The Time of Our Lives - a Graduation Celebration!! Arrival Day Update! 6/28

[mickeystoontown]

I missed your two driving day updates. Sorry, I've been working on a trip report of my own and was busy.

I am from Louisiana so I know exactly what pimento cheese. I absolutely love pimento cheese sandwiches but only if the bread is really really fresh. Ummmm! Is it lunch yet?

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[White as Snow]

I missed your two driving day updates. Sorry, I've been working on a trip report of my own and was busy.

I am from Louisiana so I know exactly what pimento cheese. I absolutely love pimento cheese sandwiches but only if the bread is really really fresh. Ummmm! Is it lunch yet?

Looking forward to reading more!

Oooh, fresh bread IS really good with pimiento cheese! We had it with some really fresh sourdough, it was teeeriffic!

Aw, shucks, don't worry about missing the updates (I love your TR, by the way). My updates have been a bit spotty. Wanna know why? Because there is a mini-replica of Manhattan made out of boxes and assorted furniture where our dining room used to be!

Warning: Moving story/rant below!


I was at the house day before yesterday for about 5 hours JUST figuring out where we were going to put furniture. I probably already mentioned this, but where most couples our age (22 and 26) have pets or a child, we have.....a conservatory grand piano. SO in addition to the obscene amount of furniture we possess, we now have to make room for our 6'2" glossy finished baby to come live with us.

My mom (who has moved at least 10 times - which is a lot to me if you couldn't tell) had the idea to trace off our large, troublesome pieces of furniture on butcher paper and take that to the house to figure out what would fit where.

I realize this may sound weird, but we have a 9' couch with a chaise at the end and a large 7' entertainment center, a dining room table and chairs and a china cabinet....oh yeah, and that thing with the 88 keys. All this has one large, somewhat oddly shaped room in which to fit.

MY MOM IS A GENIUS!!! If we had not done the butcher paper cutouts, we would have been in serious trouble come movin' day! As I already mentioned, it took us a ridiculous 5 hours to figure out what we think will work. Part of the ridiculousness ensued because Robert and I could not agree on some aspects of the placement at first. It took a long time for each one to point out what they didn't like and then for the other one to point out why they thought it would work. Thankfully, Mom is a wondrous referee, and helped us figure it out without re-enacting one of the "wild animal" scenes from Mean Girls.

Sheesh. Anywho, we got it figured out and then when I got home I had one of the worst lupus attacks I've had in a while. I spent most of today in the bed. I'm just SO thankful that I didn't have anything I absolutely had to do and could take the day to rest. An added blessing, TCM showed In the Good Old Summertime - one of my absolute favorites! Judy Garland, Van Johnson, "Cuddles" Sakall, Buster Keaton, and Spring Byington? Yes, please.


Oh, and to any lurkers....come out, come out, where ever you are! I know you're out there, because I don't think Lisa, MeMom, and I have read this thing over 400 times. Please, post - the good, the bad, the indifferent - anything!

So, now that we've established that moving is not easy and that lurkers shouldn't be afraid to post....

....I'm going to get a shower and go to bed. Sorry if you thought I was going to say, "Post an update." Hopefully, I can do that tomorrow.

Night, all, and thanks for reading!

 

[White as Snow]

Just when I was wondering if Robert decided to take a safari without me, he returned, pink lunch box in hand. My mom gave me a pink lunch box for.....well, for some occasion I can’t recall at the moment, but Robert was carrying it because it contained water and diet soda for the room. So, pink lunch box and several other pieces of luggage in hand, we went to our cozy new home at AKL.

We immediately began taking pictures. It was such a great feeling to know that we were actually going to be sleeping here this night and that we were seeing these sights with our own eyes and not just a picture on a computer screen. I never imagined that I would get to stay in a Deluxe resort, so this really was a dream come true <-----sorry if that was cringe-worthy.


Here is our loverly savannah view room (it was far away from the cold night air, but I don’t know about the “one enormous chair” qualification.)

A close-up of our not-so-hidden towel animal

I LOVE that they used these woven bowls as wall art

Art above the fridge-containing cabinet

How awesome are these chairs on the balcony?

The shower curtain complete with hidden Mickeys

A close up of the wallpaper in the bathroom area

Outside the room

I think I’ve fallen in love with the light fixtures outside the rooms at Disney resorts.

Once upon a time and very long ago, there were matching pictures of me on the balcony and Robert on the balcony......guess which one the photo king deleted?

That photo is at least a good example of what happens to naturally curly hair when it is straight and enters Florida humidity. It is also a good example of where I spent a LOT of my time while at the lodge. Yes, my name is Laura Beth and I’m a balcony addict.

This was the view looking to the right on the balcony. See the metal vine covered area? That’s how close we were to the lobby. Niiiiiice!

Next up we'll explore Zawadi Market (place?) Oh, and sorry for the over-abundance of smilies!

