Don't We Need More Ice Cream? - A F&G Trip Report - The End. Period. Paragraph. 1/27

franandaj

I'm so happy, I could BOUNCE!
Joined
Nov 15, 2009
Here we are again! Another franandaj trip to WDW! And I think everyone reading is probably going to answer the question posed in the title of the TR with a resounding “YES!” But how did we get to that point, you ask? Well you will have to read along to find out. I chose that as the title over the other choice which I’ll explain below.

By this point I’ve written so many of these things, I’m not exactly sure what I can tell you about us in the introduction that you don’t already know! So hmmmm, let’s dig into the archives and see what I can come up with.

We'll come back to that! But first, this trip is a little different, it's not just us, this time we’re taking my parents to WDW for their second visit. My parents are both retired and have been for a while. The first trip where we took them to WDW was back in 2010, but I was new to the DIS and wasn’t writing TRs at that time. I did a dining review, but I think that was my very first full fledged report.

My Dad really enjoyed the last trip because I remember him asking if we would be going back while they still lived in their old house (my childhood street address). I’m not sure my Mom enjoyed it so much as her answer to my Dad’s question was cynical enough to lead Fran and myself to believe that that we shouldn’t take them back anytime soon.

My Mom is a big flower person. Her yard is like a botanical garden of Irises complete with identifying tags telling which varietal you are viewing. She is a member of her local Iris Society as well the Chrysanthemum group. She also judges festivals in the San Jose area. So we figured that perhaps traveling during the Flower & Garden Festival might be the thing to entice her. In fact her FB employment is “Iris Grower at home.” Here’s some of her posts from FB.

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My parents are also avid birders. That means when they see a bird, they start to go all technical on it. When you or I look at a black bird perched on the fence we think, oh there’s a Crow. However, during the first part of the trip, my parents were having a friendly dispute as to what exactly it was and finally they decided that it was a Boat-tailed grackle. The alternate choice for a title was “What kind of grackle is that? Common? Boat-tailed? Greater Antillean?”

So I think you see how I chose the current title! So let’s go with the obligatory introduction photos.

Here we all are at WDW in 2010

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If you’ve followed along on my other TRs, you’ll know that we have traveled with my parents before, we took them on a Disney Cruise to Alaska a few summers ago.

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And they come to So Cal often to visit us, here we are at the Getty Museum a few years ago.

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And the King Tut Exhibit last March



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OK, so here’s some of the things I’ve dug up out of the archives. Embarrassing childhood photos.

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My first visit to Disneyland


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As you can tell I’ve been into music for a large part of my life. 87% to be exact, you might even know that I earned my degree in Saxophone performance with a minor in historical musicology. One thing that haunts all Music Majors is the start of semester auditions for placement in ensembles, so you can see why I didn’t stop practicing even on a 4WD Camping trip to Canyonlands, Utah, back when I was in school.

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I had hoped to dig up some childhood photos of Fran, but her family didn’t keep albums, and the few that I have of her were misplaced in the move. I suspect they are in my boxes of photos that never made it into albums when I switched from actual albums to digital sharing, so that’s all you get for embarrassing childhood photos. However, I do have some photos from the past.

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So with all that, let’s get this party started!


Day 1


I bet you think I stayed up all night packing.



You would be wrong there! I finally got Fran to give me all her clothes that she wanted to take well in advance of the trip. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t spend most of the entire day before the trip scrambling. There were eBays to ship, a car to get from the shop, cat food to be divvyed up into meal portions, laundry to put away, dishes to be done (I still didn’t finish this one), and a car to be packed.


However, sometime around 10:30PM, I crawled into my walk in bathtub for a bath/shower. I have no idea what time my head hit the pillow, but I’m guessing near 11:00PM.


In my last TR this summed up things pretty well, because right off the bat it happened again. We had a failure to communicate.


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When Fran and I go places, we always run late, so we build in buffer time. I had said, “Let’s target leaving at 5:30AM, that way when we run late, we’ll be OK.” I don’t know if she didn’t hear me say the word “leaving” or she thinks I’m a lot faster than I really am, cause she woke me up at 5:20AM. Not only did I have to get dressed, but I had to feed the cats, and load her scooter on the back of the car. Well it was ten to 7AM when we actually were on our way to the airport.

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With traffic we didn’t get there until after 7:30, they recommend that you get there two hours before your flight and we actually like to be there between 2-3 hours before our flight. Our flight was at 9:15.

In the past few months Fran has been feeling worlds better. If you read my last TR, you’ll know that she was feeling icky all week on the cruise. Since then we have figured out her new meds, and she is eating more appropriately for the reaction. As a result, she had dropped a ton of weight. The week before we left, we took almost 60 pairs of pants and shorts to the thrift store because they are 2 or 3 sizes too big.

