Back in 2007, I talked my parents into going on a Disney vacation with me. I told them that this was to make up for them only taking me before I was old enough to really form memories of our trip there. (To be honest, all I remember is Figment from Epcot.) The only story my parents really tell about our first trip to Disney was how I could have potentially gotten kidnapped. My dad and my brother had gone on the Dumbo ride, and my brother got sick. A lady noticed my mother was concerned, and offered to watch me for my mom while she took care of my brother. My mom told her that my dad was with him, but thanked her for the offer. When we got to the hotel room that night, they saw on the news that a woman with a similar description had kidnapped a child with a similar description to me from the parks that day. Crazy, right?
So over 20 years later, I asked my parents if they wanted to relive the magic of a Disney vacation with me. My parents agreed. We split costs, but my parents had a major surprise for me. I had requested that we do some character dining because, after all, it's Disney. Why wouldn't we do character dining? (I'm similar to Peter Pan in the sense that I don't think I'll ever fully grow up.) Our first night at Disney, my parents kept talking about the place we had reservations at.It wasn't one that excited me much by the description, but I told myself to keep an open mind. When we got there, I didn't see any characters, so I was a little bummed. My mom was looking around as if she were looking for someone, but she kept saying she was just seeing what was on other people's plates. (It's a very "us" thing to do, even at a buffet restaurant like this.) Then I saw my mom's eyes light up and she poked my dad. I turned around to where they were looking at, and then I saw him...my absolute favorite Disney character, Tigger with all of his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood!
I had to contain myself from jumping out of my seat and knocking over small children to get to him. I mean, I was a grown adult, so I had to at least appear to be responsible, right? I had a small Mike the Tiger (LSU's mascot) that traveled with me and I managed to flag Tigger down with that. He came over and hugged Mike, then hugged me, and my inner 5 year old squealed as I asked him if we could take a picture together. He was thrilled to! (I mean, he had to be, right?) My mom snapped this photo which is one of my favorites from any family vacation:
Doesn't Tigger look SUPER happy to be taking a picture with an adult and a stuffed animal?
Even though we did a more adult version of a Disney vacation (translation - no rides), it is one of my favorite vacations that I've taken with my parents as an adult. I can't wait to be able to take my daughter there, both as a child and hopefully as an adult, so we can laugh while enjoying Mickey-shaped pancakes for breakfast as we discuss our time spent traveling around the world at Epcot the day before.
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