[Editor's Note: Apparently, everyone was having so much fun, they forgot to take any pictures on Day Two. Since we want to have this report illustrated, we just chose random pictures to complete this page. Sorry for the inconveinence.]
Mac woke up to a beautiful
morning, with the sun rising above the Contemporary across the
way. She
ordered coffee via room service, which was bought up to the room
by a nice gentleman who's name is forgotten (and no picture was
taken as Mac had run out of film.) After he left, Mac sat out
of the balcony and drank coffee, recalled the events of the previous
night's activities, and comtemplated what was in store for the
day.
After a while, Kari showed up, with wonderful news! She had
arisen early,
went down to the front desk and after talking with a different
desk clerk
and manager, they were able to work out the room situation, and
Mac could stay in that room for the other night as planned! Mac
was right grateful, and as they both sat out on the balcony drinking
coffee Mac praised Kari for her diplomacy and perserverance in
handling the situation.
After chatting a bit, it was time for them to go on their first
adventure:
Mac and the Pacers were going to Typhoon Lagoon, a water park,
which seemed befitting given Gabriel's obsession with water. After
a monorail ride and a bit of a mix-up in communication on where
to go to get to the buses, they were finally able to find the
bus to TL. The bus ride itself was an
adventure, with Mac falling into people's laps every time the
bus took a
sharp turn. They finally arrived at Typhoon Lagoon, and the immediately
went
to the centerpiece of the park: The huge wave pool with sand beaches
and a
machine that generates eight foot waves, which are perfect for
body surfing.
The kids have never been to a real beach before, so it was fun
to watch the
children play in the water. The kids were so entralled,they played
in the
large pool for about two hours, before everyone decided to grab
a bite to
eat for lunch.
After lunch, they decided to do something relaxing, so they
went to Castaway Creek, which was riding on inner-tubes on a river
that circled the entire park. The Pacers formed a flotilla by
holding on to each other's inner-tubes, and Mac declared it to
be a Solsburian Flotilla, a key part of the future Navy of South
Solsburia. It was a great bonding
experience as everyone sang "Washing of the Water" and
"I Go Swimming".
Afterwards, everyone wanted to head back to the wave pool, but Mac and Auguste decided to try some of the water slides.
Side note: Before
Mac arrived in Orlando, Kari called and explained that she heard
English accents *everywhere* and concluded that everyone in Great
Britain was at Disney World that week (except for Gabriel, darn
it!). At
first Mac had scoffed at Kari. Kari is a speech pathologist with
an obession with all things UK, and we had always known that Kari
could pick up an English access a kilometer away. We were certain
that Kari was just "picking up" on something that was
on her mind, and therefore was singling the few accents she was
hearing as being common. However, upon arrival, Mac had to
confirm what Kari was hearing. On the bus, on the monorail, at
the hotel pool, in the restaurants, waiting in line, there was
nothing to be heard but cute little English accents. When waiting
in line to order lunch, they heard
English accents. When Mac stopped a fellow vacationer at the hotel
where the ice machine was, the guest answered in an English accent.
Waiting for the elevators at the hotel, conversations were struck
up with more English folk. It got to the point where everytime
Kari or Mac heard a British accent from somewhere nearby (which
was all the time) they would exchange knowing looks and giggle
uncontrollably.
This whole UK-schtick came to head when Mac was waiting in
line for one of
the waterslides when the lifeguard picked up her megaphone and
started
boisterously shouting greetings to the people, trying to get them
enthused
about being at Typhoon Lagoon. At one point, the lifeguard pointed
her
megaphone inches away from Mac's face and cheerfully screamed,
"AND WHERE
ARE *YOU* FROM?" "Er, Tampa," Mac replied. The
lifeguard put down her
microphone and said, <English accent> "You're just
around the corner! I had
to come all the way from England to be here!"</English
accent>
Things were going just spishy until it started to rain. This
was allright
with the Pacers, as they were about to head for the hotel anyway.
The problem was that everyone in the park wanted to head out en
masse. So the Pacers had make their way to an extremely crowded
bus to wait for a bus. Buses were supposed to run every ten minutes.
However, one didn't come until
40 minutes, and then there was too many people they had to wait
until the next bus came 20 mintues. So here were the Solsburians
two-adults, one semi-adult, and three small children, standing
in a packed crowd, in the rain for an hour. Fortunately, the Pacers,
including the children, took it
all in stride. Unfortunately, Mac Cat reacted by pouting, whining,
and sitting down on the sidewalk. At one point she threatened
to abandon the Pacers and hail a cab, saying, "I'll see you
Pacers back at the hotel!" However, Mac decided against doing
that when the Pacers threatened to revoke
their membership to the Solsbury Committee.
Anyway, they were *finally* able to make it back to the hotel.
Joe took the kids shopping, while Kari and Mac called good friend
Tony in England to ask
why was he still in the UK when everyone else was in Orlando?
Joe and the
kids came back with a princess hat for Kari so she can dress the
part of
Usenet queen. After a while, everyone decided to go to to Magic
Kingdom to
get something to eat and watch the fireworks.
Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea as there was great difficulty finding a place to eat. They finally settled on a counter service restaurant in Fantasyland. At dinner, Auguste gave us some marketing tips for the Committee (Solsbury Brand Coffee! and Peter Gabriel brand name furniture! Yeah!)
After dinner, Joe,
Mac and Auguste decided they had a roller-coaster jones. This
would be a problem as Kari doesn't do coasters (and she's in good
company...the vast majority of the friends of the Committee don't
do
coasters, either.) and the twin girls, Gracie and Riley, were
screaming scared on a ride they had gone on earlier...the Winnie-the-Pooh
ride (the problem was with the Heffalumps and Woozles). However,
after choosing a
kiddie coaster, Goofy's Barnstormer, all the kiddies decided to
give it a try. Auguste liked it so much that he was ready for
Space Mountain (alas, it will have to wait until next time) and
the girls weren't scared and even had fun, so we now have three
potential coaster-junkies in the world.
Then everyone decided to try Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Both Mac and Auguste racked up the points in this arcade-style game. Shortly afterwards, everyone made their way to Main Street for ice cream and to get a good seat for the fireworks. The impressive fireworks display turned out to be well worth the effort to fight the night parade crowds. Afterwards, the Pacers decided to take the boat to the Grand Floridian, which looked very beautiful lit up at night. The Pacers and Mac Cat went to their separate rooms. From the balcony of her room, Mac was treated to a view of the electrical water parade which consisted of several barges with a light display.