Once again we head north

Not sure if it's the great exchange rate or a foolish sense of spontaneity, but we decided mid-morning to go to Canada.

On our way home to change clothes before we got on the road, we decided to pack some clothes and spend the night up north. Hubby got a great price on a room in the outskirts of Vancouver.

We grabbed some clothes etc, filled up the tank and headed north. Before we knew it we were crossing the border and the hotel was just a bit beyond that.

Our wait at the border

We checked in, threw our bag on the bed and headed back out.... Time to see them fishes! Vancouver Aquarium here we come!

Our cool room

more room pics

Even had a nice water feature outside

Parking was much much easier today than the last time we popped by. We did observe some protesters outside the aquarium. Three to be exact. They had signs and were yelling a bit. Not fans of aquariums apparently.

We were able to catch the tail end (no pun intended) of the beluga talk. Love the belugas! Then caught the talk about the porpoises. Really cute. Speaking of cute we also heard the sea otter talk.... Sooooo cute.

We haven't caught a keeper talk in forever and we all enjoyed the info a lot.

Now for the inside exhibits.

Jellyfish and octopus were highlights for me. No sea turtle today :(

With closing time around the corner and dinner starting to call we headed out.

Since we have room, we ordered spaghetti factory to go. Which allowed us to relax a bit more than dining at the restaurant.

After dinner we had some ipad time and got ready for bed.

Morning brought breakfast downstairs in the Holiday Inn Express breakfast area... they had a reasonable assortment of things, including a very interesting pancake machine... cool.

ipad time

We were hoping to hit the pool before checkout time... so we took a little time for our food to settle, then headed down to the pool. We weren't the only guests to have this idea. But it wasn't too crowded.

After the fun we cleaned up and checked out. We made two stops on our way out.
First to the Real Canadian Superstore....reminded me of a Super Target or the like. But they had some Joe Fresh branded things that I had been curious about, so mission accomplished.
Plus a few cadbury items... that we couldn't pass up.

Last stop before the border.... Tim Horton's, did you guess? It was surprising that I went this long without my beloved Honey Cruller... my willpower must be growing. But Yummm!!! Thank you Mr. Horton, I enjoyed that.

The border crossing was a little longer going than coming, but that isn't too surprising. It was apparently a holiday weekend up in British Columbia. We didn't notice to much in the way of crowds, but the aquarium was open longer, which worked out great for us.

Welcome home

Running (walking) with Disney - Day 11

Our last day :(
Home :)

Hubby and I woke up early to the sound of fireworks??? Oh, yeah, that's how they start the races... so we quickly realized the half marathon was starting.
At first I thought, no problem... I will just go back to sleep... HA!
So the fireworks go off for each corral... tee hee, silly me. [Editor's note: The WDW Half and Full Marathons have corrals from A-P, so it was fireworks every 5 minutes or so for an hour and a half]

Then we remembered they were live streaming the race... oh bother.. now I need to see what I am hearing. And now it's all over... I am awake and thinking of coffee.
So we grabbed a laptop and found the live stream. It was fun to watch the last half of the corrals go and now we knew when to expect the fireworks to stop.

Once everyone was off and running the rest of the family started to wake.... we took it easy and planned on breakfast in the room with some fresh things picked up from Goods to Go to supplement.

Beyond breakfast it was time to pack up and get checked out.

Sooo, Owners Locker - are you ready to hear more?
It's a big plastic purple box, It lives in Orlando at a storage facility and we can fill it with the things we don't want to carry back and forth. They great people at "Owners Locker" bring it to wherever we stay when we check in, and then come back and pick it up when we are done. Awesome!
We have known about it for years, but never felt we had a need for it.. but we changed our minds.
With hubby going out once a year for races and then the whole family coming every other year in addition to that... there are items we could leave in our locker. We didn't think it would be enough to save us a checked bag. But there are items we seem to buy every trip and then have to throw away when we leave... now we can pack them up in our purple box and have them next time - YAY!!!

And boy did we pack it! Wow, the whole trip, we kept thinking of items we wished we had and then decided... hey, lets put that in our owners locker!
Plus the things we already knew we wanted to take to leave in the locker... 'cause we never wear our Mickey ponchos at home :(  - We filled it up and dropped it off at Bell services to be picked up later that day.

Once we were packed we loaded up and headed to the Poly.
I talked hubby into one last table service meal and you never have to twist my arm to eat at the Kona Cafe. We were able to get lunch reservations, so it was easy enough.

We really didn't have plans after lunch, but we had several hours before our flight. During lunch hubby had a great idea to rent a boat and enjoy Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon... sounded perfect. After we ate, we hopped on the monorail - we got off at the Contemporary and headed to the water. Our time our in the pontoon was great fun.

After a short monorail ride back to the Poly we remembered the new Dole Whip window!!!
Gotta have one... and why not share :)

Well, that ate up our extra time, so to the airport we went.
We picked up food to eat for dinner. The flight home was uneventful... which was a nice change of pace :)

Cool plane... this one isn't ours, its headed to Canada

Running (walking) with Disney - Day 10

10K and our last EARLY morning.

