On Tuesday Abe and I got up early (very early–around 5am!) for an early morning swim, which was magical. Afterward, we packed, cleaned up the house, fed people breakfast and did a bunch of laundry. I like imagining the relief Airbnb hosts might feel when they see that their house is still intact and clean after our family of six departs. So I laundered a bunch of their towels, wiped down surfaces, swept, etc.
We pulled out at 10 am, and originally we were going to head to the Fairchild Botanical Gardens, but we thought we would miss the Kennedy Space Center entirely if we did, so we started driving to Orlando. (In retrospect we should have done the Gardens because the Kennedy Space Center is an all-day event, but we did not realize that.)
On the way we stopped by at a state park by the beach to picnic on our leftover salads and cookies from dinner.
After our picnic we arrived (after some wrong turns) at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, but it was already almost 4pm and the center closes at 5. We quickly realized that was not nearly enough time to cover everything and decided to return on Saturday.
Then we drove to our Disney hotel, called the Art of Imagination Resort. When we pulled in the kids’ excitement level was through the roof. Ammon and Clarissa were not physically capable of walking anymore–they ran and jumped and skipped everywhere, and the older girls were equally excited (though seemed somewhat capable of regularly-paced locomotion).
After dinner we got settled into our room, and then Abe took the kids to the hotel arcade for two hours because it was pouring rain outside. I spent that time showering and then trying to book dining for our park days. I did not realize I should have done that months ago because finding an open restaurant for dinner in Epcot and the Magic Kingdom was impossible, and all the other meals were nearly impossible. If we ever come back I hope I remember to book meals at the time I book the tickets!
Everyone came back from the arcade smiling and/or jumping for joy. Lydia was thrilled with the pictures from the picture booth she took and the other kids were so, so happy. Abe was happy because he loves arcades and somehow didn’t seem stressed at all from having managed four kids at an arcade for two hours. I was happy because I didn’t have to do that!
