Is That Norway That I Smell?

Last year about this time, our family was enjoying Disneyworld in Orlando, FL. On Days Four and Six of our trip, we spent time at Epcot and its Norway Pavilion, where we ate, rode the Maelstrom, bought Norwegian baking, and browsed The Puffin's Roost, a shop selling Norwegian products.

It was there that I smelled Geir, a Norwegian cologne for men. It was really appealing, but we didn't buy any. Good thing, too. If my scent memory can be trusted, Geir smells a whole heckuva lot like Bath & Body Works' much less expensive scent Sea Island Cotton.

For Mother's Day, the girls and I bought Susan a variety of body sprays, including a Sea Island Cotton one. While visiting my sister Sandy this summer, we made a stop at Bath & Body Works where Susan bought (several items including) Sea Island Cotton hand soap. Every time I use it, I experience "déjà smell," recalling Epcot's version of Norway and feeling just a little bit more Norwegian.

I'm sure I smell that way, too.

15 Years . . . and We're Just Beginning!

Susan and I had something awesome to celebrate today: our 15th wedding anniversary! Faithful readers will recall that we surprised our children with a trip to Disney World last November (read this and then click the "Disney" label beneath it for follow-up posts with photos), so we reminded ourselves of that before running out and buying additional presents for one another this month. However, we didn't want to just sit around the house today, quietly sipping milk and fondly recalling our months-ago vacation; so when Susan noticed a special event scheduled for today, we decided not to pass up the opportunity. We got tickets to see Garrison Keillor in Bismarck!

Whenever we find ourselves driving somewhere on a weekend, we tune into public radio and hope that we're in the car whenever Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion comes on. We love the mix of music and skits and guest stars and the folksy, nostalgic, literate humor of his weekly updates on the goings-on in his fictional hometown of Lake Wobegon. When Suzanna heard that we were taking them to see Garrison Keillor, she squealed and jumped up and down! (Our kids, however, were among precious few in their age bracket in attendance, as it turned out.)

The Bismarck Civic Center was one stop on The Rhubarb Tour: A Summer Evening in Lake Wobegon, so we got tickets a few weeks ago for the whole family. Suzanna has been taking band lessons last week and this week, so we waited for her to be done with those today and then left town at 2:45 P.M. (our time), arriving in Bismarck around 5:00 P.M. (their time) and heading straight for Red Lobster for supper (Abigail and I shared a healthy meal: salad with vinaigrette dressing, broiled cod, steamed broccoli, and a baked potato topped with pico de gallo). We had time afterward for a quick stop at Cold Stone Creamery for dessert (nothing healthy there: cake batter ice cream topped with Twix bars for me) before heading over to the Civic Center and finding our seats.

Suzanna snapped this pic of us waiting for our entrées to arrive at Red Lobster. Do we look as though we've been married 15 years? (Including our dating years, we've been together for 17-and-a-half.)

"Say wha-a-at?!" Here are the girlies enjoying ice cream at Cold Stone before the performance.

It was a drizzly-but-pleasant summer night: slightly cool with intermittent showers but just enough sunshine to keep things upbeat.

The Bismarck Civic Center

Our seats were so far up in the air and away from the stage for what we paid that I can't imagine what kind of short-term loans needed to be taken out by those with tickets to be seated right up front. Not to worry, though: the sound system was more than adequate for us to hear everything, and our digital camera's zoom lens served to give us a glimpse of the performers' facial features whenever the hankerin' arose. Garrison opened the evening by standing out in the house--smack dab in the middle of the audience--and singing. He wandered amongst the attendees and told stories and jokes between songs and then finally made his way up onto the stage.

Out amongst the audience . . .

. . . and on stage. He's got a face for radio!

