Christmas morning has come early for those of us who spend every Sunday praying at the church of the National Football League. Some random musings and predictions below.
1. The rumours of the demise of the San Francisco 49ers have been greatly exaggerated. I've seen experts suggesting they will win as few as three games. Pu-lease. Despite having the most tumultuous offseasons in NFL history, there is just too much talent there to have such a precipitous decline. Navarro Bowman is back to lead the rebuilt defense and he is on a mission. Colin Kaepernick will have a solid season and let's face it, Vernon Davis cannot possibly be worse. Count on a 9 or 10 win season and the Niners will be in the playoff race most of the season before just falling short.
2. The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots will completely dissolve and both miss the playoffs. OK that one isn't as much a "prediction" as a "dream scenario".
3. Alex Smith will finally shed the label of "game manager", throwing for 4000 yards (many of them to Jeremy Maclin) and cancer survivor Eric Berry will inspire the defense as the Chiefs win 11 games and win the AFC West.
4. The NFC West will reclaim it's status of "best division in football" as the Cardinals finally take that next step and win the division. The Rams will also finally make strides and win 9-10 games.
5. The Redskins are really going to regret demoting RGIII and by mid-season, when the team is 1-7 and both Kirk Cousins and Colt McCoy have been completely ineffective, fans in DC will be clamoring for his return.
6. Andrew Luck will flirt with the NFL Record of 5,477 passing yards in a season, before falling just a couple hundred yards short of Peyton Manning's mark.
Division Winners:
AFC:
Chiefs
Steelers
Cheat-riots
Colts
NFC:
Cardinals
Saints
Packers
Cowboys
Wild Card Teams:
Broncos
Ravens
Seahawks
Giants
AFC Champion:
Colts
NFC Champion:
Packers
SuperBowl Winner:
The Green Bay Packers' defensive depth will be just enough to edge out our Colts, 38-35.
Now let's play some football!!
Sunday, 13 September 2015
Wednesday, 9 September 2015
Vacation Blog Part V: the Voyage Home
8:08 AM - we both slept well and are up and ready to start the last day of fun and merriment before getting back to our dull, dreary and depressing lives. OK none of that is true, they just seem dreary and depressing when compared to Disneyland.
9:30 AM - we are all packed up and down to the pool to check in to our cabana. THIS is the way to end a trip! Our car service isn't picking us up until 3 PM so we have lots of time to relax and enjoy our private pool. I say "private" because there isn't anyone else in it. There are times when it becomes only "semi-private" but for the most part it's just us. Beautiful cabanas with a fridge, TV, couch, loveseat, safe and all the towels you could imagine...plus a fruit plate, water, private cabana host and private waitress. Pretty excellent service. This is going to become our new "Disneyland last day standard" for sure.
10:00 AM - breakfast at Storyteller's Cafe, the best breakfast buffet ever. They manage to do things that no other buffet can pull off, like keeping the pancakes and Eggs Benedict warm without getting crusty around the edges. Everything here is first class. I've mentioned this restaurant before, it is the one with the critter problem. At one point we have a chipmunk AND a bear at our table at the same time. Foraging for bacon I assume.
1:30 PM - our cabana rental is up (they didn't have any full day rentals available) so we change into our travel clothes and hit the lounge to have a small bite, a drink and relax before our car arrives to take us to the airport. The heat and whirlwind-style of this trip has now hit us both full force. We have some sliders and a couple diet cokes; both of us are too sleepy for wine even though they have a decent by-the-glass menu. We are both ready to tap out.
3:00 PM - I get a phone call that our car is having mechanical difficulties and they are sending a different driver who is 25 minutes away. Tracey figures they are lying and they are just running late but it doesn't really matter, we have time.
3:30 PM - a huge Escalade SUV pulls up for us. The driver is very nice and the car is new and pretty good but a far cry from the Caddy we came in on. Oh well if that's the worst thing that happens today I guess we will survive.
7:01 PM - no issues boarding the flight which actually leaves about 10 minutes early. I'm already into my second Chardonnay. God I love first class.
Sometimes today's technology can be a pain in the ass, but here I am updating my blog at 38,000 feet. That's pretty sweet.
When we land around 8:20 PM we plan to stop at Wal-Mart to pick up a couple things (to my Canadian friends, do you guys know how cheap bottled water is down here?????? Even with the shitty FX it's almost free), then stop in Sumas at our package storage facility to pick up a few spectacular bottles of wine that we had shipped up here last week to bring across with us tonight. Duty won't be zero unless the border guards are particularly kind, but it should be pretty reasonable. Anyway, assuming that nothing exciting happens between now and getting home, this will be my last post in this trip. I will update all the blog entries with the appropriate pictures and repost the links this weekend (unlike Tracey, I have to work tomorrow). Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.
UPDATE: The duty WAS zero, we got a border guard in a particularly good mood :)
Next up: 7 days on a brand new Norweigan Cruise ship Touring the Eastern Caribbean plus two weeks at a resort in Orlando. Going to be EPIC!!!!
9:30 AM - we are all packed up and down to the pool to check in to our cabana. THIS is the way to end a trip! Our car service isn't picking us up until 3 PM so we have lots of time to relax and enjoy our private pool. I say "private" because there isn't anyone else in it. There are times when it becomes only "semi-private" but for the most part it's just us. Beautiful cabanas with a fridge, TV, couch, loveseat, safe and all the towels you could imagine...plus a fruit plate, water, private cabana host and private waitress. Pretty excellent service. This is going to become our new "Disneyland last day standard" for sure.
