We are so thankful for a few days of rest, relaxation and play here in Orlando. We arrived here Tuesday evening from San José and have been staying in a great condo that our friends, Ha and David, arranged for us. We've been enjoying the pool, exercise room, basketball court, racquetball (!) court, play area, and 4 hole mini-golf green.
I had spent a couple of months researching and investigating how to spend a day at Disney's Magic Kingdom since our family has never been to Disney and thought it was the perfect chance since we'd be in Orlando a few days. Once we got here, though, we just couldn't justify spending so much money for one day, knowing it's the busiest time of year and there would be huge lines for everything. Sophia was particularly disappointed so we decided to go to Downtown Disney for an afternoon (an area of shopping, dining and entertainment) since it's free to walk around. However, the extravagant prices on everything was a real turnoff coming from a year of simpler living so we didn't spend much time there either. The kids were feeling disappointed so we looked for another option for our family. Found it and we highly recommend it if you're going to Orlando! Fun Spot Attractions is a small amusement park with 2 roller coasters, 4 go-kart tracks and lots of carnival-like rides. It's less than half the cost of Disney and NO LINES!!!! We could walk up to almost every ride - including the roller coasters - and get right on. The only wait we had all day was for the one go-kart track that just opened yesterday when we were there. The kids said over and over they were so glad we did this instead of Disney because we didn't have to deal with crowds and lines.
Since we didn't spend money at Disney, we also decided to spend a day at a factory outlet mall. It was the first time our family has ever done that and our kids were thrilled...as Nathan put it: This is the first time in my life I can actually wear new clothes to school :)! That's probably pretty accurate since I'm a huge thrift store and garage sale shopper. We never go to the mall as a family and the kids rarely have brand new clothes so they were thrilled and so were we because we really did find some great deals. Our wardrobes took a beating this past year so it was exciting for all of us to get a few new things.
Tomorrow morning we plan to leave early on our way to Atlanta so we can visit my nephew and his wife and then continue on to my brother's family in Chattanooga, TN for two nights. Lord willing, we'll return to Zeeland on Tuesday!!
If you're a regular reader of the blog and wondering if we bought a car in Orlando.....nope. We did some looking but nothing seemed like the right fit and/or within our budget so we'll drive our rental van back to MI and look some more when we get home.
To any Vander Beeks reading this....we're remembering you all today as you celebrate Byron & Aletha's wedding in Calgary (the 4th wedding of nieces and nephews that we've missed this year :(. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all!
Look for a final reflective blog post next week.
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