Another Cook in the House

A couple of days ago, Shara brought the tablet into the kitchen and set up to make peanut butter cups from the Simple Cooking Channel. She had a couple of questions but all could be done in the microwave and didn't require supervision, which worked out great because I was outside helping clear tree debris from the yard. We had a few trees cut down, not from a storm. So I did have to help a bit with some of the supply locations but really, these were all Shara's doing.

These were very good - a mixture of dark and some milk chocolate on the outside and a layer of peanut butter melted with white chocolate in the middle.











So what could be the follow-up? How about Rainbow Gummy Skittles in a Glass?

2014 Disney Vacation - Day 3

This was the day we were waiting for - the AFY performance! But before then, we had other parks to take on. We had reservations at the Kilimanjaro Safaris® for about 10 AM. We also had to get Shara's props and clothes ready for the performance and did a great job getting it all together. We started by getting a pretzel for Alan and Shara had a bite or so. FastPass worked great and we got right on the bus and out to see the animals.

They were quite amazing and our guide was also wonderful. His name was Billy and he seemed to be doing more than just playing the role of the laid back guide. He seemed to really enjoy sharing the animals and talking about them with us. We saw; Black Rhinos, Cheetahs laying in the shade, Crocodiles, Elephants - one was carrying a big mouthful of hay to a shady area, Flamingos, Giraffes - 2 kinds; reticulated and Masai, Hippopotamus in the water, a sunning Lioness, Warthogs, Wildebeest, Zebras, and an Ostrich that came right up to the truck and gave us all the funniest look! We also got a look at a pile of Ostrich eggs. There were other animals too and one that was our drivers favorite but I can't remember the name. The cool thing were the animal's horns, which were long and twisty, but the animal didn't ever need to drink water its entire life!

After the safari we had brunch at the Kusafiri Coffee Shop & Bakery. Shara & I each had a breakfast wrap; scrambled eggs, goat cheese and spinach. They were really hot and really good. Shara ate about 1/2 but I managed to finish most of mine, though it was really big. Alan continued on the sweet road and had a caramel brownie and finished Shara's wrap.

On to the Kali River Rapids! We had another fastpass and got there close to 11:30 AM. We still had to stand in line but only about 15 minutes or so. We did get soaked! It was so much fun but too short! We would have all been happy to go again. Shara and I were in the front so didn't see anything that was coming at us. Lots of fun and Shara's favorite thing in the Animal Kingdom.

I thought we'd next go to the Finding Nemo musical but Shara had no interest so we wandered a bit towards our next fastpass - the Festival of the Lion King. The show was at 1 PM and we were told to get there between 12:30 and 12:50. We easily could have gotten there much closer to 1 PM and not have to wait as long, but live and learn. The show was good. Shara said, "it was pretty cool". Alan liked the monkeys the best. I liked the singing but it didn't have the magic it had for me the first time I saw it. The show ended and we ran over to Asia because Shara wanted to see what she thought was a Kimono. It turned out to be an expensive nightgown but we did need to look for a shirt for Auntie Chrissy so ran around to a couple of places and did find a good one. I got the same but in blue.

Then it was time to get back to the car and on to Port Orleans and the French Quarter to meet up with the rest of the AFY kids and get Shara on the bus to Downtown Disney for the performance!

The parents were meeting the kids after the show at Cirque du Soleil but until then, we were without Shara. We got a couple of drinks and looked in a shop or two then headed to the stage. The kids did a great job! Here is one of the videos:


It took a while for Shara to reappear after her performance but when she did, she was wired! They gave all the kids special cast member bags and they also get to keep the cool AFY Disney t-shirt. We took way to long to get pretzels at the Wentzels but they were good and we were hungry. We walked to the Lego store at the other side of Downtown Disney and thought about seeking shelter because it looked like a storm was coming. We then went to the Disney store and Shara looked for a shirt. We had to get moving because we had 7:15 dinner reservations at Sanaa. We had to call and say we'd be late because it took us forever to walk back to our car and then there was a backup leaving the area. But we got there and while we waited, go to view more giraffes and ostriches and other really cool animals. I didn't think there'd be so many to view, but there were!

