Skipping Town

Our final Magic Kingdom day was all about princesses and pressed pennies. We’d gotten a few pressed pennies on Monday and Tuesday, and L&G’s collecting gene kicked in, so we found a pressed-penny-machine map online and set out to get all the pressed pennies we could. Our concierge very nicely counted out a ton of pennies for me in the morning, even swapping out the tarnished ones for shiny ones. Disney service, right there. The day started early, with breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table, which is fun for two reasons: first, because you meet five princesses and get to eat in Cinderella’s Castle; and second, because you get to go into the Magic Kingdom before it officially opens. We strolled down a deserted Main Street and had our picture taken with the castle--and no crowds--in the background. L&G wore pink princess dresses and carried their Minnies. (Seriously, these kids loved Disney. And to think part of me was in doubt.) First, Cinderella welcomed them to the castle, an...

We were all-in on Tuesday, heading to the Magic Kingdom early enough to see the characters perform a little welcome routine before opening time. L&G didn’t mind the wait because they were coloring in their magic-ink coloring books, which were easily the best Disney-prep purchase I made. When the park opened, we quickly headed right to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which L&G had said they wanted to do and which we didn’t have a Fast Pass for. It was a misstep. This was a real roller-coaster, tame by coaster standards but definitely an overwhelming choice for kids who’d never ridden one before. Greta was enraged by the tight lap bar, and Lucia was alternately screaming-happy and completely terrified. I hate roller coasters and was glad when it was over. We needed a break after that grand beginning, so we got cinnamon buns from Gaston’s Tavern and found a little table in the shade. This was eerily calm and quiet, right in the middle of the park--a perfect little rest. We went ...

We embarked on our Disney vacation with skepticism, which was mostly rooted in the inherent difficulty of planning a first Disney trip--so many weirdly specific logistics, so much required advance planning. There are resort reservations, Fast Pass reservations, meal reservations. We planned six weeks in advance and were told we were much, much too late. But we got our bookings, and off we went. Along with the skepticism, we went with openness and a willingness to be surprised by the fabled magic of Disney. And I’ll say this: magic was in abundance with our four- and six-year-old traveling companions. They were the perfect ages for Disney. Lucia, especially, was the kind of child for whom Disney was made. Greta had a wonderful time but was, in my opinion, still a bit too young; but I’m glad we went while Lucia was six, because six is the perfect Disney age. I’ll go wild here and say we’ll have to go back when Greta is six, just to give her that same experience. We kept our trip pri...

Overconfident from our successful drive to Florida over Christmas, a few weeks ago Andrew and I decided to make the journey again, this time for a week during Lucia's spring break from preschool. It was a much easier trip this time, planning-wise, without the endless Christmas luggage; and we felt like we kind of decided to do the trip on the spur of the moment, or as spur-like as one can be when traveling with two kids. On the way down, we stopped for a barbeque lunch, where both girls revealed a love of fried chicken legs, and we spent the night in a hotel, just as we did last time. This was a total fiasco. We got there right at bedtime, but the girls hadn't yet had dinner; and there were no cribs left. I made the girls dinner (we'd brought food in a cooler) while Andrew went out to find a Walmart and buy a crib. Then the novelty and excitement of sharing a room was just too much for Lucia and Greta to handle, and they didn't go to sleep until after ten, and only af...

Two things happened to make our return journey memorable: it rained the entire way, both days, and Andrew erased all the content (pictures, contacts) on my iPhone. We got an early start on the 28th, drove in the rain, stopped for lunch at another great BBQ restaurant called Duke’s in Orangeburg, SC; drove in more rain. We stopped for the night in Christiansburg, Virginia, and made peanut butter sandwiches in the hotel room for the girls. Andrew and I ate takeout Olive Garden. (And I went to a Target just down the road before picking up our food to buy some 70%-off Christmas stuff.) The next day—breakfast at the hotel, and then more rain, and then a very unwise stop at a pub in Winchester, Virginia, where Greta was teetering dangerously on the edge of a total meltdown. I thought some videos would get us through lunch; couldn’t get the YouTube app because my iPhone hadn’t been updated in forever; Andrew decided he knew how to update my operating system; and then—everything was gone. My ...

We spent Christmas week in Jacksonville this year, a lovely reprieve from the winter back home. When we arrived, it was in the eighties; the girls got to play outside and run through the hose. They were ecstatic. They shared a room at Andrew’s parents’ house, which we weren’t sure was a great idea, but it worked out fine—once again showing us that we’re slowly approaching a time when we’ll once again be able to travel with some degree of sanity. The weather cooled but remained nice for most of the week, and we kept the girls outside as much as possible—going to playgrounds, looking for cats, playing with toys on the deck. The day after Christmas, Andrew, Lucia, Greta, and I even went out to Atlantic Beach. It was pretty cold that day, but the girls still took off their socks and shoes and ran in the surf. Greta made designs with shells in the sand. Lucia built an elaborate structure from sticks she found in the dunes. Andrew and I were freezing, but the girls were in no hurry to l...