Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts
Saturday, January 04, 2025
Follow Up Fashion
I'd posted previously about several of the recent additions to my wardrobe, and shortly after either added more, or remembered others that should have been included, so here they are!!!
First up is a thrift store find. It's a real thinker!!! My dad was from Michigan, and had that Yooper accent. I guess since I learned to speak while I was around him, I've got it too, and my boys both have it as well!!! Anyway, you've heard of the Upper Peninsula, but here's the much lesser known Lower Peninsula!!!
Next is a vacation purchase from Yoshi's on the Pier in Avalon from this year's vacation. Nice old school woody and a pre-worn look, as well as Catalina branding going for it (not real visible in this picture, right under the “Beach Paradise” it has “Catalina Island” in white against a fairly white background), in a color that I don't have much of in my wardrobe. In addition the the at-some-point mentioned Stinky's Fish Tacos shirt I got for surrogate son, I also got a real nice coat of many colors for my wife, and a nice Catalina fleece jacket for the younger son. Yoshi's has gotten a good amount from me.
This is one of those long forgotten ones, I think it was 2 years ago I got this one. I've got several In-N-Out Burger shirts, and they usually have a similar look, full color image on the back with nice muscle cars, and the In-N-Out logo and arrow on the front. One time when we were there, they had this one on display, and it's unique with a largely monochromatic image, with only the sign at the top and the palm trees at the bottom in green, and the exhaust in red, both rendered as if they are neon lights.
The front logo is different from the normal as well, with the “California” beneath added. Bought one for myself and one for the younger.
Here's the couple of the previously mentioned thrift store finds from our most recent anniversary trip. First is the 16-bit Rick and Morty shirt. Once again, photos added a little background flair that looks better than the original picture.
And the Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt. Had this picture taken today, as you may have picked up on if you noticed the crutch!!! I do like me some thrift store finds. When we were on Catalina we looked up the thrift store I'd seen on the map before, but had never been to because they have very limited days and hours, and we set out to be there on a day and an hour they were open. We made it, but it was no where to be seen, and checking with a local guide, they confirmed that they were no longer in business. Ah well.
And another recent addition, I have probably 30 or more black T-shirts, but almost none fit anymore. A shame, I like a lot of the designs. A replacement for one here, I like the design and sentiment!!!
And another from way back (happened on a picture of it from our '22 Catalina trip), my wife had given me this one, and once again, I like the design and sentiment!!! Bonus, it also has a nice feel to the fabric.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Pictures Taken by Pros
At most theme parks these days, it seems, they have their photographers wandering about taking pictures, and distributing little code cards to find your photos online later. An excellent idea, to be sure, another stream of revenue, and keeps people from having to lug their own cameras around and finding someone to take a shot of the whole family.
Here's what we got (even though, with the exception of the water parks, I had my own camera with me) submitted for your approval!!!
One of the better days we had was the day we went to the Disney Studios Park. If memory serves correctly, it was the 4th Disney park we visited. By that time, my wife & the younger boy were pretty worn out, so they stayed at the resort while the older boy & I went. This was coupled with the fact that the remnant of a tropical depression were blowing through that day. The day was mostly overcast & occasionally drizzly.
That made for many of the lines being pretty short. We pretty much walked onto the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror twice, and at the end of the evening we rode the Aerosmith coaster twice. Also, my older boy has patience for and even an interest in some things that my wife and younger boy would quickly find boring, and he's like me in that he'll stay as long as possible to get the most out of a park. We got to go through the museum-like area and the film of the Walt Disney story. The only ride I would have liked to visit that we didn't get on (due to the over an hour wait time) was the Toy Story shooting gallery ride, doubtless a clone of the one at California Adventure, one of my new favorites.
As opposed to last time, we actually made it on a few of the rides we missed out on last time. At Magic Kingdom, we made it onto Splash Mountain and Space Mountain (both much better than West Coasts'), although we didn't have time to visit the Heritage Square or whatever it's called area we missed last time, too.
At the Animal Kingdom park, they'd shut down the Expedition Everest coaster due to lightening last time, so that was our first stop this time. Made it on after a considerable wait, but also got fast passes to return later that night. Last time we'd gone, we'd seen a show on the in room programming that had that coaster as the best Disney coaster. It's pretty good, but I still like the Aerosmith one better. Got to ride the Dinosaur! ride, too, similar to the Indiana Jones ride out here, but differently themed. Got to take a good look at (and about a zillion pictures of) the Tree of Life. Oh, and the river raft ride that we waited for probably an hour or more last time was pretty much a walk-on. Rode it probably 3 or 4 times in a row.
