The Summer Vacation Wrap-up (Finally!)

I promise this will be that last one. It's only about the last two days of the trip and there was nothing as exciting as Star Wars Weekend to take up a lot of the discussion.

On Monday we went back to Epcot, but this time we did something a little different. Something we should have done the first time. See, while Epcot does has some fun stuff for the kids, the countries that you walk through aren't all that exciting for them. But, that is where the genius of Disney comes into play.

If you don't have younger kids you may not have heard of Kim Possible. It's a show about a teenage girl how is also a kind of secret spy/agent type thing. What Disney did is bring Kim Possible to Epcot. You go to a Kim Possible recruiting center in the front part of the park, then the agents there give you a slip of paper that tells you what country to report to and at what time. Then, when you get there you get a special phone that Kim Possible and her friends can communicate to you and tell you what to look for and what to do. It is really a great idea. My son was really into it. We went to four different countries finding clues before he got too hot and wanted to stop. I highly recommend doing this if you have kids. It makes the countries interesting to them, and they just might learns something. Isn't that why you bring them to Epcot?

Before we left Epoct I bought a shirt with the birds from Finding Nemo. You know, the ones that keep saying, "Mine. Mine! Mine!" I like those guys. I wore it on the plane home. I'm pretty sure it is a requirement to wear something Disney related on the flight home from Disney World. I think I saw it somewhere on the hotel reservation.

That night we had dinner in the Polynesian Hotel. It was okay but, again, quite pricey for what you got. I don't remember what the name of the restaurant was, it wasn't their main one. We also notice how loud the hotel was. Everything in the lobby is opened up so both restaurants, the stores and everything on the first two floors all combine into a disorienting cacophony of voices and shouting. Then again, in a place with tons of kids, what do I expect?

On our last full day we decided to go back to the Magic Kingdom. We hit the Buzz Lightyear adventure again (third time I think), Tom Sawyer Island again and a few other rides. I think my son could have spent the whole day on Tom Sawyer Island. He loved running around in the fort and pretending to shot the bad guys. He ended up getting recruited by a slightly older kid and fighting a war with him.

We didn't stay all that long this day. The kids didn't want to do much more at the park, so after lunchtime we went back to the pool. As you can see, we did that a lot. This time, though, both Jenn and I got sunburn. We forgot to add more sunscreen after changing into swimming gear so our shoulders were burnt. Not terribly, but enough to make us a little uncomfortable. Actually I got a very strange tan line on one of my arms because I missed a spot earlier in the day. Luckily it is covered up by a normal shirt so I don't look like a weirdo everyday at work now.

For our last meal we went all out and had a good dinner at Narcoosee's which was right outside our balcony. I had a good steak. The best one I had in Florida. I just realized I had steak three times there. I guess that's what happens when you go to seafood places and you don't like seafood.

As we were at the restaurant we could see some storms building up around us. Which was funny because I talked to my dad the day before and he asked if we got caught in any rain. and we had not. I didn't think we were going to escape it today. And we didn't. As we were heading to the door of the restaurant I could hear thunder outside. Good thing we only had to walk a few feet to our room.

As you can see it got pretty bad out there.

I was surprised that the boat kept going. I wouldn't get on that thing in this storm.

And here is my one-and-only lightning shot. I was totally lucky to catch this. It's only a single bolt, but it still looks cool.

So, that is our trip. Now what am I going to talk about here?

This wasn't one our last day, but I feel like I should ad a sunset shot when I close out this series of posts. You know?

Thanks for reading. I'll find something else to talk about now.

Family Vacation part three: Star Wars Weekend!!!!!!

This is it. The day you've all been waiting been waiting for, Star Wars Weekend! Or as I like to call it, NerdFest 2009. Actually, it wasn't as bad as I thought. Only about 1/3 of Hollywood Studios guests were dressed as characters from the movies. There were quite a few others who were only wearing Star Wars shirts, or some kind of accessory to let everybody know they were there for the Star Wars festivities.