Dinner was good. We split the Indian-style Bread Service - Traditional Naan, Garlic-Ginger Naan, Spiced Naan, with Cucumber Raita, Spicy Jalapeño-Lime Pickle, and Tamarind Chutney. Shara got the Butter Chicken and Beef Short Ribs combo, served with rice. Alan had Chicken Vindaloo and Spicy Durban Shrimp served with rice and I had the Paneer Tikka and Seasonal Vegetable Wat (ratatouille) with the 5-grain pilaf. It was good but not awesome. It was very nice to sit down and be waited on and the service was great!

Since this was our last day/night in the parks, it was our last chance to go to Fantasmic at Hollywood Studios. Alan wanted no part of it - he was far too tired, but Shara and I ventured out and had a terrific time. We parked pretty close and while we were going in, saw the Frozen fireworks spectacular. We hopped on the tram and the person running it questioned if we meant to get on it or missed our stop, since it was so late, I assume, walked right in and over to the amphitheater. We got perfect seats and only had about a 15 minute wait before the show started. Shara loved it! 100 thumbs up! So glad we didn't miss it. On our way out we decided to see if there was a shirt for her to buy and she did find a cool one in one of the stores. It's an extra small adult shirt but the adult designs are so neat and she'll be able to wear it for a while. It does have "Walt Disney World 2014" on it so it's also a souvenir. Another very full, fun day!

2014 Disney Vacation - Day 2

It's hard to remember the days but the second day was Wednesday. We went to Hollywood Studios in the morning and then Epcot in the afternoon. We got a fairly early start because time was short - packing 2 parks in one day. We wanted to join in the Frozen revelries and got to the park in time to get a couple of bagels at Starring Rolls and find a spot for the 11 am welcome parade. Alan found a spot for us and Shara & I went for the bagel run. We managed to get the bagels, cream cheese them, and find Alan in time for the parade to start. It was cute - they had snow made from soap foam coming down and the stars on their floats. Loud music, dancing and costumes that must have been pretty hot for the dancers on a very hot day like this one. After the parade and a cute comedy skit and sing-along with Olaf and the princesses, it was off to Beauty and the Beast. Shara enjoyed it but didn't seem blown away. We also went to the Little Mermaid, which wasn't quite as good as we remembered. The mic on Ariel needed to be turned up and it really seemed shorted that we remembered. Shara did love the Great Hollywood Movie Ride. I was happy about that because it introduced her to several of the classics and she even knew some of them already. Her favorite part was when our driver switched places with one of the live actors in a scene and she also liked the fire.

We ended up not seeing that much but did get a couple of cups of ice water for Alan to make good on his ALS ice bucket challenge. He did it outside the park, in front of Olaf, which was cute - Alan got frozen with Frozen.

Post by Alan Yabroudy.

We took the Friendship Boat to Epcot and left the car at Hollywood Studios. While waiting for the boat, we saw two kinds of turtles in the water, many fish (poisson, as the young French speaking boy noted), and ducks (one even pooped a lot!). We got a nice tour of some of the resorts - Swan & Dolphin, Boardwalk, a couple others. and a break from walking. It was quite a hot day - very humid, and we made good use of the Olaf fan.

Studying the map - on the boat

We got to Epcot via the back entrance near the International Gateway. Of course we were all turned around, but figured out we were in the UK pretty quickly. Shara decided not to do the Phineaus & Ferb scavenger hunt so we went to France to, what else, eat! The place was so busy we decided to get a bite at Les Halles Boulangerie & Patisserie. Alan had a turkey BLT, Shara had the Creme Brulee and I had a Salad Nicoise. I was planning on having ice cream and needed to have something healthy before all that sugar. The salad was good but we could only find a stand up table. There were several birds flying around and I believe they were nesting at the top of the walls near the dining area. A couple of feathers floated down. Bubbe would have loved it (sarcasm)! Alan & Shara went outside and sat at a table but I decided to finish inside, since it was still really hot out. After the salad, I did go into L'Artisan des Glace. As others have mentioned in various food blogs, it was a very difficult decision to make. I settled on the White Chocolate Coconut in a waffle cone, but the Salted Caramel, Profiterole, and all the other flavors, sounded equally delicious. I don't think there was a bad choice and I enjoyed the cone all the way to Future World.

