Trip Report When can we do this again? A Fractal family Odyssey. *COMPLETED*

Definition of odyssey:

• : a long journey full of adventures
  
  
• : a series of experiences that give knowledge or understanding to someone

Not too long ago I had a lot of doubt this trip would ever happen. The financial cost of higher education, the fact my wife Val wanted to go anywhere BUT Disney, the crazy and conflicting schedules of the kids, made the odds of keeping our 2-year WDW trip tradition a large long-shot. But maybe things do happen for a reason...

A great deal came our way and before we knew it we were on our way back to the World. Not without a major sacrifice however as my eldest daughter Alexandra had to miss the trip due to her schooling ( she graduates this Friday as an Registered Nurse!). She is a bit of a kindred spirit to me with a personality closer to mine than the other two, so I knew I would miss her dearly on the trip.

Here she is at Christmas with my Mom (Yia-Yia).

Speaking of Yia-yia; she will join us again at WDW! We had a great time with her on our 2013 trip at the Poly. We would meet up with her, my Sister Marina (here with me)...

and my two nieces; Courtney...

and Mia...

at the Yacht Club on the second leg of our journey. The first part of our trip took us to my in-law's (Al & Sue) who moved to Florida (Tampa - St. Pete area) last year. They would also join us at WDW!

Here they are from a 50th anniversary party we had for them last Winter...

It was early evening Thursday July 20th when we began our Odyssey. My good friend Wally picked us up to take us to the Baltimore (BWI) airport.

Excitement was building for our trip but the real Disney excitement would come later.

Sterg and Toni occupied the back seat. They were almost late for the pickup as they decided a last second Starbucks run was in order. Sterg ended up paying for that about an hour later as his bladder protested strongly.

Val was next to me and could barely contain her enthusiasm.

Not only was she not fully in favor of another Disney trip, she was (rightfully) concerned with the potential problems, complications, and stress of merging these 3 parts of the family together in the already chaotic environment of managing reservations, room assignments, getting to the parks, fastpasses and dinner plans. I had much of the same worries, which were also amplified by the fact Yia-Yia and Al would be using electric scooters during our time at the World. But hey, it's Disney, what could go wrong?

 

[ksr99]

Oh and FYI bwi has a great little wine bar!!! Vino something or other!

 

[WildcatDen]

I use SmugMug to store and share my photos. Sometime this year, the browser at work blocked Smugmug. It's as if the website was wiped off the face of the earth. Not only can I not get to my Smugmug account from work, I can't see any photos that I share on other sites. Same with Flickr (also have a more limited account there). I used to use my lunch break (I won't admit to anything more) to update a TR or post photos, but that options is now gone. What nerve! You would thing they pay me to be doing something else . Now it has to be all done at home!

The problem with doing it at home is juggling it among all the other things that need to be done as well as the constant reminders from Val. I mean, foot tall grass can wait another day or two right? She knows I'll eventually fix the water shooting out of the kitchen faucet, correct? Where's the priority?

All kidding aside, this report is going to be unfolding a bit slower than the others. I'm still only about 1/3 through editing the photos, please bear with me...

Take your time. All things in moderation, right? Loving the pictures. So much nicer than my LG G2. . .

 

[mousefreak]

This is gonna be good!!! Can't wait to hear about your trip.

 

[gdisneyfans]

I don't know what else to add that someone else hasn't said already! Gorgeous pictures, gorgeous family, a great start to the report...looking forward to reading along

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Your pictures of Clearwater are gorgeous. I can't wait to see your Disney days!

 

[Sarabell]

Following along off course! awesome photos as always, I can´t take a decent picture to save my life, so it´s always a pleasure to see someone who has that talent. You have some really gorgeous shots of your kids and the sunset. Toni has such a beautiful face!

Can´t wait for the disney portion!

 

[susan lees]

The glow of the sun though the clouds on the horizon created a beautiful warm light.

