Cranberry & Pineapple Continued.....Again.

[jiminyC_fan]

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY HEIDI!! LYMI​

:cheer2

 

[cristit14]

HAPPY 30th HEIDI!!!!!!

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Thank you!!!!! Just wanted to stop in and say bye before we leave for a week. Have a great week!

 

[cristit14]

Have a great trip Heidi!

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Marcie, love your pictures. Between you and me, I'M JEALOUS!!

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Well I just got my first scam mail from someone I contacted about a private tour to Chichen Itza in Mx in January. It first started out a couple of weeks ago where I got a friend request from him for FB. I denied it. I just got my emails from over the weekend and got this from him:

The subject line said "Urgent reply soon" and this is what the email said:
How are you doing? I am sorry I didn't inform you about my traveling for a Seminar.It is currently held in London. It has been a very sad and bad moment for me because I got robbed on my way to the hotel I lodged. My ID, Cash and other valuables I have with me got stolen, I contacted the embassy here to help me out but it will take some time to get back to me. I urgently need your financial assistance. The total sum of money that i would need would be 1250 Pounds to sort-out my hotel bills and get myself back home. I will appreciate your help, I promise I will pay you back upon my return, Let me know if you can assist me so that i can send you the details to use when sending the money through western union.
Thanks a lot
Carlos


I have heard about this particular scam for a long time so I knew right away. I would never have fallen for it even if I didn't know but still!!!!

 

[cristit14]

Is there someone you can turn him in to? There will be some people that might fall for it.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

I am working on it now. I really don't think it is actually him doing it. I think someone broke into his address book but you never know. Even that doesn't make sense since he tried to be my friend on FB. I've talked to others on Trip Advisor that has used him and they didn't get either. Weird.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Jrsy, I was thinking of you today as I read the Denver Post. The food section talked about the Denver Cupcake Truck.

 

[cristit14]

Hi all! Just checking in before we leave for WDW today. We aren't flying out until tonight. We land a little after 1 am. I got us a room at the Hilton there in the airport. My parents and brother and family should be there this afternoon or early evening, they are driving down from Georgia. Tomorrow after we get up and moving we will call them and someone will come pick us up to take us to the condos. We have 4 day passes for WDW (my dad and brother got them with their military discount, they were only $99) and then we got tickets for Universal also. Me, Rachel and my nephew are doing Universal for two days and everyone else is doing it for one day. They all wanted an extra day at the resort. I think we are planning on doing a day at MK, MGM (or whatever it is called now) and a day at Epcot. Then I think we are going to use the 4th day to just go one evening for a shorter day at one of the parks, my guess would be Epcot since we all love that park.


Ok, I have to brag a little now. The kids got out of school on Wed (Tues for Rachel). We don't actually have Rachel's report card yet, but looking on the parent portal at her grades she ended up with straight A's! She was worried about her Geometry and Language Arts grade she thought they would be B's. So if the parent portal is accurate she went through all of middle school with straight A's. I am very proud of her, but I never really have to worry about her grades she always comes out fine.

Jacob did get his report card and although he is not a straight A kid, I am so proud of him I could burst. He brought his Math grade up from a D+ to a B- for the last trimester! So, he ended up with A's and B's and a C in science.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Cristi, that is awesome. You deserve to have a proud mom moment. Both kids did great. Have fun in WDW!

 

[Jrsy Boy]

Jrsy, I was thinking of you today as I read the Denver Post. The food section talked about the Denver Cupcake Truck.

I will have to look for it as we sort through a week's worth of newspapers. There was a news story on Channel 7 recently, too, but I didn't catch it; I may have to look for it online.

Back from our vacay. So nice to be away from that humidity! Had a great time and some great experiences. I'll try to put together a trip report if you are interested.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

I'll try to put together a trip report if you are interested.

Are you serious?? I would love a trip report. I'm living my summer vacation through all of you.

 

[Jrsy Boy]

Are you serious?? I would love a trip report. I'm living my summer vacation through all of you.

It may be a while before I get it all pulled together, but I'll try to work on it ASAP. Also have a lot of photos to download from the camera.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Stopping by for a quick hello!

Jrsy and Cristi - I hope you had a great trip!

Will catch up later.

