Vacation - Day 2: Epcot and a LOT of Rain

My mom and I woke up and headed to breakfast at Kona. The trip we were on provided us with free breakfast at any of the restaurants in the Polynesian. We'd talked to people at dinner the night before about the restaurants. They suggested avoiding the Cook's place in our hotel. (We were going to be having a character breakfast at Ohana on Day 3.) I decided to get the banana stuffed french toast for breakfast. Um, clearly should have asked to see a picture of that before ordering. It was about six pieces of toast, along with the bananas somewhere inside. And it came with strawberry syrup. And a side of bacon. It was massive and literally looked like half a loaf. The guy sitting next to me said he was "going to get that, but decided it was too big." I looked at the hellacious meat platter (bacon, sausage, ham, etc.) he was eating. His platter also included toast and eggs. I wish I'd taken a picture. I finished maybe half of my french toast before giving up since I didn't want to be sick later.

After breakfast we went downstairs to buy Mom a ticket to Epcot. I'd done volunteer work so my ticket was free. :) And then we boarded the tram to make the trek. After arriving I got not only a ticket but a supercool Miss Piggy button. I adored Miss Piggy when I was about 3. And I was amazed that people kept thanking me for volunteering and asking me what I volunteer work I had done.

We started out on some random ride that I was so not impressed with, I didn't bother to remember the name. My mom liked it. People had been mentioning Test Trak, so I wanted to try it. Mom refused. It was a lot of fun - fast moving.

We checked out a few other rides, went to ride Soarin which was A-MAZ-ING!!! It's a tour of California where you feel like you're there - sights, smells, rushing through the areas. Unreal! Then we checked out Honey I Shrunk the Audience before I was really hungry. It had begun to rain, someone steadily so we picked up some fashionable Disney ponchos.

Mom and me in our trendy ponchos

Next we took off toward the world area of Epcot in search of a meal. My mom prefers to sit down to eat. We stopped in at British Pub - that had a 15 minute wait. Nope, mom didn't want to wait that long. Let's go back to that restaurant in Canada. By now it's POURING! We get back there, they're booked for the rest of the day. I made the executive decision that we were going back to the other place because if I didn't eat soon, I'd be gnawing off my arm - it was almost 3 p.m.

Lunch was fantastic - I had some shepard's pie type meal, and we were sitting by a small lake that overlooked all the other countries. Our waitress had been on the cruise we were heading out on the next day, so she offered suggestions. By the time we were done eating - the rain had subsided. So we wondered around and checked out all the countries and worked off lunch. It began to rain again around Norway, and we managed to find another ride just in time. :)

After all that, we stopped in a store, picked up some gifts for the kids and headed back to the hotel. Since we ate lunch so late, we decided to just do some appetizers at the Polynesian bar for dinner. My mom doesn't drink much anymore, so I asked if she was going to get anything to drink. "Yes, a daquiri." That sounded reasonable as I thumbed through the drink book. She continued, "And if they don't have that, a whiskey sour." Wow, go big or go home. I was fairly confident they'd have the daquiri. Which was good, since I couldn't carry my mom back to our room. The bartender also provided some cruise related tips. Apparently everyone has been on a Disney cruise. And with that we headed back out into the rain to trek back to our room.

Viking helmut I made mom try on, she was less than enthusiastic.

Vacation - Day One

Definitely a bit late on this, but I'm going to back up and post about the vacation.

The trip to Florida was entertaining. My mom had not been on a plane in 45 years. Needless to say, things have changed slightly and I'd done my best to prep her for air travel. Easy on/off shoes. Nothing scary in the carry on, etc. Um, she was pulled aside to be searched and her purse had to be searched too. We were insanely early to the DSM airport. After boarding the plane we sat at the jetbridge for an eternity. Eventually the captain told us there was something wrong with the plane and we had to de-board so they could fix it. Looking at the clock, the odds of us making our connection in STL - slim. Once the plane was fixed we were off and running, only half an hour late. Lucky for us, there were 16 people transferring from our flight to the Orlando flight so they held the plane. An added bonus - the connecting flight was closeby in St Louis.

Arriving in Orlando, we were thrilled to find out that our luggage even made the flight. Woo Hoo!!! The travel agency transferred us to the hotel, where we checked in with the Polynesian hotel and then had to check in with travel agency and cruise line. Which would have been awesome, if I had the paperwork that was in the baggage below the bus. So once that was delivered I completed our check in and took a nap. After my mom told me she had decided to leave her cigarrettes at home (in an attempt to drive me crazy) she announced she was going for a walk. The idea of my mom not bringing cigarrettes along in theory is great. I would love for her to quit, but I knew we'd get on each other's nerves easily and her not smoking would not help.

photo of the Grand Floridain

After my nap, it was time to get ready for dinner which was being held on the beach at the Grand Floridian. Dinner was a pirate themed event. Some of the stuff included: pirate band, temporary tatoos for everyone, pirate moustaches. face painting, pirate gear for the kids, appearances by Mickey and Minnie. Due to the fact that I don't talk about work here, I won't be mentioning the people that were there. I liked all of them very much, but I don't want to get into any of that stuff. The food and drinks were great. Afterward, my mom and I headed back to the room to catch the fireworks and call it a night.

