Disney World - Hollywood Studios

On Friday we were at Hollywood Studios. We have a seven day pass and this was the only park where we were only going to go for one day which meant we had to make sure we got everything done instead of saying, "Don't worry. We'll be back here on another day." We arrived just after 9:00a and headed immediately to the "Rock 'n' Roller Coaster." Of course Kerry was the only one that intended on going on it because the rest of us knew it wasn't for us. It was a 30 minute wait but she tried the singles line which can often be quicker while we wandered over to the Frozen store.

Based on the success of the movie it does not surprise me that they have an entire store dedicated to it. There were shelves upon shelves of Olaf's, Sven's, Anna's and Elsa's. There was also a crushed penny machine where Callie made sure she got one of each kind. (She usually just picks her favourite.) We then headed outside to wait in the shade and of course meet a new duck friend. This time we didn't even have popcorn. There were two and Carter named one Shylo since one was kind of shy and the other was named Quackers.
We had time before our first scheduled ride so we sopped in Pixar land for "Toy Story Mania". Its a fun ride where you are in a car with a pop gun that you can use to score points as if you are in a carnival games area. It's a day later now and my arm is still sore but it was worth it as I beat Kerry 146,400 to 76,400. After that it was time for Star Tours. It's a 4D movie where you are in a shuttle that moves through various movie scene. I do like it however the movie never seems to quite align with the movement and I have to constantly close my eyes to avoid getting sick.

Our next scheduled event was at 1:00p so we stopped for lunch and spent a bit of time in the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" play area. It consisted of various slides and climbing structures all scaled to make it appear as if we were smaller than an ant. They even had Anty set up with a saddle. The favourite for the smaller kids appeared to be the giant leaf slide where they had to have an attendant directing traffic as the kids took turns sliding down. After that we still had time to kill so we went on the "Hollywood Movie Tour."

The tour was a slow moving vehicle which held about 40 people that went through various movie sets. Most of the movies were pretty tame though it started out with Aliens which was a bit scary for Carter. I warned him it was coming and he hid behind my arm until it was over. Our guide was part of the action in the Western movie section where she was kidnapped and returned to us in the Egyptian movie area. There were also classics like Casablanca. Our only issue was that our guide was very loud through the speaker system. We had to cover our hears for much of it.

It was finally time for the highlight of the trip so far for Callie. The "For The First Time In Forever - A Frozen Sing Along". I didn't really think Frozen was a girls only type movie but apparently Carter feels it is and was very concerned that there were no boys in line. He was even more concerned when some did come because he felt their sisters must be making them come. Lucky for me there was comedy to the show with one of the narrators being incredibly funny. The rest was filled with 200+ screaming kids singing "Let It Go" and other sound track songs at the top of their lungs.

We did  a quick review of the remaining rides to discover that most of Hollywood Studios is either sit down shows or restaurants. We had done almost everything we wanted to so we headed to the Muppet show while we waited for the car stunt show at 4:00p. It had been a long hot day already and Carter was getting tired so we went for a quick treat and a rest. He was previously excited for the car show but was not not so sure now. In the movie tour there was fire in a few scenes that you could feel and he was concerned the car show would be too hot.

Food and a rest got everyone re-energized and we finally convinced him it was a good idea to go. It was definitely worth it. The show walks you through what it takes to create a car chase scene for a movie including tricks like a car that is built backwards so it can be safely driven over jumps backwards. It was outside but with fans running the whole time was nice and cool, even with the huge explosions.

We finished the day with dinner at our hotel and a movie by the pool. It was Arial. I only watched about 20 minutes but this included the ship wreck scene which was quite realistic as the wind had picked up and was blowing the inflatable movie screen all over the place. They had attendants standing on the tie downs for it so it wouldn't blow away. Another fun day. Tomorrow is a day off and is the day we switch hotels so it will be a welcome break.

Disney World - Epcot

Thursday was Epcot day. For me when someone mentions Disney World I think about the big silver ball. It wasn't until we decided to go that I even clued in that Disney World consists of a number of different theme parks with Epcot just being one of them. We arrived a little after 9:00a and immediately tried to go on Soaring which is similar to "Flying Over Canada" and "Soaring Over California." Unfortunately there was already a 60 minute wait so we jumped on "Living With the Land". I had no idea what to expect and it turned out to be a boat tour of Epcot's green houses.

It was kind of neat to see all the different types of plants though it was all a bit too perfect for me. They obviously grow the plants in pots elsewhere and bring in the best ones and replant them. Everything was full grown, the same size and perfectly spaced. The hydroponics was interesting and I got some good ideas for growing things vertically. With my small garden at home I have to take advantage of every space I can. After that we went to the "Imagination Institute" which reminded me of Science World with some interactive stuff at the end of the ride.

