So long, farewell Orlando
Well, it’s definitely been a while since my last blog. We arrived in Kissimmee the last week of Orlando and have loved every minute of it. The weather, the attractions and our new friends.
We had some friends from Calgary come out to play in a baseball tournament at the Wide World of Sports in mid-December. They didn’t do so well…but it was quite the experience I’m sure to play at such a park. Had a chance to hang out with Sid and Margot and catch a Cirque du Soleil show with them and go shoot some pool in Old Town in Kissimmee. Did some shopping and had lunch with Margot. It was nice chance to get to know her a little better. Unfortunately didn’t get to visit with any of the other crew…but we will some more of you in March when we’re in for a week or two in Calgary.
Next came our family. Carole and Darryl and the crew showed up on Monday the 17th. My Mom and Tom were supposed to arrive the same day but there was a storm in Toronto that their flight was cancelled. They arrived Tuesday instead. Better to have them here safe and in one piece…than not.
So never a dull moment with the family. We did so much with everyone. We had a dinner the first night at Midievil Times to celebrate my niece’s birthday. It was fun to see the look on everyone’s face to know there were no dinner utensils to eat with. :0)
From the next day forward, we did Discovery Cove and the dolphin swim, Seaworld, Busch Gardens, Magic Kingdom, lots of shopping, Universal, Islands of Adventure. There were many fast roller coasters and crazy rides that many of us did. Even Tom braved his way onto many of the coasters. I think we all had fun at the various parks and each left with liking one park over the other. We have our favorites…mostly Discovery Cove…or any of the parks that Anheiser Busch owns.
We had a really nice Christmas here in Orlando with everyone. It’s not every Christmas where you’d be wearing shorts and going for a swim in the pool. Speaking of pools, at Carole and Darryl’s rental house they had a pool in the back yard. After supper and the gifts were done…people decided that Gina needed to be dunked in the pool a little bit…well from then on it was war. Everyone got thrown in the pool…well I knew I was going to go in so I just decided to walk in rather than get dragged in (new jeans and all) my niece decided she’d change before being thrown in (smart girl). The only ones that remained dry were Mom and Tom. (and don’t think Kevin and Darryl weren’t planning for you as well) Carole and I had to put our foot down somewhere. Anyways…it was a lot of fun.
So on December 27th Mom, Tom and the older of the Kehler clan left for Winnipeg. That left Carole, Darryl, Miranda, Janessa and Renae to be here until Jan. 04. We did more of the parks with them and decided that we would stay away from the parks on New Years eve because it would be too jammed pack with wall to wall people. (We did that on Christmas day because that being Gina’s birthday as well and that’s what she wanted to do…way too many people) So we did a waterpark during the day and had a mellow night at their rental house.
A week has now gone by since everyone left and it’s been hard getting back into the swing of homework and work. It sure was great to see friends and family over the holidays. I did say to Kevin…even though the weather was nice here…I think it lacked the holiday spirit that we usually seen at home. In Calgary there are rows of houses all lit up with lights and in Orlando…not very many. The parks were all decked out but it’s not the same. I said to Kevin that if we were to spend winter in Florida again…it would have to wait till after Christmas.
Well, here’s the sad news about Florida…it’s now time to go. Here’s how the story goes, before we even left for our adventure I had called US immigration and the person on the phone told me to find an immigration office in the states and go report to them and ask them for an extension. I said, thank you very much and left it at that….well today when we went to immigration we were told we had to leave the US. Turns out we would’ve needed to go three months ago and apply for an extension and paid 340.00 per person with no guarantee that they would accept it and they wouldn’t refund you the money if you didn’t get accepted. Also, when you come into the US our passports should’ve been stamped…which they didn’t do at the border…so now we we’re kindly asked to leave. So Kevin and I went out for a bite to talk about what we were going to do…we are leaving of course…but our trip isn’t over…we just have to suffer through winter like the rest of you. :0(
We will be leaving either late Thursday evening or really early Friday morning and heading up to Manitoba. We’ll stay there for a bit, then drive back to Calgary so we can take care of some business, file our taxes, etc. and start heading east. Believe it or not but there are campgrounds open in the winter and many that will open April 1. So the trip isn’t all done…just delayed a bit. We might attempt coming back to the US to finish off the east coast…but we’ll see how much time we have left after touring the east in Canada. We’re all a little sad to leave Orlando and the warm weather…but we’re OK knowing that the trip isn’t over.
See you in the Peg’