The Snarkiest Safari That Ever Sailed! An October 2018, Food & Wine Trip! Complete 4/26/19!!

Our grandson is going to be 2 in a week and the new baby due in Jan. So, the daughter-in-law thinks we should wait until they will remember it. Not sure I can wait that long!

It is hard to wait and with my own I wouldn't even give it a second thought. But when I thought about taking my niece at that age, I decided it's way too big a responsibility for her to not remember any of it. That's why we decided to wait until she's a little older too. Don't worry, it goes by fast!
 
Travel Days
October 12th and October 16th

Yes, you read that right…travel days…plural…as in more than one day.

So some of you know from my past trip reports, but for those who don't, Mike doesn't fly. Doesn't, won't, can't…whatever, it's all the same end result. Which means that if we want to travel anywhere, he has three options, car, boat, or train. If you can think of any more just let me know. For now, these are all the options we have. When we go to HH in the summer, we drive, and I literally HATE driving but I'll do it because I feel bad and I want to take vacations. But I have a limit to the amount of driving I can do and so for this trip (and last year's trip), Mike takes the train down and I fly down a couple days later. What makes this not as bad is that his mom lives down in Florida somewhere near Ocala and he visits with her for a couple of days before meeting me in WDW. She also lets him take her car so we end up with a car for the week which is kind of nice.

Anyway, on October 8th, Mike called me and told me nervously that Amtrak had cancelled his train because of the hurricane that was going up the East Coast. I told him not to panic because he had a couple days to spare since I wasn't flying down until October 16th anyway. I called Amtrak for him while he was at work and I managed to change him to another train on the sale day. It just had a couple extra hours layover and got him to Deland, FL in about 29 hours instead of 25 hours. :crazy2: Ugh. I know.

So off he went on the 12th, as planned. I was working that day and my mom ended up driving him to the train station
which is just in the next town.

But me, I worked the 12th, 13th and 14th and since I'm a nurse, my shifts are 12.5 hours long. I leave for work at 6:15 am and don't get home until 8 pm. That does NOT leave much time for all that I still needed to do, such as cleaning, packing, getting my vacation mani/pedi. So when did I do all that? Yup…the day before I flew out, October 15th. Why, oh why I do that to myself and never learn, I'll never know. And oh, I also had to go to Allie's swim meet on the 15th and since it was senior night (she's a sophomore), I had to make brownies for the pot luck dinner they were having after.

I managed to do the cleaning, baking, swim meet, and nails and finally started packing at 8 pm. Luckily, I had a pretty good idea of what I was bringing and I also have my Owner's Locker down there so I could skip a lot of the toiletries that I would normally have to pack.

I finished up by 11pm and took a quick shower so I could just get up and go the next morning. I brought my bags downstairs and then dragged myself into bed. I was beat and had no trouble falling asleep, even though I was super excited to be heading down to my happy place the next morning!

Just before bed, I remembered that I had forgotten to check-in with Southwest. Luckily, I had early bird check in and when I checked-in I was happy with my Boarding Position.
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I set my alarm for 4:15 am and since I'm just about a 30 minute drive from BDL, I arrived around 5am. I parked at a lot down the road that I had found a coupon for in a packet we get in the mail every so often. $6/day for premium parking…sure, why not? Last April we paid $220 for 11 nights to park in the garage right next to the terminal and I wanted to see how this parking was as an alternative. I was a little nervous since I was traveling alone and it was still very dark that morning. Plus, it was super cold and windy out and I had no idea what I was supposed to do once I parked. Luckily, there was an older couple in the lot and I kind of went over to them and they told me they had been waiting a bit but that a bus should be here soon. It was. Just a few minutes later the shuttle picked us up and it was only a five minute drive to BDL and he dropped us off right at the Southwest terminal.

After I checked my bag, I started walking past the huge line of people and heading towards the TSA Pre-Check sign up ahead. It wasn't until I got almost to the front of that that I finally realized that the the line of people I was so boldly walking by were already in line for the TSA Pre-Check! Apparently, everyone in the airport had TSA Pre-check that morning. Oh well, at least the line moved fairly quickly and I am still happy to have TSA Pre-Check if only to not remove my shoes or my computer from the bag.

Finally, 5:45 am I was through and enjoying my favorite airport treat:
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You thought I was going to show you Starbucks, didn't you?! Ha! Give me good ol' McDonald's coffee any day over Starbucks :D

I could finally relax at the gate while I waited to board and in what seemed like no time at all, I was boarded and chose an aisle seat close to the front but not the very front seat because I like to put my bag under the seat in front of me. A nice couple sat next to me and we chatted for a bit but they both fell asleep and slept for most of the flight which was A-OK wth me.

