Return to Disney World!**

14. June 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

**I’m reminded of all those Disney reprise movies: Return to Neverland, Return from Witch Mountain, Return to Halloweentown, Return to Snowy River, etc.

Semi-impulsively, this past weekend we took a “short” trip down to Disneyworld and joined our friends Suzy and Andy’s family, and along with their neighbor’s family.  They flew down from Ohio for the week, while we joined them part way through the week after the boys were finished with their school year.

We took advantage of this year’s Disney military salute tickets…while not as big a discount as we experienced in 2009 (when Dave and I each got 5 complimentary days), 4 days + water parks for $138 per ticket is still the best Disney deal there is!  Consider that the 2-day Florida resident ticket is $133!

On this trip we used 3 of the 4 days, we’re considering a future trip combining the last Disney ticket day with Sea World and perhaps even Legoland when the weather turns cooler.

There were 12 of us (6 adults, 6 kids).  Since all 3 families had been recently, there weren’t pressing needs to meet characters, search for Hidden Mickeys or ride particular rides.  I was pleased to get to ride a couple things we didn’t get around to in 2009: Space Mountain, It’s a Small World, and Maelstrom.

It was incredibly hot on this particular trip, which made a marked difference in the boys’ behavior.  We didn’t hear the whining/complaining till day 5 when we went in December ’09.  On this trip, it was halfway through the 2nd day…Timmy sat himself down in the middle of the sidewalk at Hollywood Studios and refused to walk.

Instead of just giving you a random bunch of pictures, I thought I’d instead share some of the cool stuff we found out about this time around.  Enjoy!

1.) Announced in April 2011, the Disney World military promotion has been extended into 2012.  Tickets purchased in 2011 now don’t expire until September 30, 2012!  There is a lot of “fine print” to this promotion change, so I’ll just refer you to this website for the details.

2.) Did you know you are not restricted to that one hour window printed on your Fast Pass?  Fastpass is Disney Parks’ rider management system.  Grab a Fastpass ticket for your favorite attraction and come back at the designated time for shorter wait times…or no wait at all!  The attendants are only ever checking the start time, but if you don’t make it in that one hour window printed, come back anytime afterwards before the attraction closes and ride attendants are instructed to let you through anyway.  They don’t advertise this, since Fastpass is designed as a ridership management tool and they need most riders to return in that one hour window for the program to work smoothly.  More information about how to maximize Fastpass can be found here.

The most popular ride in Hollywood Studios.  See the non-Fastpass wait time on the left?  People waited anyway!  Even more popular than Star Tours on a Star Wars Weekend!  They are typically out of Fastpasses by 11am!  In 2009 one of us ran to this attraction as soon as we got to Hollywood Studios to grab the Fastpass.  And it was still for about 6 hours later.

3.) Disney Dining now has a mobile website that you can use from your smartphone to make dining reservations!  While we were enjoying some air conditioned goodness at Disney Quest (see #6 below), I was able to hop onto the mobile website and make dinner reservations at House of Blues across the street at Downtown Disney.  The following day, Dave got us lunchtime seating at the German Biergarten buffet on our drive into EPCOT.

 

4.) We caught our first glimpses of the “new Fantasyland” under construction.  Suzy and I commented to each other, “It’s about time Disney decided to do more with the more recent Princesses!”.  However, based on the article I linked above, recent “policy shifts” in Disney’s princess marketing is resulting in some last-minute changes to the original plans.  Based on the concept art, it looks like there will still be big areas dedicated to Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid.  Set to open in Fall 2012, we’re excited to get to see such quick progress.  (It was also very interesting to see such huge construction areas in general…I figured Disney would have been more discreet, do you?)  A friend who was there recently said that my pictures from June 9th had so much more visible than what she saw just 8 weeks prior.

You can see Beast’s castle in the upper left, and The Little Mermaid’s area towards the top.
Progress so far on Beast’s castle.
I love my camera’s zoom!

5.) A newly-designed Star Tours 3-D attraction opened at Hollywood Studios on May 20th, in conjunction with the first of their 4 Star Wars Weekends that are held every May/June.  The ride was closed from September 2010 for the renovation.  Dave and I had been on Star Tours in 2000, and after riding it again in 2009 it all seemed the same and rather uninteresting.  But this time around, it was WAY more interesting: the ride is now in 3D and it’s interactive in that a random passenger is photographed and shown as a “rebel spy” (our godson on our particular ride).  The movement in the ride is now smoother and flows with the storyline better.  To me, the coolest part is how there are now 54 permutations to the ride, by combining which storylines your “tourship” travels through.  In our case, we wound through Kashyyyk and Coruscant.  At the end, Princess Leia’s holographic message thanks us for protecting the rebel spy for the Alliance.  I was impressed with whatever they did with Carrie Fisher’s mouth movements to make that work…the images were straight from the original Star Wars.