10:00 AM - breakfast at Storyteller's Cafe, the best breakfast buffet ever. They manage to do things that no other buffet can pull off, like keeping the pancakes and Eggs Benedict warm without getting crusty around the edges. Everything here is first class. I've mentioned this restaurant before, it is the one with the critter problem. At one point we have a chipmunk AND a bear at our table at the same time. Foraging for bacon I assume.
1:30 PM - our cabana rental is up (they didn't have any full day rentals available) so we change into our travel clothes and hit the lounge to have a small bite, a drink and relax before our car arrives to take us to the airport. The heat and whirlwind-style of this trip has now hit us both full force. We have some sliders and a couple diet cokes; both of us are too sleepy for wine even though they have a decent by-the-glass menu. We are both ready to tap out.
3:00 PM - I get a phone call that our car is having mechanical difficulties and they are sending a different driver who is 25 minutes away. Tracey figures they are lying and they are just running late but it doesn't really matter, we have time.
3:30 PM - a huge Escalade SUV pulls up for us. The driver is very nice and the car is new and pretty good but a far cry from the Caddy we came in on. Oh well if that's the worst thing that happens today I guess we will survive.
7:01 PM - no issues boarding the flight which actually leaves about 10 minutes early. I'm already into my second Chardonnay. God I love first class.
Sometimes today's technology can be a pain in the ass, but here I am updating my blog at 38,000 feet. That's pretty sweet.
When we land around 8:20 PM we plan to stop at Wal-Mart to pick up a couple things (to my Canadian friends, do you guys know how cheap bottled water is down here?????? Even with the shitty FX it's almost free), then stop in Sumas at our package storage facility to pick up a few spectacular bottles of wine that we had shipped up here last week to bring across with us tonight. Duty won't be zero unless the border guards are particularly kind, but it should be pretty reasonable. Anyway, assuming that nothing exciting happens between now and getting home, this will be my last post in this trip. I will update all the blog entries with the appropriate pictures and repost the links this weekend (unlike Tracey, I have to work tomorrow). Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed.
UPDATE: The duty WAS zero, we got a border guard in a particularly good mood :)
Next up: 7 days on a brand new Norweigan Cruise ship Touring the Eastern Caribbean plus two weeks at a resort in Orlando. Going to be EPIC!!!!
Tuesday, 8 September 2015
Vacation blog part four!!
5:28 AM - really? REALLY?? I somehow managed to set the alarm on my phone to go off at 528??? What an asshole.
10:00 AM - well that's sleeping in. The latest I have slept in about a decade, I reckon. Not a great sleep though, and Tracey slept even worse so hopefully we can soldier on and still have a full day. It won't be quite as late a day as the parks close earlier tonight but we are viewing World of Colour at 8:15 tonight so it won't be a short day either.
Oh boy. Tracey asks me what the weather will be like today to which I respond "sunny and hot". She asks me to be a bit more specific so I pull up the forecast and notice it is ALREADY 31 degrees, on its way to 37 in a few hours. Holy shit. We are under a "severe heat advisory" today. Gulp.
We head into Disneyland to try to take advantage of a quieter day and a day that had to be devoid of school age children. If k see any kids older than 5 in the park today I am going to place them and their parents under citizen's arrest. It's just the right thing to do.
Oh, and since the park closed at Midnight last night, Hall'o'ween has arrived. The entire set of Hall'o'ween decorations went up in 9 hours. Unreal.
And OMFG it's hot and humid, it reminds me of our first trip to Florida when we could hardly stand to be outside for more than 20 minutes. Literally DRIPPING in sweat.
After a few rides including Indiana Jones, Peter Pan (which just recently re-opened after a significant remodel) and Buzz Lightyear (where Tracy beat me AGAIN!), we decided to take the Monorail out of the park and walk up Downtown Disney to do a bit more shopping; just one problem, the Monorail was shut down due to the heat!!! You know it's hot when.......
So we walk out of the park through the main gates for the last time this trip, which always brings sadness. What a great, albeit short, trip this has been. It's not over yet of course.
Doing some shopping at World of Disney and we come across a little girl (3ish) bawling and bleeding a bit from a small head wound. A manager has brought some ice for the girl but her parents are going apeshit. Dad says "where are the nurses???? If someone had a heart attack they'd be dead by now!!!!" The manager politely points out that the nurses aren't going to come running for a small wound that only requires some ice, to which the Dad starts yelling "LAWSUIT LAWSUIT!!!!" and mom pulls out her camera to take a picture of the small bump on her head. I am not making that up.
Now, full disclosure, I did not see what happened to the child, but let's assume it was not a rogue Disney employee attacking her with a baseball bat. You're really going to threaten a lawsuit because the nurses won't come running to deal with your kid's insignificant wound? They brought her ice, they are trying to help, so shut up and say "thank you", you overbearing, overprotective pricks. Oh and Dad, I can guarantee that if "someone had a heart attack" the nurses would have been there in time to help. They just didn't come running because a tiny nosebleed is a nuisance, not an injury.
Jesus, if my parents treated me like that every time I hurt myself when I was younger I would have spent my entire childhood in bubble wrap. What the Hell is wrong with parents these days???
3:30 PM - we are all parked and shopped-out for now, back to the room to rest up for our dinner and World of Colour evening.