It was a gorgeous morning to fly:
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I had rented Solo to watch on the plane:
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The flight wasn't long enough to finish it and I think I still had about an hour to go when I shut it off. I thought maybe I'd go back and watch the rest that night but unfortunately I never did and it only stays rented for 48 hours. Honestly, I wasn't loving it so I'm not dying to rent it again to see the end. Maybe when they start showing it on tv someday I'll try to see how it ends.

We landed a little bit early and I was on the fake-o-rail by 9:30am.
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I got my first glimpse of Toy Story land:
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And hopped right on the Magical Express!

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Meanwhile, I had been texting Mike all morning:

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Wait, what?? While I was on the DME on my way to the Poly, Mike was at the airport picking me up :sad2:

I know we had talked about this more than once and that was the plan all along. I finally called him and filled him in (again) on the plan and he got to the Poly about 30 minutes after me. I had done on-line check-in which (spoiler alert) ended up being a big mistake and I will never do again…but I'm going to save that for the next post.

Until then, here are some Poly lobby pictures for you to enjoy :love:

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Will Mike ever get to the Poly? Will I kill him if he does? Stay tuned!
 
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Fantastic start to your report! Beautiful Poly pictures! I assume you didn't kill Mike. Maybe you did and now you're writing your report from jail.
 
29 hours instead of 25 hours. :crazy2: Ugh. I know.

:eek::faint: no way no how....well, unless we are retired and making a fun road trip out of it. Regular vacation - drive more than 4-6 hours drive....get me on a plane.

cleaning, packing, getting my vacation mani/pedi.

Let's get priorities straight here :laughing: - cleaning - forget it - the dust will be back before you get home. Pack - really you only need items you can't purchase easily if push comes to shove (though it could get pricey). Mani/Pedi - yes, this is a must, but you could also book an appointment on property if needed.

I had early bird check in and when I checked-in I was happy with my Boarding Position.

That's pretty good. I've been disappointed lately - My last few times flying SW, I got something like A30 or even in the B boarding position.

Wait, what?? While I was on the DME on my way to the Poly, Mike was at the airport picking me up :sad2:

OMG - funny/not funny. Poor guy - he was exited to see you.
 


You are a saint to put up with that no plane nonsense. I would have told my husband to take an anxiety pill and get over it (which is essentially what I did over the last 14 years and he’s fine now).

Too bad about the pick up misstep but at least he remembered what time you were flying in!

Oh no about your online check in - we’ve never had issues but I’m wondering what yours were
 
I assume you didn't kill Mike. Maybe you did and now you're writing your report from jail.

Ha! How could I? He had stopped and gotten me my favorite yogurt from the grocery store :P

Let's get priorities straight here :laughing: - cleaning - forget it - the dust will be back before you get home. Pack - really you only need items you can't purchase easily if push comes to shove (though it could get pricey). Mani/Pedi - yes, this is a must, but you could also book an appointment on property if needed.

This is all very true :D

But what's also true is that I've known about this trip for a VERY long time and should have at least been packed the week before. I don't know why I'm such a procrastinator, but I find that I always do this the day before vacation. And the cleaning…I HAVE to do that. I LOVE coming hime to a clean house :P


That's pretty good. I've been disappointed lately - My last few times flying SW, I got something like A30 or even in the B boarding position.

Really? And that's with EBCI? I was thinking should probably not get it when I'm traveling alone since it's fairly easy to find a seat for one, but I like not having to remember to check-in…and you can see I had completely forgotten about it that day. I always get it when I travel with my mom and kids so we can all sit together and not have to worry about getting spread out. It's getting more and more expensive though. For our April trip it was $25 per person, each way :crazy2:

Yay! Can't wait for more

:welcome:

Thanks for reading!

You are a saint to put up with that no plane nonsense. I would have told my husband to take an anxiety pill and get over it (which is essentially what I did over the last 14 years and he’s fine now).

I'm not a saint. Trust me on this. But he is super stubborn and I'm trying to make the best of it. I have tried many, many, many times to get him to take Xanax and he won't.

At least for now it works because I absolutely love going to WDW (obviously) and I love HH which isn't that bad of a ride. But I certainly have plans to branch out a bit in my traveling within the next few years and I'm going to have to leave him behind. I think DD is going to be my travel companion when I do finally branch out. We are planning a trip to Europe (probably Italy) in 3 years and next on my list is Disneyland (I've been DYING to go here for years!), and then Hawaii.