So with feeling better she is doing more physical stuff, and when we got to the airport she jumped into action and lowered the scooter off the lift while I got the suitcases out of the passenger doors of the SUV. Then she opened up the back and we sprung into action, I put the back of my scooter on the ground. In an Herculean effort, she picked up the bigger part of the scooter. “Please let me get that.” I said, but she insisted. When I went to put the two parts together I noticed that the key (I keep it in the ignition so it doesn’t get lost) was bent. I reached down to bend it back and the thing snapped off with half the key in the hole. Crap.

I was able to use the top part of the key to make it work, and we decided that we would just deal with it once we got to the resort. I have a spare key in my purse at all times, so that wouldn’t be a problem, and I didn’t want to have to deal with a rental scooter, they suck.

Fran started checking our bags curbside, I moved the scooter off to the side, flashed my ID for the agent, and took off in the car to park. Soon I was back on the bus to the terminal. One great thing about flying Southwest is that they are in the First Terminal at LAX so you don’t get stuck riding the bus around forever, like with American that is in Terminal 4.

Since we were running late, we went directly through security. I love having PreChek, it sure speeds things up! And then we were at the gate. I think we had 6 minutes until they started preboarding, so no time to potty or even get any food.

We got good seats and thanks to SW and their policy that you can purchase a 2nd seat for certain persons, we had a row to ourselves. It may not be 1st Class, but you go what you gotta do.

Some of you may have seen this play out on FB, but while the other passengers were boarding, Fran turns to me and says, “What is the bad plane?” She shows me this card.

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I posted it on FB, and this was probably one of my most ever commented upon posts! It got pretty hilarious, as long as we didn’t die, which we didn’t.

By this point we were starving, luckily we had brought snacks for the plane, so I started out by munching on our Ritz Cheddar Toasted Crisps. Once the plane leveled out, we decided to split one of the two sandwiches I had made the night before.

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Roast Beef and Cheddar.


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Once that was done, I got out my computer, purchased the WiFi package for a whopping $8 and got all caught up on everyone’s TRs. I started a little bit of work on this TR as well, but mostly I put on my noise canceling headphones and listened to my Disney Playlist on Spotify. The trip was so turbulent that the Captain never turned off the Fasten Seatbelts sign, even the flight attendants had to remain in their seats for most of the flight.


The plane landed in St. Louis and this time we didn’t wait to get off the plane like we usually do. We got right off and once we located the next gate, we headed straight for the bathroom!

Back at the gate, I charged my computer. I love how most of the seats now have built in plugs and such!

Soon they did the preboarding and we were back in our comfy row of seats. Well not so comfy, my butt hurt by the end of the second flight from sitting all day.

Once the plane leveled out, we enjoyed the second sandwich along with some more Ritz Toasted Crisps, and some of Margaret’s Toll House cookies left from the other night.

I got the computer back out and worked on the TR, this flight was much shorter and pretty soon we were landing in Orlando. Twice today we skirted death. With only 31 of those planes in the fleet, I'm not sure how we got them for both legs. Just lucky I guess! And it's very possible that we were not on a MAX8 plane. On the way home, we had the very same cards in our seat pockets, so who knows. However, the very next day the US grounded the fleet of these planes leaving people scrambling for flights.

Here’s the obligatory fake o rail shot.

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On our way to the DME we got sidetracked by this little retro candy shop. Fran passed it totally and I commented that I couldn't believe we didn't get sucked in by the candy store, and she’s like, “What?”

So we turned around, and we ended up with a whole stash of goodies. She really likes Charleston Chews and they're not very common anymore.

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Soon we were on the DME and enroute to our home for the next couple days. Sorry it’s not a better picture, it’s the best of the lot.

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And I think I’ll just leave it off there for the rest of our adventures for the evening.


Coming up Next: Holy Cow! What are we going to do with all this room?
 
That is awesome that Fran is feeling better and has dropped some weight!

Your Max thread was amusing!

I’m in for the ride :).

(and yes, always need more ice cream)
 
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I’m here!

Your moms irises are gorgeous! Love the pic of Fran as grumpy....she got right into the character!

I spy a Denver made chocolate bar in your candy bag!

Yay for making it to WDW alive!

Jill in CO
 




I am here, saving my spot!! AND I made page 1. :)
Going to read this right away, even before breakfast. :thumbsup2

Back from reading .......
Love the intro with your childhood pics. :love: And your mom's flowers are beautiful.

