GOD, I needed yesterday!

 

My daughter scheduled a trip to the Magic Kingdom yesterday. It was Sebastian's first park visit (he's done a resort dinner and a resort overnight stay already) so of course Grandma had to be there. 

I had no idea how MUCH I needed it. I drove separately and met them there. I walked into the gate just as the Festival of Fantasy parade was coming into the home stretch on Main Street, and I saw my girl, the fire-breathing steampunk dragon Maleficent (above) approaching and got that picture. She was right in front of me, and a good omen for the day. 

The main goal of the day: my daughter, the guy who still needs a blog nickname and The Kid were finally going to ride Tron. 

Sadly, Tron is not for me. It's not the speed or the plunges and turns, I love all that stuff, it's the ride position. You sit on a "motorcycle", leaning forward in a racing position, through plunges and turns. When I saw the design I swear I heard my left knee mutter, "Don't even think about it bitch." They do have a more conventional seat at the end of each line of cycles, but honestly, I've never seen the movie Tron or had any particular urge to do so, so for me that ride's an "Eh."

It was an easy decision to wait in the shade with Sebastian and people watch while they rode it. We were in a shady spot under the ride, and as it roared overhead you could hear the screaming. I tried to identify The Kid's scream as the ride passed, but could not. (She did ask me after they got off the ride if I heard her, but there was a lot of screaming.) 

They pronounced it excellent. 

The weather was perfect! We're having "Florida fall" and yesterday was 85 degrees but the breeze was cool and the humidity was low. Standing still in the sun was still hot, but walking around from shady spot to shady spot was very, very nice. 

And Sebastian is officially a Disney Kid!  Boy, can that kid hang! He took one 20 minute power nap after an afternoon bottle, and was otherwise awake, alert and observant, just taking it all in. The adults were flagging by the time we called it a day, he was still awake. They were confident he'd pass out as soon as he was in his carseat on the way home, but damn, he's an excellent Disney Baby.

If you look carefully, you can see two teeth peeking through. 

It wasn't horribly crowded and the weather was lovely, but the wait times for rides fluctuated from a reasonable 20 minutes to You've Got to Be Kidding Me.

 

This was intended to be a short visit for Tron, a quick late lunch, and whatever other experiences we could manage, and it worked out very well. We rode the train around the park, did Buzz Lightyear, where again Sebastian's daddy scored WAAAY higher than the rest of us, (confirming my suspicion that the man has spent lots of hours on video games in his day), ate at Cosmic Ray's, and ended the day with Sebastian getting his first tiny taste of a Mickey Bar. His daddy shared a few tiny bits of the vanilla ice cream, and the look on that kid's face was priceless! The closest he came to crying all day was when he realized the ice cream was all gone. That moment of sadness was just a moment though. He really is the most easygoing, happy baby ever.

 

Grandma promised him a trip to L'Artisan des Glaces when we do Christmas at Epcot, where the nice ladies will be happy to give him a teeny (sample) cup of his own. THAT ice cream is divine, which is why the shop's lines are always out the door, but worth it. 

Basically, it was a nearly perfect Baby's First Magic Kingdom Visit. It would have been perfect if the wait times for the baby friendly rides were more reasonable, but we still had fun and did Enough. One of the (few) upsides to living here is we can go to Disney whenever we're in the mood, and this little guy is obviously ready to grow up as a Disney Kid.  

Disney Grandma felt the stress and anxiety I've been carrying around for the last few months just drain away. I came home to two small disgruntled dogs (Eddie barked at me indignantly for a couple of minutes when I got home) but feeling great. 

I've postcarded, I've voted, I've shared encouragement on social media, my loved ones have all early voted when they could. I do think it'll be okay, but the idea that we are faced with saving our country from fascism wasn't anywhere in my retirement planning.