Oh no about your online check in - we’ve never had issues but I’m wondering what yours were

Nothing that couldn't be fixed with a stop at the check-in desk, which is what I should have done to begin with :P
 


October 16th
Will We EVER Make It To The Magic Kingdom??


Mike arrived with my yogurt and all was right in the world :P

He parked the car and we left our bags with Bell Services, and by 11:03 am, we were officially in vacation mode…
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We were planning on heading to the MK and had our Fastpasses there:
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As you can see, we were likely not going to make it to the Jungle Cruise, but we were fine with missing it.
We really just wanted to get situated.

I had wanted to get one of the cute Halloween refillable mugs they were selling so we went into Capt. Cooks to get it but the CM said they were sold out :sad1: But she said we could get our mugs and then if we can find it at another resort we could trade it in, so we just got regular refillable mugs and got some drinks. While we were filling up, we saw a family who all had the cute Halloween mugs and asked where they got them. They said they had a bunch over at the Grand Floridian so Mike and I figured we could walk over there, switch out our mugs, and then hop on the monorail to the the MK…perfect!

Except when we walked out the back to head over to the GF, we saw that people were already waiting in line for the new Trader Sam's mug that had recently been released. Ooooohhhh…that was also on our list of things we needed to get done, and after talking to some of the people who had been doing this daily, we decided to wait since the line at the moment wasn't terribly long…
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I think we waited about a half hour and the CMs came out and started handing out the wrist bands. They would only hand out so many per day and once they were gone you were out of luck….no mug for you!

We started heading over to the GF finally at 12:10. I have never taken this little walkway but it was a very pleasant walk over. There were some cute photo ops on the way:
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We walked straight to Gasparilla Grill, where they had plenty of mugs so we exchanged mine,
hopped on the monorail and FINALLY were on our way to the MK. :cool1:

But then…we got the text that our room was ready…annnddddd
it was the exact opposite of what I had requested via my Touring Plans fax :sad:

I had requested Tokelau, Third Floor. We got Pago Pago 1113 First Floor :crazy2:

This is when I realized I should have just gone to the desk to check-in to reiterate my request.

We had to make a quick decision about what to do since we were basically at the MK stop when the text came through.
Mike didn't really have an opinion one way or another, but would I be happy for 5 nights in the room?
The answer, for me , was a resounding NO.
And I'd rather give up a couple Fastpasses and MK time now to get it taken care of.
So on we went…back to the Poly.
Stopped at the CR, stopped at the TTC, and finally stopped back at the Poly GCH
where we got off the monorail, went downstairs and went to the check-in desk to see if we could change our room.
The CM was very helpful and called someone and said we could change rooms but we wouldn't be in until closer to 4.
This was fine with us because we actually wanted to get to the MK and we had a late lunch ADR there anyway.

With that all taken care of, we went BACK upstairs and hopped on the monorail again and headed off to the MK!

Or…did we???
 
This is such a cute picture!! :)

We rented from VRBO and LOVED this place! It was spacious, super clean, and most importantly, just steps away from the Disney Beach House.
We just love HH! I really like our Air bnb condo where we have stayed twice, but the idea of being SO close to a taste of Disney would definitely lead me to stay on that end some time!

We also left this guy at home for this trip and the HH trip, though the HH trip was his choice, not ours. He could have come along but he doesn't love beach vacations and chose to stay home and work, instead. Doesn't this face just scream, "responsible to you?"
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Hilarious!

Will Mike ever get to the Poly? Will I kill him if he does? Stay tuned!
I seriously laughed right out loud at that!! LOL

What a headache with the online check in snafu! We have only done it once, too. It's nice to not have to stop and wait in line before going to your room, but I just like that first magical CM encounter to get our trip started off right! Plus, if we are celebrating something, I like getting our buttons right when we check in instead of having to go and ask for them.
 
Popping over from your last TR. Hope you get a room location you want. Looking forward to reading about your adventures
 
Which means that if we want to travel anywhere, he has three options, car, boat, or train. If you can think of any more just let me know.
Does he drive straight down by himself? I hate driving that far too. At least he is ok with you flying.

And oh, I also had to go to Allie's swim meet on the 15th and since it was senior night (she's a sophomore), I had to make brownies for the pot luck dinner they were having after.
Being a mom never stops!


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You thought I was going to show you Starbucks, didn't you?! Ha! Give me good ol' McDonald's coffee any day over Starbucks
At that time of the morning, ANY coffee is good!

Wait, what?? While I was on the DME on my way to the Poly, Mike was at the airport picking me up :sad2:
Ha! This sounds like something that my husband would do.