I DO remember the MAX 8 photo on FB and telling Tom and we were "not amused" that they still used those, since they were already grounded here in Europe.
But I was happy to hear you made it.

And every time I see your snacks for the flight I realize that they don't cater any more on most US airlines. Your sandwich looks yummy by the way. (Okay I think it IS time for my breakfast now. :rotfl2:)

Okay, I am ready for more. ;)
 
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And I think everyone reading is probably going to answer the question posed in the title of the TR with a resounding “YES!”

::yes::

I’m not sure my Mom enjoyed it so much as her answer to my Dad’s question was cynical enough to lead Fran and myself to believe that that we shouldn’t take them back anytime soon.

Oh dear... did you break her?

Her yard is like a botanical garden of Irises complete with identifying tags telling which varietal you are viewing.

Whoa! That's dedication!

She also judges festivals in the San Jose area.

Really! That's pretty cool.

Here’s some of her posts from FB.

Impressive!

When you or I look at a black bird perched on the fence we think, oh there’s a Crow. However, during the first part of the trip, my parents were having a friendly dispute as to what exactly it was and finally they decided that it was a Boat-tailed grackle.

:laughing:

Nope. It's a crow.

:rolleyes:


Heh. Did Fran and your dad race?


I'm betting you girls loved those dresses.
And I see your love of cats goes way back. :)

My first visit to Disneyland

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Awww... :)


We still have a similar piano. I just told my mom that I'd like to inherit it. (It was originally her... grandmother's, I think.)

you might even know that I earned my degree in Saxophone performance with a minor in historical musicology.

I did not know that!


:lmao:
Grumpy no less!!


I'm surprised he allowed you to sit in his chair.

I bet you think I stayed up all night packing.

Nope!

In my last TR this summed up things pretty well, because right off the bat it happened again. We had a failure to communicate.

uh oh...

When Fran and I go places, we always run late, so we build in buffer time. I had said, “Let’s target leaving at 5:30AM, that way when we run late, we’ll be OK.” I don’t know if she didn’t hear me say the word “leaving” or she thinks I’m a lot faster than I really am, cause she woke me up at 5:20AM. Not only did I have to get dressed, but I had to feed the cats, and load her scooter on the back of the car. Well it was ten to 7AM when we actually were on our way to the airport.

Oh dear.
I would've been starting to panic. Perhaps you were? Or with your buffer, were you okay?

With traffic we didn’t get there until after 7:30, they recommend that you get there two hours before your flight and we actually like to be there between 2-3 hours before our flight. Our flight was at 9:15.

Not bad. A bit tight, but not bad.

In the past few months Fran has been feeling worlds better.

That's great! Glad to hear that. :)

As a result, she had dropped a ton of weight. The week before we left, we took almost 60 pairs of pants and shorts to the thrift store because they are 2 or 3 sizes too big.

Wow! Good for her. :)

When I went to put the two parts together I noticed that the key (I keep it in the ignition so it doesn’t get lost) was bent. I reached down to bend it back and the thing snapped off with half the key in the hole. Crap.

Oh, no...

I didn’t want to have to deal with a rental scooter, they suck.

I do recall that story. Still can't believe you pushed it all that way.

Some of you may have seen this play out on FB, but while the other passengers were boarding, Fran turns to me and says, “What is the bad plane?” She shows me this card.

I did see that post on FB...

I posted it on FB, and this was probably one of my most ever commented upon posts! It got pretty hilarious, as long as we didn’t die, which we didn’t.

...but I never saw the comments and didn't have a chance to comment, myself.
Truthfully, I wasn't very worried. It's a good plane, actually. And the training of maintenance people (which is part of the problem) and pilots (which is another part) is a good deal better here than in other places.

Roast Beef and Cheddar.

Looks like real cheddar and not that crappy American processed cheese.

The trip was so turbulent that the Captain never turned off the Fasten Seatbelts sign, even the flight attendants had to remain in their seats for most of the flight.

Ugh. Not a fun way to fly.

Twice today we skirted death. With only 31 of those planes in the fleet, I'm not sure how we got them for both legs. Just lucky I guess!

::yes::

However, the very next day the US grounded the fleet of these planes leaving people scrambling for flights.

I'm still seeing stories of people being affected.

On our way to the DME we got sidetracked by this little retro candy shop. Fran passed it totally and I commented that I couldn't believe we didn't get sucked in by the candy store, and she’s like, “What?”

:laughing: I would've said the same thing!

She really likes Charleston Chews and they're not very common anymore.

Never had one. Don't think we ever had those up here.

Soon we were on the DME and enroute to our home for the next couple days. Sorry it’s not a better picture, it’s the best of the lot.

