Another August Adventure with a shot of Testosterone...TR Completed 2/19 About This Page:

[chezp]

Oh what a pain with Photobucket, that is so frustrating!

[lauriep]

Sorry, but not surprised, to hear Photobucket is acting up again! I don't remember all these problems before the "upgrade".

[SuperDave]

Looking forward to the TR but, sorry to hear about the Photobucket issues! That's happened to me before and has prevented me from posting an update to a TR at times. Hope it gets resolved soon!

[OhToodles!]

Darn photobucket!! Hope they get it resolved quickly!

[Kenny]

I'm sorry it's over, but I'm glad you are home safe. So, let the TR begin! I'm ready!
[emoji3]

[Cam22]

Photobucket really needs to get their act together.

[mcc0313]

So I am going to keep my fingers crossed that Photobucket will now behave for the remainder of this TR

So without further ado....our August Adventures.

August 6th - August 7th - Leading up to, Departing and Finally heading to our Happy Place

I guess you can say that they started the day before we left. I got up around 6 AM, was on the train about 7 AM hoping to get to work early and clear off my desk. As usual every possible thing was needed before I left and while I would have loved to get out earlier, our boss who oversees our group is transferring to our San Diego office, he will still be overseeing our department but more in the virtual sense with a visit here and there so they were having drinks to send him off so I stopped off at the lounge so at least I could say goodbye (since he would be gone by the time I got back).

Got home around 8 PM, of course I had not even started to pack, thankfully the girls were almost done. I get terrible anxiety before we leave, never sure if it is just the whole idea of the airport and traveling, or the worry that something will be forgotten but like clockwork by the time I got home I was stressing so packing went slowly for me. I packed, stopped, decided to head to the store, came back, packed a bit more, stressed about our plans, packed again....you get the picture.

I finally laid down around 2 AM, my brother was coming at 5 AM so I figured I would get a few hours of sleep, but I just laid there restless. My neighbor (who would be getting my mail and checking on my apartment) knows me too well. She text me around 2:10 AM and said....so you still up?

I ended up going downstairs and sitting with her in front of the building for a few minutes, thinking maybe the air would relax me. Don't know if it relaxed me or if the fact that while sitting outside I finally reached 2048 on this crazy game the girls got me addicted to on my phone. Now accomplished and knowing if I did not lay my head down for a few minutes I would be of no use tomorrow I bid goodbye to my friend and headed upstairs and I think I fell asleep around 3 AM.

So after I hit snooze once, I pulled myself out of bed around 4:15 AM, made sure I had everything we needed. I was amazingly wide awake, I think I was just so excited to finally be on vacation. The bell rang soon after and Angel's friend Alexa was arriving. Her mom came up to talk for a few minutes and soon we were heading down to meet my brother.

Jasmine's boyfriend met us downstairs and soon we were all piling into my brothers car. Hugo would be meeting us at the airport as his mom wanted to drive him. He told us not to worry as they would be there early...remember this.

We said goodbye to Alexa's mom and soon we headed off, arriving at JFK in about 20 minutes in the pre-dawn no traffic on the Belt Parkway

Hugo had text us to say that they were there but when we entered the terminal there was no Hugo. We text him again and it seemed he was in the parking area with his mom, he was heading over now. So we waited, and waited...and finally text again. Guess me saying terminal 5 over and over was not enough to stick in his brain, he ended up getting off at the wrong terminal (on the air shuttle) so while I was stressing the kids led me into the line to check in our bags figuring this would de-stress me until Hugo finally arrived.

We checked in our bags and waited and finally here comes Hugo. Angel ran over to him with his yellow DME tag and soon we headed into security. After a nice delay due to the medical bag (they had to go through the bag, test her medication, put it back through the scanner) we finally met up with Jasmine and the boys who were on another line and headed over to the café where we grabbed a few snacks and headed to our gate.

With all the delays we did not have long to wait, soon we were boarding and after a bit of confusion (as someone was sitting in our seat) we all got settled in.



I stuck my earphones in and as much as I wanted (and needed sleep) I just could not get comfortable. There is not much on TV at 7:30 AM on a Thursday, even my Food Network only had paid programming but I soon found Charmed on one channel and after two episodes I heard the captain say we would be landing.

We made our way down to the DME, one swipe of our bands and we were directed to line 6 where there was no line and a wonderful CM opening the gate and saying..."You can head to the bus right out there". Wonderful words to hear. We headed onto quite a backed bus and soon we were off, not 30 minutes after landing.

We stopped at Art of Animation and Pop Century where most of the bus cleared out and then we headed to Jambo House

The three families left on the bus (including us) were all smiles as we pulled up to our home for the next 5 nights. I was pretty excited to "be home" and we all were looking forward to seeing the boys reaction to the resort.

We walked in the doors and their faces were pretty much like this . Hugo was already taking pictures and Leeor was just standing in shock. While Angel gave Alexa a tour Jasmine and I headed over to check-in. We had done online check-in and the CM who was earning her wings was quite efficient. We had two Savannah view studios booked. Jasmine's room was ready, ours was not but our rooms were right next door so we were fine as we left our bags in their room and they said they would text us as soon as our room was ready.

We were on the Kudu trail, right next to the second bank of elevators, rooms 5301 and 5303. We headed straight up, dropped off the bags, Jasmine stepped on the balcony to take her traditional "first day photos".





Jasmine packed a day bag and soon they were bidding me fair well as they were headed to DTD and I was heading over to Kidani to meet Heather for a relaxing lunch at Sanaa. The perfect way to start the trip.

