The Magic Worked

Before we left for Walt Disney World I wrote about how much the lovely and talented Lisa needed this trip. The stress of work was getting to her in a way I'd not seen in a long, long time and she desperately needed to get away. I didn't say it then, but one of my big concerns was that she wouldn't be able to "let it go" and be truly away. I was picturing emails and texts about Town of Oak Island issues making it impossible for Lisa to relax and leave the real world behind.

As it turned out, that wasn't a problem. Lisa seriously limited the number of times she checked her phone for messages and when she did check, there were no problems or even questions waiting for her. Her co-workers and even the elected officials left her alone, and I am eternally grateful for that. Lisa was free to let Disney work its magic, and magic happened. We got our relaxed and happy wife and mom back, and it was magical. 

                                                                                                                                               

My people at a jaunty angle, waiting for the First Order

Driving to Cary for John's final marching band competition and leaving from there turned out to not be a very bad detour at all. The show was great, John and his band competed well and we all left excited and happy by about 7 pm. The drive to Disney wasn't bad at all from there, just a straight shot down 95. South Carolina seemed to last forever, but with Little Steven's Underground Garage on the Sirius for company, I was fine driving while Lisa and John got a little sleep.

We used the online check-in option, so Disney had texted me our room number in the afternoon and we were able to head straight to our room catch a few hours sleep before heading out to our first park, Hollywood Studios.

We got there just after lunch time and were immediately sucked into the magic. Hollywood Studios

Chewie & my peeps

has been very Star Wars-ified, and in the very best way. Lisa got to see her Muppets and I got to meet Chewbacca and introduce him to my family. The weather was beautiful, and it stayed that way our entire trip. We were all a bit sleepy, but stayed to see Fantasmic and were all pretty pumped up after seeing it. Lisa and I got to see John completely blown way by the show and talking about how he wants to come work for a theme park's entertainment division making shows like that happen. We all crawled into bed happy and ready for day two at the Magic Kingdom.

Our Keys to the Kingdom Tour was unbelievable. By now we were all firmly ensconced in the magic of WDW. Instead of worrying about work, Lisa was looking with complete amazement as a few Disney princesses showed up right next to us in the Utilidors under the castle on their way to a show. We spent the afternoon riding rides and the evening experiencing Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, staying in the park until midnight.

Rockin' her new F&W shirt :-)

My people outside France

Tuesday was Epcot Food & Wine Festival day, and we had a ball. By now, I'd even stopped wondering if Lisa would have to deal with some emergency or issue from home. I can't tell you for certain it wasn't in the back of her mind, but it didn't seem like it. We rode Soarin' twice back to back, grabbed a quick bite and drink from the little food counter in The Land pavilion and took the boat ride through the greenhouses before heading over to Test Track and then beginning our F&W experience at the Festival Center next door. Lisa got "sipping chocolate and a pretty new shirt and we headed off for World Showcase and all sorts of munchies.

We ate and drank our way around the world, we popped back to Future World for a ride in Spaceship Earth and took another lap of the food booths. We all decided to forgo the Illuminations show in favor of a relatively early bedtime and beating the crowds out of the park. I gotta say here, bus transport to and from the parks was easy,quick and hassle-free.

Yep, we were having a good time :-)

We like hats

By Wednesday, we were all completely relaxed. Lisa was a different person from the week before.

Perusing the Tiffins drink menu

We enjoyed Animal Kingdom from open to close in a completely relaxed and easy-going manner. We never had to rush anywhere, we stopped to watch all the street performers we saw, we enjoyed the beauty and intense themeing that defines Animal Kingdom, and we had a leisurely and delicious late lunch at Tiffins. Lisa may have mentioned once or twice how no one from work was contacting her, but it was in the context of being able to completely let go. Seeing Animal Kingdom, including the safari, at night topped off what was probably our favorite day of the entire trip.

I just love these two.

Lisa likes tigers. Grrrrr.

Off to tackle Everest and face the Yeti!

We had to leave the bubble Thursday, but went to the Magic Kingdom first and got to see it decked out for Christmas. I loved it myself, but seeing the old wonder and happiness back in Lisa's eyes that morning was the absolute best. We had a truly Stites Day, riding the Peoplemover around twice without getting off, enjoying lunch in the new and amazing Skippers Canteen and finishing off with the Christmas version of the Jungle Cruise, now called the Jingle Cruise for the season. Oh, except

Christmas Magic!

that we saw Elena of Avalor being welcomed into the pantheon of Disney Princesses on the Cinderella Castle stage on the way out. Oh, and on our way fro Tomorrowland to Adventureland earlier, Minnie Mouse interacted with Lisa from the float of a parade we stumbled across by posing and waving just for her.