We got there as the park opened, which turned out to be a good move since they had stormtroopers manning the gates. It was pretty neat. They set it up so you could hear them talk to each other, and they were making fun of the crowd walking in. Here you can see one of them pretending to take a picture of the crowd. Obviously there were a lot of cameras aimed at them.

Throughout the park there were several stations set up where you could get autographs of characters or real people that were part of the Star Wars universe. I didn't know any of the people since they were part of The Clone Wars animated show. I've never watched any of that. We tried to get our son to get some autographs from the characters, but he wasn't up for it. Look out, there is Jango Fett!

The first thing we did was Go see The MuppetVision 3-D movie. The kids didn't want to see it at first, our son thought it was for babies, but they both enjoyed it. It was one of the 3-D movies where they add effects in the theater to make it more like-like. They had bubbles blowing in the theater, water spraying on you, and puffs of air at certain points. It was pretty fun. Of course, I used to watch the show all the time when I was younger, so that helped. Oh, and my favorite Muppet, Beaker, was in it. It's always a good show when Beaker is involved.

After the show, we walked around to check out some of the shops, then it was time for The Jedi Academy. Again, our son didn't want to participate, but we watched the whole show, in the heat, with my 7 year-old on my shoulders. The whole time. To say I was hot after that is quite an understatement.

But, the show was fun. They did a great job of making the kids they called out of the audience part of the show. First, they showed them how to do some basic movies, then Darth Vader shows up. With Darth Maul no less.

Then the kids had to fight both Darths one-on-one. All the characters did a great job. Especially the person playing Darth Maul. He had the stalking down really well. He may have been a little too goo though, one kid was crying as he was fighting Darth Maul. I felt bad for him, but he fought anyway. A true Jedi he was.

After that show we walked into the Star Wars shop. Wow, I've never been in a shop so crowded. But, hey, the kids have to get their Star Wars stuff, right. At least it was nice an cool in there.

We walked out of the store and pretty much stumbled upon the parade route. We got really lucky. We were looking for a snack bar and I happen to look down and notice the white stripe that marked the border of the parade route. Instant front row viewing! Needless to say we stayed where were, I went to get popcorn and some water and Jenn got some smoothies. Her throat was now killing here as the kid's were before we left. Have a sore throat and a fever in 95 degree heat is fun, no? We got to see a lot of cool characters in the parade.

Chewy,

R2-D2,

some Tie fighter pilots, one of which couldn't possibly fit in that small cockpit,

and an Imperial Guard.

We had a quick lunch at Starring Rolls, which I recommend as a nice change from the burgers and chicken nuggets at every snack shop in all the parks. I had a nice ham sandwich while Jenn had a veggie sandwich. Good stuff.

Then we went to go see the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. It was completely different than I thought it was going to be, but it was fun. I thought it was going to be characters acting out scenes as if they were the characters in the movie. Instead it was a show where they showed you how stunts are done. They'd explain what was going to happen and then pull the stunts off. Like I said, it was cool, just not what I was expecting. Of course, if I paid attention to the name of the show it probably wouldn't have been a surprise.

Oh, I almost forgot, on the way out we saw some people who had obviously dressed up for Star Wars Weekend getting their picture taken. The funny part is some parents were taking pictures of their kid with these people. I think they thought these characters were part of the show and not just some "regular" Star Wars geeks.

So, we headed back to the hotel so Jenn could get some rest. The kids played with their new toys they bought while the parents took a break. Then, it was time for dinner at The Animal Kingdom Lodge at a restaurant called Boma. It was okay. That is about the best I could describe it. It was a buffet with decent food, it was just more expensive than it needed to be. The hotel was neat though. There was an area with animals that you could watch from the lobby, or your room if you were lucky enough to be on the right side.

After dinner we went back to the Magic Kingdom to watch the SpectraMagic Light parade. Then headed back to the hotel and watched the fireworks from the boat dock outside our hotel. It was a long day and the kids, and parents were ready for bed.

I think the next post will be the last about this vacation. You're welcome...

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #42: Water, Water, Everywhere

Carly wants some water shots this week. Well, we just came back from Walt Disney World and I think I have some that fit the assignment. Let's see...

