Magic Kingdom and Epcot

 Orlando, FL

The obligatory selfie in front of Spaceship Earth

Disney World 2023 Starts!

Today we all packed in a Toyota Sienna Hybrid (a van we are thinking about as our next travel van) and headed to Magic Kingdom.  We are staying in a house with old and new friends from our Disney Days.  Gordon, Brenton, Alison, and Billy.  We have just met Alison and Billy and they are great.  They met Gordon while leading pub trivia.  We also have Susan with us.  She lives out here and works for Universal so she doesn't need to stay in the house with us.  

Me, Susan, Gordon, and Donna on the boat to The Magic Kingdom!

This is what we are riding only a different one going in the other direction.

We started out with lunch at Harbor House Cafe

We took the opportunity to ride the Liberty Belle Steamboat and packed in for a group shot.  From left to right, yours truly, Susan, Gordon, Brenton, Donna, Alison, and Billy.

I stepped up my crabby guest persona and complained on Facebook that we drove all the way from Washington to ride Big Thunder Mountain and it's closed.  

After getting our fill of Magic Kingdom, we took the Monorail over to Epcot for a few drinks and dinner at The Biergarten. It's a must do when you are in a big group here.

Beers as big as your head!

That's it for today.  If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.

Dinny Whorl!

 Kissimmee, FL

Donna playing darts at Cheers

Back to Florida

We left New Orleans on Thursday the 5th and blasted to Tallahassee, FL for our night.  The next morning we visited the capitol building and then went on to Stephen Foster Fold Cultural Center and State Park for the night.  Stephen Foster wrote a bunch of songs that you have probably heard in Bugs Bunny cartoons including the Official Song of Florida, "Old Folks at Home" or the Suwanee River Song.  After a night there we went on to Bill Frederick Park in the heart of Orlando.  A surprisingly nice campsite in the middle of Orlando.  Today we met Gordon, Susan, Brenton, Billy, and Alison for a week long adventure at theme parks in the Orlando area.  We met at Cheers and played darts and had a few beers while Brenton, Billy, and Alison went to The Magic Kingdom.  After Cheers we all went to Disney Springs and met there for late lunch.  Now we are all in a house in Kissimmee, FL for a week.  It will be a really nice break from our break.

Francis being The Best Boy at Cheers

Morning Coffee at Bill Frederick Park

An East Coast Sunrise

A Cuban Coffee in Gainesville, FL

The Capitol was meh...

The original capitol in front of the new skyscraper 

When we were leaving New Orleans our car wouldn't turn over so AAA came out and sold us a new battery!

That's it for this post.  We will be pretty busy so posts will probably be sporadic for a bit but hang in there.  If you missed the previous post you can find it here.