We had fast passes for Soarin', The Seas w/ Nemo & Friends, and Mission Space. The first was Soarin' and it was phenomenal. I thought it was going to be a simulator that made us feel like we were hang gliding, where we'd lay in an aparatus, stomach down. It wasn't anything like that. We were strapped into chairs, in rows of about 10. There was a huge, emersive screen that started a movie that made it feel we were flying over California. It also had some smells, like oranges when going over an orange grove being harvested, but the main thing was the video and the moving of the chairs we were sitting in. It was really neat. The Nemo ride was not. It was pretty lame, actually, but it didn't take too much time out of the day. Our last fast pass for the day was at Mission SPACE. We had to decide if we wanted to go on the Orange or Green level. We opted for Green (tame) and Shara & I felt it was good enough for us. Alan wanted more so he went on the Orange one after. He said there wasn't much difference between the two. While Alan went on the Mission SPACE orange ride, Shara & I went to find something else to do. We ended up going in Spaceship Earth - the big sphere. She loved it - viewing the history was cool and having the ride customize our future vacation was even cooler. On our trip, Shara will have an android along to play games with her, such as chess, and we'll get to fly in personal flying cars. She also liked riding in the dark car.

We had 8:40 dinner reservations at Tokyo Sushi and were hoping to get seats close to the window so we could see IllumiNations in comfort. We didn't get seats by the window but we did get to see the fireworks and hear the music. Shara's getting pretty jaded by now with the fireworks so it wasn't as spectacular as her sushi. While waiting for dinner, we did try the shaved ice - I got the rainbow - tangerine, melon and strawberry. As recommended by others, I got the sweet milk but we all agreed it wasn't very good. I seemed to be the only one who liked the flavors so was the one to eat most of it. Dinner was good. Alan got a spicy roll, salmon w/ truffle oil and he raved about it. Shara really liked it too. Alan also got an order of the  tempura calamari with a spicy sauce. Shara had miso soup, a rainbow roll and we split edamame for the table. I had a salad w/ ginger dressing and this combo roll - 2 spicy rolls with lots of tempura flakes. Everything was good. The place was very loud but they did pipe in the music for Illuminations, which was cool. We skipped dessert, already had it, and made our way through the closed park to find a bus to take us back to Hollywood Studios and our car. The park's a really neat place to be when it's mostly empty and rather dark. Thank you Alan for driving us back to the resort so we could crash after yet another busy day!

Very tired, waiting for the bus to Hollywood Studios

2014 Disney Vacation - Day 1

When am I going to learn to save the best for last? We spent the day in the Magic Kingdom. We got there very early, in time for rope drop. We were going to get the shuttle from the hotel but missed the 7:30 am pickup - we saw it but didn't have time to park and walk to it before it started driving away. That worked out fine. We decided to just drive, since the next one wasn't for another 1/2 hour and we'd get to the park and get moving and not have to worry about pick-up later. So we drove the few miles to the transportation center and thought the ferry sounded like a fun way to arrive at the Magic Kingdom.

Alan & Shara on the Ferry

Note - I think this is the order of operation, but it's sort of a blur. We went on a ton of rides and managed to not have a very long wait for most, so it zipped by pretty quickly. I think we were on Disney Time.