5:15 PM - Tracey is up from a little nappin' and we are off to Wine Country Trattoria for dinner. While we are waiting we get to see the Pixar Play Parade which is exactly the same as the last couple times we saw it except that the Monsters Inc. floats morphed into Monsters University. Nice parade but it needs an upgrade, it's been around too long.
Dinner is excellent as always and we finish with lots of time before we need to get in the viewing area for WOC. Seated next to us is the most adorable infant who keeps trying to play peek-a-boo with Tracey.
We head over to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid which is an underrated ride and also it is VERY COOL inside which is a bonus as it's still crazy hot out. Right after the ride we notice that a line is starting to form to get into our VIP viewing area for the show so we head over there and soon head inside to secure our places for the show. I am peeved to discover that some people are allowed into a special place where they get to sit while we have to stand. Tracey points out that they are in wheelchairs. Damn, first all the good parking spaces and now this? They get all the breaks.
7:30 PM - sitting down waiting for the show writing the blog and I notice that my feet have both fallen asleep. I may have to get up now which is considerably easier said than done. Pretty close to falling into the water.
Looking around I notice how gorgeous it is here when the sun goes down. The lights are spectacular.
8:15 PM - the new World Of Colour show begins and Tracey and I stand in awe for half an hour. It's inconceivable to suggest that they managed to surpass the old show that was close to perfect as it was. The other show was a celebration of Disney animation, mostly, and this was was more of a celebration of Disneyland and Walt Disney himself. Breathtaking doesn't do it justice.
And oh, it also contains a long tribute to Disney's latest cash cow, Frozen, which actually gave me goosebumps. And let's not forget some scenes from their next big thing, Star Wars Episode VII. I have three words for you:
"Chewie, we're home."
Tracey, we're home. And I wish we never ever had to leave.
Tomorrow, a relaxing pool day and hopefully an on-time First Class flight back home. There are worse ways to leave the Happiest Place on Earth.
10:00 AM - well that's sleeping in. The latest I have slept in about a decade, I reckon. Not a great sleep though, and Tracey slept even worse so hopefully we can soldier on and still have a full day. It won't be quite as late a day as the parks close earlier tonight but we are viewing World of Colour at 8:15 tonight so it won't be a short day either.
Oh boy. Tracey asks me what the weather will be like today to which I respond "sunny and hot". She asks me to be a bit more specific so I pull up the forecast and notice it is ALREADY 31 degrees, on its way to 37 in a few hours. Holy shit. We are under a "severe heat advisory" today. Gulp.
We head into Disneyland to try to take advantage of a quieter day and a day that had to be devoid of school age children. If k see any kids older than 5 in the park today I am going to place them and their parents under citizen's arrest. It's just the right thing to do.
Oh, and since the park closed at Midnight last night, Hall'o'ween has arrived. The entire set of Hall'o'ween decorations went up in 9 hours. Unreal.
And OMFG it's hot and humid, it reminds me of our first trip to Florida when we could hardly stand to be outside for more than 20 minutes. Literally DRIPPING in sweat.
After a few rides including Indiana Jones, Peter Pan (which just recently re-opened after a significant remodel) and Buzz Lightyear (where Tracy beat me AGAIN!), we decided to take the Monorail out of the park and walk up Downtown Disney to do a bit more shopping; just one problem, the Monorail was shut down due to the heat!!! You know it's hot when.......
So we walk out of the park through the main gates for the last time this trip, which always brings sadness. What a great, albeit short, trip this has been. It's not over yet of course.
Doing some shopping at World of Disney and we come across a little girl (3ish) bawling and bleeding a bit from a small head wound. A manager has brought some ice for the girl but her parents are going apeshit. Dad says "where are the nurses???? If someone had a heart attack they'd be dead by now!!!!" The manager politely points out that the nurses aren't going to come running for a small wound that only requires some ice, to which the Dad starts yelling "LAWSUIT LAWSUIT!!!!" and mom pulls out her camera to take a picture of the small bump on her head. I am not making that up.
Now, full disclosure, I did not see what happened to the child, but let's assume it was not a rogue Disney employee attacking her with a baseball bat. You're really going to threaten a lawsuit because the nurses won't come running to deal with your kid's insignificant wound? They brought her ice, they are trying to help, so shut up and say "thank you", you overbearing, overprotective pricks. Oh and Dad, I can guarantee that if "someone had a heart attack" the nurses would have been there in time to help. They just didn't come running because a tiny nosebleed is a nuisance, not an injury.
Jesus, if my parents treated me like that every time I hurt myself when I was younger I would have spent my entire childhood in bubble wrap. What the Hell is wrong with parents these days???
3:30 PM - we are all parked and shopped-out for now, back to the room to rest up for our dinner and World of Colour evening.
5:15 PM - Tracey is up from a little nappin' and we are off to Wine Country Trattoria for dinner. While we are waiting we get to see the Pixar Play Parade which is exactly the same as the last couple times we saw it except that the Monsters Inc. floats morphed into Monsters University. Nice parade but it needs an upgrade, it's been around too long.
Dinner is excellent as always and we finish with lots of time before we need to get in the viewing area for WOC. Seated next to us is the most adorable infant who keeps trying to play peek-a-boo with Tracey.
We head over to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid which is an underrated ride and also it is VERY COOL inside which is a bonus as it's still crazy hot out. Right after the ride we notice that a line is starting to form to get into our VIP viewing area for the show so we head over there and soon head inside to secure our places for the show. I am peeved to discover that some people are allowed into a special place where they get to sit while we have to stand. Tracey points out that they are in wheelchairs. Damn, first all the good parking spaces and now this? They get all the breaks.
