Use your head, don't lose your head!: A Sep 2019 pre-trip report + local fun. UPDATED 9/12. Mini NY Report COMPLETE

and now that I have read through, congratulations on your pregnancy. I am loving your reviews of places around Orlando. Thank you for doing them.
 
hopping aboard a little late. Enjoying your report so far and looking forward to reading more

Congratulations on your pregnancy

Thank you! You're definitely not late. The trip hasn't even started :D


I am so glad I found your TR. By next summer, I will either be moving to the greater Orlando area or splitting my time between SC/FL for work. I am in TN currently so this is a big jump for me. I am excited to read about the Orlando area and of course, Disney.

31 years old as well and it seems like (no offense) all I read about is snow birds.

I would love to connect with you when you arrive! We love living here. And I know what you mean. I'm sure it's easier to move here when you don't have to worry about work. It took me a LONG time to find a job here after my husband found his, and we didn't move for Disney, so that was a different experience for us than most people who "move to the magic."
 
and now that I have read through, congratulations on your pregnancy. I am loving your reviews of places around Orlando. Thank you for doing them.

Thanks on both counts! There's so much to do here even if you don't like Disney or theme parks in general. It's definitely the coolest place I've lived in.
 
Looks like the baby is growing well!

Thanks for the Ethiopian restaurant review. We had one near my college that I loved so I may have to convince my BF to go there when we're in Orlando.
 


Trip Update: Fastpasses, Magic Band Woes, and Costumes

We’re at less than 60 days out! When I was planning what Fastpasses we’d want, I discovered that the “upside” to being pregnant at Disney is that you don’t have to worry about getting up super early to book all the really popular rides…because you can’t ride them! So no worrying about Mine Train, Flight of Passage, Space Mountain, etc. ☹ Because of this, I haven’t been in a huge rush to make our reservations, but at this point I've made all of the ones we need.

We've got Soarin on our first full day (SO happy I can still ride that), Living with the Land, and Spaceship Earth. Second day at MK have been reserved as well. We have MNSSHP that night so I kept in mind the things we’d want to ride during the party and just reserved Jungle Cruise and Buzz Lightyear. I was going to also grab Monster’s Inc but then I found out they’ll be doing a Halloween overlay during the party, so I think we’ll see it then instead. I’m excited to experience the Pirates overlay but sad I’ll have to miss out on Space Mountain. Oh well, always next year!

For Hollywood Studios, I got Toy Story Mania, Muppet Vision, and Indiana Jones. Animal Kingdom was just Na'Vi River Journey. That's it. That's the only thing I can ride that I can imagine needing a fastpass for.

I have been trying really desperately to get the custom magic bands that you can now reserve instead of solid colored bands for hotel stays, but the system is so glitchy and the stock is so sporadic. It seems like often I’ll click on one, only to be told two seconds later it’s no longer available. I’m really hoping my luck will turn around in the next month or so, because we really don’t need more solid colors and it would be so nice to get the special ones at a discount. Any tips from people who have done this themselves?

I’m almost done with our costumes as well. I think I have pretty much all the pieces I need, just have to put some things together, like General Knowledge’s epaulets. I also just took care of my dad’s Magical Express tickets. But the list of things that need to get done is quickly winding down, just as the trip is fast approaching!
 
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Mini-TR: New York, New York! Day 0: Prepwork (Friday, August 2nd)

I can’t believe how fast this summer has flown by! DH and I just got back from our annual vacation, which we usually take at the beginning of August. This year we decided to visit my family in New York, which with the baby coming, might become an annual thing separate from a vacation somewhere else if we can afford both.

No pictures from this particular day, since it's all packing related. So you'll just have to endure my witty words instead.

Our flight to New York was at 9 am the following day, so we had to make sure we were all set the night before. I try to get my packing started super far in advance, but my husband has an infuriating habit of not packing until he gets home from work. And he works nights. Yeah.

Luckily, this time he had a nice break in the middle of his workday, so he was able to come home and get most of the packing done. For the first time ever, we’d also have a house sitter while we were away, so I took some time to make sure the house was neat and clean and important things were labeled (we have smart lights everywhere, so I went around and labeled what the different light names were. Turns out our sitter decided it was all too confusing, so he just used the regular switches, which my husband was NOT happy about).

I had been cat sitting for my friends G and T all week, but they wouldn’t be back until Sunday so our friend E would be taking over on Saturday. She lives close by so when I went out to pick up some last-minute stuff at CVS, I stopped by to see if she was home so I could give her the key. She was, and that ended up derailing me for awhile while we chatted. Always nice to hang out with a friend, but definitely took some time away that I should have spent getting ready. Oh well!

DH got home around 10:30 and finished packing. At some point, probably around 11, I went into the bedroom to try to get some sleep, but of course he had to mill about in the bedroom. So I mostly just sat in bed wide awake while he worked. But then, dear reader, then he did something egregious.

