Disneyland October 2022

My older sister, Kristen, loves Disneyland and has wanted my parents, siblings, and families to go together.  At the beginning of 2022, some of us committed to going in October.  My mom and dad, Kristen and Bailey, Heather, Rob, Evie, and me flew to California on Saturday.  Our first day at Disneyland was Sunday.  I'm sure my parents haven't ever done something like that on the sabbath (have I?), but this is obviously not something they'd repeatedly do.  We had so much fun together.  My mom and dad were rockstars from 8:00am to 10:30pm.  They did this four days in a row with just a break or two thrown in or a later start to their day.  My mom navigated around on the rented scooter without incident each day.  It was super crowded, so this was not an easy feat!  I did Disneyland/California Adventure on Sunday and Monday and flew home on Tuesday.  The rest of the crew flew home on Thursday after spending four days park hopping.  Kristen was such a great "tour guide".  She knows how to use the Disney app really well and showed us the ins and outs of it.  Also, she helped us schedule rides where we could use either my mom's or Evie's special passes.  My mom and dad, who are in their late 70s, and little almost-five-year-old Evie, rode a lot of rides.  Even Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!  My mom thought it would be like it was 30 years ago, but she quickly realized that it was NOT!  It was a bit too fast for her, but seeing her smile and laugh through it was priceless.  She googled about it later and found that it's been renovated twice and made more thrilling (actually faster than Space Mountain) since she rode it last.  I'm super proud of them for getting the most out of their time at the "Happiest Place On Earth".  Here's just a sampling of the many pictures we all took.  

Here my dad is showing his exaggerated disappointment when he realizes he's probably too old to go on Space Mountain

Stupid Covid

I must have picked up Covid in Florida or the flight back.  Not a nice souvenir to bring home.  Maybe 36 hours after coming home, my voice started sounding a little rough when I was talking on the phone with my sister.  Later that night the sore throat and headache started.  The next day I decided to test myself for Covid, and it showed positive.  I felt pretty crappy for about five days, but I felt not normal for another week.  On my fourth day, Matt tested positive.  He had about four days of feeling the worst, and it took him another week to feel more normal.  It took our energy for a good while, and we still have a lingering occasional cough.  I had a weird itchy rash appear under my arms.  

Miami Marlins Checked Off the List

On our final evening of our Miami trip, we attended what we came to southern Florida to do in the first place.  We went to loanDepot park to see the Marlins play the NY Mets.  It's an indoor ballpark with a retractable roof.  The roof was closed, and the air conditioning was blasting a cool breeze.  There were way too many Mets fans in the park.  Maybe a third to half of all the people.  Ridiculously annoying.  And unfortunately for the home team, the Mets won by a lot.  We always root for the home team wherever we go.  

Two Days in Key West

After our food tour, we drove to Key West in the late afternoon/early evening.  We love venturing into new territory and places not everybody goes.  Yes, Miami was new to us, but this little excursion made it that more exciting to be in South Florida.  Driving from key to key wasn't as thrilling as I had imagined.  I guess I thought it would seem a little scarier being on a narrow highway with water on both sides.  The only thrilling part was being on the Seven Mile Bridge between Marathon and Little Duck Key.  But we enjoyed the whole road trip from start to finish.  We stopped at Hogfish Bar and Grill on Cow Key.  What a cool, divey place.  Check out the conch-shell-covered truck that was parked out front of it.  We got our first key lime pie as take-out and savored that when we got to our hotel, The Reach.  

In the morning, we ate breakfast at our hotel restaurant by the water.  I would like to have my meals by the ocean every day! The Reach has a fun courtyard area with games like this giant game of chess.  There are lifelike statues that we had to take silly pictures with.  

Our plan was to walk around Key West, so our first stop was at the nearby famous landmark of the Southern Most Point.  We weren't that interested in waiting in a line for a good picture, so this selfie with other people in it had to do.  Our next stop was at The Hemingway Home and Museum.  We paid for a tour which was well worth it.  The lady was super energetic and informative,  and we loved her European accent.  Not sure where she was from.  The quirkiest thing about the house is that there are approximately 60 polydactyl (six-toed) cats.  All of them carry that genetic trait, but only about half actually have the physical characteristic.  They are descendants of Ernest Hemingway's cat, Snow White.  They live on the property in their fancy cat houses in the back.  There's even a cat cemetery.  

The cats aside, the history of the home and Ernest Hemingway's life in Key West is pretty amazing.  We loved seeing many of the things that the Hemingways used while they lived in the home.  His wife took out the ceiling fans and hung chandeliers from Paris.  

If Miami was hot and humid... Key West was way worse.  My curly hair thrived, but the rest of me was a sweaty mess.  No bra was worn while in the Keys. HaHa!  We walked the streets going in and out of typical beach town shops.  We had yummy tacos for lunch and cooled off with Diet Cokes and then chocolate covered key lime pie on a stick at Kermits.  

Back to the hotel where we stripped off our sweaty clothes and went out to read at the beach for a little while.  A huge thunderstorm rolled in, and we took cover in our room.  Afterwards, we went to Moondog Cafe for dinner.  Another fun place to eat.  We would have tried their key lime pie, but they had run out already.  

We left Key West Saturday morning after a quick breakfast at a cuban coffee/sandwich shop near our hotel.  What a gorgeous day it was.  The sky and water colors were magnificent.  

We stopped on the Northside of the 7 Mile Bridge in Marathon for one last piece of key lime pie.  We had heard that this place, Porky's, had a unique fried key lime pie.  We ordered that along with coconut shrimp and Pepsis.  What a fun pitstop.  Then we turned back toward the bridge and pulled over at the turnout for some awesome pictures of the bridge and water.  What a cool vantage point.  So glad we were able to be there on such a gorgeous day.