Home Sweet Home

As I sit on the plane flying home reflecting on this incredible, wonderful, beautiful, exhausting week we’ve had I can’t help but be filled with mixed emotions. We could’ve spent so much more time at each park we visited, but I don’t think our bodies could handle any more days. We’re all exhausted – a good, satisfied exhausted, but exhausted nonetheless. Mom and Cari began the trip with laryngitis and coughing. Mom’s voice came back in a few days but she still has a congested cough. Cari hasn’t felt her best but has managed. Bob started feeling bad Wednesday, even opting out of going to Universal on Thursday and stayed behind in bed instead. He plugged along at Hollywood yesterday but is still feeling like crap this morning. I am so thankful I haven’t felt any of this so far – I’m not quite sure how I’ve managed to escape whatever this mess is living with all these sick people all week, but at least if I come down with it now I’ll be home.

We have gone hard this week – every day. No need for a gym these last seven days. I know we’ve managed to walk at least three miles a day – and most of that walking with a backpack on my shoulders that I’m afraid to guess how much it weighs and a Nikon D200 with a zoom lens hanging around my neck – I need a massage. I’m taking the rest of the weekend off. I’ll pick back up Monday … maybe. I can’t wait to get home and get caught up on the rest of my journaling and start editing photos. I managed to journal the first two or three days but the rest of the week I only made bullet point notes. I have well over 1,000 photos to sift through – and that’s with already doing a major weeding out of only so-so images. It’s going to be a challenge to pick only the best of each attraction/event to edit and print. I bought a 200-photo Disney album. Do you think I can get it down to 200 photos? Then I’ll have to go through again and choose the ones I want to use for scrabooking. I’m also ready to get back to eating normal. That was the biggest downside this last week – our food choices were pretty limited.

My top three for the week:

            Harry Potter Land and having a Butterbeer (Islands of Adventure)

            Photographing the Castle at night (Magic Kingdom)

            The Hulk roller coaster (Islands of Adventure)

Bob's top three for the week:
           The Extreme Stunt Show (Hollywood)
           The Whale Show (SeaWorld)

           Buzz Lightyear ride (Magic Kingdom)

Cari's top three for the week:
          The Hulk roller coaster (Islands of Adventure)
          Harry Potter World and having a Butterbeer (Islands of Adventure)
          Rock'n Roller Coaster (Hollywood)

Mom's top three for the week:
         (still pending...)

Home …

Dropped Mom off and picked up Peanut, stopped by Panera to pick up some lunch and it was about 1:30 by the time we got home. After eating I got a small burst of energy and managed to unpack most of my stuff before crashing. We all crashed. Bob’s still sick and crawled directly into bed – and has stayed there.