The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, led by Richard Dworsky, is Keillor's regular band on the radio show, and they were phenomenal tonight--very gifted musically with incredible range and versatility, all of them. Keillor also had sound effects artist Fred Newman (from public television's program Between the Lions) as a guest. Keillor would tell a rambling story with elements in it related to sounds, and Newman would respond by making the sounds using his mouth (e.g., Keillor made up a story about Newman's going to a rodeo in his youth, and as Keillor told about this event or that animal, Newman came up with the corresponding sounds). Newman was terrific at making the sounds and very funny at adding facial expressions and body language to enhance the noises. It seemed that Keillor was making it all up as he went along so that Newman himself didn't know what to expect; if so, all the more impressive!

The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band with Richard Dworsky on the piano.

Fred Newman

Newman responding with sounds to Keillor's apparently improvised tales!

Another terrific element of the night was Keillor's guest musician, country music singer Suzy Bogguss. I guess I've heard her on the radio before; I recognized "Outbound Plane" (which you can hear by clicking her name in the previous sentence) when she sang it tonight. However, I wasn't really familiar with her other than recognizing her name. Tonight she demonstrated great guitar-playing skill and a beautiful voice when singing both high and low. We'll definitely be adding her to our music library in the future!

Bogguss and Keillor doing a duet.

Midway through the night, Keillor announced an intermission and encouraged people to excuse themselves if they needed to use the restroom. However, he himself went nowhere. He called it "a standing intermission"; he asked us all to rise, and he spent about 15 minutes wandering the audience again, leading us all in a group sing-along of patriotic songs, hymns, and other common songs as we stood near our seats and stretched and got the blood flowing to our legs and buttocks again. How fun! (He wasn't even flustered when a stage hand came out and asked him to see if there was a doctor in attendance for a patron who had taken ill and was lying off to the side of the auditorium. He calmly asked for the doctor and then went on with his singing, keeping our attention away from the person on the floor. One would think that the paramedics could have helped out by actually removing the person from the auditorium.)

Keillor ended the night with a Lake Wobegon tale so convoluted and filled with Midwestern details that we were all in stitches, including the girls! He has a knack for starting one story and then going off on a tangent with another story and then doing it again until finally expertly bringing all the seemingly unrelated characters and plots together for one climactic event. Tonight's Lake Wobegon update featured the disastrous meeting of a balloonist and two rose-petal-scattering giant duck decoy pilots who weren't told about a wedding's cancellation; the surprise depantsing of an earnest grandson trying to scatter his randy granny's ashes via parasail; and the addition into this mix of an overloaded pontoon carrying 22 fatigued Lutheran ministers (and a smoking barbecue full of shrimp shish kabobs) so low on the lake that onlookers might have thought they were walking on the water (appropriately enough). It sounds utterly ridiculous when I type it, but it made perfect (and perfectly hilarious) sense when Keillor told it from the edge of the stage, never once looking at a note or a teleprompter for assistance. Impressive. It was a great way to end a very satisfying, eclectic, impressive three-hour performance.

The view from our nosebleed seats.

Before heading home, we stopped at a grocery store to pick up a couple items that Susan can never seem to find in Dickinson's grocery stores. It was a sleepy drive home, both for the slumbering children in the back and for the heavy eye lidded driver (moi). But it was a great way for us to celebrate, as a family, today's milestone.

My Trip to Mexico, Minus the Passport

Have you eaten at JD's BBQ on State Avenue in Dickinson? If not, you'd betta get yo behind there pronto--it is to die for (um, figuratively speaking, that is). Whilst the girls were at ballet classes this evening, Susan took me to JD's for supper: chicken, pork, brisket, jambalaya, potato salad, corn bread, and--beforehand--buckets of peanuts on every table, the shells of which one throws on the floor. There was even a musician on hand tonight, playing his guitar and singing in the corner as we finished our meal. Great atmosphere, great food . . . and I don't even get kickbacks for saying so!

After eating, we went to a retail chain "super" store to pick up some photos that we had developed from three disposable cameras we'd had around the house--two of them for the girls' use and one for my own use when in FL for a conference recently. Wanna see some more Disney World pics?! (These were better quality, of course, because we were using our digital camera. The best pics from the disposable camera were those taken in lotsa light--thus all the outside shots.) First, orient yourself to the resort's layout with this map. Then, enjoy:

This fountain is situated at the entrance to Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, where the conference was held and where I stayed.