At Epcot, they had Spaceship Earth open this time, so I got to ride it again, for the first time since 1983. They've added video screens to the cars, and at the end they use a photo of you taken at the beginning of the ride on a an interactive cartoon. Pretty hilarious. Rode it again later to take a video of that. Got to ride the Soaring, another California Adventure clone, and Maelstrom, which were both closed by the time we made it to them last time. Mission: Space we got to ride again, and the boy found someone's dropped fast pass for the GM Test Track ride.
The last few shots here are taken at Typhoon Lagoon, which is where we got the famous free shirts.
Here's what we got (even though, with the exception of the water parks, I had my own camera with me) submitted for your approval!!!
One of the better days we had was the day we went to the Disney Studios Park. If memory serves correctly, it was the 4th Disney park we visited. By that time, my wife & the younger boy were pretty worn out, so they stayed at the resort while the older boy & I went. This was coupled with the fact that the remnant of a tropical depression were blowing through that day. The day was mostly overcast & occasionally drizzly.
That made for many of the lines being pretty short. We pretty much walked onto the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror twice, and at the end of the evening we rode the Aerosmith coaster twice. Also, my older boy has patience for and even an interest in some things that my wife and younger boy would quickly find boring, and he's like me in that he'll stay as long as possible to get the most out of a park. We got to go through the museum-like area and the film of the Walt Disney story. The only ride I would have liked to visit that we didn't get on (due to the over an hour wait time) was the Toy Story shooting gallery ride, doubtless a clone of the one at California Adventure, one of my new favorites.
As opposed to last time, we actually made it on a few of the rides we missed out on last time. At Magic Kingdom, we made it onto Splash Mountain and Space Mountain (both much better than West Coasts'), although we didn't have time to visit the Heritage Square or whatever it's called area we missed last time, too.
At the Animal Kingdom park, they'd shut down the Expedition Everest coaster due to lightening last time, so that was our first stop this time. Made it on after a considerable wait, but also got fast passes to return later that night. Last time we'd gone, we'd seen a show on the in room programming that had that coaster as the best Disney coaster. It's pretty good, but I still like the Aerosmith one better. Got to ride the Dinosaur! ride, too, similar to the Indiana Jones ride out here, but differently themed. Got to take a good look at (and about a zillion pictures of) the Tree of Life. Oh, and the river raft ride that we waited for probably an hour or more last time was pretty much a walk-on. Rode it probably 3 or 4 times in a row.
At Epcot, they had Spaceship Earth open this time, so I got to ride it again, for the first time since 1983. They've added video screens to the cars, and at the end they use a photo of you taken at the beginning of the ride on a an interactive cartoon. Pretty hilarious. Rode it again later to take a video of that. Got to ride the Soaring, another California Adventure clone, and Maelstrom, which were both closed by the time we made it to them last time. Mission: Space we got to ride again, and the boy found someone's dropped fast pass for the GM Test Track ride.
The last few shots here are taken at Typhoon Lagoon, which is where we got the famous free shirts.
Other People's Pics
I had hoped to find more for this post, but here's what I was able to get.
At most theme parks these days, it seems, they have their photographers wandering about taking pictures, and distributing little code cards to find your photos online later. An excellent idea, to be sure, another stream of revenue, and keeps people from having to lug their own cameras around and finding someone to take a shot of the whole family.
However, many people don't really want to bother with all that and end up discarding their codes. I figured I'd pick up all I could & see if there was anything good!!!
On two of the occasions, the photog had us holding our hands out for an effect that would be added in later. One of these pictures never appeared on our code (someone must have blinked) and the other they hadn't added anything in. So, one of the codes I found did have this added in, so I got to see what they've done.
At the Blizzard Beach water park, there was a huge quantity of the cards dropped on the mountainside under the chair lift. I would have loved to have gotten all those!!!
There you go!!! Pictures of random other park guests!!!
At most theme parks these days, it seems, they have their photographers wandering about taking pictures, and distributing little code cards to find your photos online later. An excellent idea, to be sure, another stream of revenue, and keeps people from having to lug their own cameras around and finding someone to take a shot of the whole family.
However, many people don't really want to bother with all that and end up discarding their codes. I figured I'd pick up all I could & see if there was anything good!!!
On two of the occasions, the photog had us holding our hands out for an effect that would be added in later. One of these pictures never appeared on our code (someone must have blinked) and the other they hadn't added anything in. So, one of the codes I found did have this added in, so I got to see what they've done.
At the Blizzard Beach water park, there was a huge quantity of the cards dropped on the mountainside under the chair lift. I would have loved to have gotten all those!!!