We got to the gate with plenty of time to watch the welcome and get down main street with the crowds. We made our way over to Fantasyland to see about getting in line for the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. The line was already 90 minutes long but the cast member told us the ride hadn't been running yet - there were issues, so we left there and went to Winnie the Pooh - no wait. Then over to It's a Small World - no wait. Caught our fast pass to Under the Sea - the little mermaid and then had some breakfast at Gaston's Tavern. Shara and Alan split the roast pork loin, apples in caramel and we all shared a cinnamon bun and the lefou's brew - frozen apple juice with a mango foam. The brew was very sweet but very good. A few brain freezes can really wake you up in the morning.

Shara at Gaston's Tavern

We then went on Peter Pan's Flight (fast pass). Alan and Shara rode the tea cups because Shara wanted to see how fast she could get them to spin and it wasn't something mommy would be happy about. 

Alan & Shara on the tea cups

After the tea cups we went to Frontierland and had a very short (15 min?) wait to get in the Haunted Mansion. That was a top ride for all of us and we realized how fun it was to be scared in a safe way. That got us a bit braver though the next fast pass reservation was coming up for the enchanted tales of Belle. This was cute and Shara was quick to want to participate. I'm guessing it wouldn't have been as fun if she hadn't because it was just the story of Beauty and the Beast, but the kids got to help act it out.

 

On to Adventureland - went to try to get a fast pass and saw the line was long just for the fast pass! However we did get one for the Jungle Cruise. What I think was a new cast member made our FP and as we were trying to figure out how to leave - there were so many people and no exit line, he moved one of the ropes to let us in. As we were walking away, he put the rope back and started tripping Shara with it. We overheard him get reprimanded by an older cast member. Certainly not the Disney way! We hadn't realized we could only get one fast pass after our initial 3 were already used. I thought we could get another 3, so the app I had wasn't working in the park and that was a bit frustrating, which is why we had to go in line to get the pass, but it was a great move and saved us so much time, even with the FP wait. As we waited for our time for the cruise, we went to the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse. It was so hot today, walking up the steps was close to killing Shara. Much at this point was uncomfortable but earlier we got her a spray fan and that was another good move. She said she'd pay us back by redeeming one of her Target gift cards from home. We then meandered our way to the Jungle Cruise. Shara thought this was the ride I was talking about with the live animals (the safari in Animal Kingdom) and was a bit let down, but it was still sort of cute, mostly because of our driver.

Cruisin' in the Jungle

Obviously our schedules weren't normal so at this point I think we got doused with an afternoon shower and tried to seek shelter with lunch at Be Our Guest restaurant. No such luck but did get into the extremely crowded pinocchio village house and had a flatbread, sub, salad, fries. The flatbread was quite good and actually the rest was too. The salad was fast food quality though. 

It was then time for the parade. Wow - we were blown away. Shara & I went to find spots and Alan was going to meet up with us after paying, but we ended up not getting together until after. That was ok because Shara scoped out a great spot and we were able to see all the action. Alan was only about 30 feet away so no big deal finding each other. We didn't take any pictures of the parade because we know we can find better online. Here's a video of it. After the parade we took a ride on the river boat, which was a very nice break from being on our feet most of the day, then got a frozen lemonade and took a ride on Aladdin's Magic Carpets and had fun finding the pretty gems in the concrete. We also talked about Robin Williams and had a little sad moment mixed in with the fun. Some time during all of this we got another FP for Pirates and sat for a few minutes before being able to go. Pirates is always fun and the wall of water was a thrill as well as the drop. Shara was happy I didn't tell her about it and she loved it. It was now close to 6 PM. I can't remember what we did next but I believe we exited Adventureland toward the front side of the park and walked back to Fantasyland through Tomorrowland and ended up trying to get a ride on the Mine Train. Since it was dinnertime, the line was only about 90 minutes long and we decided to wait it out. It was worth the wait. Alan rode up in front and Shara & I were behind him, holding on for dear life. But what fun! I was holding the bar and Shara was holding my arm. Had the line been much shorter, we'd certainly go again. Then it was on to Tomorrowland. Shara wanted to go in the Stitch's Great Escape. It was much less scary than when it was the Alien theme and fun. Not much of a wait. We couldn't convince her to try Space Mountain but we did check out the people mover and we'd have loved to have it go through the whole Magic Kingdom park. What a great view of the place, and it was at sunset too - bonus! Then we ran into the dance party, did a bit of boogying and over to the Tomorrowland Terrace for the Fireworks Dessert Party. We had a reserved table right near the front of the restaurant and were told that the railing area was standing room only so people were allowed to enjoy the food at their tables but people could come and stand in front of us at the rail. That was fine - it wasn't too crowded and Alan was actually able to stay seated for the fireworks. During the time we ate our yummy treats we were able to watch the Main Street Electric Parade, then came Wishes! Shara was very relieved we'd be able to see Tink from the restaurant because she was super worried we wouldn't and it would ruin the tradition. When we got to our table we were able to confirm we'd see her because the string went right over the terrace where we were sitting. Here's an outside review.