El Centro is the building housing the concierge, the front desk, the bell station, the shop, and the restaurants. Here it is from the entrance driveway . . .

. . . and from the exit driveway.

This is the entrance to the conference center (attached to El Centro) where all the conference sessions were held.

Exiting El Centro to walk to one's room, one sees Lago Dorado (Lake of Gold)--the lake around which Coronado Springs is buit--and several lakeside attractions within yards of El Centro's door, including an outdoor bar and this marina. The circular yellow building at the end of the marina is where one would check out a boat or even a bike for touring the grounds of the resort.

The guest rooms are situated around the lake in three village areas: the casitas, the ranchos, and the cabanas. I stayed in a cabana, and here's an example of one of those buildings.

A beach of white sand and hammocks tied to the palm trees lies just outside the cabanas. Doesn't this look inviting?!

Here's a view of El Centro and the casitas across Lago Dorado from the end of the bridge nearest my cabana.

Another view from the bridge.

Just a few steps away from my room was the Dig Site, a recreation area for the resort featuring sand pits for volleyball, poolside deck chairs for sunbathing, a hot tub, a poolside bar and grill, a playground, a nature trail, and the Lost City of Cibola swimming pool and water slide. The faux Mayan temple is a gigantic water feature with water cascading down the steps. The totem-pole-like structure in the foreground sprays water for rinsing before or after playing in the swimming pool.

The steps to the left would take one to the top of the water slide, which snakes down to the right and ends up in the pool at the foot of the Mayan temple. Notice the jungle cat that glares down at water sliders!

Santa Claus, Scanvenger Hunt, First Communion, and Christmas Feast

Suzanna was awake about 6:00 A.M. and discovered that, lo and behold, the milk and cookies left out for Santa were gone; the stockings were stuffed; and gifts were stacked up on the floor beneath each stocking! Hillary rolled out of bed next, and Abigail needed some smooching from Dad before she roused and joined them for initial gift opening. It seems that Santa brought them stuff they like:

We had to allow time for breakfast and then church, so most of the gifts (anything not from Santa) had to wait for the afternoon. However, Susan and I had devised a Christmas scavenger hunt for the girls that we had them do before we went upstairs to eat brekkie. Several of their gifts were not easily wrapped, so we hid them around the house instead and then hid clues for them to find, leading eventually to the locations of the gifts themselves. It all started in the family room downstairs with our handing them an envelope containing this clue:

Here's a Christmas scavenger hunt / especially for you. / Find Beethoven and Chopin / to find your next clue.

That led them to the miniature busts of classical composers that sit atop our piano upstairs, amongst whom they found another clue:

What keeps a ship from sailing / into rocks while out at sea? / Find a mini one of those; / it's where your clue will be!

We hadn't realized that they didn't know the purpose of a lighthouse, so they were lost on this one. With some prompting, they got it and ran back downstairs to the lighthouse lamp on a stand near the couch where they found another clue:

When you squeeze a cow's ear, / sometimes it will moo. / Find a creature just like that, / and you'll find your next clue.

They started by searching among the cow collection on a table near the couch, but none of those knickknacks makes any cow noises. I have a pair of cow slippers, however, that moo when one squeezes a button in the ear. They ran upstairs to our bedroom to find another clue atop those slippers in our closet:

Next find a machine from which / clean clothes you lift. / That's the spot you all will find / a special Christmas gift.

And it was back downstairs to the washing machine in the laundry room. Inside were stuffed brand new winter coats: multi-layered, warm, fashionable, and functional (to replace old, stained, broken-zippered ones currently in use). There was also another clue:

There's another gift for you; / find it if you're able. / Here's a hint: start your search / around the scrapbook table.

It was a short trip from the laundry room to the craft table in the next room. Under the benches were stuffed snow pants to go with the winter coats. There they also found the last clue:

These should keep you cozy warm / and cuddly as a panda. / But what would these gifts be good for? / Find out on the veranda!

