Kidani, HRH & BLT in 6 nights- Yes! We are THAT crazy!! Nov 4-10,09 OBX updates 4/13

[MAGICFOR2]

So glad Sean got his much need rest! So sweet of that MGR. Looks like a great Tutto lunch. As for your OBX weekend, post away - I can live vicariously through you!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

YUM to Tutto Italia! Looks delicous!

Yay for the Contemp for being sooo great to you guys! LOVE Disney! I really believe they will do everything they can to make their guests happy. So glad Sean was feeling better by the end of the day but booooo to the ME bus! It's amazing how that bus can be the most beautiful thing you've ever seen AND the most depressing!

 

[englishrose47]

Great Updates Ellen!!! The Bowtie pasta with peas and ham is delish. I had it once before !!!Tutto is on my to do againlist!!!How awesome that the Manager let you have the studio for Sean to sleep ..Disney Magic at work for sure !!!

 

[podsnel]

So glad Sean got his much need rest! So sweet of that MGR. Looks like a great Tutto lunch. As for your OBX weekend, post away - I can live vicariously through you!

I'll post some OBX stuff after i finish with this trip- before I start a new TR for the DISmoms trip in just 24 days!!!!

YUM to Tutto Italia! Looks delicous!

Yay for the Contemp for being sooo great to you guys! LOVE Disney! I really believe they will do everything they can to make their guests happy. So glad Sean was feeling better by the end of the day but booooo to the ME bus! It's amazing how that bus can be the most beautiful thing you've ever seen AND the most depressing!

I've never really thought of it like that...but that is EXACTLY right- it IS the most beautiful and the most depressing! Not too many things you can say that about.

And ITA, I believe they will do whatever they can to make their guests happy. It's why we keep going back and why we got the DVC to make sure we do.

Great Updates Ellen!!! The Bowtie pasta with peas and ham is delish. I had it once before !!!Tutto is on my to do againlist!!!How awesome that the Manager let you have the studio for Sean to sleep ..Disney Magic at work for sure !!!

Timmy's was by far the best plate- it's very hard to live where we live and eat Italian food elsewhere- here at home, we are surrounded by Italians making all kinds of amazing food (HOT ITALIANS, ROSIE!!! You'd be in heaven!! ). So for us to like this restaurant says a lot about how good it was. Not that we're experts or anything. We're just hungrier than most.

 

[englishrose47]

I'll post some OBX stuff after i finish with this trip- before I start a new TR for the DISmoms trip in just 24 days!!!!

[/B]

I've never really thought of it like that...but that is EXACTLY right- it IS the most beautiful and the most depressing! Not too many things you can say that about.

And ITA, I believe they will do whatever they can to make their guests happy. It's why we keep going back and why we got the DVC to make sure we do.



Timmy's was by far the best plate- it's very hard to live where we live and eat Italian food elsewhere- here at home, we are surrounded by Italians making all kinds of amazing food (HOT ITALIANS, ROSIE!!! You'd be in heaven!! ). So for us to like this restaurant says a lot about how good it was. Not that we're experts or anything. We're just hungrier than most.

I too live in a great Italian food area and thus most other Italian foods are not up to par but that Pasta with Ham and Peas was superb!!!! Yea for the Hot Italians

Will we be gettting another ITSK ?????

 

[Mysteria]

All caught up again. What a great way Sean being sick was handled by the resort. Two huge thumbs up for them!

Can't wait to see more pics and hear about your most recent adventure.

 

[MEK]

Oh Ellen:

I loved your last update. I think that is so great how BLT accomodated you. It's horrible to not feel well on your last day and not have a place to go. What a blessing! It's so great that you and the boys got to hit Epcot with that peace of mind. And Pods comes through again - gave up his bed and more than one occasion and stayed home with Sean. He pretty much rocked this last trip!

I love your OB pictures and I wonder what's happening that you can't post them. It really looks truely beautiful there. Thanks for the dining suggestions. I abolutely LOVE crabcakes, so I am definately going to find that place and put it in the gps before we leave. Awesome suggestion!