 

[Jrsy Boy]

We were flying out on Tuesday morning, June 1, on Southwest Airlines, so on Monday morning I was sitting in front of the computer ready to check in at the 24 hour mark. We were pleased to make the “A” group. On Tuesday morning, we loaded up the Explorer and drove over to pick up Tammy’s mom, who’d be taking our car back from the airport for us. We checked our bags curbside after saying goodbye to my MIL then headed into the airport, where we immediately saw that our flight had been delayed by about 30 minutes. We weren’t pleased, but we also didn’t have any big plans immediately upon arriving in Philadelphia, so we weren’t too disappointed. The security line was long and took about 30 minutes to get through, then we headed out to Concourse C and grabbed some breakfast at Einstein Bros.

The wait wasn’t too bad once we were at the gate and we learned that the aircraft we were supposed to fly on had been taken out of service due to mechanical issues, so we were waiting for a flight from Albuquerque. It didn’t take very long once the flight landed before we were onboard and we ended up in row 15, which wasn’t too bad. The flight was pretty uneventful and we were soon in Philadelphia, where we picked up our luggage and boarded the shuttle to Enterprise. I’d managed to get a pretty good deal on a full-size vehicle and we were given a choice of several but we selected the one with the largest trunk to try to fit our luggage. We knew that there would be times when we’d be parked somewhere with our luggage and didn’t want it to be visible at all. We ended up with a Mercury Grand Marquis, which is much bigger than either of us is accustomed to driving, and we still had to move the spare tire to get our suitcases into the trunk.

For our first night, we’d picked a hotel near the airport since we wouldn’t be heading to Hershey until the following morning. The only plan we had was to check out IKEA, which wasn’t far from the hotel. While looking through the AAA Tour Book, Tammy found a diner in the same neighborhood as IKEA, so we decided to have dinner there first. The listing had directions from the interstate, so we headed out soon after checking into the hotel. Unfortunately, we didn’t realize until later that the directions were actually from the SB interstate and we were heading NB, so we spent some time driving around south Philly before we managed to locate the diner. The bonus, though, was that we passed a place that sold Italian Water Ice not far from the diner, which we did eventually locate.

Being back in a real east coast diner, with pages upon pages of menu items to select from, might have made for a difficult choice, but we ended up getting regional specialties: Tammy had a fantastic Philly cheesesteak, I had a pork roll sandwich and we split a side order of scrapple. Alex ordered what he was comfortable with – grilled cheese. The food was outstanding and quite filling so, once we were finished, we were ready to walk it off around IKEA. The location was right near the Delaware River and, from the front of the store, the defunct cruise ship SS United States and the Walt Whitman bridge were visible. It was fun to be in an IKEA again but we realized that, if we could have, we’d have redecorated our entire house with items from there. The furniture is much more funky and clever than anyplace around Denver.

Once we’d explored all of IKEA, it seemed too early to call it a night so we headed back to that Italian Water Ice shop and ended up really glad that we did. We sat on the edge of a park across the street enjoying our ices and watching the unique driving and parking habits of the locals. The side streets were extremely narrow which made driving the big rental car a bit nerve wracking, not just for me but for my passengers, as well. We also noticed that pulling a u-turn in the middle of the busy main road was no big deal and parking was basically wherever you felt like stopping. Double-parking was not only common, but so was parking in the painted median or on the raised concrete median. We were certainly enlightened while enjoying our treat.

Once we were finished, we headed back to the hotel and figured out our plan for the next day. The hotel had a pretty basic continental breakfast, so we got something to eat before we left in the morning, then we headed over to a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts to get some coffee for the road. Before we left Philadelphia, though, we planned to tour Eastern States Penitentiary, which we’d learned about from watching Ghost Hunters. The tour was pretty amazing; it was self-guided and narrated by Steve Buscemi. I highly recommend it if you are ever in Philadelphia.

After wandering around the penitentiary for a couple of hours, we tried to figure out if there was anything else nearby to see, given that it was right in the middle of a neighborhood. We didn’t find anything, so we hit the road for Hershey. Once we were away from Philadelphia, the trip went pretty quickly with very little traffic and only an occasional work zone. By the time we were ready to exit the PA Turnpike, we were ready to get something substantial to eat and planned to stop at The Friendly Rising Sun Restaurant in Campbelltown, PA. Tammy and I had discovered this gem on our first visit to Hershey thanks to a helpful motel owner and we were pleased that it had changed very little since our last visit. The food is outstanding with a surprising number of seafood dishes, like crab imperial and broiled scallops, and some side dishes that were definitely regional, like potato filling and pepper cabbage. It is definitely a locals’ hangout as opposed to the chains that were closer to the touristy areas.