7:30 PM - sitting down waiting for the show writing the blog and I notice that my feet have both fallen asleep. I may have to get up now which is considerably easier said than done. Pretty close to falling into the water.
Looking around I notice how gorgeous it is here when the sun goes down. The lights are spectacular.
8:15 PM - the new World Of Colour show begins and Tracey and I stand in awe for half an hour. It's inconceivable to suggest that they managed to surpass the old show that was close to perfect as it was. The other show was a celebration of Disney animation, mostly, and this was was more of a celebration of Disneyland and Walt Disney himself. Breathtaking doesn't do it justice.
And oh, it also contains a long tribute to Disney's latest cash cow, Frozen, which actually gave me goosebumps. And let's not forget some scenes from their next big thing, Star Wars Episode VII. I have three words for you:
"Chewie, we're home."
Tracey, we're home. And I wish we never ever had to leave.
Tomorrow, a relaxing pool day and hopefully an on-time First Class flight back home. There are worse ways to leave the Happiest Place on Earth.
Monday, 7 September 2015
Vacation Blog Part Three!!!
8:30 AM - now that's a decent night of sleep. A good solid 8 hours with little to no wake-ups during the night. I have a severe case of sleep apnea so sleeping well is quite an achievement for me. I wouldn't go so far as to say I woke up "refreshed" this morning (let's not go nuts) but this is probably as close as I've been in a couple years.
The wife is still asleep and she can stay that way for as long as she likes. Today we have lots to accomplish again but she might as well be rested while we attack DCA.
As I'm sitting on the patio typing this, I hear the toilet flush. Vacation bear is out of hibernation and "The Process (TM)" can begin! The parks are supposed to be very quiet today so hopefully we can get all of DCA done today before we have to be back in our room around 5:30 to prepare for our Fantasy Football draft which starts at 6.
9:30 AM - we are out and on our way back to La Brea for breakfast where we both order exactly the same thing as yesterday. Given the myriad of excellent dining opportunities here you know it must be good if we are doubling up.
After breakfast we head through the front gates of DCA and right over to Soarin' to get a Fastpass before heading over to Screamin' and Toy Story. Screamin' is my favourite coaster anywhere. It's just extreme enough to be thrilling but not so crazy that it makes this old fart dizzy or nauseous. And once again I need to mention that Disney just "gets it" when it comes to wait times. The posted 30 minute wait at Screamin' was about 15 and Toy Story's 45 minute wait was maybe half that. Unlike some theme parks COUGH UNIVERSAL COUGH where a 45 minute posted wait time really means "come back tomorrow", Disney understand the principal of under promising and over delivering. Don't tell your boss or client you can have something to them by noon if you are going to struggle to get it done! Tell them they'll have it by 3 and then when they get it at 1:30 they are thrilled. Common sense.
On the way over to Screamin', we notice that the Fastpass return time for Radiator Springs Racers is already between 9 and 10 pm, which is actually perfect for us as we are having dinner tonight at 8 at the Carthay Circle. We already have Fastpasses for Soarin' though so we can't get another Fastpass until 12:15 which is a bit of a problem. When we share our conundrum with a cast member near the Fastpass area, he promptly goes and gets us two Fastpasses for the ride! Just another example of perfect service here in Disneyland.
After Tracey beats me at Toy Story (an appeal is pending) we walk down the boardwalk where I finally find my new Iphone case, featuring everyone's favourite snowman, Olaf (sorry Frosty). I came here with a broken case expecting to have no trouble finding something cool but it was tough to find a good case for the 5S. I was looking for Jack Skellington but nothing to be found, so Olaf to the rescue.
12:30 PM - on the way to use our Fastpasses for Soarin' we notice that the return time for the Grizzly Rapids inner tube ride is between 4:15 and 5:15 which is also perfect for our timing today as that is just before we would be leaving the park anyway to head back to the room, so since its past the start time for our Soarin' passes we are able to get two more passes for this ride. The first time in my Disney life that I've ever been holding three Fastpasses at once.
We enjoy this version of Soarin' for likely the last time ever as they are changing the movie in the next year to be Soaring Over The World, with better sound and graphics. I'll miss this California based movie though but we are looking forward to the new one. Maybe it will be open in Florida by March.
After a little shopping and picture taking we are hitting a wall of extreme heat. It's crazy hot again today, hotter than we were expecting, so it's time for a bit of down time.
2:30 PM - back in the room to relax for an hour or so until we go back to use our Fastpasses for Grizzly River Rapids. If anyone ever wonders why we always pay the absurd prices to stay here and why we would NEVER dream of staying off-property, this is exactly why. A crazy hot day, 5 hours in the park, we need a short break. We stop at Haagen Dazs again for lunch (as Tracey says, why fuck with perfection???) and head up to the room for a very quick rest. Try doing THAT while staying offsite. It's just not practical.
5:00 PM - back in the room after successfully navigating the Grizzly River Rapids and getting modestly soaked, but not completely drenched. Not that it matters, this is another reason why we stay here....go down to the park in my swimming trunks, sandals and tank top, and get as wet as I get and don't care. No worries about having to walk around the park in squishy shoes or drenched jeans....Tracey calls us "Disney professionals" LOL.
And we get back to the room to this:
Our new Mickey Mouse wine glasses with some of that lovely Oregon Pinot that we picked up at Seatac. Tracey takes her wine into the bath while I update the blog, while we wait for our 6 PM date with Fantasy Football greatness to begin. I log into the app and notice that I pick second to last, and Tracey just one spot in front of me. PFFFFT.
