We were planning on doing some mini-golf today; most likely the Winter Summerland course at WDW, so we could get a little bit of Disney jones dealt with. But then, in yesterday’s mail, a magical item arrived: my “Maingate Pass”. The pass allows me to take up to 3 people into any of the theme parks with me, up to 12 times per year. So we took advantage of that instead, and went to the Magic Kingdom for a few hours.

The lines were longish, since it was a weekend day and the MK had the longest operating hours. It was more crowded than we were used to. We didn’t ride all that much stuff, but it was wonderful just being there. We rode the mountain range. We had lunch at Starlight Ray’s Cosmic Cafe, and listened to the dulcet tones of Sonny Eclipse, the audio-animatronic lounge singer. We also rode the People Mover, as we always do, and got a special surprise — where it passes through Space Mountain, we were all, “This is so weirdly bright!” Turns out that Space Mountain was having issues, so they had all the lights on. So we got to see huge floodlights illuminating a depressing bunch of gray steel on gray supports against a gray background. Awesome cool!

I know I post a lot about how weird and surreal it all is, but it’s just so strange to me that I can leave the house, drive a few minutes to Disney World, walk around the Magic Kingdom, then leave there and go to the grocery store before coming home. Something that used to be an amazing faraway thing is now in my backyard, and I don’t know how long it will take to get used to that.