Sterg took the rest of these shots (which I edited in Lightroom) on my old camera. We both exclusively shot RAW with the cameras, which is how I usually shoot. I know I'll be playing around with these files for a long time after the trip.

and apparently as some point, he snuck up behind me to take a photo of me taking a photo of Toni.

Time to go. Sure glad my children have a good hand grip!

The 30-40 minutes spent on the early evening beach payed off in a big way. For most of the day, the sky was gray and overcast. The break in the clouds was marvelous!

Back at the house, we played Phase 10 again. This time Sue was the winner in dominating fashion.

Coming up, one more day closer to Disney!

Beautiful pictures

 

[docdebbi]

beautiful photos as always. can't wait for this to play out...........i see a lot of laughs coming (at least for us!)

 

[worldfanatic]

I've never been politically correct, or very patient.

So could somebody wake me up when Fractal gets to Disney World?

 

[Uncle Lupe]

As always I'm late to the party playing catch up. The trip to the airport OMG good call not putting that on the Fractal channel. The beach shots not just look amazing but you look to be having such an enjoyable time.

You've got me interested in shooting RAW, the format, not the sans clothes version. Maybe not for our upcoming trip but I am going to start playing around with our camera.

Listen, it's OK to hang onto clothes for a while. Just this year I threw away a pair of Umbro shorts that ripped. Yeah remember those from the 90's??? When something is 100% polyester is lasts for 20 some years. A quick google search shows my black pair, yes I had two, on EBay for $20-$30. Vintage is the keyword. Looking forward to more additions to an already hilarious TR.

 

[myhappyplace]

I've never been politically correct, or very patient.

So could somebody wake me up when Fractal gets to Disney World?

As you were, Fractal...I'm loving all of it so far!

 

[fractal]

we have a nurse in the family

 

[MinnieM123]

View attachment 220846

we have an nurse in the family

Congratulations to your daughter!! It's a wonderful profession. I work with a number of nurses at my job (I'm not medical staff; I'm office staff). But my colleagues and I support the nurses, physicians, etc. A hospital cannot function without all role groups working together.

 

[Missy_May]

View attachment 220846

we have an nurse in the family

Congratulations! My brother teaches nursing at our local university, and is currently getting his doctorate in nursing, so we like nurses over here!

 

[mousefreak]

Congratulations! Proud parents.

 

[JenniferS]

The next day we woke up early. By "we" I mean myself and Al. It's hard for me to sleep past 7am. The rest of the crew slowly arose by 11 and after packing some goodies we took the 20 minute drive to Indian Rocks Beach, a favorite of my In-laws. I brought along my "older" camera; the Sony NEX-7 (sealed in a large ziploc and then in a camera bag) as I did not what to risk anything happening to my new Sony A7rii.

Val was giving me grief about the shirt I was wearing. It was a T-shirt that I turned into my "work-out, yard work and now beach shirt". Men have a hard time letting go of comfortable clothing.

"Can we please get a new shirt?" She said. "I think you had that same shirt on when we were at Clearwater two years ago."

"I did not." I replied confidently. "And what if I did? It's a great beach shirt."

"It's starting to come apart at the collar...and I know you had it on in Clearwater. T-shirts are not that expensive."

Well, she was correct.

2017

2015

The beach was enjoyable. The water was more refreshing than it was 2 years ago in Clearwater; perhaps due to the rain. After a quick dip and sunning myself for 20 minutes or so, I got up to do my favorite thing on the beach; walk.

Toni was the only one to agree to join me so we started our stroll, with camera in hand.

This guy was looking for lunch...

Toni made a surprisingly willing model.

Toni will be 16 next month. She's been my early morning side-kick since her first time in Disney. During those trips her older siblings were in full teenager mode. Sleeping late, talking back, full of drama. I remember teasing by telling her someday she would be a nasty teenager. She promised she would not carry on those traits, but mother nature takes its toll as she's now in the midst of hormonal change. Despite this, she is the least "teenager' of the three and remains a delight to spend time with.

