As per usual, Evan is our early bird. And it really appears that his little brother is following in his pre-dawn footsteps. So after giving Ryder his bottle, we tossed him up into bed with Evan to play for a little while.
Madison, meanwhile, complained about being cold while curling up in a tiny little ball under her thin little fleece blanket. Oh, if only there were other blankets that she could have covered up with.
We finally convinced her to wake up so we could head up to Old Key West's Hospitality House for some breakfast. Despite being at pretty much the far back end of the resort, it was such a nice morning that we decided to walk to the front, rather than wait for a bus. (The bus would have to make 2 other stops before getting to the front of the resort anyway, so the walk is usually quicker anyway).
As you can see, it was a pretty foggy morning. We were taking our time wandering along the sidewalk taking in the scenery, when some of the local wildlife started rustling. At first I thought it was just some squirrels or maybe some birds. Then noises started getting louder and angrier. Perhaps it was a gator, climbing out of the pond off to our left. But then....out of the fog ... emerged something far scarier....
Carl.
[insert panicked screaming here]
Carl (DisneyDadC) was down at Disney World for the DisDad's convention - a gathering of a bunch of us from here on the DIS that we planned to correspond to Marathon Weekend. And he was staying in a building right across the cul de sac from us. Carl was catching a bus to Magic Kingdom that morning, so we walked up to the bus stop together. We left him there and continued our walk.
Along the way, we popped onto the tee box of one of the Lake Buena Vista Golf Course holes and I let Even take a couple of hacks. He's and excellent driver - as long as he's using imaginary balls and clubs.
We made it to the Hospitality House, had some decent quick serve breakfast (egg, cheese and bacon on a croissant) dining at a picnic table over looking the pool and the docks where you can catch the water taxi to Downtown Disney.
After breakfast, we hopped a bus to Hollywood Studios. I had to run down to ESPN Wild World of Sports today to grab all of the running gear, but wanted to get in one ride with the kids first. Bambi's parents had met us there and we stared down Sunset Blvd. We had just handed Ryder of to grandpa when grandma got a call about a job. We waited around for about a minute while she took the call, but then, in the distance I heard the rolling thunder of a Brazilian Tour Group. We made an executive decision that the posted 15 minute wait would probably double if we didn't jump in line now. See ya later, Grandma - we're about to hit the crowded freeways of LA!
We made it into the standby line just ahead of the sea of yellow shirts and basically breezed right into the preshow.
After a soaring rendition of "Love in an Elevator" we arrived at the concert hall just in time! Again!
It was, however, time for me to catch a bus to ESPN. I bid a sad goodbye to the kids and watched the fight back tears as I walked away. Yeah, right. Madison and Evan had already grabbed Grandma's hand and were pulling her over to the standby line to ride again with Bambi and Ryder and Grandpa were busy playing "Tickle the Baby" on a bench. (Ryder was playing the part of the "baby".) I'm not sure anyone even noticed I left. Except for Bambi, when she asked for the credit card "just in case".
It was still pretty early, so most of the busses were just dropping off. I knew there was not direct bus to ESPN, so I wandered over by the bus stops to wait for a resort bus to either Pop Century or the All Stars (the closest resorts to ESPN.) I found a bus driver on the other side of a fence and asked him what the best resort bus would be. He agreed with Pop or All Stars and to me to hold tight, a bus should be around soon. A few minutes later, a bus pulled up to the Caribbean Beach stop. I figured it was close enough and went to hop on. The driver opened the door and asked if I was going to ESPN. I was a bit shocked, but said yes. He said a bus was dispatched to get me and was pulling in right behind him. Sure enough, the bus that just stopped at the station behind him was driven by the original bus driver I had talked to! After he left me, he said he went to his bus, called dispatch and told them I was waiting to get to ESPN. They told him to go a head and take me to Pop. I sat up in the front and had a nice conversation the driver all the way to the resort about his experiences driving Disney buses and life in general. Disney Transportation Rocks!
We pulled into Pop, and just as luck would have it, the ESPN bus was sitting there loading. These weren't just Disney buses, either. Disney contracted with several 3rd party bus companies for the Marathon Weekend transportation and we were riding in nice coach buses!
ESPN was a total madhouse when I got there. People were everywhere! I guess it's to be expected when 60,000 runners descend on an event. My first stop was the HP Field House to get our running bibs. Yes, I said "our" because I wasn't the only runner in the family. Evan and Madison were both competing in the Kids Races. And wouldn't you know it, pickup for the half marathon and ChEAR zone were downstairs, while the kids races were upstairs.
A view of the downstairs pickup area:
Each one of those lighten booths along the walls corresponded to your bib number. Find your range of numbers, get in line, and a few minutes later you had your bib. It was very efficient. I also picked up the ChEAR Zone stuff for Bambi, her parents and the kids. They got the Gold level, which included a t-shirt, blanket, Mickey Clappers and most of all - a wristband that granted them access to special viewing locations in front of the Castle and at the bleachers at the finish line.
So, weighed down by 5 stadium blankets, 5 tshirts and 5 clappers, I headed up stairs to pick up the kids' race bibs. Turns out my year of training wasn't to run a half marathon - it was to pick up all the stuff for a half marathon.
Soon enough I had all of the bibs, commemorative ears, commemorative pins, and ChEAR zone swag. Now it was time to head across the promenade to the Jostens Center where I could pick up stuff for me! And if I thought the bib pickup was hectic, the Health and Fitness Expo was absolutely insane. I made my way through the hoards of people to t-shirt pickup, then tried to browse the runDisney merchandise booths. They had a lot of really cool shirts, but I just couldn't pull the trigger on a $35 shirt, no matter how awesome it looked. I did, however, snap a shot of one that I really liked:
I did get a Mickey Head magnet with the 2013 1/2 Marathon logo for $8 (minus the 10% AP discount!). Disney had one long, snaking line for the checkout, but at least 50 cash registers lining a wall so it went pretty fast.
I would have loved to browse all of the other vendor booths at the Expo, but they were packed to the gills with people and I was hungry enough to eat a horse. But enough about UK Burger Kings....
I hopped a bus back to Old Key West to drop all the gear off in the room. While there, I ran into some other DisDads - Scott, Chris and Carl (again). We all hopped a bus to MK, where Bambi and the family were headed after the morning at Hollywood Studios.
BUT WAIT! What were they doing all morning you ask? Well, I'm not exactly sure, it looks like they were having a pretty good time:
Yes - they took out the landspeeder that was across from Star Tours and stationed a Photopass photographer there where they will insert Darth Vader into your picture.
They arrived at Magic Kingdom a few minutes ahead of me, and found that Christmas was now officially over. The tree, the garland, the decorations - all gone from the night before.
Clearly, Ryder was upset by this.
I made my way up Main Street where the family was watching the Dream Along with Mickey show at the castle. Well, Evan wasn't so much
watching as he was
spying.
Up Next: An EPIC meeting of DisDads. And Dole Whips.