Tuesday, December 31, 2019

THE DR. SEUSS EXPERIENCE

I was looking forward to this!
Rob and I were on vacation the first week of the month. We stayed close to home, but did do a couple day trips. He agreed to check out The Dr. Seuss Experience with me, and was even more surprised when one of his school friends, Tariq, wanted to join us.

When we were driving there Rob said, "It isn't going to be hoakey is it?" Duh, of course it was, and I loved it! Please enjoy a few of our not so good pics. (the lighting was crazy in every room)

Taking it in.

Swinging in the Truffula Trees!
My favorite story.
Listen.....
The Lorax is speaking to me!
In the "Cat in the Hat" room.
You could interact with him, and he was very funny!
This was my favorite room.
Wocket in the sink!
Wockets on and under the table.
Wockets were everywhere!
Loved the clover!
Hiding in the clover!
Tariq captured this cool picture of the clover.
Can you hear me?
Rob and Tariq fishing for gifts for the folks of "Whoville".
I was disappointed we didn't get to meet the Grinch.
Sneetches as far as the eye could see!
Balloon maze. 
It's fun to indulge your inner child, and we all enjoyed it, followed by dinner afterwards.

Monday, December 30, 2019

DELUXE DISNEY WEEK ~ OCTOBER 20 - 27

We're here!!!
My friend, Patricia and I spent October 20th to 27th in the magical world of Walt Disney. This trip had been 5 years in the making. Lots of planning, saving, one cancellation, and worry about new health issues almost had me cancel again. BUT, the trip did happen, and it was worth the wait.

This trip was celebrate two things; her retirement and my 50th birthday, so we did Disney Deluxe this time around. Stayed at a deluxe Disney property, and did the deluxe Disney dining plan. It's taken me forever to get around to doing this blog, because we also purchased "memory maker", and I have hundreds of photos to go through. But I wanted to get the blog posted before the year ends, so will only be sharing a photo or two of each day with a recap of what we did that day.

One of my favorite memory maker photos!
Sunday, October 20th- This was travel day. I flew down from Toronto, and Pat and Greg drove from Fort Lauderdale where they had docked from a two week cruise. Pat met me at the airport so we could take the "magic bus" together to our hotel, Disney Wilderness Lodge. Greg joined us there later for a drink before heading back to the airport to fly home to Toronto. 

As we didn't arrive at the hotel til mid afternoon we had no plans to visit a park. Instead, we checked out the lodge and had reservations for a character meal onsite. "Story Book Dining at Artist Point with Snow White". A delicious 3 course dinner served in a fairy tale setting. You meet Snow White, Grumpy and Dopey, but the star of this character meal is the "Evil Queen".

You get summoned to meet her, and she is a character from the get go! She was so wicked and so much fun!  We chatted for quite a while. It was a great dinner to kick start our trip.

She liked my tee, which I wore just for her. 
Monday, October 21st- We had breakfast plans at Magic Kingdom with Winnie the Pooh and his friends at "Crystal Palace". We have done this character meal before, but it is one of my favs. Unfortunately after breakfast I wasn't feeling the greatest and we left the park earlier then planned.

Pat and I with our ole pal Tigger!
Tuesday, October 22nd- This was a planned "resort day", which worked out great, as it was super hot that day. I was feeling better but it was nice to have a slower key day to recover more. We had a swim in the pool, enjoyed a couple of the great restaurants at the lodge. And just took advantage of our beautiful surroundings.

These fab chairs are in the lobby and we enjoyed a few drinks and people watching here. We loved it when others joined us!
Wednesday, October 23rd- I'm feeling better, but unfortunately Pat is dealing with a cold, but she was a trooper, and didn't let it her slow her down. Today we headed to Animal Kingdom, and we had a pretty full day here. Started with "Donald Duck's Safari breakfast at Tusker House Restaurant." We took in a couple shows at the park; "UP! A great bird Adventure" and "The Lion King". It was my first time seeing the bird show, and Pat's seeing The Lion King. We both enjoyed both shows immensely. I also had a HUGE surprise while talking to one of the bird handlers after the show. I mentioned someone I knew who use to work there 5 years earlier, but now did something else in the company, and by total fluke she just happened to be there and I got to see her!

Shaking my tail feathers with Donald Duck at breakfast!
 
Seriously, this was so much fun!
What a surprise it was to get to see Amy!
I also got VERY EXCITED when we found Scrooge McDuck doing photo ops in the park. It was my first time meeting him. 
It was also my first time seeing "Pandora - The World of Avatar." I had recently watched the movie so everything was still fresh in my mind. We each went on a ride, Pat went on "Avatar Flight of Passage" and I went on the calmer "Na'vi River Journey", which was beautiful.  We went to "Tiffins Restaurant" for a signature dining experience before returning back to the Land of Pandora. This area is visually stunning during the day, but at night it's breathtaking.