She gave me the idea of taking a selfie in her sunglasses.

I love this kid. I've never wanted a daughter (mother of two sons, sister to three brothers), but I'd take your lovely Toni in a heartbeat. You have a special relationship.

 

[LeighM]

Finally all caught up on your trip report. I've been busy at my new job and never have down time during the day to get caught up on trip reports So I totally understand the frustration of not being able to work on your trip report at work LOL. I have always LOVED your pictures and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your report. Although it might be next weekend until I can read more There are never enough hours in the day...

 

[becca_]

Congrats to Alex! I'm in nursing school as well so I know how hard she's worked to get there!

 

[fractal]

Loving this trip report!!! Can't wait to hear more !!

thanks @*Flynnderella* !

LOL, @, I've got one just like that, I'm following along, cracking up and empathizing all at the same time.

Thanks. Misery loves company.

I am sure the photos will be worth the wait based on all your previous ones.

I appreciate the patience!

I'm so happy to hear that Toni was still up for her morning WDW jaunts for this trip! Reading about your time together in past reports has always put a smile on my face. My dad and I are the DisNuts in my family so we had quite a few similar early mornings on our family trips when I was younger and I love reading about daddy/daughter WDW time in other people's trip reports!

Also loved the paddleboard photos! Those things are hard to maneuver


Too funny!

Thanks @kaitertot5249! We definitely have a special bond due to our Disney days.

Great start. Looking forward to more!

Thanks @coachwnh ! Hope all is well with you and yours.

Sign me up for my first @fractal TR!! I enjoyed catching up on your other reports.

Can't wait to see your pics of YC. It's on the top of my wish list!

From what I've gathered the pictures will be worth the wait

Thanks for coming aboard @PrincessL !

Someone might just have a sore throat from that recirculated airline ventilation and have to take a sick day.

Good thinking! @DznyRktekt

This makes me so happy! My mom's family in California always plays Phase 10 when we're there. Games usually last until well into the early morning! Wouldn't trade that family time for anything.

You take your time with the report! I personally like a slow burn on these. It's fun to have something to look forward to every couple of days.

We ended up playing the "modified" version just to keep it under 4 hours!

Following along! So entertaining thus far!

Thanks for following @joshsprincess921 !

Following along as always. Sterg's bathroom break and forgetting his ID had me in laughing in tears! It's so good to know I don't have the only family that command drama!

Good to have you onboard @Figment Forever !

Following!

Thanks @MeeskaMooska0714 !

Following along. Great pictures!!

Thank you @skyphotographer - thanks for the compliment!

I'm a little late, but I'm definitely following along. I'm looking forward to all of your incredible pics!

Thanks @PacNWTigger !

First of all, the photos are amazing!!!! Your family is beautiful!!

I love all of @fractal jr antics. He really is a character! I agree with the rest of the forum, your early mornings with Toni are priceless!

Following, as always!!

Thanks @littleroo ! Great to have you onboard.

What an amazing photo's!
Following along.

Thank you @Sabrina1705 !

Those are beautiful photos of the family with the perfect background lighting. Lighting is critical to great pictures.

One of my brothers is a photography buff, and he's often referred to the "golden hour" which takes place just before dusk. There is this sort of golden backlighting that lasts maybe 25 minutes or so (never really an "hour"), and he's taken incredible pictures--especially in the city of the skyscrapers and bridges, etc.

Thanks @MinnieM123 ! Yes the golden hour is perfect for photos - but after the sun sets what comes next is also a nice time for photos, especially landscapes. Know as the "blue hour". Before the sky turns completely dark with enough light still in the sky...

I'm so excited you've started your report! The airport mess sounds awful, but i'm glad it worked out for Sterg
I can't believe how grown Sterg and Toni are! Too bad Alex couldn't go, but congrats to her on her nursing degree!

