On a clear day...

Wednesday, January 2, 2008. The alarm goes off at 6:00 – for Becky, not for me. I’m sleeping in this morning. Let the others drag themselves up for breakfast, but extra rest will do me better this morning.

I hear the alarm sound again at 6:09 – Becky snoozed it once – and I turn on the TV and find the Weather Channel. They are talking about the cold snap that has hit Florida. Heh, no kidding. I can still feel the chill from last night’s late boat ride. I fade back to sleep…

…and awaken once more to Brandon’s voice, urgently saying, “Mom, it’s 7:30!!!”

Becky says she’d kept snoozing the alarm – not that I heard it – but it must’ve had a limit and stopped sounding after an hour. The way I see it, we must’ve needed the sleep. Everyone gets up and starts preparing for the day, me at a slower pace.

Becky and the boys head out to Captain Cook’s by 8 o’clock. I follow about twenty minutes later with my mug and fill it with a mix of hot chocolate and coffee. It’s a good way to start a chilly day.

Everyone is finishing up breakfast when I get to the table. Benjamin’s ordered Tonga Toast again and isn’t able to finish it, so I have a few bites. Yum. I’ll have to send off for the recipe for this when I get back home.

After breakfast, we head back to the room and layer up with warm clothes again. Packing for this trip was a bit of a challenge, since we saw the advanced forecasts that predicted both upper 70-degree weather in our early days here and this cold snap with freezing temperatures at night. There’s only so much you can pack! Fortunately we know that layers of lighter clothes work just as well as heavier coats and such. We meet Bob & Linda in the hallway outside our rooms just after 9:00 and start for the monorail.

The boys ask if we can take the boat across to the Magic Kingdom, and are met with a resounding “No!”

It’s cold enough just standing on the shaded monorail platform waiting for the next train, but fortunately the wait is not long. We hop onto the monorail and settle in for the ride around the lagoon.

The cold front dropped the temperature, yes, but it also brought in beautiful, clear skies. The sun is gleaming off of the water of Seven Seas Lagoon, and it is just a gorgeous day. As long as we can stay warm, we should be in for a great time in the Magic Kingdom.

The monorail is at the Magic Kingdom station at about 9:20. I go to get my stuff and find that I do not have my PassPorter with me. Oops. Did I even take it onto the monorail? I have my doubts, but I think I left it in the room! This means I won’t have the park maps with me, but that’s not as big a deal since we know our way around. But I don’t have my note paper!