The Happiest Place on Earth!

I've been so remiss in my blogging duties lately.  Life is very full these days and priorities (meaning our wonderful, delightful grandkids for the most part) keep us pretty busy, and happily so.  Well, there's nothing like a heavy duty case of bronchitis with a side of sinus infection to slow one down and give one opportunities for catching up with sedentary activities--thanks to Tony, who has imposed total bed rest this week.

This past October some of my dearest high school friends and I met for a long weekend at Disney World.  One of the group, Deb, is a member of the Disney Vacation Club and takes several trips to Disney every year.  A college professor with many commitments, she finds the Magic Kingdom her favorite place to decompress.  After our enjoyable mini reunion in Dallas/Fort Worth last year, Deb invited the same group of gals to be her guests at a beautiful suite in the Animal Kingdom.  Another high school friend who lives in Florida, Terry, met us there with his wife, Betty.  And the fun began.......

Our first day was spent at Epcot, enjoying the annual International Food and Wine Festival. It was my first time at Epcot, so of course I had to take the requisite sphere photo.

Here we are in our Florida finery.  Left to right: Deb, me, Terry (from Vermont), Bobbie (from Oklahoma), Terry, Betty.

That night we were treated to a concert by Starship.  Mickey Thomas still sounds great, and the female singer was a passable Grace Slick.  We were transported back a few years!

Later we saw some beautiful fireworks over the lake, a lovely end to a fantastic day.

The next morning we all donned our "M-E '68 Silver Foxes" t-shirts and headed for the Magic Kingdom.

Yeah, we're hot stuff!  As corny as it was to have match-y match-y shirts, we got a lot of compliments.

We stopped for a yummy lunch at the Plaza Cafe, and we didn't get kicked out for acting silly.

Well, Terry almost did!

After the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, Bobbie channeled her inner Captain Jack Sparrow.  She rocked the dreadlocks!

We had to kick some little kids off this carriage in order to grab a photo op, but they were respectful of the granny Smurfs.

Day 3 took us to Hollywood Studios.  The last time I was in Disney World our kids were 3 and 5, and there was only one theme park.  It was staggering to see how the resort had grown in 30 years.  It's still extremely well designed, authentic, and clean.

Lunch at the Brown Derby was a fantastic experience, just like dining in Hollywood.

Deb's friend Garrett joined us for lunch.  He's well known at Disney so he scored us a celebrity table!

Our table looked out over the entire restaurant.

It's hard to believe you're not in Hollywood when standing in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.

This is where we stayed......absolutely breathtaking!

The four Silver Foxes on the balcony of our suite overlooking the African Savanna.

Every morning we had coffee in the room while watching beautiful wild animals roam freely below.

The lobby of the hotel was absolutely exquisite.

      

Our last day at Disney took us back to Epcot for more festival.

   

Lunch was a lobster roll and a Samuel Adams beer sampler from the New England area.

This is for Ruby, our resident Cinderella.  I hope to be able bring all the grandkids here some day soon.  It certainly is a magical place where dreams come true!