Anyone Game? 2 Castles and a Road Trip TR! Last Day and TR Wrap Up! #2796; 10/01

[TifffanyD]

Penzey's. I used to order from them online when we lived in WA and was so glad to find out there was a store here

Oh I hear such good things about then but have never seen a store and I won't just order spices. Plus, I suck at cooking...

 

[Meriweather]

Oh I hear such good things about then but have never seen a store and I won't just order spices. Plus, I suck at cooking...

I love them.....go a couple of times a year.
They are great to order from. Give them a try. Or at least sign up for their catalog. They have recipes in them too.

 

[TifffanyD]

I love them.....go a couple of times a year. They are great to order from. Give them a try. Or at least sign up for their catalog. They have recipes in them too.

Thanks

 

[ACDSNY]

A little rocky start, but the DISmeet sounded wonderful. My DH used to make the wood spaghetti measurer with circles, I think he needs to up his game to the Mickey heads.

 

[TifffanyD]

A little rocky start, but the DISmeet sounded wonderful. My DH used to make the wood spaghetti measurer with circles, I think he needs to up his game to the Mickey heads.

If he does then I might have an order for him! Lol

 

[ACDSNY]

If he does then I might have an order for him! Lol

He said he's game to try it. I'll keep you posted on his progress.

 

[TifffanyD]

He said he's game to try it. I'll keep you posted on his progress.

 

[jedijill]

I was out of town over the weekend and now playing catch up!

Love the WoC pictures! I really have to get to DL as soon as possible!

Great luck on the flight but boo to Hertz! Sounds like a fun Dis meet!

Jill in CO

 

[mvf-m11c]

It was a good thing that there was another flight to Phoenix. How disappointing with Hertz.

A very nice DISmeet and the food looks very good.

 

[ejud]

Hey! I know Meriweather! Over on the photo boards! But I guess she is everywhere??? 200,000??? Wow!

Love your travel pictures!



Jud

 

[zanzibar138]

What an emotional rollercoaster ride your morning turned out to be (I hope the actual journey was NOT like a rollercoaster ride Got there in the end though for what looked like great lunch

I have to ask though, what on earth is a spaghetti measurer? It looks awesome! I would have hung it on my wall What lovely gifts from Meriweather

 

[kmedina]

Glad you were able to get an earlier flight. Sorry it stunk when it came time to get the rental. Crap travels for business a lot and frequently gets upgraded as well, but they never charge him for the upgrades. Were they trying to charge you extra? He bragged on his last trip that they gave him a Lincoln Navigator. That is a lot of car for one man on a business trip with a single carry on and briefcase, lol.

Cool that you had another DISmeet. I am not jealous at all.











Well, maybe just a little.

 

[dolphingirl47]

What a shame that so many things went wrong on your travel day. The DIS Meet sounded nice though and lunch looked delicious.

Corinna

 

[knewton64]

What an emotional rollercoaster ride your morning turned out to be (I hope the actual journey was NOT like a rollercoaster ride Got there in the end though for what looked like great lunch

I have to ask though, what on earth is a spaghetti measurer? It looks awesome! I would have hung it on my wall What lovely gifts from Meriweather

ok....I 2nd that.


What is a spaghetti measurer??? Looks cool!!
Ok.....I can c u doing a "YOU-TUBE" demo on this measurer thing-ee 4 all of us 2 c how it works-


Luv yer TR -




T.T.F.N.
&
Cheers

 

[Paula Sedley-Burke]

I've been robbed! I've not seen WOC! Chalk that up for next time looks fabulous. Again your photos make me want to reach out and touch my ipad and attempt to crawl in!

Sorry about the stress with the flight but pleased you managed to score an earlish one. I am curious as to what will happen next and how you come to be in Pheonix. Was it a special stop to meet the lovely Merriweather or somewhere you wanted to visit? Or maybe no direct flights from LAX to Orlando?

Jo and I always book the cheapest rental car category as they never have them? With Alamo we use every year they always say the say thing 'oh dear we seem to have run out of economy cars why not buy an upgrade' . We say ' no thanks it's just to go to the local malls and restaurants thanks' then they give us the upgraded car anyway! This year was our best year. Paid for a 2 door car got a top of the range Rav4 with reversing camera on the back lol.

One of these days our luck will run out and they will bring out a corsa!

