Other Barn Residents & Visitors

Lexis isn’t the only creature in the barn and while we were there, I took pictures of some of the other residents.

No barn is complete without a cat. This one has two and they are both very friendly:

Here are a couple of Lexis’s barn mates (in these pictures they look more like inmates!):

“Can I has some oats?” 

“Let me out! I’m innocent”

“A horse is a horse, of course, of course!”

“And no one can talk to a horse of course”

These are our new puppy dog friends who were there with their “mom” who was doing a little riding. They were a little shy at first, but once we assured them that we were excellent ear scratchers, they decided we were okay to hang out with.

The End

Riding Lessons

My younger Who has become quite the horse enthusiast and is now taking lessons once a week. She even found the place herself, making sure that it was affordable as well as close to home.

Lexis the Patient Mare

Lexis only looks grumpy in this picture. All the rest of the time she’s very even tempered. She’s been a great horse for Samantha to learn to ride on.

Samantha

And here is our future olympic rider doing her drills in the ring:

Whoa! The flash made Lexis look possessed!

The Ends

Pickin’ Crabs

We got a good deal on steamed crabs from someone my husband works with. It’s been a long time since I’ve picked crabs and I’m out of practice. Knowing this, I had a little cheese & cracker snack beforehand so I didn’t starve.

Here’s the bowl of crab meat that we made into crab the following night:

Yum! Yum! Nom, nom, nom!!!

New High School

The older of my two Who’s is off to high school this year. Being the absent minded mother I am, I completely lost track of the open house date, but the nice staff at the school let us drop by the following day and we were able to wander around and get acclimated.

In true field trip fashion, I brought both of my daughters plus one of their friends.

It’s a very nice school and it’s relatively new – 10 years old.

I liked the layout, architecture and the fact that the hallways were well labeled. Not having a functional navigation gene in my DNA makes it really hard for me to get around without signs (or a GPS).

Wow, are those tennis courts there past the “portable” classrooms? Is it just me or is it ironic that a school this new has already had to add onto the building? I made the mistake of calling them “temporaries” during back to school night. I was corrected. They are long term classrooms and therefore, not temporary.

I’m very pleased with the school and I’m sure both of my girls will be well taken care of there.

The Airport – Orlando

We caught our bus with no muss or fuss (although he was 10 minutes late) and got to the airport without incident.

When we checked the monitors to check our flight, our Southwest flight had been delayed 2 hours. Great. We could have had a whole two hours more of play, but instead we got to cool our heels at the airport until 10 p.m.

We made the best of it and found the food court for our section of the terminal ate a leisurely meal and talked about all the fun we had on vacation.

Eventually we wandered down the long mosaic tiled hallway to our gate:

Did I mention it was long? It was.

My smart husband bought a pack of cards and the Who-Girls and I played gin rummy while I drank Starbuck’s lattes and they sipped on their sports drinks. We also did a lot of people watching. I wish I’d gotten a picture of the little guy who was on our flight. He was around four and was wearing a NASA space uniform including the helmet. Soooo cute. We did make a fuss over him so I’m sure he felt extra special wearing his cool uniform.

Our trip back was not quite as effortless as the flight south. The weather inMarylandhad caused the delay, but BWI also had a runway under construction (repaving) so they were short of places for the planes to land. We circled for a while before we were allowed to land. The view of the city lights at night was pretty though so instead of getting annoyed about the delay, I just tried to figure out what we were flying over at any given minute.

Checking Out

Our last day was a short one because our flight was scheduled to leaveOrlandoat 8 p.m.

While we were waiting for our baggage & stuff to be handled, I took some pictures around the lobby area.

Who-Girls in the midst of Orchids:

Lobby Carpet:

Irene in Angst:

Superior Sammie:

Spectacular Floral Lobby Arrangement:

More Carpet:

So you can see we had very nice digs while we were out of town. The staff was great (though all of the costumes for Disney employees are horribly ugly). Lovely properties, ugly uniforms. I wondered if that was by design so that employees were obviously different from guests and thereby easily identifiable with the added benefit that no one in their right mind would want to steal one.

Last Day at Disney – Epcot 8/19

This was our last day inOrlando and we decided to see the rest of the park. Fast pass helped out a lot with theSpaceMountainwait.

The Land section of Epcot is especially inspiring to me and I looked forward to the educational ride that dealt with hydroponics and growing plants indoors. It makes me want to be an urban farmer when I grow up.

Here’s the car Irene picked out for herself after we waited forever to get on this ride:

Hydration break at The Land eatery:

…and some candy too, for energy, you know:

While waiting for the boat to take us to one of the parks, I got a shot of the property next to ours:

The Yacht Club

We ate dinner there one night. They’re steaks were great, but it was a really pricey joint.

 

Here I am with my very tall Who-girl Samantha (looking very up tight and not at all like I’m having a good time, but in reality, I was having a blast).

Walt Disney Studios

We spent our second to last day (and part of the day we got rained out of Typhoon Lagoon) at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

 

The girls loved Star Tours & The Tower of Terror. The whole park was very enjoyable. It was sort of hot that day, but at least it didn’t rain. At least not until later when it poured & the sky was filled with lightning. I don’t remember the weather being quite as violent when we took the older kids back in ’93.

 

We booked our dinner reservation at a buffet called Hollywood & Vine. We all enjoyed the array of food. I personally ate so much that I was in pain. I walked it off though.

Horse Enthusiast

Here is Samanth at one of the other eateries posing with her favorite type of mammal.

Epcot Random Snaps

When we were walking into the back entrance of Epcot, this bird decided to show off so I took a picture. Lesson, if you’re going to make a scene, you will wind up on the internet.

Here is just one example of the fabulous landscaping which is one of the hallmarks of all the Disney parks:

This band played in the Moracco section of the World Showcase. As you may be able to tell by the crowe, they rocked!

Here’s my favorite country: Japan! Great food & shopping!

Japan

 I think maybe Epcot is my favorite of all the parks just because there is more of a range of things to do. I definitely like all the different food options! We never did get around to trying the Moroccan food. Oh well, maybe if we save up we can go again in 2020!

 

Typhoon Lagoon

Typhoon Lagoon was fun while it lasted. We got there just before general population was allowed in so we got decent seats before the place filled up.

The girls loved the wave pool and spent a good amount of time there before we went off to do some of the water rides. We did about 3 or 4 different rides before they closed down for lightning….and then the skies opened up.

Sammie before the downpour (looking very grow up):

Since we were at a water park and were already wet, we decided to hang tight and wait it out.

So we waited…and waited…and waited.

And the rain got heavier…and heavier…and heavier.

And the lightning got closer…and closer…and closer until it was striking all around us.

Finally, we decided for our own general safety and well being, it would be best to leave, so we grabbed up all of our stuff and headed for the shuttle area. We were a miserable looking crew, but so were all the other refugees hanging out in the plastic enclosures.

Our bus back to the hotel was filled to the brim with soaked folks. The park had closed not long after we gave up so we were joined by all the other people who had to leave. The overly air-conditioned hotel was an icy assault to our already overwhelmed senses, but warm showers and lovely noms (snacks) from the fifth floor perked us right up.

Although our day at the water park was cut short, we still had a fun time. Somehow enduring the weather made us feel like we’d accomplished something. Maybe I ought to find some shirts for us saying that we survived Typhoon Lagoon!