19 posts tagged “fun”
Last week my sister, Marcia, and I drove down to Houston to attend the International Quilt Festival. We've been to Market several times, but this was our first trip to the festival. How lovely it was to go and simply have fun instead of spending every waking minute trying to figure out what to purchase for the shop. If you wish to find out about what we saw and did at the show I'll be posting that stuff here.
We arrived in Houston on Wednesday and stayed with John the entire time we were there. Our original plan had been to spend all of Thursday, Friday, and Saturday attending the show, but we ended up spending most of the day Friday with John.
Our day with John started off by going downtown to visit one of his favorite stores (and now one of ours) Spec's. We could easily have stayed there for the entire day shopping, but after picking out a few goodies we moved on.
The next stop along our route was the Johnson Space Center. I spent two weeks there back in 1984, but some things have changed since then. They have a flashy new visitor center with lots of interactive exhibits, a food court, and the obligatory gift shop. You can also take a tram ride around the campus which stops off at a couple of buildings including a visit to the old mission control. The Saturn V rocket has been refurbished and is now located inside of a building. You can also get right up next to it which you couldn't do the last time I was there.
The view along the seawall was mostly unobstructed by tourist traps.
If John were more cooperative this wouldn't be such a crappy picture. He has no one to blame for it but himself.
Last night Jonah brought his mom and Nana Mary over for supper. After we were done eating we went out to sit on the patio and Ken let Jonah go inside of his workshop to explore. He thought Grandpa Kenny's ear protection was way cool (and it matched his outfit).
Shortly after 8:00 this morning as I was sitting in bed reading the paper and listening to the news on TV I heard the house creak very loudly. The sort of noise it makes when a huge gust of wind hits it. But it wasn't windy outside. So I started wondering what it might have been....Earthquake? I didn't feel any shaking. Shock wave from a passing semi on the interstate? I didn't hear any unusual traffic sounds or feel any rumbling to go with it. Nor did I hear any other unusual sounds of any sort. Hmmm....So I went back to reading my paper and listening to the news. About 30 minutes later the news anchor announced that the station was getting lots of calls from the SE side of the metro reporting an earthquake. A few minutes later they had confirmation. Cool!
Thursday--
We left OKC in the morning and arrived in Houston at noon. John was waiting for us at the gate with lunch in hand as we did not have enough time to get our own food. From there we traveled on to Orlando. Upon arriving at the airport we proceeded directly to the Disney Magical Express desk and then got right on to a bus that took us to our resort. After finding our rooms and dropping off our carry-on bags we headed back out the door and went over to Epcot for dinner at Restaurant Marrakesh (my choice). The food and the service made this a place worth visiting again. Following dinner we watched the nightly fireworks show. Then it was time to head back to our rooms and rest up for the big day ahead.
Friday--
After eating breakfast we began our first full day of fun by heading over to the Magic Kingdom. If our goal was to see as much as we could and ride as many rides as we could (though the Hall of Presidents and Splash Mountain were closed), I think we succeeded! Wendi really hated Small World, but we made her ride it anyway. We all agreed that Stitch's Great Escape is definitely a ride(?) worth missing.
All this fun was followed up by a monorail ride back over to Epcot where we had dinner at San Angel Inn (John's choice). The food was good and the service was excellent. If I ever get back I will definitely eat there again. Dinner was early enough that night that we had time to explore some of the park before we left.
Saturday--
Wendi chose to spend the morning in the room so John, Ken, and I headed out to Hollywood Studios without her. Ken and John will easily agree that the best part of that park is the Tower of Terror. They rode it three times! Muppet Vision 3-D was also a highlight of the day. We tried to ride the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, but it broke down just as they were loading us into the cars. They gave us passes to come back and ride later, but only Ken and John made it back for that ride. Wendi joined us for lunch and stuck around for the rest of the day.