 

[PrincessInOz]

It was SO nice to meet you......and no problem on the time.
I had time to go shopping even if you didn't! My favorite spice store is at the mall.
And I hit the Target and got DGD more clothes

So sorry about your problems with the rental car
And thank you so much for the Aussie gifts AND the Hong Kong pins!

Glad it worked out for you too. And it was mutual. It was so nice to meet you and chat.

You know......DH might have a ready market for the Mickey Head merchandise.

A little rocky start, but the DISmeet sounded wonderful. My DH used to make the wood spaghetti measurer with circles, I think he needs to up his game to the Mickey heads.

Post pictures. It could be a race between your DH and Meriweather's DH as to who gets it up for merchandising first.

I was out of town over the weekend and now playing catch up!

Love the WoC pictures! I really have to get to DL as soon as possible!

Great luck on the flight but boo to Hertz! Sounds like a fun Dis meet!

Jill in CO

Hope you had a good time at the weekend. If you get to DL soon, I hope you'll start a PTR/TR so I can follow along.

It was a good thing that there was another flight to Phoenix. How disappointing with Hertz.

A very nice DISmeet and the food looks very good.

I know! My worst fear for this trip was missing an internal flight connection or having a flight cancelled.

Hey! I know Meriweather! Over on the photo boards! But I guess she is everywhere??? 200,000??? Wow!

Love your travel pictures!



Jud

Thanks.

Yes, Meriweather is pretty popular on the Games board as well.

 

[PrincessInOz]

What an emotional rollercoaster ride your morning turned out to be (I hope the actual journey was NOT like a rollercoaster ride Got there in the end though for what looked like great lunch

I have to ask though, what on earth is a spaghetti measurer? It looks awesome! I would have hung it on my wall What lovely gifts from Meriweather

You're right. I did get there; which is all that mattered.

(I answered the question on the spaghetti measurer below).

ok....I 2nd that.


What is a spaghetti measurer??? Looks cool!!
Ok.....I can c u doing a "YOU-TUBE" demo on this measurer thing-ee 4 all of us 2 c how it works-


Luv yer TR -




T.T.F.N.
&
Cheers

A spaghetti measure works with the long tubular form of spaghetti. If you grab some and put it through the first Mickey Head or hole, it measures out 1 serve of pasta (for one person). The next hole measures out pasta serving for two people and so on.

It's pretty handy for someone like me.....where I tend to add more pasta than I need to eat. This way, I can measure out the appropriate recommended quantity.

Now.....if only it worked with penne style pasta.

Glad you were able to get an earlier flight. Sorry it stunk when it came time to get the rental. Crap travels for business a lot and frequently gets upgraded as well, but they never charge him for the upgrades. Were they trying to charge you extra? He bragged on his last trip that they gave him a Lincoln Navigator. That is a lot of car for one man on a business trip with a single carry on and briefcase, lol.

Cool that you had another DISmeet. I am not jealous at all.





Well, maybe just a little.

You've had a few DisMeets yourself recently. And if you're only a little jealous, wait till I get to WDW.

What a shame that so many things went wrong on your travel day. The DIS Meet sounded nice though and lunch looked delicious.

Corinna

Things may not have gone to plan initially; but I still got to where I needed to get to at the right time. So, it was fine in the end.

I've been robbed! I've not seen WOC! Chalk that up for next time looks fabulous. Again your photos make me want to reach out and touch my ipad and attempt to crawl in!

Sorry about the stress with the flight but pleased you managed to score an earlish one. I am curious as to what will happen next and how you come to be in Pheonix. Was it a special stop to meet the lovely Merriweather or somewhere you wanted to visit? Or maybe no direct flights from LAX to Orlando?

Jo and I always book the cheapest rental car category as they never have them? With Alamo we use every year they always say the say thing 'oh dear we seem to have run out of economy cars why not buy an upgrade' . We say ' no thanks it's just to go to the local malls and restaurants thanks' then they give us the upgraded car anyway! This year was our best year. Paid for a 2 door car got a top of the range Rav4 with reversing camera on the back lol.

One of these days our luck will run out and they will bring out a corsa!

Our plans were to fly into Phoenix because it was the closest major airport to where we wanted to get to. We scored on a flight deal with Southwest and the one-way flights were $59 each.

I had two weeks to fill in between SoCal and Orlando. I just couldn't see myself in Orlando for all that time. Besides, the places we got to were where DH and I wanted to go-see.

