WOO-HOO!!!! The Red Wings are the 2008 Stanley Cup Champions!!! It was close at the end, but they prevailed. YAY! And Congrats to Henrik Zetterberg for winning the Conn Smythe. Z totally rules!!!
Congratulations to the Detroit Red Wings!!! WOO-HOO!!! :)
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Disneyland Trip Report: Day 3 - 4
I keep forgetting to post the next part. Ooops. Now you get two days in one post! YAY!
California Adventure
On Tuesday we got up early and went to breakfast at IHOP. There aren't any IHOPs near us, but there are always commercials on TV and the current promotion, Tour de French Toast, looked really good. It is basically all different kinds of French toast. I ordered the banana caramel stuffed French toast. It was good, but the banana cream got to be a bit too much. My sister ordered the Cinnamon swirl French toast. She said it was OK. The only problem with breakfast was that you had to order them as a combination, which included eggs, meat, and hash browns, which neither of us wanted. Overall breakfast was OK.
After we finished breakfast we walked across the street to the park. Most of the people were going to Disneyland. When we were let into the park we found a Photopass photographer and had some pictures taken with the "Greetings from California" sign. After that we headed to Soarin. When we went to WDW last year there was ALWAYS a HUGE wait for Soarin. The one time it was over 90 minutes and there were no fast passes available. Needless to say, we didn't get to ride Soarin at WDW so we made it a priority for this trip. The way they rope off California Adventure is sort of strange. The paths that lead to Hollywood Backlot and Golden State are roped off, but the path that leads to Soarin is open. Everyone seemed to go line up by the rope for the Hollywood Backlot since that is how you get to the Tower of Terror. We decided to head for Soarin. We were surprised to find that they were actually letting people onto Soarin despite the fact that the park wasn't even officially open yet.
We were among the first group to ride it. The queue line is really neat with all the photos of famous Californian aviators and planes. I was kind of nervous because I am afraid of heights, but my sister said it wasn't too bad. We were lucky that we got a nice cast member who put us in the back row, which doesn't go as high as the others. We buckled in and took off. I had to shut my eyes for a couple of parts because you really feel like you are hang gliding. It's cool how they incorporated scents into the ride like the oranges in the orange grove. The best part was when the fighter jets fly by. The one part I didn't like was the ending when you fly into the fireworks. That sort of freaked me out for some reason. That was one of the places I had to shut my eyes. I enjoyed it, though I didn't like being up that high. I was holding on to the handles quite tightly.
After we got off of Soarin the rest of the park was open and we went to ride, Mike and Sulley to the Rescue, since it is unique to Disneyland. I LOVED this ride. It was lots of fun. I managed to get some really good pictures. It followed the movie nicely, which is good because some of the rides don't. I wish they would bring this one to WDW.
Next we walked over to Muppet Vision 3D vision, which we saw at WDW last year. My sister likes the Muppets whereas I really don't. I tolerate it since she goes on some of the rides I like that she doesn't. The waiting room is full of interesting props and there are TVs around the room with an entertaining pre-show. My sister took pictures of all the props while we were waiting for the next show. The show itself is cute. The best part is the guys who sit in the balcony and critique it. The one thing that I don't like is that 3D movies hurt my eyes after a while, but that day it wasn't too bad.
Since there was really nothing else we wanted to do in that part of the park we worked our way to A Bug's Land where we went to see "Its Tough to be Bug" which is another 3D movie. I like the queue for this one at WDW better because it wraps around the Tree of Life and the theater is actually inside the Tree of Life, but the ant hill at CA is cute. The movie posters they have hanging up on the walls are funny. The show was good as usual.
Next I convinced my sister to ride Flik's Flyers with me. They have a ride similar to it at the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo and she liked that one so I figured it wouldn't be too bad. It was totally fun. I enjoyed it immensely while my sister turned a slight shade of green. LOL
After this it was getting closer to time for our lunch reservations at Ariel's Grotto so we decided to head that direction. Since we still had time before our reservation we rode King Triton's carousel. I liked how colorful and vibrant the carrousel is. My sister got to ride on one of the otters. Otters are soooooo cute! I think I had a sea horse. We still had more time so we decided to visit a couple of the stores near there. We purchased some items then headed back towards Ariel's Grotto.
We checked in for our lunch and waited with the other people who had reservations for the same seating time. After about 10 minutes we were led down to the restaurant where each family got to pose for a photo with Ariel. We then paid and were led to our table. Lunch at Ariel's Grotto is one set price and you get an appetizer, entree, and dessert and there is a selection for each. For the appetizer I actually decided to try something new: cheesy onion soup. It was okay. The cheese was really good. My sister had chicken noodle soup. I wish they would have a couple other options because after walking around the park for several hours in the head, soup was really the last thing I wanted. For the entree I ordered the cheeseburger since there really wasn't anything else on the menu that appealed to my picky tastes. My sister also had a cheeseburger, but without cheese. The burgers were VERY good, though VERY large. I was full after this and there was still the dessert course. I had the cinnamon-apple desert, which was good, but I was too full to eat much of it. My sister had the yogurt parfait, which she said was the best part of the meal.
During the course of lunch the Princesses came around to sign autographs and take pictures. First to visit our table was Aurora who is my sister's favorite princess. I got a really cute picture of them together. Next was Snow White, then Belle, and last was Cinderella. All of them were really nice and very sweet.
After we finished lunch we left with full tummies and didn't really want to ride anything so we left CA and went to World of Disney in Downtown Disney. Not nearly as large as Orlando, but there was still lots of stuff that caught my eye and wanted to come home with me. We made a few purchases then headed back to the hotel. We rested for a bit then later went to dinner at Denny's since we didn't feel like going back to the park. It was nothing special, but it was OK.
We also wanted to go to bed early since we had a 7:00 am breakfast the next morning, which was my birthday.
Happy Birthday to me!
Wednesday was my birthday and we had reservations at the Storyteller's Cafe at the Grand Californian at 7:00 am. My sister was in charge of making the reservations and she figured that since 7:00 am is 10:00 am back home that it would be around the same time we normally eat breakfast. I was a little worried that it was so early, but we never actually adjusted to Pacific time. We stuck to going to bed at the same time we normally do back East so getting up at 5:30 on my birthday wasn't a problem. For probably the only time in my life I was up, awake, and alert at 5:30 am. Pretty scary. LOL
We arrived at the hotel after only getting slightly lost while trying to find the restaurant. Since they were just opening we didn't have to wait long for a table. The first character to visit our table was Koda. My sister and I *LOVE* the Brother Bear movies so this was very exciting. We tried to get his autograph, but didn't understand what he was trying to say, so eventually Kenai came over and was able to convey that they don't sign autographs because of their paws. We then got pictures with both Kenai and Koda. During the course of breakfast we also met Chip, Meeko, Terk, and Dale. Meeko was really funny when he came into the room, peeking around the corner. The food was good. I had banana French toast, which was good. The fruit that came with it was excellent. My sister had the buffet and enjoyed it. We ate slowly since the park wasn't going to be opened until 10:00 AM, plus we wanted to meet all the characters. Since it was my birthday they brought me this weird chocolate mousse thing and sang to me. I didn't really care for the mousse dish, but managed to eat a bit of it.
After breakfast we walked to Disneyland. We were there early and at the front of the line, but would still have to wait or the rope drop. Unlike everyone else who races through Main Street until they realize that they can only go so far, we took our time. I took a bunch of pictures of Main Street then waited at the rope. Our plan was to go ride Finding Nemo. Once they dropped the rope everyone was heading towards Finding Nemo. We quickly changed course and headed to Fantasyland since the rides there tend to have longer lines later in the day.
The first ride we went on was Peter Pan's flight. Then since Dumbo's line wasn't too long we rode that. By this time Fantasyland was starting to get more crowded so we headed to New Orleans Square. We decided to give Pirates of the Caribbean another chance. This time we asked not to sit in the front of the boat to see if that made a difference. It really didn't. I still didn't like it as much as at WDW. There is just too much time where there isn’t anything to see.
After we got off Pirates we noticed a Photopass photographer. He was one of the photographers that do a special photo where you pretend to fight Captain Hook and they add him in later. This was lots of fun. I kept making my sister laugh while she was fighting Hook so her photos are funny. After we were done, the photographer told us that the one who does the Haunted Mansion ones was up there taking pictures. Excited by this news, we raced over to Haunted Mansion. With these photos they add some hitchhiking ghosts. Since we were standing in front of the Haunted Mansion we decided to ride it. As usual it was fun. I don’t think I could ever get tired of riding it.
Next we decided to take the raft over to Pirate's Lair to find Captain Jack Sparrow. We asked the boat driver where we could find him on the island so we wouldn't have to waste time. We walked to where they said he was and we nearly walked into him. I had expected more people to be there to see him, but there was no one. We got pictures taken with him then decided to go back since there really isn't a whole lot on the island that interested us.
Since we were in the area we decided to find the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The ride is similar to the one at WDW, but it seems a bit longer. My sister was peeved by the ending since it should be a birthday party for Eeyore, but DL changed it to a birthday party for Pooh. After we got off the ride we were walking through the exit when a young child ran into me. His mother then yelled that I should watch out for her child, never mind that she wasn't watching him or the fact that he ran into me. That annoyed me. I spent the next few minutes venting to my sister while we looked around the Pooh store. Once I had vented we went to go greet Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore. They were going to close the line because the characters were going to take a short break, but since we had met them all previously and just wanted photos, we were allowed to meet them at that time.
By this time we were hungry and the Hungry Bear restaurant was in the area and wasn't very crowded. So it was as good of time as any. My sister had a chicken sandwich and I had a cheeseburger. Both were OK, but nothing special. There was a nice breeze and we had view of the rivers of America. It was a pleasant lunch.
After lunch we rode Haunted Mansion again while we were still on that side of the park. After this we took the train to Toon Town to ride Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin. It has been enos since I’ve seen the movie, but the queue line was interesting. The ride was tons of spinning fun. Surprisingly even my sister enjoyed it and she normally doesn't like spinning rides.