The end of the night isn't that spectacular. Got out of the park, got to our car, got back to the resort and crashed!

2014 Disney Vacation - Travel Day

I'm not going to give a detailed account of our plane ride here or the experience at the airport because it was rather mundane. We got to the airport, parked, took the elevator, got something to eat, waited, waited, waited, found watching the luggage removal and loading from the plane was interesting and Shara really wanted the hot pink suitcases, learned the fuel is stored in the wings, like Jet Blue because they have in-flight TVs, enjoyed watching the food channel and learned how to make beef bourguignon and baked Alaska, shared headphones - lucky we have the style where we can each take a bud (first world problem), got off the plane, got our luggage, got our car, got to the resort, got unpacked, and got to bed.

Goodbye Hoffman's

Yesterday after picking Shara up after almost a week with Aunt Jill, we made a stop at the beautiful Clifton Park Public Library before meeting Bubbe at Starbucks for a short visit. The plan was to then grab a quick lunch but we got a little sidetracked trying to find where we wanted to eat. Shara kept saying, me should just go to Chipotle because we're going to end up there anyway", but I wanted to see what else was at Clifton Commons. We found an interesting salad place and a cupcake bakery that was on Cupcake Wars. We figured we'd go back and get cupcakes after lunch, but didn't find anywhere better than Chipotle, so ended up there. It was just as good as the last time we had it, and basically had the same thing as last time too. We then walked back to the cupcake place (Coccadotts), stopping at Marshals to look at the shoes and use their facilities. Then big decisions had to be made. We couldn't figure out what 2 cupcakes to get, there were so many interesting flavors. After getting a recommendation from the sales girl, we decided on the Cannoli -

Cannoli

"A delicious almond cupcake iced with cannoli buttercream. Garnished with crumbled cannoli shells, chocolate chips, and a rich chocolate shaving." and the Double Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough -

Double Chocolate Chip

A chocolate cupcake with chocolate chip cookie dough mousse filling. Topped with cookie dough buttercream and a chocolate chip garnish. Eating these in the car was interesting. I'd have been much happier with a plate and fork but I carefully ate just 1/2 of each - Shara was keeping a close watch on me that I didn't go over the line. She needn't have worried. I wasn't a big fan of the Cannoli but the cookie one was very, very good.

After sugaring up we were on to our next stop - Hoffman's Playland. I had heard they were closing for good so had to show it to Shara, since it was a big memory of my childhood. My aunt Susie took me there a couple of times, I think, with my cousin Ev. So much fun - I liked the bumper cars the best. But this was a totally different experience with Shara. She's not one for the tall rides and I'm not one for the spinny ones, but we made it work. We went on the hot air balloons, then the merry-go-round, then the hot air balloons, then the train. We couldn't finish on the train because that would have been fairly depressing, so Shara went by herself on the teacups, which were more like sparkly hot tubs.

Happy to pose with the sign

Happy to pose with the weird clown trash

Selfies w/ mommy on the merry-go-round

Fun balloons!

Posing w/ creepy humpty dumpty