Now I am going to pm you because I got very, very sick late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. I was probably brewing a GI virus when we met, so I want to make sure that neither you or the boys got sick. It came on like a ton a bricks, literally.

 

[podsnel]

I too live in a great Italian food area and thus most other Italian foods are not up to par but that Pasta with Ham and Peas was superb!!!! Yea for the Hot Italians

Will we be gettting another ITSK ?????

I am sure there will be plenty of ITSK, ITSE, ITSC, ITSL, ITSJ, & ITSP pics. Well...maybe not ITSL pics. Not sure they exist!

All caught up again. What a great way Sean being sick was handled by the resort. Two huge thumbs up for them!

Can't wait to see more pics and hear about your most recent adventure.

I will start on that as soon as I finish up this- just as an added mini TR bonus on this TR. And I am a HUGE fan of BLT for a lot of reasons, but that last day response by management was the icing on the cake for me- I'm a fan for life!

Oh Ellen:

I loved your last update. I think that is so great how BLT accomodated you. It's horrible to not feel well on your last day and not have a place to go. What a blessing! It's so great that you and the boys got to hit Epcot with that peace of mind. And Pods comes through again - gave up his bed and more than one occasion and stayed home with Sean. He pretty much rocked this last trip!

I love your OB pictures and I wonder what's happening that you can't post them. It really looks truely beautiful there. Thanks for the dining suggestions. I abolutely LOVE crabcakes, so I am definately going to find that place and put it in the gps before we leave. Awesome suggestion!

Now I am going to pm you because I got very, very sick late Saturday night/early Sunday morning. I was probably brewing a GI virus when we met, so I want to make sure that neither you or the boys got sick. It came on like a ton a bricks, literally.

Yea- Pods came through again. He's a great guy, a really wonderful Dad. As hands on as anyone could ever be. Can't wait to see him again someday after April 15th!!!

I just couldn't post my pics while I was in the OBX- the internet was really, really slow, and my computer was messed up for some reason. All is good now, I'll post pics soon.

And Ocean Grille (the crabcakes) is in Corolla Light resort, where we stayed- you head north on 12, and make a right at Corolla Light Village and go back into the resort. It's in the recreation complex of pools, sports & arcade for the resort.

So sorry you were SO ILL and so happy you are better. We are all still healthy, no worries!!

Ok- back to the mulch...it is 89 degrees here today, the cherry trees are already losing their blossoms because it is so hot! But back to the 50's tomorrow, so want to get out there to enjoy the sun while I can.

 

[podsnel]

Soooo....we were back at BLT for the last time...

...got all the stuff out of the comp'd studio and headed over to the CR to wait with the other depressed travelers for the DME. Pods sat on a bench and ate our leftovers from Tutto's while I ran in and grabbed an iced tea from Contemporary Grounds, I was PARCHED!!

Note to self...next time, get a bottle of water. That was some nasty tea (had a slight coffee edge to it and barely was steeped with tea, I think) I drank on the DME to the airport-

Sadly, this is our Grand Finale of the trip-

As usual, we got to the airport with hours to spare (that to me is the BIG advantage of renting a car at WDW- the last day lasts a little longer...) After passing through security, we headed to the last ride of the trip, where my new little thrill seeker, Tim, got his thrill on one last time-

Sean was doing great, he had some more fries, and was just wonderful on the flight home. God bless the Contemporary Mgr AGAIN!! But, of course, i did keep him home the next day from school- although his fever was gone and he was able to go back the following day.

Anyway, it was a wonderful, wonderful, magical trip, our first DVC trip as a family with memories to treasure forever. Can't wait to go back again with all of us in November 2011...where we're going to try to book BLT for the entire stay (I think!). Now where did I put Sean's book??????

Thanks for reading, and thanks so much for all of your comments and PMs- I am so honored to have shared our experiences with you, and so happy we have touched your lives, because you and your heartfelt and funny comments have touched ours.

