le blog de bloogue

This was suppose to be a weekend in the Black Hills but the winter storm warnings forced us to change our plans! SO Kieran and myself went to Pierre Friday night, arriving around 11:30pm and returning Sunday morning back at MSP around 9am.

Given that the weather was kinda cruddy, we didn’t do a whole lot expect… eat. Cattlemen’s Club, Guadalajara, and Zesto — the Pierre staples. But, nevertheless, it was good to see the parents and Oscar, their elder tomcat.

[flickr album=72157608023807218 num=20 size=Square]

I’m done with Gallery. Whatever weird-ass thing it did this time, I haven’t been able to fix, nor do I have the time to mess with it. Given that, I’m converting over to Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/trypnotic/

Brandy and I just scored some sweet airfare, via Airtran, to Orlando that we couldn’t pass up. SO we’ll be heading down for a long weekend, just the two of us, between December 8-11. We’re planning on one park day and one Typhoon Lagoon day. Any time in between will be spent in either Celebration or Downtown Disney. There are no available value rooms that weekend so we’ll have to grab a car and go off-site. We’re still planning on a week long trip at the end of February for Kaitlyn’s third birthday.

This will be by far the cheapest WDW trip we’ve done thus far. We have one hopper day and five water park admissions remaining so we won’t need to purchase any additional park tickets. Airfare is $360, hotel via Hotwire will be ~$100 for three nights, ~$100 for an economy car, and either eating fast food or counter service – should bring us in for a total around $650ish. That’s quite cheap for a weekend at WDW in my opinion.

This will be our first holiday @ WDW experience which I’m really looking forward to. In the parks, there’s the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights at MGM, Festival of the Seasons at Downtown Disney, and Epcot’s Holidays Around the World. In the resorts, the full-size gingerbread house at Grand Floridian will be a must see.

Well the next trip to Orlando has been finalized. Brandy, Kaitlyn, and myself will depart Thursday, June 15 and return Tuesday, June 20 for Kaitlyn’s first Walt Disney World experience! For those that are counting, this is our second time there so far this year, the first time was in early February. Kieran will be staying home with our good friend Sarah.

This trip will also serve as utility as we’ll see if we can tolerate the heat. As most everyone knows, we’re tentatively planning on vacating Minnesota in 2-3 years and settling in Orlando. For those that don’t know – we’re tentatively planning on vacating Minnesota in 2-3 years and settling in Orlando. Personally, Brandy and I have grown weary of the climate in this state and are ready for something new. We’re not cold weather people and we just wind up in this crabby, vegetative state for the duration of the freezing, obnoxious Minnesota winter. So we’re moving to the other extreme – Florida. Yes, it’ll be ungodly hot and humid in the summer but is that any worse than -20 degree temperatures and blizzards? We’re willing to find out.

Lastly, I am nearing completion of the NFFC Minnesota web site at http://www.mnmousefans.org/ which I volunteered to do a redesign for during the April meeting. The fellow that was working on the previous web site wound up moving to Orlando and became a Cast Member over at Epcot. It seems likely that the new webmaster might experience the same fate!

My mother in-law Kris informed us this evening that she has selected our accomodations for our trip to Myrtle Beach this August. We’ll likely be staying at the Ocean Bay Club in North Myrtle Beach along with Kris’s sisters, Paula, Resa and her daughter, Brooke. Highlights of the condo include a lazy river, a kiddie pool, an outdoor jacuzzi, a large outdoor pool, large master bath with jacuzzi tub. Well, the last bit is only really good news for whoever winds up with the master suite. Oh right, took all the time to mentioned the fabricated entertainment there also appears to be an OCEAN within a few hundred feet.

We’re going to be leaving on August 19 and returning the following Saturday. We’re allowing a couple of days each way for travel as we’ll be either renting a van or SUV along with Kris and Cliff. It’ll be interesting to see how the two kids handle the long drive. I’m hoping to be able to coordinate pit stops along with nabbing a geocache in each state either along the way or along the way back. While in South Carolina, I’d like to visit Charleston and check out Fort Sumter and some of the gardens and plantations.

photo from condolux.net

Dining reservations have been made!

Saturday, February 4
Concourse Steakhouse at the Contemporary Resort for lunch. This was a last minute decision as we had originally planned on Nine Dragons for this day but moved it to Monday. I wanted to choose something along the monorail as we’ll be spending the afternoon at Epcot. As far as the restaurant itself, it’s on the fourth floor concourse and just overhead, the monorail breezes in and out of the hotel. It’ll be fun to watch I think!

