Weekend Warriors

The first official weekend of 2018 was spent in downtown Orlando.  Jacob's high school team had a tournament, so we tagged along to enjoy the free hotel room and a bunch of free time in a city we actually don't get to explore very often.  Friday night we drove over and watched the last half of the first game from the comfort of our warm car.  Hey, it was CRAZY cold (I'm talkin' like 40 degrees) and I would have had to pay to get all of us in, so, yeah, the car it was.  

Can I just take a moment to say how proud I am of Florida this year so far?

It has been particularly cold on more that one occasion so far this winter season.  I have already had about 4 cold weather dress days at school as well.  Well done!  So much for that stupid Almanac...

But I digress....After the game we hit up a place called Tibbey's New Orleans cafe.  I had an awesome roast beef sandwich thing? with grits and sausage, while Cindy ordered the classic chicken and waffles.  And she put down the entire thing.  And that buttery syrup is the closest thing to legal crack cocaine that probably exists on planet earth.   

Magical butter syrup, will you marry me?

The next morning Jacob headed out to the first of two more games and I decided to hit up Lake Eola and rent a swan paddle boat with the kids.  I had seen this on Groupon about two years ago and kind of tucked it away in my brain until now.  Turns out it was really fun!  The sun came out and it was actually very pleasant, as paddling a giant duck is harder than it looks.  

Luke could not get enough of it!

Here is a swan butt

"Act natural"

Chinese pagoda? Sure, why not?

We had a perfect morning on the boat and walking around and exploring Lake Eola.  It's a beautiful place and I'm glad we had time to check it out.  

Next, we met back up with the team at 4 Rivers BBQ for lunch.  Is pulled pork actually as much of a thing in other parts of the country as it is here?  I mean, here, everyone, all the time, can go for a good pulled pork sandwich.  Their version was awesome, and their deep fried okra was exceptionally crispy. 

After lunch we separated once again, but this time the kids and I had some business to take care of.  We headed over to Disney Springs.  Yes, to walk around and sight see and find pressed penny machines and hit up the Ghirardelli shop for a shake, but our first priority was to find out the fate of some very old paper Disney tickets.  DeAnne had found a few tickets without expiration dates in her things in her house in Utah and sent them to me to find out if they happened to have any days left on them, just in case, before throwing them away.  It was worth a shot, right?

It is a written rule in the Disney handbook somewhere that absolutely everything you do at any Disney-related place has to have a line of some kind.  Upon finding the welcome center where the tickets could be scanned with a machine from the 1990s, we were placed on a one hour waiting list. (It was Disney Marathon weekend, so it was a little more crowded than usual.)  Good thing there were things to do in the mean time:

Like watch this giant balloon thingy go up and scarily blow in the wind at times...

Get a 7,000 calorie shake made from 14 chocolate bars and an entire box of Little Debbies... 

See this pineapple that Luke was convinced was some sort of ride...

It did have stairs, but not for the public

Press some pennies, which included Spiderman, Antman, The S.H.I.E.L.D. logo and the Millenium Falcon.  These souvenirs are the greatest things Disney has put in their parks.  A $1.00 souvenir??  Inconceivable!  And awesome.  

This picture doesn't really help you, does it?

We also rode the little boat that takes people to their hotels, a must-do free Disney activity.  

Finally, we were summoned by text message to return to the welcome center.  After another 15 minute wait, it was finally our turn.  Out of 5 tickets, 3 from DeAnne and 2 I had here at the house, we ended up with.....drumroll......FOUR TICKETS!  Two were park hoppers and they all have no expiration.  It was seriously the shock of a lifetime!  The kids were flipping out and all I kept thinking was, I was totally going to throw those away....  Well, Happy Birthday to me!  

Congratulations Sweeney Family! You just had an awesome first weekend of 2018!  What are you going to do next???

WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!!