Next we went to explore the rest of Toon Town. First up we toured Mickey's house and went out to the movie barn to meet Mickey. It is tradition whenever we go to Disney to meet Mickey at least once. There was a bit of a wait, but it was worth it to meet the mouse. After Mickey's house we went to Minnie's house. We didn't go through Donald's or Goofy's but got pictures of them.
Deciding we had had enough of Toon Town and the herds of small children there, we headed back towards Fantasyland. There wasn't too long of a wait for Alice in Wonderland so we decided to ride it since it is unique to DL. It was fun. I was kind of sad that there was only one part with the "unbirthday" party.
Walking back towards Main Street we noticed there was almost no wait for Mr. Toad's so we decided to ride it again since we were no longer afraid of it. This time I let my sister "drive." It was actually kind of fun the second time. Of course I was having fun making jokes about her "driving."
We then took pictures trying to pull the Sword from the Stone. Darn it, neither of us were able to pull it out. LOL We then walked through the castle and decided to get some photos of Snow White's fountain.
Since we had arrived in CA it had been so hot and ice cream sounded good, but we kept forgetting to stop and get some. So we headed for the Gibson Girl ice cream parlor on Main Street. We got the hot fudge cookie sundae to split between us. It was good. The cookies were probably my least favorite part though. I've had better chocolate chip cookies. But it was a nice treat.
After this we headed back to the hotel to rest and change for dinner. We had reservations at 6:00 at Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel. We vaguely knew how to get there, we didn't really know how far it truly was. Its was quite a hike. We ended up getting there within 1 minute of our reservation time. When we got there we posed for a picture with Pluto. After that we were seated. The first character to come to our total was Brier Fox, then Princess Jasmine, then Alice who was the same Alice we saw on Monday. She actually remembered seeing us. Very weird. Then it was Goofy who put our autograph books on our heads to sign them. He was lots of fun. Then Chip stopped by our table. Finally when our waiter was bringing out my birthday cake Dale stopped by. He was clapping and very cute. My sister got a bunch of cute photos. The food there was good, but there wasn't a lot that appealed to my picky tastebuds. The prime rib was very good though. They had lots of yummy looking desserts, but since we had a cake coming, I didn't try any. I wish I would have tried at least one. My birthday cake was so pretty. It was *VERY* sweet though. It was a white cake with white chocolate mousse and butter cream icing. It was almost too pretty to cut and eat. We each ate only a small slice since it was so sweet. Our waiter boxed it up and we went back to the hotel. Luckily our sugar buzz didn't last too long and we went to bed early since we had another early morning.
Before we went to dinner my sister gave me my presents that I already knew what they were since I had picked them out. LOL She gave me a t-shirt, a Mulan pin, and a stuffed Boo from Monster's Inc. My mom had given me a card before we left with some money in it that I put towards some other pins. Pins are so very addictive. By the time we left I had purchased 8 and I think my sister had 12. I probably would have bought more if I hadn’t stopped myself.
It was a good birthday. The weather was cooler than previous days and there weren't all that many people in the park.
Up next: Breakfast with Lilo and Stitch, California Adventure, and lots of shopping!
California Adventure
On Tuesday we got up early and went to breakfast at IHOP. There aren't any IHOPs near us, but there are always commercials on TV and the current promotion, Tour de French Toast, looked really good. It is basically all different kinds of French toast. I ordered the banana caramel stuffed French toast. It was good, but the banana cream got to be a bit too much. My sister ordered the Cinnamon swirl French toast. She said it was OK. The only problem with breakfast was that you had to order them as a combination, which included eggs, meat, and hash browns, which neither of us wanted. Overall breakfast was OK.
After we finished breakfast we walked across the street to the park. Most of the people were going to Disneyland. When we were let into the park we found a Photopass photographer and had some pictures taken with the "Greetings from California" sign. After that we headed to Soarin. When we went to WDW last year there was ALWAYS a HUGE wait for Soarin. The one time it was over 90 minutes and there were no fast passes available. Needless to say, we didn't get to ride Soarin at WDW so we made it a priority for this trip. The way they rope off California Adventure is sort of strange. The paths that lead to Hollywood Backlot and Golden State are roped off, but the path that leads to Soarin is open. Everyone seemed to go line up by the rope for the Hollywood Backlot since that is how you get to the Tower of Terror. We decided to head for Soarin. We were surprised to find that they were actually letting people onto Soarin despite the fact that the park wasn't even officially open yet.
We were among the first group to ride it. The queue line is really neat with all the photos of famous Californian aviators and planes. I was kind of nervous because I am afraid of heights, but my sister said it wasn't too bad. We were lucky that we got a nice cast member who put us in the back row, which doesn't go as high as the others. We buckled in and took off. I had to shut my eyes for a couple of parts because you really feel like you are hang gliding. It's cool how they incorporated scents into the ride like the oranges in the orange grove. The best part was when the fighter jets fly by. The one part I didn't like was the ending when you fly into the fireworks. That sort of freaked me out for some reason. That was one of the places I had to shut my eyes. I enjoyed it, though I didn't like being up that high. I was holding on to the handles quite tightly.
After we got off of Soarin the rest of the park was open and we went to ride, Mike and Sulley to the Rescue, since it is unique to Disneyland. I LOVED this ride. It was lots of fun. I managed to get some really good pictures. It followed the movie nicely, which is good because some of the rides don't. I wish they would bring this one to WDW.
Next we walked over to Muppet Vision 3D vision, which we saw at WDW last year. My sister likes the Muppets whereas I really don't. I tolerate it since she goes on some of the rides I like that she doesn't. The waiting room is full of interesting props and there are TVs around the room with an entertaining pre-show. My sister took pictures of all the props while we were waiting for the next show. The show itself is cute. The best part is the guys who sit in the balcony and critique it. The one thing that I don't like is that 3D movies hurt my eyes after a while, but that day it wasn't too bad.
Since there was really nothing else we wanted to do in that part of the park we worked our way to A Bug's Land where we went to see "Its Tough to be Bug" which is another 3D movie. I like the queue for this one at WDW better because it wraps around the Tree of Life and the theater is actually inside the Tree of Life, but the ant hill at CA is cute. The movie posters they have hanging up on the walls are funny. The show was good as usual.
Next I convinced my sister to ride Flik's Flyers with me. They have a ride similar to it at the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo and she liked that one so I figured it wouldn't be too bad. It was totally fun. I enjoyed it immensely while my sister turned a slight shade of green. LOL
After this it was getting closer to time for our lunch reservations at Ariel's Grotto so we decided to head that direction. Since we still had time before our reservation we rode King Triton's carousel. I liked how colorful and vibrant the carrousel is. My sister got to ride on one of the otters. Otters are soooooo cute! I think I had a sea horse. We still had more time so we decided to visit a couple of the stores near there. We purchased some items then headed back towards Ariel's Grotto.
We checked in for our lunch and waited with the other people who had reservations for the same seating time. After about 10 minutes we were led down to the restaurant where each family got to pose for a photo with Ariel. We then paid and were led to our table. Lunch at Ariel's Grotto is one set price and you get an appetizer, entree, and dessert and there is a selection for each. For the appetizer I actually decided to try something new: cheesy onion soup. It was okay. The cheese was really good. My sister had chicken noodle soup. I wish they would have a couple other options because after walking around the park for several hours in the head, soup was really the last thing I wanted. For the entree I ordered the cheeseburger since there really wasn't anything else on the menu that appealed to my picky tastes. My sister also had a cheeseburger, but without cheese. The burgers were VERY good, though VERY large. I was full after this and there was still the dessert course. I had the cinnamon-apple desert, which was good, but I was too full to eat much of it. My sister had the yogurt parfait, which she said was the best part of the meal.
During the course of lunch the Princesses came around to sign autographs and take pictures. First to visit our table was Aurora who is my sister's favorite princess. I got a really cute picture of them together. Next was Snow White, then Belle, and last was Cinderella. All of them were really nice and very sweet.
After we finished lunch we left with full tummies and didn't really want to ride anything so we left CA and went to World of Disney in Downtown Disney. Not nearly as large as Orlando, but there was still lots of stuff that caught my eye and wanted to come home with me. We made a few purchases then headed back to the hotel. We rested for a bit then later went to dinner at Denny's since we didn't feel like going back to the park. It was nothing special, but it was OK.
We also wanted to go to bed early since we had a 7:00 am breakfast the next morning, which was my birthday.
Happy Birthday to me!
Wednesday was my birthday and we had reservations at the Storyteller's Cafe at the Grand Californian at 7:00 am. My sister was in charge of making the reservations and she figured that since 7:00 am is 10:00 am back home that it would be around the same time we normally eat breakfast. I was a little worried that it was so early, but we never actually adjusted to Pacific time. We stuck to going to bed at the same time we normally do back East so getting up at 5:30 on my birthday wasn't a problem. For probably the only time in my life I was up, awake, and alert at 5:30 am. Pretty scary. LOL
We arrived at the hotel after only getting slightly lost while trying to find the restaurant. Since they were just opening we didn't have to wait long for a table. The first character to visit our table was Koda. My sister and I *LOVE* the Brother Bear movies so this was very exciting. We tried to get his autograph, but didn't understand what he was trying to say, so eventually Kenai came over and was able to convey that they don't sign autographs because of their paws. We then got pictures with both Kenai and Koda. During the course of breakfast we also met Chip, Meeko, Terk, and Dale. Meeko was really funny when he came into the room, peeking around the corner. The food was good. I had banana French toast, which was good. The fruit that came with it was excellent. My sister had the buffet and enjoyed it. We ate slowly since the park wasn't going to be opened until 10:00 AM, plus we wanted to meet all the characters. Since it was my birthday they brought me this weird chocolate mousse thing and sang to me. I didn't really care for the mousse dish, but managed to eat a bit of it.
After breakfast we walked to Disneyland. We were there early and at the front of the line, but would still have to wait or the rope drop. Unlike everyone else who races through Main Street until they realize that they can only go so far, we took our time. I took a bunch of pictures of Main Street then waited at the rope. Our plan was to go ride Finding Nemo. Once they dropped the rope everyone was heading towards Finding Nemo. We quickly changed course and headed to Fantasyland since the rides there tend to have longer lines later in the day.