The best part about Epcot for me is that our trip coincided with the Flower and Garden show. Spring obviously comes earlier down here and the plants are just starting to bloom. One of the first displays we went through was a butterfly garden. It was fully enclosed with various flowers as well as some butterfly huts where the butterflies were just coming out of the cocoons. Callie was definitely in her element. At one point she was just sitting in front of one of the information signs looking at the butterflies surrounded by strangers with us no where near. She was in another world.

We had a bit of time to kill while we waited for our next Fast Pass ride so we started to tour the country pavilions. Epcot is meant to display the various cultures of the world with many major countries represented, typically by a ride, a store and a restaurant. Not sure where we stopped but it seemed to represent the various islands of the South Pacific. Carter had a fun time playing the drums and we got a traditional hot dog. (Well, it was just a regular hot dog. Not sure why the hot dog hut was where it was.)

After lunch it was time to head to Test Track. Callie was a bit apprehensive but we told her it was similar to the Cars ride in Disneyland and we convinced her to go. Boy were we wrong. It was not as 'cute' as the Cars ride and started out with some pretty heavy twists and turns. The fast part at the end was also pretty incredible.  At one point you are almost on your side as you go around a turn. The first few seconds were not what she expected and unfortunately she screamed the whole way. Carter however absolutely loved it.

Epcot was fairly close to Typhoon Lagoon which is one of the water parks, so instead of heading back to our hotel we decided to stop there for the afternoon. It was by far the best water park I've ever been to. One of the rides is more like a roller coaster. You are on a tube and there are points where you are actually being pushed up hill. The lazy river is also not so lazy. You can actually just sit and still move pretty quickly around. The wave pool was amazing with waves at least 5 ft tall. If we get a chance I think we'll try to go back

After the water park we headed back to Epcot to finish our tour of the country pavilions. The first one we went to was the Canada pavilion. Each of the countries is represented by the stereotypical icons of the country. For Canada this meant hockey, maple syrup and smoked salmon. The gardens were a scaled down representation of the Buchart Gardens in Victoria and were quite nice. The person working there was even from Surrey. (Even down here she said South Surrey and not Surrey.) Hockey was interesting in that all the teams were represented except for Ottawa and Edmonton. No loss there.

I stopped in England for Fish and Chips while the kids went on to the United States but they got side tracked with a game of "Agent P's World Show Case Adventure" in France. It was a fun game with a little hand held unit that showed you where to find the clues. The clues were interactive as well. In the picture on the right the books in the middle were actually a screen that showed where the bad guy left some DNA in the form of a piece of hair. In the end Perry was on top of one of the buildings and the hand held activated him sending him down a zip line between two buildings. Very cool.

We finished the day off back at the hotel watching Hercules. Three parks down. One to go.

Disney World - Animal Kingdom

Our second full day was at the Animal Kingdom. The park opened at 9:00a and we had every intention of being there when it opened. Unfortunately too much sun the day before caught up to Callie and she was showing all the signs of sun stroke. We managed to get her hydrated and on the bus by 9:00a and to the park for around 9:30a. Kerry had our day all planned out and we headed to the Safari ride as soon as we got there though we did have time for a few pictures in front of the 'Tree of Life'. It's a rather impressive concrete tree with dozens of animals carved into the trunk.

We got on the Safari ride and got great seats in the front row. Our tour guide made a few jokes but it wasn't the same sort of tour guide humor I was expecting. I think we saw all the major animals including lions, cheetahs, rhinos, elephants and monkeys. We even saw a giraffe thanks to Kerry. She has a poor track record of spotting animals when we travel. She usually sees things like stumps and says they are bears until we get closer and sees that they aren't. She excitedly reported the giraffe but no one else saw it so I was worried for a moment, however we turned the corner and there it was.

We've only been having very simple breakfasts each morning so we stopped by for a quick snack on our way to Dinoland for our next ride. There we met a duck that Carter named Popcorn. I'm not sure why but we always seem to make a duck friend on our family vacations. There was "Baby Duck's Cousin" the first trip to Maui and then "Ducky" on our second trip and now "Popcorn". I suppose the name Carter picked for him is a good indication of why we keep making friends with ducks.

Callie wasn't interested in the ride in Dinoland and with all the spinning it had I wasn't very excited about it either so we went on to "The Boneyard" which is a play structure for kids with ramps, slides and grottos. I sat in the parent area and Callie started to explore. At one point she was gone for about 10 minutes without me seeing her. Turns out she had found a nice little alcove behind a waterfall to take a rest. After all the sun yesterday, this was a very good idea.