There you go!!! Pictures of random other park guests!!!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Lilly's Layin' Eggs
Welcome to the second installment of Pictures & Stuff from our vacation to Florida!!! In today's installment, I'm sharing some pictures of one of the things that I think was the best part of our trip, our visit to Gator Park!!!
When I was 14 years old, my family had visited Florida for a cruise, as well as visits to Disney World & the newly opened Epcot Center. We drove from Florida to Orlando that time (which I'm sure affected my decision to fly instead, but given the expense and time wasted in the airport, not sure I'd do it again that way), and on the way stopped at an airboat ride place. It was fun enough, but I don't recall having seen that much wildlife.
I wanted to bring the family to the Everglades for an airboat ride, and this looked like a pretty decent place. Ended up getting WAY more than I'd bargained for this time!!!
To start with, they had an animal show with birds, skunks, alligators, and even a lemur (not native to the Everglades, in case you didn't know). I've got some video that I may edit & post of that, the guy has a most unique voice. Afterwards, they had a real live alligator you could hold, which all but the youngest did for the photo op.
On to the airboat ride!!! This was the epic part of this event!!! Our boat captain would hold out bits of bread for specific birds at different points of the ride, and they would either land on him, hover by his hand or pick it out of the air as he would toss it to them.
Got out a good distance, and he cranked up the speed and hot dogged about the swamp, over razor grass and shallow waters.
Happened upon a great egret, which I'd spotted on our first pass around a little island, and he came back & tried to get close. He didn't get that close. I managed a decent picture anyway.
My oldest ran the video camera the whole time. We've got around 45 minutes of that.
Oh, and did we see any gators??? Oh yea!!! Like the birds, there were specific areas that the guide knew that certain ones would be at, and he'd call 'em out by name!!! The trick to calling alligators, he says, is to sound like a sick pirate (I'll likely edit some of that portion of video down to share how that would sound) and the gator would swim right out. I think around half a dozen we saw. There are three whose names I remember. Tripod (lost one of his arms in a territory dispute with a bigger gator) and Smiley (who'll swim right up to the boat with his jaws open) and Lilly.
Never did see Lilly, however. Lilly's layin' eggs.
When I was 14 years old, my family had visited Florida for a cruise, as well as visits to Disney World & the newly opened Epcot Center. We drove from Florida to Orlando that time (which I'm sure affected my decision to fly instead, but given the expense and time wasted in the airport, not sure I'd do it again that way), and on the way stopped at an airboat ride place. It was fun enough, but I don't recall having seen that much wildlife.
I wanted to bring the family to the Everglades for an airboat ride, and this looked like a pretty decent place. Ended up getting WAY more than I'd bargained for this time!!!
To start with, they had an animal show with birds, skunks, alligators, and even a lemur (not native to the Everglades, in case you didn't know). I've got some video that I may edit & post of that, the guy has a most unique voice. Afterwards, they had a real live alligator you could hold, which all but the youngest did for the photo op.
On to the airboat ride!!! This was the epic part of this event!!! Our boat captain would hold out bits of bread for specific birds at different points of the ride, and they would either land on him, hover by his hand or pick it out of the air as he would toss it to them.
Got out a good distance, and he cranked up the speed and hot dogged about the swamp, over razor grass and shallow waters.
Happened upon a great egret, which I'd spotted on our first pass around a little island, and he came back & tried to get close. He didn't get that close. I managed a decent picture anyway.
My oldest ran the video camera the whole time. We've got around 45 minutes of that.
Oh, and did we see any gators??? Oh yea!!! Like the birds, there were specific areas that the guide knew that certain ones would be at, and he'd call 'em out by name!!! The trick to calling alligators, he says, is to sound like a sick pirate (I'll likely edit some of that portion of video down to share how that would sound) and the gator would swim right out. I think around half a dozen we saw. There are three whose names I remember. Tripod (lost one of his arms in a territory dispute with a bigger gator) and Smiley (who'll swim right up to the boat with his jaws open) and Lilly.
Never did see Lilly, however. Lilly's layin' eggs.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
How to get a Free Meal out of a Mouse
So much happened on our vacation to Florida, and I have yet to blog much of it at all!!! I'd say all in all a great vacation, but of course there were a few hitches. Thus, I will get all that out of the way before getting on to all the good stuff!!!
