Howdy from Grants Pass my fellow Oregonian! I’m jumping in here late and had some serious catching up to do. And I do not expect you to do a detailed reply as I am covering a lot of ground based on your musings.
Yup, never use pen for trip planning, a trip is a living thing that has demands and its own life. To a certain extent you just have to roll with it.
And family emergencies, especially mom-related ones are BIG ones! Glad you were able to make it work and visit her and help out. My DW surprised me with a “grown-up” birthday trip back in 2011 to WDW/Universal and while we were there her mom aspirated into her lungs and got double pneumonia. We had family there taking care of her and insisted they had things in hand. And the next day we got a call that our 13 year old daughter had slipped, fell, and ended up with a concussion. Talk about trip guilt!
We feel you on the early wake-ups for trips. Depending on flight deals we either trek up to PDX the day before or fly out of MFR and do the park and fly option as you do with a 4am wake-up at the hotel. But if it is MFR it means a 3am wake-up for us and a drive from GP. Ugh, PDX rush hour bites! OMG! I think we stayed at that same Ramada!!! Same experience and had to park in that back lot. Similar experience stem to stern including Pizza Hut, except we ordered pizza.
Sorry to hear that Hemet has turned that way. I has similar fond memories of Tucson, where I could also ride my bike everywhere and despite a large racial and religious cross-section I never had any issues. It is now a very different place too. I looked up my old house on Google Maps street view and ours and every house on the block now has bars on all the windows and security gates on the doors.
Huzzah for a fellow lead foot! Glad you got to enjoy the ride without getting caught in triple digits. I am a fellow tomato juice drinker on planes, but yes – unless you can swing some cheap e-bay in-flight drink vouchers the bloody mary is out.
Oh yes! Crazy wet winter here this past year. Beauty shots of your valley down there, spring time is really showing thru. Nice tidbits from your past.
Nice Disney tie-in with the airport, Disney magic is everywhere! Yay for a great family gathering. And glad you noticed the missing DSLR before you got too far away. What an adventure dropping off the car. Glad the fireside lounge was still open, despite the lack of complementary drinks.
Nice undexpected DISFriend encounter and ride to the park. Yes, I would like to see those side-by-side photos in front of the flower cart. It sounds like an amazing family & Disney memory (thank you for posting it later on). Nice tour of Fantasyland, cool pics! That’s the first time you’ve been evacuated from a ride? Either you’ve been very lucky or I’ve been unlucky.
LOVED the $ixbucks rant
Yay for meeting up with old friends AND having one in the group who knew how to navigate the crowds & get those rides in! Nice beignet eating methodology. Yes, Dole Whips are just what’s done – and I see you were smart to get them from the inside counter. You all are indeed a grand looking trio.
Cars Land is epic, so cool that you went in the back way. It is a marvel. Sounds like a great experience/rides thru that part of the day. People watching is always an experience there with the meltdown and such.
Awesome that you all made it in to the 1901 Lounge. I’m hoping we can make some time for it ourselves. Art Deco is such a great aesthetic. I want to take the Disney Dream on a cruise with my DW for our 25th anniversary specifically because I want to experience all that Art Deco! I mean wow:
(photo credit Tobi Fairley)
We are doing a pub crawl of sorts for our DD’s 21st late birthday celebration at the end of November and will be hitting the Carthay Circle Lounge as our 3rd stop so we’ll be close to 1901. The food and drinks look amazing! Sorry about the drink tip over, everyone has been on those shoes before. Bummer that it wiped out the memorabilia pilfering though.
I love the Disney Musicians too and always stop to listen, even if it means getting left behind by my fam.
I’m kind of burnt out on IllumiNations and we skipped it despite being at EPCOT two different evenings on our last trip.
WHOOHOO – Made it to the half-way point page-wise!
Cute goats :-]
Oh NOOOO! Missing camera bag is about the worst. I have about the same amount invested in lenses and accessories for my DSLR so I can only imagine the panic.
Wow, that Alamo customer service rep giving you the number back to the main queue, that’s just evil
So glad that it was still at the Alamo lot. And that despite all the run-around and delays you still made you DISMeet.
Congrats to you oldest son and his wife for the baby on the way! And yes, some of those postings overseas can be a bear. At least he is at one that allows spouses to be there. Congrats to you on your new “hat”! And also congrats on the permanent PT position with the pay raise and bennies.
Club 33??? Well done you! Thank you for the tour and I can understand feeling self-conscious about taking pictures. Very cool that it originally opened in the month/year that you were born! You’ve got me by just under two years – I was born 3 months before the moon landing in ’69. Good meal choices and yay for cheese plate with your wine, always a winner. Epic choices to get on the way out too.
Yay for more street performers and I LOVE the corn dog pic! I may steal that one for our trip. Great fireworks shots (bummer about it stopping early) but still not getting how an Oregonian can be that cold down there, you gotta represent better
Thanks for the tip on the Tangerine Café, we love good diner food. Great family reminiscing and Disney stories. I was only there once as a youngster but I too remember the Skyway and Adventure Thur Inner Space. That is HILARIOUS that you left your camera kit behind again, you get a double thumbs-up for that one
Nice job finding some of those Easter Eggs the day before the hunt.
Well too bad your DISBuds were having issues at home, but score on getting extra Trader Sam’s time. That will be the first stop on our little pub crawl!
Big Kudos to you and the others in your team (including your daughter) for undertaking the journey to Sierra Leone to provide medical assistance. That is awesome! I’m guessing the background on your SIL’s situation is in your other TR. For now I’ll just say that I’m happy to hear that he is making progress. I have seen people come back from some big injuries and a spinal fracture is certainly a big one. Sending prayers and good mojo his way
Nice progress on getting ready for your Africa trip and working thru Flight School. Dapper Days aye? Well I’m officially jealous! Still haven’t managed to swing one of those.
The leisure time outside of the
Disneyland hotel sounded very nice. I’m glad your group was able to swing a table in such a short time. I home no extreme hovering was involved. Great pics of the gang!
Huzzah for Orange Bird! I’ll have to look for him when we are there.
Whew, all caught up! Keep this thing rolling, it has been a blast so far