See, it's those kinds of things that still get to us, Lisa and I. Whether it's seeing Chewbacca or waving to Minnie or staying on the Peoplemover for another lap or riding Expedition Everest in the front, back and middle all in the same day or having Tinklebell magically appear with us in photos or seeing Mickey and friends open the park, the unplanned magic is what sucks us in and allows us to completely leave the world behind.

Fantasy merges with reality and dreams come true at Disney World. Yes, it's not a budget-conscious trip. Yes, it's a longish drive. But some people spend that much money and all sorts of time on anti-depressants and doctors' visits trying to cope with life. Me, I'll take a dose of magic for myself and my family. Four and a half days in another world is pretty priceless if you ask me, and seeing it completely turn my frazzled and stressed out love back into a happy and relaxed and smiling woman is worth more to me than anything.

47 Days: The South Coast Classic

Every time I write this blog with the countdown number in the title, I'm reminded that something pretty special is coming up about a month before our trip. This year will be the inaugural South Coast Classic high school marching band competition held at John's school, South Brunswick High.

The idea for doing this sort of grew out of the group of band parent friends we sit with at home football games and travel with to band competitions at other schools. I can't tell you for certain, but it was most probably first voiced by Elie Erickson, who has turned what was a few parents sometimes meeting for lunch before a competition into a rather large "Spirit Squad." Elie is......enthusiastic. And she's fun and smart and most of all a doer of things rather than just a sayer of things. This thing has gone from the "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if...." phase to the "oh sh**, it's happening in three weeks!" phase in less than a year.

A band competition, if you are unfamiliar, basically consists of marching bands putting on their halftime shows and being judged on every aspect from music to marching to colorguard to percussion to my personal favorite "General Effect." The schools are organized according to number of students in the band so they can compete on a somewhat equal footing. I've seen bands of close to 100 students and one that consisted of just six (who, by the way, put on an amazing rendition of songs from the American Soul Music canon).

The young musicians work incredibly hard on these shows, putting in easily as many hours as the football players for who's halftimes they perform. Ours attend band camps twice during the summer and practice at least twice after school each week. They memorize music and drill (the exactly choreographed movements on the field) until they can move with all the harmony with which they play the music. It's been an eye-opening experience watching John become a part of this. He works his tail off and the work shows on the field. What better lesson for a high school student, really? I couldn't be prouder of him or his entire band family.

The family aspect has been a huge blessing to Lisa and I as well. We have a crew in the stands. Heck, Elie even brought me a cow bell festooned with school color ribbons and a big "S" for South. I keep it in my car, I say just in case I need it, but really as a reminder of the kind of unsolicited kindness one sees from true friends. Our Spirit Squad has grown, too. As more parents see (and hear, did I mention the cow bell) us cheering on the band, those of our ilk come and join us and they stay week after week. We sing and yell and make a racket. We embarrass the children by hollering out their names from high atop the bleachers. It's Pro-Level Parenting, I tell ya, and we love it.

With the date, Saturday, October 1, fast approaching, we could use all the help and support the community can offer. We are looking for trophy sponsors, volunteers and attendees. If you can help with a few bucks, with a few hours or simply with a prayer or two, I'd be truly grateful. We'll have need of ticket takers, car parkers, concession sellers and bleacher fillers. You'll have a great day, I promise. If you think you can help, or want to simply keep up with our goings on, you can go "Like" our South Coast Classic Facebook page. If you think you can help with a sponsorship, drop me an email at jgstites@yahoo.com. If you'd just like to come out and see these amazing musicians do their thing, just roll on up to the Southport High School football stadium by 3:00 pm on Saturday, October 1 and buy yourself a ticket.

I'll see you there!!!

69 Days: FastPass Dreamin'

Home from our end of summer trip and finally got the final (hopefully) schedule for John's high school marching band competitions. That finally settles which day of our trip will be spent in which park, and just in time as my window for making FastPass reservations opens one week from Tuesday! How exciting is that?

We'll be leaving straight from John's last competition on Saturday, October 29 in Cary, NC. Not ideal, as we'll be driving through the night and that will make Sunday a bit sleepy for us. Seeing as Hollywood Studios is very much under construction, we'll spend Sunday there. Monday will be Magic Kingdom Day with the Keys To The Kingdom Tour and then Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. We'll hit Epcot and the Food and Wine Festival on Tuesday and Animal Kingdom on Wednesday. We'll leave Thursday, but are in no hurry so will probably be hitting Magic Kingdom again until lunchtime.