Getting there went smoothly until we'd landed in Miami. At that point, they changed the baggage claim and didn't tell us, so that took a bit. From there to the rental car... well, the rental car places are off site, and there's a shuttle over there. The best priced rental was with Advantage, and their place isn't with all the other rental places, but off from there, so you have to take a shuttle to their shuttle!!! Further complicating things is that it turns out they're only open until midnight, and with the baggage claim and two shuttles, it was VERY close. We got it OK though, and were off to our hotel. Turned out to be a very opulent place (of course, being right on the beach I figured it would be) with the only option being valet parking, and marble stairs leading to a huge crystal chandeliered lobby. Naturally, we were hungry by the time we landed, so we'd stopped by Burger King and showed up looking like a bunch of hillbillies with our take out bags!!! Good times!!! We got checked into our room, and headed up to discover there was only one bed!!! Fortunately the bellman got our problem solved fairly quickly.
Our second flight from Miami to Orlando didn't go quite as smooth, being delayed a couple hours (with the getting to the airport early, delays and finding the Disney express at the airport, it would have been near the same amount of time to drive there!!!) and the gate getting changed a couple of times before being changed back to the original. Not a single complaint about our lodgings at Disney, making it the only one of the three with that distinguishment.
Our third hotel was the Nickelodeon Suites for the last two nights. The room they gave us was great, away from the noisy pool and slides play area, on the ground floor with a view of the lagoon. Unfortunately, the air conditioning has some kind of issue, and the floor all around it (central to the lodgings) was completely soaked!!! Once again, it was very late when we checked in, and we were all ready to sleep. A call to the front desk and they assure me they're sending someone over to take care of us. 45 minutes later, and no one has showed. I walk through the labyrinthine complex to the front desk, and they tell me there's no vacancies to move us into, and someone is already at our room dealing with the problem. I get back, and they've sent housekeeping over with half a dozen towels, which are already soaked through. Sigh. The next morning the oldest & I get up to go to Universal (mom & the younger have had enough theme parking and elect to stay there today. Could have saved some $$$ had I known. I tell her to get on the line with the front desk & get us a different room when she gets up). The hotel shuttle never shows up, so we drive over (another $14 for parking). Later that day she calls me up and tells me they've used a wet vac on the swampy area. I tell her I'm not impressed with their half assed attempts and I want a new room. When we get back, the older remembers something he left in the old room and goes over to get it. It's still about the same as far as moisture, and they've set up a couple of fans. Glad we got a new room, and they did give us $20 credit. Still not worth it, if it wasn't for the epic water play area I would discourage anyone from staying there.
One night we went to Sonic. They completely screwed up our order. Did manage to get a huge thing of cheesy tater tots, and an extra slushy. If Sonic didn't have awesome food, I wouldn't ever recommend them, either!!!
My GPS is easily confused by turnpikes. She was constantly recalculating. Last time we were there I had a much better feel for the geography, as I was using actual paper maps.
I think that mostly covers the fails of the trip (with the exception of the day I thought we were checking out and was a day early to the Nickelodeon) with the exception of the final one that this post was to be primarily about, which actually turned into a win for us. See the first picture of Mickey giving himself a facepalm???
The second full day we were in Orlando the oldest & I got up early to go to the extra hour they open the Typhoon Lagoon water park for hotel guests. We got up, put on our trunks & flip flops and caught the shuttle bus over. Good time at that park, short lines for all the cool slides and stuff. After a few hours we go to head back to our room.
The bus pulls up, and as we go to get on, the driver tells us we have to put our shirts back on. Ummm, we've got no shirts with us, what you see is what you get. "Federal law", he tells us, "you have to have a shirt to ride the bus". We turn around and head back to the park entrance and locate guest services. We tell the lady our tale of woe, and she heads off to the back to see what will be done. As we wait, we both notice a lost article form next to the register, lost swim trunks. We both have a laugh, and I purport that the guy who lost those probably wasn't denied entrance to the bus!!! I say if we get shirts and the same bus driver we need to shuck off our trunks and see if he lets us on like that!!!
I'd figured that they would probably find us a pair of Hanna Montana or High School Musical shirts in the lost & found, but instead they made us up a voucher for the park's store for two shirts!!! We head back and find a couple of nice shirts. The one the boy has was my first choice, but the smallest they had was large and I was looking for a medium. Nice fit on him, huh???
And that, my friends, is how to get a free meal (or at least a free couple of shirts) out of a Mouse!!!
Getting there went smoothly until we'd landed in Miami. At that point, they changed the baggage claim and didn't tell us, so that took a bit. From there to the rental car... well, the rental car places are off site, and there's a shuttle over there. The best priced rental was with Advantage, and their place isn't with all the other rental places, but off from there, so you have to take a shuttle to their shuttle!!! Further complicating things is that it turns out they're only open until midnight, and with the baggage claim and two shuttles, it was VERY close. We got it OK though, and were off to our hotel. Turned out to be a very opulent place (of course, being right on the beach I figured it would be) with the only option being valet parking, and marble stairs leading to a huge crystal chandeliered lobby. Naturally, we were hungry by the time we landed, so we'd stopped by Burger King and showed up looking like a bunch of hillbillies with our take out bags!!! Good times!!! We got checked into our room, and headed up to discover there was only one bed!!! Fortunately the bellman got our problem solved fairly quickly.