Sunday, February 5
Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for Dinner. This buffet dinner comes highly rated by all the resources I’ve read. According to AllEarsNet.com, “This family-fun buffet provides guests the ability to savor the African experience, which has multicultural influences.” Coming here for dinner also gives us the excuse of visiting the resort which is quite intriguing in itself. The lodge recreats a South African wildlife reserve lodge feel. It’s six stories tall and has three savannas that are open 24 hours a day with a giant picture window that overlooks 30 acres, 100 grazing animals, and 130 birds.

Monday, February 6
Nine Dragons at the Epcot World Showcase for Lunch. We were going to hit this last May after we arrived in Orlando but were too tired to walk through Epcot after an all day flight. We wound up eating at the unfortunate Golden Corral on 192 which was a CF and definitely isn’t the Golden Corral I remembered from my teenagehood where I sported my first job. Aside from that, after dinner, we went back to our hotel and slept… at 7pm on. Phew. I’m looking forward to finally experiencing Nine Dragons in the China Pavillion. I’m torn on the General Tso’s Chicken or the recommended Canton Pepper Beef. Whatever it winds up being, it’ll be washed down with Tsingtsao.

Apparently Duluth wanted to send me along with a souviner last night on the way back. As I was headed up the I-35 hill southbound, the Durango fishtailed out of no where and went out of control, with the front passenger side smashing into the gaurd rail next to the left lane. After doing a quick vital check of my family, I started the Durango back up (since it stalled) and had to drive into traffic briefly as I was now pointed in the wrong direction. A number of people behind me were able to stop in time and one individual asked if we were OK before they continued down the freeway. We got pulled over to the shoulder so that I could assess the damage – it wasn’t bad but wasn’t great either. The headlight assembly was heavily damaged but amazingly enough, the headlight low-beam still worked. The blinkers and reflectors were toast. My fog lamp also got knocked out of its spot on the bumper which was pretty banged up as well. A quick check under the hood to discover that the impact had not effected the engine or radiator at all nor were there any fluids leaking anywhere – PHEW. I jumped back into the Durango and slow drove to the next exit (Spirit Mountain, McDonald’s, etc) to aquire some duct tape so that I could tape the remaining chunk of the headlight cover back on to protect the bulb. After my quick fix, we headed back onto the freeway only to meet traffic that was moving along at 30 m.p.h. – there was a truck that was on its side in the left lane. That truck and mine were the first of about 15-17 accidents or run in’s to the ditch that we saw in our 3½ hour trek back to the Twin Cities last night. I’m guessing that for under $200, I should be able to find a headlight assembly and front bumper for the Durango. I’m not in a huge hurry to have it fixed as it isn’t effecting the truck at all in the condition that its in. The only thing that’s annoying is that the blinker doesn’t work obviously. Perhaps I’ll wait until Spring so that it doesn’t have another opportunity to get smashed up for at least this winter season. Bah humbug.

All in all, it was a really great trip.

Saturday, May 7 – we arrived on time in Orlando around 1pm local time. We got our rental car very quickly and easily – they even upgraded us for free from a mid-sized to a full-sized. We wound up with a rather new (sub-10k miles) Chevy Impala. We stormed toward our hotel to check in and immediately went to Epcot. We first tried Soarin which was awesome. It’s a simulated hang-glider ride that “soars” over scenes of California. This is a ride that originated at Disneyland. Disney’s current celebration is the “Happiest Celebration on Earth” which boasts 50 years of theme parkery with Disneyland opening 50 years ago this year. They’re having a world-wide celebration that includes the parks in Paris, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Anaheim, and Orlando. Because of this, they’re sharing a number of attractions that can be found in the parks around the world. We had priority seating reservations at Nine Dragons in Epcot but were pretty exhausted, ate off site, and crashed early in the evening.

Sunday, May 8 – Started the day at MGM for rope drop. Brandy and I are DisneyDorks so we had to each buy a souviner cast member badge at Celebrity 5 & 10. For lunch, we ate at Sci-Fi Dine-In. The theming was great. The setting was a 1950’s drive-in theater. All the booths were mini-cars that were parked in front of a screen playing terrible (yet highly entertaining) sci-fi movies from the 50’s. After lunch, we headed over to Target to buy some groceries as we would have a fridge at the Old Key West resort that we were staying at for most of the week. Old Key West is a Disney Vacation Club resort of which we located a member that was willing to rent his available “points” to us. DVC essentially works similar to a timeshare and members that don’t use their point allowance can rent them to other folks. We found this particular resort through the forums on the DIS boards (wdwinfo.com). It’s gorgous! We’re very tempted to buy our own points via resale. That evening, we ate at the San Angel Inn at the Mexico pavillion in Epcot. Brandy and I found it to be very tasty (and expensive). Who cares. We’re on vacation, right?

