Day 13: Snow shoveling…
Good morning warm Kissimmee! At 6:30 our alarm went of and within only 15 minutes both Mama and I were up taking care of the remaining to do’s. After all was done it was time to wake Emily but she was already having fun with her stuffed animals. Soon we had her fully dressed and while I packed the car Emily was walking around outside.
At 8:00 we drove of the driveway at left in the direction of the the airport. We arrived at SIXT at 8:45 and within 15 minutes we walked in the Premium Rouge check inn. We upgrade our seats from economy to premium rouge something similar to short haul business class. We got to take our suitcases for free, free onboard food and drinks, priority boarding and lounge access. Although the lounge access was not really useful that was in the other terminal.
At 9:25 we exited the people mover and walked in ‘our’ terminal. Lucky enough the complimentary lounge from our credit card was in our terminal and so we could still relax a little bit from the craziness of the Walt Disney World airport. Emily had the kids corner all by herself and we enjoyed free drinks, freshly baked pancakes, strawberries and more while waiting till we could board at 11:15.
In the end the boarding was delayed by about 25 minutes but as soon as it started we were alllowed in and found our seats (1A & 1C). Very spacious seats and no one in front of us.
Emily slept on Mama’s shoulder as soon as the plane started rolling. As soon as we were airborne the crew told us that we could use the two empty seats beside us so Emily would have her own seat. She woke up just before our dinner was served! Mama and I both went for chicken and Emily enjoyed it…she eat half of mama her food.
The flight went smooth we landed at 2:55 in Toronto and we could already see that winter had come to Ontario, everything was white. But the roads looked clean, nothing to worry about. Emily’s stroller was the first one being brought tot the gate, at security the officer was waiting for us, the suitcases were already on the belt, the car was parked inside the terminal garage and in 50 minutes we were already not the highway 401 going back home.
Emily fell a sleep during the car ride and this we decided to grocery shopping as we had nothing to eat at home. Mama went shopping while I went through the Starbucks drive thru! So far so good…
But then we drove into our court and saw the snow covered driveway…all others were clean already! That meant I had something to do even before we entered the house: shoveling 20 centimeters of snow from our driveway. This was something I had never done before and it’s too funny that I get to this after we woke up with 20 degrees Celcius in the morning. So I started right after turning the furnace on to warm up the house!
At this moment our next door neighbor Ron drove into the court and told me to stop shoveling right away. He pulled out the snow plow he borrowed from Sean and cleaned out the rest and on top of that he also threw some snow shovel basics in for the next time!
After about 2 hours the result was a almost perfectly clean driveway, ok there was some stuff already frozen to the ground but we need to hope that’s gone after tomorrow.
In the meantime Mama started preparing dinner while Emily was playing with her toys and hugging her stuffed animals! I guess she did miss home after all…
Unfortunately vacation is over and tomorrow I’m expected in the office again. We had a great time meeting friends, in the sun, meeting Mickey and his pals, shopping and having time off. Oh and for sure we’ll be back!
Frozen in Ontario…
One of the things we wanted to do since a couple of weeks was visiting the Niagara Falls in winter style. Last weekend wasn’t an option since we already had other things planned, next week we are hopefully enjoying some sunshine and if we come back temperatures might be above zero again, last time was the 29th of January. So in short today could be the last day to see them in Frozen style…
But before we left towards Niagara Falls we wanted to check in for our flights to Orlando, Florida for tomorrow. Yes flights since we are flying separate since I booked my flight through the office and Danielle booked hers through Air Canada direct and got an unbelievable low price from 365$ including all taxes (250 Euro). After all the booking was done we got ourselves a Starbucks coffee treat and a delicious chocolate chip cookie. Ok, the cookies are not as good as Danielle’s but they are the best chocolate chip cookies you can get at Starbucks, way better as the American version and just a bit better as the German ones.
When we left it started snowing a bit, nothing terrible since we got used to it the last months. During the drive it got worse, we had a delay because of a big accident on the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way) and after just over 2 hours we arrived.
It was beautiful and cold. Danielle was happy to have seen it, for me it was the 2nd time during the winter season after I went in 2012 during a business trip together with Martin, a colleague. This time it was less cold but there was more snow and ice.
The way back was terrible, we never drove over 80km/h since the roads were covered with snow and crashed cars. It took us over 2,5 hour to get back but we arrived back safe.
After we got back I decided to wash our car in the cleaning zone in our parking garage. It’s free but it’s also do-it-yourself version. I guess it’s about 8 years ago I washed my car by hand. I think it’s better for your car to wash it by hand and I see it as one of the perks of living in the Minto Midtown towers but I felt a bit tired afterwards, maybe we should have bought a smaller SUV?
Now it’s bedtime since the taxi will be waiting for us at 4:15am tomorrow.