The first ride we went on was Peter Pan's flight. Then since Dumbo's line wasn't too long we rode that. By this time Fantasyland was starting to get more crowded so we headed to New Orleans Square. We decided to give Pirates of the Caribbean another chance. This time we asked not to sit in the front of the boat to see if that made a difference. It really didn't. I still didn't like it as much as at WDW. There is just too much time where there isn’t anything to see.
After we got off Pirates we noticed a Photopass photographer. He was one of the photographers that do a special photo where you pretend to fight Captain Hook and they add him in later. This was lots of fun. I kept making my sister laugh while she was fighting Hook so her photos are funny. After we were done, the photographer told us that the one who does the Haunted Mansion ones was up there taking pictures. Excited by this news, we raced over to Haunted Mansion. With these photos they add some hitchhiking ghosts. Since we were standing in front of the Haunted Mansion we decided to ride it. As usual it was fun. I don’t think I could ever get tired of riding it.
Next we decided to take the raft over to Pirate's Lair to find Captain Jack Sparrow. We asked the boat driver where we could find him on the island so we wouldn't have to waste time. We walked to where they said he was and we nearly walked into him. I had expected more people to be there to see him, but there was no one. We got pictures taken with him then decided to go back since there really isn't a whole lot on the island that interested us.
Since we were in the area we decided to find the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The ride is similar to the one at WDW, but it seems a bit longer. My sister was peeved by the ending since it should be a birthday party for Eeyore, but DL changed it to a birthday party for Pooh. After we got off the ride we were walking through the exit when a young child ran into me. His mother then yelled that I should watch out for her child, never mind that she wasn't watching him or the fact that he ran into me. That annoyed me. I spent the next few minutes venting to my sister while we looked around the Pooh store. Once I had vented we went to go greet Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore. They were going to close the line because the characters were going to take a short break, but since we had met them all previously and just wanted photos, we were allowed to meet them at that time.
By this time we were hungry and the Hungry Bear restaurant was in the area and wasn't very crowded. So it was as good of time as any. My sister had a chicken sandwich and I had a cheeseburger. Both were OK, but nothing special. There was a nice breeze and we had view of the rivers of America. It was a pleasant lunch.
After lunch we rode Haunted Mansion again while we were still on that side of the park. After this we took the train to Toon Town to ride Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin. It has been enos since I’ve seen the movie, but the queue line was interesting. The ride was tons of spinning fun. Surprisingly even my sister enjoyed it and she normally doesn't like spinning rides.
Next we went to explore the rest of Toon Town. First up we toured Mickey's house and went out to the movie barn to meet Mickey. It is tradition whenever we go to Disney to meet Mickey at least once. There was a bit of a wait, but it was worth it to meet the mouse. After Mickey's house we went to Minnie's house. We didn't go through Donald's or Goofy's but got pictures of them.
Deciding we had had enough of Toon Town and the herds of small children there, we headed back towards Fantasyland. There wasn't too long of a wait for Alice in Wonderland so we decided to ride it since it is unique to DL. It was fun. I was kind of sad that there was only one part with the "unbirthday" party.
Walking back towards Main Street we noticed there was almost no wait for Mr. Toad's so we decided to ride it again since we were no longer afraid of it. This time I let my sister "drive." It was actually kind of fun the second time. Of course I was having fun making jokes about her "driving."
We then took pictures trying to pull the Sword from the Stone. Darn it, neither of us were able to pull it out. LOL We then walked through the castle and decided to get some photos of Snow White's fountain.
Since we had arrived in CA it had been so hot and ice cream sounded good, but we kept forgetting to stop and get some. So we headed for the Gibson Girl ice cream parlor on Main Street. We got the hot fudge cookie sundae to split between us. It was good. The cookies were probably my least favorite part though. I've had better chocolate chip cookies. But it was a nice treat.
After this we headed back to the hotel to rest and change for dinner. We had reservations at 6:00 at Goofy's Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel. We vaguely knew how to get there, we didn't really know how far it truly was. Its was quite a hike. We ended up getting there within 1 minute of our reservation time. When we got there we posed for a picture with Pluto. After that we were seated. The first character to come to our total was Brier Fox, then Princess Jasmine, then Alice who was the same Alice we saw on Monday. She actually remembered seeing us. Very weird. Then it was Goofy who put our autograph books on our heads to sign them. He was lots of fun. Then Chip stopped by our table. Finally when our waiter was bringing out my birthday cake Dale stopped by. He was clapping and very cute. My sister got a bunch of cute photos. The food there was good, but there wasn't a lot that appealed to my picky tastebuds. The prime rib was very good though. They had lots of yummy looking desserts, but since we had a cake coming, I didn't try any. I wish I would have tried at least one. My birthday cake was so pretty. It was *VERY* sweet though. It was a white cake with white chocolate mousse and butter cream icing. It was almost too pretty to cut and eat. We each ate only a small slice since it was so sweet. Our waiter boxed it up and we went back to the hotel. Luckily our sugar buzz didn't last too long and we went to bed early since we had another early morning.
Before we went to dinner my sister gave me my presents that I already knew what they were since I had picked them out. LOL She gave me a t-shirt, a Mulan pin, and a stuffed Boo from Monster's Inc. My mom had given me a card before we left with some money in it that I put towards some other pins. Pins are so very addictive. By the time we left I had purchased 8 and I think my sister had 12. I probably would have bought more if I hadn’t stopped myself.
It was a good birthday. The weather was cooler than previous days and there weren't all that many people in the park.
Up next: Breakfast with Lilo and Stitch, California Adventure, and lots of shopping!
Friday, May 16, 2008
Disneyland Trip Report: Days 1 & 2
The Beginning of the Journey
Our journey began on Saturday, April 26th. My sister and I were supposed to be at our brother's old house by noon so that we could go with him to pick up the moving truck since he was in the process of moving. Our other brother was going to drive us down to Detroit so that we wouldn't be leaving a car down there since brother #2 was in the middle of moving. We were trying to make things less complicated. Well brother #1 showed up late, as we figured he would since he almost never shows up anywhere on time. He brought his best friend with him for some reason. We packed the car and were finally off. Though we would be lucky to make it down to Detroit by noon. Oy. On the way we stopped at the one scrapbook store since my brother had to pick up a few things for his wife and wanted us to help him pick it out. Grrrrr Then my brother made another stop. We tried to tell him to just take us to brother #2's but no one was listening to us. Well brother #2 was quite peeved. The movers had gone to the wrong place and he had to go pick up the truck by himself, leaving his car at the place, which is why he wanted us there at noon. And for once it wasn't our fault. We finally got to his place. We had brother #1 take us to the place where brother #2 had left his car, picked it up and went back to his old place while his few belongings were packed up in the truck. My brother has a very minimalist approach to furnishing his house.
After we got him moved into his new place we got some lunch and did a bit of last minute shopping for our trip. Surprisingly we remembered almost everything, unlike our trip to Gettysburg last year when we forgot almost everything! After that we spent the remainder of the night at his place watching TV and DVDs. My sister and I were both quite excited for our trip. We went to bed early since our flight was scheduled for 9:30, which meant we had to be at the airport by 7:30 am.
Leaving for LA!!!
I didn't sleep well the night before. I was nervous for the flight. This was going to by the longest flight I've done and since I just recently overcame my fear of flying, I was a bit nervous. We had no problems getting to the airport, checking our baggage or getting through security. Even our gate was right by where you enter the terminal, which meant we didn't have to walk all the way to the other end like we normally do. We waited impatiently at the gate. We were both excited and kind of hyper, despite the early hour.
Before long it was time to board the plane. It was going to be a full flight from Detroit to LA. Boarding didn't take long, but we noticed that quite a few seats were unoccupied. Soon it was almost time for departure and there was no sign of leaving. A few minutes after the time we were supposed to leave the Captain announced that there was a large group flying, and 8 of them were missing due to problems with security and we would wait for them. When they were finally found, most of the missing passengers were children, which is probably why they held the plane. We left about 40 minutes late.
There were no problems with take off, but there was quite a bit of turbulence when we were flying over Lake Michigan. My sister had the middle seat, while I had the window seat. For the first part of the flight you really couldn't see much out the window due to the cloud cover. I slept part of the way while my sister read. The best part of the flight was seeing the mountains and what I think was the Grand Canyon. I took quite a few pictures out of the window.
Welcome to CA!!!
It took about 5 hours to get from Detroit to LAX. When we landed in LA it was like 88 degrees!!! A vast difference from back home in MI. We got our luggage and found where the shuttles were. The traffic surrounding LAX is INSANE!!! I was glad that I had chosen not to try driving. Once we got in the shuttle we picked up several more passengers before finally leaving the airport. I'm not sure how long it took to get from the airport to our hotel in Anaheim, but it wasn't too long. There wasn't too much traffic, which was good.
We eventually got to the hotel, checked in and went up to the room. We decided to stay at the Castle Inn. This was my sister's choice. It was OK, nothing too special. We unpacked a bit then called home to assure our family we arrived safely and in one piece. We then passed out from exhaustion and each took a nice long nap. When we woke up from our naps we were hungry since we didn't have much to eat all day, so we decided to seek out some food. On the drive from the airport we noticed an IHOP just down from the hotel, so we headed in that direction.
My sister ordered a steak and I had pot roast. It was OK, but it was at least real food. We then stopped at subway to buy a sub for later so we wouldn't have to go out again. We returned to the hotel then and finished unpacking then rested some more. We watched some TV and a DVD on the laptop, but we both fell asleep while watching it. We went to bed early according to Pacific time, but late for Eastern time. We wanted to be well rested for our first day at Disneyland.
DISNEYLAND!!!