Our second flight from Miami to Orlando didn't go quite as smooth, being delayed a couple hours (with the getting to the airport early, delays and finding the Disney express at the airport, it would have been near the same amount of time to drive there!!!) and the gate getting changed a couple of times before being changed back to the original. Not a single complaint about our lodgings at Disney, making it the only one of the three with that distinguishment.
Our third hotel was the Nickelodeon Suites for the last two nights. The room they gave us was great, away from the noisy pool and slides play area, on the ground floor with a view of the lagoon. Unfortunately, the air conditioning has some kind of issue, and the floor all around it (central to the lodgings) was completely soaked!!! Once again, it was very late when we checked in, and we were all ready to sleep. A call to the front desk and they assure me they're sending someone over to take care of us. 45 minutes later, and no one has showed. I walk through the labyrinthine complex to the front desk, and they tell me there's no vacancies to move us into, and someone is already at our room dealing with the problem. I get back, and they've sent housekeeping over with half a dozen towels, which are already soaked through. Sigh. The next morning the oldest & I get up to go to Universal (mom & the younger have had enough theme parking and elect to stay there today. Could have saved some $$$ had I known. I tell her to get on the line with the front desk & get us a different room when she gets up). The hotel shuttle never shows up, so we drive over (another $14 for parking). Later that day she calls me up and tells me they've used a wet vac on the swampy area. I tell her I'm not impressed with their half assed attempts and I want a new room. When we get back, the older remembers something he left in the old room and goes over to get it. It's still about the same as far as moisture, and they've set up a couple of fans. Glad we got a new room, and they did give us $20 credit. Still not worth it, if it wasn't for the epic water play area I would discourage anyone from staying there.
One night we went to Sonic. They completely screwed up our order. Did manage to get a huge thing of cheesy tater tots, and an extra slushy. If Sonic didn't have awesome food, I wouldn't ever recommend them, either!!!
My GPS is easily confused by turnpikes. She was constantly recalculating. Last time we were there I had a much better feel for the geography, as I was using actual paper maps.
I think that mostly covers the fails of the trip (with the exception of the day I thought we were checking out and was a day early to the Nickelodeon) with the exception of the final one that this post was to be primarily about, which actually turned into a win for us. See the first picture of Mickey giving himself a facepalm???
The second full day we were in Orlando the oldest & I got up early to go to the extra hour they open the Typhoon Lagoon water park for hotel guests. We got up, put on our trunks & flip flops and caught the shuttle bus over. Good time at that park, short lines for all the cool slides and stuff. After a few hours we go to head back to our room.
The bus pulls up, and as we go to get on, the driver tells us we have to put our shirts back on. Ummm, we've got no shirts with us, what you see is what you get. "Federal law", he tells us, "you have to have a shirt to ride the bus". We turn around and head back to the park entrance and locate guest services. We tell the lady our tale of woe, and she heads off to the back to see what will be done. As we wait, we both notice a lost article form next to the register, lost swim trunks. We both have a laugh, and I purport that the guy who lost those probably wasn't denied entrance to the bus!!! I say if we get shirts and the same bus driver we need to shuck off our trunks and see if he lets us on like that!!!
I'd figured that they would probably find us a pair of Hanna Montana or High School Musical shirts in the lost & found, but instead they made us up a voucher for the park's store for two shirts!!! We head back and find a couple of nice shirts. The one the boy has was my first choice, but the smallest they had was large and I was looking for a medium. Nice fit on him, huh???
And that, my friends, is how to get a free meal (or at least a free couple of shirts) out of a Mouse!!!
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Momentous Updates
Once again, it's been a while since I've updated. Must be something fairly momentous to do so, huh??? Well, here's a few!!!
It's now into the days before we leave on our epic summer vacation. Short enough time that I can look at the weather & hurricane watch & oil slick projections to see with fair certainty how it's gonna be. Right now, it's all looking REAL good!!! Related tech news, I bought myself a wireless interwebs dongle for the trip, so as not to have to rely on or pay for hotel or airport connections. I've more than paid for it if I'd have done either of those, I figure, so MAYBE there will be some updates from on the road. No promises. I have yet to settle on any new digital camera yet, though I've been looking more at point & shoot mega zoom cameras.
