Father's Day Weekend in Orlando

What a great weekend it was!  It was the first Father's Day in a while, that I got to spend with some of my children!

I arrived in Orlando (actually Winter Park) shortly after 1 PM.  The girls have been dog sitting Ollie and I got to meet him before he got picked up around 4 PM.  I guess he likes the camera!

 Joe's birthday was Friday, so he and Pete were spending a couple days at Disney.  We met up with them on Friday night at Anatolia Mediterranean Restaurant in Dr. Phillips (never heard of it!).  Great food and a fun time!  Ran into thunderstorm on the way, torrential downpour, as is typical this time of year.  Joe LOVES SpongeBob SquarePants.

Some of our dishes:

Being Gabriels, on our way home, we stopped at Menchie's for some frozen yogurt.  YUMMERS!!!

On Saturday morning, I rode in with Adele and Gina.  We dropped Gina off at Hollywood Studios, and then headed over to Animal Kingdom.  Pete and Joe were meeting me there around 9 AM.

First stop:  Camp Minnie-Mickey to meet Thumper and Miss Bunny!

Bunny hugs!!!

Put your paws up!

Thumper shaking his bootay!

 Next, we headed over to The Tree of Life to see "It's Tough to be a Bug!"
[I told you Joe liked SpongeBob!]

Jambo!

Bug-eyed

Somewhere around noonish, we headed over to Hollywood Studios.

Poor Pete.  He had no idea where we were. Joe picked up a French language Guide map, so I gave Pete my English version.  I used my Portuguese one.  [As if!]

The Great Movie Ride was down when we got there, so we headed over to the Toy Story Midway Mania.  The 60 minute wait was a bit more than we were willing to wait, so we headed over to the Studio Backlot Tour.  I got a call from Gina, saying that the Ride was back up and operational, so we headed over.

 We had the most wonderful tour guide.  Here she is telling us "no flash photography" just as my flash went off.  But, she's my Gina, so she didn't yell at me!











A front row seat!

We didn't need dialog.  We had faces!

Next stop:  Star Tours!

 Joe is not crazy about "wild" rides, and he expressed that to the guide who was going to load our pod.  Joe asked him what was the best row to sit in for the not so brave.  He told us to sit in the back row, and directed us to the appropriate boarding lane.  just as the ride was starting, Joe's picture comes up on the monitor in the front, stating that he is a spy who they think may be onboard!  Needless to say, we turned him in to the proper authorities of the Empire.

We stopped for some lemonade and Joe hit paydirt.  The girl at the stand gave him a cookie because it was his birthday!

You can take the boys out of New York, but you can't take New Yawk out of da boyz.

Finally, dinner time!  We had reservations at the Prime Time Cafe for 3:15 PM.  It was P&J's first time dining there.  So home-style!

Joe's Buzz Lightyear cup.















Our waiter, Tom.  He kept yelling at Pete to take his elbows off the formica.

Echo Lake.

 Then, off to the Magic Kingdom.  Park, tram, monorail . . .

Almost had dessert, but opted just for some cool drinks.


A hamburger and fries cupcake!

 Posing in the rose garden.

Disney is building this huge expansion of Fantasy Land!  You can see the Beauty and the Beast castle taking shape.  There is also going to be a 7 Dwarf mine ride.

 Trying to out grump Grumpy.

Now, which one is Dopey?

Bonjour!

There are some pretty cool changes made to the Haunted Mansion attraction.  For starters, you have the option to walk through the cemetery before entering the mansion.

 The metal plates are interactive.  When you touch each instrument, you hear the sound of it playing.

Tickling the metal 'ivories'.

Crypt keepers.

Trying to keep the books from coming out!
There are some cool changes to the ride itself, but I'm not about to spoil it!  Suffice it to say, it has something to do with the hitchhiking ghosts!

 Adele wasn't able to join us until after 6:30 PM, so we greated her with a Dolewhip pineapple cup.  Notice the gathering clouds here.  We did a couple of rides, ending with the Peter Pan Ride.

 Because of the gathering storm clouds, and the lightning and thunder, we thought that maybe the parade at 9 PM would be cancelled.  We didn't want to get caught in any mad rush crowd to exit, and because we were ready to get a bite to eat, we made our way as quickly as we could, down Main Street and boarded the monorail to the Grand Floridian Resort.

We look right at home, don't we???

Since we were a little late for any sit down service, we headed to the counter service cafe on the lagoon side.  The food was excellent, and we got to look out the window, across the lagoon to watch the fireworks over the castle in air conditioned comfort!

A s'mores cupcake.

 Joe's "Birthday" carrot cake!

 On Sunday, Father's Day, Adele and Gina prepared dinner for me!  My request, a traditional family Sunday dinner of linguini, meatballs and sausage!

 YAY!  Delicious!!!

And it was so good!

We relaxed in the afternoon and watched "How to Train a Dragon".  I loved it!  Then we ended my stay with watching the last three episodes of season 1 of Modern Family.

And to complete the day, I got to talk with Joe and Joy and Mia on the phone!  A truly wonderful day!