I had laid out my outfit for the next morning on my dresser so that I could minimize my getting ready time. A nice sundress and my walking sandals. DH comes into the bedroom, sees the sandals and holds them up. Then he says the words that will surely be quoted in our divorce proceedings.

“I’m gonna throw these out, k?”

He had me in a bind.

Yes, they were old sandals and what one MIGHT describe as more than a little “past their prime.” But they were comfortable and they were mine and they were the only non-dress shoes I had that would go with the dress and allow me to walk around NYC without discomfort. My only other options were sneakers (with a dress???) or my Toms, which I knew would not serve me well after a few blocks of walking.

If I said yes, throw them out, I would no longer have the shoes and would have to re-configure my whole outfit for the next day. If I said no, then he would know that I was a disgusting, old shoe-wearing hag, and he’d probably need to have me committed to a psych ward.

Reader, I grit my teeth and told him to throw out the shoes.

He assured me that New York, both city and upstate, were positively filled with stores that would sell me new, not gross sandals that I could purchase, or that he would even purchase for me if I wanted. I wasn’t sure if I believed him. I wasn’t sure I could find a pair that satisfied me the way those had for so many years. They had gotten me through so many walks around the Disney parks and other locations that required comfortable shoes that weren’t sneakers.

I felt lost. Adrift.

But I pressed on.

Eventually, around midnight, he came to bed, and I was kept awake by horrible thoughts. Would I really have time to get new sandals during this trip? Was I married to a heartless monster? WHAT WAS I GOING TO WEAR TOMORROW???

Stay tuned…
 


Hope everyone's doing well! I'm going to try to zoom through this NY mini report as my actual Disney trip is in less than two weeks! Things have been so busy here. We found out we're having a baby girl, and we're going to Nashville this weekend for a wedding. But I still wanted to share with you some highlights. I have a few detailed chapters about NY written up, and the rest will probably just be quick summaries. We had the most activity on the front end of the trip anyway.

I've been taking advantage of Magical Dining since it started on August 23rd. So far I've tried Le Coq au Vin, Bites and Bubbles, Artisan's Table, and Bulla Gastrobar. All are in or around downtown Orlando, but again, there are plenty of restaurants on or around the Disney property participating.

I also recently took my Little Sister from Big Brothers Big Sisters to the ICON Orlando (formerly the Orlando Eye). It was a'ight. Mostly we just had fun hanging out, checking out the aquarium, and going mini golfing. The ferris wheel itself was pretty dull, but she liked looking out on the skyline. For privacy reasons I won't share pictures, but I wouldn't say it's something I'd recommend anyway, unless you're in Orlando for weeks and are absolutely starved for something new to do.

In Disney trip planning news, I STILL haven't had luck getting our Magic Bands sorted. I'm going to try to call Disney today. I won't be heartbroken if we can't get the special bands this trip, but it seems silly that Disney is promoting this as a perk and making it impossible to take advantage of it.

Also, costumes are just about done. We picked The Edison for our first night dinner. Our first time there, so I'm very excited. I went to a parenting expo in Kissimmee last weekend, and I bought a ring sling for our impending offspring, which I'm really excited to use once she's here. I think it will be perfect for the parks!

Anyway, onto the NY report...

Mini NY TR Day 1 (Saturday, August 3rd): Part 1: MCO to JFK

I awoke at around 6 am and blearily got ready. Around 6:30, I nudged DH awake. My goal was to leave for the airport at 7, to make our 9 am flight to JFK. We got dressed, put last-minute toiletries in our suitcases, and put the dog in her crate. She’d be there a lot of the day as our sitter had to work until the afternoon, but once he arrived she’d have lots of attention and two new pooches to play with. She’s only about a year old and it was our first time both of us were going on a trip without her, so it was definitely a tough goodbye.

We hit the road at about 7:10. Not my preferred time, but we were doing okay. The drive to MCO from our house is about 20-30 minutes, depending on traffic and lights. Earlier in the week I had calculated if it would be cheaper to Uber to and from MCO or park in the economy lot, and since DH would be coming back a few days before me (more on that later), it amounted to about the same price. Taking Uber to the airport is easy enough, but getting one on the way back is a nightmare. There are always a million other people also trying to catch Ubers, so the wait is long and the GPS doesn’t always work right.

My only concern is that DH had never gotten the car from the economy lot by himself before, so I was worried he’d get confused or lost. The economy lot is on airport property, but is not adjacent to the terminal so you have to take a shuttle to and from, and of course remember where you parked. He’d assured me he wasn’t some “babe in the woods,” but after we got to the airport and parked (after a blissfully uneventful drive to the lot), he recorded a video of me explaining how to get back to the car while we waited for the shuttle to the terminal, just to be on the safe side!