Here's a hippo cooling off at Animal Kingdom. Sure, he's not playing around, but do hippos move much anyway?

Here's a bird of some sort from outside our hotel. Does anyone know what kind it is. I'm not very good with birds.

I'm not sure if the falls into the proper category, but I like it. It looks like the water is shooting up to clean off the Epcot golf ball.

Extra credit: Too be honest all I felt was hot while taking these. I'm not used to the heat of Florida. At the same time I was glad to be there with my family and watching the kids enjoy themselves.

Family Vacation: Part Two

Our second day involved more walking, and a trip to Epcot. This time we went to the pool in the morning since we had dinner reservations at a restaurant in Epcot. Mexico to be specific.

We didn't do Epcot right the first day, which I'll explain later, possibly in another post. It was kind of neat to walk from country to country all in one day. First we hit England. We didn't do much there, but it looked nice. See.

I had to get a picture of the phone booth and mailbox. I don't know why.

Next we walked through France. We didn't go in many shops there either, but we got to see a man balance on some chairs. Our son was mesmerized by that.

I know the chairs are specially made to do those tricks, but sill, that was pretty cool.

Going through France we stopped in Japan.

Jenn and our daughter both wanted sushi. So us guys went over to America to eat some burgers and fries. Actually I didn't eat anything there. I wasn't feeling so well that day. I think it was from the heat.

After a food break we headed over to Germany and Italy. We had to hit some countries of our heritage.

There was no Swedish representation, but Norway was there. So I took a picture of this giant gnome. That seems like an oxymoron, doesn't it?

We got some smoothies as we walked through Africa. You know, nothing says Africa like a strawberry smoothie. This Coke machine was cool, though.

We also went to see Nemo and his friends at "The Seas with Nemo and His Friends." The little ride was okay, but the really neat part was talking with Crush. It was an interactive show with an animated Crush who would talk to the crowd. The kids liked it, even though they didn't participate all that much. The show was fun for adults and kids, just like a Pixar film.

Like I said, we had dinner in Mexico. I made sure to get the least spicy thing on the menu, luckily the waitress helped me out. I've forgotten all my years of Spanish. I think the kids favorite part of the day was the little boat ride through Mexico with Donald Duck and his friends.

The kids were pretty wiped out after all that excitement, so we headed back to the hotel.

The next day was Animal Kingdom day. I took lots of pictures here. Like the tree of life. Cool, huh?

At first when we walked in to the park we were under a huge canopy of trees. We thought we were going to be in the shade all day, unfortunately that wasn't the case.

We walked the Pagani Forest Expedition Trail first. It was like a zoo, but you could walk through it. Does that make sense? You were a lot closer to most of the animals, and the seemed to be more integrated.

We saw Gorillas, some weird animal called and okapi, lots of birds, including this giant one that reminded me of Kevin from UP.

Next we went on a safari. I liked how they did this. They pretended like you were on a real safari. They had radio where a pilot was radioing positions of animals to the driver and then warned us of poachers in the area. Luckily, we scared of the poachers, but not until after we were shot at!

I got a couple nice shots of giraffes, ostriches and the lay of the land as a whole. The place was really nicely set up.

We hung around the park for a little while longer by going to Dinoland USA. That wasn't so fun. The kids were hot, we were hot and there wasn't a whole lot to do there. But the giant dinosaur that greeted you seemed nice.

Then it was pool time and back to the Magic Kingdom for dinner. Which we followed up with another spin on the Buzz ride and a trip to the Laugh Factory featuring the cast of Monster's Inc. This was another interactive show, but this time the had cameras on the crowd and would get you more involved with the show. Our daughter got picked out as "Boo" from the movie, probably due to her age and hair. She was a little embarrassed, but it was cute.

Before we left we walked through the Swiss Family Treehouse. Can you believe Jenn has never seen that movie? We went back to the hotel were the kids passed out before the fireworks show. Again.

That's enough for now. I promise, Star Wars talk (and pictures) on the next installment.

As before, more pictures on Flickr, but I'm not done with them all yet.

Our big family vacation (part one of many)

I'm not sure how many posts this will take up, but I know that I can't post about our whole trip in one. Well, I could, but I would scare away everybody. Who wants to read a 10,000 word post?

