Disney World – Day 3

John Wise at Disney World in Orlando, Florida

The Animal Kingdom is where we started the day, and Hollywood Studios is where we headed afterward.

Disney World in Orlando, Florida

The owl. These special birds hold a place in my heart and identity. Back when I was a small boy of about six years old, I’d seen an advertisement for Tootsie Roll Pops featuring Mr. Oliver Owl, who was portrayed as a scholarly Wise Old Owl. Well, Wise is my last name and I learned then that my last name means smart and full of wisdom, and so I would aspire to be that. This was my first encounter with wanting to be a lifelong nerd.

Caroline Wise at Disney World in Orlando, Florida

Again, here we are with the t-shirts, and this time, it is Caroline wearing a shirt of the Kodama from the movie Princess Mononoke that just came out about a month ago. It, like Disney, our relationship, and so many other things are part of the romance in our lives that are great reminders of how beautiful life can be.

Disney World in Orlando, Florida

More parades and great characters, but the truly special, super special part of the day was to be had after dark when we witnessed the most spectacular fireworks and laser show we’ve ever seen. This Year 2000 celebration show brought both of us to tears; it was so amazing and profoundly romantic.

Disney World – Day 2

Caroline Wise at Disney World in Orlando, Florida

Epcot made up for any disappointment we might have felt yesterday in the Magic Kingdom. Caroline here is enjoying a cup of spiced wine which is also known as Glühwein back in Germany, which is also the theme of the area we are visiting right now in Epcot.

Notice the Euro Disney t-shirt she’s wearing? We bought that shirt back in 1992 for her 25th birthday at Euro Disney. Today is the anniversary of that day, meaning it’s her birthday. Caroline is turning 32. One other thing, the shirt worn around her waist was also bought that day seven years ago and then was subsequently worn on the day we were married back on January 12, 1994.

Disney World in Orlando, Florida

The parades and cast of characters are far different in this part of the Disney World complex of parks than we expected. Epcot alone is proving to be worth the price entry.

Caroline Wise at Disney World in Orlando, Florida

I don’t think I’ve ever taken a photo of this face and seen more freckles on it, must be the way the sun reflects off the Gulf of Mexico and the nearby Atlantic Ocean. Looking at her eyes, I don’t feel like she’s aged a year in the more than ten years we’ve been sharing in these adventures.

Caroline Wise at Disney World in Orlando, Florida

So I was going to end this blog post on the last photo, but there’s something special about this particular photo, and it has to do with what Caroline is holding in her left hand. She’s holding our photographs which we are saving to a floppy disk. After years of shooting rolls of film and often developing them ourselves, it is such a strange idea that our photos can be seen instantly and that they are on a floppy disk; crazy times.

Disney World – Day 1

Caroline Wise at Disney World in Orlando, Florida

History is kind of repeating itself, but more of that with tomorrow’s post. Here we are in Florida on the only cloudy day of the year they had in all of 1999, well, except for Hurricane Irene back in October, which attacked Florida with a lot of clouds, wind, and rain, so there was that. But otherwise, sunny Florida had to go and cloud up our arrival here in Orlando, Florida.

Disney World in Orlando, Florida

Our first partial day here in Disney World was kind of dismal, and while the Disney parks usually rank high with us, the Magic Kingdom here in Florida, compared to Euro Disney outside Paris and Disneyland in California, just didn’t measure up. No big deal, as we are just thrilled to be here in Florida, and there’s so much more to come.