We were cutting it a little close and I was worried there would be a long line to check in at the Jetblue counter, but there wasn’t. They had kiosks so we found an empty one and checked in. We’d booked our tickets kind of last minute, like only a couple weeks before, so there hadn’t been any seats together when I checked, at least not in the regular sections. My husband doesn’t like sitting next to strangers (don’t blame him, but he has a particular aversion), and asked me how much it would be to upgrade to the Even More Legroom seats (Jetblue’s version of first class) which still had plenty of seats together. It was $40 per person. I’m pretty stingy on things like this but to DH, it was worth it, so he pulled out his card and said, “Let’s do it.”

We paid for the upgrade, printed our tickets, and brought our bags to an open agent. MCO doesn’t have a first class security line (at least not that I’ve noticed) but this morning the lines were unusually short. When we first entered, the line to get our ID’s checked was moving slowly, but a TSA agent pointed to some switchbacks and said if we were willing to walk a little that way, we would have a shorter wait. I didn’t hear him well but DH did, so we took off. An older couple followed us and at several points the wife mentioned, “I don’t know what’s going on but I’m following you guys because you look like you know what you’re doing!” Always a little nerve-wracking to hear. Lady, we’re not responsible if you miss your flight! The agent was right though; the line was quicker. But the lady behind us kept touching DH’s back because at first, he had an old luggage sticker on it for some reason, but then she kept patting it like, “Didn’t I do a good job telling you about that sticker?” Remember how I said DH hates sitting next to strangers? Yeah, he likes getting touched by them even less. He was good-natured about it though, but I could tell from his eyes he was thinking, “When do I get to be away from this crazy lady?”

Soon enough, we were through security, and we took the lovely fake-o-rail to our terminal. We were hungry for some breakfast, and DH wanted juice. There was a bakery counter that had bagels, but not the juice DH wanted, so I stood in line to get the bagels and he went to the Hudson News to get drinks. He ended up getting a bottle of orange juice and two GIGANTIC bottles of water, with the reasoning that we could each have a bottle, though he realized later that since they were so huge we could have just split one. We decided to split one now and assumed we’d drink the other one at another point during the trip. (Spoiler alert: We didn’t).

After getting breakfast, we stopped for a pee break and made it to the gate just as our plane was boarding. Since we’d upgraded, we were in group 1 and group 3 was already boarding, so we hopped in line and boarded.

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We settled into our seats and took an obligatory plane selfie. Forgive my splotchy face. Since we’d left so early I’d decided to not put on makeup until we got there.

Let me also just say, really the only advantage of these seats was that we got to sit together, and they had more legroom. And I don’t know if you realized this from pictures of me, but I am short. Like just over five feet. Barely. So the extra legroom was not an advantage to me. In fact, it made it harder for me to reach my things under the seat in front of me. But oh well. At least I wasn’t squished between two strangers.

I texted my dad to let him know we were on the plane about to be on our way. Originally, the plan was to fly into Albany where he lives and spend our whole trip there, but as we were booking we found out two things. First, the flights into Albany were really, really expensive (no surprise, since we booked so late). And second, he was actually going to be in NYC that Saturday and Sunday for a dental conference. So it seemed to make more sense to fly into much cheaper JFK, and give ourselves an excuse to spend some time in NYC. We’d only be there for the one night, and then we’d go upstate the next day.

The flight took off and we were on our way. I had hoped to take advantage of Jetblue’s free TV, especially when I saw Jurassic Park playing on one of the channels (the original!). But when I plugged in my headphones, the sound was all garbled. I’m not sure if it was my headphones or the TV itself, but I decided not to subject myself to that. So I switched to my podcasts on my iPhone until I started to doze off, then slept the rest of the way, probably for about 90 minutes. DH I think slept the majority of the flight.

We landed around 11 am and made our way to baggage claim. While we waited for our bags, I took out my phone to study the public transport routes to our hotel. My plan had been for us to take the subway instead of a cab or Uber. I figured, with smart phones, it’s not that hard, right? And it would be so much cheaper, and not THAT much faster. But as soon as I started taking a closer look at the routes, I got cold feet. We’d have to transfer SO many times, and there were several routes we could take, so if we picked one but then missed a train on the way, we could be delayed by a half hour or more. DH had left it up to me what I wanted to do, and I relented and told him I thought we should just suck it up and take a taxi. So once we had our bags, we followed the signs to get a cab.

Stay tuned to hear about our cab ride, and the rest of our day in NYC!
 
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I FINALLY GOT A CUSTOM MAGIC BAND. That was such an ordeal. There were so many I saw that I wanted over the last couple months of trying, but this was the first time I didn't get some kind of error message when I clicked on it or tried to check out. I ended up getting one with Figment. Too late now to get it mailed before the trip, but that's okay since we have plenty of bands to take. We'll pick it up at the front desk instead. My dad didn't like any of the custom options so I just got him a solid colored one.