As I hinted at in yesterday's post, we went to Walt Disney World in the great (hot) state of Florida. I'm going to get it out of the way now; it was hot, hot, hot, hot...you get the idea. It was such a change after coming from a cool Spring here in Chicago. I was wondering when it was going to get warm here, now I don't need to experience heat anymore all year. Of course it's going to be 90 degrees here tomorrow. Oh well.

Anyway, the fun started before we left. Turns out both kids got sick three days before we were set to leave. Our son would wake up nearly unable to talk, and our daughter couldn't breathe. It wasn't a good start. Jenn took them to the doctor on Monday, but we were starting to prepare for the worst. What if they couldn't fly? Would we rent a car to drive? Would we use our own? Do we have enough things to keep them entertained for about 22 hours of driving? Will I go insane before we get to Disney World?

It was a fun 36 hours around here. The doctor said they both had strep throat (again), but they could fly and were good to travel 24 hours after taking the medicine. Good thing we were leaving in 48 hours. Nothing like cutting it close!

So, we went to the airport on Wednesday, and were bombarded with questions on how long we had to wait until it was time to get on the plane. For two hours. Then, we get on the plane, get all ready to go, settle the kids down since it was their first flight, then we find out we need to change planes. Yipee! We had a broken one that couldn't be fixed in a timely manner so we had to wait an hour for another plane. And be asked another 40 times about when we are going to leave.

The flight down was fine once the kids started enjoying the flight, which wasn't too long. We got to Orlando, waited for our Magical Express to bring us to our hotel, and then ordered room service since we missed our dinner reservations due to the flight delay. We stayed at the Grand Floridian, which was really nice. We really liked the hotel, but didn't like paying $9.95 for a peanut butter and jelly uncrustable sandwich.

We had a great view from our balcony. We could see Cinderella's Castle from the Magic Kingdom and watch the fireworks from the comfort of our own room. Of course, we could also hear the fireworks even when the kids crashed out early, but that was okay, they didn't wake up. They were too wiped out everyday.

The first full day we were there we went to the Magic Kingdom. It was the closest park to our hotel, and we could hop right on the monorail to get there. The crowd was not too bad our first day. We waited about 20 minutes to drive the cars in Tomorrow Land and basically walked right on to the Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. Our son liked that ride the best, I think.

We also hit Aladdin's Magic Carpet, The Pirates of the Caribbean, and Tom Sawyer's Island. Our son loved exploring on that island. There wasn't a whole lot to do, but when you are a little kid you can imagine a lot of things.

We walked around the park for about 5 hours, or so, then headed back to cool off at the pool. We did that pretty much everyday. It worked out well to cool off and take a break from walking. My feet were quite sore walking all day long.

That night we went to Fulton's restaurant at Downtown Disney. We found out that our daughter loves crab legs while we were there. It's always good when the kinds like expensive food. While we were there we hit the gigantic Disney store. It was so big Jenn and I got separated and had to call each other on the phone to find each other.

There was a dinosaur place in downtown Disney that we didn't go to, for some reason, but I took a picture of the snow covered mountain they had. I don't know who they are trying to kid, it is not cold enough for snow. I don't care how high the mountain is.

I'll stop here for now. More to come, including Star Wars Weekend! Don't get too excited now.

I have more pictures up on Flickr, with more to come as I get to it. Also, I'll start catching up on reading blog posts, too.

I'm back!

I know you have missed me while I've been gone. I realized I probably never said where I was going. I was going to, but I ran out of time as we were getting ready. Can you guess by this picture?

The castle in the background should give it away. It was a good time. Very tiring, and hot. But, it was worth it. I think the kids had a good time.

I will be back soon to write up a post about it starting tomorrow. I think it might take a few posts. I have 400+ pictures to go through as well. I'll post some here then more on Flickr as well. Oh, and I got my first lightning shot. It was pure luck, but I'm still happy.

Also, I'll get to the comments I missed while I was gone. Apparently free WiFi is a mystery at the Happiest Place on Earth.