Disney Trip 2015 Part 1

Hello dearest friends! 

Today I wanted to share a three post story with you about my trip to Disney World earlier this week!

Note: Most pictures were taken are property of J.L. McClure Photography, which is my photography business. If they aren't my pictures, then it's noted below the photo.

So I rented a car on Tuesday morning (because mine is still not here) and spent the day driving down to my parents house in Florida! It's a 10 hour drive for anyone who is curious. It was a long day. I left around 0830 and made it home just after 1830 (6:30 pm), just in time for dinner. Once I got closer to home on US 19 I hit the rush hour traffic, which made my trip longer then expected. My brother was awesome once I got home and made some quesadilla's for dinner! 

I met the newest addition to the family: Finley. A month or so ago our Golden Retriever passed away, and our small dog Fergus was lonely. He and Lady had been friends since I deployed in 2011, and they were inseperable, despite the massive size difference. Apparently he was pretty lost, so my parents decided to rescue another smaller dog from the pound, and that's how they got Finley. He's an interesting little dog, a little spastic sometimes. It's taking a little time to get used to because we had Lady since I was in middle school, but he's alright (as long as you don't leave him with electronics or paper towels)

This photo was taken by my father and isn't my property.

There was a main purpose for this trip though, and that was for Lindsay and I to make a single day trip to Walt Disney World for the Candlelight Processional on Wednesday. When we were in high school, we used to have to participate in the Processional, so we wanted to see it from the audience point of view. It was a blast!

This is us from 2011 before I deployed to Afghanistan taken by a dear friend of ours, Silent G Photography.

We left a little bit later then we originally planned, but that is because we had to run by Joann's to get my mom her own Canon Selphy printer and then Starbucks for a Butterbeer Frappacino (Lindsay never had one.... yet another convert)

The first thing we did when we got to Walt Disney World was go in search of their military resort, Shades of Green. It caters solely to the Military and their families! We parked in their parking garage and then went inside to purchase tickets. The cool thing was that we got a 1 Day park hopper pass for much cheaper with my military discount. It was well worth it since originally we were only going to Epcot. It was also right across the street from the Polynesian Resort, where we caught the Monorail to Magic Kingdom to start our adventure.

The first thing that you see once you get off the monorail and get into the park is this gigantic tree right in the heart of Main Street USA. It's a gorgeous tree and I can't imagine how long it took them to set up and decorate. I also love how they have an American Flag flying right there as well.

The memory keeper in me warned Lindsay that we would be taking a LOT of pictures. When we entered the park, there were tons of photographers who worked for Disney that were more then willing to take some pictures for me with my own camera. Had to do the obligatory picture with the castle in the background. Poor Lindsay was being blinded, so it was a good thing that she was wearing sun glasses so she could close her eyes during the pictures. 

This is a better view of the castle as we got closer to it with less people standing in front of it. The photographer in me really needs to learn how to clone people out of pictures!

The first thing that we did was stop on Main Street for some food. We found the Baseball themed restaurant and picked up a hotdog and fries for me and some mini corn dogs for Lindsay. There were no seats so her and I propped up against a small rail fence in front of this piano. While we were eating this gentleman came out and started to play the piano. I just loved the smile I got in this picture of him playing! The reflection was perfect!

Once we ate, we decided the first thing we wanted to see was the new Beauty and the Beast castle that was built in Fantasy Land. It took us a few minutes to get there, but that's ok. This place is AWESOME!!! So what I didn't know was that they made this into a new restaurant. We didn't go inside (obviously, but we did see it from the outside)

This was another gorgeous structure that is newer to the park. So I am really not sure what story this building comes from. It might be from The first Little Mermaid movie, but I am not sure and I am not sure where my map went (yes, I kept them for my December Daily album).

From there she and I talked about how I wanted to get pictures with the characters if possible and she mentioned that Gaston liked to hang out around his Tavern, so we walked that way. I love this little statue that sits in front of the Tavern! We found Gaston but were told he was leaving and would be back at 1530, so we headed on our way to the Little Mermaid ride to kill some time.

Do you recognize these? If you've watched Tangled, they are from the city once Repunzel and Flynn get there to see the floating lanterns. I love the colors and how they popped! Gorgeous area!!!!

From there we went to The Little Mermaid ride! This was done to kill time before we went back to see Gaston. It was nice and cool in the ride and it was fun to sing along with the songs. We're both huge Disney nerds, so of course we knew all the words!

We went back and got in line to see Gaston. This guy played the character PERFECTLY and I was laughing the whole time. I got his signature and then we headed on our way.

We finished up in Tomorrow Land, looking for some Star Wars related things for Lindsay's boyfriend before moving on to the second part of our adventure! We found some awesome merchandise (which I think will be a separate post at another time) and happily made our way back to the monorail.

Of course, it's no normal "adventure" for me without my fibromyalgia kicking me in the face. Since I wasn't driving my Escape and was being rushed the morning I drove to Florida, my cane was left at the apartment in North Carolina (believe me I was kicking myself in the pants for that one). The second problem I had was since the movers took my running shoes all I had to wear were my cowboy boots and some flats. I decided the flats were going to be better for me, but they still caused me all sorts of problems. Walking was a nightmare for me, however if you live with a chronic pain disorder, you learn to just live with it and not let it stop you if possible. I dealt with this when we got to Epcot, which is part 2 of this Disney mini series! So stay tuned!