Anyway, trying to power through this report. When we last left off, we were about to get a taxi from JFK to our hotel in the Flatiron district...

Mini NY TR Day 1 (Saturday, August 3rd): Part 2: Our day in NYC

The good news was there was no line! The taxi area had a bunch of switchbacks that made it seem like they often had long lines, so I was glad we were able to just get right into a cab. The bad news was our driver didn’t seem to understand us at all. We were staying in the Flatiron district, on the corner of Lexington and 23rd, and for some reason he kept saying, “Yes, 2nd and 23rd,” and I don’t think 2nd sounds anything like Lexington, but I dunno. There was a short period of time that we were nervous that we’d end up blocks and blocks from where we needed to be, but eventually I firmly corrected him until he repeated the right street name back to me, and I also looked at Google and found out 2nd avenue was only 2 blocks away from Lexington anyway, so if for some reason he still dropped us off at 2nd and 23rd, we wouldn’t have far to walk.

It was a LONG ride, about 45 minutes. I don’t know if JFK is the closest airport to fly into if you’re going to Manhattan, but it was definitely the cheapest option for us. When we finally got to our street, we had to further direct the driver where to drop us off, and had to tell him to stop several times before he did. He mentioned that there was going to be a parade on our street that day at three, so we were looking forward to that as much as we were looking forward to getting out of his cab.

With taxes and tip, the fare was about $60. Way, WAY more expensive than taking public transportation, but despite the confusion on the part of our driver I thought it was still worth it not to lug our stuff on several different subway lines and try to figure out our way around them. I’m sure we would have looked like dumb tourists and who knows what could have happened to us.

We were spending the night at the Freehand hotel, and as soon as we pulled up I knew I was going to love this place. The vibe was super chill and the staff were all friendly. We loved the aesthetic of modern meets art deco.

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We went to the front desk and were told our room wasn’t ready yet. Not surprising since it was only about noon at this point. We had bell services hold our bags and went off in search of food. I took a look at Yelp and found a small ramen place just a block over from our hotel. Perfect! We made our way there.

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This place was really and truly tiny. I got the impression they mostly cater to takeout or delivery orders. They had about four tables but they were all set up very cute. Before our food arrived I intended to go to the bathroom, but the restaurant didn’t have one! I had to run back to the hotel and use their bathroom and then run back to the restaurant. By the time I got back our food had arrived.

The menu was small, only a couple of different types of ramen and none of them super appealed to me, especially on a hot day like today. I ordered the beef over rice with braised bok choy. It’s similar to gyudon, maybe the same thing, which is another dish I like to get at Sapporo Ramen.

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I don’t normally like bok choy but I decided to make myself eat it since I really need to get more vegetables whenever possible. To my surprise it was really good! Must have been the way they cooked it. I gobbled it down.

DH got what was called vegetable ramen, but it was cooked in a pork broth so it just didn’t have chunks of meat in it I guess, lol. He had them make it spicy and really seemed to like it.

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While we were eating my dad called to let us know that he was on a break for lunch from the conference and asked if we could all eat together. I let him know we were already dining but he was welcome to join us. He wasn’t into ramen but said he’d find a close place that he and his dental partner would like and we could come say hi. They ended up at a Thai place across the street, so after we finished up, we went back to the hotel so DH could use the restroom, then went to greet my dad.

I hadn’t seen him since our trip together back in February, so it was definitely a lovely reunion. He asked us about our plans for the day, and we said we had tickets to a show tonight but other than that no plans, so we could possibly get together for dinner beforehand, depending on when his conference got out. He asked about our plans for the afternoon and started making suggestions of museums and neighborhoods to check out. I looked over at DH and could tell he was fading fast. The lack of sleep was getting to him, and I wasn’t far behind. Luckily, after a few minutes, we got an email from the Freehand that our room was ready, so we excused ourselves and my dad asked us to think about what we’d like to do for dinner. Note this. This is a trend that will come up again.

We went back to the hotel, got our keys, room number, and bags, and headed up to the fourteenth floor.

It was a small room, pretty par for the course for an NYC hotel, and the view was of the wall of the building next door. But well decorated and very comfy.

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I had felt this internal pressure to make sure we got as much accomplished as possible that day. After all, we were only here for one night. But the need for sleep overcame DH pretty quickly, and then it did the same for me. We ended up napping for about two hours, and it ended up being just what we needed.

We awoke around 3:30 and remembered the cab driver talking about a parade at 3 pm. I went downstairs to see if anything was going on, but saw no signs of any parade. So I went back up and we decided since at this point we only had a couple hours until my dad got out of his conference, we would just walk around and check out the sights.

We went back down together and decided to go to Union Square Park. As we were heading that way, we noted there were definitely no signs that a parade had happened or would be happening any time soon, either on our street or the one over. So, not sure what our driver was talking about. Oh well!

