I'm Not As Tink As You Kronk I Am - Final Thoughts on Mustard's January Trip to WDW

[Tat2ddisneymom]

Your Dad had a lion

As a pet??

Yes. Her name was Shiloh. Somebody poisoned her and she kicked the bucket.

 

[mnmrmustard]

ah the multi-shutter feature. My camera has that too. love that feature.

that's SO cool that you llucked out with the jack hanna show. bummer that it's not there all the time. I don't know of disney didn't get him...i was just sayin' if jack had the option of the two places to do his show at then AK lost out.

the sharks at the ripley's aquarium freak me out because they have butted into the glass and cracked it. I refuse to go there and no, the whale sharks at the ga aquarium don't freak me out. they always swim at the top of the water so they're never very close to the glass. plus they don't have all those teeth that the great whites do.

i'll have to keep sea world in mind for one of our future trips to WDW. I don't think we'll be able to fit it in on the trip this year

It is a nice feature - really increases the odds of getting a good shot And yeah, AK lost out ...I've been watching Hanna since I was a kid and he's done some amazing stuff with animals.

Cracked the glass??? OMG - I'd say their tanks need a serious overhaul! Ahhh, so the whale sharks don't get up close and personal aye? And yes, nothing is as daunting as three rows of razor-sharp great white teeth

Well SeaWorld will be there whenever you have the time

I was gonna ask you who that woman was on the coaster with you, cause I know it wasn't your wife. Then it hit me, DUH, its mumsey.

I would have loved that Jack Hanna show. I like snakes, lions, tigers, stuff like that. Mostly since my step brother used to have a python and my dad used to own a lion. You got some really good pictures there.

Looks like y'all had a blast at Sea World.

Heheheh, YUP - that's me mum! The show certainly had some great variety - no lions though. Very cool that your fam had such interesting pets! I had a snake for a while as a kid and DW had a pet duck ...hehehe. Other than that it was just dogs n cats for us. Thank you about the pics, they were fun to take

It was cool - and I'll have day 2 up soon!

Your Dad had a lion

As a pet??

Yes. Her name was Shiloh. Somebody poisoned her and she kicked the bucket.

That stinks! I hate hearing about any animal poisoned just because some cowardly person doesn't like them ...but to do it to something as majestic as a lion is extra sad.

 

[jordanyosh]

I saw that you had posted...so I jumped over here.....

 

[Trentmom]

Yes. Her name was Shiloh. Somebody poisoned her and she kicked the bucket.

Wow...how cool that he had one as pet

That is awful that someone killed him

 

[Trentmom]

Hey Mustard..

Wanted to see if you were ready to do an update yet



so are you ready

 

[mnmrmustard]

OK, OK, I know I said I'd have something up, but I do have a good excuse!

Friday night DW and I were invited to a charity Texas Hold'em tournament at a local bank. We got the kids settled in with MiL and had a nice dinner at a local Japanese restaurant and then showed up at the 7pm starting time. Her work sponsored us (no buy-in, just donations to play) and we got our chips.

There were around 30 of us starting at 4 tables (DW and I got separated. My first hand the flop gave me 2 pair, queens and sixes. I bet pretty well and took the pot. The next hand I flopped a FULL HOUSE!!!!!!!! Everybody thought I couldn’t get 2 good hands in a row so the betting was pretty big. So 2 hands in I had half of the table’s chips

I did pretty well and me and one other guy survived the rotations on our table. I found out that DW busted right around that time at her table :-[ I moved on to one of the last 2 tables and the first hand I played there was aces and tens – another big win (about 30,000 in chips). A bit later we had a string of blind “all-ins”. On the first occasion I had a suited ace/2 ….and lost to a pair of sevens. The second one I had an ace/king combo – one of the best blind hands in hold’em. And I lost to a PAIR OF SEVENS AGAIN!!!!

I had lost about half of my chips by that point, but we were down to the final group of players …only 5 of us left. After a couple of hands in which I folded another player busted. Then it came, the dream hand – pair of aces. I bet big, ending up going all in. I went “heads-up” against a lady and we watched the cards come down. The turn was a 3rd ace!!!! Buuuuuttttt, the river was a 4th heart, of which I had none. I thought for sure she had a flush but she was bluffing and I took the pot, putting me in second place as far as chips.