fireworks from our room

Progress

I'm about six weeks into the 30 day shred. I will admit that I have not been doing it every day because my knee and I do not agree about doing it every day. But I've still managed to make progress. I'm down 3 pounds. Which I'm happy with, it puts me back into a healthy BMI range. Still two more pounds to go there. And, I've lost 14.5 inches. And a good chunk of that has come off of my waist which apparently is a good thing according to Dr. Oz. (I DVR Oprah.) Apparently the measurement around your belly button should be less than half your height. I have about three inches to go there. But I'm much closer than the original 7.5 inches that I was trying to lose there. I'm also starting to get to the point where I'm between sizes. It doesn't make a ton of sense to me - but I bought a pair of jeans yesterday and they're almost too big. So I'm probably going to need to get them altered. Or try to shrink them in the dryer. I think I'd rather get them altered as option B doesn't always end well.

And I tried sushi for the first time last night. I didn't hate it. I didn't love it. It was there. It's one of those things that if people say, "We're going for sushi, do you want to come?" I'll go, but I'm probably not going to get it to go on my own. Our waiter was hilarious and the mai-tai martinis were great.

Lent 2010

So Lent starts tomorrow.  I have never claimed to be a "good Catholic," nor will I be winning any awards for my churchgoing habits anytime soon. But every year I give something up for Lent. Last year I gave up chocolate. If you know me well, you'd know that chocolate used to be a food group for me. I survived the entire Lent without chocolate, even during Barstool Open when everyone returned rom the bar to Eric's house and was chomping down on Girl Scout cookies - I ate a few Lemonade cookies. These are kind of gross, by the way. And I like lemon flavored things - well I like lemons. But nowadays, I don't keep a constant stash of chocolate candy in my house, which is good.

Which brings me to Lent 2010. What am I giving up this year? Coffee, lattes and all associated drinks. Yup. I know the first few days will be hell. The caffiene headaches are never fun, but I figure I'll do what I did when I gave up drinking pop four and a half years ago, replace it with water. Luckily, when I was drinking pop it was some insane amount like 50 ounces a day. I drink 16 ounces of coffee related beverages a day. Much easier to replace with water. Thank goodness since I live in my car.

2010 To Do list

I was heading down I-29 today enjoying the scenic drive. Really, there's the Loess Hills, so it's somewhat scenic, when I realized, I've never been here. So since I still had about an hour left of my drive, I thought about other things I wanted to accomplish this year. Not New Year's Resolutions, more, a "I've lived in Nebraska for Three Years, I should have...."


1. Hiked the Loess Hills
2. Completed more work on my family history project in Sioux City.
3. Visited Dixie Quick's and  Cali Taco(both have been on Diner's Drive-Ins and Dives. There are three or four other places that were on the show too. I've been to one. I'll get to the others at some point.) Dixie Quick's requires reservations and Cali Taco is a going during the daytime kinda place.
4. Hit up a fish fry or two or three. Lent fish frys in Omaha are legendary. Seriously. Some of them even involve "tailgating" for lack of a better term. Bring your own beer and drink while you wait for a few blocks. They all serve beer.
5. Watched the CWS at Rosenblatt. Not even an option, this has to happen this year at it's moving downtown.
6. Attended a Mavs Hockey game (might have to wait until the season starts again in the fall). My friend, Jason, who was a hockey fanatic in MI even told me that the UNO hockey games were great, he played against them.
7. Visited the Mt. Fuji Inn.

I might add more later.

Jersey Shores....

Everyone and their mom goes on and on about how this show is great. I watched about two minutes of it awhile back and couldn't take it, so I moved on. A few weeks back, a friend again posted on facebook, that she was watching a marathon, so I decided to DVR an episode. I finally sat down to watch it. Yup, still not into it. I thought maybe it would be like Zoolander where I literally turned the TV off at first. And now I can watch this movie whenever I pass by it on cable. Nope, not the case. A duck phone, really? Is it 1984? I kept looking for Rick Schroeder to appear, grab it and head back to Silver Spoons. (I have no clue why I remember that he had a duck phone.) I didn't really find any of the characters likable. More annoying and whiny. Clearly, I'm getting old. I'll stick to some other reality shows instead, like Biggest Loser or Amazing Race.

Two weeks, two weeks, two weeks.

I am so excited that my vacation is coming up in two weeks. Work is stressing me out lately. I feel like winter is neverending. The daily snowfall isn't helping. It's cold and I have a stupid sinus infection. Okay, enough complaining....

I leave for vacation on Tuesday, February 23rd. We're going to spend two days in Disney World at the Polynesian Resort and then we're off for a three day cruise to the Bahamas!! Half of the meals are included in the cost of the trip. I did volunteer work, so I get into Disney World for free. Woot! Warm weather!!! Sunshine! Temps in Orlando should at least be in the upper 60s. And in the Bahamas it should be in the 70s. Can't. Wait.

As if that wasn't awesome enough, it gets better.

Today, I went to the orthodontist and had my permanent bottom retainer put it. It attaches to my lower canine teeth on the inside. Clearly, I'm nearing the finish line. I get my braces off on Monday, February 22nd!! Just in time for vacation.  I am beyond thrilled.