With that all taken care of, we went BACK upstairs and hopped on the monorail again and headed off to the MK!

Or…did we???
Oye! I am tired just reading all of that! I am planning on not doing online check in for our short time. But I also am not sure if I am going to request anything specific.
 
This is such a cute picture!! :)

Thanks!

I really like our Air bnb condo where we have stayed twice, but the idea of being SO close to a taste of Disney would definitely lead me to stay on that end some time!

I like both the Shelter Cove area-where the actual Disney HH Island Resort is located, and I also love this Palmetto Dunes area, where the Disney Beach House is. Of course, we just love the whole island anyway :love:

What a headache with the online check in snafu! We have only done it once, too. It's nice to not have to stop and wait in line before going to your room, but I just like that first magical CM encounter to get our trip started off right!

Lesson learned. We will not be doing THAT again!

Popping over from your last TR. Hope you get a room location you want. Looking forward to reading about your adventures

Hello, there! Thank for joining in!

Hi Kelly! I'm joining in...

Hi there, Jenny!

Blasphemy! LOL!!!

Ha, I knew someone would think I was crazy for that!

Does he drive straight down by himself?

He takes he train…for 29 hours…10 times longer than it takes to fly :crazy2:

I'm just happy that he goes at all, I guess :P


At that time of the morning, ANY coffee is good!

Exactly! And I purposely was waiting to get through security to get it and wasn't expecting the lines to be that long :crazy2:

Ha! This sounds like something that my husband would do.

I swear he doesn't pay attention when I tell him things >:(

Oye! I am tired just reading all of that!

Not the best way to start our vacation!
 
The Magic Kingdom…Finally!

Yes, we did finally make it to the MK, and what a sight for sore eyes…
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We were originally planning on doing MNSSHP this night, but then they came out with EMM at DHS/TSL
and we decided to change our party this night to Thursday night, instead.
I was happy we did that because the thought of staying out until midnight or later
and then getting up t 5-5:30 just was not appealing at all.

We did discover something on this day that was a nice little unexpected surprise. Because it was a party night, the crowds were super low. We tested this theory a couple of other days this trip and found it to be true again and again.
I would highly recommend heading to the MK on a party day.

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We headed down Main Street and straight onto one of Mike's favorite rides…
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I actually really love this ride too :love:

We had missed both our Jungle Cruise and Pirate's Fastpasses, but we made it to Peter Pan. I didn't bother trying to take pics in there this time because they always come out awful.

We had missed our Pirate's Fastpass, but the stand-by wait was only 15-20 minutes.

Everyone's favorite scene:

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By then, it was time for our late lunch ADR.
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Originally, I had booked us for The Plaza this day but after our April trip, I got to thinking about going back to LTT.
Mike's favorite holiday is Thanksgiving so I thought he'd really love it, and he did.

This was such a great time to go as the restaurant was fairly empty.
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We had an awesome server (sorry, I don't remember her name), who was personable and knowledgeable,
without being annoying or awkward :thumbsup2

We both got the (what else?!) All-You-Care-To-Enjoy Bill of Fare, which includes:

Declaration Salad
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So delicious. We ate the whole thing but didn't request seconds of this.

Dinner rolls with salted butter:
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These are also good but I think we each only ate one so as to save room for the main meal and of course, dessert.

Patriot's Platter:

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This was all so good. My favorite thing on here was the pot roast which I am a big fan of anyway
(I just made my own this past Sunday ::yes::)

The Mac and Cheese was just ok, maybe a step up from Kraft but not my favorite.
The stuffing and cranberry sauce were both outstanding though.

And of course, dinner here wouldn't be complete without this delicious dish of yumminess,
Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake:
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Easily ties for one of my favorite dessert in all of WDW, and I ate more than I should have of this but it's just so good ::yes::

We did really enjoy our dinner there and Mike asked for a second helping of some of the platter…I think the pot roast, turkey and potatoes. When our server brought them out they were in even bigger dishes than the first servings, which we thought was a little backwards. Mike joked to her about bringing home his leftovers and she said something about how whatever he doesn't finish will be used for composting. I had never thought about it, but I guess you're not allowed to being home your leftovers from LTT. When I think about it , this makes sense. I'm sure people would be ordering seconds or even thirds and then bringing it all home,
but that had never occurred to me before.

Anyway, we left feeling very full and I had been able to make us another FP for after our lunch:
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Mike's favorite. He loves this one even more than IASW.