I grabbed my bag and headed out to the pathway over to Kidani. I always find this such a quick walk, while not very attractive to the eye, I mean its walking through a parking lot, but I find it is much quicker then the bus between resorts.

I had text Heather to let her know I would be there soon as with the stops at the other resorts I was a little behind schedule but she said no worries she would be waiting at the bar. I walked into Kidani and headed downstairs and soon found Heather. It was so great to see her again.

I went to check us in and we were shown to our table within seconds. Not only was having a nice adult lunch with Heather a great way to start off the trip, I was so excited to be back at Sanaa as we missed it on our last trip, plus I was starving.

I am pretty comfortable with the menu as I have eaten here before but the chef came over to discuss allergies anyway which always makes me realize why I love visiting WDW, just that extra care they give you makes a world of difference.

Heather decided to try the corn soup and I enjoyed some caffeine (I was so in need for a cold soda) while we waited for our entrees.

I ordered the sampler with Butter Chicken and Slow Cooked Short Ribs (I am so happy they were back on the menu - once Cam mentioned it in her TR I knew I had to make it back). Instead of the rice I had it with some Roasted Potatoes.



I am almost sure Heather ordered the Lamb Kefta which she said was very good.



We were pretty full so no dessert for us but we ended up talking for a bit before heading out. Then Heather was kind enough to give me a ride back over to Jambo as while we were at lunch they text me to say our room was ready. Heather for the ride.

I headed to our room where I found two of our three bags. I called down just to make sure the other bag would be up shortly. The CM was great, told me she would check and call me right back and she did almost immediately. Seems two of our bags were on a separate shuttle but would be there within the hour, no worries I was just glad to know that nothing was lost at the airport

This was the first time I was at AKL with the new white bedcovers (as they had not changed over when we were there last year) and I have to say I like it, it kind of brightened up the room.



I relaxed in the room for about 30 minutes and took some of my own balcony photos even though they are never as good as Jasmines.



I headed off to meet the kids at DTD. They had originally planned on eating at Bongos counter service but they had been starving so Jasmine said they had eaten at the Mara before leaving and they were hanging around DQ, she said they had done mostly all they had wanted so to text when I was close and they would meet me at the marketplace.

I waited maybe 10 minutes for the bus, and soon was on my way to DTD, there was a lot of construction going on so the trip was a bit slower then usual but soon I was arriving at the marketplace stop just as it started to rain

I text the kids and told them to stay put until the rain let up, did not need them getting soaked as we were planning to head over to Epcot later. I told Jasmine to meet me at Once Upon a Toy when she could get there. I wandered around and then she text me and said "mom where are you?"

I told her at Once Upon a Toy and she said they were there too so I wandered around to try to find her. She was no where to be found. Finally I text her back and said where are you?

Her response...."Near the castle". It is good to know Jasmine's directionally challenged mind is the same in Orlando as it is in NY, I said "Jasmine the castle is in the World of Disney Store" and she said "yeah the toy store"

I told her to wait where she was and I would meet her there....figured that would be the safer route. I found them quickly, the boys were wandering the Lego Store and we wandered around trying to wait out the rain. It kept raining so we wandered from store to store, finally we decided to head back to AKL first. We were planning on taking a BC bus and walk into Epcot through the International Gateway but we were unprepared for the rain and I did not want to get soaked on the way to Epcot so we figured we would head back, get some ponchos and then head over to the park.

Our first Fast Pass was for 5:25 - 6:25 PM for Spaceship Earth and it was only around 4 PM so we figured we would be ok on time. An AKL bus was waiting and soon we were back at the resort. After a quick pack up of the bags and a brief rest we headed out around 5:15 PM, and of course we just missed a bus and here we had our only long bus wait of the trip. I would have changed the Fast Pass but since we had another two leading up to the end of the park hours I really had no way of changing it....being it was Spaceship Earth I figured worse case we would ride on standby.

Up next: Would we make it to Epcot in time for our first Fast Pass of the trip?

[Dlandmom2]

Hooray! You've started your TR! I can't wait to hear all about it! I can just imagine the look on the boys' faces when they walked into AKL!

Bummer the rain interrupted your plans...hopefully you made it in time for your FP+ ressies!

Glad you had a great lunch with Heather! Sanaa looks wonderful!

[JKnott17]

You've arrived! I can only imagine the looks on the boys faces when you walked into AKL. Did they just love the savannah view? Too bad you had some rain this afternoon, but it didn't really seem to put a damper on anyting. Hope you made it in time for your SE FP!

[Hugmonster]

Great start!

[disneydani]

You have arrived! As always, your energizer bunny ways have me completely exhausted....and you haven't even made it to Epcot yet! . So glad the trip is off to a smashing start. Love Jasmine's directions.....make sure her first car is equipped with a top of the line GPS!

Danielle

[Cam22]

Sanaa sounds like a great way to start a WDW vacation and having Heather for company is always fun. Love the confusion of Once Upon a Toy or WoD. :rolf: Hope the rain moves on out.

[lauriep]

You did all this on an hour and 15 minutes of sleep?? Wonder Woman. I can only imagine how amazed the boys were at the Jambo lobby. It's a great start to your vacation!

[Kenny]

You've started and I'm here! (What Laurie said!) Great start, Meg!! Here comes Epcot... I gotta pay attention now!

[chezp]

My goodness, I can't believe how well you were able to keep going on so little sleep!