During our walk, I asked DH to check in with our dog sitter, who sent us this sweet pic of our pooch. Missed her so much!

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It was a lot hotter that day than we anticipated. I ended up in leggings and a t-shirt, thinking that coming from Florida, it would be cool enough, but we both agreed we were very warm. Union Square was lovely. There was a farmer’s market going on, so we checked that out a bit.

After we felt we’d seen all of the park that we wanted, DH looked for other places we could go, and saw another park called Gramercy Park that was very close by. It sounded familiar to me, so off we went.

Those of you familiar with Gramercy Park will probably be laughing at us right now. We had almost completely circled the entire park before we realized it’s not open to the public. I saw the fence but had assumed there was some gate somewhere we could get through. As soon as we saw a real estate agent enter the park through a locked gate with a very fancy-looking key, we realized we could look at Gramercy Park from the outside, but unfortunately not enter. Boo!

So next we headed to Madison Square Park, which was cool. There was an interesting and interactive art exhibit going on.

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We walked around a bit and then headed back to the hotel to freshen up for dinner and the show.

My dad started texting asking what we wanted to do for dinner. We had no idea. Nothing stood out on Yelp, so finally I suggested we just meet downstairs and figure it out together. Our show started at about 8, and by now it was almost 5, so we had to think fast.

Dad really wanted us to walk to Times Square, and we had to convince him we just didn’t have the time for that (which was a lot harder than it should have been!). So we grabbed a taxi. By now we had said Italian sounded good, and for some reason Dad decided he had his heart set on Northern Italian food, but both of us were getting carsick trying to find a restaurant near the theater that specifically served that type of cuisine. When he gets an idea like that in his head, sometimes it’s hard to shake. Finally, I found an Italian restaurant near the theater and was able to convince him that it would be perfectly adequate. We had the taxi drop us off about a block from Times Square, and walked to it.

Unfortunately, when we arrived, we found out the wait would be at least two hours, well after we would already have to be at the show. By now DH was getting tired of walking around and having to decide things, and frankly so was I, so I suggested that we figure out where the theater was and then just find a place close by. If we couldn’t find an option with a short enough wait, there were a bunch of food stands in the middle of Times Square we could grab something from. But we preferred to be able to sit down and be waited on if possible.

Fortunately, right next to the theater was a Junior’s, which is one of my dad’s favorite places. The one he went to in Brooklyn as a kid has since closed down, but he still loves them. It was crowded, but we were told the wait would only be about 20 minutes, so we put our name in.

Only DH and I had tickets to the show, but my dad really wanted to see it. When we had first purchased our tickets, he had said he thought they were too expensive, but now he was kind of regretting that. So while we waited to get our text about our table at Junior’s, we popped over to the discount ticket stand to see if any were available. We were told that the stand does not sell tickets to that particular show, and that my dad would have to go directly to the theater box office. He figured that would be too much hassle, so after DH grabbed a beer, we decided to go back to the restaurant and wait for our table.

Not long after we returned, we were seated. Junior’s is a Jewish-style deli chain, best known for their cheesecake (which sadly we did not get). I love Jewish delis and have never really found a good one living in Florida, so I was really excited to eat here.

The restaurant was so loud and crowded, but we were seated in a nice little alcove that was Brooklyn Dodgers themed. It was pretty quiet compared to the rest of the restaurant, and our waiter was nice and attentive.

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I ordered the open faced turkey sandwich. It was really, really good, but so huge. By the end I felt like it looked that I hadn’t made a dent in it, but I promise I ate a really good chunk of it.

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DH got a sandwich called, “Something Different,” which was a brisket sandwich that had two potato pancakes instead of bread. It, too, was huge, and he couldn’t finish it all!

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My dad got some kind of pastrami sliders, I think.

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We also asked for pickles to be brought to the table. My dad and I are huge pickle fiends. There were regular cucumber pickles, but also picked vegetables like beets, which I could have eaten a whole bucket of.

After dinner, we walked over to the bag check line to get into the theater. We gave my dad one last chance to come in with us and try to buy tickets, but he declined, and we agreed to meet after the show.

We were seeing To Kill a Mockingbird! My husband and I had seen an interview with Jeff Daniels (who plays Atticus Finch) about it on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and ever since then he’d been itching to see it. The last time we came to NYC I picked the show. It was Aladdin, and even I had to admit it wasn’t very good. So this time I told him we could see whatever he wanted, and this was what he picked.

It was at the Shubert theater, which is pretty small as far as Broadway venues go (I saw Spamalot here about 13 years ago). We were on the Mezzanine but still had an excellent view of the stage, made even better by the fact that the two seats directly in front of us were empty, and remained that way throughout the performance. Still, most seats were filled. It was a popular show!


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The performance was incredible. If you have a chance to see it, do it. Aaron Sorkin is the writer so it’s a very well-paced show with excellent dialog. I was a little wary of the fact that the actors were all adults, including the ones who played the kids, but they did an excellent job without seeming like caricatures.