Unfortunately it was a timed event with 3 prized, so the pit boss called the game right there. I would have liked to have seen how it went to finish it, but we walked away with a 1 night stay in a master suite here (wine & cheese social and deluxe continental breakfast included) http://www.thelodgeatriverside.com/

There was also a raffle and we bought ten tickets …and won 3 times, walking away with $70 worth of coffee money It was a good night

On Saturday we had planned to do a trip with another family up to the Diamond Lake Resort http://www.diamondlake.net/
to do a day on their tube hill. DD8 was still getting over a cold and DW was exhausted from a busy week, as was the other fam’s mom, so it ended up being just 4 of us doing a dad/tween day. Here are a few pics from that:

DD's friend making her first run

DD getting ready to go up

...and coming down

My fellow dad about to head up

DD's friend looking whimsical

DD going up the tow cable (much nice than trudging up a snow hill, aye?

The 3 of them getting ready to race

and they're off!

Looks like the dad's team wins this heat

...and here come the girls!

He's a bit of a ham

and finally the Dad's race!

We had a pretty good struggle for downhill supremacy ...I think after all our races we ended up about equal on the winner board.

It was a great day with a couple of obligatory wipe-outs but no jnjuries – yay! After we were done on the hill we went to the lodge

...and had hot cinnamon rolls and coffee for the grown-ups/hot cocoa for the girls.

You can just see the lake here between the trees ...it is a shallow lake and freezed pretty solid during the winter. You can walk, skate or snowmobile across it and there are snowmobile trails all over the place around there.

Once we were warmed up inside and out we headed back down to civilization - the girls enjoyed a doughnut while we drove out.

It was like this for the first 30 miles or so before we dropped back out of the snow zone

But were we done for the weekend??? Ohhh noooo! Not at all! DD’s friend spent the night and the next day we drove to the next town for the Sportsmen’s & Outdoor Recreation Show http://www.exposureshows.com/medford.html

DD8 was feeling better (or so we thought) so the whole fam went and met up with our friends (DD11’s parents) there. I don’t have any pics except ones taken on my cell phone of the girls. I know I know, “Mr Camera” dropped the ball – lol.

It was pretty fun setup with lots of exhibits of stuff and a good variety of RVs/campers/pop-ups. The girls got to do archery, a digital duck shooting range, and climbed the climbing wall. DD8 was the fastest of the 3 girls, climbing like a monkey all the way to the top twice. Unfortunately that took a lot out of her. We went to the Predators of the Sky show, which was pretty cool. But by the time it was over Bean was feeling pretty low energy and had a headache. I put her on my shoulders and carried her out to the parking lot and we all drove out and met back up at Sonic for lunch.

The food was good but Bean was feeling worse and worse and hardly ate anything. After Sonic we all drove back to the fairgrounds where the main RV area was to look at pop-up trailers. We had decided that it was the way we wanted to go since they have all the amenities we need and can be towed by our 2000 Windstar.

Our friends are either going to get a pop-up or a medium-sized trailer to pull behind there SUV to take camping when they don’t want to mess with their motor home. Bean was still feeling bad so DW stayed in the van with her while we looked around. After we had looked at several I got a call from DW that Bean was throwing up

We called it a day and got her back home. She was sick for the remainder of the afternoon/evening and finally got to sleep somewhere between 10-11pm. DW stayed home with her today so she can rest.

So that was my weekend! I promise to get some DIS-related stuff going – hopefully today!

 

[irene_dsc]

Wow - sounds like a busy weekend! Snow tubing looks like a blast! Dh built a tiny snow hill by the house, but nothing like that! It's been ages since I've been on a big hill...

 

[scottny]

sounds like a fun weekend.

is that snow in the road pic. a wall of snow on both sides.

 

[Tat2ddisneymom]

I would love to do that, but I can't take the cold anymore. Must be my old age.

 

[jordanyosh]

What a great weekend...I miss Oregon...

 

[mnmrmustard]

I had forgotten to say that after the Shark exhibit there were some storm clouds moving in. I wanted to get the moms out to the vehicles before rain started falling but DW hung back with the girls to stop at the Dolphin Nursery. While they were there one of the dolphin handlers told us about the Dolphin feed and that the first one in the morning is the one to go to (as Earthfaries also experienced ).

Our parents decided to sleep in and then meet us for breakfast so it was just DW, the DDs, and me dragging ourselves out of bed. We got dressed, ate a quick breakfast, and were out the door. Sea World was just a mile down the road so we made it there in no time and parked right up front. I stopped a nice couple from either Australia or New Zeeland (judging from their accents) and asked if they would snap a shot of us and they did:

Again back through the "special" door next to the customer service door to get our tickets and we were in and making a beeline for Dolphin Cove. Snapped another pic of the flamengos...

...and BUM PA PA BUM! We actually made it to a "rope drop" ....just still not one at Disney

When they let us through we headed down to the cove and were the very first family in line! We had to wait there for about 15 minutes before they opened. The handlers explained how to feed the dolphins and interact with them. You could tell the dolphins were hungry as they kept circling around in front of us.