It was supposed to be another scorcher, which I really wasn't looking forward to, but we got up early and got ready to head to the parks, full of enthusiasm. We walked to the main gate and arrived before the park was opened. They weren't letting people in the plaza yet so we waited with a group of other people like ourselves who were waiting to get in so we could make our breakfast reservations. We had reservations that morning at the Plaza Inn with Minnie and friends. We were kind of concerned about making it on time, but were reassured that it wouldn't be a problem. Once we got through the security bag check we went to the gates where others with breakfast reservations were waiting. They checked our names off the list and gave us a button to wear so that we could get passed the rope to make it to our reservations. At 9:30 we finally got to enter Main Street, USA. We quickly walked to the rope and found how to get to the Plaza Inn.
We waited in line with the others who had reservations and eventually got seated. When we got to the table Minnie was there and we got pictures and her autograph in our newly purchased autograph books. During the course of breakfast we also met Eeyore, Tigger, Gepetto, Chip and Pooh at the same time who got into a bit of a fight, Captain Hook, the Fairy Godmother, and Rafiki. The food was quite good, especially the fruit.
After breakfast it was time to go ride some rides. We started off with Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. My sister totally kicked my butt, which isn't unusual. She usually beats me. I always have trouble seeing where the heck my dot is.
After that we went to take pictures of Sleeping Beauty castle, which is what my sister really wanted to see since Sleeping Beauty is her favorite princess and she has always wanted to see the castle at Disneyland. We found several Photopass photographers in front of the castle and got our pictures taken with it in the background.
Once we had taken a million pictures of the castle from several angles we went to ride Snow White's Scary Adventures. We've gone on this ride at WDW before, but the DL version seems to go a LOT faster. There didn't seem to be much of a story as you whipped around through the ride.
Next we rode Pinocchio's Daring Journey. I really don't like Pinocchio, but there wasn't much of a line and since it is unique to DL, we thought we should ride it at least once. I had to shut my eyes for the one part that I hate in the movie, but it was an OK ride.
After that we rode King Arthur's Carrousel. My sister loves carousels, but they aren't my favorite rides. It was OK as far as carousels go, at least it didn't seem to go on forever unlike the one at Greenfield Village.
Next it was time to conquer a childhood fear: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. When we went to WDW when I was 7 that ride totally scared me. I couldn't remember why I hated it so much, but decided to brave it at DL to see what was so scary. It wasn't as scary as an adult, but I think the part where we were hit by a train and then took a trip to Hell was what scared me as a child.
After we conquered our childhood fear we rode one of my favorite rides, the Mad Tea Cups. My sister hates to spin fast, whereas I love to spin fast. This time we decided to ride in our own teacups so I could spin as fast as I wanted. It was fun, but it seemed smaller than the one at WDW. And it was strange being outside, but I liked the colorful lanterns overhead.
Once we were sufficiently dizzy we found the Mad Hatter, Alice and Queen of Hearts signing autographs and posing for pictures near the teacups. After getting pictures and autographs we decided to leave Fantasyland and head towards Frontierland.
While walking on the one path near Big Thunder Mountain there were two members of the Dream Team handing out Dream passes. The passes would allow you to stay an hour after the park closes. The passes are limited and I think one of the men handing them out said there were only 2,000 giving out that day.
After we got our dream passes we decided to head for our favorite ride, Haunted Mansion. The DL facade is so cool looking. We quickly learned the secrets to getting on the ride first, which was slightly different than at WDW. The hall with the changing pictures on the way to the Doombuggies was really cool. I just love this ride. I really liked the attic scene with the Bride at DL. I haven't gone to WDW since Jan. 2007 so I haven't seen the changes they made there to compare, but we were not disappointed with Haunted Mansino.
Once we picked up our hitchhiking ghost we decided to get some lunch. We ate at the Village Haus, since it had some indoor seating, though it was hard to come by. By this time it was getting really hot out so we wanted to get out of the sun a bit. My sister had pizza with a weird vegetable side dish that she didn’t care much for. I had a turkey, bacon sandwich that was really good, though quite large.
After eating and resting in the air conditioning for a bit we did a little shopping then walked back to the hotel to try to avoid the hottest part of the day. Back at the hotel we took short naps to reenergize so we could go back to use our Dream passes.
When we went back to the park later in the evening the first ride we went on was Pirates of the Caribbean, which is one of our favorites at WDW. I knew going in that DL's was different, but quickly decided that I didn't care much for it. The bayou portion seems sort of boring and pointless. Then there are stretches of darkness where you can't see anything. And I didn't like that it was quite a bit longer than at WDW. It was OK, but I definitely prefer the shorter version at WDW, which also has less drops.
After the disappointment that was Pirates we got some food at the Golden Horseshoe. It took forever to get our Chicken fingers. I knew before we left that the food wasn't going to be as good at DL as at WDW, but it was disappointing that most of the restaurants had the same food. There didn't seem to be as much variety, especially for us since we tend to be a bit picky.
Once we finally go our chicken fingers and consumed them we worked our way to Fantasyland to stand in line for Peter Pan, which always seems to have a long wait. It was very similar to WDW and lots of fun. Though I think DL's figures look better than at WDW. It definitely seemed more up to date than WDW's which just looks old and faded.
After this we rode the Storybook Land boats. This was fun, though it was starting to get dark so I couldn't really get any pictures. Though I have no idea why this ride always seemed to have a really long line.
When our boat ride around Storybook Land was over we went to the area on the back of our Dream passes where we were suppose to gather. There was a very LONG line of people already waiting. It was quite a challenge finding the end of the long, but we eventually found it. We stood around for a while then were herded into an area where a bad wedding reception was in progress. They were playing a bad Disneyfied version of the Macarena. Ewwww. Then they did the Cha-Cha Slide. Yuck. Then they played High School Musical. Double Yuck. And followed that up with Grease. Ewwww. My sister and I worked our way towards the exit so we could make a quick escape once they let us go.
When we were finally released from the bad wedding reception we went straight for Dumbo which is one of my other favorite rides that unfortunately usually has a long wait time unless you get there early. It was fun as always. It was really cool seeing the park from the top of Dumbo all lit up at night. My only wish is that Dumbo was longer. The ride is much too short, but then if they lengthened it at all the lines would be even worse. Sigh.
After our flight on Dumbo we went back to ride Peter Pan again since most of the people who got the Dream passes went for the roller coasters. When we got off Peter Pan there was absolutely no line for Snow White so we went for a quick warp 5 ride on Snow White. Since we still had time we worked our way to New Orleans Square to ride Haunted Mansion again. There was really no one else at Haunted Mansion. We rode it twice in a row, which was lots of fun, though we had to exit and go back through, but that was just part of the insane fun. We thought about going for a 4th time, but decided since it was getting close to 9:30 and we were still on Eastern time we decided to go back to the hotel to sleep.
Thus ends our first day at Disneyland. Up next would be our first trip to California Adventure.
Our journey began on Saturday, April 26th. My sister and I were supposed to be at our brother's old house by noon so that we could go with him to pick up the moving truck since he was in the process of moving. Our other brother was going to drive us down to Detroit so that we wouldn't be leaving a car down there since brother #2 was in the middle of moving. We were trying to make things less complicated. Well brother #1 showed up late, as we figured he would since he almost never shows up anywhere on time. He brought his best friend with him for some reason. We packed the car and were finally off. Though we would be lucky to make it down to Detroit by noon. Oy. On the way we stopped at the one scrapbook store since my brother had to pick up a few things for his wife and wanted us to help him pick it out. Grrrrr Then my brother made another stop. We tried to tell him to just take us to brother #2's but no one was listening to us. Well brother #2 was quite peeved. The movers had gone to the wrong place and he had to go pick up the truck by himself, leaving his car at the place, which is why he wanted us there at noon. And for once it wasn't our fault. We finally got to his place. We had brother #1 take us to the place where brother #2 had left his car, picked it up and went back to his old place while his few belongings were packed up in the truck. My brother has a very minimalist approach to furnishing his house.
After we got him moved into his new place we got some lunch and did a bit of last minute shopping for our trip. Surprisingly we remembered almost everything, unlike our trip to Gettysburg last year when we forgot almost everything! After that we spent the remainder of the night at his place watching TV and DVDs. My sister and I were both quite excited for our trip. We went to bed early since our flight was scheduled for 9:30, which meant we had to be at the airport by 7:30 am.
Leaving for LA!!!
I didn't sleep well the night before. I was nervous for the flight. This was going to by the longest flight I've done and since I just recently overcame my fear of flying, I was a bit nervous. We had no problems getting to the airport, checking our baggage or getting through security. Even our gate was right by where you enter the terminal, which meant we didn't have to walk all the way to the other end like we normally do. We waited impatiently at the gate. We were both excited and kind of hyper, despite the early hour.
Before long it was time to board the plane. It was going to be a full flight from Detroit to LA. Boarding didn't take long, but we noticed that quite a few seats were unoccupied. Soon it was almost time for departure and there was no sign of leaving. A few minutes after the time we were supposed to leave the Captain announced that there was a large group flying, and 8 of them were missing due to problems with security and we would wait for them. When they were finally found, most of the missing passengers were children, which is probably why they held the plane. We left about 40 minutes late.
There were no problems with take off, but there was quite a bit of turbulence when we were flying over Lake Michigan. My sister had the middle seat, while I had the window seat. For the first part of the flight you really couldn't see much out the window due to the cloud cover. I slept part of the way while my sister read. The best part of the flight was seeing the mountains and what I think was the Grand Canyon. I took quite a few pictures out of the window.
Welcome to CA!!!
It took about 5 hours to get from Detroit to LAX. When we landed in LA it was like 88 degrees!!! A vast difference from back home in MI. We got our luggage and found where the shuttles were. The traffic surrounding LAX is INSANE!!! I was glad that I had chosen not to try driving. Once we got in the shuttle we picked up several more passengers before finally leaving the airport. I'm not sure how long it took to get from the airport to our hotel in Anaheim, but it wasn't too long. There wasn't too much traffic, which was good.