They bolted up the stairs, unlocked the patio door, raced onto the veranda, and discovered three new sleds! Although it was freezing outside and they were just in new Christmas pajamas, the girls didn't care; they each laid claim to a sled and sat down! We snapped a pic and then made them come inside. Then we all stood together and looked out at the green grass in the back yard. I guess we won't be using those sleds anytime too soon . . . which is too bad because we have some awesome sledding hills in the park just behind our house.

Reading a clue before conferring on the solution and then racing off to find the intended location.

New winter coats and snow pants!

SQUEALING and RACING up the stairs to get to the veranda! The girls watch The Amazing Race on TV with us, a worldwide scavenger hunt in which speed and arriving first are crucial. They were in that mode during this hunt, too, I guess!

Brand new sleds! Brand new pajamas! Subzero temperatures! Get inside, girls!!

Susan made a delicious breakfast: Emeril Lagasse's savory breakfast pudding with Fontina and Parmesan cheeses, French bread, spicy smoked sausage, ham, and vegetables, which she served with hash browns, orange juice, and coffee. Then we got dressed and went to 10:00 A.M. church for the girls' first communion!

Ready for church!

St. John Lutheran Church offers communion to children if their parents and the pastors feel that the kids understand its meaning and are ready to partake of the sacrament. Several weeks ago we borrowed from the church some teaching materials on communion and read them with the girls and had them do the activities in the accompanying booklets. Last Thursday we met with Pastor Lisa, who talked with the girls about what they'd learned and then gave them a tour of the sacristy and altar and had them do a "trial run" of taking communion with a wafer and cups half-filled with wine. We decided that today, Christmas, would be a special day for them to take their first communion. They wore the Black Hills gold cross necklaces that my parents gave them at their baptisms. Pastor Lisa announced to the congregation that "the Moberg girls" would be taking their first communion today, and everybody "aw"ed and, afterward, congratulated them. This afternoon they each received from Susan and me an angel bibelot--a pretty miniature angel with outstretched wings wearing a necklace featuring that girl's birthstone.

When we got home, there was more gift opening: the gifts from Mommy and Daddy to each daughter. It was very fun to watch them light up with each gift they opened. Suzanna even had a tearful moment during which she considered how little they "deserved" all these presents. What a sweetie! We cuddled, and I assured her that they don't have to deserve gifts--that that's not the point of giving. We had a good talk about appreciating gifts, too. A high point for each daughter was opening her own Webkinz stuffed animal, which comes with a code to register it and build an on-line home for it.

Abigail's hippo

Hillary's pig

Suzanna's frog

By mid-afternoon, Susan had prepared a wonderful Christmas feast: shrimp cocktail, pickles, and olives for appetizers; Caesar salad with crab meat; shrimp and scallop lasagna (with additions of crab meat and other adjustments by Susan); roasted corn; garlic toast; and icebox cheesecake with blueberry topping for dessert. Susan's dad, Roger, joined us for the meal.

The girls with Grandpa Gustafson

We had a lazy evening of playing with toys (including a card game called In a Pickle that was fun) and watching episodes of the amazing Planet Earth and talking on the phone to relatives (my sisters, Cathy and Sandy; we talked to my dad and Susan's sister, Cassie, earlier in the day) and having leftover appetizers from yesterday for a late-night supper. It was a great day all around and a super way to spend a holiday with family.

Notice the Mickey Mouse ear ornaments on our Christmas tree. They were basically the only souvenir that Susan and I bought for ourselves in Disney World. Aren't they cute? They match the Disney theme of our family photo and Christmas letter stationery this year.

Disney Day 7: Departure

We were up bright and early today to catch Disney's Magical Express from our resort to the airport. Our resort's bell service never showed up as scheduled to pick up our bags from our room, so in a last-minute rush, the girls and I struggled to get all our (heavy) bags across the grounds of the resort to the airport check-in area of the lobby in time to make the bus. As it turned out, we needn't have panicked; the check-in in the lobby took longer than expected due to malfunctioning machinery (to print our boarding passes), so we ended up catching a slightly later-leaving bus. From one bench Abigail and Hillary kept a keen lookout for the bus while Suzanna and I got some final glimpses of the resort before departing. We ended up getting to the airport with enough time to get through security and to our gate but not with a lot of time to spare.

