And a Universal Trip Too

I know it seems insane to talk about something other than Taylor and Travis today... but here we are. 

I don't think I mentioned on here before but maybe I have, but this spring I officially signed with a travel agency. It's obviously just a part-time thing, but it's been a lot of fun so far. 

Where do you want to go? I can help you with that! Seriously. 

But my focus is Disney because I love it. Over yonder by Disney is another set of places called Universal, and last week I went to a special TA training to fall in love with those parks.

Orlando twice in a month? Who am I? It was AMAZING and I am seriously contemplating a move. 

Our welcome dinner was at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. And, okay, obviously, their margarita should be good but it was no lie the best one I have ever had. 

I had a great day of training, including hotel tours. Which my geeky self found delightful. 

I enjoyed a Butterbeer at Hogwarts.

I met the Minions. 

And truly overall, I learned so so much. I am still very much a Disney girl, but I have always loved Harry Potter, so it was nice to learn what I needed to make a Universal Trip better for my clients. 

I am so thankful to Universal for having me, and I am glad for the experience! It will absolutely help me! 

A Last Hurrah!

On Saturday, as our last hurrah before school started we had a pretty chill day. Went to Mass and then to see Freakier Friday. 

To be clear, I was the exact audience intended for this movie. Because I love the 2003 Freaky Friday. I saw it in the theatre. Still even now, when I watch it, I will absolutely cry. 

So a sequel and I was completely in. It took us a bit to get to the theatre because of my Disney trip and other things I haven't even blogged about yet. 

But nevertheless... Freakier Friday was a 10/10 no notes movie for me. I loved every stinking second, and I am just dying to watch it again. It was funny. It was throwback. It had so many Easter Eggs. (Their wedding was OCTOBER 3rd!!!) It still made me cry. Simply delightful. 

It was the perfect capstone to our summer. Our Sunday involved a bunch of nothing. And it was also perfect. 

First Day!

 Here we go again! 7th and 5th grade look out! 

We are ready and excited for a great school year!! 

One Last Day at Disney

And Sunday it was time to return home and to reality. But not without a little Disney Magic beforehand. 

We had breakfast at Ohana. 

Now, this should have been a 10:30 breakfast so we could sleep in and lounge about. It was not. 

We got to the Polynesian at 7:30 before anything at all was open. But Ohana breakfast was delightful as always. I love that restaurant so much. 

Disney could make a lot of money if they'd sell like a take-home bowl of noodles at breakfast time. 

I love this bread so much. I definitely had a ziploc in my backpack and brought home 3 pieces for my family. 

It was the best. If you're going to Disney property, it should include Ohana. That's my story and I am sticking with it. 

After we went back to French quarter, packed slowly and checked out of our room. Then we had a few hours to kill. So we sat in the quick service area and it was actually really a nice chill way to spend time. 

Pro Tip: If you're at your resort and you see this bus... it means that characters are around! We had to leave for the airport though. 

So we got to the airport and our flight got delayed and through a series of unfortunate events, we eventually made it onto a plane and then had a quick layover in Atlanta but made that too with time for a potty stop and then we were home. 

It was a magical trip. 

A Day At Magic Kingdom

Well... our day at Magic Kingdom was simply magical. And I didn't really take a ton of pictures to show for it. 

We started with Peter Pan during early entry half hour. 

Then went straight to Adventureland where we rode Jungle Cruise (blech), Pirates, Flying Carpets with Aladdin, and Tiki Room. After that we grabbed a Dole Whip and saw Aladdin and Jasmin. If you zoom in, they smiled for me. 

We sat and people watched with our dole whips and then decided to get in line for Tiana.

After the Bayou, we went to the Haunted Mansion. 

After which we hit it's a small world, Mickey's Philharmagic and the carousel. 

Then we had lunch at Cosmic Rays and rode the double-decker bus down Main Street. 

That was AMAZING. 

We saw the Dapper Dans perform and then we headed to Under the Sea with the Little Mermaid. Then Dumbo and Barnstormer. It started raining while we were getting off of the Barnstormer so we took a restroom break, a stroll through the Storybook Circus tent and then rain walked to the Tea Cups. 

Neither one of us loves the tea cups but in our quest to do it all, we had to check it off the list. We held the center plate very still so we would spin as little as humanly possible. 

Then we got into a line for Pooh. It took forever. And the line broke down. And we got kicked out. Boo!! 

