Sunday, January 16, 2022

Only 45 Days...

It's been 730 days since I last stepped into a Disney theme park.  If you had told me back on January 18th of 2020, that Eliot and I would be away from the magic for over two years, through a worldwide pandemic, and that we'd miss Walt Disney World's 50th birthday on October 1st, I never would have believed you.  Yet, here we are. 

It's been one year, 11 months and 30 days.  Or 104 weeks and 2 days.  Or 17,520 hours.  Or 1,051,200 minutes.  Or 63,072,000 seconds.  No matter how you slice it, it's been a long time since I smelled the popcorn on Main Street USA.  Eons since I last walked under the "Here You Leave Today" sign under the train tracks.  So long since I waved to my favorite characters.  It's been too long since I saw the castle.

I'm 100% ok with our decision to wait.  Up until now, it's felt right waiting.  Even now, we're still in the middle of the pandemic, and numbers are still rising at an alarming rate.  However, I have to admit that I'm also getting a bit stir crazy.  I've had both of my vaccines.  Eliot and I are all boostered up as well.  We've both been doing everything that we are "supposed" to be doing according to the experts.

The past few weeks, I've finally come to accept that the coronavirus pandemic isn't going anywhere anytime soon.  I'm tired of it.  Eliot's tired of it.  All of us are tired of it.

I'm ready to move forward with my life, while continuing to do what we're "supposed" to.  But I'm not going to sit in my house forever and watch life pass me by.  I've done that, and frankly I'm tired of watching many people who aren't doing what they are "supposed" to do have all the fun.  And that ends now.

I'm friends with so many travel agents through my company.  My friends have all been continuing to travel around the world safely and responsibly.  They are living proof that it is possible.  Plus, now that Eliot and I have gone on our road trip to Virginia with my family and flew down to Pittsburg to visit his family, I'm ready to get out there again.  I had been worried about flying, but it ended up not being a big deal.

My wings are ready to spread once again.  I'm ready to leave the nest and get back to whatever the new normal is going to be in regards to traveling.  And I'm doing it.

Now, all that separates me from Mickey Mouse is 45 days.  

That's right; Eliot and I are officially booked, scheduled and reserved to visit our main mouse on March 1st.  And in a surprise twist of fate, our first trip back will not be to Walt Disney World to celebrate it's 50th Anniversary.  It will be to the place that the magic started... walking in Walt's footsteps at the Disneyland Resort. 

I'm so thrilled to go back to Disneyland.  I mean, at this point I'm excited in general to go to any Disney theme park, but I'm really looking forward to seeing Disneyland.  The last time Eliot and I were there, we had absolutely no idea when we'd be going back.

I want to add that this is actually a multi-faceted trip.  The original reason Eliot and I will be in California is that we're going to the San Jose Sharks home games on February 26th and 27th.  These were some of the only Saturday and Sunday back-to-back home games in the season, and we have had these on our radar since last summer.  Plus, there's another fun event that we have tickets to that Eliot and I have been wanting to go see.  It lined up perfectly like it was meant to be!  (More about that soon!)

Eliot's and my plan is to fly into San Jose Friday night, then go to the Sharks hockey games and the other event that weekend.  Then, on Monday February 28th, Rick, Elissa, Eliot and I will all drive down to Southern California to meet up with Nori.  We'll be staying at a hotel about a mile from Disneyland while we're there.

Eliot's family will be going a few of the days, but they haven't worked out all of the details.  However, we did get Eliot's and my Disneyland tickets and we are both officially booked as of last night.  (Hence, why I've started my countdown!)  We've had the San Jose Sharks hockey tickets, other event tickets and our flights booked for a while now, but I didn't want to say anything until everything was all set!

Eliot and I will be at the Disneyland Resort Tuesday, March 1st through Friday, March 4th.  Since you still have to book your park reservations in advance, we've selected to do Disneyland, CA Adventure, CA Adventure and then Disneyland on the final day.  We don't fly out of the Southern California area until Sunday night, but we've also got a few other plans.  Plus, we'll be going back to Disneyland sometime Saturday or Sunday to explore Downtown Disney and do some shopping.  (World of Disney anyone?)

In the meantime, I'll be eagerly counting down the next 45 days.  Only 6 weeks and 3 days.  Or 1080 hours.  Or 64,800 minutes.  Or 3,888,000 seconds.  Because that's all that separates me from finally stepping back into the magic.  °o°

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