At one point during the performance, they had to briefly stop for a medical emergency. We didn’t see or hear anyone in distress, so it must have been in the orchestra below us or the balcony above us. It was over quickly and the play resumed, but it was definitely a little scary for a second!

After the show we texted my dad and he said he was heading our way, and asked to meet us a few blocks down from the theater. By now it was close to 11 but since we’d had to take a taxi to Times Square, we were okay with walking back.

We decided to get ice cream at a place that was about to close, but there were still plenty of people in there. I can’t remember what my dad or DH got, but I picked out a scoop of Earl Gray flavored ice cream. I love Earl Gray and this was delicious!

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While we were getting our ice cream, though, the sky opened up outside and it started to absolutely pour. By now the ice cream shop had pretty much officially closed, but the staff were nice enough not to kick us out while we finished our treats. After we did, though, it was pretty clear they wanted us to leave so we went outside and took shelter under an awning, trying to figure out what to do.

There was a venue across the street that looked like a restaurant or bar, and it was definitely still very much open. I suggested we hang out there until the rain stopped or let up. As soon as the crosswalk would let us, we dashed over there and went inside.

Sadly I can’t remember the name of the place, but it was very nice. We stayed there for about an hour. Dad and DH got several drinks, and I nursed a very good non-alcoholic mojito. After that, we went back to the hotel, but decided we wanted to check out the rooftop bar. At this point it was after midnight, and actually my dad’s birthday. We had to wait in a short line to get to the bar, but when the bouncer scanned our ID’s, it actually played “Happy Birthday to You” when it scanned my dad’s! I’d never heard of that happening before.

We didn’t end up getting any drinks at the rooftop bar, but admired the skyline for a bit, and then finally decided to call it a night. DH and I fell asleep a little after 2 am.
 
I enjoy your Florida updates. Congrats on your baby girl!

It's actually a little closer to fly into La Guardia but it usually is more expensive than JFK. I always weigh the cost of the taxi to determine if it's worth it for cheaper at JFK. I SO wanted to see To Kill a Mockingbird. I go to NYC several times a year but you just can't afford to see them all!!
 
I enjoy your Florida updates. Congrats on your baby girl!

It's actually a little closer to fly into La Guardia but it usually is more expensive than JFK. I always weigh the cost of the taxi to determine if it's worth it for cheaper at JFK. I SO wanted to see To Kill a Mockingbird. I go to NYC several times a year but you just can't afford to see them all!!

Thank you! Yeah, even as a kid growing up in upstate NY we hardly ever got down to see shows. It's expensive. I hope we get to go more often than once every few years in the future.
 
Mini NY Trip Report Day 2: August 4th

We let ourselves sleep in, but around 10 I got dressed and headed downstairs to buy a tote bag from the gift shop. My dad had agreed to bring our luggage back upstate with him, but DH and I were taking the train since we preferred to travel that way and didn’t want to be crammed in a car with my dad and the other dentist. I wanted a tote bag to carry around the few things I’d want to have with me on the train.

The gift shop had one with an illustration of the hotel on it. It was a bit pricey, but still the perfect souvenir.

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My mom also called me when I was down in the lobby to confirm she could pick DH and me up at the train station in Schenectady, and we chatted a bit while I was downstairs since I knew DH wouldn’t quite be up yet.

Then I went back up to the room, and DH and I got ready and were out of the room around 11, which I assumed was the checkout time (it was actually 12, but that wasn’t posted anywhere obvious. Oh well).

We went to the hotel café for some light breakfast.


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My handsome man by the window!

I got the yogurt with stewed strawberries, and DH ordered a fruit cup, but instead of the fruit they brought him granola. He was cool with it, and so was I, since it meant I could steal the granola to put in my yogurt.

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The café was really cute and convenient, but pretty expensive even for an NYC joint. After we settled the bill, we went around the corner to my dad’s hotel to drop off our luggage. He’d made arrangements for us to be able to do so the day before, so that he wouldn’t have to go to our hotel to get our bags, since we were leaving before him.

We decided to walk around some more while we waited for my dad to be done with his conference for lunch. I thought it would be a good idea to meet him there, and I remembered him saying the conference was at New York University, so I google mapped it and it was about a 20 minute walk from us, about a mile. We started making our way there, stopping in a couple of cute-looking thrift shops on the way.


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Saw this cool mural outside of an old drug store.

But at some point, I had a realization. He’d said the conference was just a block from his hotel, so it didn’t make sense that we were heading so far away. Sure enough, I punched the NYU School of Dentistry into my phone, and it was a completely different building from the main campus, just a block away from where we’d started. D’oh! DH was a little annoyed at me, but it wasn’t like we had anything more productive planned for our time. We started moseying back, and spent some time chilling in a little park and admiring the dogs (we do that a lot). We ended up getting to the dentistry school just as they were letting the conference out for lunch, so we met up with my dad and the other dentist, and went to get some lunch.