Pandora - The World of Avatar 

This picture does not do the beauty justice. 
Pandora was so pretty at night.
Thursday, October 24th- Today we had tickets to go to "Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween Party", so we had a relaxing morning at the resort before heading back to Magic Kingdom. One of the great things about doing the deluxe dining plan is that you have enough dining credits to treat yourself to room service a few times, like we did this morning.

The party didn't start until 7pm, but you are allowed in the park at 4pm. I had scored us dinner reservations for dinner in Beast's castle. The three course dinner was very good, but meeting Beast was an absolute highlight of the trip for me, and one of my favorite character meet and greets ever.

Before going into the castle for dinner. I love memory maker!
You are suppose to go meet him after you are done your dinner, BUT, his study was so close to our table, I couldn't help myself, we were the first to meet him this night! I giggled like a school girl when I laid eyes on him!

I love him! 
 
He was awesome!
I also have to mention our waiter. He embodied "Lumiere" from the movie, and every time he came to our table I giggled. He was great.

Our fabulous waiter at Beast's castle.
After a fun and delicious dinner, it was time to check out the party. Both Pat and I have attended the Disney Christmas Parties, and we both prefer them over this one. Don't get me wrong. We enjoyed the parade, the shows, and did a little trick or treating, but the Halloween party just didn't have the same spark for us like the Christmas one.

Arriving at the party.

The castle decked out for Halloween.
 Friday, October 25th- Today we were off to Disney's Hollywood Studios.  We walked through the very new, colorful and packed "Toy Story Land". before seeing the "Beauty and the Beast" show, which I hadn't seen since the my first visit in 2010, so it was great to see it again. We had a delicious Italian dinner at "Mamma Melrose's" before the much anticipated visit to "Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge."
We just did a walk through here, very busy.
My husband as never expressed any interest in visiting any Disney park before, which is why I always go with friends. I am happy to say, after seeing my videos and pictures of  "Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge", my next trip to Disney will be with my hubby!  It's hard to find the words to describe this park...it's like walking into the movie. If you have visited the Harry Potter Parks at Universal, it's like that, only Star Wars.

In front of the Millennium Falcon.

The Storm Troopers walking around gave Pat and I a good scare at one point! 
Saturday, October 26th- Today we visited my favorite park, Epcot. Unfortunately I didn't realize that the "Food and Wine Festival" was going on when I planned our itinerary to visit here on a Saturday. The world pavilion was jam packed, and we didn't get to enjoy it like we would of if the event wasn't going on.

Still, we had some great moments. Our day started at "Garden Grill", where we had lunch with Chip and Dale, Mickey, and Pluto! After lunch we went on the ride "Soarin". Now this was a HUGE deal for me. I don't do well on rides, I easily get extreme motion sickness, and have to be careful what rides I go on. The last time I was there, in 2014, with my cousin Andi, I was in the seat of this ride, but chickened out at the last minute and left. With support and encouragement from Pat, I stayed on this time and loved it!! She was able to compare it to other rides we'd been on together and that really helped. I was so proud of myself!

I did it!!
We also met quite a few characters during our day, but two really stood out for me. Olaf,  and then later on, Donald Duck at the Mexican Pavilion! I had wanted to meet them on my last trip, but it didn't happen, so I was thrilled to see them this time around. Poor Pat, I was always dragging her somewhere to get her photo with one character or another! LOL!!!

Ole!

He gave us each a warm hug. 
 Sunday, October 27th- Time to head home. But not before a trip to Disney Springs for some shopping and a fabulous meal at "Paddlefish". It was the perfect ending to a once in a lifetime fabulous trip. 

Lunch is served!

My favorite picture from our trip, sums it up perfectly.  





Saturday, October 19, 2019

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND WALK

This picture looks like a painting to me. 
I have woken Rob up at 3am to go looking for Snowy Owls. I get him out of bed in the middle of the night to look at the moon or try to find shooting stars. Luckily for me, he always obliges my quirky requests. So last weekend when I woke up early and asked in the dark if he wanted to get up for an early morning nature walk, I knew he would.

I love Fall, and I could feel it's arrival last weekend. I wanted to be out as the sun was rising and enjoy the fresh, crisp Fall air. We went to our regular Sunday morning nature walk spot, and it wasn't hard to notice that Mother Nature was putting on a colourful display before her Winter slumber.

Click on the photos to enlarge them.
The ground was covered in frost as we arrived.
I liked the shadow effect here.
The Sumac turns such a lovely red.
Rob picking apples for our furry backyard friends.
Such a peaceful place.  
This picture does not do this beautiful tree justice.  
I walk here is always a great start to our Sunday.
For the first time, I can honestly say I took all the photos in this blog. I was testing out a little Nikon camera Rob's Dad gave us. It's smaller then a cell phone, but take lovely pics!