7:50 PM - back to DCA for our reservation at Carthay Circle restaurant. Another fabulous dining experience. We have a terrific waiter, the food is incredible and we have a world class bottle of wine to accompany it. Awesome.
After dinner off to Cars Land to use the Fastpasses we were so generously given this morning. It's a really terrific ride, maybe even better when it's dark. The scenery is breathtaking. We win the race, again. I'm not sure how many times I've been on this ride, 6 or 7, but I'm undefeated which means I'm bucking the odds quite a bit...given my assumption that the ending of the "race" is random. Not that it matters but winning is better than losing at ANYTHING :)
DCA closes at 10 PM tonight so we head across the courtyard to Disneyland to hopefully knock one or two more rides off the list, but everyone else had the same idea and it's really busy. We only manage to get on a few rides that are, well, aimed at a less mature audience. Alice in Wonderland, Mr Toad's Wild Ride (not that wild even with Tracey driving), Pinocchio's Daring Journey (not that daring) and Snow White's Scary Adventures. Scary? Well if you don't know the plot of the movie, I'd say it is. The last scene in the ride shows the witch at the top of a hill about to unleash a boulder onto the 7 dwarves. Then you go through a door and a sign says "...and they lived happily ever after". WOAH. IF I'd never seen the movie I'd be pretty sure at this point that the witch was the hero of the story and had vanquished those pesky little people by crushing them with a rock. Go witch!!
11:30 PM - back to the room as we are exhausted after another full day. Tomorrow is already the last full day of our vacation (WTF??????) so we have to make the most of it!
Sunday, 6 September 2015
Vacation Blog Part Two!
7:00 AM - HELL NO I AM NOT GETTING UP AT 7 on vacation!!!!!
9:30 AM- much better. I'm actually awakened by the maid knocking as we forgot to put the "privacy" sign on the door last night. That works out pretty good though as its time to get started anyway, lots to accomplish today. I carefully and gently poke the bear with a long stick to wake her up. Despite not getting a great deal of sleep, she awakes in a terrific mood. I ask her how we can arrange that mood every morning and her answer is "move us to Disneyland"! Fair enough.
I walk down to La Brea Bakery to pick up breakfast while Tracey hops into the shower and gets ready for the day. I get a couple of croissant breakfast sandwiches which are just amazing. They are so filling I can barely finish. Outstanding.
As I'm walking to and from the bakery I pass by a bunch of runners who finished today's half marathon. Never seen so many fit people in Disneyland before. Or anywhere in this country for that matter. Many of them are dressed in traditional running gear but many of them ran in Disney costumes, which is pretty cute. Must be hot in them though, especially for the guy that ran in the full-length Winnie the Pooh costume. OK I probably made that part up.
10:50 AM - off to Disneyland where we manage to finish off just about everything we want to accomplish in Frontierland and Adventureland in a few hours. It's not that busy in the morning but starts to get crazy as the afternoon starts to pass.
Of course, we keep with tradition and make Pirates of the Caribbean our first ride. We do Big Thunder Mountain, Winnie the Pooh and Splash Mountain, get wet (but not totally soaked) and then hop onto the railroad to take us to the front gates where we exit and head back to the room to change into our bathing suits to spend a bit of time at the pool before it's time to get ready for dinner.
Oh, and I thought I'd seen everything here, but this was a first for us: a cat. Not an animatronics cat, an actual living, breathing domestic cat, hanging out in the shade under a tree in the lineup for Big Thunder Mountain. I've named him "Thunder". It's crazy hot today, about 33 Celsius, so he's pretty lethargic and not moving much, but he pops his head up a couple times as if to say "could you people please shut up? I'm trying to sleep over here!!"
On our way back we stop for lunch and when I say "lunch" I mean Haagan Dazs ice cream. No judgement dammit I'm on vacation.
2:30 PM - we get to the pool and it's crazy busy, nowhere to sit at all, so we put our stuff down on the ground and hop into the pool for a quick swim and then give up. We will come back at some point during the next couple days, when everyone goes home. The next two days are supposed to be two of the quietest days of the entire year.
3:30 PM - back up in the room to relax for an hour or so before our dinner at the Chef's counter at Napa Rose. Very exciting. We actually wanted to do this last year when we were here celebrating our 10th wedding Anniversary but it just so happened that the restaurant was closed for upgrades that week. They have a food and wine pairing menu that they will customize for us based on our likes and dislikes, sort of a poor man's version of the incredible meal we had at Victoria & Albert's in the Grand Floridian Hotel a couple years back.
5:30 PM - We get seated promptly at the pastry portion of the Chef's counter. In other words we get to sit here and watch Chelsea, our resident pasty chef, make dessert right in front of us all night. Watching these delicious concoctions being created right in front of our eyes made us even hungrier than we already were; good thing we were about to embark on a 5-course wine and food pairing unlike anything we have ever experienced West of Florida.
Let me just say that the entire meal was absolutely spectacular. As our servers brought us each course they explained what was in every dish, but a couple of the servers had thick accents so we didn't get every detail. What I do know is that I ate octopus and lived to tell the tale. the wine that they served me was also fantastic. Tracey wasn't quite as lucky as her wine wasn't always to her exact tastes but it did pair well with her food. Having said that, the wine was all top-notch. A definite must-do experience for future trips!!
Here are pictures of most of the food.