We had lunch scheduled at "The Rain Forest Cafe" and headed there after Dinoland. To be honest, the food isn't that great but the atmosphere can't be beat, with vines and animatronic animals everywhere. There is even a thunderstorm every 15 minutes or so. I went with the Mojo Bones because you can't really mess up ribs. Kerry had a coupon for an appetizer and had the left overs from the kids. We seem to only really need to purchase two or three meals for the four of us and there is still food left over.

Animal Kingdom closes early at 7:00p so rather than leaving and coming back we stayed an extra hour or two before heading to our hotel for a nap and a dip in the pool. Kerry did a load of laundry and read by the pool and the rest of us were out like a light for at least an hour. We then headed to Downtown Disney in the late afternoon. It's not a park but it is a fun place to go for dinner and there was a Christmas Time shop with a great billboard for Callie to get her picture in front of. (I really need to see that movie.)

After dinner we headed to Ghiradelli for desert. Again, we only had two to share between the four of us. Between the Sea Salt Caramel Sunday that I wanted and the Banana Split that Carter insisted on we only finished the Sunday and about half the Banana Split. Disney is going to need to take as serious look at increasing the width of all the seats on their rides based on what we've seen so far and based on the food choices you have.

Disney World - The Magic Kingdom

After our long day of travel the day before we were a bit groggy when we got up at 7:30a local time. Our first day was going to be at the Magic Kingdom. There are hotels in some of the parks but ultimately to see all the parks you need to have a car or take advantage of the bus system. There are shuttles leaving every 5 to 20 minutes from each hotel going to each park. Our buses leave from the main lobby and we only had to wait a few minutes for the bus to arrive. Unfortunately there were a few scooters that had to be loaded and the bus had a bit of difficulty closing the ramp.

We eventually got going and after a 20 minute ride arrived at or destination. We  had continued our 'farthest' theme and were headed to the farthest park from our farthest hotel. The nice thing about this strategy is that everything will be shorter for the rest of our trip. The Magic Kingdom is much like Disneyland. Many of the same areas and many of the same rides. It was a little disconcerting as everything was the same except it was different.

Our first ride was 'The Magic Carpets of Aladdin'. A nice easy one for everyone to get their feet wet. It's much like the Dumbo ride where it goes in circles and you can control the height. Carter didn't want to go very high so of course Callie immediately took us to the top. He was okay with it because you could see much of the park. After that we headed to the Swiss Family Robinson tree house. Similar to the one in Disneyland except they kept it as Swiss Family Robinson instead of changing it to Tarzans tree house. I think I want to see one of the Swiss Family movies again.

Our first Fast Pass was for 'Big Thunder Mountain'. Kerry was both excited and irritated that she could book our Fast Passes months in advance. Although she was excited that she could plan everything in advance it meant she had to figure out where we were going each day without even knowing what the parks were like. So far it's worked out okay but we can't change them now so we're kind of set on where we go each day.

We attempted to get Callie to go on 'Big Thunder Mountain' however she was having none of that. We got up to the train and her and Kerry had to go out the other side. Carter and I went on and Kerry and Carter went immediately after that. He loved it. I didn't mind it but it was definitely more extreme than the one at Disneyland. There was an extra spiral in the middle that left your stomach in your throat for a few seconds.

Our next ride was the 'Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. This was a relatively new ride and been hyped up quite a bit over the past couple years. It was okay but it was much like 'Big Thunder'.

By now we were pretty hungry so we went our separate ways for food. There are only a couple items at each restaurant so we had to go to three different ones to all get what we wanted. Callie and I met up with Kerry and Carter at 'Splash Mountain'. We know Callie would love this but unfortunately couldn't convince her. Maybe later this week.

Even though it's about a 20 minute ride back to our hotel we figured we were too tired to keep going and it would be better if we headed back to the pool for a dip and a nap. Callie wanted to hit all three pools including the Cars pool where they got a 'Cozy Cone Cabana'. I took a nap and met up with them just as they were heading to the second pool. In hindsight perhaps it was a bad idea to be out in the sun for so long but I'll talk about that tomorrow.

We headed back to the park around 6:00p and went straight to the Teacups. Definitely not my favourite ride. Too much spinning. I held the centre wheel the whole time for the least amount of spinning. This one is covered since they get more rain here than at Disneyland. It was definitely a different experience. After that we headed over to Dumbo. There is a lot more space at Disney World so they have two of them. There was still a bit of a wait and when we got on we went about 10 times around before we were stuck at the top for about a minute. They had to get us all off the ride to reset it.