Bean was the very first one to the wall with her fish

Then DW and others started filtering up

Pumpkin Girl's turn

And then DW

I didn't bother with feeding them here since I knew we'd get good opportunities at Discovery Cove a few days later. So we moved down the wall to the petting area. The dolphins would pop up to see if we had food or to say "hi" or swim by so you could pet them

They were very active down by the underwater viewing area - thrashing and rolling over each other

We walked around the bend and down into the underwater viewing area. It was very cool the way they seemed to be watching us as intently as we were watching them

Ooop - there's that picture limit already - lolol. We'll be right back folks!

 

[mnmrmustard]

Wow - sounds like a busy weekend! Snow tubing looks like a blast! Dh built a tiny snow hill by the house, but nothing like that! It's been ages since I've been on a big hill...

It was! And the tubing was lots of fun - we try and go up there at least once a winter Really? We used to build our own snow slide hill when I was a teenager. It is very cool to walk out your back door and be able to slide!

sounds like a fun weekend.

is that snow in the road pic. a wall of snow on both sides.

It was a blast! Yup, that wall of snow was about 7ft tall in that area. But it is nothing compared to going up to Crater Lake, which is about 15 miles away. At this time of year the snow banks are in the neighborhood of 20ft!

I would love to do that, but I can't take the cold anymore. Must be my old age.

Awwww, sorry to hear that. Well that's why you go down to Disney - you can have your warm weather fun and still get a "snow" thrill by doing Blizzard Beach

What a great weekend...I miss Oregon...

It was a good one despite the sick DD. You miss Oregon aye? Well we have a guest room ...you'd just have to get over the pass to get to us

 

[mnmrmustard]

And now back to our feature presentation ;-]

More inquisitive dolphins and happy DDs

We circled around to the Ray Pool from there after a quick bathroom break

Everyone took turns petting them

and then DW bought some fishies to feed them with. It is the weirdest feeling to have them suck the fish from your hand!

even I got in on it

We ran out of fish and I looked at the time and saw it was time for us to leave and meet up with my parents for a breakfast buffet (MiL decided to stay home and rest/do some telecommuting prepping payroll for the company her and DW work for). As I was putting my camera away I had a pretty cool Disney moment ...or I should say I gave one.

Set your clocks back to our first day at MK. After PhilharMagic the fam had gone into the gift shop adjacent to the exit of the show and both DDs picked up some trinkets. I was looking at pins and wanted one to put on my camera backpack. I had been looking at one with Mickey popping out the top of a "2008" where each of the numbers is themed like a character's outfit and a "Walt Disney World" sign dangling below it. There was a big row of them and after looking at others I decided to get it.

We rung up our purchases and I took the pin out of the bag and started putting it on my camera bag. As I started to pin it I did a double-take. The pin I had in my hand was a 2008 pin, but it had Cinderella on top instead of Mickey! DW asked if I wanted to take it back in there and exchange it, but I said "no, this one is OK." I had carried it around for the next 4 days and every once in a while it would catch my eye. It didn't look right there, but something about it had made me hold on to it.

DW and the girls were just starting to leave the Ray Pool as I was putting on my backpack. Just then a Make A Wish family walked up to the pool (they were wearing the MaW T-Shirts). It clicked in my head and I thought about it for a few seconds, hoping I wouldn't seem like a weirdo doing it, but walked up to the family. I asked the parents who's wish had been granted and they pointed to their daughter (she looked to be around 6 or 7) and said her name. I leaned down and said "well then this is for you" and gave her the pin.

I know it was just a little thing, but it was great to see her face light up and it made me feel pretty good. They said thank you and I told them that I hoped they have a wonderful day and said goodbye. My fam had stopped a little ways off wondering what I was doing. When DW asked I said 'oh, nothing' and she gave me a funny look but let it go (I told her a bit later).

The girls had walked up to a face painting booth and since it was early we figured it would be worth paying the money to do it. Bean was a Swan and Pumpkin Girl was a blue fairy. I took a shot of them next to the Shamu at the exit

We got our hands stamped and hopped in our rig, spun up ye ole GPS and followed it to our breakfast destination at the Sizzler across from Ripley's. My parents got a bit lost trying to get there from the resort, and at one point I didn't help and sent them in the wrong direction! They finally got turned around and made it to us. DW had paid for us and had gotten the girls going with some food. So we were able to walk right up to our table and get plates and start piling on the vittles!

It was a very good breakfast buffet and our waitress was fantastic - very attentive and personable :-] After a great meal with them we all headed back to the resort. My parents decided to kick back for the day so we said goodbye to them. But MiL had finished up her work so the five of us headed back out to SeaWorld.

When we got to the gate we realized that we had washed off our hand stamps after eating breakfast! Luckily the guy working the turnstiles had a sharp eye and recognized the handiwork of his park's face painters - lolol So we were in and headed straight to Pets Ahoy!