8:30 PM - three hours later we finished up and headed back to the room to change into more casual clothes. Back to Disneyland to catch the nighttime fireworks and parade. Both shows are new and exclusive to the 60th Anniversary so that is exactly what we are here to see.
Both shows are very good and quite different than what we have seen before. Again I will post pictures once we are home and can get everything uploaded. They did an excellent job at incorporating some stuff that they've never featured in their previous fireworks shows, like Winnie the Pooh and Frozen. And yes, they played THAT song. Boy that Adell Nazeem sure can sing.
11:30 PM - back in the room and about 10 seconds from collapsing from sheer exhaustion. Oh what a great day. And tomorrow will certainly be another one.
9:30 AM- much better. I'm actually awakened by the maid knocking as we forgot to put the "privacy" sign on the door last night. That works out pretty good though as its time to get started anyway, lots to accomplish today. I carefully and gently poke the bear with a long stick to wake her up. Despite not getting a great deal of sleep, she awakes in a terrific mood. I ask her how we can arrange that mood every morning and her answer is "move us to Disneyland"! Fair enough.
I walk down to La Brea Bakery to pick up breakfast while Tracey hops into the shower and gets ready for the day. I get a couple of croissant breakfast sandwiches which are just amazing. They are so filling I can barely finish. Outstanding.
As I'm walking to and from the bakery I pass by a bunch of runners who finished today's half marathon. Never seen so many fit people in Disneyland before. Or anywhere in this country for that matter. Many of them are dressed in traditional running gear but many of them ran in Disney costumes, which is pretty cute. Must be hot in them though, especially for the guy that ran in the full-length Winnie the Pooh costume. OK I probably made that part up.
10:50 AM - off to Disneyland where we manage to finish off just about everything we want to accomplish in Frontierland and Adventureland in a few hours. It's not that busy in the morning but starts to get crazy as the afternoon starts to pass.
Of course, we keep with tradition and make Pirates of the Caribbean our first ride. We do Big Thunder Mountain, Winnie the Pooh and Splash Mountain, get wet (but not totally soaked) and then hop onto the railroad to take us to the front gates where we exit and head back to the room to change into our bathing suits to spend a bit of time at the pool before it's time to get ready for dinner.
Oh, and I thought I'd seen everything here, but this was a first for us: a cat. Not an animatronics cat, an actual living, breathing domestic cat, hanging out in the shade under a tree in the lineup for Big Thunder Mountain. I've named him "Thunder". It's crazy hot today, about 33 Celsius, so he's pretty lethargic and not moving much, but he pops his head up a couple times as if to say "could you people please shut up? I'm trying to sleep over here!!"
On our way back we stop for lunch and when I say "lunch" I mean Haagan Dazs ice cream. No judgement dammit I'm on vacation.
2:30 PM - we get to the pool and it's crazy busy, nowhere to sit at all, so we put our stuff down on the ground and hop into the pool for a quick swim and then give up. We will come back at some point during the next couple days, when everyone goes home. The next two days are supposed to be two of the quietest days of the entire year.
3:30 PM - back up in the room to relax for an hour or so before our dinner at the Chef's counter at Napa Rose. Very exciting. We actually wanted to do this last year when we were here celebrating our 10th wedding Anniversary but it just so happened that the restaurant was closed for upgrades that week. They have a food and wine pairing menu that they will customize for us based on our likes and dislikes, sort of a poor man's version of the incredible meal we had at Victoria & Albert's in the Grand Floridian Hotel a couple years back.
5:30 PM - We get seated promptly at the pastry portion of the Chef's counter. In other words we get to sit here and watch Chelsea, our resident pasty chef, make dessert right in front of us all night. Watching these delicious concoctions being created right in front of our eyes made us even hungrier than we already were; good thing we were about to embark on a 5-course wine and food pairing unlike anything we have ever experienced West of Florida.
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| Chelsea, and the view from our table. |
Let me just say that the entire meal was absolutely spectacular. As our servers brought us each course they explained what was in every dish, but a couple of the servers had thick accents so we didn't get every detail. What I do know is that I ate octopus and lived to tell the tale. the wine that they served me was also fantastic. Tracey wasn't quite as lucky as her wine wasn't always to her exact tastes but it did pair well with her food. Having said that, the wine was all top-notch. A definite must-do experience for future trips!!
Here are pictures of most of the food.
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| My first course, a 'salad' with spicy beef underneath and tempura lobster. |
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| Tracey's first course, heirloom tomato salad |
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| My second course, a bunch of seafood including (somewhere in there) octopus. |
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| Tracey's second course, pheasant and gnocchi with a jus |
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| My third course, a perfectly seasoned rib eye |
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| Tracey's dessert, peanut butter and chocolate cake with banana. |
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| My dessert, chocolate cake with toasted marshmallow and ice cream |
8:30 PM - three hours later we finished up and headed back to the room to change into more casual clothes. Back to Disneyland to catch the nighttime fireworks and parade. Both shows are new and exclusive to the 60th Anniversary so that is exactly what we are here to see.
Both shows are very good and quite different than what we have seen before. Again I will post pictures once we are home and can get everything uploaded. They did an excellent job at incorporating some stuff that they've never featured in their previous fireworks shows, like Winnie the Pooh and Frozen. And yes, they played THAT song. Boy that Adell Nazeem sure can sing.
11:30 PM - back in the room and about 10 seconds from collapsing from sheer exhaustion. Oh what a great day. And tomorrow will certainly be another one.
