Friday was a long, difficult day at work.  There was a lot of craziness going on trying to get a project finished.  I actually ended up staying an hour longer than I usually stay at work just so I could finish up my part of the project before heading home.  Once I got home, I started packing for our weekend away from home.

We didn’t actually leave the house until after 5:00, so we didn’t make it to Orlando until probably around 11:00 Friday night.  It was late.  I’d been up since 5:00 and I was tired.  We climbed into the room set up by Justin’s ex-stepmom and her husband and went to sleep.

The next morning, Justin, his mom, his sister, and I made a fairly slow start to our day.  The other half of our party (Justin’s ex-stepmom, her husband, and her father) went to visit family in the area, so the rest of us were on our own for the day.  Justin and his mom went to Target to pick up a few things (breakfast, sunscreen, etc.).  And then the four of us went to Disney World for the afternoon!

It was a blast!  We went through the Haunted Mansion, the Jungle Tour, the Swiss Family Robinson House, the Pirates of the Caribbean, and Stitch’s Great Escape.  My favorite was probably the Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor.  It’s just a comedy show done by the characters from the Monster’s Inc. movie.  But it’s so cool!  They pick people from the audience for parts of the sketch, and even though it’s completely animated, the characters REACT to the things that the audience is doing, with no visible delay.  And it’s hilarious!

I think Justin said his favorite was Splash Mountain, in a big part because of my reactions.  I’d never been on that ride before.  I don’t do roller coasters very well.  And we were in the very first row of the car.  I was absolutely TERRIFIED going down that waterfall.  And at the bottom, I was completely soaked down the side that was toward the outside of the ride – shoulders to knee.  Justin felt really sorry that I got so wet and he was surprised that I was shaking after we got to the bottom because I was so scared, but he was so glad that I was brave enough to try something that was scary for me.  And he was more than willing to give me hugs and a ridiculously expensive cappuccino to help me warm up.  And it’s funny how getting scared totally out of your wits can be so FUN!

Space Mountain was down for refurbishment and we decided not to wait in the incredibly long line for Thunder Mountain.  We were there all afternoon and a little into the evening before we decided to call it quits because we were too tired.  We went back to the room, showered, I took a bath in the Jacuzzi in our room, and then chatted with Justin’s stepmom, et alii, until about midnight when we all crashed into bed.

Sunday morning, we had to check out of our room and get moving between 8 – 8:30.  Justin’s mom and sister are staying in Orlando with the rest of the group until Thursday, and the other three are flying out on Saturday.  Justin and I had to be back for work this morning, so we threw all of our luggage in the car while Justin’s mom and sister put all their luggage into the other room with everybody else.  And then we set out for Cape Canaveral.

There, we met a gentleman who used to work in the Air Force base and who gives tours to groups of people all around the Cape.  Justin’s ex-stepmom’s father used to work at the base back in the 50s and 60s on one of the early rocket programs, the Navaho.  So we drove around to where they used to launch those missiles.  And then we drove around to see a whole lot of the other launch pads, where they launched the Gemini missions and the Apollo missions and the first satellites and oodles of others.  We got to see, from a fairly good distance, the rocket that was scheduled to go up last night at midnight.  We got to get right up close to the beast of a machine that brings the rockets from the Vertical Assembly Building over to the launch pads.  Basically, we drove all over that base and a little bit of the Kennedy Space Center without being on a tour bus and getting into a lot of places where people aren’t usually allowed to go.  It was a fascinating bit of history and I should do some research to figure out exactly what it was that I was allowed to see.  It was really mind boggling to see all of it.

After the tour, we went to a seafood place to eat a very late lunch and treat our tour guide to a meal.  We chatted and enjoyed some great company together for about an hour, when Justin realized it was already after 5:00.  We had a long drive yet to make, so we said our good-byes and set off to drive back home.

The drive home was uneventful, we made it in sometime between 10 and 11 o’clock and crashed into bed to sleep.

It was a whirlwind couple of days!  But it was an absolute blast.  We had a LOT of fun.  And we got to spend some good quality time with Justin’s family.  This was basically our Thanksgiving holiday with them so we made the most of the time that we had.  And I think we used up that time as much as we possibly could.

I don’t have any pictures because I completely failed to bring my camera.  I do have a picture on my phone of the Cinderella castle, but that’s it.  I think we’ll get some photos emailed to us from the other people who were there, though, so hopefully I’ll be able to post some eventually.

And there you go!  That was my weekend!