This morning was very very early for Hubby. The 10K started at 5:30, which translates to leaving the room before 4 am.
The kids and I didn't follow him to cheer. We talked about it, but ultimately decided keeping kiddos happy while watching and waiting for dad might not be easy :)

Hubby had a good race and returned back to the room to shower and recover, before a Character breakfast at 9:30...  its amazing how long the morning lasts when you get up before 4 ;)

Nice bling!

We had a nice leisurely breakfast with Pooh bear and friends.
Our little lady discovered a new love of Croissants.

On a side note... on our previous visit to the MK our little lady lost her camera. It was a new camera she had purchased for herself with Christmas money. We thought she had lost it on 7 dwarfs mine train... that it might have fallen out of her purse pocket and into the seat pocket, when she put her bag in it.
The day we lost it we popped into guest services twice to see if it had been turned in.. nope. But we were given the number for the big lost and found and told to call the next day. I forgot to call - I knew they kept cameras for a while, so as long as we checked before we left to go home - if it was turned in... we could still get it back. But really what was the likelyhood of all that?
So, this morning at breakfast I remembered!!! CALL LOST AND FOUND.
After we ate I found a quiet place and made the call. And they had her camera. They asked some questions to determine if the camera she was holding was really ours... how old was the person who had taken the pictures... when I said she was 8, the cast member was pleased. Apparently you can tell by the subject matter? Also asked who might be in the pictures and what landmarks might be pictured. Once she was comfortable with it being our camera... it was labeled with our names and set in the front for pick up from the Lost and Found at the TTC.

The kids and I had plans to ride some stuff and maybe shop... hubby planned to tag along... then go get a massage.
We enjoyed the park til early afternoon. Then hubby headed out - he planned to pick up the camera and then go to his massage. The kids and I stayed a bit longer then grabbed a bus back to the room.

waiting for his favorite attraction in MK... no joke. 

Hi Ho, Hi Ho.. down the hill we go.

Meeting Elsa

Dinner tonight was pizza in the room, and it was delivered shortly after hubby returned from his massage. Good timing.

Using our new books to learn to draw characters. Forgive the unmade bed :) 

Running (walking) with Disney - Day 9

Race Day - 5K and Kids races

Today is the day I have worried over, prepared for, and over thought, for months and months. It's finally here and it's Freezing!

How on earth could I have planned for that?

38° in Florida, when just days before I was thinking I should have packed shorts.

Well 38° was when I woke up. Over the morning it warmed up to the low 40s.

Anyway. The cold weather was our main obstacle. Yes, the race started early: 6:15 am. And yes there were 10 thousand people... But the kicker for both kids was the cold. And just when you thought you were getting used to the cold.... The wind would pick up.....oh dear me. My sweet boy was fairly certain this was the worst plan we had ever had.

If you've done big race events like this you know about queuing into corrals. This was originally a concern of mine for our sensory sensitive kiddo. But today the only way to stay warm was to be packed in like sardines. And he did it. Mostly burying his head into me or dad. He even wanted an arm around him. So clearly cold trumps all.

getting into the corrals

walking toward the start line

But the race started and our corral went. And he did great. We walked with our friends and it was so nice.

Hubby and our little lady had a faster pace, Running and walking. They finished about 15 mins before us. And then met us at the finish line.

Stopping for a pic about halfway around

Woooo Hoo! Almost done! 

Somehow for the race itself, we weren't really cold. But the walk back to the car it hit us again. Bbbnrrrrrrrrrrr

Back in the room warm baths or showers followed by a second breakfast was a good way to recover.

Next event today was the kids races. And the lady was ready!

It was neat to watch and she had a good time. She did the 400 meter dash and the Mickey mile.

Pic in front of the 5K sign

with her 5K medal

View of the track - Kids Races

There she goes!!!!

Chillin at ESPN Sports 

After all the racing was complete for the day, we headed to Animal kingdom.

We had a short to do list at AK, and we were ahead of schedule.

Great animal viewing on the Safari today! 

Look! We are still on our feet!!! Help us!  

Braving Expedition Everest

We enjoyed the animals and the rides at Animal Kingdom for about 3 hours. Then it was time to eat dinner... and we were hungry. 
Pasta was calling -- to Noodles and Co we went. 

The weather was nice, but really never got warm today. So I guess this is winter in Florida?

We were heading to bed early tonight. We were up early today, but hubby is getting up earlier tomorrow to run the 10K.
Night night.

Running (walking) with Disney - Day 8

Studios day

Each day is harder to get up than the day before.... Oh dear. So eating breakfast in the room today meant my extra snoozing didn't hurt our schedule too badly.

We enjoyed morning at the Studios today. Doing two new things for our son. He resists new things, so he had a few alternate ideas for this time, but reluctantly gave in. In the end both new experiences we deemed "ok" and he might possibly do them again....some day.

Hat is coming down... so this is the last pic I will take of it.
Bye Hat!

After lunch we buzzed out to ESPN'S Wide World of Sports complex for packet pick up. Which means our race is TOMORROW!!!

Pick up went smoothly and we grabbed a few items from the expo before heading back to the room.

We were able to connect with some friends who are also out for the race. They came by our resort and hung out for a while. It was fun to see them here. And we hope to find them at the race tomorrow.

Dinner was take out from Qdoba, a familiar choice from home. And bed early, despite our neighbors' best efforts.

Sunset coming back to resort.