Gorgeous pics!!! I've never been that far down the gulf (I think the farthest i've been is Mexico Beach), but now I want to go! Looks beautiful!

Thanks you @MorganInWonderland ! Yes, time flies. We just got back from Alex's graduation and I told her I "owe" her one.

I love this picture!

It also looks like @fractal jr may have inherited some of your photography skills, his shots are great too!

Thank you! He's okay...

Your pics looks so amazing..

Thanks @Shane7694 !

We are pretty spoiled. They are always quite beautiful and never the same.

Spoiled indeed!

I feel ya on off-camera flash. It took me a hot minute to get it right, but thankfully now I have a go-to setup for weddings and I just stick with that! Of course I just upgraded my flash, so I may be starting from scratch for the fall season

There's got to be a better way!

Fashionably late as usual, but I'm here!

Great start to your report. BEAUTIFUL pictures, of course!
Can't wait for more!

Glad to have you @MerMom1981 !

I can't help but laugh!!! Being a Disney dad ain't an easy life!!!!

Lol! For sure!

Oh and FYI bwi has a great little wine bar!!! Vino something or other!

I've been to that bar. I think it is Vino and yes it was good.

Take your time. All things in moderation, right? Loving the pictures. So much nicer than my LG G2. . .

Thanks @WildcatDen !

This is gonna be good!!! Can't wait to hear about your trip.

Thanks @mousefreak !

I don't know what else to add that someone else hasn't said already! Gorgeous pictures, gorgeous family, a great start to the report...looking forward to reading along

Thank you @gdisneyfans !

Your pictures of Clearwater are gorgeous. I can't wait to see your Disney days!

Thanks @ajrwdwgirl !

Following along off course! awesome photos as always, I can´t take a decent picture to save my life, so it´s always a pleasure to see someone who has that talent. You have some really gorgeous shots of your kids and the sunset. Toni has such a beautiful face!

Can´t wait for the disney portion!

Thank you @Sarabell! You're up next!

Beautiful pictures

Thanks @susan lees !

beautiful photos as always. can't wait for this to play out...........i see a lot of laughs coming (at least for us!)

Thank you @docdebbi !

I've never been politically correct, or very patient.

So could somebody wake me up when Fractal gets to Disney World?

Getting there!

As always I'm late to the party playing catch up. The trip to the airport OMG good call not putting that on the Fractal channel. The beach shots not just look amazing but you look to be having such an enjoyable time.

You've got me interested in shooting RAW, the format, not the sans clothes version. Maybe not for our upcoming trip but I am going to start playing around with our camera.

Listen, it's OK to hang onto clothes for a while. Just this year I threw away a pair of Umbro shorts that ripped. Yeah remember those from the 90's??? When something is 100% polyester is lasts for 20 some years. A quick google search shows my black pair, yes I had two, on EBay for $20-$30. Vintage is the keyword. Looking forward to more additions to an already hilarious TR.

As you were, Fractal...I'm loving all of it so far!

Umbros - never had a pair but looked comfortable. I still have a t-shirt I wore to Disney in 2007 that I break out once in a while. RAW is much more of a pain as you have to edit the photos vs. your camera, but you can extract much more from the file and always go back and reedit it a completely different way. For the photos in this report my attempt was to edit the photos with the colors more vibrant and "deeper" than I normally would. I think it fits well with a Disney trip. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for following my friend!

Congratulations to your daughter!! It's a wonderful profession. I work with a number of nurses at my job (I'm not medical staff; I'm office staff). But my colleagues and I support the nurses, physicians, etc. A hospital cannot function without all role groups working together.

Thank you @MinnieM123! She has the correct fortitude for this profession.

Congratulations! My brother teaches nursing at our local university, and is currently getting his doctorate in nursing, so we like nurses over here!

Thank you @Missy_May ! Her plan is to become a Nurse Practitioner.

Congratulations! Proud parents.

Thanks again @mousefreak !

