Mickey and Fay in one week

Last Saturday afternoon started our weekend getaway to Orlando. Before arriving at Disneyworld, we stopped at the Orlando outlets. We scored some great bargains, but were happy to leave the very crowded stores. The majority of people there were foreign tourists and I'm sure they were loving the prices and exchange rate! We checked into the All Star Music Resort (read: Disney's version of a cheap hotel) and decided to take the shuttle over to Disney's Boardwalk for dinner (it's supposed to look like a boardwalk at the beach, but I wasn't buying it). We ended up eating at the ESPN Zone....Bill watched the Jaguars and I watched the Red Sox on NESN....gotta love lots of commercials for Dunkin' Donuts and Bob's Discount Furniture.

Sunday we went to Disney's two water parks....so fun! One of them had a wave pool that created 6 foot waves every 90 seconds (although I could go to the beach today and find the same thing w/ this storm!). The good thing about staying on the property is that in the middle of the day when it got really sunny and hot, we caught the bus back to the hotel for lunch and to relax out of the sun. The weather was pretty mild for August and the intermittent cloud covering really helped. The next day we hit the theme parks. We had a hopper pass, so we started at 8am and visited all four parks in one day. Since we've been to the parks before, we hit only the new rides or things that we really liked (sorry Mom, I skipped "It's a Small World"). It worked out well, but we were very tired at the end of the day. It poured twice that day, but we had ponchos to stay dry; the heat at times was oppressive that day, but the second rain really cooled things down....it really didn't feel like Florida in August! The next morning we headed home, just starting to experience the outer bands of Tropical Stom Fay.....good timing! We really did have a lot of fun and were glad to get away for a few days from work, cell phones, and computers. But because we have the stupidest camera in the world, we have no pictures to share! (Hence the long blog!)

So this storm is quite annoying! The only way it could move slower is if it went backwards. I most definitely have cabin fever as I have been stuck in the house since Wednesday afternoon. It's crazy windy today and the rain has been non-stop since yesterday afternoon. It didn't look like it was going to amount to much, but last night was so loud and started to make me a little nervous....the cats were definitely afraid! We have a small tree in the front that is starting to lean and I hope that it doesn't fall victim to the storm. But compared to the people in S. Florida, we have fared pretty well (at least in our neighborhood). We lose power every once in a while, but never for more than 30 minutes. Hopefully by Sunday we will see a little sun again!

Hope all is well with everyone and that you are enjoying summer as it winds down. School starts Monday for me, so my 3-week "summer" is officially over then. But it's my last semester, so I'm happy about that!!! Bring on the last 3 classes!! :)