The flight from Orlando to Denver was eventful. First, Hillary had an upset stomach and threw up in the restroom; I got to go in and help her clean up. Second, because Hillary was seated on the aisle, one particular flight attendant took notice of her and would smile or tickle or greet her each time he passed by. At one point, he saw Hillary sitting with a far-off look, and he asked if she were bored and, thus, would like to help him. She agreed, and he said, "Better get the camera ready, Dad." I did, and this is what I was able to photograph: Hillary as an honorary flight attendant! First she helped him distribute lemonade to passengers throughout the plane. A little while later, she helped him to collect trash from passengers who had cups and napkins to discard. She got to wear a United Airlines apron, and he made her a name tag with a piece of tape and a marker. Hillary was very honored to be asked to help, and she took her responsibilities seriously.

We had a bit of a layover in Denver, so we had a bite to eat in the airport and then read and relaxed at our gate until we were able to fly to Bismarck. (Well, first Suzanna and I went on a fruitless journey through the airport to find a United agent who could correct an error with the name on her Mileage Plus account. The solution, of course, will require our mailing in documents rather than an actual human being's simply keying in the correction. Harrumph.)

When we landed this evening, the temperature was about 80 degrees colder in ND than what it was in FL this morning! We ran to the vehicle and waited impatiently for it to warm up! By the time we were leaving the Mandan city limits, the van was cozy, the sky was pitch black, and the atmosphere in the vehicle was very sleepy. It was a quiet drive back home.

The girls plan to bring their Disney World paraphernalia to school tomorrow to show their teachers and classmates. They've assembled their travel journals, autograph books, Epcot passports, caps, and lanyards with Disney pins, and they will wear their tie-dye Mickey Mouse T-shirts. They should also be bringing home tomorrow afternoon stacks of makeup work from the days of school they missed while in FL. It's nice to be back home and in our own beds again.

Disney Day 6: Magic Kingdom and Epcot

We have taken nearly 1,000 photos at Walt Disney World! Each day I've been ruthlessly culling in order to provide you, Faithful Reader, with only representative photographs, not the whole shebang. For that, you must visit our home (and set aside a few hours for the appointment). We've got a lot of great pictures to share with you that aren't available on the blog. In the meantime, here's a fraction of the nearly 350 photos from today alone! (Click the links to see video clips and other details about each attraction.)

Today we were intent on returning to Magic Kingdom and Epcot to see things that we hadn't gotten to the other days. But first, we needed to use up some of our excess dining plan points, so we started our day with breakfast in Riverside Mill Food Court (the blue building with the water wheel) at our resort. [Like the matching tie-dye shirts? Susan made them. Each has a Mickey Mouse face outlined on the front with the wearer's name inside. Lots of compliments on them today!]

Spy the girls? They have just crossed a bridge over the Sassagoula River and are walking toward the building that houses the lobby, gift shop, and restaurants. To their left is the resort's marina.

Here's the Christmas tree and garland decorating the lobby of our resort.

The train depot (with Mickey flower arrangement) at Magic Kingdom just before the opening show. The park entrances are off to the sides (not visible in the photo).

The park's opening show! The train pulls up to the station with familiar Disney characters singing and dancing and . . . well, watch it for yourself.

Even the Christmas decorations on the street lamps on Main Street, U.S.A. are Mickey-themed!

The red clusters in the background--between the Mobergs and Cinderella Castle--are poinsettias, which have been plentiful in every park.

We took a spin on the Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride in Fantasyland. I was alone in the car in front of Abigail and Hillary, so I had a good angle for an action shot! After that, we all rode the Mad Tea Party. Riders use a wheel to control the spinning of each individual car. Hillary and I rode together, and I nearly made myself sick spinning us faster and faster throughout!