But the big news of the day??? We got ourselves a new pet kitty!!! At the local taco & burger joint today, there was a very vocal skinny little stray wandering around. It was kinda spooky, but the boys coaxed her out from under the car she had hid under. Actually fairly tame, but no indication that she belongs to anyone. We brought her home and fed her and gave her some water, which generally will seal the deal for a cat. She enjoys affection, and has no qualms about visiting the inside of our home. Our other cat doesn't seem especially put off by her, but I don't know how much she's got left in her. The new kitty (first name the very original name "Shadow", middle name the Runescape inspired "Shade", with our family surname comes out to S.S.S. for her initials. All our cats seem to get names that start with S) however, tends to growl low, flatten her ears and extend her claws when the two get close. Our good old cat has been looking skinnier that usual these days, and seems like she may have lost much of her sight and possibly hearing. We've enjoyed her company for probably 13 or 14 years, which seems an incredible amount of time for an outdoor cat to live.
The thing that shall remain to be seen, however, is how either of them do while we're out of town. Of course we'll be getting someone to feed them while we're out, but who knows???
While taking some pictures of the newest addition to our family, I came across the pictures from the older boys' 8th grade graduation. They had trophies for all kinds of things, from perfect attendance to a 10k run that his graduating class had done. SO, he got a TON of trophies!!! See 'em all??? Oh yea, he was honor roll, too. Straight A's for the win!!!
And this, I'd wanted to take a picture since she got it last week!!! My wife had her old supervisor at work cut her hair fairly short a couple months back (said supervisor has been a cosmetologist and a registered nurse before settling on her career in the culinary arts) and it was time for a trim up. Of course, being off for the summer, she actually had to go to a salon and get it done. She got the style where it's very short in the back and longer towards the front. Would have been even longer, but that is predicated on having the length to begin with. I told her when she first showed me that it looks "very butch". Of course, I jest, I actually find it quite cute, and she's pleased with it as well.
It's now into the days before we leave on our epic summer vacation. Short enough time that I can look at the weather & hurricane watch & oil slick projections to see with fair certainty how it's gonna be. Right now, it's all looking REAL good!!! Related tech news, I bought myself a wireless interwebs dongle for the trip, so as not to have to rely on or pay for hotel or airport connections. I've more than paid for it if I'd have done either of those, I figure, so MAYBE there will be some updates from on the road. No promises. I have yet to settle on any new digital camera yet, though I've been looking more at point & shoot mega zoom cameras.
But the big news of the day??? We got ourselves a new pet kitty!!! At the local taco & burger joint today, there was a very vocal skinny little stray wandering around. It was kinda spooky, but the boys coaxed her out from under the car she had hid under. Actually fairly tame, but no indication that she belongs to anyone. We brought her home and fed her and gave her some water, which generally will seal the deal for a cat. She enjoys affection, and has no qualms about visiting the inside of our home. Our other cat doesn't seem especially put off by her, but I don't know how much she's got left in her. The new kitty (first name the very original name "Shadow", middle name the Runescape inspired "Shade", with our family surname comes out to S.S.S. for her initials. All our cats seem to get names that start with S) however, tends to growl low, flatten her ears and extend her claws when the two get close. Our good old cat has been looking skinnier that usual these days, and seems like she may have lost much of her sight and possibly hearing. We've enjoyed her company for probably 13 or 14 years, which seems an incredible amount of time for an outdoor cat to live.
The thing that shall remain to be seen, however, is how either of them do while we're out of town. Of course we'll be getting someone to feed them while we're out, but who knows???
While taking some pictures of the newest addition to our family, I came across the pictures from the older boys' 8th grade graduation. They had trophies for all kinds of things, from perfect attendance to a 10k run that his graduating class had done. SO, he got a TON of trophies!!! See 'em all??? Oh yea, he was honor roll, too. Straight A's for the win!!!
And this, I'd wanted to take a picture since she got it last week!!! My wife had her old supervisor at work cut her hair fairly short a couple months back (said supervisor has been a cosmetologist and a registered nurse before settling on her career in the culinary arts) and it was time for a trim up. Of course, being off for the summer, she actually had to go to a salon and get it done. She got the style where it's very short in the back and longer towards the front. Would have been even longer, but that is predicated on having the length to begin with. I told her when she first showed me that it looks "very butch". Of course, I jest, I actually find it quite cute, and she's pleased with it as well.
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Sleep Deprivation Part 3
Day five!!! This is actually the day we went to Hurricane Harbor for their early extra hours. It's all a blur now, but I'm sure of this in retrospect. Take everything I said about that on the Something Completely Different post and put it here. Don't know what we did in the morning of the fourth day, maybe we just played in the pool at the resort??? I know we did a lot of that.
