Chapter 9

The first day was a trip to Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Paul had never been to a Disney park; in fact, he’s never been to a major theme park in his life. He and Melony had planned to visit Disney Japan after her TDY to Korea was over and she returned to her home station in Okinawa. Andi had been to Disneyland in Anaheim with her dad a long time ago, so her memories did nothing to help with the ocean of paperwork there seemed to be to get in the park, but finally they got their park passes and were ready to go!

Rather than drive the confusing spaghetti bowl of Disney roads to get to the Magic Kingdom, then pay the parking fee, the brand new Jarecki Family picked the shuttle bus supplied by Shades of Green. They trooped up a flight of stairs, across a bridge to the BX, up the ramp to the lobby, pause for photos at the giant Christmas tree in the lobby, then down that wonderful natural stone staircase that follows the ornate waterfalls dripping in as much Christmas decor as water, and out to the bus stop.

The bus arrived a few minutes after they lined up at the loading area. “ID’s please,” called out the driver as he stepped off the bus and stood at the door. Andi flashed her new ID card as she led the twins aboard while Paul carried the TwinHauler along with other various and sundry items.

After a ride filled with questions from the twins on why the bus needs a driver if the train doesn’t, the bus dropped them off near the entrance to the park, much nearer than if they had driven. First a walk through a series of gates where they were checked for weapons, then a walk up a ramp to the Monorail. Paul had seen the monorail a million times on the TV and couldn’t wait to ride it in person. Walt Disney was a railroad enthusiast, which is why the Monorail and his park trains exist. The Monorail ride was much smoother than Paul expected, and he wondered if he could build a train layout that could incorporate a monorail.

After disembarking from the monorail, they approached the main entry gates. They first had to go to the customer service desk and receive their park passes. Andi and Paul got cards, the girls got bracelets to wear, then they returned to the gates to enter the park proper. There was a scanner at each gate. They had to hold their card at the scanner (which was emblazoned with a silhouette of Mickey Mouse) and wait for it to turn green. The twins had to hold their arm up so the scanner could scan their bracelet. It was tough the first time; they kept moving their arms away to see if the scanner had turned green before the scanner could get a good scan. Eventually Andi told them that this was their ID, like when they get on the bus, Mickey on the scanner had to read their ID so they can get in the park. After that, it was no problem for the twins. Sandy would hold her hand up so Madeline could see Mickey turn green, then they switched.

Paul fell in love with Main Street USA, Walt Disney’s tribute to his hometown of Marceline, Missouri, with a lot of Fort Collins, Colorado mixed in. The Victorian architecture seemed to sing out to Paul’s soul. The style of the buildings touched something in his heart, and he realized his house would fit right in with this décor. He started firing picture after picture with his DSLR until Andi came up and said, “Don’t burn up your batteries and storage space. There’s more of the park to see.” Then she shook her head and said, “Tourists!”

“Look at the architecture. Our house fits right in with these buildings,” he pointed out.

“So, you’re saying we live in Disney World?” Andi teased him, but he was right, their beautiful Victorian home, with its broad porch wrapping around three quarters of the building, the surrounding waist high wrought-iron fence, even a widows walk roof, fit right in with the gingerbread decorated Main Street USA.

“What I’m saying is that I’ve been knocking myself out trying to figure out how to decorate the house for Christmas, and the blueprint is right here.” He pointed out the garlands and the wreaths and the candles and the gas lamps.

In another time, to anyone else, she would have said “get real” but now that Christmas is a time of celebration for her, her feelings of joy overwhelmed her. She smiled and said, “let’s do it.”

Other than Main Street USA, the thing that overwhelmed Paul the most was Liberty Square, primarily the Hall of Presidents. The honor that the presidents were given was incredible, and the story that was told, and how it was told, brought a patriotic tear to Paul’s eye. He wasn’t a combat soldier, but it summed up everything he fought for.

“Can we do something cool now?” asked Sandy as they stepped out of the hall of presidents.

“That wasn’t cool?” asked Paul.

“It was a bunch of old guys,” she replied. “They couldn’t even sit still.”

“They weren’t guys,” said Andi. “They were robots pretending to be guys.”

“They were?” squealed Madeline, her nose crinkled up in surprise. Then she started walking toward another attraction. “We need ears,” was all she said.

“Do we need ears?” Paul asked Sandy, who just nodded her head vigorously and skipped after her sister, who started skipping too. Paul turned to Andi and said, “Go catch them, I have an idea,” and he headed over to a vendor.

“You don’t do anything small, do you?” asked Andi, as she looked at Paul’s purchases.

“Let’s put them on,” said Paul, and Andi led the twins into the restroom to change.

When the Jarecki family appeared from the restrooms in their attire, they were beset by Disney photographers for the rest of the day. Luckily, the twins absolutely loved posing for pictures and they posed for anyone that swung a camera in their direction.

The entire Jarecki family was decked out in Disney style mouse ears and more. The girls’ Minnie ears all featured a golden bow to mimic Minnie Mouse’s red bow, but there were other differences. Paul’s set of ears had a black bow tie between the ears and Andi’s ears included a bridal veil. He also got t-shirts for the whole family. Paul’s shirt was black, emblazoned with “Groom” in white Disney script. Andi’s was white and marked “Bride” in black. The back of both shirts said Just Married. The Twins’ shirts both said Brides Maid on the front, and Just Adopted on the back.

“Let’s find Ella!” called Sandy from the TwinHauler as Paul pulled them deeper into the park. The Magic Kingdom was a huge hit with the girls including Andi who was living this experience as a child vicariously through her daughter’s eyes. For the girls, the high point was the “Small World” ride, the little dolls singing “It’s a Small World” in their native languages was fascinating to the girls, even though the animation was, for a better word, toy like.

The low point of the Magic Kingdom for the twins was when they finally got to meet Ella and Anna. They were so star-struck they were tongue tied and could only speak TwinBabble® despite their encouragement from their mother to “Use your words”. The young character actresses thought the twins were from a foreign country because of how they spoke, and because they were so cute the actresses hugged and posed for pictures with Sandy and Madeline much longer than many of the other girls in the park, and of course, they were happy to pose for pictures with the whole family in their Disney wedding t-shirts.

Paul was disappointed that the rides that were advertised when he was younger were gone. Tom Sawyer’s Island was closed, not a mention of Davey Crocket anywhere in the park, and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride seemed much shorter than he expected. He derived most of his joy from watching Andi and the twins as they enjoyed the park, but somehow he felt like an outsider looking in on their fun.

Sadly, this took him back to his days as a fighter squadron flight surgeon. Yes, he was an integral part of the flying team. He even had flight surgeon wings, but his flights were merely joy rides and he felt more attached to the hospital staff, which he really wasn’t a part of, than the fighter squadron. This was like his youth in Tiorunda, where he and his brother John weren’t quite rejected by the community there, but because he was Polish, he wasn’t quite accepted by them either. He and Johnny felt at home with the Italians who accepted him as a foundling, but he never was one of them. Finally, when their dad moved the family to Williamsville, it felt there like they were part of the village.