We had a quick dinner of chicken nuggets and waffle fries before going into the 'Tiki Room'. We knew Callie would love this one and we were right. We'll be hearing "In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki room...." for weeks. We also tried out Pirates of the Caribbean. The inside was similar but the line up was very different with it being inside the whole way. Our final destination was going to the the 'People Movers' but we got stuck by the 'Electrical Parade' and decided we would head out before the fireworks were over. Our first day felt very long and we were ready for bed.

Disney World - Travelling Across a Continent

The trip to Disneyland is about four hours and you stay in the same time zone. The trip to Disney World is much longer and you lose three hours as you cross the continent. To top things off we lost an extra hour the day before to Day Light Savings. Our day was intended to start at around 3:30a but instead Carter called out to us around 2:15a indicating he was tired of waiting and wanted to wake up. I fell back asleep but I think Kerry stayed up till her alarm went off. We were all packed so we were able to get out the door around 4:00a. Groggy but excited.

After a two hour drive we arrived in Seattle where we parked our car and hopped on the shuttle to the airport. This is where our first travel mistake happened when I left my phone in the car. We had some time to spare so I took the shuttle back, grabbed it and then met up with Kerry and the kids at the airport. Our second destination was Milwaukee. Can't say much about it since our lay over was only about an hour. We were worried that it was in snow country because any delays and we would miss our next flight.

Things worked out nicely however and we were in the air and on our way to Orlando. We flew Southwest the whole way which was a new experience because you don't have assigned seats. You board in groups based on when you checked in or in our case because Kerry paid an extra $10 per ticket to be in the first group. This worked out very well for our second flight because the plane was only half full. Carter and I took one row of three and Kerry and Callie took another row of three. Very nice having the extra room.

We arrived in our hotel to check in around 10:30p local time which was only 6:30p pre-daylight savings time on the west coast. (It's been very confusing trying to figure out what time it is.) Check in was somewhat slow but Carter, Callie and I passed the time by looking for Hidden Mickey's. Disney resorts tend to have the big eared mouse hidden in the architecture. Carter was the first to find one hidden in the doodles on one of the chairs. The hotel is called Art of Animation and there are doodles everywhere.

The hotel was one of the cheapest of the Disney hotels but it's only two years old so it's still very nice. The main issue with going with cheapest is distance. We're in the farthest resort, in the farthest building, in one of the farthest rooms from the front desk. It's probably a 1/2 km walk to our Arial building which is well marked with a 25 foot tall statue of her. Everything is clean and we're right near the pool so nothing else to complain about. We tried to go to sleep right away but took a while with the time change. We need to get up early tomorrow for our first day at the Magic Kingdom.

An Early Spring Garden

While the East coast has been socked in with record snow falls and cold weather, the rest of Canada and apparently the world have seen a different picture. In early February I was able to get out and get some gardening done. The lawn was already a foot high in some places so I had to get it cut. The garden was dry enough and warm enough to get tilled and prepped for planting. (I wasn't dumb enough to try to actually plant since there is definitely still a chance of frost in February.) All beds are cleaned and ready for the perennials to get a good start on the year.

It was also perfect timing for cleaning up the raspberries. I always clean out the old canes in the fall but the trellis I had keeping things up had seen better days and was always intended to be temporary. There was also a raised planter bed to the right of the strawberries that was rotted out and was more raspberries than strawberries anyways. I installed two 4x4 posts and strung string in between. I went with string for now but I think I'll replace with wire in the fall as it will be more stable and less stretchy. The canes to the left were transplanted from the raised bed. I should have an excellent crop this year.

Sledding at Seymour

In January we went with the cousins up to Seymour Mountain. Seymour is one of the three local ski hills and Kerry and I had never been though we heard it had excellent sledding. When we first arrived I was a bit disappointed. It had been a bad year for snow so far and as far as I could tell there was just two very short hills with long line ups that seemed designed for three and four year-old's. From what people had told me I was expecting some great sledding but even the tube park was closed. We went on the small hills for a few runs and then realized most people were walking in a different direction.

We looked up and there it was. Four very long hills with hundreds of people looking like they were having a lot of fun. I blame the fog but at least we found the good hills. I would have been very upset had we figured this out after we left. The kids went at least a half dozen times and would have gone more but it was nearing the end of the day. Callie had lot's of fun going in the bigger sled with Ryan. Even the big kids took a few runs with no injuries. We never got a chance to back again with the slow fall for 2015 but we will definitely go back next year.