So we headed over to Tomorrowland, where we Carousel of Progressed. Then went to Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. I went to Space Mountain alone. I rode with two very nice ladies in their 50s and we had a great time together! 

After I refound Kathryn we went on the People Mover and Tomorrowland Speedway. I made a phone call to my family to buy them all the shirts of their dreams! 

M and I got matching Fall Vibes shirts.

Husband a Pete's Pizza shirt. 

C a Halloween WDW shirt. 

Pooh had reopened by then with a "15 minute wait." Lie detector says that was a lie. It took 45 minutes but we finally got through it and in time for our 7 Dwarves Mine Train Lightning Lane (the other one I bought ahead of time. Because I like the ride. I do not like it 90 minutes wait time worth.) And then we had officially completed Fantasyland! 

We had a terrible dinner at Pinnochio Haus. I wasn't that hungry to begin with, but the salad was lacking even still. And they don't have Fanta even though everyone else did. 

Then I went and did Astro Orbiter alone. When I finished Kathryn and I rode People Mover again and Dumbo again. Then she went back to the room and I went to Tron.  (Finishing up Tomorrowland)

I finished Tron at 10:26 and with a half hour left of the park being open I hoofed it to Adventureland where I rode Pirates twice in a row to close out my day! 

Then since I was over there anyway, I camped out for a while to see the Starlight Magic Parade from Frontierland. It was a MUCH calmer pace. I just sat on one of the wooden boxes and enjoyed it. I ended up video calling Husband so he could watch too. 

Then I moseyed my way out. Taking pictures. 

I think you can read the joy on my face. That's what it was. Joyful. 

And with one last glimpse of the castle I said a quiet goodbye to the Magic Kingdom.

And that was my long day of Magic Kingdom in which I accomplished nearly everything. 

Disney Day 3

My Disney Day 3 recap is going to be very short comparatively. 

I continue to dislike Hollywood Studios. It is the worst park. Yes there are some good rides. No it doesn't completely make up for being stupid and hot and overcrowded.

It's overcrowded because the park is laid out so terribly. And there's no shade. Star Wars and Toy Story Land opened in 2018. With no buildings at all for air conditioning and no shade to boot. Stupid. 

We did lollygag that morning and didn't leave to get to Hollywood Studios until like 11:00 am. 

We first hit the new Little Mermaid show. 

It was fine. Not great. But not bad. Then I colored with Clarabelle. She was a must-do for me that day. Mission accomplished!! 

The new Villains show was next, and that was amazing! I loved it! 

Then we hit the Frozen Sing Along. I simply love it and it did not disappoint. 

Then we met Olaf. And I enjoyed that a lot. I am glad we made time for it! Olaf liked my hat! 

Then we had lunch. I mobile ordered. 

And then waited in a pick-up line so long that it cancelled my order. This park has issues. It's terrible. It was hot and they don't even have a decent system for picking up the food. What is that about?! 

Finally, we got that figured out. This was my first time going to Woody's Lunch Box because my kids don't like grilled cheese. It was an okay sandwich. But the Lunch Box Tart? The homemade Pop-Tart? It was so gross. I am so sad I had it! But the more you know. 

After we went to ABC Commissary to cool off, and because their location has free refills so I was able to get more cool beverages to keep going. We looked at wait times and made a plan. 

We went to Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway. Which, you know what? Was lovely. I am glad the wait dropped to a managable time so we could make it happen. 

Then we went to the Mickey's Shorts Theatre to watch Vacation Fun. And then back to the Frozen Sing-Along. (I love it okay?!) 

Then it was time for our Rise of the Resistance Lightning Lane. I bought the Individual Lightning Lane for this because the last time we were at Hollywood Studios it was the hurricane day and I knew I wanted to ride this ride. 

It was pretty cool! Even M would like it. And she isn't a big ride girl. 

Then I got blue milk. It was MUCH better than the pop tart. 

We hit Toy Story Mania which was fun. 

Then we said Adios to Hollywood Studios. We got back to the room and chilled out and it started raining pretty good. I got my laundry together and went and got that started. Then we grabbed food at the resort, I got Shrimp and Grits and they were quite delicious. 

After my laundry was done and put away, we took turns showering, and it was a fairly early-to-bed night. Well, except I was wired and didn't actually fall asleep. But it's all good. 

All in all it was a fairly short day at the park and that was okay. Whenever our next WDW trip is (and we do not have one planned) I will be sure to get park hopper tickets because really we could have done everything good in the morning. I just bought the ILL for later in the day because I knew it was our take-it-easy day. 