We walked through Mickey's Country House in Mickey's Toontown Fair. This is Mickey's (messy) bedroom.

A path leads directly from Mickey's back door to the Judge's Tent, where Mickey was waiting to give us autographs and pose for photographs with us.

We checked out Minnie's Country House, too, and here Abigail poses in a chair in Minnie's sun room. Hillary and Suzanna take their turns below.

The last thing in Mickey's Toontown Fair that we wanted to check out was the Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacre Farm, a roller coaster that was fun but extremely brief (the girls: "That's it?") and certainly not as intense as the other roller coasters they have ridden since coming to Disney World. Perhaps we shouldn't have saved the tamest coaster for last . . .

Then it was back to Fantasyland to take in more kid-oriented rides and attractions (that we had bypassed a couple days ago in favor of the older kid- and adult-focused rides, which our kids loved, too). Here's Hillary on Cinderella's Golden Carousel; Suzanna and Abigail appear below.

Also in Fantasyland we rode Snow White's Scary Adventures and Peter Pan's Flight before wrapping up with It's a Small World, the classic boat ride through animatronic displays of peoples and places around the globe. It's a long, leisurely ride, and the song "It's a Small World" plays over and over and over throughout it. As the Disney World Web page on this attraction says, "After it's over, just try to get that tune out of your head."

The girls seemed to have just as much fun on this morning's rides for littler kids as they did on all the wilder, more intense rides the other days. I did, too; it's fun to see things from a child's perspective--and easy to see why even Disney World's tamest rides, with all their detail and imagination, would appeal to kiddos.

Our next stop was Tomorrowland for dinner: burgers at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café, where an animatronic lounge singer alien seated at a galactic version of keyboards entertains diners with a series of space-themed songs that play on a loop throughout the day. Then we went to Stitch's Great Escape! and Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, the latter of which features characters' gently picking on audience members and using audience-submitted jokes (that can be texted via cell phone while waiting in line for the show) in their stand-up comedy routines.

Part of our agenda today was to return to Epcot and finish getting the stamps and signatures needed from each country to complete the girls' passports. Here in Canada, we also saw a CircleVision 360-degree film about Canada. We stood in the middle of a big room completely encircled with movie screens upon which was projected the movie starring Martin Short lauding all that Canada has to offer. It was stunning to see (a 360-degree movie is quite an experience) and funny, too.

Lots of pretty sights here in the United Kingdom--including these posing beauties!

Look whom we discovered in France! It's Aurora, A.K.A. Sleeping Beauty.

While here in France, we saw a movie about the country. It was in a theater with a wrap-around screen, so the effect was impressive and not quite so dizzying as a 360-degree screen (are you listening, Canada?). Hillary took a snooze during the movie. Who can blame her? Nearly fifteen years ago, Susan and I napped through a half-hour presentation in the American Adventure Pavilion in Epcot. We had kept a grueling pace and needed a break, I guess. What better to sleep through than a presentation on stuff we ought to have learned in school anyway?

The ladies strike a North African pose in Morocco.

In Japan, we stopped briefly to watch a street corner demonstration of molding candy into animal shapes (a candy octopus, to be specific).

The cast member who signed the girls' passports in the American Adventure was from Minnesota, so we talked local weather for a while. She also complimented Susan on the passports that she had made, saying she had never seen any like them before and thought they were cute.

We saw a street entertainer in Italy--a juggler who involved the onlookers and had the crowd in stitches. Perhaps the girls could have put on their own street corner show involving mime or improv. They have a knack for posing interpretively whenever I snap a photo of them near a statue. (P.S. The architecture in the Italy pavilion is quite beautiful.)

Welcome to Germany, where the smell of sauerkraut wafting from the restaurants had our mouths watering.

A fun photo from China of a pagoda framed by an ornamented archway.