 

[White as Snow]

We got over the “oh-my-gosh-we-are-actually-here” moment and took pictures of the animals. There are a LOT of pics, but if you’ve gotten this far, you know how to scroll.....

These dudes were having nap time when we arrived.

Disney is so great, where else can you play hide and seek with a giraffe?

Dinner time for the ankole cattle!

I just realized at least one of those photos was NOT taken from our balcony, but from the floor to ceiling windows in the hallway. Didn't want to be misleading!

I have some video we took from the balcony. One is nice because you can see the giraffe and all his zebra buddies walking around and can hear how peaceful it was with the drizzling rain. The other is of a quirky little bird walking around with his wings all spread out. I guess we have a strange sense of humor.

Why describe these instead of post them, you ask? Because I am completely inept at posting video to photobucket. If anyone has any tips to offer, they are more than welcome!

Next up: My favorite.....shopping!

 

[White as Snow]

After we got over our snap-happiness, the plan was to rest for a bit. We were both still tired from the eventful graduation weekend. After we had watched some good ol’ resort TV, scoured the activities page and map, and gotten our momentary fill of the animals, we decided to go do some shopping. It took awhile for us to get going. Robert was trying to email pictures of the room and the savannah to a few family members and friends. He didn’t want to leave until it was finished because he was using his Blackberry as a modem. I asked him why he would need it. If he needed to use a phone, I would have mine. He thought about it a while and agreed.

The balcony was fully covered, so we had been leaving our balcony door open so we could hear the sound of the rain and the savannah. We could also hear the screams from Everest and the whistle from....Rafiki’s? I can’t remember if EE has a whistle or not. Robert was for leaving the door open while we went out, but I disagreed (politely, of course). I kept having this image of coming back to our room to find a pelican sitting on one of the beds.

Side note: I despise birds. Particularly pigeons, seagulls, and ravens, but I absolutely detest snow owls. I don’t know, maybe it is their dead, Scream-like eyes, or the smushed ghost-like faces. Eeesh, gives me the willies just to think of them. Every once in a while my sweet husband or brother will hijack my computer and change the Disney desktop to a picture of one of these creepy creatures. Ah, such a loving family.

Okay, back to the TR.

We decided Zawadi Marketplace was our first destination because we needed to get postcards for our Fairy Godmailer duties. I had the camera in the store and got a little snap-happy. I have always been timid about taking pictures in the stores because I was afraid a CM would get on to me. Then I discovered MeMom’s TRs and the shopping pics thread - new confidence was gained!! I knew there was a pretty good chance I would find plenty of tempting treats in Zawadi, but I also knew that we would be coming back here on our last day to eat at Boma. So, I did the logical thing and took pictures of items that I liked in case I didn’t find them anywhere else, and to stave off spending all my graduation money in one place!

As you might have noticed, I was drawn to the animal print Mickey head items. On our 2007 Halloween trip, my aunt fell in love with a purse that had a bejeweled leopard print Mickey head on it. Come to find out, those jewels were Swarovski crystals and the purse was a tad bit expensive. Robert and I have been on the lookout for that purse ever since because my aunt was bummed that she didn’t get it.

I took these photos in case we decided one of the other purses would suffice. I also took them because I liked the pajamas - I’m something of a pj connoisseur. I would later find some that were much superior, but that doesn’t happen for a while.

Back to the shopping trip.

I love being married to a man who likes to shop!

Robert wanted a close-up of this.

Here it is in context.

Our nephew, D, would have a blast with these - and by that, I mean, he would break them......the boy has cracked a steel bowl before - he’s a demolition prodigy.

I entertained the idea of getting one of these.....I’m wishing my cheap side hadn’t pulled the curtain down.

This wasn’t a postcard we bought for our FGMing, but I had heard an interview with one of the character artists who worked on it, and wanted a picture of it. I guess it could be considered a redneck picture because I was too cheap to actually buy the postcard.

I needed a keychain for my copy of Robert’s car key because it always gets lost in my purse and I can’t find it when I need it. I thought these cute yarn buddies might be good candidates.

I considered this for D.

And this....

Is 22 far too old to still melt into a puddle over cute stuffed animals?

I could kick myself for forgetting to obtain some Disney coffee.

The cookies that are in cellohpane toward the bottom are WONDERFUL!!!

Continued in next post

 

[White as Snow]

My great aunt uses a walking stick from time to time and we thought if she were ever feeling particularly rebellious, these might be an alternative. She’s quite a character and one of our absolute favorite people.

This concluded our shopping trip. Robert bought a pack of about 9 postcards, but that was all the spending we did.....for now.....

We were both beginning to get hungry, but our plan was to get room service in the room while we watched the first part of the American Idol finale. We don’t normally watch AI, but we both really liked Adam Lambert and wanted to see his final performance.
So, we decided to just grab a snack at The Mara. First, we had to find it.....

As we roamed around, we stumbled upon the map in the lobby (yeah, that scouring of our map earlier wasn’t as productive as we thought.....)