On the way in I snapped a shot of the cool sundial sculpture they have adjacent to the theater. We got there at a good time and were right up front. Here's a couple of shots of the girls right before showtime!

Next up - Pets Ahoy! ....followed by The Great Flood!!!!!!

 

[mnmrmustard]

The show is pretty self-explanitory. Lots of animals running around perfoming tasks and stunts with a story of the courtship between two dogs tying it together.

The jump rope stunt was cool

The obligatory feisty Jack Russel

The lovebirds

A stylin' finale

Then the girls got to pet some of the "actors"

It was a cute show with a good bit of humor in it. When we exited we luckily came out into a covered area. It was POURING rain ...a complete torrential downpour. We had brought good rain gear so we got it out and decided to make a break for it instead of just huddling with the rest of the crowd.

The girls wanted to take in the pearl diving, but the heavy rain had delayed the show. It was coming down so quick the gutters and drains were backing up, creating pools here and there. We rolled over to Voyagers restaurant until it abated. When it slacked off I went out and heard the oyster divers were about to go in so I went and got the rest of the fam.

Next Up - Oyster Divers??? and Clyde and Seymour!

 

[jordanyosh]

I'm getting alot of red x's instead of pix. Anyone else?


Never mind the pix are there now

 

[mnmrmustard]

So the DDs, DW, and I go down next to the oyster diving tank and here they came! Two GUYS! Now I'm thinking to myself where are the cute girls in bikinis swimming around with the long flowing hair and all that??? Sigh. Well here's a couple of 'slender beefcake' shots for the ladies in the audience - lol

DW and the DDs had them get pearls for them and had them mounted with their birthstones. While they were doing that I took MiL up to the Clyde and Seymour show, which was going to start in about 20 minutes. It had started drizzling again so it was good to find a place out of the weather.

After a bit the ladies showed up and Bean and Pumpkin Girl convinced DW to sit down in the 'splash zone' ...also meaning that they sat out in the drizzle.

Luckily the rain slacked off just before showtime. Now Clyde and Seymour and Shamu are the only two things that I have memories of from our big trip to SeaWorld San Diego when I was seven, so I was looking forward to this.

And away we go!

The set was pretty cool

An otter drops anchor!

Our poor marooned souls

Where'd he go???

It was about right here that things started to go wrong. Apparently the sea lions weren't much in the mood to hit their queues, which lead to some hilarious interactions with the cast members

The salute was cute

Next up ...things go from bad to worse and Clyde and Seymour decide to make the show an improv

 

[mnmrmustard]

The pirate captain wants help finding the treasure map!

Clyde (I think) skids to a halt to show the shipwrecked guy where the map might be

Now I don't know if this is part of the show or not, but the hand reaching out is supposed to be his ....except the owner of the hand forgot to pull up his BLUE sleeve - lolol

Map ahoy!

The captain tries to "retrieve" the map

The map is dangled before the captain

Gotcha!

Go get her Seymour

Who's gonna do mouth to mouth? This entire scene was hilarious with little mis-cues

Treasure found!

Almost done, but hit the pic max again!

 

[scottny]

that was really cute.

great update.

 

[mnmrmustard]

Huzzah! The good guys have the treasure!

And the big finale!

After the show we talked to DW and she wanted to take the girls over to the Sea Lion habitat. It was starting to get close to our reservation time at The Cove Restaurant to dine with Shamu so MiL and I decided to head straight there. here are some pics that DD11 took at the habitat

They caught back up with us just as they were opening the gates. They gave us special ID tags and took our picture with the pool in the background.

This was our table - right at the mid-point of the pool

The trainers hung back and just sent the whales around (there were 2 of them) while we got our food. The dinner spread was buffet style and was very good. And the desserts were FANTASTIC! My fave was a cherry-chocolate cake - yum! Shamu kept us entertained while we ate

They made some big splashes

And got very up close and personal with us

Coming up ...Shamu REALLY says Hello!

 

[mnmrmustard]

It was amazing how close Shamu was to us!

Then the trainers started their presentation, talking about how they get trained and how they train the whales.

She sent Shamu around to wave at us

It turns out that one of their favorite things is to have their tails sprayed with a high pressure hose.

Then Shamu came around to really say "hi"

While that was happening several of the trainers came around and singed autographs and took pictures

Then it was off to Believe! The girls again wanted the splash zone, so DW went down there while MiL, my camera and I parked up in the wheelchair-accessable tier.

Hey, doen't she look familiar?

The show of coures opened with several big splashes!

The screen system they have is pretty impressive

More random splashes

It amazes me how close the trainers get to them when they jump!

more to come!