The Game Was Bananas

I interrupt my vacation trip recap with a little family fun. Friday, we took a day trip to Chicago to see the Savannah Bananas. 

I have been in the ticket lottery for 2 years. This year I entered myself, my mom, and Husband. Husband was the only one who was selected to get tickets. Then I wasn't sure we had a good time slot. But it worked out as you will see.

On the way into the city, we stopped at Giordano's for some pizza. It was strange; school started in Illinois last week, so when I say we were the only people in the restaurant until we were basically leaving, this was not an exaggeration. 

C was VERY proud of his cheese pull. There was a card on the table that said "Show us your cheese pull" or something like that with examples, so he was excited to have a good one!

I had prepaid for parking and I was very very glad that I did. The lot we parked at was very close to where we wanted to be. 

We went into the pre-party plaza and this is the one part of the experience I would skip if we ever go again. It was hot and crowded.

We spotted Jesse Cole. 

So this is where we were all going to enter. And it just got more and more crowded. And it was hot. And I got a little panicky and had to leave to go sit down on the side. 

This is what happened to me at Hanson too. I got very hot and shaky and started seeing spots so I had to leave the crowd to sit down. Which stressed me out because I was going to Disney World, which would be hot and crowded. 

Turns out I was 100% fine at Disney, because there is order. There are chains and ropes and walls telling people where to stand, and even though it's hot and crowded it wasn't people pressing up against me trying to move forward, even though we couldn't. (Like towards the stage at the concert or towards the entrance at the game.) 

Husband says it's partly the heat to be sure but it's also partly similar to a panic attack. So lesson learned. Big crowds without a plan in a hot parking lot are to be avoided going forward. 

Once we got into the stadium everything turned around. We knew we had gotten good seats based on the tickets. (You just know a general group of sections when you buy not even a specific section or row.) But we really won the ticket lottery and I was so thrilled that even in the upper bowl that we had such good seats. 

I decided that these outfield upper bowl seats were not only terrible but also terrifying. You could just go right over that wall. And no thank you. 

Our seats were also covered so once we sat down we were in the shade. The White Sox for the most part have a really nice stadium. And I will likely never go there again. 

M, our ham, just absolutely manifested her dream come true. She saw Bill Leroy up near our section and said "I'm going to go get on the jumbotron." So she went up a few rows and cut over to him from the other side to where a gaggle of kids had been following. 

Sure enough. The girl was on the Jumbotron. 

And then Bill Leroy asked her some questions on the mic. She said her name, that she was excited for Bananaball and then he asked her how she was going to scream for the bananas, so then she did. On the mic. 

The pregame entertainment and preshow was absolutely so much fun and I honestly feel sorry for the people who missed it. 

It made me so happy that they start the game with prayer. Not all the players went into the circle but most of them did. 

The game itself was also a ton of fun. Including a special appearance from Chance the Rapper. Had I heard that name before? Yes. Could I have told you literally anything about him before? Nope. Did I recognize anything? Nope. 

Husband and M got to meet a Man-Nana. I really loved them! So funny! 

Actually, if I am being honest, the sound system at the Rate Field was subpar. I am sure it's wonderful for a regular baseball game where they don't say a whole lot. 

The music was fun and crisp, clearly a different speaker system. 

But it was hard to hear what was being said on the microphones. I relied a lot on the closed captioning screen and was thankful that it was there. 

The Bananas won! Which was fun! 

And on our way out, we even stopped down in the lower bowl to take a picture with the Pope mural because we had priorities! 

Actually, that had always been in my plans to stop to see the mural, then when we got there, I realized it probably wasn't going to happen. We were almost out of the stadium when we decided we had a 3 hour car ride ahead of us and none of us really favored using a porta-potty so we should go back in to the restroom. 

So we did and got to see the Pope mural. Pope Leo sat in this section in 2005 for Game 1 when the White Sox eventually won the World Series. 

I was at college with a lot of White Sox fans in 2005. While I didn't watch the final game at all, I remember how loud the quad got and people were running around screaming and cheering and celebrating. And our future pontiff was just humbly at one of the games, rooting for his home team. Kinda bizarre to think about in the best way. 

There was also a Pope Leo on the way to the parking lot. I got a pic of him then too. 

Overall, I would be happy to see the Savannah Bananas again. We had a nice time! Totally worth all the lottery entries and rigamarole.