Monday, May 9 – This was Brad’s day. I dragged Brandy over to the Cocoa area and spent the majority of the day at John F Kennedy Space Center. We took the NASA Up-close tour and were able to view the shuttle carrying Discovery on the launch pad. I believe the guide said we were about one mile away from it – nothing my 10x optical zoom couldn’t handle. We also visited the Saturn V center that held an unused Apollo mission modules and such. Brandy could probably tell you more about the specifics than I could despite her lack of interest in the subject. I was taking video and shooting still photos like a madman. After leaving Merritt Island, we headed to Cocoa Beach down A1A and ate at Fischer’s Seafood Bar & Grill. It was… OK. Every other restaurant in the area seemed rather tacky and we certainly didn’t fly 1,300 miles to eat at McDonald’s or Perkins.

Tuesday, May 10 – After deciding to postpone Typhoon Lagoon until Thursday, we hung out largely at Magic Kingdom. Our lunch was simple counter service in Tomorrowland – Cosmic Ray’s. Watching a humorous alien sing and tell jokes is a lovely way to spend lunch. We took in the revamped, “it’s a small world ride”, I rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad countless times, not to mention the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Carribean, and Splash Mountain. We spent the late afternoon swimming and enjoying the amenities at Old Key West. We also took a boat ride from the resort to Downtown Disney to enjoy some Ghirardelli and over priced Samuel Adams. We also spent… just a few dollars at the Disney Store. Arg.

Wednesday, May 11 – Bummed around Old Key West and did some laundry. Went for some lunch at the Boardwalk resort – Big River Grille Brewery. This is, of course, the only *real* beer that exists on Disney property. Elsewhere, you’ll mostly just fine Miller, Budweiser, Heineken, Corona, and Sam Adams which is half-way tolerable. We headed over to Animal Kingdom afterwards and caught the Kilimanjaro Safari, Dinosaur, and It’s Tough to Be a Bug. We were rather heat exhausted this day so we headed back to Old Key West to recoup. That evening was Extra Magic Hours at Magic Kingdom so we HAD to hit that. Unfortunately some storms brewed during the day and started raining around 5pm’ish. This wasn’t your typical 5 minute downpour which I had become accustomed to during our last visit in 2003. It finally stopped around 8:30 just in time for Wishes (Magic Kingdom’s end-of-day firework show) to begin. Last time we were here, there was a $10 fee per person to take part in the Extra Magic Hours. They’ve since done away with that fee and now are allowing anyone that’s staying on Disney property to take part for free. Needless to say the park quite busier than it was last time we visited during those extra hours.

Thursday, May 12 – Typhoon Lagoon day! Headed over to the water park around 10am when it opened. Slathered on the sunscreen and jumped in the wave pool. Immediately got out as I got sunscreen in my eyes and sent me running around looking for a shower to wash the stinging substance out. I think I was legally blind for about a hour. Continued my time in the wave pool with Brandy. Learned that I need to hold onto my sunglasses as well as my shorts when the wave hits your back – you can only imagine the outcome if you don’t. Around 11:30, I made my way over to Shark Reef via the Lazy River tube ride. Waited in line for about a half hour and jumped in with my park issued snorkle – that was one chilly salt water tank. My goggles had fogged over so visibility was limited. I brought along a waterproof camera and just started taking shot after shot. I figured if I wasn’t going to see it now, I could at least see it later. During the last park of the swim, I started becoming surrounded by a number of large, beautiful fish of some sorts. They were likely lured by the winding of the film in my camera. I saw either three sharks or the same shark on three seperate occassions or other varients of combinations. He hung out mostly toward the bottom of the tank as the cast members informed us he would. There were also a couple stingrays – but they hung out mostly at the beginning and ends of the tank where we were all briefed on the swim. We left Typhoon Lagoon with one hell of a sunburn. I spent most of the evening in the room with Brandy applying aloe gel to my back repeatedly. We finished off the evening with some pizza and wings from Pizza Hut/Wingstreet.