Afterwards, we just kind of wandered enjoying just being there. This guy was kind of awesome, perfectly perched on the sign:
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We somehow ended up on the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, likely because there was literally nobody else in line and we figured, why not? We then proceeded to take some of the worst selfies in the history of selfies…enjoy :rotfl:
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It was super bright out…let me try with my way cool tinted glasses…
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We tried a couple more times and just gave up :crazy2:

We went on Jungle Cruise next, where our selfie game was much better in the shade!
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Our room was ready at the Poly and the Halloween Party people were starting to filter in making the MK seem a little more crowded, so we decided to head back and check out our room. We also had to go pick up our mugs at Trader Sam's…important stuff!

We took some pics on the way out…

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The ferry was pulling up so we took hopped on it back to the TTC…
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Up next, we head straight to our room. After all the trouble we went to earlier, were our requests finally met??

 
Sounds like a fun first day, I love The Poly, I hope your room is what you requested now.

LTT looks really yummy. I am trying the dinner in May!

Yay to low crowds at MK for your afternoon!
 
Really? And that's with EBCI?

Yep - I was irritated spending the extra $$ for what I thought was a guaranteed like up to A15 - but then I read that is not the case.

For our April trip it was $25 per person, each way :crazy2:

Yikes - maybe they are raising the price because so many people were paying for the early check in. Boo

I swear he doesn't pay attention when I tell him things :(

I think this is universal in marriage. :laughing:

I was happy we did that because the thought of staying out until midnight or later
and then getting up t 5-5:30 just was not appealing at all.

I agree - I know I'm getting too old for that.

When our server brought them out they were in even bigger dishes than the first servings, which we thought was a little backwards.

Again - I agree. We have noticed this with even with our local restaurants.

We then proceeded to take some of the worst selfies in the history of selfies…enjoy :rotfl:

:rotfl2: Glad we are not the only ones challenged in this area.

After all the trouble we went to earlier, were our requests finally met??

I hope so...especially if you like to spend time relaxing in your room.
 
I'm here!

It just had a couple extra hours layover and got him to Deland, FL in about 29 hours instead of 25 hours. :crazy2: Ugh.

Yuck! I think I would just suck it up and fly. :rotfl2:

I had to make brownies for the pot luck dinner they were having after.

Yikes you had a lot to do. I think I would have sneaked off to the grocery store, bought some brownies and passed them off as homemade. ::yes:: Teenagers don't know the difference do they?

Luckily, I had early bird check in and when I checked-in I was happy with my Boarding Position.

I always do Early Bird! I was a bit disappointed this weekend when I booked my flight for May. They've upped the price to $20 each way. :sad2: Still worth the money but if it keeps going up they might price me out of using the Early Bird.

I was a little nervous since I was traveling alone and it was still very dark that morning.

I've done that before and did not like it at all. That's the main reason I headed down to Disney a day earlier than planned in October.

Wait, what?? While I was on the DME on my way to the Poly, Mike was at the airport picking me up

:rotfl:This made me laugh so hard because it's exactly something Jim would do. He headed home earlier than the rest of us last month and went to pick up our dogs. He called me in a panic because the ladies at the boarding place said they didn't have their leashes or collars. I must have gone over it three or four times that the leashes and collars where on the kitchen counter and he needed to go home first to get them before picking up the dogs. o_O

But then…we got the text that our room was ready…annnddddd
it was the exact opposite of what I had requested via my Touring Plans fax :sad:

I had requested Tokelau, Third Floor. We got Pago Pago 1113 First Floor

I've always done online check in and for a while always got my request. Lately though, it seems I never get what I want. Not sure if it's a product of online check in or if they are not paying attention to requests as much anymore.

We did discover something on this day that was a nice little unexpected surprise. Because it was a party night, the crowds were super low. We tested this theory a couple of other days this trip and found it to be true again and again.

Man I wish we had this! We did rope drop on a party morning and lines were crazy. We only got half of what I wanted to do done. We waited 20 minutes right at rope drop for Jungle Cruise, 30 minutes for Pirates and even the Peoplemover had a bit of a line so we skipped it. Luckily we were able to catch it during our MNSSHP later that night.

All-You-Care-To-Enjoy Bill of Fare, which includes:

Mmmmmmmm, I'm drooling now thinking about that yummy food.

We then proceeded to take some of the worst selfies in the history of selfies…enjoy

:lmao: I can compete with you for the worse selfies! I am so horrible at taking them.
 
Joining in for another report. Great that you got an adults only F&W trip. I am hoping one day to be able to do this. I have one teenager...maybe in another few years the other won't want to travel with the parents either.
 

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