Weight Off My Shoulders

Disney! Disney! Disney! This trip had been circled on the calendar for ages and I was PSYCHED!! It came at the perfect time...

On Thursday, January 10 at 8:30am, we headed to the Pooch Hotel in Newton, MA and dropped the two pups off for "camp" (I can't bring myself to say kennel) and it was officially vacation time!

WOO!

Since I am a worrier and HATE being late, we headed to the airport earlier than we needed to ... but you never know how security will be at Logan.

Getting to the airport early has perks like being able to sit down and enjoy a couple Harpoon IPAs before boarding the Delta flight.

Do you like my drinking companion?

The wife and I charged up the iPhones and iPads so they would hold up through the remainder of our travels and headed over to the gate to unload of our stuff and grab lunch for the 2pm flight. The wife hit up Wendy's, while I was determined to get my Fresh City which was a far cry from where our gate was. But, with determination comes speed and I ran as fast as my TOMs would take me from our seats to Fresh City ... and did so in plenty of time. Thank you! :)

I was rocking the casual fit gear look for the trip ... when I travel it is all about comfort.

Funny how before losing weight I wouldn't be caught dead in these Reebok pants in public!

Do you like how I carried the Red Cowboy Hat for my Jessie hat throughout this entire endeavor? There was no way I was letting that baby get bent before Race Day.

So when we boarded the plane and realized we had an empty seat in your row? You know who became the newest passenger in Row 12 Seat D?

You guessed it ... my red cowboy hat!

We landed about 5pm and headed straight to the Disney Magical Express Bus desk to catch our ride to the Caribbean Beach Resort.

The bus was amazing. It was a free service from Disney and took us door-to-door from the airport to our hotel. We had to make a couple stops at other hotels, but it was better than paying for a shuttle!

Plus the entertained you on the trip with info about Disney World and some old school Disney cartoons.

We arrived at the Caribbean Beach Resort and had a quick and painless check-in thanks to the great staff and were off to find the hotel shuttle bus. The Caribbean Hotel campus is ginormous!! The shuttle bus was the only way to make it from the Custom House (check-in) to our room (Trinidad South) in a reasonable amount of time. Wow!

We arrived at our room to find out (definitely to the wife's delight) that we were staying in a Pirate-themed room!

Oh yes, Pirate ship beds!! :)

Before I did anything, I had to lay out my Jessie race costume/fit gear ASAP - pre-race tradition. Plus, I had to make sure I didn't forget anything before heading to the Expo the following day!

Okay now we could meet up with my parents (who had arrived earlier in the day) and head to Downtown Disney for some much-needed dinner.

We had a great time walking around Downtown Disney and seeing the nightlife, but called it an early night since we had to be up early the next day to head to the Expo.

Friday - January 11, 2013

Of course I can never leave home without some sort swag from the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon Series :P So I had choices for the day's outfit. :)

We tried to find the scenic - aka by the water/pools - route to the hotel's Centertown (aka food/shop area) and successfully did so on the first try. We had breakfast and devised a game plan there before heading to the Expo.

I LOVE Race Expos and was really looking forward to my first Disney Expo!

We grabbed the special Walt Disney World Expo busses (thanks Disney for that) and headed to the ESPN Sports Zone.

We arrived and headed left to pick up our bibs before heading to the right for the swag pick up and Expo itself.

Big thanks to Robin, who let me know I should change corrals at bib pick up since I was apparently in the wrong one ... Oops!

Corral A - WOW - never thought I would be so close to the Start in such a big race. Eek!

Countdown to Walt Disney World Half

But it was swag time baby.

What a grand entrance...

We did some laps around the Expo checking out the merchandise and I successfully kept my credit card in my wallet the whole time. Success.

But, I was really there to finally meet my Twitter friend and fellow Fitfluential and Sweatpink ambassador Kat in person. We headed to the Brooks booth and there she was. :)

It is always amazing to meet online friends in real life, but it was great to click with Kat so quickly. Plus, we got to have a moment with Joey Fatone. Okay okay he was rushed by us by his handlers, but we saw him and were within 5 inches of him. :P Right after Kat had been talking about him. ;)

We bid farewell to Kat and proceeded back to the hotel to catch the Disney Shuttle to Hollywood Studios!

Aaahhh it's THE hat!

This was so surreal.

(Note: I had been to Disney previously 3 times in my life and the last was in 2001 so it had been awhile!!)

But, my friends at home hooked us up and helped rank which rides/attractions we had to see and how to best navigate the parks so we were off.

We grabbed a fast pass for the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Starring Aerosmith before hitting up Star Tours and Muppet Vision 3D (one of my personal FAVES).

As we exited Muppet, there they were ... Phineas and Ferb!! My wife and I LOVE that cartoon so we immediately got in line to snap a couple pics with them!!

This easily made the vacation! :)

We then headed to Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Tower of Terror and rounded it out by cashing in our fast pass for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Starring Aerosmith. All amazing rides!

I stopped by to pick up a nice set of sparkly Minnie Mouse ears to match my Sparkly Soul Inc headbands! :)

Cute right?

Since the Half was the next morning (and started at 5:35am) we had an early dinner - yes 3:40pm reservations - at Mama Melrose's Restaurante, which was delicious!! I <3 Carbo loading! :)

We rounded out the day by taking a walk through the Honey, I Shrunk The Kids Movie Set Adventure and taking in The Great Movie Ride.

Yup, this soaker actually squirted water and got me ... of course!

We hopped on the Caribbean Beach Resort Shuttle and headed back to call it a night.

Alarms were set:

And I was fast asleep by 7:15pm ... dreaming of the next morning's Walt Disney World Half Marathon!!