After finishing up at that park we took a ferry back to Epcot. This would be the point in the trip where John started calling me "Mom." We arrived early enough to do quite a bit of exploring (and wine tasting) before our dinner at Coral Reef (Wendi's choice). In spite of the fact that all four of us had considered this place for our dinner choices it was without a doubt the weakest meal of the trip. The food was OK, the service was awful, and in spite of the fact that this is obviously an adult restaurant it was full of screaming small children. We did not enjoy our meal.
Sunday--
Sunday morning found us back at Epcot to finish seeing and doing the things we wanted to do there. After eating lunch in Mexico we headed over to Animal Kingdom. All of the FASTPASS machines were down and since we didn't want to stand in long lines we were not able to ride any of the rides. (I should note that we did encounter one other ride at another park for which the FASTPASS machines were down, but that ride had cast members handing out passes. There was none of this at Animal Kingdom.) I think it's fair to say that we were all disappointed with this park.
From AK we proceeded back to Hollywood Studios so that Ken and John could ride the roller coaster. I also had a pass for it, but was too tired to walk that far. Wendi and I chose instead to sit outside the park and wait on the guys. Once they came back out we headed out for our last dinner of the trip at the Maya Grill (Ken's choice) located at the Coronado Springs Resort. This was absolutely the best meal of the trip. The food was excellent, the service was outstanding, and it was quiet. It's the only restaurant we ate in that wasn't packed to the gills. I assume that this is because it's located in a resort instead of a park. If I ever get back I will most certainly eat there again.
Monday--
We got up very early and were on the bus to the airport by 7:15am. By this time we had all had more than enough of each other's company and were ready to go home. Don't let that last statement fool you. It was a jam packed, fun filled trip and I'd do it all again in a minute!
We had a wonderful time. I'll tell you all about it later.
| You Are a Blue Crayon |
You are a loyal person, and the truest friend anyone could hope to find. On the inside, you tend to be emotional and even a bit moody. However, you know that people depend on you. So you put on a strong front. Your color wheel opposite is orange. Orange people may be opinionated, but you feel they lack the depth to truly understand what they're saying. |
Wednesday's funeral for our friend Tom was a very proper Catholic funeral, but by no means Tom's idea of a party. Saturday night his friends decided to correct that situation by sending him off with a bang (both literally and figuratively).
Tom believed in buying his beer by the keg and had just brought home a new one before he left on his trip to Missouri. We tapped it for him and did our best to drink it all.
One of his buddies brought over his grill and a little food (what you see here is just the tip of the iceberg).
After dark we went out to one of the ponds on the property and the guys spent nearly two hours setting off fireworks. Some of the aerials they had were more impressive than what we saw at the ballgame the night before (I heard one estimate that they had spent about $700 on fireworks, but I don't know if that's accurate or not.)
All in all, it was a party that Tom could be proud of.
This afternoon we went over to Darcy's new house to celebrate Claire's 11th birthday which was actually on July 4. The house is about 90 years old and has tons of personality
but we were happy to see all those squealing girls go home.
[1] Ken's acetylene bomb
You need:
One large plastic trash bag
An acetylene torch
twine (that stiff brown stuff you use for mailing)
WD-40
lighter
Light the torch and adjust until you have a good blue flame. Whack the torch against concrete so that the flame goes out but the gas is still flowing. Fill the trash bag with this air/acetylene mixture. Close the trash bag and tie it off with the twine. Be sure to leave a fuse about 10 feet long. Douse the fuse with WD-40. Place the trash bag in a large open area. Be sure the fuse is stretched out straight in the direction you are going to run. Light the end of the fuse. RUN!
A fun day was had by all. Well, except for the part Jonah slept through. But he really liked the rest of it.
A lot of these pictures were taken at the new Oklahoma Trails exhibit. It's huge. I don't think we saw much more than a third of the entire zoo today. Good thing we bought a membership so we can go back another day to see what all we missed!
Today is my day to watch Jonah. Grampa Kenny is playing hooky from work and we're going to the zoo. Hope to have pictures later.
Jonah wants to say something--"b b b c vubnnnnnnny hyjuiiuyhgbfgbj"
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