We ended up at a Chipotle-like Mediterranean place. It was pretty good, and the prices was great! DH and I weren’t starving since breakfast hadn’t been too long before and we knew we’d get a nice meal when my mom picked us up in Schenectady, so we each got a small pita with meat, spreads, and veggies. Very satisfying, and we paid like $4.50 each. They also had really taste lemonades and iced teas.

After that we walked a bit, making our way towards Penn Station. We passed a Pakistani street festival, and the smell of the authentic food made DH and I wish we’d held out and just gotten food there, but we had no way of knowing we were going to come across that. Not too long after though, my dad and his colleague realized they needed to get back to the conference, so we parted ways. After they were gone, DH and I passed a building with this Holocaust memorial.

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Hard to see all the writing because of the way the sun was hitting it, but it’s an aerial view of one of the concentration camps.

We walked to Penn Station relatively quickly, and got in line for our train, which was already pretty long. Soon enough though we were boarding, and on our way to my home town, Schenectady!

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Happy train selfie!

This was our second time taking the train. It’s a really nice ride along the Hudson River. DH spent the time playing games on his iPad, and I worked on a cross-stitch project for our nursery. The only really eventful thing was I had to get up like every 30 minutes to pee.

We arrived in Schenectady in early evening, and shortly after we got off the train, my mom pulled up and picked us up.

For dinner, we went to a place called The Lighthouse, which overlooked the water. The food was good, but the service was pretty mediocre. I got seafood risotto, and Mom and DH both got lobster rolls. It was a really nice and peaceful spot to eat and catch up.

One important note: Remember my love of pickles? My mom’s roll came with a pickle, which she didn’t eat. When the waiter came by to clear her plate, I realized she’d left her pickle on it and immediately snatched it. Can’t let a pickle go to waste! My mom turned to the waiter and said, “Sorry, she’s pregnant.” Which really insulted me, because I am well known for never letting a pickle go to waste, pregnant or not!

After dinner Mom dropped us off at my dad’s house, where we were staying for the rest of our trip. He’d just returned home when we arrived, so we all caught up, and then my mom left. All in all, not bad for another travel day!
 
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One week left!!! I can't believe it. Can't wait to kick back for a few days. In the meantime, here's more of my NY report...

Mini NY Trip Report Day 3: August 5th

Today we were going to Saratoga Springs, a place I’d always wanted to show DH. It was one of my favorite places to visit when I was a kid, and I even spent a couple of years in private school there (didn’t like the school, still loved Saratoga). Growing up near here is pretty much the reason I’m not enamored by the Saratoga Springs Resort at Disney; the real thing is much cooler.

It’s about a 40 minute drive from my dad’s house. We started our journey at Saratoga Springs State Park, ready to do some light hiking. We found a parking lot with a trailhead and decided to just start walking. My husband took most of the pictures today so I don't really have many to show, but it's an absolutely stunning place. Google it if you have a moment! (You guys are lucky he's not coming with me to Disney because that means I'll actually be motivated to take my own pics!)

(Side note: Shortly after I woke up this morning, I got a voicemail from my Dr’s office saying some really important test results had come in regarding our baby. I called, but the machine only let me leave a voicemail. So the whole time we drove up to Saratoga and to the park, I was anxiously awaiting a call. Then when we parked, I saw I had MISSED a call from them. Thanks, bad mountain signal. So I called back, again left a message, and got ANOTHER message back a couple hours later. Finally I just told the machine I wanted to make an appointment so it would send me to the front desk, and I told them I didn’t care if I had to wait on hold, I wanted to speak to someone right away. When I finally got someone, they told me the test results had come back normal. Of course a huge relief, but such a nerve-wracking experience! I wished they could have left that info in a voicemail or given me an easier way to get a hold of someone and not play phone tag. Little frustrations like this are why I ended up switching doctors after we got back to Florida).

We stopped at one of the natural mineral springs Saratoga is famous for and tried it. I’d done this a few times as a kid, but not since then. It tasted SUPER NASTY to me. Like rotten, carbonated egg water. DH and dad didn’t mind too much, but both elected not to fill their water bottles, of course.

We did a nice little hike for about an hour and ended up looping back to where we started, which was fine. We also climbed on a rock with a spring shooting out of it. It didn’t look like we were supposed to, but we also didn’t see a sign that said not to, so that was what we agreed to tell the park staff if we got caught XD

After that we stopped for a water break and took a look at this helpful info banner.


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A park employee came out and answered some questions we had about how the springs worked. She also mentioned that people weren’t allowed on the giant rock island, and we sheepishly admitted that we had climbed it because we hadn’t seen a sign. She laughed and said it happened all the time, but she did wish the park would put up some signs.

