Love at First Sight

Summer means it’s vacation time! While we haven’t had a family vacation for a while, there were many that taught this family about travel. One trip to Disney World a long time ago taught us the true meaning of “love at first sight.”

We were living in Florida at the time. My husband was stationed at NAS Whiting Field as an instructor pilot. Since both of our children were under the age of five, we thought it might be fun to spend a week in Orlando visiting Disney World. Bags were packed, thrown into the mini van, and we were off!

Arriving at the Magic Kingdom, we knew that we wanted to have lunch in Cinderella’s castle. Cinderella was one of my daughter’s favorite Disney princesses, so we knew that she would be thrilled to dine in the castle. When the gates to the park opened, I rushed ahead of the family towards the castle. My goal was to secure a lunch reservation.

When a lunch time was reserved, we decided to tour the park. Much of our time was spent seeking the autographs of the costumed characters. We purchased the required autograph books at one of the gift shops and began searching for Mickey, Minnie and friends. We sailed through “It’s A Small World” a few times, rode the Alice in Wonderland teacup ride, and toured Mickey’s house. By then it was time to head to the castle for our midday meal.

In the main hall of the castle, we waited for our names to be called. Tiffany posed for pictures by the fireplace. Timmy, who was only about ten months old, was taking in the entire scene. His head turned from side to side as he watched other children excitedly running around. Finally, our name was called and we climbed the staircase to find our seats.

At our table, Tiffany jumped up and down, wondering out loud when Cinderella would show up. Timmy sat in his high chair and continued to soak in the setting. We placed our meal orders and tried to talk about what we were going to do after lunch in hopes of settling down a certain little girl.

Then she appeared across the room in her beautiful blue and white dress. Tiffany squealed when she saw her, but it was Timmy’s reaction that caught us off guard. He couldn’t take his eyes off the princess. When she finally approached our table, my little boy almost fell out of his chair trying to reach her. And when she touched his hand, he squealed out loud! IT was truly love at first sight. My little boy’s first true love!

We visited the parks, rode rides, met costumed characters, but the memory we recall the most often from that trip is Timmy falling in love!

No Room at the inn

Summer means vacation time and while we haven’t had a family vacation for a while, there were many that taught this family about travel. One trip to Niagra Falls taught us the importance of pre-trip planning.

We decided the week before Labor Day to head to upstate New York for a long weekend. There was an exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame that I really wanted to see, and the kids had never been to Niagra Falls. So we decided to hit the road early Saturday morning. Now I figured that most people would be heading to the beach and not north, so we made no arrangements for the trip, in particular, no hotel reservations.

We arrived at the Hall of Fame early in the afternoon, had lunch, and visited the exhibit dedicated to Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz. Finally, we decided to hop back in the car, drive a little farther on, and begin our search for hotel accommodations.

About an hour or so from the falls, we decided to take an exit where there appeared to be a few hotels. We stopped at each one only to find that there were no vacancies in any of them. I was rather shocked. We weren't really near anything, so why would all of the hotel rooms be full? My husband decided to head out a bit farther on the interstate and check out the next exit.

At each and every exit, we were greeted with the same response, “no room at the inn.” When we were just a few minutes from the falls, we pulled into a little town. There we spotted a hotel sign blinking “rooms available.” Hallelujah! Our patience had paid off.

As we drove into the hotel parking lot, I noticed that it looked a lot shabbier at close range. In fact, it looked downright spooky, but my husband decided to go in and speak to the guy at the desk. He reported, upon his return, that there was one room available at the price of $250! This dump of a hotel was charging Ritz Carlton prices! “Absolutely not!” I exclaimed. We would not pay that amount to sleep here!

Onward we went, towards Ohio, searching for a place to sleep. By this time it was getting close to midnight. At the next stop, my husband was informed that the closest hotel with vacancies was some five hours away!

We found the parking lot of a nice elementary school to spend the night. Parked underneath a street light, we put the kids in the front so that they could recline the seats and be more comfortable. My husband and I snuggled together in the back seat, sitting straight up. We slept on and off for about three hours that night. It wasn’t ideal, but it taught us to always book our hotel in advance of departure. Haven’t slept in the car since!