For those who are interested, I'll be posting tons of OBX pics soon with a mini TR- but not too much...because I'm headed for WDW in just 22 days with my DISmom girls, and that is a TR that can't WAIT to be written!!

Ellen

 

[podsnel]

I'm going to post some of my vacation in OBX this spring, since it seems like some of you want to see what it was like. This was our second year going to NC and Corolla Light with a large group of friends from town to ring in the spring! Rentals are cheap, the weeks surrounding Easter see most businesses open, and it is just a little bit warmer there than in NJ...not really expecting beach days like it's August, but hoping for sunny skies and a total lack of snow with weather nice enough to be outside to play in all kinds of ways. I LOVE this tradition of welcoming spring in this way, it feels so good after the winter! Anyway, it is about 8 hours from here to there, but it takes a little longer on the way down because we take the ferry from Cape May to Deleware- although, since I am driving alone with Tyler & Timmy, i actually prefer this route because it breaks it up, only 5 hours to go once we're off the boat and it avoids this HORRIBLE ride through rural Virginia etc where the road has traffic lights and 45 mph speeds- YUCK! We rented the house, Sutton Place, from VRBO and we all LOVED the location- on the sound, perfect for sunsets and cocktails, two headlining activities on this vacation!

Joan & Peter-

Joan & me-

I took plenty of sunset photos this year, so here's our first-

Sunday was our first full day, the kids ran around riding bikes, playing tennis and fishing in the pond (which is stocked) behind the house. Joan & I got ready to host dinner that night for everyone- 33 of us in 3 houses, and each house hosted a dinner for all- it was AWESOME!!! This was my favorite part of the trip, because it was so great to be able to hang with everyone while having a huge feast. At our house we were serving tuna tartare two ways (because someone had bought some tuna and asked me to prepare it- I did a spicy tuna and another one with avocado, jalepeno, soy and wasabi), Buffalo grilled shrimp, a pepperoni pizza dip. a cheese plate, then for entrees grilled marinated chicken breasts, Dominican marinated skirt steak, pasta with Bolognese sauce and two salads, a plain green salad for the kids and THE salad (well, that's what i call it- it's my favorite salad EVAAAARRRRR!!) which is bitter greens with avocado & grapefruit sections in a champagne citrus vinagrette. We had homemade brownies & choc chip cookies (Joan baked the cookies that morning) for dessert. Can you say MOO???? Anyway, here are some pics from our dinner-

Before dinner we held hands in a HUGE circle and said grace- it was so nice, and we did it at all of our group dinners-

It really helped that alot of the food had been prepared at home and either frozen or refrigerated before being packed in coolers to come down. Also nice to go on the second night and be DONE! After everyone left, we (Joan, Peter and I -who Peter started calling wife #2) listened to Peter's ipod music which is ALL 80's and got pretty ridiculous dancing and singing to all the tunes. Peter & I had a BLAST doing (as in dancing & singing to) White Lines. I think there was a little alcohol involved in our evening.....

So, so, so, SO funny!!

 

[podsnel]

Monday was our one and only rainy day- the huge storm that was affecting the entire East Coast had hit us on Sunday night and stayed until Tuesday morning. So we spent a relaxing day watching Forrest Gump (one of my all-time FAVES! I could watch that movie 100 times and still love it!) and watching the Ospreys out our window. Also fit in a little shopping, got the tshirt purchases out of the way- great sales this time of year at Gray's! We would have gone TO the movies, but the local theatre was still closed for the season, and the nearest one that was open was about 45 minutes away.

The whole week we were on the lookout for bald eagles- we had heard they could be seen around here- but never saw them. It turned out that they are there seasonally, usually Feb/March. That night we were headed over to Krista/Bethie/Giselle/ Ange's house- it was Libby's birthday and we were all going over to wish her a happy one! Ange is a caterer, and made the most delicious meal- beginning with these incredible greek phyllo appetizers and serving Coq au Vin for dinner with mashed potatoes and noodles and salad. Followed by 2 kinds of ice cream cake! AWESOME!