Hertz is usually pretty good for DH. This is the first trip where we didn't get the car we ordered. The 6-seater SUV was going to be too big and too much of a petrol guzzler for our trip. It worked out in the end.

 

[PrincessInOz]

A Rising Phoenix Star - Musical Instrument Museum




The timing for this trip had been agreed some 2 years ago between a bunch of Dis-sers. Afterall, we had to coordinate at least 4 or 5 calendars and work out an holiday time that would provide the best option for us all to be present for the Gamers meet.

2 years is a long time. And real life does have a habit of encroaching on plans. Thankfully for me, I had locked in a bunch of airfares, hotel accommodations and tours earlier in the year. If not, I suspect that DH may have been inclined to ask me to cancel.




Why? DS, of course.





DS does a bunch of extracurricular activities; that results in us being employed (for free) as full time chauffeurs for him. One such activity is learning to play the piano; and the piano teacher and us had struggled to come to a consensus about his piano exam timeframe for the year. We had originally thought to book in for the April exam season; but DS wasn't anywhere near ready. We couldn't delay the exam to next year; because that meant a whole year’s delay! That left us with the choice of late September. I completely held firm on this vacay.

The only other option was early November. But that left us with the issue of taking out 4.5 weeks of piano practise just before the exam. So, I spent a bit of time researching options for pianos in ALL stops on this vacay. "Where was I going to find a piano for a spot of practise?" was to become one of those games that DH and I played during the trip planning period.

I'd figured I was safe in SoCal as my aunt has a piano in her home. As it turns out, there was a piano at the party we gatecrashed so DS got some practise in there.


Next on my list was Phoenix. I figured I needed to find one here as it was going to be impossible to find one after this; given our itinerary for the rest of our road trip. In fact, I made it a mandatory thing to find.






If you're still with me, I think you've figured out by now why I gave up on the shopping at the Tempe Marketplace. We were heading to piano practise time. Preparing for an exam trumps shopping any day; especially when it was a promise I made to DH to find one.



I found out about this place through the internet. Heading on the 101, it was about 30 minutes north of the Tempe Marketplace and really easy to get to.







The Musical Instrument Museum was opened in 2010 and is the largest museum of its type in the world. There are over 15,000 instruments in the collection, representing over instruments from 200 countries in the world.







Entry is NOT cheap.













But the philosophy and concept is amazing!







It didn't take us long to find what we were looking for.







It was right by the entrance hall and DS got a good 20 minutes practice in here.







And then, it was play time for all of us!








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[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)



There are a number of displays and rooms in the museum. We headed straight in here.














Can you Imagine the stuff of dreams in here?







As part of the entry, we were given wireless headsets to wear throughout the museum. Whenever we approached a ‘hot spot’, the appropriate audio and video clips would start up.








It was a truly wonderful way to listen to the artists that had generously donated or loaned their instruments for display.








Some of our favourite musicians were here.








And the memorabilia was just fascinating!








Some, like Carlos Santana....







....even had family history and provolence to share.







I was fascinated by some of the historic classical displays here. This is reputed to be the first ever Steinway.








And Pablo Casal's Cello.
















DH loved the more electric and eclectic instruments. This one was George Harrison's Rickenbacker.







DS spent a bit of time here.








He had fun listening to the songs in the loop and looking at the guitar.








And the amazing costumes.









A Robert Cavalli dress and a Les Paul electric guitar. A match made in heaven!








These boots were made for dancing!








White jumpsuit and red crystal rhinestones......








Who else would it belong to?








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[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)



The Mechanical Music Gallery was equally as fascinating. It was filled with musical instruments that 'play themselves'.








Most of the self-playing instruments were created between the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This steam powered calliope was banned in Worcester City (Mass.) because the whistle could apparently be heard some 11 miles away. Makes me pretty pleased that they've toned the audible range of instruments down somewhat.








I thought this was a standard early accordion; until I realised it was a mechanised concertina. It uses paper rolls same as a playola piano.








Speaking of playola pianos. For a donation, you can get a token from the docent and it will play a song. I indulged.








I was surprised to see an automaton on display. It didn't really seem in keeping with the musical theme.










The Experience Gallery was another room that we spent some time in.









Afterall, who can resist the opportunity to touch.....








.....and play....








....an array of instruments from different cultures?










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