After a substantial lunch, we headed over to The Hershey Story Museum and learned a bit more about the history of the company and its founder. There were some fun, interactive exhibits and we also realized that the parking structure looked right into HersheyPark, so we spent a few minutes watching the roller coasters zipping by before heading to our hotel to check in. We were staying at a Comfort Inn, which ended up being in a nice, semi-secluded area with a pond out front that attracted a lot of ducks and geese. It was definitely a nice place, which was good since we’d be spending three nights there. We took the opportunity to enjoy the pool for a bit while we had the time since the night ahead was already planned out.

HersheyPark has a deal where, if you’ve purchased a full-day admission, you can visit the night before you use it and spend the last 2 ½ hours before closing for free. We planned to spend all day Thursday and Friday at HersheyPark, but were still looking forward to that 2 ½ hours on Wednesday night. Before hitting the park, though, we went to Friendly’s, which is a chain restaurant that we don’t have in Colorado, but used to visit when we lived in NJ. We didn’t have a big meal there; just enough to get us through the evening.

We were pleased to find that there was plenty of close-up parking when we arrived at HersheyPark, though we had to navigate an entrance layout that had changed significantly since our last visit. Per tradition, we first visited Chocolate World, which gives an overview of the chocolate-making process in lieu of the factory tours that were once available. We were a bit disappointed that it had been given a makeover since our last visit and both Tammy’s and my favorite parts had been taken out. Not only that, but a bunch of singing audio-animatronic cows had been added. Despite all of this, we did end up riding several times during our visit because they still give out a free Hershey bar at the end of the tour.

Once we were inside the park, we headed right for the roller coasters. When Tammy and I used to visit HersheyPark after we got married, there were only four roller coasters, but now there are eleven. The last time we visited, Alex was too little to ride most of them, so we were all very excited and were going to try to ride all of the coasters in the 2 ½ hours we had available on our first night. We were pleased that the lines were very short and we not only were able to ride some coasters again immediately, but even had some opportunities to stay on and ride again when there was no line. We managed to get on ten of the eleven coasters and couldn’t ride the last only because it was in the water park, which was already closed. We stayed at the park until closing and were quite pleased with the time that we’d had.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Jrsy - Did you take pictures while you were touring Eastern States Penitentiary? After watching the episodes on Ghost Hunters, I have always wanted to go there. Is it spooky? I would love to see pictures if you did. How cool you went there!!! I have been craving a good philly cheesesteak, so jealous Tammy got a real one...the best one I have had was in Las Vegas (but that is because I have never been out east to get a real one!!!). Rollercoaster in the water park??? Thanks for sharing your trip with us, look forward to reading more!

 

[Jrsy Boy]

Jrsy - Did you take pictures while you were touring Eastern States Penitentiary? After watching the episodes on Ghost Hunters, I have always wanted to go there. Is it spooky? I would love to see pictures if you did. How cool you went there!!! I have been craving a good philly cheesesteak, so jealous Tammy got a real one...the best one I have had was in Las Vegas (but that is because I have never been out east to get a real one!!!). Rollercoaster in the water park??? Thanks for sharing your trip with us, look forward to reading more!

Yes, I took a lot of photos, at ESP and everywhere else. Hope to have them uploaded this weekend. It wasn't too spooky at 11am.

There is a new restaurant in the Woodlawn Center on Littleton Blvd. near Windermere called Pat's that has the best cheesesteaks around our area that I have tried.

The Roller Soaker isn't much of a coaster as far as thrills, but people on the ground can shoot water at you and your vehicle has a tank full of water that you can drop on the people below if you time it right.

 

[jiminyC_fan]

ELEVEN roller coasters?? Wow, that place has to be huge! Roller Soaker! Love it. I'm surprised that Heidi didn't say anything about you guys stopping at Dunkin Donuts! Why am I not surprised that you had to visit an IKEA? I got a kick out of Alex having a grilled cheese. Just like a kid! The place in Littleton must be by the Littleton Historic Museum.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Jrsy - I wonder if it is the same owner of the Pats off of Arapahoe Rd and I-25? I am going to have to try there now, thanks for the suggestion! The roller soaker sounds like so much fun, they need that at Elitches!

The walk was fun yesterday. It was so cold and wet yesterday, I will be so surprised if no one comes down with a cold. It was nice carrying Tyler because he would keep you warm, but then your arms would go out because he is getting too heavy to carry long distances. I wish he could have enjoyed the walk yesterday, the poor little guy was just miserable and tired. Joey was a trooper and walked a lot holding hands with everyone, her and I crossed the finish line together.

Two of my favorite pictures right before we started the race: