Making Lemonade from Lemons.

Back at the Contemporary I took a few pictures with Alex on the balcony.

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I'm enjoying having all my children now in adulthood. Our conversations are different, but I love spending time with them. I had a great time alone with Sterg in AK. He had some work to do then wanted to hit the gym while my first born wanted to spend time at the pool. I was game for that.

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Val and Alex just completed their cross country drive to San Diego and spent great Mother/Daughter time together. Alex will be there for the next several months on her nursing assignment living near LaJolla. I'm really proud of her and
how she's handled the craziness that 2020 has brought.

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We got ready and headed down. After lugging around all the camera gear all day I decided to take a break and leave it behind. My Pixel 2 would pick up the slack.

We started out at the main pool, then when the sun dropped behind the Contemporary, we moved to the quiet pool to steal another 1/2 hour of sunshine.

Last moments of sun.

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A quick video as we were packing things up. The weather really was magical.

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By this time we were both hungry so off we went to the Contemporary Cafe.

Photos along the way.

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We grabbed our food and a table in the closed Outer Rim.

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Nice view.

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Hi there.

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I don't remember what I had to eat but do remember it was better than I expected.

Now back up in the room I took this shot on the balcony.

I started the day with the first boat out of MK, and now with the last going back (or one of the last).

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It was our last night in WDW. After we finished packing we did some shopping downstairs in the Contemporary gift shops. Alex bought me a new Disney/Tommy Bahama shirt as a thank you for the trip which I pledged to wear the next day.

At some point the thought formulated in my mind that I could use my tripod for a few shots; after all what's the sense of lugging that thing down to Florida if you're not going to use it?

So I broke it out along with my camera and the 105mm lens and headed to the Contemporary balcony.

I set my sights on this...


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The lens' tripod collar kept things very well balanced and stabilzed.

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I made a video discussing the shot and my settings but later realized that when I thought I was hitting "record" I was really hitting "pause". :headache: We'll just blame that on 2020.

I slightly adjusted my setting for the different shots but I started out at f/8, ISO 100 for 25 seconds...

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I would have been better served with a longer lens (200mm or more) but the high megapixel count on my camera allowed me to crop without much loss in image quality.

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This shot of Space Mountain only required a 6 second exposure due to it being more "lit up" and closer.

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It felt good getting use of the tripod. No fireworks shots this year but as with everything in 2020, just trying to turn lemons into lemonade.

The plan for the next day was to get up early and hit Magic Kingdom at the open. We needed to squeeze every last drop out of that yellow citrus fruit!


UP NEXT - LAST DAY!
 


Am I the only one following along hoping this TR doesn't end? Haha

Awesome pics, awesome narrative, awesome family, awesome everything @fractal ! Easily one of the most enjoyable TR's I've ever read!

Lol! thanks for the kind words and for continuing to follow!

Hear, hear---I agree--I don't want this TR to end! The pictures and descriptions are charming.

Thank you @suzy_q !
I don't want it to end.

When is your next trip?

Thanks!

Nothing planned yet. We usually go once every 2 years.
 


Our last day park would be the same as our first day.

8:45 am we were up and at the front of MK.

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Going in early.

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Weather was going to be a little warmer, but still a beauty of a day!

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Walking up MainStreet!

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Our first family trip in 2000. Somehow we have misplaced the photo album from that trip. This is the only photo I could find.




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And 20 Years later...

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Alex and Sterg darted into the Starbucks line so I just took a few photos;




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Casey's still closed.

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Hang in there! You'll have customers back before you know it (hopefully).

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Also still closed. :(

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I was beginning to get melancholy because even though we were back, the realization hit me that the WDW was not back completely. The fact that we would be leaving later probably didn't help.

I decided to take a quick video. Originally Sterg and I had planned to shoot more video as we did for our 2017 trip, but this time he had to bring work with him so we decided to skip that.

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Alex and Sterg had a little surprise for me.

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"I can't drink all that!" I said.

"They're not for you. We just used fractal for the name. ha,ha." Alex replied

"And paid for them with the magic band." Sterg added.

Well at least they're cheaper than alcoholic drinks...I think.

Still love them!

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Our pace was relaxed and we wandered into the Hub.

Good morning Walt and Mickey!

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Starting to get used to the new colors.

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It was soon decided that we head on over to catch the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness, then hop onto a log flume.

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Another trip without going here.

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Will I ever see Magic Kingdom this empty again? Hopefully not.

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The sparse crowds were certainly nice and I loved the short waits for rides. I would trade that all in however for things to be back to Pre-Covid normal.

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The bright sun escaped from a cloud cover and beamed down on us. Looking back into the castle was not an easy task for the camera.

All sorts of strong shadows paired with bright light which made metering and color (white balance) very challenging.

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I liked it better in black and white where many of those challenges started to work for you instead of against.

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If Tom Sawyer Island was open we would have jumped on a raft.

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But not on this day at this time. So as the older two leisurely finished their Starbucks, I regulated myself to taking more photos. Not that I minded.

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The Liberty Belle started it's first voyage of the day and announced it with the blowing of it's booming whistle. This sight and sound was reminiscent of a much simpler, formal and cordial time and gave me a sense of comfort.

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We then started on our own first voyage of the day...

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Taking all the fun out of mining!

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Common sense rules to follow.

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Alex and Sterg have an interesting relationship. When younger, Alex would more or less "bully" and tease her little brother. He claims he would complain to us but we never listened and that was mostly true. It wasn't until recently when we watched some old family videos that we realized his complaints were valid. Things like pinning him down and pretending to spit on him, etc. That all stopped however when Sterg grew up bigger than her. Today they are very close and have a great time together. I call Alex "Sterg's laugh-track" because she will literally laugh at any of his jokes and antics no matter how stupid they may be. And the problem with that is it only encourages Sterg to continue his comedy show even if it devolves into more stupidity and antics. But it's all in good fun and I love that they maintain a great relationship.

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Getting closer.

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I love all the signs and other details in the "new" queue line for BTMRR.

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Down we go, moving at a fast clip.

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Alex and Sterg on Big Thunder circa 2011 - this picture was taken at 20 minutes till 1am on August 8th 2011. Remember the days when MK would have Extra Magic Hours until 2am? We loved and miss that.

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2020 - another AM ride on BTMRR - this time at 9:15 in the morning. We often joke that Alex looks exactly the same as she did when she was 15. Lol. By the way - Alex is easily the worst abuser of saying "Hi" to everything.
"Hi taking our picture, Hi wearing my new shirt, Hi your light on your camera..." Those were just a few from that day.

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I requested sitting in the back, but just like with Everest - no special requests granted.
 
No pictures during our BTMRR ride as I took a full ride video. Notice how I had to keep correcting Sterg as he kept saying "Wildest ride in the West..."

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On to our next adventure...

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Splash was still closed but i got a nice reflection shot.

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We'll be back!

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Sterg had some "pressures" building so our next adventure became finding the nearest restroom. :oops: I continued documenting.

Maybe later -

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After what seemed like forever; Sterg emerged from his "relief break". We took this photo in front of the shooting range in honor of my late Father and Sterg's namesake. My first trip to WDW was in 1976 and was my first (and only) family vacation as a child. I have a vivid memory of my father and I spending time at this shooting range and how much he (and I) enjoyed it. Sterg and I have done the same on every trip except this one as unfortunately it was closed. But we did get the photo!

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Continuing on back into Adventureland.

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We set our sights on a guided exotic cruise...

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I liked the fact that Sterg and Alex didn't really have a memory of JC despite riding in 2013 (at night) and way back in 2009...

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It was like a new ride for them. I remember how impressed I was with Disneyland's version when I was there in 2012. With WDW getting a refurb since then I was looking forward to a little comparison.
 
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In line at the Jungle Cruise. This was not a walk on, but only about 15 min wait.



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It gave us a time to talk..

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goof around...

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and take photos of the well themed queue line.

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Toni wasn't here to be scared by the Tarantula, but I did get Alex to flinch after convincing her it was real.

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All aboard!

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Our captain was very good! Most of the standard jokes but a good number of new ones. She was witty and had great delivery - very important attributes that made our trip through the world's rivers more entertaining.

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Snake! This poor woman was sitting across from me which meant whenever I took a photo of the other side of the river she was in it.

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Silly gorillas!

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It's good when lions and zebras can be friends.

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Rhino making his point.

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Are these crocs or gators?

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Hungry Hippo. I felt all the animals and props looked fantastic.

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And these guys!

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