Events of Saturday, January 8, 2011

                Everyone knows that Disney World is the happiest place on earth, don’t they? Doesn’t everyone know that in Disney World the farewell phrase is “Have a magical day!”? So, tonight, we found ourselves in Disney World, after a magical day. Well maybe not incredibly magical. Anyway, our not so magical day began with Ben running, Daddy walking, and the whole family showering. (Don’t worry, we didn’t all shower at one time.) We woke up on our own and then went to very nice and hot showers. After showers, we had breakfast (with yogurt!) and then packed up and left the campsite.

                After getting gas, we returned to our special RV parking spot in St. Augustine and went to visit the Colonial Spanish Quarters. We bought our family admission ticket and headed inside. Although the year in the Colonial Village was supposed to be 1740, nobody really stayed in the time period. We began with watching a carpenter work. He talked to us and repeatedly told us how the Spanish tools were different from the ones of today. The main reason was that all tools were fashioned to be powered by man power, and fashioned to keep all carpenters safe. He demonstrated to us how to use one of the tools. This particular tool was called a shaving horse. He sat down on a bench running perpendicular to a machine. Straddling the bench, he put up his feet on a contraption that looked like a part of a rocking horse. When he pushed against the rocking horse contraption, the other part clamped a piece of wood he was holding. Then he got out a double handled shaving knife, designed to be perfectly safe for the user. He demonstrated how he shaved wood and how easily he could control how much and how precise his shavings could be.

                While we were watching him, a colonial lady came up and said that it was time for the 11 o’clock tour. She took us into a house that was originally a Spanish house, and then was enlarged when it became a British house. She told us that, in the house, it was the year of 1760. Her “husband”, Mr. Stout, was in there. She knocked on the door, and it soon opened to a rather large man expressing complaints about the abominable price for lame pigs. Then he noticed us, and, apologizing, brought us inside. Once in the parlor, he showed us some cloth that he thought would look nice as a robe for him, but his wife thought would look nice as a gown for her. She gave in, and offered to have the cook sew it up for him. That wouldn’t do and when he expressed his displeasure, she said she would sew his gown for him, only she rolled her eyes when she finally acquiesced.

                Next he expressed worry about his lost “whistle”. He said that he had put it right on the table, and it had disappeared! (His wife looked very guilty as he said this.) She sent him off to look for his whistle while she took us around the house. In the dining room, he found us again, and told his wife that he had found the whistle in a barrel of rice, under a bushel of oranges in the mustiest corner of the storage room. He was completely bewildered as to how it had ended up there. The wife looked very frustrated, said she didn’t know how it ended up there, but that she would speak to the cook about her housekeeping practices. Now that he had found his lost whistle, Mr. Stout expressed a desire to practice, and his wife skillfully led us upstairs while he practiced. After our tour of the upstairs, we came back downstairs and found him sneaking some “biscuits”, or cookies. He followed us into the kitchen, where the wife showed Mr. Stout all the new cooking contraptions of the day, many of which he could not see the point of, and then we were able to ask him questions. I found it all very amusing and interesting.

                After exiting the building, we went back to the Colonial Spanish quarters. There we visited a Spanish captain’s home, a blacksmith shop, a tavern, and finally a sailor’s home. The blacksmith’s shop was the most interesting. He was making miniature hanging hooks. Women of the time would use these hooks to move their pots up and down a chain to control how much heat was coming from the fire. He was making these in miniature and turning them into key rings. He showed us how and why he added ornamentation and how the entire process was done. Ben was so impressed that he ended up buying one of the key chains we saw him make.  After visiting the sailor’s home, we went down the street and visited a hat shop. There Lindsey found a cute cowgirl hat with seashells that was half off the original price. She bought it and we were on our way.

                Back at the RV, we had a quick lunch. During lunch, we watched all the cars parking in “RV only” spots get tickets. A quick word of advice – if you never park in front of a huge sign saying RV’s only, you should be free from getting a ticket for it! We cleaned up from lunch and then got on the road to Orlando. After two hours of driving, we reached the gate to Disney World. A man in a yellow and white striped button up shirt standing in a pink booth at the entrance gate wished us a “magical day”. How sweet!

                Yesterday, our wonderful dad had reserved us the last campsite in a resort campground literally in Disney World. (This campground usually needs reservations six or more months in advance.) We reached the entrance to this wonderful campground soon after entering Disney World. We were signed in by a young lady. She was very helpful, and, when it was time to sign the papers, Dad was to sign by the Mickey! Instead of asking him to sign by the “X”, she had drawn a Mickey Mouse head on the signature line, indicating where he was to sign. She also gave us maps and information. We drove and drove through this huge resort campground, only to find someone else’s RV in our spot. Dad made a phone call to the front desk and soon we were in a new site and set up camp. Mom and Lindsey started laundry while Dad and I went exploring. We found a very large, heated swimming pool with a huge water slide, a fountain area and spa. It was really nice! It was such a pleasant evening that we had dinner outside. We had delicious bratwursts, potato salad and brownies, all the while hearing bits and pieces of the Chip and Dale Sing-a-Long campfire happening across the lagoon. After dinner, we left Dad to work on the computer and had a wonderful time swimming. Unfortunately, since it was now too late for the lifeguard, the slide and fountain aquatic area were closed, but we had fun anyway. After all, we were swimming in January, in an outdoor pool and we had the entire pool to ourselves‼

                To end our magical day, we showered and got ready for bed. As we got in bed, we began to hear Disney music being played on what sounded like xylophones. Then it sounded like the Main Street Electrical Parade was passing right through our campsite. With this music and our excitement about what tomorrow had in store for us, we had a difficult time going to sleep. But soon the music turned into a form of a lullaby, and serenaded us to sleep.