We finally found the elevators

and a cool light fixture

I thought the area around The Mara and the pool was really neat, so I kept clicking away with the camera because I didn’t want to forget anything about this place.

This was about where things started to go a little south....

Side story/pit stop: On our December trip, we had a little......discussion, yes, let’s call it a discussion about pictures. Robert would stop dead in his tracks to take pictures of anything and everything. Flowers, characters with other people’s kids, etc. Now, I’m all for pictures (as you can probably tell), but it got old having to just stand around while he took ten pictures of the same thing. When I’m in Disney, I take one picture and keep going. I suppose that is why some of mine didn’t make it past the editor. Robert, on the other hand, takes a picture, reviews it, deletes it if it isn’t “worthy” and repeats until he gets the perfect shot.

At one point, I decided he could take pictures and I would just walk around or shop in the vicinity. This didn’t work. We were in the MK and he stopped in Adventureland to take pictures of Rafiki from afar with other people’s kids. I suggested that we could get in the short line and just ask him to pose for us. Well, that was shot down as a bad idea. So, Annie Leibovitz continued to stand in one spot (where we were in the way of traffic) and try to get Rafiki with no kids in the shot. I told him I was going to go to the bathroom around the corner. He nodded, but I knew he didn’t hear me - ladies, you know what I’m talking about, that intuition that he didn’t hear a single word you said, but nodded so you would stop talking? Yeah, that was the nod I received.

I went on to the restroom anyway, because I thought this might be a good teaching moment. Someone tried to call my cell phone while I was in the restroom...wonder who? When I came out, I noticed Robert wandering around the Aloha Isle area with a slighty annoyed, slightly worried look on his face. When I walked up, the conversation went something like this.

Robert: “Where did you GO?”

Me: “I told you I was going to the restroom if you were going to stay there and try to get pictures.”

Robert: “ I didn’t hear you say anything.”

Me: “Shocker.”

We had already had one discussion about the stopping to take bunches of pictures of the same thing until he got a shot he liked. So, I told him that if he wanted to do that, fine, but I didn’t want to just stand there and waste park time. I suppose we never really reached an understanding about this.

On the road again: Okay, back to May of ‘09. After I took the picture of The Mara menu, I noticed someone putting his huffy pants on. Stupidly, I took the bait and asked what was wrong. He proceeded to tell me that I had “blessed” him out in December about taking too many pictures and that here I was taking a picture of everything in sight and that we didn’t have unlimited space on his computer for pictures and so on and so forth.

I tried to explain that my problem was not with the number of pictures, but with the stopping, reviewing, and so forth that took up a lot of park time. Now, if we took trips where we had more than 2 park days, this wouldn’t matter so much, but we’ve never taken a trip where we had more than 3 or 4 days in the parks. I realize that I shouldn’t be so commandoish in the parks, and I am working on it.

I also tried to explain that we had no other plans for the afternoon apart from wandering around the resort and taking pictures. This didn’t help because he continued to be annoyed with me.

We went in The Mara and I asked what he wanted to eat. After perusing the menu, I suggested we get an African stew because it seemed to be the most unique item. He said that didn’t look like enough. I told him I would go ask because I really wanted to get that and, after all, this was just a snack. He said he had lost his appetite and was going back to the room. *sigh* Men.

When we got back to the room, he was mad and I was starting to not feel very well. My lupus is almost always triggered by stress and fatigue and within the last few months, seems to also be triggered by low blood sugar. Well, the tiff, hunger, and fatigue were starting to wreak havoc. I laid down on the bed and threw myself a little pity party complete with streamers and party hats.

After a few moments and what I suspect was a pity party of his own, Robert apologized for getting so mad at me and we talked out the situation. He asked if I wanted to go back to The Mara but I really didn’t feel like it and asked if we had anything from the car in the room. He had forgotten to get any food from the car, so I rested a minute and then we went back to The Mara.

When we got there, I asked the CM taking orders how big the African stew in a bread bowl was. She simulated the bowl size with her hands and I decided that was plenty for both of us for a snack. Thankfully, Robert agreed.

If you’ve never been to The Mara, first off, you should go, and secondly, it was different than any other CS I have ever seen. There is a CM in front of the open kitchen area who takes your order and gives you a beeper to come back when your food is ready. When your food is ready that CM trades you a receipt and your food for the beeper.

While we waited for our beeper to do its thing, we looked in the cooler for drinks and such. Robert discovered the red pepper hummus (we LOVE us some hummus) and the house made pita chips. We got that and some drinks and our beeper signaled that our food was ready.

All of the above was beyond delicious! After we finished, Robert asked for the recipe and they said they would print it for us. A CM came out soon after and had several copies of the recipe. She handed one to Robert and then started to hand one to me. I told her that I was with him and would just use his copy. She said, “Okay, but don’t fight over it.” How’s that for some irony?