We eventually got to the hotel, checked in and went up to the room. We decided to stay at the Castle Inn. This was my sister's choice. It was OK, nothing too special. We unpacked a bit then called home to assure our family we arrived safely and in one piece. We then passed out from exhaustion and each took a nice long nap. When we woke up from our naps we were hungry since we didn't have much to eat all day, so we decided to seek out some food. On the drive from the airport we noticed an IHOP just down from the hotel, so we headed in that direction.
My sister ordered a steak and I had pot roast. It was OK, but it was at least real food. We then stopped at subway to buy a sub for later so we wouldn't have to go out again. We returned to the hotel then and finished unpacking then rested some more. We watched some TV and a DVD on the laptop, but we both fell asleep while watching it. We went to bed early according to Pacific time, but late for Eastern time. We wanted to be well rested for our first day at Disneyland.
DISNEYLAND!!!
It was supposed to be another scorcher, which I really wasn't looking forward to, but we got up early and got ready to head to the parks, full of enthusiasm. We walked to the main gate and arrived before the park was opened. They weren't letting people in the plaza yet so we waited with a group of other people like ourselves who were waiting to get in so we could make our breakfast reservations. We had reservations that morning at the Plaza Inn with Minnie and friends. We were kind of concerned about making it on time, but were reassured that it wouldn't be a problem. Once we got through the security bag check we went to the gates where others with breakfast reservations were waiting. They checked our names off the list and gave us a button to wear so that we could get passed the rope to make it to our reservations. At 9:30 we finally got to enter Main Street, USA. We quickly walked to the rope and found how to get to the Plaza Inn.
We waited in line with the others who had reservations and eventually got seated. When we got to the table Minnie was there and we got pictures and her autograph in our newly purchased autograph books. During the course of breakfast we also met Eeyore, Tigger, Gepetto, Chip and Pooh at the same time who got into a bit of a fight, Captain Hook, the Fairy Godmother, and Rafiki. The food was quite good, especially the fruit.
After breakfast it was time to go ride some rides. We started off with Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. My sister totally kicked my butt, which isn't unusual. She usually beats me. I always have trouble seeing where the heck my dot is.
After that we went to take pictures of Sleeping Beauty castle, which is what my sister really wanted to see since Sleeping Beauty is her favorite princess and she has always wanted to see the castle at Disneyland. We found several Photopass photographers in front of the castle and got our pictures taken with it in the background.
Once we had taken a million pictures of the castle from several angles we went to ride Snow White's Scary Adventures. We've gone on this ride at WDW before, but the DL version seems to go a LOT faster. There didn't seem to be much of a story as you whipped around through the ride.
Next we rode Pinocchio's Daring Journey. I really don't like Pinocchio, but there wasn't much of a line and since it is unique to DL, we thought we should ride it at least once. I had to shut my eyes for the one part that I hate in the movie, but it was an OK ride.
After that we rode King Arthur's Carrousel. My sister loves carousels, but they aren't my favorite rides. It was OK as far as carousels go, at least it didn't seem to go on forever unlike the one at Greenfield Village.
Next it was time to conquer a childhood fear: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. When we went to WDW when I was 7 that ride totally scared me. I couldn't remember why I hated it so much, but decided to brave it at DL to see what was so scary. It wasn't as scary as an adult, but I think the part where we were hit by a train and then took a trip to Hell was what scared me as a child.
After we conquered our childhood fear we rode one of my favorite rides, the Mad Tea Cups. My sister hates to spin fast, whereas I love to spin fast. This time we decided to ride in our own teacups so I could spin as fast as I wanted. It was fun, but it seemed smaller than the one at WDW. And it was strange being outside, but I liked the colorful lanterns overhead.
Once we were sufficiently dizzy we found the Mad Hatter, Alice and Queen of Hearts signing autographs and posing for pictures near the teacups. After getting pictures and autographs we decided to leave Fantasyland and head towards Frontierland.
While walking on the one path near Big Thunder Mountain there were two members of the Dream Team handing out Dream passes. The passes would allow you to stay an hour after the park closes. The passes are limited and I think one of the men handing them out said there were only 2,000 giving out that day.
After we got our dream passes we decided to head for our favorite ride, Haunted Mansion. The DL facade is so cool looking. We quickly learned the secrets to getting on the ride first, which was slightly different than at WDW. The hall with the changing pictures on the way to the Doombuggies was really cool. I just love this ride. I really liked the attic scene with the Bride at DL. I haven't gone to WDW since Jan. 2007 so I haven't seen the changes they made there to compare, but we were not disappointed with Haunted Mansino.
Once we picked up our hitchhiking ghost we decided to get some lunch. We ate at the Village Haus, since it had some indoor seating, though it was hard to come by. By this time it was getting really hot out so we wanted to get out of the sun a bit. My sister had pizza with a weird vegetable side dish that she didn’t care much for. I had a turkey, bacon sandwich that was really good, though quite large.
After eating and resting in the air conditioning for a bit we did a little shopping then walked back to the hotel to try to avoid the hottest part of the day. Back at the hotel we took short naps to reenergize so we could go back to use our Dream passes.
When we went back to the park later in the evening the first ride we went on was Pirates of the Caribbean, which is one of our favorites at WDW. I knew going in that DL's was different, but quickly decided that I didn't care much for it. The bayou portion seems sort of boring and pointless. Then there are stretches of darkness where you can't see anything. And I didn't like that it was quite a bit longer than at WDW. It was OK, but I definitely prefer the shorter version at WDW, which also has less drops.
After the disappointment that was Pirates we got some food at the Golden Horseshoe. It took forever to get our Chicken fingers. I knew before we left that the food wasn't going to be as good at DL as at WDW, but it was disappointing that most of the restaurants had the same food. There didn't seem to be as much variety, especially for us since we tend to be a bit picky.
Once we finally go our chicken fingers and consumed them we worked our way to Fantasyland to stand in line for Peter Pan, which always seems to have a long wait. It was very similar to WDW and lots of fun. Though I think DL's figures look better than at WDW. It definitely seemed more up to date than WDW's which just looks old and faded.
After this we rode the Storybook Land boats. This was fun, though it was starting to get dark so I couldn't really get any pictures. Though I have no idea why this ride always seemed to have a really long line.
When our boat ride around Storybook Land was over we went to the area on the back of our Dream passes where we were suppose to gather. There was a very LONG line of people already waiting. It was quite a challenge finding the end of the long, but we eventually found it. We stood around for a while then were herded into an area where a bad wedding reception was in progress. They were playing a bad Disneyfied version of the Macarena. Ewwww. Then they did the Cha-Cha Slide. Yuck. Then they played High School Musical. Double Yuck. And followed that up with Grease. Ewwww. My sister and I worked our way towards the exit so we could make a quick escape once they let us go.
When we were finally released from the bad wedding reception we went straight for Dumbo which is one of my other favorite rides that unfortunately usually has a long wait time unless you get there early. It was fun as always. It was really cool seeing the park from the top of Dumbo all lit up at night. My only wish is that Dumbo was longer. The ride is much too short, but then if they lengthened it at all the lines would be even worse. Sigh.
After our flight on Dumbo we went back to ride Peter Pan again since most of the people who got the Dream passes went for the roller coasters. When we got off Peter Pan there was absolutely no line for Snow White so we went for a quick warp 5 ride on Snow White. Since we still had time we worked our way to New Orleans Square to ride Haunted Mansion again. There was really no one else at Haunted Mansion. We rode it twice in a row, which was lots of fun, though we had to exit and go back through, but that was just part of the insane fun. We thought about going for a 4th time, but decided since it was getting close to 9:30 and we were still on Eastern time we decided to go back to the hotel to sleep.
Thus ends our first day at Disneyland. Up next would be our first trip to California Adventure.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Just a few updates
I am probably the world's worst blogger since I never remember to update anything. Just a few updates.
In January my sister and I went to Chicago for a few days for her birthday. Always lots of fun. We went to Navy Pier and had lunch at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company where totally embarrased her for her birthday. Lots of fun! Went shopping and she bought another American Girl doll. Had dinner the first night at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was good but overpriced. The next day we went to the Adler Planetarium. The one show my sister wanted to see wasn't being shown due to technical difficulties. So we looked around a bit, but didn't stay too long. We then walked to the Shedd Aquarium and had lots of fun watching the dolphins and otters. I want an otter! For dinner that night we went to our favorite Chicago restaurant: Gino's East Pizza. YUM! This time we tried the pepporoni and it was really good. We came back home the next day. It was a short, but fun trip.
We're getting ready to go to Disneyland in California at the end of April! I'm so excited this will be my first trip to California!!! It is very exciting. There probably won't be any other updates until after we get back.
In January my sister and I went to Chicago for a few days for her birthday. Always lots of fun. We went to Navy Pier and had lunch at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Company where totally embarrased her for her birthday. Lots of fun! Went shopping and she bought another American Girl doll. Had dinner the first night at the Hard Rock Cafe, which was good but overpriced. The next day we went to the Adler Planetarium. The one show my sister wanted to see wasn't being shown due to technical difficulties. So we looked around a bit, but didn't stay too long. We then walked to the Shedd Aquarium and had lots of fun watching the dolphins and otters. I want an otter! For dinner that night we went to our favorite Chicago restaurant: Gino's East Pizza. YUM! This time we tried the pepporoni and it was really good. We came back home the next day. It was a short, but fun trip.
We're getting ready to go to Disneyland in California at the end of April! I'm so excited this will be my first trip to California!!! It is very exciting. There probably won't be any other updates until after we get back.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays!
Wishing everyone a joyous holiday season and a wonderful new year!
-Yzerbear
Wishing everyone a joyous holiday season and a wonderful new year!
-Yzerbear
Thursday, October 11, 2007
"I think I'm going to Boston . . . " Trip Report
Well we made it to Massachusetts and back though the trip literally almost didn’t get off the ground. Our flight was suppose to leave Detroit Sunday morning at 9:40 am, but just as we were going to lift up, the pilot put on the brakes and we came to a stop on the runway, which we knew wasn't a good sign. The pilots aborted the takeoff due to a mechanical issue. We sat on the runway for a bit before getting the OK to come back to the gate. After conversing with the mechanics they decided to deboard us and get us a new plane. We finally took off about noon. It was a good flight after we made it into the air! And all of our luggage made it with us, which was something we were worried about when we had to get a new plane.