I love this kid. I've never wanted a daughter (mother of two sons, sister to three brothers), but I'd take your lovely Toni in a heartbeat. You have a special relationship.

Thank you @JenniferS ! Indeed I do.

Finally all caught up on your trip report. I've been busy at my new job and never have down time during the day to get caught up on trip reports So I totally understand the frustration of not being able to work on your trip report at work LOL. I have always LOVED your pictures and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your report. Although it might be next weekend until I can read more There are never enough hours in the day...

Thanks @LeighM. I agree - too much to do in too little time. Good luck with the new job!

Congrats to Alex! I'm in nursing school as well so I know how hard she's worked to get there!

Thanks @becca_ ! Good luck to you with your studies! It's a great and honorable profession.

 

[fractal]

This will be the last post before Disney (BD if you will). Get ready @worldfanatic.

Some housekeeping and additions first;

My Mother-in-law Sue has started reading the report and found a mistake I made (as all good Mother-In-Laws do). Their favorite beach is not Indian Rocks, it's Madeira. Madeira was the beach on the first day, Indian Rocks was where the sunset photos were taken. OK - I feel better already.

As I mentioned to @sheriffwoody - we played a modified version of Phase 10, which despite that still took us 3 hours to finish. Partly because Sterg would have to put on a show at each of his turns. It's like he can't help himself. The first few times were amusing, even though I'm usually the target of his antics, but then it's like I wish he was on an ejector seat and I had the button. I felt that I needed to clarify that.

The next morning after our meal at The Pub, Sterg woke up with a rash on both arms around the elbow and what to me looked like a nasty bug bite. This would turn into an "issue" over the next few days.

Once again, Al and I were up early and since it was Sunday he took me to the local Greek Orthodox Church, St. Stephanos, to light a candle.

Al & Sue are members at St Stefanos. They are not Greek (which obviously means Val isn't) but converted after Val converted before our marriage. Our Parish in Reading was literally devastated when they heard the news they were moving to Florida as they became a big part of our Church. From all signs, it looks like they are continuing that in the Sunshine State.

We then drove a bit further to see the Phillies Spring training field (and the field of their minor league A team the Clearwater Thrashers).

I live about 10 minutes from the field for the Phillies AA team, the Reading Fightin's so it was neat to see this stadium. As an aside - the Reading team has won numerous awards in the minor league community for how well they run their franchise. The stadium is beautiful and the entertainment around the game is second to none. If you are ever in the Reading, PA area during the summer, I highly recommend going to a game. I'm sure @cfry06 will attest.

The rest of the day was rainy so we were limited in activities.

This did give Sterg time to work on our new Youtube channel. For the uninitiated, it's called The Fractal Channel staring mostly yours truly and produced ( I'm either brave or nuts ) by Sterg. We did a "trailer" of sorts as the first video to kinda/sorta introduce the cast plus 7 other videos. I will post them as it becomes appropriate for this report on the recommendation of my social media director ( think "brave or nuts" again ).



The next day Sterg's rash was still there so I went for a walk to the Walgreens to get him ointment and benadryl. We then went to the pool to take advantage of the break in the rain.

She may be as crazy as she looks...

Our friend from High School moved down to Florida about 15 years ago and married a great guy. They live 2 hours from Sue and Al and made the drive to visit and have dinner with us. Now that's a good friend!

Val & Beth (or Bethie as we call her).

and I actually got in a shot, along with a photo-bomber...

My kids keep telling me I need to shave my chest. I respond that I am a nearly 50 year old man, not a 2 years old naked mole rat. Besides, when I grew up in the 70's & 80's boys couldn't wait to get hair on their chest!

We had a nice meal prepared by Sue. After the meal the countdown to Disney really started to intensify.

Are we really going back to Disney World?

Sterg was busy making a new YouTube video to capture the anticipation...

Notice the shirt I'm wearing. Maybe Val has a point.




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