Am I a Nerd?

SF Theatre Festival

I'm Worth Something!

How Long Will I Live?

Mill Valley and Stinson Beach

2nd Reunion at Disneyworld

10 years ago, we had a family reunion at DisneyWorld in Orlando, FL. None of the grandkids were born yet, so it was just us "adults". Dad was still alive back then, and able to do a fair bit of walking. I'll have to find some photos and scan them to put up here. Digital cameras were not the norm. We all had our hands up in a "touch-down" pose, so you might think "what's wrong with these people?" if you saw the photo album, but if you only saw individual photos, you might think we're almost normal. I remember going from ride to ride, with almost no waiting because Calvin & co timed it that good. There was the daily afternoon showers to soak and cool you off... I think it wasn't peak season, since we had no kids in tow.

We stayed at a house in Kissimmee. Super cheap. Clean. And we drove in a van to the park each day, except the day we spent at downtown Orlando at a museum. So, it was the 6 of us, plus the Taylors.

Fast-forward 10 years. Ben had the idea to come back to DisneyWorld for a 10th anniversary reunion. It's been 2 years since Dad passed away, and we have 5 kids wired up to do DisneyWorld, ranging in age from 8 to almost 2. Mary was the only kid that knew this was coming, because Murielle had to drag her along to AAA to book packages for the 4 households. Y'know... to avoid the daily "how many days til DisneyWorld?" none of the other kids knew. Due to school schedules, we went there during peak season. And we're splurging by staying at one of the Disney resorts, albeit one where you take their bus to the park, not the super-expensive monorail hotel. Still, it was so convenient because you can take the kids back to the hotel in the middle of the day to nap, or cool off in one of the pools. We had a "grand gathering" 4 adjacent rooms, and Disney park-hopper plus meal plan passes. Boy did we eat well. Their food options have improved tremendously. Kim did a lot of pre-planning to book us dinner reservations, and the one breakfast at Cinderella's castle. For the record: Jasmine is hot :-D

We did one late night, where the two older kids got to stay up past 1am to see the water theatre show. Surprisingly, they weren't that cranky the next day. I wouldn't let them stay up every night, though. One good day is luck. Two would be statistically improbable.

Aside from digital cameras, everyone had cellphones this time. Very useful to text message each other, since you can't really expect a group of 13 people to move enmasse all the time. We're all getting older by the minute. I don't think we'll wait another 10 years for a reunion of this sort. What new technology will we carry with us next time?


Here are some photo albums from various cameras:

murielle: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=113n4pqh.7hccgsn5&x=1&y=bhryet and http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=113n4pqh.5ua313m1&x=1&y=i1bl6p

kim: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=2pl0kwn.6lg7uuu3&x=0&y=v9xllx

ben: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=3uzf8t2.5i15j4qz&x=0&y=-jcdygg

Mission Peak

Paris

Chartres

Monet

Chantilly

France & Relatives

Michael McKean

Quarry Lakes

China From The Inside

Dry Creek / Garin