone. I was expecting it to be a rather depressing Christmas but as it turned out, it was quite relaxing.

First of all we decided to buy a small Christmas tree and because it was a small Christmas tree it took no time to decorate it. Christmas morning we slept in, I don't remember ever sleeping in on Christmas morning so already the day was off to a good start. I figured we would eat a nice relaxing breakfast but kids started calling before that could happen so I didn't actually get breakfast until almost lunch time. In fact, we spent a good part of the day on the phone with kids. It was fun talking to them. We Skyped with Kira's kids but Brandons family was at the Quinns so we didn't skype with them until Friday.

Just so we wouldn't be completely alone all day we invited the Sister Missionaries for dinner. Lisa just had to cook a turkey and that would be overkill for just the two of us. Actually it was overkill for the four of us but I have enjoyed turkey sandwiches and turkey soup for the last week.

And I did make apple pie. I usually have one of my daughters helping me but this year I did it all alone. It still tasted very good.

What was especially fun is that the sisters were able to skype with their families and they did that from our house. Sister Saidon is from Thailand and we got to meet her family. It was very cool. It is also fun to see how peoples traditions are so different from ours. When her mother came on the TV Sr Saedon put the palms of her hands together in front of her and bowed to her mother. It was really cool. They then sang to us in Thai and we sang back to them.

Sr Wang was just as cool. Her entire family is on a mission at this very moment. Her mother is in Hawaii, one brother is in Mexico and she has another brother in Vancouver, BC. They were all on the Skype call together. They all received their calls the same day and they gave their farewells the same day. Her mother gets off in a few weeks and she is coming to San Diego to pick up their daughter and then they are travelling home together. They will be companions.

We were going to go out on New Years eve but that didn't happen. We first made plans to go see Balboa Park. Apparently they had something going on there but then we were invited to go play games with the Bagleys and that sounded like fun but then Lisa got sick and we just stayed home and watched movies. That was fun too. At midnight I kissed her on the cheek because I do NOT want to get sick.

The other first for this year was that we got the house completely undecorated on New Years day.

I'm usually trying to find a place to take the tree in the middle of January.

So as it turned out Christmas wasn't nearly as quiet and boring as I was expecting. I'm sure glad they invented telephones.

--------------------trivia---------------------

 Religious groups give 4 times as much as secular groups.

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