Vacation Blog, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi-toy-buying-nerds
Saturday, September 5th
9:30 AM - in the car and ready for our whirlwind 5-day trip to Disneyland to celebrate their 60th Anniversary! No hurry to get to Seatac for our 2:55 pm flight into Ontario airport but better safe than sorry, so we are giving ourselves lots of time and are planning to have a relaxing lunch. We have no idea just HOW relaxing the lunch is going to be......
On the way to Seattle I get a message saying our flight is going to be delayed, now leaving at 3:26 PM. Now we have even more time to relax.
12:15 PM - we arrive at Seatac with lots of time to spare. Little traffic on the I-5 today. We park in the best spot in the house, get through security in about 30 seconds, and head towards the gates where we are expecting to have lunch. In this day and age of Nexus and TSA pre-check travelling is really so easy for us, but it's still a relief once all the checks are over. You never know what's going to happen.
As we walk towards the restaurant area my eagle-eyed wife spots a place called "Vino Volo". A wine bar in an airport and we just happen to have a couple hours before our flight? YES PLEASE!!!!!!
For you wine lovers I will have a full tasting report in the wine blog once we get home, but it was a terrific experience. We had tastes of 7 different wines including 3 big Washington reds, 3 Oregon Pinots and a Gruner Veltliner from Washington, and all were lovely. We also enjoyed a very nice charcuterie plate, and bought a bottle of one of the Oregon Pinots ($55) and our entire bill including tip was only $140! What an absolutely fabulous way to start the trip. And we discovered that they are a chain in many airports, including YVR, so when we fly from YVR to Florida in March we have an excuse to go early!! Well now that I think about it our flight leaves at 6AM so that might not work out so well.
2:30 PM - we get to the gate a few minutes before we start boarding. No first class seats available on this flight but we did upgrade to "preferred seating" (exit row) so we will be boarding before the general boarding call.
2:55 PM - boarding begins.
2:55:45 PM - notsofast. The pilot calls through to stop the boarding. Turns out there is a problem with a circuit breaker and maintenance is in the cockpit. Going to be about a half hour until they have any kind of timeframe for us.
3:40 PM - electrical problem is fixed and we board. It sucks losing an hour of our vacation but we can't complain much at this point, sitting next to us is a young Army Private who is going home for the first time in 9 months and only has 36 hours to visit with his family. Due to one of his co-workers being 6 hours late to relieve him he has already missed one flight and is now delayed another hour. Poor guy is hardly going to have any time to visit.
And the news just gets worse, as right after we pull away from the gate, the pilot sees another unrelated electrical problem and brings us back to the gate. After a couple minutes of waiting we are told they have another plane for us, thank God, so we de-plane and take a long walk and shuttle ride to another part of the airport to get on a plane that actually works. We hope.
We have dinner reservations at Catal for 730, which ain't going to happen, so I call and change them to 8:30. The Army Private is less than pleased, I see him start a text with "MOTHER FU****", but he didn't use the asterisks.
The plane does take off and we have an uneventful flight. They area buying the first drink for everyone due to the inconvenience. We actually get two since we apparantly get a feed cocktail anyway for the upgraded seats. Tracey has Bailey's and I have a reasonably decent Sauvignon Blanc. Hey, for airplane wine, it's not bad at all.
7:55 PM - we finally land in Ontario and our driver is waiting for us. He was aware that the flight had been delayed but had been at the airport for hours anyway. Poor guy. Anyway we get our luggage and he escorts us to his car, a nice Mercedes. I joke that this brand new Mercedes was the best he could do? My wife rolls her eyes and pints out to me that it's actually a Cadillac. Duh. What can I say, from time to time I catch the dumb.
8:45 PM - after a very comfortable ride we arrive at the Grand Californian Hotel, perhaps our favourite place on the planet. We have a regular room this time, which is unusual for us, we always pay extra for a view of Downtown Disney. My thinking is that if you are willing to pay the absurd prices to stay here, you might as well pay absurd+$100 and get the great view too. We are here at the wrong weekend for that though, as there is a Disney Marathon going on this weekend and it is one of the busiest weekends of the year so we are actually pretty damn lucky we got a room at all. The hotel is totally sold out.
The advantage of arriving close to 9PM is that there is nobody else checking in so we are done in minutes, take our stuff to the room and head to Catal for our late dinner reservations. It's somewhat busy considering the time of night, but we get lucky and get seated at the best table in the joint, right against the railing overlooking Downtown Disney. Someone below us is performing the Beatles classic "Something". Minutes later, the fireworks start and we have a great view. This day started great and is ending great.
The food here is always excellent, in fact the last time we were here Tracey had a risotto dish that was the best we had ever tasted. In fact we ate here twice that trip and the second time we BOTH ordered the risotto....so you can imagine our disappointment when the mushroom risotto that Tracey ordered was probably the WORST risotto we have ever had! It was so bad she sent it back and we never do that. They were happy to replace it without any trouble however and her replacement dish, a carbonara pasta, was excellent, as was my prime rib. Both dishes went nicely with the bottle of wine we ordered, a 2005 Tempranillo/Graciano blend from the Rioja region of Spain. It was a good bottle but not that special.
After dinner we head to World of Disney and do a little shopping before heading up to the room to unpack and hit the sack. It's been a long day and we both went head first into a large wall right as we got up to the room. We are both asleep within minutes of getting into bed. We know this trip is going to be fun but we have a lot to cram into a few days do we are going to be hitting it HARD, especially for a couple of old people!!!!
