DISNEY WORLD - MAGIC KINGDOM (NOV. 12, 2009)

In spite of a nasty and cold drizzle, we were as giddy as little kids at Christmas as we walked through the portals of the Magic Kingdom this morning…
Haven’t felt that way since I don’t know when, and I know my Better Half felt the same way by the way she squeezed my hand (she does that when she’s excited)...
Too bad the weather wasn’t cooperating, but we were committed to five days of Disney Magic, so…
Got a bit wet as we walked from the parking lot to the Main Entrance, but I held my sweater over my head, and Lu had a coat on… We survived…
Coming through the Main Gate, we saw Main Street bedecked in Holiday dress…
Garlands and wreaths…
Candy cane gardens…
Happy Christmas music…
WOW!
Christmas comes early to Florida!
We got a map, and decided to discover the Magic Kingdom counter clockwise…
Please note…
I took a lot of pictures today…
Unfortunately, I had to throw out almost half of them…
Main cause: I (or something I was in) was moving too fast to get a focus (blurry), or the subject lighting screwed the camera up somehow (washout)…
I have no idea what causes what, so I take a bunch of shots, and hope for the best…
Anyway, I commented on most of the pictures, so I’m not going into any kind of detail about things in tonight’s Blog… Just gonna do a kind of recap, if you will…
After meandering through Main Street, U.S.A., we found ourselves in Adventureland, and climbing the Swiss Family Treehouse.
That was followed by a Jungle Cruise, and the long-awaited “sail” with The Pirates of the Caribbean…
We were just like kids in a candy store… Holding hands…
Ohhing and ahhing…
Nudging each other in order to focus attention to amazing things…
Bloody great, Mate, to be a kid in a grownup body…
Twists and turns took us to Frontierland, where we thought it’d be nice to take a ride on SPLASH Mountain (the name alone should’ve been a clue)…
I suppose we’ve heard about these things before, but, for some reason, we didn’t pay much attention to signs, until we were seated in a holed out log, and the darn thing began to climb, and there was a sign staring us in the face, proclaiming hazards ahead!…
My goodness…
It was exhilarating, to say the least…
We got wet (whether from the water splashing over us, as we plunged 4,325 feet to our deaths, or from natural bodily reactions, is hard to say)…
We staggered off the log…
Breath: Shallow and quick…
Body: Limp…
Mind: Mush!
And that’s probably why we meandered right over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad…
Figured we would take a slow and easy train ride for a while, just to slow our heartbeats, and give us a breather…
Should’ve seen the problem when we boarded some kind of railroad car with “LOCK-DOWN” equipment
(that’s padded steel bars which lowers automatically over your body - when you least expect it - and locks you down in such a way that the only thing moving are your eyeballs)…
Of course, we should’ve known something was up when the “car” took off into water at a pretty good clip (almost got a whiplash, but why bother with bagatelles?)
Oh… If we didn’t have any idea of what we were in for by this time, we sure should’ve when the “railroad car” hauled ass up a steep incline, and then proceeded to hurl our old bodies every which way…
If only our eyeballs could scream!
But, at least, we finally figured it out:
A ROLLERCOASTER, for crying out loud!
Haven’t been in one of those since I was frightened to within an inch of oblivion (At a Seaside, Oregon, “coaster”) the first year we were married…
That one only had five turns and dropped four an a half feet!
After the miracle (I must call it that, since we found ourselves alive after “Monster Arms” let go of us),
Lu told me she couldn’t remember much of the episode…
Probably had her eyes closed and passed out…
Lucky girl!
But I have the proof that she was with me…
I’m now the proud owner of a nice tattoo showing five very frightened fingers on my right arm…
How she got away from “Monster Arm” is anybody’s guess…
Thank goodness, things slowed down for the rest of our stay…
We visited Fantasyland and Tomorrowland…
Had hot dogs at four bucks apiece, and took in the “Presidents Show” at Liberty Square (that was awe inspiring, by the way).
Finally, we took the ferry back to the parking area…
Programmed “Jack,” who was a very good boy and got us home.
Now it’s time for bed…
Gotta get some shut-eye before tomorrow’s Disney adventure…
Here are the pictures that survived: http://cid-44d18849bf3983e9.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/DISNEY%20WORLD%20-%20MAGIC%20KINGDOME%20%5E5NOV.%2012%5EJ%202009%5E6?nl=1&uc=118&isFromRichUpload=1