This was the last day we were going to have the rental car, I was scheduled to turn it in at noon that day. We left early enough from there that we could make it back and go out for a last meal with the rental before we were back to having to take the Disney shuttle buses. After dining and leaving the restaurant, my oldest boy starts looking around for the admission card and room key card that he'd had in a Ziploc bag in his swim trunks. He can't find it anywhere, and we head back to the restaurant, because his mom is sure he had it there. Yea, like it's still gonna be there half an hour later. Damit. Ends up being so late I know I won't get the rental back, so I call them up and tell them to add one day. Had to go to the concierge desk at the resort to get them replaced.
After that, it was off to Epcot Center!!! This was the night that it had the extra evening hours, which was a good thing, since it was mid afternoon before we made it there. My wife had been especially looking forward to this, because the guy she had sat next to on the flight out had told her that they have wines from all over the world there. I think she had pictured in her mind something like vats with coffee urn spigots on them where you can drink all you like for free or something.
At the security check going in, the security guard Dave was singing "Drift Away". When we got closer, I broke out my video camera and asked him to sing it again. Probably I'll post that at some point. Pretty amusing.
First stop was the Mission: Space ride. Outside of it, they have a very cool model of the moon, with marks everywhere something has been landed. Red for the first landing, blue for the subsequent manned landings, and white for unmanned probes. There are two different intensities to the ride, so we got our tickets fast passed to come back later that day. However, the line for the less intense version was really quite short, so the older and I rode it. It featured Gary Sinise in the video leading up to it. It was hard for me to recognize him out of the Detective Mac Taylor or Lieutenant Dan roles. Pretty cool ride, but the less intense ride wasn't very intense.
After that we went on the GM Test Track ride. These are the two thrill rides at Epcot Center. This one wasn't much of a thrill, either, but it does go pretty fast and has some nice, high banked curves.
One of the coolest things there was this soda pops of the world pavilion. They have all these different sodas on tap from several countries. Amazing what some people will drink, guess it depends on what you're used to. We attempted to go on the iconic Spaceship Earth ride (the giant golf ball), but discovered that it is closed for renovation. It has apparently had several of these in the course of it's life. Last time I saw it, it didn't have all those stars on the top of it. The structure next to it I had taken to be a crane, but it turns out it used to be a magic wand with Mickey's hand holding it.
We were making our way around the World Pavilion, where they have different countries represented in the buildings, food and attractions. The workers in the various lands are from the represented countries, I understand that they are housed by Disney and are college students. How cool would that be??? That was one of the things I had wanted to do was have some food that I had never tried before. We got to the France land and were on the search for some wine for my wife. The wine shop there had a sampler package of three different wines for $15, so I went to buy one for both of us. Hahahaha, my wife forgot to bring her ID!!! It took a little bit of doing, but finally the clerk let her have her wine.
There was a movie of the French countryside that we watched. It was pretty cool, the screen is a full 180° and we were in the front row, so it was all around us. Did you know that Walt Disney's original concept for Epcot was to have a dome over the whole place and have it air conditioned??? That would have been real nice, that was a lot of the reason we went into the theatre, to sit in the air conditioned building for a while.
Around this time, it was getting towards the time that our fast passes were in effect for the Mission: Space ride. Went back and rode the intense version, first mom and the older, then myself and the older. WOW, what a difference from the less intense one!!! You can actually feel it pulling your face back when it does the launch sequence!!! I had thought it was a standard motion simulator type thing before I had rode it, but after the second trip I figured out that it uses centrifuge effect for the G-forces. Very cool. I was back from our vacation before I found out that there have been a few deaths from this ride!!!
Starved after that, so we ended up going the other way around the World Showcase (we'd only gone about halfway around when we had to head back for the fast passes) and ended up in the China land. I've had Chinese food a lot before, but I wasn't seeing much that looked any better, and they had a real nice sit down restaurant, Nine Dragons. We got a bottle of a strange plum wine to drink with dinner. We were some of the last people to get a seat, as they were closing down for the evening. I believe that it was after the time when the park was closed to all but resort guests. After that we went to the Norway area to attempt to go on a ride called Maelstrom that is a viking boat ride. It was closed. OK, we headed back to a ride called Soaring, which is very similar to the one at California Adventure called Soaring over California. It was closed, too. I was noticing a trend. The Seas with Nemo & Friends ride was still open, so we rode that. It goes through one of the world's largest salt water aquariums, riding in a clam mobile. Nice, but not too exciting. That is the general consensus of most visitors to Epcot altogether, I think, nice, but not too exciting.
