4 Parks~One Day Birthday Scavenger Hunt!

     I can't believe it's been almost a year since my last blog post. There's so much I could talk about but this post is about the amazing birthday surprise my friends did for me for my 41st birthday. Once again I was in Walt Disney World for my birthday since that is also marathon weekend. This year I took it easy and only ran the Inaugural Minnie Mouse 10k race. I'm not going to talk about the race other than to say it was hot and I finished.

     The real fun began after the race when my driver called to tell me to be in the lobby at 8:45. I only got back to my room at 8:00. After a very quick shower and throwing some clothes on I was out the door (and still a few minutes late). My friend, Matt was waiting in the lobby for me to take me to my first destination. I received a clue via text from Mitch saying "As one becomes older, they must pay respect to their elders. Proceed to the giant Triceratops head." Matt asked where we were going and I said Animal Kingdom. So off we go in his fancy rented red Mustang. Let me just tell you I feared for my life during this 10 minute ride. It was like he was 16 again and just got his driver's license. I'll let your imagination fill in the rest. Regardless, I know I'll be crazy enough to get in a car with him again some day.

     After we arrived at Animal Kingdom I got a text with the rules: 1.Take pics of each thing. 2. Do what you're told. 3. Have fun! 4. Do what you're told 5.Enjoy the day. At this point, Mitch and Julie joined us and I received my next clue.. "You have wild red hair, go visit the one with wild white hair at the top of the mountain"....EVEREST!!! Off we go to ride Everest. We lucked out and only had a 5 minute wait and got the last 2 cars. Let's just say trying to take a picture of the Yeti didn't work out too well. "As you are an old goat, you must go see another and pet him"....Conservation Station!! It's been years since I've been there so I was really excited to go out there. After looking around a little, we went into the petting zoo and I found a goat worthy of a selfie. While we were leaving, I spied Chip and Dale and just had to get a picture with Cassidy's favorite characters. Time for another clue, IT'S TIGGER TIME!!!!..."Pay respect to the striped cat and his yellow bear". Being the Tigger fan I am, this is one of my favorite spots in Animal Kingdom. Lot's of pictures were taken of my favorite bouncy friend!

     Upon leaving Tigger my phone goes off, it's clue time.."Celebrate your birthday in style by seeing one of the first movies you saw as a child". Time to hit Hollywood Studios and The Great Movie Ride. We arrive at The Great Movie Ride and there is a 20 minute wait. Ok, no big deal until Mitch pulls out his phone and books us Fastpasses that are good in 3 minutes. We get out of the queue and I mess around looking at the footprints. Thanks to the Fastpasses we walk right on. I just have to say how much I LOVE when Jack Sparrow is so huge on the screen during the movie clips at the end of the ride. "Kiss Yensid's hat while it sits atop his apprentice" is the next clue I receive. Sorcerer Mickey time!! While Mitch is taking pictures of me with Mickey the cast member beside him starts laughing like crazy. So I ask what is going on and so does Mickey. Mickey points to his ear to get Mitch to tell him. It turns out that as Mitch is taking pictures of me with Mickey he turned the camera around and started taking selfies of himself. I start laughing and look at Mickey and say "you see what I have to put up with?" By this time, we're starting to get hungry and eat lunch at Fairfax Fare. I've never eaten there before but the pulled pork sandwich was pretty good.

     "See how far we have come since you fought Woolly Mammoths with spears" is my next clue. We grab a bus from The Studios to Epcot and ride Spaceship Earth. Got to love the smell of Rome burning. It reminds me of burned bacon. After Spaceship Earth I'm told to "Go ride a boat". Since there are a few to choose from I pick the Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico but on the way there we stop at Club Cool for some yummy Beverly! After hanging out with The Three Caballeros I had to "Go see the 150 year old dude". At first I thought this was Mike Scopa but then figured out he was a little younger than that.  Duuude, this is where I forgot to take a photo of Crush on the Nemo ride. It was now time to "Pay respect to the striped cat and his yellow bear" again!! My friends know how much I love my Tigger time!! This time Pooh was pouting because I love Tigger more but I showed him that I do have a tattoo of him too. Tigger and I tried to get Pooh to make a heart with his hands but he just couldn't do it. Poor Pooh bear!  After seeing my favorite bright orange cat it was time to get a drink from The Pub and then "Spend some time with Scopa and ask him how it feels to be oldish". The Mickey Miles Podcast was having a meet-up so we headed over there to see Scopa and a few friends.

          After the meet-up we headed to O'Hana's for dinner. Perfect place to eat with "my family". Got to say that I was disappointed that they (the cm's) didn't give me a cupcake for my birthday. Once dinner was done I had to "Visit your sister, the other redhead". Aye it be time to ride my favorite attraction but sadly it was down when we go there. Instead I had to "Make arrangements for your final resting place". No worries though because when we came back through Pirates was open and I got to yell "WE WANTS THE REDHEAD!" We got off Pirates just in time to watch Wishes and see the Celebrate the Magic. Of course I cried during both of them because I had just spent the day with people that mean the world to me. They are my family and I cherish every moment I get to spend with them because sometimes I only get to see them once a year. After Celebrate we were going to ride Ariel but we noticed that Enchanted Tales with Belle was only a 10 minute wait!! We get in line and the CM tells us that they need 20 people to have a show. So what do Brain and Mitch do??? They go rustle up more people so we can see the show. I was laughing so hard because the CM couldn't believe they were doing that. After they got enough people we got to go in and Brian was picked to be a guard. Of course I was pointing at him to be chosen. He makes a great guard! As always, a perfect way to end the night is walking down Main Street USA with your friends and laughing about all the fun you had that day.

         One other thing I was doing for my birthday was collecting 41 birthday kisses. Here are just a few!

     I've never done 4 parks in one day before but this was a perfect way to do it. I had so much fun and I'm very thankful that my friends took the time to do something so special for me for my birthday. Like I said before, they are my family and mean the world to me. I can't imagine my life without them in it.