I'm thinking play it safe and secure afternoon FastPasses in the Studios, Rock-n-Roller Coaster for sure and also Toy Story if we can. We'll need to squeeze Monday's at the Magic Kingdom between the end of the tour and 7:00, so I'm think Seven Dwarves and Haunted Mansion (thinking it'll packed on Halloween). We may miss the new Frozen ride at Epcot in favor of the new movie version of Soarin', but definitely in the morning so we can hit the Food and Wine soon as it opens. I'm thinking we rope drop the safari at Animal Kingdom and use the FastPass for Expedition Everest later in the day.

This is just a basic, preliminary plan. I haven't even researched exactly how many we get in each park and what the tiers look like yet. I feel so behind already :-)

Any suggestions on the plan as it is so far?

Plans Gone Awry.....WIN!!!!!

Yesterday Lisa and I planned to drive to Loris, South Carolina to watch John in his final marching band competition. The weather was iffy, well, more like definitely crappy with rain pouring down at regular intervals, but in the past the schools had moved the show into a gymnasium in bad weather, so we thought nothing of it.

We've developed a little tradition while traveling to John's band competitions. Lisa and I like road trips, and these things tend to bring us to places we've not been before. We drop John off at his school early in the morning so he can practice and ride the band bus to where ever. His group usually performs in the late afternoon, so we have plenty of time to amuse ourselves during the day. We've gotten in the habit of leaving home early enough to explore the area hosting the competition a bit, and we try to find some local, interesting place for lunch. One of our favorite finds last year was in Conway, South Carolina on our way to Loris. We planned yesterday to revisit this little cafe, Crady's.

All was going just according to plan, we were sitting at a nice window seat in Crady's looking at the really cool community theatre building across the street when I got a call from John telling us the competition was canceled and the band was heading to Planet Fun instead. So we ended up driving quite a ways for lunch (which was GREAT, by the way), but we still had until early evening before we needed to retrieve the boy. No problem, we thought, we'll just drive around and check out Conway then head home and cuddle up under a blanket until John was done.

While we were there, though, we decided to go across the street and look a little more closely at this theatre, The Theatre of the Republic. We'd seen it the year before as well when it was running The 39 Steps a week after our own closed. This time Young Frankenstein was the feature. While we were looking in the windows the door popped open and a nice lady invited us in to look around. We said, sure, we'd love to see the inside and went on in.

Well, before you know it, this little old man came up, Lisa tells him I'm the president of Brunswick Little Theatre in Brunswick County, and he says he'd love to show us around. I was hoping to see the seating area, which we did, but then he proceeded to walk us up on stage, through a sliding hidden door in the back and proceeded to show us the whole building. It was great, the place is the Tardis of theaters, it's about 12 times the size inside as it is outside. I was blown away, I have theater envy, bad. Our friend Jen took us backstage at Thalian Hall a few weeks ago, and that was impressive, but this little 325-seater has MORE space backstage than that! They have a huge scenic workshop, a big kitchen/hang-out room, make-up rooms, costume storage and workshops, dressing rooms with showers (separate from the make-up rooms) and prop storage everywhere. They've been in this facility a while, so it's like a museum of all their past shows. Lisa was dying for a camera.

The fireplace opens up. It's cool.

In talking to our tour guide, we find the Theatre of the Republic is celebrating 45 years next year, and HE was on the original board! Kind of explains why no one questioned the two strangers wandering through the back stage area 45 minutes before curtain. He was a little, as Lisa said, light on the facts. "When did you move in here?" "Oh, a while ago." "How'd you come into this place?" "Oh, it just opened up." But he was a great tour guide anyhow and showed us everything we could have asked to see and more. Including two racks containing probably at least 80 tuxedos that had just been donated. Why doesn't that happen to US?!?!?

On our way out, we were deposited in front of the ticket booth to sign up for the email list. The FABULOUS guy manning the ticket booth was in the middle of a rant about the huge pain in the ass that is cast and crew comp tickets. The audience for this rant was a woman who, I discovered to my great delight, was wearing a "Frau Stage Manager" shirt. We bonded. We got on the email list. We made plans to invite friends back to see Gypsy this summer. We left a bit exhausted and with heads a-spin just as the audience was beginning to arrive. I love the theater community.

We headed home and realized that our change in plans meant we could go to the first meeting/rehearsal for Brunswick Little Theatre's Fezziwig's Ball and Murder Mystery (tickets on sale now!). We went to our own little theatre, we danced, we discussed costumes, we got assigned characters (I'm Mr. Fezz himself and very pleased about that; Lisa is Mrs. Cratchet), we discussed how to fit all that we do into our space that seemed so huge just a little while ago, and we left smiling and happy and looking forward to the future.