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| Photo credit: Loews Hotels |
Several months ago, Ali asked, “If I save up to pay my own
way to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, will you take me?” Chad and I told
her that was a great idea, we researched packages, settled on an amount, and
thought, “Well, this should take a while.” About two months later, Ali came to
me and said, “Okay, I have the money now.”
“Um. You do?” I asked. Turns out I have a daughter that never
spends her money, and when she initially asked about the trip, she already had
most of it saved. I’m not one to go back on my word nor will I ever put off
traveling, so I made the reservations. Now, Ali and I are sitting in our hotel
room at The Cabana Bay Beach Resort. Ali learned a lesson about working hard
and saving for a big purchase, and I get to spend five days in Florida with
her. We both win.
We had a long day of traveling with a layover in
Minneapolis, Minnesota. On the first leg of the trip, I was seated next to
Richard. I know his name because, like Jason Bourne, I pay attention to details,
and earlier I had seen the corner of his boarding pass sticking out of his
shirt pocket. Richard was having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.
When the flight attendant came by with the beverage/snack cart, she leaned over
me to ask Richard, “Would you like a snack? Peanuts, pretzels, or cookies?”
“Can I have a can of cran-apple—“
“Would you like a snack?”
she repeated.
“I was asking you a question,” he said.
“And I was asking you
a question and you ignored me,” the flight attendant said back.
They had a few more choice words for each other, while I sat
terrified to ask her for Biscoff cookies.
Richard finally got his cran-apple juice and I think it
helped raise his blood sugar because he suddenly started talking to me and he didn’t stop for the next hour and a half. I learned about Dutch settlers in
Michigan, apartheid in South Africa, ore mining, The Cathedral of Santiago de
Compostela in Spain, the history of Nazi Germany, and lots of other Trivial-Pursuit-worthy
tidbits.
The highlight of the trip—the thing that made me freeze in
my seat and hold my breath—was the moment Ali leaned over and rested her head
on my shoulder. It only last 2 minutes, but in those minutes, I was hyper aware
of her. I smelled her, I fought the urge to tilt my head and rest it on hers,
and I did not move a muscle. When you have a child that doesn’t enjoy being touched by people, moments like these are indescribable. The pilot could have turned
the plane around and brought us home, and our trip would have been a success.
So, that’s probably not true, but it was an unforgettable moment.
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| Getting dropped off at the hotel |
We got to Orlando at 7:40 PM, and as we came down the
escalator we saw a man wearing khakis and a white Polo shirt holding a sign
that said, “Rachel Niemeyer.” He then
ushered us away from the crowd, down an elevator, and out a side door where a town car was waiting for us. Twenty-five minutes later, we pulled into The Cabana Bay
Beach Resort and it felt like we were pulling into the 1950s. With its bright
colors, retro-theme, and live band playing outside the Swizzle Lounge in the
lobby, Ali and I got our energy back and wished we had been alive five decades
ago.
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| Our home for the next four nights |
The hotel has five buildings, which house 1,800 guest rooms. Each building is named after an iconic hotel from the mid twentieth century. Our room is in the "Americana." The other building names are "Starlight," "Thunderbird," "Castaway," and "Continental." Our room is funky and comfortable with a view of the pool
and lazy river. After checking in, we dropped off our bags and walked along the perfectly
landscaped paths next to the pool, stopping for dinner at the Bayliner Diner, the hotel’s food court. We ate dinner outside, sitting at a table under colorful striped
umbrellas, listening to the waterfall, and watching people roast marshmallows
around the patio fire pits.
We are getting ready for bed so we can get an early start making all of Ali’s Harry Potter dreams come true.
"Don't let the muggles get you down."
- Ron Weasley
- Rachel
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