It's Friendship, Friendship, Just a Perfect Blendship

"When other friendships have been forgot,
Ours will still be hot!" 

What made our Disney trip extra special this time was catching up with old friends.

Scott and I met our buddy Craig Johnson back in 1988.  He was a real live Disney Engineer at the time and we had the opportunity to make some overtime money working on his engineering studies.

If you think that sounds glamorous, let me dispel that notion right now.  One day I walked around all of World Showcase in EPCOT Center THREE times and entered every single women's restroom along the way to count how many people were using the facilities at the time.

Did I mention it was July?

Did I mention I was wearing slacks, a blouse, pantyhose and fairly new 1/2 inch non-arch supporting black pumps?

Needless to say, to this day I can tell you where every bathroom in World Showcase is AND direct you to the first aid stations for blister covering band aids.

So back to our trip.

We had the pleasure of Craig's company on a couple of different days in a couple of different parks.  Craig is a supremely likeable fellow with a fabulous sense of humor - and is a veritable Disney encyclopedia.  To say he is a fan is a mammoth understatement.

Much to his chagrin, however, Eliza Grace was pretty well versed in Disney and he only managed to impart one or two new pieces trivia that she didn't already know. The kids fell in love with Craig on the spot (we have really good taste in friends!) and Will buddied up to him pretty quickly.  I am not sure what Craig was thinking when Will would casually grab his hand to hold as we moved from attraction to attraction, but I thought it was adorable.

Thanks for taking the time to play with us like the old days, Craig!  The only thing that could have made it better is if we could have had one more chance to beat the Germans in one final Cast Member canoe race :)

This blurry picture is in fact the 1988 WDW Canoe's Around the World Cast Member race 2nd place team posing in front of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  Top row l-r: Craig, John, Dara. Middle row l-r: me, Holly, Jill.  Bottom row l-r: Cant' recall who that is and Monte.  And let me state again for the record that if Helga -who we think may have really been a man - had not been at the helm for the German team, we would have won it all!
 
Ah hem.

As if catching up with Craig was not enough, we also got to spend an evening with our friends Holly and Murray.  Holly and I went to UNC-Chapel Hill together and she is the single reason that Scott and I met down at Disney all those years ago.  The Murr-man is our most beloved transplant from the Great White Nort'.

Of course I was running my mouth so much that I did not take any pictures during our time together (dang it!), so instead I am including this one in of Holly and Scott back in the summer of 1988. They look like kids, don't they?  That's because they were!

Lastly, I must mention that Holly is a professional photo organizer and an entrepreneur. If you need someone to help organize your printed or digital photos, create gorgeous photo memory books, or anything along those lines, you should check her and her company out at Simply See It!