Where to begin… this family vacation took us to many places, we saw so much. A 76 hour car ride spanning over 3800 miles really can’t be encapsulated in one long blog post. In fact, half of this trip took us to many places not even associated to Disney. So, I will break them up into smaller posts. The first of which will be the trip itself. I was looking forward to Disney and this road trip just as much as Julie and the kids albeit for different reasons. This was the first time ever I took two weeks off from my job as an Associate Creative Director of Jay Advertising. That’s a big deal. I had two weeks of their undivided attention and they had mine. The bantor, the questions, the hugs, the “are we there yet’s” never got old. I am happy to say no one got sick, and there was no food eaten or DVD’s played in the van. The kids did have DS games to play. They slept, looked outside and found license plates (which i’ll leave for another post). The drive went something like this… (see the map to the left) Rochester, NY to Baltimore, MD to pick up Joanne… Baltimore, MD to Savannah GA… Savannah, GA to Orlando FL… Orlando, FL to Cape Canaveral and back… Orlando, FL to Atlanta, GA… Atlanta, GA to Baltimore, MD to drop off Joanne… Our trip then was diverted from Washington D.C. to Detroit MI where we were able to see my good pal Chuck his wife Jen and their beautiful 8 month old little girl Lily. We then left Michigan, crossed into Canada and returned to our home in Rochester, NY. 76 Hours—3800 miles. I actually have callouses on my hand where I held the steering wheel. Funny, one usually goes on vacation to clear the visual marks of a hard days work on the hands, not get them.

We spent seven days in Florida, only once leaving Disney. We went to Cape Canaveral and toured NASA for a day. A tour which I recommend if you can swing it. Soon the shuttles will be retired, and the launch sites dismantled. It’s not going to be there very much longer which is a shame, well at least in it’s current form.

We hit all the major parks and rides and saw a bunch, yet it’s crazy to think of all the stuff we did not get to see. I now understand why people return there. I am not sure if you could ever see everything.

For our last ride before we left Disney we went back to Soarin’. A mind trick ride that gives you the feeling of soaring over the tree tops, waters and countryside. If ever you wanted to be a bird, or feel the sensation of flight, this ride is it. I sat there is the harness next to my daughter Rebekah as the realization of the Disney trip was coming to a close. Our trip was relaxing, magical, fun, and long. And I would do it all again, the drive, the hours, the memories. I couldn’t help but get emotional while we flew during the ride. It seemed a fitting end to Disney 1.0 with Soarin’ as the last ride, because after this trip, I was already on cloud 9.