Dreams Come True

As I write this, it is 10:25pm and 81 degrees outside. Feels positively cool...I had a lovely walk this evening at sunset, taking a detour every other house through the sprinklers that people had on to water their lawns. I was grateful that some people had been a bit overzealous and were watering the road (and me) too! Apparently it will be a record high in Orlando tomorrow, as in 96 degrees. I will let you know how that works out for us, but I can already say there will be a lot of swimming done! After that we are in for a few days of thundershowers which I am already looking forward to.

Today we pottered around Orlando and saw a re-creation of an old town in downtown Kissimee. It was fun, but hot in the middle of the afternoon. We took the kids on some rides and looked in the shops. Funny thing was, I popped into a Shoe City to look for replacement sandals for Adam, whose high quality Asda sandals broke earlier today, and found that the proprietor is from Edinburgh! We had a nice chat for a few minutes--made me think about spending the next 20 years in Aberdeen like he's spent the last 20 years in Orlando!

Yesterday we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom, our first big expedition for the whole family (minus Brian, who will join us on Saturday--roll on Saturday!) As you drive into the grounds there is a massive sign overhead that says "Where Dreams Come True". I have to admit wondering internally exactly what dreams I might be expected to have, and the only one I could come up with is that we wouldn't melt and I would be able to handle Adam well. In that sense, my dreams came true and we had a lovely day, including mango shakes, a Nemo musical, lots of animals to see and a Wild Safari Ride complete with elephants and a lion. Personally, I was glad that lions only hunt at night!

One thing to note is that I obtained a disabled guest pass for Adam for the day, which basically meant a red tag to put on the stroller we rented (for 31 dollars, yikes!). This tag allowed us to bypass the regular queues for rides and go straight to the front, which really came in handy at the safari ride. But one thing I found peculiar is that in the shows, the disabled seating was at the back, so far back that I had trouble seeing, let alone Adam who doesn't focus on anything more than 10 feet in front of him. I was particularly interested in a blind girl who was sat next to us, wondering how Mr Disney can justify putting her as far away from the show as possible. Maybe he would say it's a Small World? Anyway, I'll be curious to see what the Magic Kingdom will be like, but I already know Adam is a pro and will be a fun companion no matter what, along with his brother and the rest of this motley crew.

See you soon!