Their house was the largest of all of our houses, and they had the most people- it was in Whalehead, another development in Corolla. When we went home that night, we watched Avatar and joan & I did a puzzle, while my boys played foosball & video games downstairs-

Tuesday morning a bunch of the women went for a looooong walk on the beach- it was still gray and cloudy, but the rain had stopped!

We went to the horse fence and back. If you are not aware, i can tell you that there are wild horses in the Outer Banks- and up until sometime in recent history, (like mid to late '90s) they ran free on the island, mainly in the northen part where we were. But the horse fence was erected and all the horses were rounded up and put behind it because as the northern part of the island became more developed, the horses were getting injured (think about what happens to deer on the road ). Last year we saw the horses...this year we saw their fence. The walk from our house was about 5 to 6 miles, roundtrip. In the first pic you can see how high the tide still was from the storm. We had to walk single file at that point to avoid getting wet!

Touching the fence for goodluck!

Beyond the fence- Carova, where the horses and trucks run free-

I have to throw in a couple of pics from last year, just to show the horses, because they were SO STINKIN' CUTE!! These animals are descendents of Spanish horses which were released as a Spanish Galleon sank in the Atlantic offshore- they swam in, horses can swim for miles! The wild horses of OBX are the only true wild horses in the USA- they are completely on their own...if they become ill, they are removed from the population and never returned to it, living instead in a horse preserve also on the island. They are smaller than domestic horses, and they had their furry winter coats on-

Too bad I didn't have my DSLR last year, just a little point&shoot.

Time to go back-

The prettiest sight of all on the walk back- BLUE SKIES!!

I know I've posted these before, but this is where they fit, so here they are again-

As soon as we got home, Joan & I DOVE into our leftovers from Sunday night- we were STARVING!!! Nice to discover that THE salad, the leftover skirt steak, and chicken all tasted positively SCRUMPTIOUS together! Our view while we ate on the deck wasn't half bad either!

To be continued.....

 

[podsnel]

I talked Joan & morgan into a game of tennis. Keep in mind- I haven't played since I was a kid (unless you count the 80's with Pods one time that ended in near fisticuffs! ), Morgan took some lessons who remembers when, and Joan has never played in her life! We had soooo much fun!! And doesn't Joan look professional?

Morgan is goofing around with her Mom-

While we were playing, Timmy & tyler rode by on their bikes, coming back from shooting hoops up at all the basketball courts near the ocean. They were having a ball, loving all the freedom they have when we are down there. By the time we rode our bikes home, they were playing xbox with some of the other boys at our house-

We three girls continued our marathon day of exercise at the small gym- which didn't keep us busy for too long. Really need more weights in there- anyway, after that, it was time for showers, a glorious sunset, and then dinner at North Banks. Back with that later!

 

[WannaBeADisMom]

Yay, Ellen! It's like reliving Spring Break....and I wanna go back! So much fun and SO RELAXING!!!!

 

[Mysteria]

Looks like so much fun for everyone!

The white lines dancing brings back some memories.

Those horses are so beautiful! It's too bad they had to put up the fence.

eta: That would be memories of dancing to white lines not doing them.

 

[podsnel]

Yay, Ellen! It's like reliving Spring Break....and I wanna go back! So much fun and SO RELAXING!!!!

Me TOO!!!! It was an excellent vacation with you- can't wait to have our next one in 17 days!!!

Looks like so much fun for everyone!

The white lines dancing brings back some memories.

Those horses are so beautiful! It's too bad they had to put up the fence.

eta: That would be memories of dancing to white lines not doing them.

Very nice clarification there, Myst!

Yes, it is too bad about the fence- Peter told us that when he was laying on the beach way back when, he was very startled by a horse running right by him- scared the #$!! out of him! But I'm glad they're safe, now, and that area of beach is for MILES....all the way to Virginia...they have plenty of space to roam in, and it is a much more natural area with ENORMOUS sand dunes, etc. You can rent there, too- but it's too remote for me. Must have 4 wheel drive, have to watch tide schedules to get back and forth from your house, very, very hard to drive at night...the people who are vacationing out there are looking for alot more quiet and solitude than I need- but to each his own, I'm happy for the people who enjoy it!

