Orlando - Chapter 1

Several months ago my husband learned he would be attending a seminar in Orlando the first week of February. Christopher and I decided to invite ourselves along since his expenses would be paid and all we had to do was pay our own airfare to go too - now that is a deal I couldn't pass up! I was really looking forward to the trip and getting a little sunshine in the middle of this very looonnnngggg winter. We didn't expect to be able to see a whole lot as Phil would be busy every day, but we could always make a quick Disney visit in the evening. Frankly just being away from home and hanging out by the pool sounded great to me! We were all packed and ready to go the weekend before with an intended departure very early on Wednesday morning....then the news hit- "The Storm of the Century" "Blizzard Warning" "24 inches of snow" etc...I'm sure you all remember the doomsday predictions. The storm was supposed to hit our area Tuesday evening about 7pm and we just knew there was no way our flight would be leaving at 6:30 Wednesday morning if these predictions came true. I was pretty bummed. Then - a glimmer of hope....we were able to find a flight that left Tuesday at 3pm. It sounded like a great solution - get us out of town a few hours before the snow hit! Except for one tiny problem...there was a layover in Chicago that would put us leaving the Windy City less than an hour before the predicted storm arrival. It was a gamble but worth it, so we booked the new flight! I cancelled my afternoon patients on Tuesday and we had the car packed and ready to go straight to the airport from work.

Midway thorough my morning I got a text from Phil that they cancelled our flight in anticipation of Chicago being closed (and nearly all the others out of our airport) . We were told the airline decided to ground all the flights as a precaution. I was pretty devastated. There wasn't much point in going if we had to wait for the storm to pass and the airports to catch up. We figured Thursday afternoon was the earliest we would get out at this point and it wouldn't be worth it for just a couple days. :o( Work offered to re-fill the rest of my schedule but I was a bit bummed and just wanted to go home and sulk (yea, very mature I know). I can't tell you how glad I am that I made that decision. Midway through my drive home I got a call from Phil that another airline out of our airport had one last flight leaving that could get us to Orlando (via Baltimore) but it was scheduled to leave at 7pm (precisely when the storm was to hit)! The airline would not even take payment for the flight yet as they were unsure that it would be leaving, but did reserve us a spot in case it did. We figured it was worth a shot, so we drove straight to the airport. There were literally three flights on the board that were still scheduled, everything else had the big red "Cancelled" alert blinking next to it. When we arrived at the airport the sky was still clear. By the time we paid for the tickets and gathered around the gate, the wind started to pick up and it started to snow. Everyone was looking pretty anxious. The flight crew came out and asked us to board quickly. They needed to de-ice the plane which felt like it took 20 minutes and as we sat there on the tarmac the wind blew harder and the snow got heavier. It was blowing so much it was difficult to even see the surroundings. I was convinced they would decide it was too dangerous and take us back. At one point the pilot walked down the isles looking out the windows at the wings! An announcement was made that this is just standard procedure, but I have never seen a pilot checking the wings from the windows of any other flight I have ever been on, have you? That really freaked me out, and I was beginning to think this was a big mistake, but they finally gave us the go ahead to take off....no turning back now! As we taxied down the runway, you could feel the plane blowing side to side -Ahhhh! After what seemed like a lifetime, at last we were airborn!! I swear there was a collective exhale from everyone on board at precisely the same time! We were quite literally the last flight out before they closed the airport.

After all that excitement (which was more than enough for me) the rest of the flight and the subsequent connection were pretty uneventful....sigh of relief!

We learned in the air that nearly every family onboard was trying to keep DisneyWorld vacation plans intact and when we reached baltimore they held our connection so nearly every person could de-board and re-board for the Orlando trip. We landed in Orlando pretty late at night and it was actually HOT! I felt like a little kid and I wanted to squeal with delight and excitement!! Yeah Orlando! By the time we caught the Magical express to our hotel and got checked in, it was nearly one o'clock in the morning! Our little man was such a trooper and took this whole crazy travel adventure in stride. Thank goodness he's a good traveler!

I knew it would be a great trip after this, but I was so excited the next day when we learned that the seminar Phil was scheduled to spend the rest of the week at was cancelled since so many of the speakers and guests were unable to fly in!! Yippee!!! Now we could enjoy the entire trip together as a family and had lots of time to spend at the "happiest place on earth"....Disney here we come!

The rest of the week was awesome and so much fun. I can't wait to go back. It is going to take me several posts to get through it all, as we really did the whirlwind tour of Orlando's greatest attractions (and I have over 1800 picture from the trip....don't worry I won't post them all)! I will try to break it up into a few smaller posts. Thanks for being patient thus far, and stay tuned for more! :o)