I spent a long time away from Disney as a young adult—we’d go pretty regularly when I was growing up but then I headed to college and law school and work and all of the things and the family trips to Disney sort of dwindled. It wasn’t until after we lost my dad when I was in my mid-thirties that my mom and I decided, amidst all of the work and red tape and sadness, that maybe we all needed a trip to the Happiest Place on Earth.
We ended up taking that first return trip in October of 2014. It wasn’t meant to be anything life defining. Just an escape. We stayed here, at the Boardwalk, by no reason but chance. I remember we were between Boardwalk and Saratoga for some reason. After looking at the options online, we picked Boardwalk.
I remember so many things about that trip. I remember watching Celebrate the Magic projected onto the Castle for the first time and thinking, wow, these people get it. I remember standing on the Boardwalk late at night after coming back from the parks and watching the kids watch a magic show out in the open air. It was Columbus Day weekend and that perfect Florida weather. I call it room temperature with a breeze. The night was perfect. Everything was happy and comfortable. Good food smells were floating in the air and for the first time in forever everything was just…really nice. Everything seemed okay again.
I remember looking around myself. Not at the rides or characters or anything specific really. Just at the feeling of it all. I remember thinking, much like when I visited New York as a high school student before I ended up in college at Columbia, “I think I could live here.” I guess the rest is history.
I took this picture recently, in the quiet early morning hours. I wasn’t going for anything tack sharp, just the hint of this place that I loved. A wash of color in the background. As such, I shot this at 50mm and f/1.2 and tamped down the light with a shutter speed of 1/8000 sec. ISO stayed put down at 100. The result feels like the soft vintage vibe of old film.