This was the last day we were going to have the rental car, I was scheduled to turn it in at noon that day. We left early enough from there that we could make it back and go out for a last meal with the rental before we were back to having to take the Disney shuttle buses. After dining and leaving the restaurant, my oldest boy starts looking around for the admission card and room key card that he'd had in a Ziploc bag in his swim trunks. He can't find it anywhere, and we head back to the restaurant, because his mom is sure he had it there. Yea, like it's still gonna be there half an hour later. Damit. Ends up being so late I know I won't get the rental back, so I call them up and tell them to add one day. Had to go to the concierge desk at the resort to get them replaced.
After that, it was off to Epcot Center!!! This was the night that it had the extra evening hours, which was a good thing, since it was mid afternoon before we made it there. My wife had been especially looking forward to this, because the guy she had sat next to on the flight out had told her that they have wines from all over the world there. I think she had pictured in her mind something like vats with coffee urn spigots on them where you can drink all you like for free or something.
At the security check going in, the security guard Dave was singing "Drift Away". When we got closer, I broke out my video camera and asked him to sing it again. Probably I'll post that at some point. Pretty amusing.
First stop was the Mission: Space ride. Outside of it, they have a very cool model of the moon, with marks everywhere something has been landed. Red for the first landing, blue for the subsequent manned landings, and white for unmanned probes. There are two different intensities to the ride, so we got our tickets fast passed to come back later that day. However, the line for the less intense version was really quite short, so the older and I rode it. It featured Gary Sinise in the video leading up to it. It was hard for me to recognize him out of the Detective Mac Taylor or Lieutenant Dan roles. Pretty cool ride, but the less intense ride wasn't very intense.
After that we went on the GM Test Track ride. These are the two thrill rides at Epcot Center. This one wasn't much of a thrill, either, but it does go pretty fast and has some nice, high banked curves.
One of the coolest things there was this soda pops of the world pavilion. They have all these different sodas on tap from several countries. Amazing what some people will drink, guess it depends on what you're used to. We attempted to go on the iconic Spaceship Earth ride (the giant golf ball), but discovered that it is closed for renovation. It has apparently had several of these in the course of it's life. Last time I saw it, it didn't have all those stars on the top of it. The structure next to it I had taken to be a crane, but it turns out it used to be a magic wand with Mickey's hand holding it.
We were making our way around the World Pavilion, where they have different countries represented in the buildings, food and attractions. The workers in the various lands are from the represented countries, I understand that they are housed by Disney and are college students. How cool would that be??? That was one of the things I had wanted to do was have some food that I had never tried before. We got to the France land and were on the search for some wine for my wife. The wine shop there had a sampler package of three different wines for $15, so I went to buy one for both of us. Hahahaha, my wife forgot to bring her ID!!! It took a little bit of doing, but finally the clerk let her have her wine.
There was a movie of the French countryside that we watched. It was pretty cool, the screen is a full 180° and we were in the front row, so it was all around us. Did you know that Walt Disney's original concept for Epcot was to have a dome over the whole place and have it air conditioned??? That would have been real nice, that was a lot of the reason we went into the theatre, to sit in the air conditioned building for a while.
Around this time, it was getting towards the time that our fast passes were in effect for the Mission: Space ride. Went back and rode the intense version, first mom and the older, then myself and the older. WOW, what a difference from the less intense one!!! You can actually feel it pulling your face back when it does the launch sequence!!! I had thought it was a standard motion simulator type thing before I had rode it, but after the second trip I figured out that it uses centrifuge effect for the G-forces. Very cool. I was back from our vacation before I found out that there have been a few deaths from this ride!!!
Starved after that, so we ended up going the other way around the World Showcase (we'd only gone about halfway around when we had to head back for the fast passes) and ended up in the China land. I've had Chinese food a lot before, but I wasn't seeing much that looked any better, and they had a real nice sit down restaurant, Nine Dragons. We got a bottle of a strange plum wine to drink with dinner. We were some of the last people to get a seat, as they were closing down for the evening. I believe that it was after the time when the park was closed to all but resort guests. After that we went to the Norway area to attempt to go on a ride called Maelstrom that is a viking boat ride. It was closed. OK, we headed back to a ride called Soaring, which is very similar to the one at California Adventure called Soaring over California. It was closed, too. I was noticing a trend. The Seas with Nemo & Friends ride was still open, so we rode that. It goes through one of the world's largest salt water aquariums, riding in a clam mobile. Nice, but not too exciting. That is the general consensus of most visitors to Epcot altogether, I think, nice, but not too exciting.
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