Much better than any I've ever taken.
 
A new report - yay!

Love the pics of your mom's flowers and your childhood!

Glad to hear that Fran has adjusted to her meds and is doing better. Way to go on the weight loss!
 
Joining in.my parents were into bird watching when I was a teenager. That sort of fell away after a while, but I learned a lot because we used to go for hikes in the woods,and they'd here a bird and we'd have to stop and look for it. I would get annoyed so I got really good a bird spotting. I always called it bird spotting rather than bird watching because I had no interest in watching birds. I have forgotten a lot but still have more useless bird knowledge than I care about.

Anyways,looking forward to the TR. Looks like overall a decent day of travel with nothing too bad going wrong. We're your parents going to meet you there that night or the next day?
 
:wave: Joining in!! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip. So awesome that Fran has been feeling better. :thumbsup2 It's always great when you can finally get meds straightened out.

Your mom's flowers are really pretty, glad that you were able to get them to go with you. I love the F and G festival. :flower1:

I was away from the DIS for a while, at least not on regularly because there was no hope of a trip anytime soon :sad2: and I was so busy with work (a lot of which was done from home). Well, now I have a different job that doesn't require any work from home (AND better pay...:cool1:) so I have been coming over a lot more lately. I also DO have a trip planned!!! In November, It's to Disneyland Paris, though, but it's still Disney and I can now get my fix, LOL. My Favorite band (a-ha - the ones that sing "Take on Me") are doing a European tour in November, well pretty much all of their tours are European, and I decided I wasn't going to wait until the future when they may or may not come across the pond to the US which they haven't done in years, and I bought tickets to the Paris show, thinking I could get both my Morten fix (He's the lead singer, :love: sooo gorgeous) and my Mickey fix in one trip!! :banana:
 
My Favorite band (a-ha - the ones that sing "Take on Me") are doing a European tour in November, well pretty much all of their tours are European, and I decided I wasn't going to wait until the future when they may or may not come across the pond to the US which they haven't done in years, and I bought tickets to the Paris show, thinking I could get both my Morten fix (He's the lead singer, :love: sooo gorgeous) and my Mickey fix in one trip!! :banana:

OMG, love the acoustic version of Take On me! I would love to see them live.

Jill in CO
 
Grumpy and Snow White; love it!!!!

Great intro. Always look forward to your reports.

Gabby, Sunny, and I are going to F&W at DCA tomorrow night if you and Fran want to join us.
 
That is awesome that Fran is feeling better and has dropped some weight!

She's actually lost quite a bit. We need to go clothes shopping cause she doesn't wear stretchy pants like I do.

Your Max thread was amusing!

I’m in for the ride :).

(and yes, always need more ice cream)

:welcome:

I’m here!

:welcome:

Your moms irises are gorgeous! Love the pic of Fran as grumpy....she got right into the character!

Yes she did!

I spy a Denver made chocolate bar in your candy bag!

Oh good! You can bring me one when you visit next. That was a salted caramel chocolate and I picked it out and she ate it without sharing with me. :headache:

Yay for making it to WDW alive

:laughing:

Hey Lady :)

I'm here and following along...

:welcome:

back to read and comment later this weekend...

OK see you soon! :wave2:
 
Joining in. Your mom's flowers are beautiful. All that candy looks yummy.

:welcome:


:welcome:

I am here, saving my spot!! AND I made page 1. :)
Going to read this right away, even before breakfast. :thumbsup2

Back from reading .......

:welcome:

Love the intro with your childhood pics. :love: And your mom's flowers are beautiful.

Thanks! She works very hard on her garden.

I DO remember the MAX 8 photo on FB and telling Tom and we were "not amused" that they still used those, since they were already grounded here in Europe.

I wasn't amused either, then again who knows if we were actually on one of those planes. Both our return flights had that same card in the seat back as well, and the planes were grounded by then.

And every time I see your snacks for the flight I realize that they don't cater any more on most US airlines. Your sandwich looks yummy by the way. (Okay I think it IS time for my breakfast now. :rotfl2:)

Only in 1st Class, and we don't travel First Class anymore. :sad2: Southwest doesn't even have 1st class. On the first flight I did get a small bag of Fritos and on the second flight they gave us pretzels. I don't like American pretzels in a bag. I like German style pretzels that are big and soft and chewy and best with salt and mustard.

Okay, I am ready for more. ;)

I've already got 1 1/2 chapters ready, I just need to reply to all the comments before posting again!

Oh dear... did you break her?

Not like you broke Ruby, she's just more into vacations that involve nature and natural things. You'll see that she didn't ride a ton of rides.