I wrote about our Star Wars Weekend experience for GeekMom.

Dave looking super cool in his 3D glasses!

6.) Disney Quest: One of Walt Disney World’s best-kept secrets!  After dealing with the most crowded, hottest Disney park experience in my entire life at Hollywood Studios for a Star Wars Weekend, we left mid-afternoon and enjoyed a couple hours of air conditioned goodness at Disney Quest.  This is an interactive theme park located at Downtown Disney West Side.  We bought the military promotion tickets that included Disney Quest admission, so we spent a couple hours there and enjoyed unlimited video game play.  Usually Disney Quest is very crowded in the evenings, so to go over there from 4-6pm was delightful, we had a chance to play every video game we were interested in!

Another Guest Post

13. June 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , ,

I guess good recipes travel fast!  I was delightfully surprised when one of Brandie @ The Country Cook’s friends, Laurie @ Feeding My Ohana, contacted me about how excited she was to see a non-commercial simple Huli Huli Chicken marinade recipe at The Country Cook a couple weeks ago.  Laurie tried it and gave it a thumbs up!

Last Wednesday she featured the recipe, with a summary of my two blog posts from Memorial Day weekend 2009, on her blog.  She graciously omitted the chicken mutilation pictures, lol!  She added a key part to the recipe that I’d been forgetting about all these years: Shouting “HULI!” when you turn the chicken on the grill.

You can’t forget to do that!

School’s Out — Let the Travel Begin!

08. June 2011 · Comments Off on School’s Out — Let the Travel Begin! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,
In the shade of our garage, we were able to load the car in relative comfort…OUT of the 90+ degrees  at 9am!

Not only is our summer full of travel, but we couldn’t even wait for school to end before taking our first trip!  Since we’re taking the SUV up to PA/WV/VT next week, we’re going to use the Prius to drive down for a couple days at Walt Disney World.  We took the boys out of school a half-day early.

But to easily fit two kids, two adults and our stuff into our Prius, we loaded up our roof-top carrier.  We usually only need to use this when we’re moving from one house to another, but to save us some mileage, we thought we’d use the car.

Better do it now while the weeds kids fit easily in the backseat…

Florida Discoveries #14: Billy Bowlegs Pirate Festival

07. June 2011 · Comments Off on Florida Discoveries #14: Billy Bowlegs Pirate Festival · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

This past weekend was the Billy Bowlegs Pirate Festival at Fort Walton Beach Landing…about 20 miles east of where we live.  Dave suggested we hang out at the festival on Friday night, so after the boys got off the school bus, we went to the base to pick up Dave and headed eastward.

The boys put on their favorite (read: their only fitting) pirate t-shirts and brought their toy swords.

At 5pm on a Friday, the parking was surprisingly easy — we parked only a block or so from the festival.  Timmy wanted his face painted right away, after that we had some dinner and enjoyed the evening out.

Go ahead, say it…”What is that thing on Timmy’s forehead????”

Jacob was good with his eye patch and hat.  The hat is actually from Colonial Williamsburg, when he was 5 years old.

Most of the boats on the water had pirate flags flying on them!

Part of bringing 3 pirates with me to the festival: lots of mayhem!  We got those popper things that you throw onto the ground. My kids were annoying everyone….

Dave was no exception!

We had about 15-20 minutes of thunderstorm right when Billy Bowleg’s ship was supposed to come into Fort Walton Landing.  This giant mast thing blew down near us.  Our family hunkered down in one of the vendor’s tents and were fine.

Right after the weather cleared up, the Krewe of Bowlegs pulled up and all their crazy pirates disembarked.

Yeah — part of me wonders if this is just an excuse to celebrate Mardi Gras in June…

They perform this every year — Billy Bowlegs (right) comes ashore and attempts to make a deal with the Mayor of Fort Walton Beach (walking on the left).

The ladies throw out beads to the spectators.  Those are my three boys’ hands all asking for beads!

Ask and you shall receive….

Who else noticed that Timmy’s makeup is now gone?  After all, we got a real bandana for him 🙂

My boys enjoyed the ladies who were handing out the beads….I wonder if the young lady on the left is Miss Billy Bowlegs or something like that….

Jacob’s dessert — a New Orleans Sno-Ball with a do-it-yourself syrup tap.  Really!

Dave was having the BEST time!

A band called “The Bilge Pumps” performed sea chanties and pirate songs.  They were a lot of fun.  Download their songs on iTunes.

We waited for the fireworks, but there were a couple of problems with the launch control system and then there was a disabled boat too close to the fireworks barge and the show ended up canceled.