Once we landed in New Hampshire we got the rental car without any hassles and headed for Danvers, MA. We were exhausted and hungry. We stopped for lunch at a Crackle Barrel, not thinking that it was a Sunday and they would be busy. The wait wasn’t too bad. The food was OK. After that we hit the road once more. We were getting really drowsy from the Dramamine by this point. We made it to the hotel and checked it. We unpacked the car then took a nice long nap. We were suppose to go to Salem, but found that napping was better. We got dinner from Burger King before going back to relax some more.
On Monday we woke up refreshed and ready to go. We had breakfast at IHOP. We don’t have many of those where we live, so it was really good. I had Pumpkin Pancakes while my sister had Pigs in a Blanket. Everything was very good. Then we drove to Salem where are first stop was the Salem Wax Museum and Witch Village. Both of these were OK. They did allow photos, which was cool, but there needed to be more. After that we went to the House of Seven Gables, which inspired the Nathaniel Hawthorne book of the same name. It was fun and interesting. I don't like that you can't take any pictures inside of the building, but we did get lots of pictures of the outside. While we were waiting for our tour to start a pretty fluffy kitty wandered up to us. We were missing our kitties, so it was nice to play with him. After our tour of the house and getting lots of outdoor shots we got some candies from the candy story, Ye Olde Pepper Companie, across the street, which were really good. They claim to be the oldest candy company in the United States.
We also stopped by the Visitor Center that is run by the National Park Service. Our last stop in Salem for the day was the Salem Witch Musuem. This was really neat. They didn’t allow photography, but the “show” was really interesting and fun. Very nice gift shop. Overall we had accomplished everything we had planned for Sunday as well as Monday. So we were back on track.
On Tuesday we drove to Concord, MA. We went to the battleground there, Minute Man National Historical Park. The show at the visitor center was really cool. When we watched it, there was a tour bus full of British people, which made for some interesting jokes. They need to put in more monuments or something, because walking the trails was kind of boring after a while. We ended up skipping a few of the stops and just went to the North Bridge. We wanted to see Ralph Waldo Emerson's house, but it was closed. We did get some pictures of it from the outside though. We also stopped by Sleepy Hollow Cemetery where we saw Emerson's, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, and Nathaniel Hawthorne's graves. We told Thoreau what we really thought of Walden. We had lunch at the cafe at the North Bridge visitor center. It was OK. Strange set up though. I think this was the night we had dinner at Unos. I love Chicago style pizza. YUM! Though I like Gino's from Chicago better.
On Wednesday we went back to Salem and went to the Pirate Museum, Witch History Museum, and Witch Dungeon Museum. I enjoyed all three. Our tour guide for the Pirate one was really funny. I liked that I could take pictures inside. We ate at Boston Hot Dogs in Salem. They were good, but I think I like Koegels better. The buns were interesting. Ordering the hot dogs was a bit intimidating, with all the signs telling you how to order. I think we had Quiznos for dinner. We also did had pictures taken at the Salem Vintage photography store at the Museum Place Mall. They take your pictures dressed up as a witch or warlock. It was fun. There are some neat pictures.
On Thursday we drove up to York, ME. We went to a few of the historical buildings. Quite a few of them were closed or needed appointments, so we just skipped them. We did go to the Old Gaol where I thought for sure I was going to twist my ankle on those darn creepy stairs. After that we drove up Route 1A along the coast. We had lunch at a restaurant called the Lobster Cove. My sister got lobster tail. She said it was OK, but that shrimp is better. After that we continued driving along the coast. We finally found a spot where you could get down to the beach. We then went and frolicked in the ocean. That was fun. It was cold, but after a while I didn't even notice. We hadn't planned on playing in the ocean so we didn’t take a towel or anything with us. My sister had her Crocs on and I wished I had some instead of my tennis shoes and socks. It was awesome. We were surprised to find people surfing there. We drove along some more to the lighthouse, which is the hip place for all the elderly people to go. We got a bunch of pictures. I was hoping to get something there for our one brother who loves lighthouses, but the gift shop was closed. After that we headed back to MA. I forgot to get the directions back to MA. I remembered most of the steps, but missed the one fork. We ended up going a ways out of our way, but we eventually got back. Since I had gotten us "lost" I had to buy my sister an ice cream desert from Friendly's. We both got Friendzs, which are like Dairy Queen Blizzards. We then returned to the hotel. A little while later after freshening up and changing we went to Salem for the Happening Halloween parade. It was OK. We only stayed for a little while. We wanted to leave before traffic got too bad. We had dinner at Applebees, where our waitress didn't even give us silverware. She was gone most of the time. We heard her comment once about how she just wanted to hurry up and leave. It seemed she was more concerned with that than her customers. She didn't get a good tip!
On Friday we drove to Salem to use the Commuter rail to Boston. The parking lot was confusing. Then we couldn't figure out where you buy the tickets. We finally found someone who told us that you just get them on the train. Once on the train saw behind these two girls who talked like the people on the "The Hills" and spent the entire ride gossiping about people. It was quite irritating. After that we managed to find the Metro and took that to Park station to start the Freedom Trail. The Robert Shaw memorial for the 54th MA regiment was really cool. Though the sun was in a bad spot to get a good shot of it. It was really hot on Friday. The walk along the Freedom Trail was miserable in that heat. The sites were really cool, I just wish the temp had been cooler. We ate lunch at Cheers at Fanieul (sp?) Hall. We walked over to the bridge to see the USS Constitution, but didn't go see the Bunker Hill Memorial up close. We did a few shots of it from a distance. We took the water shuttle back. The ferry that came didn't look very sea worthy to me, I thought for sure we were going to sink. We made it though I don't know how. After that we made it back to the station to catch the commuter rail back to Salem. We were happy to find the rental car still in the parking lot. After that we did some last minute shopping before going back to Danvers. We had to pack so we ordered Dominos, which is never my favorite, but it was on our hotel keys. It was OK. It was something to eat while we packed.
On Saturday we got up at 8:00 and went to breakfast at IHOP again since we don't have many around where we live. The Pumpkin pancakes are so good. It was quite busy on Saturday. I used up all the change I had for the tip so I wouldn't have to worry about it at the airport. We then went back to the hotel and watched American Gladiators on ESPN Classic. I remember watching it as a child, and we don't have ESPN Classic at home, so we watched that until 11:00 when we had to check out. Since it was suppose to be an hour drive up to Manchester, we decided to go find the Witch Trial memorial in Danvers. After that we went to Best Buy to kill some more time. It was noon then so we decided to just start heading up to Manchester and maybe have enough time to grab lunch on the way. We had to be at the airport by 2:00. It took nearly 2 hours to get to Manchester. We were averaging 20 MPH on the highway. There was no construction, no accidents, nothing to warrant such a traffic jam. I've been in worse traffic on I-75 heading "Up North" during the summer that moved faster. It was very irriating. We ended up stopping at McDonalds and had to eat quickly so that we could get the rental car back on time. Getting through security was easy. We were the only two people. The one TSA officer was impressed how fast we went through. We're used to going through Detroit Metro where you have to be fast. After that we sat by the gate and waited for the plane to arrive. And we prayed we got a pilot who knew how to take off! There were no problems with take off out of Manchester other than we had to sit on the runway for about 10 minutes because of lots of traffic in Detroit. It was a good flight back. I love looking out the window and seeing the clouds below. There were some cool cloud mounds. Our brother was waiting at baggage claim for us. He then bought us dinner from KFC and had a bottle of Pepsi in his fridge waiting for us. He's such a nice brother.
On Sunday we drove home from our brother's house. We got stuck in traffic on I-75 just south of Grand Blanc. They had to close the entire northbound section due to an accident. We were routed onto Dixie Hwy, which sort of freaked my sister out because she thought we were lost, but I knew where we were. After that it was a smooth ride home. It was nice to sleep in our own beds again and to play with our kitties who seemed to have missed us. It was a fun trip. Glad to be home.
Once we landed in New Hampshire we got the rental car without any hassles and headed for Danvers, MA. We were exhausted and hungry. We stopped for lunch at a Crackle Barrel, not thinking that it was a Sunday and they would be busy. The wait wasn’t too bad. The food was OK. After that we hit the road once more. We were getting really drowsy from the Dramamine by this point. We made it to the hotel and checked it. We unpacked the car then took a nice long nap. We were suppose to go to Salem, but found that napping was better. We got dinner from Burger King before going back to relax some more.
On Monday we woke up refreshed and ready to go. We had breakfast at IHOP. We don’t have many of those where we live, so it was really good. I had Pumpkin Pancakes while my sister had Pigs in a Blanket. Everything was very good. Then we drove to Salem where are first stop was the Salem Wax Museum and Witch Village. Both of these were OK. They did allow photos, which was cool, but there needed to be more. After that we went to the House of Seven Gables, which inspired the Nathaniel Hawthorne book of the same name. It was fun and interesting. I don't like that you can't take any pictures inside of the building, but we did get lots of pictures of the outside. While we were waiting for our tour to start a pretty fluffy kitty wandered up to us. We were missing our kitties, so it was nice to play with him. After our tour of the house and getting lots of outdoor shots we got some candies from the candy story, Ye Olde Pepper Companie, across the street, which were really good. They claim to be the oldest candy company in the United States.
We also stopped by the Visitor Center that is run by the National Park Service. Our last stop in Salem for the day was the Salem Witch Musuem. This was really neat. They didn’t allow photography, but the “show” was really interesting and fun. Very nice gift shop. Overall we had accomplished everything we had planned for Sunday as well as Monday. So we were back on track.