After that we went to get some lunch in downtown Saratoga Springs and do some exploring. We started out in a used bookshop I visited a few times as a kid. It used to be a bank, and some of the rooms are former vaults. One room has incredibly old books that date back as far as the 18th century. Really awesome if you ever have a chance to check it out.

We walked around a bit a found a restaurant to eat at. I can’t remember the name but I know it used to be a circus-themed restaurant that I’d eaten at before, which I didn’t realize until we sat down and I recognized the layout. It was just a general American restaurant now, but the food was really good. I had the reuben and DH and dad both ordered the fried chicken sandwich.

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Another noteworthy place we stopped in was a store that only sold infused olive oil and vinegars. They had hundreds of types of each and encouraged people to try samples, with suggestions of which combos of oils and vinegars to try. No pictures, but again, you gotta try it if you’re ever in Saratoga.

Our last stop of the day was Congress Park, which is a sprawling park with lots of sculptures and Greek statue replicas. It’s also where the famous carousel lives. Since I was bad and didn’t take photos, here are some I stole from the internet:

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The famous carousel, now indoors!

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My favorite sculpture, the spitting fountains.

I did, however, take pictures of cute ducks. Because I have priorities.


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After that, we drove back to my dad’s. My uncle was also visiting and arrived shortly after us, and my sister and her roommate also came over for dinner. We had a nice, uneventful evening!
 
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Mini NY Trip Report Remaining Days

From Tuesday onward, the trip was pretty uneventful, so I’ll just summarize them in one post.

On Tuesday my dad had to work so DH, my uncle, and my sister hung out and went to the movies. We saw The Lion King, which was pretty meh.

On Wednesday, DH went home. He’d taken the full week off but wanted to spend part of it just chilling alone. We had a bit of a panic in the morning when one of his flights got cancelled, but we were able to rebook on a slightly earlier flight that was actually direct, so that worked out well.

After he left I went back to work for the remainder of Wednesday and all of Thursday and Friday. I work remotely for my job and since DH had left and my dad had to work it seemed silly to take the extra PTO days when I’d just be sitting around anyway. Work was uneventful for those days!

At one point my mom took me shopping. My suitcase was absolutely falling apart so she wanted to buy me a new one. I really loved the one we picked. Very sturdy. Here's the old suitcase:

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And the shiny new one:

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BUT I did not get sandals while I was in NY. We tried, really and truly, but I didn’t like any of the options I saw.

Friday night my dad and I went to see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the newest Tarantino movie. I really liked it. It’s gotten some criticism that I think is worth considering, but overall I thought it was very well done and gave me a lot to think about regarding filmmaking and life in general in that era (late 1960’s).

I also want to show off my dad’s house a bit, so I took these pictures before I left. This is actually the house I grew up in, but he’s done a lot of renovations since I moved out and made it into his own personal oasis.

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Cabinets of curiosities

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A massage chair that adjusts to your height. Very handy as our family is very short.

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Sunroom addition

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Backyard

Saturday I flew out early afternoon. I got a text that my flight had been delayed so we kind of dilly dallied getting to the airport, and that was a bad decision. The flight got un-delayed and I almost missed it. Very stressful ride to the airport. Served as an important lesson: Don’t get to the airport late, no matter what the texts tell you!

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Obligatory plane selfie

I got home, DH picked me up, it was nice to be back with him and our sweet doggo. Then on Sunday I FINALLY got the sandals I’d needed.

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Aren't they cute?

Just in time too, because on Sunday night we drove out to the east coast to meet our friends for bioluminescent kayaking!

If you’ve never done this, you absolutely need to take the time to do this on a future Florida visit, or go right now if you’re a local. We had done this before, but in a different season where different animals (comb jellies) were active. This was dinoflaggelate season, and we thought nothing could top the jellies, but we were wrong.

The entire lagoon was just lit up with these algae. Every time you put your oar or hand in the water you could see the blueish green glow. The kayaks were clear too, so you could see them as your boat moved along the water. There were also a lot of jumping fish you could see zig zagging along, and many boats, including ours, got hit with them. A fish jumped right into the boat! I was super freaked out at first but our guide was able to help us get them out.

It would have been difficult to get good pictures of the outing with our cell phones and we didn’t want to risk taking them on the kayak anyway, so enjoy these professional pics I stole from the internet.

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After that, we drove home and prepared to end our glorious vacation and return to the real world. But for me, it would be just over a month before Disney!
 
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Alright friends, we are t-minus two days away from our trip! Bags almost packed, costumes complete, Fastpasses and dining all booked. I still have to go grocery shopping and get a manicure tomorrow, but other than that we're pretty much prepped. I can't wait to go on this trip and share it with you all after! And thank you for following along so far :goodvibes
 
What company did you book the bioluminescent kayaking through? I was looking into it for our trip next month!

Have a great trip!
 

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