Jacob got really really sick of waiting…

Black Swallowtail Butterflies!

07. June 2011 · Comments Off on Black Swallowtail Butterflies! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

On May 30th I saw a black swallowtail butterfly flitting around my herb garden.  A familiar sight, we’d seen many of them when we lived on the east coast of Florida, North Carolina, Nebraska and now again we’re greeted.

I knew what she was doing — laying eggs!  The next day I scoured the herbs for evidence of eggs, but I couldn’t find any.  Apparently I wasn’t looking hard enough.

Today, 7 days later, my dill and parsley are covered in the telltale bird-poop-looking caterpillars!  I counted at least 8 of them out there chowing down.  I don’t think they’ll last very long…I saw some caterpillars a few weeks ago and I’m guessing bluebirds got to them.  While they start out looking like bird poop to deceive predators, but at a certain point they molt out of the poop-skin and end up with more bold stripes.  This is usually when a bird or larger bug will swoop down and get them.

A Blast from the Past: Smarties!

07. June 2011 · Comments Off on A Blast from the Past: Smarties! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,

A small British grocery store opened up right up the street, called The British Pedlar.  The ladies who are running the store are very kind and they have just about everything that I remember from my childhood, when my mom would frequent the British grocery store in Virginia Beach OR she’d bring things back from our trips to Hong Kong when I was a kid.

The store has everything I remember except one thing: Bovril!  Click that link to read more about Bovil not being available in the U.S.  The ladies said it’s just too complicated and the FDA is really slow-rolling the customs approval process even for the non-beef version.

On my last couple of visits to the store, I’d pick up some treats for the family: locally-made banger sausages (Mom, we’ll hit the store and I’ll get you some while you’re visiting next month, they have THREE brands to choose from!), McVitie’s Digestives, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk bars and Smarties candies.  I’m accustomed to the Smarties being sold in small cylindrical containers like this:

Ha ha!  Fooled many of you, didn’t I?  Perhaps the introduction about British food tipped you off…but I’m sure many of you were still thinking about “American” Smarties:

For the unfamiliar, Nestle’s Smarties are very similar to American M&Ms.  Chocolate drops covered in a hard candy shell.  But there’s a…well…fruitiness to the Nestle Smarties that I’ve always enjoyed.

Anyway, on my most recent visit this week, the store was out of the smaller packages of Smarties, so I picked up a bigger box.  I’d never seen the bigger box in detail, so I was intrigued by the picture on the back.

Love the “colours”!

Spirulina?  Really???  http://www.foodnavigator.com/Legislation/Spirulina-faces-legal-questions

I knew there was a fruity flavor (flavour?) to the Smarties but I never realized I was tasting the all-natural coloring to the candy shells!  The kids got a kick out of the picture and the information, then got a bit squirmy about eating any more of the green ones, ha ha!

Eating Nestle’s Smarties brings back so many memories, and I enjoy sharing these things with the boys.

MilSpouse Friday Fill-In #43

03. June 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

This week’s Friday Fill-In!  Enjoy!

1. It’s now June (woot!)… what plans do you have for the summer?

I have this horrible habit of overstuffing our summer breaks.  This year I even tried to back off some by not enrolling the boys in any summer activities…until an advertisement for Challenger Soccer Camp arrived in the mail.  I gave in and enrolled them, but that isn’t till August.

But then travel plans and opportunities to see friends, family and the country started to emerge…and will dominate our summer.

We received an invitation to join friends at Walt Disney World next weekend, so we’re taking a short trip down to Orlando for 3 days at the park.

Later in June we’re headed up to PA for Dave’s family’s reunion, then a visit with my parents in WV, Dave’s presenting at the National N Scale Convention (he’s a model railroader, for our newer fans), and then I’m taking the boys camping in Vermont with my old college roommate and her son…we’re looking forward to spending the day at the Wanderlust Festival among other fun outdoor (read: no Wii, no DS, no Blu-Ray) activities.

In July we’re expecting an assortment of visitors from North Carolina, West Virginia, New York and elsewhere in Florida.  Many are coming in town for Dave’s assumption of squadron command, which for an Air Force officer is a pretty significant step in his career.  We couldn’t be more proud!

2. What is your favorite summer memory as a kid?

Getting to play outside without worrying about homework, orchestra practice, sports practices, etc.  I’m one of those old fogeys who would get to stay outside from sunrise till sunset…riding my bike all over the place with friends.

3. If wild animals could be made pets without fear of them ever being dangerous, what kind of exotic animal would you want as a pet?