On Tuesday we drove to Concord, MA. We went to the battleground there, Minute Man National Historical Park. The show at the visitor center was really cool. When we watched it, there was a tour bus full of British people, which made for some interesting jokes. They need to put in more monuments or something, because walking the trails was kind of boring after a while. We ended up skipping a few of the stops and just went to the North Bridge. We wanted to see Ralph Waldo Emerson's house, but it was closed. We did get some pictures of it from the outside though. We also stopped by Sleepy Hollow Cemetery where we saw Emerson's, Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, and Nathaniel Hawthorne's graves. We told Thoreau what we really thought of Walden. We had lunch at the cafe at the North Bridge visitor center. It was OK. Strange set up though. I think this was the night we had dinner at Unos. I love Chicago style pizza. YUM! Though I like Gino's from Chicago better.
On Wednesday we went back to Salem and went to the Pirate Museum, Witch History Museum, and Witch Dungeon Museum. I enjoyed all three. Our tour guide for the Pirate one was really funny. I liked that I could take pictures inside. We ate at Boston Hot Dogs in Salem. They were good, but I think I like Koegels better. The buns were interesting. Ordering the hot dogs was a bit intimidating, with all the signs telling you how to order. I think we had Quiznos for dinner. We also did had pictures taken at the Salem Vintage photography store at the Museum Place Mall. They take your pictures dressed up as a witch or warlock. It was fun. There are some neat pictures.
On Thursday we drove up to York, ME. We went to a few of the historical buildings. Quite a few of them were closed or needed appointments, so we just skipped them. We did go to the Old Gaol where I thought for sure I was going to twist my ankle on those darn creepy stairs. After that we drove up Route 1A along the coast. We had lunch at a restaurant called the Lobster Cove. My sister got lobster tail. She said it was OK, but that shrimp is better. After that we continued driving along the coast. We finally found a spot where you could get down to the beach. We then went and frolicked in the ocean. That was fun. It was cold, but after a while I didn't even notice. We hadn't planned on playing in the ocean so we didn’t take a towel or anything with us. My sister had her Crocs on and I wished I had some instead of my tennis shoes and socks. It was awesome. We were surprised to find people surfing there. We drove along some more to the lighthouse, which is the hip place for all the elderly people to go. We got a bunch of pictures. I was hoping to get something there for our one brother who loves lighthouses, but the gift shop was closed. After that we headed back to MA. I forgot to get the directions back to MA. I remembered most of the steps, but missed the one fork. We ended up going a ways out of our way, but we eventually got back. Since I had gotten us "lost" I had to buy my sister an ice cream desert from Friendly's. We both got Friendzs, which are like Dairy Queen Blizzards. We then returned to the hotel. A little while later after freshening up and changing we went to Salem for the Happening Halloween parade. It was OK. We only stayed for a little while. We wanted to leave before traffic got too bad. We had dinner at Applebees, where our waitress didn't even give us silverware. She was gone most of the time. We heard her comment once about how she just wanted to hurry up and leave. It seemed she was more concerned with that than her customers. She didn't get a good tip!
On Friday we drove to Salem to use the Commuter rail to Boston. The parking lot was confusing. Then we couldn't figure out where you buy the tickets. We finally found someone who told us that you just get them on the train. Once on the train saw behind these two girls who talked like the people on the "The Hills" and spent the entire ride gossiping about people. It was quite irritating. After that we managed to find the Metro and took that to Park station to start the Freedom Trail. The Robert Shaw memorial for the 54th MA regiment was really cool. Though the sun was in a bad spot to get a good shot of it. It was really hot on Friday. The walk along the Freedom Trail was miserable in that heat. The sites were really cool, I just wish the temp had been cooler. We ate lunch at Cheers at Fanieul (sp?) Hall. We walked over to the bridge to see the USS Constitution, but didn't go see the Bunker Hill Memorial up close. We did a few shots of it from a distance. We took the water shuttle back. The ferry that came didn't look very sea worthy to me, I thought for sure we were going to sink. We made it though I don't know how. After that we made it back to the station to catch the commuter rail back to Salem. We were happy to find the rental car still in the parking lot. After that we did some last minute shopping before going back to Danvers. We had to pack so we ordered Dominos, which is never my favorite, but it was on our hotel keys. It was OK. It was something to eat while we packed.
On Saturday we got up at 8:00 and went to breakfast at IHOP again since we don't have many around where we live. The Pumpkin pancakes are so good. It was quite busy on Saturday. I used up all the change I had for the tip so I wouldn't have to worry about it at the airport. We then went back to the hotel and watched American Gladiators on ESPN Classic. I remember watching it as a child, and we don't have ESPN Classic at home, so we watched that until 11:00 when we had to check out. Since it was suppose to be an hour drive up to Manchester, we decided to go find the Witch Trial memorial in Danvers. After that we went to Best Buy to kill some more time. It was noon then so we decided to just start heading up to Manchester and maybe have enough time to grab lunch on the way. We had to be at the airport by 2:00. It took nearly 2 hours to get to Manchester. We were averaging 20 MPH on the highway. There was no construction, no accidents, nothing to warrant such a traffic jam. I've been in worse traffic on I-75 heading "Up North" during the summer that moved faster. It was very irriating. We ended up stopping at McDonalds and had to eat quickly so that we could get the rental car back on time. Getting through security was easy. We were the only two people. The one TSA officer was impressed how fast we went through. We're used to going through Detroit Metro where you have to be fast. After that we sat by the gate and waited for the plane to arrive. And we prayed we got a pilot who knew how to take off! There were no problems with take off out of Manchester other than we had to sit on the runway for about 10 minutes because of lots of traffic in Detroit. It was a good flight back. I love looking out the window and seeing the clouds below. There were some cool cloud mounds. Our brother was waiting at baggage claim for us. He then bought us dinner from KFC and had a bottle of Pepsi in his fridge waiting for us. He's such a nice brother.
On Sunday we drove home from our brother's house. We got stuck in traffic on I-75 just south of Grand Blanc. They had to close the entire northbound section due to an accident. We were routed onto Dixie Hwy, which sort of freaked my sister out because she thought we were lost, but I knew where we were. After that it was a smooth ride home. It was nice to sleep in our own beds again and to play with our kitties who seemed to have missed us. It was a fun trip. Glad to be home.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Disney World Scrapbook
I'm sure no one really will care, but I FINISHED my Walt Disney World scrapbook!!! YEAH!!! It is 202 pages long!!! It is currently in 3 different books. The Magic Kingdom gets its own book. LOL I'm so glad that its finally done. I was happy that I finished it before SB and I go on another trip. I've been working on creating a site to show my digital scrapbooking and will post a link once its done. Celebrate with me though on finishing my Disney book! :)
-Yzerbear
-Yzerbear
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
June 2007 Chicago Mini Trip Report
It occured to me yesterday, that I never posted my small trip report on our recent Chicago weekend trip.
My sister and I spent Father's day weekend visiting the Windy City!!! Woo-hoo!!! This has got to be one of our favorite places to go. We went to Navy Pier and had lunch at Bubba Gump's, which was excellent as always. After that we did some shopping stopping by Build A Bear and Ryba's Mackinac Island Fudge. Two places we always stop when we are in Chicago. After that we went and checked into our favorite hotel: Best Western River North. After some swimming and relaxing we went shopping!!! Another favorite destination is American Girl Place. After shopping we went back to relax for a bit before going to Gino's East Pizzeria for some Chicago-style deep dish pizza. YUM! We brought some of it home with us. On Saturday we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. The CSI: Experience was a lot of fun. I love seeing the U-505 submarine. My sister had fun gazing at the Fairy Tale Castle doll house which she wishes could be hers. After that we headed back to Michigan. On Sunday we went to the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, MI. It was fun, but the website and brochures made it seem like it was bigger than it was. The balloon ride was my favorite part! My sister had fun in the simulator ride where you can actually go upside. After that we came home. Overall it was fun. The only really downside to the trip was that I lost my case of CDs that had probably 50-60 of my CDs. We have no idea where it fell out of the car at. We called our hotel and Navy Pier and no one turned in anything. Oh well. Some of them needed replaced anyways. And they can be replaced, but it still has me a bit bummed out.
I will try to upload some of the photos later.
My sister and I spent Father's day weekend visiting the Windy City!!! Woo-hoo!!! This has got to be one of our favorite places to go. We went to Navy Pier and had lunch at Bubba Gump's, which was excellent as always. After that we did some shopping stopping by Build A Bear and Ryba's Mackinac Island Fudge. Two places we always stop when we are in Chicago. After that we went and checked into our favorite hotel: Best Western River North. After some swimming and relaxing we went shopping!!! Another favorite destination is American Girl Place. After shopping we went back to relax for a bit before going to Gino's East Pizzeria for some Chicago-style deep dish pizza. YUM! We brought some of it home with us. On Saturday we went to the Museum of Science and Industry. The CSI: Experience was a lot of fun. I love seeing the U-505 submarine. My sister had fun gazing at the Fairy Tale Castle doll house which she wishes could be hers. After that we headed back to Michigan. On Sunday we went to the Air Zoo in Kalamazoo, MI. It was fun, but the website and brochures made it seem like it was bigger than it was. The balloon ride was my favorite part! My sister had fun in the simulator ride where you can actually go upside. After that we came home. Overall it was fun. The only really downside to the trip was that I lost my case of CDs that had probably 50-60 of my CDs. We have no idea where it fell out of the car at. We called our hotel and Navy Pier and no one turned in anything. Oh well. Some of them needed replaced anyways. And they can be replaced, but it still has me a bit bummed out.
I will try to upload some of the photos later.
Monday, August 06, 2007
Grand Rapids Great American Scrapbook Convention Trip Report
My sister and I went to the Great American Scrapbook convention in Grand Rapids, MI on Friday and Saturday. This was our first convention and we were a little disappointed. We both expected that there would be more. We spent lots of money though! There were some interesting things, but overall it was kind of disappointing. We only spent an hour there the first day since it was just the two of us and we would go again on Saturday with our sister-in-law.
We did decide to go to the crop on Friday night. This was also a first time experience for us. We were shocked to see people bringing in 5 or 6 large totes with stuff. It seemed some brought everything but the kitchen sink. We felt very inadequate because I only brought what we would need to minimize the amount of luggage we were taking. We each has specific pages to work on and got done the pages we had brought to work on. There was one group of people who brought a ton of stuff, but I don't think we saw them work on a single page the entire 3 hours we were there. There were a few interesting items in the goodie bag they handed out so we both felt we got our money's worth.
