Okay, I think we’ve all had enough time to mull things over from the first part. I was told to get this trip finished up because of other things coming up soon (the puppy, pictures from a local trip, etc.). So . . . . originally I was going to do a post for each day while we were in Florida, but that won’t happen now. This will be, to quote a famous clergyman, “the short, short version.”
Last we left, we were in the Manchester Airport with time to kill. To make time go by faster, we had our portable DVD player along with a selection of movies. The big hit was Davey and Goliath. Remember them? We’re talking old school stuff here. I can remember watching them as a kid. Quincy loved watching them. So, between that and taking time for lunch, the time actually didn’t drag as slowly as I dreaded it would.
The flight down was full. We didn’t sit together. I was stuck in the last row next to a very large couple. It was a long flight. We didn’t do family boarding ’cause they said it was for ages 4 and under. After getting admonished by one of the flight attendants for not using it, Dara vowed to use it on the way home. Rules? What are those?
I was thrilled to land. Like I tell Dara, land or crash, at least we’ll be on the ground. We decided to get our rental car and head right to Buff and Rick’s place at Lake Pannsfuke…Pannasufkey…Panosofky . . . the place where they live in Florida. It didn’t take Quincy very long to warm up to them seeing as how he hasn’t seen them in 3 years. Quincy had his own room and we got him settled in for the big day on Monday – the Magic Kingdom.
We drove to Bill & Melissa’s house to carpool over to Disney. Quincy (and us) got to meet Jonathan for the first time too. What a pleasure to be around – always smiling, happy, making funny noises. He always had a smirk on his face like he knew something was funny that the rest of us didn’t understand. The Magic Kingdom (our only Disney stop on the trip) was crowded mainly due to the nice weather – it was the only warm day all week. The highlights: the people mover, getting Tigger and Pooh’s autograph, the train, the talking trash can, the race cars and of course, the ice cream.
I’m jumping right to Tuesday. We were going to hang out with Bill, Melissa and Jonathan and drive down to Plant City. If you didn’t know, Plant City is where they grow about a bazillion pounds of strawberries. We went to a popular place there where you can get huge strawberry shortcakes and strawberry anything, really. The ordering process reminded me of the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld. There was a line and before you went inside there was a board listing the offerings. They were all numbered, so you just had to find the one you wanted and order by number. The woman taking orders was gruff, none too polite and easily exasperated by any deviation from the ordering system. Some older folks behind us had trouble. I was scared for them. “No strawberries for you!!!!!”
Whoa, Wednesday already? Yup. Short-short version, remember? This was Downtown Disney day. Nothing but walking, shopping and eating. The highlight for Quincy was the LEGO store. Yowza. Poor guy almost blew a gasket when we went inside. We got a couple small items there and also picked up another Disney Bear, which he has named Teddy – which is confusing ’cause I have bear named Teddy that Quincy has commandeered and sleeps with now too. Coincidentally, my Teddy is from Florida too – the defunct Circus World.
Thursday it was us and Buff and Rick ’cause Bill and Melissa were back to work. After much debate and head banging on the wall, we decided on the Tampa Zoo. It was sunny, but windy and not very warm, but that didn’t matter. Quincy loved seeing all the different animals – especially feeding a cracker to a giraffe! Those guys are tall.
Friday was travel day from Florida to New Hampshire to Maine. It was a long day, but went well. We did use the family boarding this time and sat together. Quincy couldn’t understand why I was nervous a lot while flying. Ah, to be young and care free. The landing was horrible. It was windy, so the plane’s wings were dipping up and down – a lot. It was a hard hit on the runway with some bounce to it. I didn’t care if the gear gave out or not at this point. I was just happy to be on the ground. We meandered on back to Hampden to close out this vacation.
So, because of my laziness and other things coming up, you get the basic idea of our trip. For the Floridians that we visited, it I left out some stuff, please add it into the comments section.
The photos from this trip have been up a long time already. In case you missed them, you can find them here.
It is Lake Panasoffkee — right Buff?
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