 

[podsnel]

Every night we enjoyed the sunsets from the deck- really, REALLY enjoyed them.

A couple of the boys looking for the right place to fish-

Aaaahhhh...

Even pretty from inside the house-

Our two families headed out for dinner at North Banks, a very popular restaurant just 5 minutes away in Timbuck II. Our waiter was hilarious- it was like having dinner at Turtle Talk with Crush, dudes! Righteous!! Timmy & Tyler got FULL racks of ribs- EACH- and even with sharing with Joan's son, Tighe, we had leftovers to put out for lunch on Thursday! (Originally Timmy had started to order a half rack for an appetizer and a full rack for an entree, but we put the big CRUSH on that order, little dude!) All of our meals were yummy, I would go back to North Banks again.

Crush, our waiter, told us he was "totally stoked" by our menu choices.

Tyler shows off his love of ribs-

Back to our house, we made it an early night, and I took some pics with my boys before heading to bed-

Back with more later...

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Sounds like a wonderful trip! That sunset if just beautiful! And can I come to your house for dinner?! My goodness, you guys can COOK!!

I'm with the boys on the ribs! YUM! They really are just too messy though.

Peter & I had a BLAST doing White Lines.

Uhhh......

Ok, I know what you meant...and I love Duran Duran....but honey, that does NOT sound right!

 

[podsnel]

Sounds like a wonderful trip! That sunset if just beautiful! And can I come to your house for dinner?! My goodness, you guys can COOK!!

I'm with the boys on the ribs! YUM! They really are just too messy though.



Uhhh......

Ok, I know what you meant...and I love Duran Duran....but honey, that does NOT sound right!

Ok...just to point out how OLD I am compared to you....we were dancing to the original White Lines (Don't Do It) by Grandmaster Melle Mel from 1983. The one by Duran Duran came out in 1995. Definitely JUST dancing and SINGING to an old song, too, nothing else!!

And of COURSE you can come to dinner!! We really do LOVE to cook!!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Ok...just to point out how OLD I am compared to you....we were dancing to the original White Lines (Don't Do It) by Grandmaster Melle Mel from 1983. The one by Duran Duran came out in 1995. Definitely JUST dancing and SINGING to an old song, too, nothing else!!

And of COURSE you can come to dinner!! We really do LOVE to cook!!

Hahaha too funny!

And how about Alice? It's playing at the Rialto......not sure how much longer it will be out.

 

[MEK]

http://www.vrbo.com/177744

Hi Ellen:

I posted a link to the VRBO listing in Corolla that we are renting this summer. Maybe you can tell from the location if its close to where you stayed. Sounds like it might be.

Those sunset views you photographed are to die for. They are absolutely beautiful. I especially love the one with the reflection of the trees in the water. That needs to be framed. Wowsa - that camera really rocks!

I loved your last Disney update. Timmy on the mini monorail at the Orlando airport cracked me up! Leaving is always so sad, but you guys really had a nice family trip. I really enjoyed reading your TR. It made me laugh and cry and just reflect on all the good times of a family trip. I hope you are able to secure BLT for next years trip.

BTW - my girlfriend and I are staying in a BLT studio. Do you think it will be adequate room? It's only 4 nights, so I think it will be fine. Is it true that the BR doors don't close all the way?

Thanks for posting the OB pictures and telling about that trip. I think once you start writing about Disney trips, all trips become fun to write about. You guys did some serious cooking. My mouth was watering. We still have to plan menus for our upcoming trip, but I doubt I will be quite as adventurous as you in the cooking department. Its just something I never really got good at.

So....22 more days????? I feel like I have so much to do before I leave, but I think I finally have all the child care arrangements nailed down. That's a huge load off my mind. It's just hard to go away when you know you have a kid who can drive. I always worry about him getting into an accident, but I will doubly worry about it when we are not here. For all the Dis moms who have non driving kids - consider yourself lucky! I wonder if I will ever get used to it.