A short trip, but we still had a great time...

This trip was the shortest one I've ever taken to Florida. Originally I planned to stay a week in florida with everyone, like we did the year before. But while I was living in England I was quickly running out of money due to the exchange rate. I also spent two weeks traveling Europe on the trains - that, too, added up. So I decided to cut my trip down to just a day and a half since a $100 ticket change was better than putting hundreds of dollars that a Disney Christmas would cost, on my credit card.

I arrived in Florida around 11:30pm after a very long flight from London, through Denver. We all went out to IHOP to keep our night-of-arrival-tradition going. It was me, Deanna, Joe, Tanya, Ryan, Laurel, Bedford, and Kate. We all sat and laughed and ate; it's always great seeing these guys. And it seemed like the Summer trip was just yesterday - granted it was only a few months before, but you get the point.

Afterward we all went to Laurel's house where we were going to stay the night. Dee told me that Theresa was in town, but leaving the next day, so I of course called her to see what she was doing. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to see her that night; and she left the next morning around 6am. That night I crashed on the floor in my clothes with a pillow. Dee was worried that I would be uncomfortable; but after sleeping hostels for a couple weeks it really wasn't a problem.

I woke up the next morning around 6am after a very restless night. Besides, 6am in Florida was 11am in England, and that is wayyy beyond when I normally would get up. I got on my laptop and started writing down the last of my Europe journals since I knew no one was going to be awake for quite some time. My bag was supposed to be delivered around 8am. I tried to be patient as I waited in clothes I had been wearing for close to 48hrs.

After a while everyone else started to wake up and get ready for the day; I still had no bag. I called the airline a few times to see what was taking so long, but no one picked up the phone. They finally decided to call me back, only to say that my bag left at 8am, and that it would be delivered whenever they got to it on the delivery list. Great... now I had to sit around and wait longer. So Laurel's mom offered to throw my clothes in the wash so I could take a shower since, well, I still hadn't been able to. After my shower, still waiting for my clothes, there was a knock at the door. My bag was finally being delivered. The delivery guy had the bag over his shoulder and behind him, he asked me to sign for the delivery, he dropped the bag, got in his, and drove away. As I stood there looking at my bag I noticed it was tied-off. Apparently the airline, NorthWest, and TORN 1/3 of my duffel bag clean off - and zip-tied it shut. I couldn't believe it. How ghetto-white trash of them to use zip-ties on my bag. My main concern, other then the obvious, is that I still had to use this bag in two days when I flew back to California.

Well, since I had my stuff I was able to get ready for the day and we headed to the parks. Bedford arrived before we left, having just drove down from North Carolina. Laurel was going to be in the parade as an Elf, so we of course were going to stand there cheering extremely loudly and try our best to embarass her. We managed to get a bunch of photos of her as she tried not to laugh at us, or even look our way for that matter. Afterward I did my usual "get pineapple soft serve and/or pretzel" routine as we went about the rest of our afternoon at the park.

We decided to go to the Hooptie Doo Review that night for dinner; another all-you-can-eat meal (and all you can drink) except unlike Ohana these guys kick you out once you're done so they can get the next group in. We took the ferry over to the Fort where Biggs met us; he too just drove down, but he came all the way from Maryland. He also brought a guy named Akiele who was going to be starting the College Program in January, and who had also never been to WDW. Once inside we were seated for the show and served dinner. Akiele tossed the salad, haha, while we helped ourselves to the ribs, chicken, and sides they brought out. Biggs decided to have sangria that night, and for those of you who know Biggs know that it doesn't take much before he's having a GREAT time.

I don't remember what time we got out of there that night, but Dee and I were going to be leaving the next morning at 6am. Biggs said we could crash with him at All Star, where he and Akiele had a room, and he'd drive us to the airport the next morning. We finally got to bed around 2 am (which felt like 7am for me since I was still adjusting), and needed to be awake at 4ish. I got up, got dressed, repacked my bags, and went to pull the car around for Dee and Biggs. They slowly made there way down the stairs and into the car - half asleep. I offered to drive since I was pretty much awake - and ready for lunch (or at least breakfast), hahaha. Biggs was pretty much out the whole way while Deanna was awake and a bit more chatty. We got to the airport and said goodbye to Biggs; it sucked because none of us really had time to spend with each other.

Dee and I checked our bags, went through security (surprisingly I wasn't searched), and made our way to the gate. We stopped at Cinnabon so I could get a cinnamon roll; I love these things and hadn't had one since that summer. Dee got breakfast at the Burger King and then we went to the gate. Once on board we talked for the first part of the flight about the trip, parts that I missed while I was still in Amsterdam and London, I talked a bit about my travels around Europe. And then Dee finally crashed out again and slept most of the way to Dallas.

Once in Dallas I said goodbye to Dee and made my way to my gate. Finally, one more flight and I was finally going to be home after three months of study in Europe. And also countless planes and trains, hiking, walking walking and WALKING, eight different countries, world famous cities and sites, distant family, family friends, random people, new friends, learning the basics of a new langauge an hour before the train arrives, and countless other memories. Well... at least I thought I was home free...
I got the gate, checked the arrival time, and put my head down to wait. I waited there, half asleep, for about twenty minutes before an elderly man shook me and said "they just changed the gate". Great..... I have to walk down half the terminal. I thanked him for letting me know, and then started making the 15 gate walk around the DFW terminal - and for those of you who travel, you know how long that damn terminal is. I got to the gate and noticed the flight wasn't going to SJC, I checked the monitors again... GREAT, it's at a COMPLETELY different gate. I checked my watch and saw that I had about 10 minutes to get clear across the damn airport. I rushed to the little train they have (that connects terminals) and hopped on. There turned out to be about 5 other people on there that were bitching about how they better not miss their flight because the gate was changed; it turned out they were on the same flight as me. They explained that they were just on vacation for a week and the last thing they needed was to stuck in Dallas. Right about that time the train stopped; it seemed we were having technical/mechanical problems that needed to be fixed before we could continue on. This only made the family more irritated. I casually mentioned, "I just finished studying in England for the last three months. I spent the last two weeks backpacking Europe and riding the trains through various countries. I just stopped over in Florida to see a few friends, and this flight is the last leg of three months of travel for me. I hope we make the flight..." That seemed to impress them enough to shut up about thier "problems", hahaha. As soon as we started moving again and made it into the terminal I jumped off the train and ran to the gate - I'll be damned if I'm going to miss this flight. Well, they knew there was problems with the gate changes, so they held the plane for about 10 more minutes so everyone could get on.

I made the flight, found my seat, and slept for the last 2 1/2 hour trip home.