Friday, May 13 – With my sunburn largely under control, we headed over to Epcot for lunch at Le Cellier restaurant. This is a must-do whenever we go back to the World as they have the world’s best-ever cheddar cheese beer soup. Afterwards, we did Soarin’ once again and I hit Mission to Space. Very fun couple of rides. For the evening, we went to MGM for dinner. We ate a magnificent buffet at Hollywood & Vine which was part of our Fantasmic dinner package. Fantasmic is the last big show of the day for MGM studios and always has a huge crowd where seats fill fast so the dinner package people get their own reserved section and just have to arrive at least a half hour before the show begins at 9. I had taken my wallet out in anticipation of one of the consession people coming by but they never came. The show started and I had left my wallet on my lap. After the show ended, I got up and started walking out of the aisle. It wasn’t until 30 seconds or 50′ later I had realized my wallet wasn’t on me. I walked back and by the time I got there, it was already gone. I asked the cast members what to do and they said to ask the Lost and Found station at the entrance of the park. We waited there until about 10:30 when I doubt anyone was still left in the park and it had still not shown up. During the time I waited, I called Wells Fargo and cancelled my credit and check card with them. We were staying at All-Star Music that night. We got there around 11:30 and I called the Orange County sheriff to file a report. We obviously were leaving the next day and I no longer had any ID and would likely help my chances of getting through airport security if I had a police report. Anyway, the dispatch said they would send someone over as available.

Saturday, May 14 – 2:30am rolled around – still nothing. I called again and once more, they said they’d send someone out as available. 6:30am rolled around and I called again – this time, I was very unpleasant. The person on the other end understood my frustration and basically let me scream my little heart out. He told me that I was calling the wrong county and I should be talking to Osceola county as that is where All-Star Music is at. So they transfer me over while I’m fuming. I explain what happened and they said, “Oh, you lost the wallet at MGM studios? That’s Orange county!” GRR! So I’m transferred back again. I’m furious at this point and ask to speak with a supervisor. He calms me down and gets a deputy out to me immediately. Around 9:30, I finally have a police report. We spend most of the morning just driving around because we have nothing else to do – my park ticket with one remaining day on it was in my wallet. I had the park ticket serial numbers and could probably recover that one remaining day on my ticket but decided it wasn’t worth the hassle by this point. We got to the airport around 11am and returned the car to Budget. The Northwest check-in lady was very understanding and just marked me down to be searched. I got through security in a matter of minutes and now we had to kill four hours at the airport – I was just glad to be through security and on my way home. We connected in Memphis and left within the hour – they informed us that it was 50 degrees with light rain in Minneapolis *sigh* welcome back. It had been in the mid-80’s all week and sunny with the exception of Wednesday evening.

All in all, the wallet thing was a shitty way to end a vacation but at least the crap didn’t happen at the beginning of the trip. We still had a great time. If we had to do it over again, I think we probably would have brought Katie. For a change, it was us with the seperation anxiety! She spent the week in Ely with Brandy’s parents and I think still had a great time. I know Kris and Cliff really enjoyed their time with her. We picked her up Sunday from Duluth after meeting them at Perkins. Looking forward to going again :)

Babysitter for the week… check!

Time off from work… check!
Airline tickets… check!
Resort reservation… check!
Car rental… check!
Footware… check!
Park Tickets… er, April 8th!

Brandy and I got some way cool Keen Newports last night from The Walking Store at the Mall of America. They seem to be about the same price everywhere so they got our vote because they were more friendly than anywhere else we had been.

Last time Brandy and I went to Disney World, we brought back some pretty mangled feet (not to mention, a zygote). Hopefully this purchase will remedy that problem.

Thirty-six more days! r0×0r.

Well, Brandy and I are going to Orlando again. The flight is booked and the time-off is approved for May 7-14th. We’re likely going to stay at one of the All-Star resorts, at least once, so we can take advantage of E-Ride Night at Magic Kingdom. The All-Star we’d like to check out is a newer one that is Pop Culture themed. My family and I stayed at the All-Star Movies in 2002.

We’re going to rent a car this time so we can take advantage of Universal Studios, Cocoa Beach, and Cape Canaveral – all depending on how much time we’ll have available.

I’m really looking forward to going. A lot of people put Disney World down but I enjoy it – mostly the experience of not being in Minneapolis is enough for me. We went last time in late May of 2003 to celebrate our engagement and it resulted in a Kaitlyn. Fortunately this time Brandy is already pregnant ;)

Miss Kaitlyn will be staying with Grandma and Grandpa LeRoy for the week. We’ll take her when she’s a little older – for fifteen month old, she wouldn’t get much out of it.

Next year, I’d like to fly out to Las Vegas and drive around for a week. My family and I went to California in 1986 when I was 7 and I didn’t get much out of it except for squealing at the characters in Disney Land. I’d like to drive from Las Vegas, to Los Angeles, to the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam area then fly back out from Las Vegas, taking in everything in between.