Boooooooo sickness

Hi,

We're back home. This whole blogging daily idea didn't pan out as well as I'd hoped... remember how I said I felt as though I was catching Jared's cold? Well, multiply it by about a thousand and you'll have an idea of what I've had to deal with. This is probably the worst cold I've ever had, been without voice for 4 days, flying on the plane last night was a real treat. Anyway, being sick caused me to want to do nothing after getting back to our room but go to bed, so apologies for not blogging past Saturday. I will post plenty more photos and outline the rest of our trip tomorrow. At least if you have to be sick, you maight as well be sick at Disney World, right?

Days 2 and 3

Hi there,

Sorry for the delay in posting. Between only having Internet for 24 hours at a time, late nights at the parks, and major technicaal difficulties, this daily blog idea isn't exactly what I had hoped, but better late than never. I had this post all ready and then lost it when uploading a video, so no more of those.

Anyway, we spent Thursday at Epcot. We rode Test Track, Mission Space, and Soarin', the last two of which Jared had never been on but really enjoyed. Good thing for Fastpass- the lines for Soarin' were over an hour all day long. We had lunch at the Coral Reef, where they had an amazing chocolate dessert, and then took a behind the "Seeds" tour at the Land (photos) where we got to see all the different and "unique' ways Epcot is growing food (our tour guide said unique about 500 times). We spent some time with Nemo and his friends at the Living Seas, and after that we traveled back in time aboard Spaceship Earth and the Universe of Energy. We had dinner with Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale at the Garden Grill, and then hopped over to the Studios to catch a nighttime showing of Fantasmic. This was the video yesterday that lost me my post, so you'll have to do with still pictures instead :o).

We spent yesterday at the Disney studios, formerly known as MGM. We started our day with breakfaast at the Polynesian resort at 'Ohana with Lilo and Stitch. Unfortunately Jared is fighting a cold, so he didn't try out for the American Idol show they have here. When we got to the Studios, we immediately goot fastpasses for Toy Story Mania, and it's a good thing since at 10am they were already giving out for 5pm! (note, they've moved the lockers at the Studios as well). The studios had star Wars charcters all over for Star Wars weekend. We visited the Muppets at Muppet Vision 3D, and then took a flight to the moon of Endor on Star Tours. We had lunch at one off my favorites, Sci Fi Theater, where yyou sit in a 1950s drive in at cars and watch all sorts of B-movie trailers. After lunch we went on the Great Movie Ride and saw the Indiana Jones Show. We alos saw the always good Beauty and the Beast show, and then finally got to ride Toy Story- my new favorite ride! You wera 3D glasses and shoot at various targets all over the screen and earn points. Hard to explain, but tons of fun and a must do whenever you come here. We picked up our rental car after that and drove back, and then did the Backlot tour before dinner. I think the backlot tour used to be much better than it is now. We hadd dinner at the 50s Prime Time Cafe, but unfortunately had a very boring waiter who wasn't into playing his part. Anyone who has eaten here knows that your waiteer can make or break your experience. By this time we were tired and were planning on getting up very early, so we came back to the hotel to try and get some sleep before getting up to drive to the space shuttle launch...

... only to find out that it was scrubbed at 3 this morning. we woke up at 4:30 to drive over and a toll taker told us it had been canceled due to a leak in a tank. If only we had known sooner, so we turned around, dropped off the car and camee back to the hotel to sleep in a bit. But now I think I'll wake up Jared so we can figure out the rest of our day. I'll post tomorrow about the rest of today and tomorrow.

Oh, Nikki and Alan, you'll be happy to know I got a new hat.

We're here!

Hi! We made it! We arrived safely yesterday in Orlando. Our flight was roughly 30 minutes early. We checked in at our shuttle bus and were on our way (see photo). Last night we had some loud people outside our room around 3am, but other than that no news or highlights.

This morning we woke up and checked out of our first room and re-checked in to our second, thankfully one with a king size bed. Double beds seem tiny now. We dropped our bags off at the bell desk and went off to the Magic Kingdom. A note to my Disney regulars- they've switched around the locker and stoller rental locations. We grabbed breakfast at the Main Street Bakery, and then we got Fast Passes for Splash Mountain and then stood in line for Big Thunder Mountain. We waited about 40 minutes for that one, about my line limit. We then saw the Country Bear Jamboree, and after that nosed around a few shops before we walked back over to Splash. Jared seems to be a fan of Big Al from the Country Bears. We got on Splash with about a 30 second wait (Fast Pass is wonderful!) and bought a picture of our drop.

We had lunch at The Plaza, one of my favorites. As we sat, we sang three rounds of "Happy Birthday" to various guests. I'll have to remember to wear my birthday button on Tuesday and see what happens to me! A couple of the Main Street "resident" characters came in and led one of the rounds (see photos). After lunch we hopped on the Jungle Cruise and Swiss Family Treehouse (see photos of our view from the treehouse). We browsed some Adventureland shops and visited The Enchanted Tiki Room before we caught the afternoon parade (video, hopefully it loaded). Not bad, but not as good as others they've had in the past. As far as the Tiki Room, I still think the original version is heads above this version, but anyway. Then we boarded Pirates of the Caribbean after the parade (see Jared as Captain Jack), and then made our way across Adventureland and Frontierland to Liberty Square and visited the 999 Happy Haunts of The Haunted Mansion. We then began making our way around Fantasyland and hit Small World, Mickey's Philharmagic, Snow White, and a few more shops. Jared pointed out that North America really isn't represented in Small World, and I thought about it- Mexico and Hawaii get the only billing. The rest of the USA and Canada don't rate I guess.

By this time, we figured we should probably start heading towards the bus for dinner, so we made our way back down Main Street and began browsing those shops to scope out the merchandise. I've got my eye on a few things. We waited awhile for the bus to Wilderness Lodge, but made it in time for our reservation at Artist Point. REALLY good food here. Jared had buffalo and I had some really good salmon. I'd definitely go back. When we finished dinner we went back to the park, grabbed our bag from the locker, flew with Peter Pan since we had a Fastpass, and then turned around and got back to our hotel and our new room. We're in the Football themed building at All Star Sports.

Overall, a very fun day. Hot, yes, humid, yes, but we're drinking lots of water and wearing the sunscreen. I can't get over the people wearing long sleeves and heavy clothes, yuck. BUT IT DIDN'T RAIN AT ALL, YAY! People were very annoying with the flash picures today in the rides where it was clearly prohibited. I really hate that, and people just don't think the rule applies to them. Hopefully this doesn't continue, but it probably will, as it always does.

Anyway, tired now, so hopefully we can post again tomorrow :o)

Leaving tomorrow!

Yay! We leave tomorrow for our long-anticipated Disney World trip. Our flight leaves O'Hare at 6:20pm tomorrow, getting in to Orlando at 10pm eastern time. We'll then hop the bus from the airport to Disney and be on our way! Magic Kingdom bright and early Wednesday morning; We'll update you Wednesday night!

practice

ok, i'm attempting to practice uploading a few photos so i know what to do next week. these are photos from a protest my mom and i went to yesterday at WGN radio studios to protest the cancellation of Kathy and Judy. Enjoy!

T-minus 8 days and new poll ------>

Getting really excited! I'll attempt practice pictures tomorrow or Wednesday!