9:30 AM - in the car and ready for our whirlwind 5-day trip to Disneyland to celebrate their 60th Anniversary! No hurry to get to Seatac for our 2:55 pm flight into Ontario airport but better safe than sorry, so we are giving ourselves lots of time and are planning to have a relaxing lunch. We have no idea just HOW relaxing the lunch is going to be......
On the way to Seattle I get a message saying our flight is going to be delayed, now leaving at 3:26 PM. Now we have even more time to relax.
12:15 PM - we arrive at Seatac with lots of time to spare. Little traffic on the I-5 today. We park in the best spot in the house, get through security in about 30 seconds, and head towards the gates where we are expecting to have lunch. In this day and age of Nexus and TSA pre-check travelling is really so easy for us, but it's still a relief once all the checks are over. You never know what's going to happen.
As we walk towards the restaurant area my eagle-eyed wife spots a place called "Vino Volo". A wine bar in an airport and we just happen to have a couple hours before our flight? YES PLEASE!!!!!!
For you wine lovers I will have a full tasting report in the wine blog once we get home, but it was a terrific experience. We had tastes of 7 different wines including 3 big Washington reds, 3 Oregon Pinots and a Gruner Veltliner from Washington, and all were lovely. We also enjoyed a very nice charcuterie plate, and bought a bottle of one of the Oregon Pinots ($55) and our entire bill including tip was only $140! What an absolutely fabulous way to start the trip. And we discovered that they are a chain in many airports, including YVR, so when we fly from YVR to Florida in March we have an excuse to go early!! Well now that I think about it our flight leaves at 6AM so that might not work out so well.
2:30 PM - we get to the gate a few minutes before we start boarding. No first class seats available on this flight but we did upgrade to "preferred seating" (exit row) so we will be boarding before the general boarding call.
2:55 PM - boarding begins.
2:55:45 PM - notsofast. The pilot calls through to stop the boarding. Turns out there is a problem with a circuit breaker and maintenance is in the cockpit. Going to be about a half hour until they have any kind of timeframe for us.
3:40 PM - electrical problem is fixed and we board. It sucks losing an hour of our vacation but we can't complain much at this point, sitting next to us is a young Army Private who is going home for the first time in 9 months and only has 36 hours to visit with his family. Due to one of his co-workers being 6 hours late to relieve him he has already missed one flight and is now delayed another hour. Poor guy is hardly going to have any time to visit.
And the news just gets worse, as right after we pull away from the gate, the pilot sees another unrelated electrical problem and brings us back to the gate. After a couple minutes of waiting we are told they have another plane for us, thank God, so we de-plane and take a long walk and shuttle ride to another part of the airport to get on a plane that actually works. We hope.
We have dinner reservations at Catal for 730, which ain't going to happen, so I call and change them to 8:30. The Army Private is less than pleased, I see him start a text with "MOTHER FU****", but he didn't use the asterisks.
The plane does take off and we have an uneventful flight. They area buying the first drink for everyone due to the inconvenience. We actually get two since we apparantly get a feed cocktail anyway for the upgraded seats. Tracey has Bailey's and I have a reasonably decent Sauvignon Blanc. Hey, for airplane wine, it's not bad at all.
7:55 PM - we finally land in Ontario and our driver is waiting for us. He was aware that the flight had been delayed but had been at the airport for hours anyway. Poor guy. Anyway we get our luggage and he escorts us to his car, a nice Mercedes. I joke that this brand new Mercedes was the best he could do? My wife rolls her eyes and pints out to me that it's actually a Cadillac. Duh. What can I say, from time to time I catch the dumb.
8:45 PM - after a very comfortable ride we arrive at the Grand Californian Hotel, perhaps our favourite place on the planet. We have a regular room this time, which is unusual for us, we always pay extra for a view of Downtown Disney. My thinking is that if you are willing to pay the absurd prices to stay here, you might as well pay absurd+$100 and get the great view too. We are here at the wrong weekend for that though, as there is a Disney Marathon going on this weekend and it is one of the busiest weekends of the year so we are actually pretty damn lucky we got a room at all. The hotel is totally sold out.
The advantage of arriving close to 9PM is that there is nobody else checking in so we are done in minutes, take our stuff to the room and head to Catal for our late dinner reservations. It's somewhat busy considering the time of night, but we get lucky and get seated at the best table in the joint, right against the railing overlooking Downtown Disney. Someone below us is performing the Beatles classic "Something". Minutes later, the fireworks start and we have a great view. This day started great and is ending great.
The food here is always excellent, in fact the last time we were here Tracey had a risotto dish that was the best we had ever tasted. In fact we ate here twice that trip and the second time we BOTH ordered the risotto....so you can imagine our disappointment when the mushroom risotto that Tracey ordered was probably the WORST risotto we have ever had! It was so bad she sent it back and we never do that. They were happy to replace it without any trouble however and her replacement dish, a carbonara pasta, was excellent, as was my prime rib. Both dishes went nicely with the bottle of wine we ordered, a 2005 Tempranillo/Graciano blend from the Rioja region of Spain. It was a good bottle but not that special.
After dinner we head to World of Disney and do a little shopping before heading up to the room to unpack and hit the sack. It's been a long day and we both went head first into a large wall right as we got up to the room. We are both asleep within minutes of getting into bed. We know this trip is going to be fun but we have a lot to cram into a few days do we are going to be hitting it HARD, especially for a couple of old people!!!!
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