Saturday was sort of chaotic since my oldest brother and his wife were going to meet us in the morning and we would go to the convention with her while he would wait at our hotel for our other brother who was driving from Detroit to go to a concert with us on Saturday night. My oldest brother and his wife left later then they said they were going to. We had got up early to go to breakfast, etc and be ready by the time they got there. We ended up going back to the hotel and napping after breakfast at Bob Evans. BTW, the Banana Pecan Caramel waffles at Bob Evans are AWESOME! So once they showed up the three of us left. Well my one brother decided since the other said he would be there about noon, that he would go get a bite to eat. So while at the convention brother #2 calls asking where #1 is. Well brother #2 is hungry so I gave him some directions to some food and shopping that we had found the day before that wasn't too far from the hotel. Brother #1 calls about 20 minutes later and asks if #2 has shown up. Oy. And neither of them has the other one's cell phone number, so I'm stuck in the middle. We finish up at the convention and go back to the hotel. Brother #1 is there and about 15 minutes later, #2 shows up. Brother #1 and his wife leave after chatting for about 20 minutes, so we chat with #2 for a while then go to lunch.
We ended up at Fazoli's and in the parking lot next to the restaurant was some sort of shady dealings. It was really strange and very odd and involved a car. Very weird.
We went back then to the hotel and went swimming. There were 5 kids in the pool with the oldest being no more than 13 or 14 and not one adult anywhere to be seen. The littlest one was probably 3 or 4 and no one was watching him. He was jumping in and out of the pool, nearly hitting his head on the side at least twice that I saw. The mother finally came down and had the kids get out. We had thought about going to tell someone at the front desk, but after they left it looked like they knew the person at the front desk. I was just shocked that someone would let their kids go swimming without any supervision. I felt especially bad for the little boy because no one cared what he was doing. He could have run out one of the open doors to the outside and into the parking lot and I don't think any of those kids would have noticed. We were happy once they left because we then had the pool to ourselves.
After swimming and the hot tub we went up to the room to change and get ready for the concert. :) It was Triple Play Concert: Collective Soul, LIVE, and the Counting Crows. I've seen LIVE 2 times before and the Counting Crows 6 or 7 times before, so I knew it was going to be good.
Collective Soul was OK. They only played for 45 minutes though, but they didn't play the ONE song I wanted to hear. The ones that they did play were good, but they left out my favorite one. Oh well.
http://members.aol.com/Yzerbear19/Concert/CS1.jpg
LIVE totally rocked. The way the concert was set up was the stage was set up at Second base and they had part of the infield set up so that you could go down and watch the concert from there. It was all general admission so you could go down and watch for a bit then go find a seat or whatever. We went down to the "pit" for some of LIVE. The best was when the lead singer, Ed, took off his shirt for "Lakini's Juice."
http://members.aol.com/Yzerbear19/Concert/LIVE7.jpg
The Counting Crows were amazing!!! We went down for "Mr. Jones" which is my FAVORITE song. Adam looked GREAT! He was a lot heavier last year when we seen them in Detroit. He messed up "Long December," which provided an amusing moment. Their new song they played was soooo awesome, I wish it was November!!! :)
http://members.aol.com/Yzerbear19/Concert/Crows1.jpg
After it was over we were out of the stadium and back at our hotel in under 15 minutes. I got some decent photos and I fully intend to do some layouts. I think the "RockStar" Stack from DCWV would be perfect! :)
The rest of my concert pics can be found here:
http://members.aol.com/Yzerbear19/Concert/
This morning my sister and I got up early and went swimming before breakfast, which was really nice because for part of the time we had it all to ourselves. We had breakfast at IHOP. Then brother #2 helped us load up the car and we checked out. He headed back for Detroit, but we headed for a mall in Grand Rapids to go to Build A Bear since i had $20 gift certificates to spend there. After that though we headed home.
It was fun. On Friday we did go and find Pages in Time in Jenison, MI. WOW! What an awesome store. My sister spent $50 pretty quickly on Disney stuff . They had one of the best selection of Disney stuff that I've seen, much more than any of the stores in our area. We were going to go to Scrap, Scribble 'n' Stick, but decided not to because we didn't want to be tempted with spending more. If we ever go back to Grand Rapids, we are definitely going to Pages in Time, though it was a bit confusing to find.
OK. That is my lovely little trip report, with probably way more information than you wanted to know! ;) Woud I go again to the Great American Scrapbook Convention - maybe, but probably only for one day and not both days. We didn't do any of the classes, but if we were go again we might do one or two of those.
It was a fun weekend overall. :thumbsup2 Scrapbooking and excellent music, who could ask for a better weekend!
We did decide to go to the crop on Friday night. This was also a first time experience for us. We were shocked to see people bringing in 5 or 6 large totes with stuff. It seemed some brought everything but the kitchen sink. We felt very inadequate because I only brought what we would need to minimize the amount of luggage we were taking. We each has specific pages to work on and got done the pages we had brought to work on. There was one group of people who brought a ton of stuff, but I don't think we saw them work on a single page the entire 3 hours we were there. There were a few interesting items in the goodie bag they handed out so we both felt we got our money's worth.
Saturday was sort of chaotic since my oldest brother and his wife were going to meet us in the morning and we would go to the convention with her while he would wait at our hotel for our other brother who was driving from Detroit to go to a concert with us on Saturday night. My oldest brother and his wife left later then they said they were going to. We had got up early to go to breakfast, etc and be ready by the time they got there. We ended up going back to the hotel and napping after breakfast at Bob Evans. BTW, the Banana Pecan Caramel waffles at Bob Evans are AWESOME! So once they showed up the three of us left. Well my one brother decided since the other said he would be there about noon, that he would go get a bite to eat. So while at the convention brother #2 calls asking where #1 is. Well brother #2 is hungry so I gave him some directions to some food and shopping that we had found the day before that wasn't too far from the hotel. Brother #1 calls about 20 minutes later and asks if #2 has shown up. Oy. And neither of them has the other one's cell phone number, so I'm stuck in the middle. We finish up at the convention and go back to the hotel. Brother #1 is there and about 15 minutes later, #2 shows up. Brother #1 and his wife leave after chatting for about 20 minutes, so we chat with #2 for a while then go to lunch.
We ended up at Fazoli's and in the parking lot next to the restaurant was some sort of shady dealings. It was really strange and very odd and involved a car. Very weird.
We went back then to the hotel and went swimming. There were 5 kids in the pool with the oldest being no more than 13 or 14 and not one adult anywhere to be seen. The littlest one was probably 3 or 4 and no one was watching him. He was jumping in and out of the pool, nearly hitting his head on the side at least twice that I saw. The mother finally came down and had the kids get out. We had thought about going to tell someone at the front desk, but after they left it looked like they knew the person at the front desk. I was just shocked that someone would let their kids go swimming without any supervision. I felt especially bad for the little boy because no one cared what he was doing. He could have run out one of the open doors to the outside and into the parking lot and I don't think any of those kids would have noticed. We were happy once they left because we then had the pool to ourselves.
After swimming and the hot tub we went up to the room to change and get ready for the concert. :) It was Triple Play Concert: Collective Soul, LIVE, and the Counting Crows. I've seen LIVE 2 times before and the Counting Crows 6 or 7 times before, so I knew it was going to be good.
Collective Soul was OK. They only played for 45 minutes though, but they didn't play the ONE song I wanted to hear. The ones that they did play were good, but they left out my favorite one. Oh well.
http://members.aol.com/Yzerbear19/Concert/CS1.jpg
LIVE totally rocked. The way the concert was set up was the stage was set up at Second base and they had part of the infield set up so that you could go down and watch the concert from there. It was all general admission so you could go down and watch for a bit then go find a seat or whatever. We went down to the "pit" for some of LIVE. The best was when the lead singer, Ed, took off his shirt for "Lakini's Juice."
http://members.aol.com/Yzerbear19/Concert/LIVE7.jpg
The Counting Crows were amazing!!! We went down for "Mr. Jones" which is my FAVORITE song. Adam looked GREAT! He was a lot heavier last year when we seen them in Detroit. He messed up "Long December," which provided an amusing moment. Their new song they played was soooo awesome, I wish it was November!!! :)
http://members.aol.com/Yzerbear19/Concert/Crows1.jpg
After it was over we were out of the stadium and back at our hotel in under 15 minutes. I got some decent photos and I fully intend to do some layouts. I think the "RockStar" Stack from DCWV would be perfect! :)
The rest of my concert pics can be found here:
http://members.aol.com/Yzerbear19/Concert/
This morning my sister and I got up early and went swimming before breakfast, which was really nice because for part of the time we had it all to ourselves. We had breakfast at IHOP. Then brother #2 helped us load up the car and we checked out. He headed back for Detroit, but we headed for a mall in Grand Rapids to go to Build A Bear since i had $20 gift certificates to spend there. After that though we headed home.
It was fun. On Friday we did go and find Pages in Time in Jenison, MI. WOW! What an awesome store. My sister spent $50 pretty quickly on Disney stuff . They had one of the best selection of Disney stuff that I've seen, much more than any of the stores in our area. We were going to go to Scrap, Scribble 'n' Stick, but decided not to because we didn't want to be tempted with spending more. If we ever go back to Grand Rapids, we are definitely going to Pages in Time, though it was a bit confusing to find.
OK. That is my lovely little trip report, with probably way more information than you wanted to know! ;) Woud I go again to the Great American Scrapbook Convention - maybe, but probably only for one day and not both days. We didn't do any of the classes, but if we were go again we might do one or two of those.
It was a fun weekend overall. :thumbsup2 Scrapbooking and excellent music, who could ask for a better weekend!
Monday, July 16, 2007
Digital Scrapbooking
Since I never really use my blog for anything other than some random updates, I decided I'm going to include some of my digital scrapbooking pages that I've done, so look for updates on those to come in the near future. :)
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