Fifty-three years ago, I asked a beautiful young girl to dance with me during a college mixer. Three years later, we were married. Who could have guessed that a simple question, such as "Would you like to dance?" could lead to fifty years of wonderful adventures. While we celebrated our "official" anniversary traveling through the Canadian Rockies on a train, we decided to go one step further; take our three children, our three in-law children, and our four grandchildren to Disney World for a week. Most people might say that it was supposed to be the other way around (i.e. the children should take the parents). But not us! We wanted this to be special, "For us!" With the help of a terrific "Mouse Planner," Kristine Powers, we arranged for the whole family to fly into Orlando, booked rooms at the Contemporary Resort and Bay Tower hotels, planned visits to all of the theme parks, and even set up a number of celebration dinners for all of us. What a great time! The two youngest grandchildren (ages seven and four) had never been to Disney World before, so it was wonderful to watch their reactions to everything (it brought back fantastic memories of when we brought our own children here forty-something years ago). What was even more thrilling was to watch the amazing interactions between the older grandchildren and the younger ones. They were so wonderful together (thank you Lucy and Eamon). Devin, our seven year old grandchild, was awestruck by his Jedi Training Academy experience (he had just been introduced to "Star Wars" by his father). Gabriella's special treat was to meet the Disney princesses at Cinderella's Table in the Castle. Lucy, a very talented artist in her own right, had the opportunity to eat lunch (along with her mother, also an artist) with one of Disney's "Imagineers." It turned out that this "Imagineer" had worked on Disney World's newest attraction, "The Tower of Terror." And for Eamon, dinner at a Japanese restaurant, where the chefs put on quite a show right at our table, was special. While we took a ton of pictures ourselves during the course of our week's stay, there were many professional photographers throughout all of the parks who would take great photos of us. There were also "hidden" cameras at various attractions that captured reactive photos during the rides. We had purchased the "Memory Maker" package, to which these photos were downloaded. It was well worth it.
Of all the wonderful experiences we've encountered during our nearly three year adventure,, this one was by far our most memorable. Thank you, thank you, thank you, to Madonna and Josh, to Carl and Valerie, to David and Jessica, as well as to Lucy and Eamon, and Devin and Gabriella, for making "The Happiest Place on Earth" even happier for us!
And to think, it all started with "Would you like to dance?"
RSS Feed