Here are the ladies posing in Norway. The waterfall behind them is part of the ride Maelstrom; in the opening in the rock, you can just make out the tip of a Viking ship about to narrowly avoid going over the waterfall before being shot backward into the North Sea by mischievous trolls. The buildings in Norway are beautiful, too, including an ornate stave church that reminds me of photos from "the old country" that Norwegian relatives have shared.

The Yucatan jungle pyramid in Mexico.

Once the passports were stamped and signed, we booked it back out of Epcot so that we could make our supper reservation in Magic Kingdom. Here is the bustling Spaceship Earth pavilion.

I wanted to ride the monorail before we left Disney World, so we rode it back and forth between Magic Kingdom and Epcot today. Here we are waiting to board it at Epcot.

The girls got to ride in the monorail cab with the pilot, a special treat for children that Susan had read about and planned for during our visit. The cab can accommodate four "copilots," so Susan joined them, and I rode alone in a regular car for civilians.

We were back in the Magic Kingdom in time for our supper reservation at Tony's Town Square, an Italian restaurant inspired by Lady and the Tramp. Below, observe that Hillary, Abigail, and Suzanna enjoyed their pasta and pizza.

For an appetizer, I had mussels in a garlic butter sauce served with crustini. Susan's appetizer (sorry, no photo) was breaded, deep-fried calamari with olive relish and caper aioli.

Our server brought out a crusty bread loaf with marinara sauce to enjoy before our meals.

My entrée: seafood diavolo--clams, mussels, calamari, shrimp, and salmon in a spicy tomato sauce.

Susan's entrée: grilled salmon served with asparagus, black and green olives, grape tomatoes, arugula, pecans, bacon, and basil pesto.

The girls' sundaes for dessert.

My dessert: vanilla gelato.

Susan's dessert: amaretto cheesecake.

Susan knew of two nighttime events in the Magic Kingdom for which we needed to stick around tonight. One was the SpectroMagic Parade, a series of impressively illuminated floats, some with people dressed in costumes that lit up, too! It was fun to see so many familiar Disney characters but especially fun to see all the lights in their many colors and patterns of blinking.

It was fun to see Main Street, U.S.A. lit up at night, too. Here we're taking a moment, en route to the next event, to look up and down the street (and to take a rest, if you're Hillary).

The Magic Kingdom Christmas tree and Cinderella Castle provide a lovely backdrop for a family photo.

Isn't Cinderella Castle lovely illuminated at night?

Lovely ladies.

Um, "lovely" ladies?!

The second nighttime event that we saw was Wishes Nighttime Spectacular, a fireworks show set to music that capitalizes on the beauty of Cinderella Castle rising above the Magic Kingdom. It was quite beautiful.

After the the pyrotechnics display, we made our way out of the park via Main Street, U.S.A. Wisely (from a capitalist perspective), Disney World leaves its shops open after the parks close so that exiting guests can make purchases on their way out. Our girls haven't asked for anything while we've been in Disney World--no begging for Disney-themed trinkets or whining for Disney souvenirs or pleading for us to buy them items from this stand or that store. So Susan and I finally asked them tonight if they could think of something that they'd like to buy to remember Disney World by. They wondered if they could get Mickey Mouse ear hats, so we swung into a store to browse. Beside the mouse ears, they saw brimmed caps that they preferred, so we bought them each one. We also used up our snack credits by buying Mickey Mouse-shaped, chocolate-dipped Rice Krispie bars from a bakery. Later at the gift shop at our resort, we bought them Disney pins to add to the collectible pins on their lanyards. We bought ourselves a set of Christmas tree ornments shaped like balls with spherical Mickey Mouse ears attached.

We're pooped but sad to be leaving Disney World tomorrow. The girls have been excellent tourists, willing and delighted to try everything, and making our long days of traveling and walking quite pleasant with their lack of fussing or complaining. It will be good to get back home, but we're thrilled to have had this family vacation, which turned out absolutely great. THANK YOU, SUSAN, FOR ALL YOUR ADVANCE PLANNING! Everything went so smoothly precisely because of you and the work you did to make reservations and arrangements long before we left ND. WE LOVE YOU!!