Whoa! That's dedication!

She spends several hours every day doing stuff out in the garden, even when we are up there. Then again that's easy cause she gets up real early and Fran and I tend to stay in our room until at least 8:30 or 9 for me, later for Fran.

Really! That's pretty cool.

She has even won prizes when she is not judging.

:laughing:

Nope. It's a crow.

:rolleyes:

That's pretty much what I said. :laughing:

Heh. Did Fran and your dad race?

She would have let him win, but he had no chance. She's got skilz.

I'm betting you girls loved those dresses.
And I see your love of cats goes way back. :)

I don't remember the dresses so much, and I don't think I liked being twinsies with Elinor, we weren't very close as kids and still aren't. However, I can tell you all about the kitties. I was holding my first cat, Fresca, I definitely loved that cat. My Mom was holding Goldstein whom was her cat and was perhaps older than me. I think she got Goldstein and Leibowitz before I was born, but the latter died before I was born. The one my Dad is holding is named Blackie, and in this day and age it horrifies me that he was named as such. Just one of those things that we didn't even think about back then. I'm sure we didn't mean it in the context that the name would be judged today.

We still have a similar piano. I just told my mom that I'd like to inherit it. (It was originally her... grandmother's, I think.)

I still have THAT piano in my living room!

I did not know that!

Really? I would have thought I would have said something about it over and over! :lmao:

:lmao:
Grumpy no less!!

Oh yeah, she plays the parts, she also has an Eeyore costume.

I'm surprised he allowed you to sit in his chair.

He was very gracious about it, as much as a photoshop Picard could be!

Oh dear.
I would've been starting to panic. Perhaps you were? Or with your buffer, were you okay?

I was definitely panicking.

Not bad. A bit tight, but not bad.

I still wasn't happy.

That's great! Glad to hear that. :)

We just have a lot more leftovers now.

Wow! Good for her. :)

It's kind of weird to adjust to though....

Oh, no...

I do recall that story. Still can't believe you pushed it all that way.

That was actually our own scooter that I ended up having to push.

I did see that post on FB...

...but I never saw the comments and didn't have a chance to comment, myself.
Truthfully, I wasn't very worried. It's a good plane, actually. And the training of maintenance people (which is part of the problem) and pilots (which is another part) is a good deal better here than in other places.

That's unfortunate. I was kind of thinking that reassurance from someone in the airline industry would have been helpful. One of my other friends was quite doom and gloom.

Looks like real cheddar and not that crappy American processed cheese.

Certainly not! I'm not a big fan of sandwiches, so when I'm going to have one, it needs quality materials. I bought Boar's Head products at the Deli to make these sandwiches.

Ugh. Not a fun way to fly.

No especially when you need the restroom!

I'm still seeing stories of people being affected.

Really? I haven't heard anything, then again I'm not in the airline industry.

:laughing: I would've said the same thing!

It was mind boggling that she missed it!

Never had one. Don't think we ever had those up here.

They're OK, I liked them as a kid, but they're not my favorite as an adult.

Much better than any I've ever taken.

Thanks! I have a better one for a future update.
 
Following along. I loved the bag of candy. I like it all except for the Charleston chews. I would think those extreme Hot Tamales are really cinnamonny.
 
OMG, love the acoustic version of Take On me! I would love to see them live.

Jill in CO

Ohh Yes, it's so beautiful!! That whole concert was awesome, I have the DVD of it. I only found out last January that they were even still around, I thought they were long gone years ago and here they have been around all this time (a couple breaks here and there) and have 10 albums (I had the first 2). I heard one of their songs on the radio (not Take on Me, it was The Sun Always Shines on TV) and it inspired me to go looking for some of the awesome music that I remembered from back in the day, during my search I was seeing all these things from recently and the first one I clicked on was from Rock in Rio 2015, OMG I almost fell out of my chair when I saw how gorgeous Morten still was and how awesome he still sounds. They are all 3 SO awesomely talented. They did a European tour last Jan/Feb of all acoustic shows then a regular "Electric" tour this past summer, I have seen lots of pics and videos of those and when I heard they were doing this tour in Oct/Nov this year I knew I had to get tickets. Got them the day they went on a presale and they are 7th row. There are 15 shows and 6 are sold out already (including the Paris show). Should be a great concert, the first half will be a normal concert and then the 2nd half they will be playing their first album (Hunting High and Low) straight through in track order. Of course now there is hope that they will come back here to the US next year, there have been reports that they signed with a management team specifically for representation here in North America (their regular manager is German, us fans hate the guy, LOL). Sorry for my book, I get a little excited, LOL.
 

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