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!