A bear.  A great big bear that would help keep us warm if the USAF sends us back to Nebraska to freeze to death 🙂

4. Is there anything about deployments that you do like? submitted by The Thrifty Military Wife

The tax breaks, hostile fire pay, and overall reduced expenses of having the extra person in the household provides some additional money…and you don’t even have to tell the IRS about it!  It usually helps us to pay off bills, buy new cars when we need them, and take fun vacations.  I paid off two student loans after my first deployment in 1997.

5. I’m starting to run out of questions again… so please give me a question you’d like to see (off-the-wall will most likely make it because we seem to have used a lot of the “traditional” ones).

“Have you ever convinced packers/movers to pack something they aren’t supposed to for a PCS?”

The Scripps National Spelling Bee: Some Cool Statistics

02. June 2011 · 4 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

(This is an article I originally wrote for GeekMom.com, to be published on the same day as the finals).

We are in the midst of the 84th Scripps National Spelling Bee Week in the Washington, D.C. area. I’ve watched the competition with interest most years — although not with the same enthusiasm my family watches the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest every July 4th! I find it especially cool that ESPN chooses to air the finals every June and this year the preliminaries will stream live on ESPN3.

Over the years I’ve noticed some interesting trends. I’m a statistics girl, and I find it easier to present you some fascinating facts about the spelling bee:

  1. Are the winning words getting more difficult? Check out the list of winning words here. Do you see a trend from mostly Germanic words that (to me) are seemingly straightforward to sound out, use in context and use basic etymology…to some serious Latin, Greek and other Romantic language-based words? Consider words such as fracas (1930), intelligible (1935), and therapy (1940). Compare those to antediluvian (1994), chiaroscurist (1998) and appoggiatura (2005). I think this speaks volumes to the increased diversity in the English language as well as the capabilities of America’s 8-14 year olds’ spelling skills over the years. We trust that our kids are more capable than ever before!
  2. Homeschooled students are demonstrating their excellence! According to this article published on May 31st featuring San Angelo, Texas’s National Spelling Bee contestant, even though homeschooling accounts for only 2.9% of American schoolchildren, 9.8% of this year’s 275 contestants are homeschooled. Homeschooled students have won the spelling bee four times — will they take home the prize a 5th time this year?
  3. Gender. I don’t consider 45 female winners vs. 41 male winners overwhelming, but it still put a smile on my face.
  4. Diversity, at least among Indian-Americans. I have to admit, before I found the statistic elsewhere (see link in #3), I attempted to discern the split of the genders of the winners over the past 83 years by manually counting the male vs. female winners. I also have to admit, when I got to 1985, I didn’t know whether Balu Natarajan of Chicago, Illinois was a male or female. (He’s a male). Then there were nine more names whose genders I simply didn’t know (sorry!). It turns out they are all Indian-Americans.
  5. More diversity. In 1998 Jody-Anne Maxwell of Kingston, Jamaica became the first (and only) non-American resident to win the bee.
  6. The Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS) sends contestants. Sponsored by the Stars and Stripes newspaper, which is published for American servicemembers living overseas, students can enter through their on-base schools. Twelve-year-old Anuk Dayaprema, whose father is serving in the US Army in Vicenza, Italy, is representing DoDDS Europe schools.
  7. He’s HOW OLD? There is an 8-year-old third-grader competing this year! I think about my own 8-year-old being able to spell xanthosis (1995) and my head spins!
  8. Want more statistics? Visit this link to view even more statistics about this year’s 275 contestants. They’ve broken down everything from how many are only children vs. with siblings, how many are repeat performers, as well as age and grade distributions.

I certainly plan to watch the spelling bee with the kids this week. Will you?

Celebrity!

01. June 2011 · 3 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: ,

My dear friend Brandie at The Country Cook has a surprise waiting for us this morning!  My first ever guest-blog-post!  The Country Cook is fun because each of Brandie’s recipes has a great story to go along.  I had the PERFECT recipe to add to her blog and was so excited to get to share it!

Florida Discoveries #13: Black-Velvet Featherleaf Slug

30. May 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags:

“You have GOT to be kidding me!  You’re going to blog about slugs???”

It’s been described as having a dry-tire surface to it.  I have to admit, as close as I got to the slug to get these pictures, I did NOT touch it!

LOL!  Yes I am!  Because I was so incredibly stunned when I saw this black stick start slithering across my driveway last week!

Meet a black-velvet featherleaf slug, which is a species of slug introduced from South America to northern Florida in the 1960s.  This website seems to have a good description, and I found some snippets of information at these other sites. 

Florida Slugs. 
Black-velvet featherleaf slug sightings in the Jacksonville, FL area.

The one I saw was pretty long and slender. About the length of my middle finger (3-4″?).

Here are the other pictures I got. Enjoy, if you dare!

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