We found the bus stop for Saratoga Springs easily enough, and within 10 minutes or so, a bus for there appeared. It was a relatively empty and quiet bus ride. The nap king confirmed his nickname.
Eventually we reached the Congress Park bus stop, and hopped off the bus to make the surprisingly short walk over to Disney Springs. The clouds built along the walk, and I crossed every finger that my kids would get to perform.
I work for a very rural regional school district. We serve 7 towns. Geographically, we are the largest school district in the state. 4 elementary schools feed into just 1 regional middle school, and 1 regional high school. 7 towns… In that 9th-12th grade high school, we have approximately 500 students. Many of our kids have never left the state of NH. Even more have never been on a plane, or outside of New England. As a regional district we serve students ranging from those growing up in NH’s version of Appalachia to the kids of college professors and Dartmouth doctors.
Defying many odds, both our band and chorus made the trip to Disney to perform this vacation. 98 kids went, plus several chaperones. The excitement in the school the week before had been electrifying. “Truck day” was the Wednesday before break, when all of the luggage and instruments were loaded into a trailer that was driven to FL by a couple of band parents, one of whom is also an English teacher at the school. The kids boarded buses to Hartford that Friday morning, and flew down from there. They were performing in Disney Springs this afternoon, and I had students in both the band and chorus. I had promised my kids I would try to be at the performances. I had also promised a case manager a picture to prove that one student of particular concern was still alive at this point in the trip (she was!). This was a huge opportunity for the kids, and the last thing I wanted, for their sake, was for the weather to cancel the performances.
Nick and I perused a couple of stores on our way to the stage by World of Disney. Just as we sat down at the stage, Nick asked me if the kids would be wearing blue. Sure enough, a line of kids dressed in their Kearsarge blue polo style shirts and khaki pants were making their way across the bridge toward the stage. About the same time they stepped onto the stage, it started to pour.
Being hardy NH stock, Nick and I headed for cover, because we were too lazy to wrestle with the ponchos. Most of the Kearsarge gang that had gathered, however, dug out the ponchos. Thankfully, the rain stopped just in time for the band to perform. It was a good performance. There won’t be any pictures posted, because that’s a big no-no.
After the band performed, Nick and I headed for Sprinkles, for that cupcake sundae I had promised him. I had a carrot cake cupcake with vanilla ice cream for my sundae. He had a lemon meringue cupcake with strawberry ice cream for his sundae. They both were VERY tasty. I didn’t take pictures. We kind of inhaled them.
After enjoying our sundaes, we wandered Disney Springs a bit. Although we both had been here since the new stuff opened, we’d been on a mission, so Nick hadn’t really seen a good chunk of it. Today he had that opportunity. He was impressed with the appearance, and shocked by some of the stores they had there.
Then we went to World of Disney. World of Disney is chaotic on a good day. As an added bonus, World of Disney is open while undergoing refurbishments, so it’s been compacted a bit. And it was kind of crowded because of that damn race weekend. Let me put it this way: two officers from the sheriff’s department were providing security in there this afternoon. It was wild in there. Nick lasted about 2 minutes before I saw him disappear outside. I lasted about 7. Needless to say, I walked out empty handed for the first time ever.
On my way out, I stopped at a drink cart for a couple bottles of water, then found Nick on the steps of the store. We still had about 40 minutes until the chorus performed. So we people watched. I must say, the people at Disney Springs were taking people watching to a whole new level today. If I didn’t know there were multiple mirrors in my hotel room, I’d have wondered if Disney had removed all mirrors at the same time they’d removed the do not disturb signs (more on THOSE later). People...spandex is a privilege, not a right. And I shouldn’t be able to see your glass cutters when it’s 80 degrees with 99.9% humidity!
Sufficiently traumatized, the chorus finally appeared, and we stepped over closer to the stage for their performance. It was excellent, and the kids genuinely looked like they were having fun. To say I was proud of the music department was an understatement. The performance was over quickly, and pretty soon, we were headed for the bus stop.
In case anyone was wondering, the bus stop for Pop from Disney Springs is in another county. Or, at least it seems that way. We missed the bus that was loading, because it’s about a two mile hike, so we had to wait a bit. We enjoyed the sight of palm trees and sun. Well...I did.
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