Trip report - "Dreams do come true" (video complete - pg 45)

[jackdis]

Of course I'm still here! Another great addition to your TR. I've read other TR's where I skim the parts on Universal, but yours had me reading every word, like always! Your trip reports ALWAYS make me hungry, too! LOL....Great photos. Got to get me some waffles and frech toast soon!!

What's with the backwards S on Jim's Superman shirt? Is it so that he can be Superman when he looks in the mirror??? lol

I second the idea of you starting a blog!!! What will we do once you're all done??

 

[Gradar1]

Mary--I'm so sad that it's almost over! But I think it's fun that you rode the Spiderman ride so much...I went to IOA for the first time in 2002 and rode the Spiderman ride about a dozen times...mostly because my friends and I had gotten so wet on the Dudley Do-Right ride that we needed a warm and dry place to dry off (we liked the fireball on the ride a whole lot, as it was freezing out that day!) But I digress....your wedding pictures are absolutely beautiful--your photographer was amazing! You all look like you had such a wonderful time! Anyways.....although I will be sad when you finish it all up, I've had a wonderful time enjoying your trip report! Thanks so much for sharing it!
P.S. Jim isn't the only one with the obsession with World of Warcraft--my DF is too!

 

[Mary626]

kaw1218 - thank you for sticking around!

karentan - I thought about editing that part out, but then it wouldn't have been authentic

rxlowry - glad you found your way over here, thanks for reading! Love that food porn thread!

BeckWhy - I know! Though I did use the scale to weigh our luggage to make sure we weren't over capacity!

starseed - Awesomel! I will have to paypal your DF a dime now! I tune my DH out when he starts talking about comics a lot of the times too! I probably will write a trip report about our cross country move or something, I am going to be goign through writing withdrawals if I don't keep it up, seriously! I don't know what's wrong with me, I even wrote a Trip Report for the superman returns movie premiere we went to the other day (my husband wanted me to so he could post it on another messageboard).. god help me or i'm going to Trip report my life away!!

RadioFanatic - That's awesome that your DH is into comics too! I hope you guys have a great time in California! I don't know if I'd recommend where I stayed, I don't know what the other hotels are like. I liked the location and the price was relatively cheap for that location - it had an internet special of around 115 a night (the other places were over 150 or so). The bed was really uncomfortable though. But it was clean and really close to everything! Have a great time in Cali!

Angel*lady and Heatherlynn - glad you both are still reading!

Itgirl753 - thank you so much!! My major is Biology and i'll be heading to Western Michigan University to see if I can earn my ph.d if I dont' spend all my time reading the DIS boards instead of studying

martymoose - "homeless theatre" - i had never heard that expression that is pretty funny! That describes Los Angeles pretty well, too. We go down to hollywood theatre and it is such a spectacle sometimes. Especially the ones that try to dress as movie characters to get tourist tips. Very odd people, some of them. Thanks for the acronym help, i knew "rapid transit" was in there somewhere didn't know the rest though!

JJClemson - yep the pineapple quesadillas were TDF! and yep that's a mickey dog pull - we bought it for him in downtown Disney, but he doesn't like it very much!

wasabigirl - thank you so much! Like I mentioned to starseed, I'm starting to get really into writing about my life, it is kind of fun! So who knows maybe I will start a blog!

AnimalPrincess - thank you so much, I'm glad you are enjoying the TR and thank you for posting! That's funny that "the bush man" is locally famous, we have a few characters like that down at hollywood boulevard as well, like i was mentioning.. my favorite here is the guy who dresses as superman, looks just like him,. he was even on the Daily Show once a few months ago! Anyway San Francisco was a beautiful city, i can see why you miss it.. though I don't know how you dealt with all those hills!!!

.......

What's with the backwards S on Jim's Superman shirt? Is it so that he can be Superman when he looks in the mirror??? lol .......

Thank you again, as usual I love reading your comments! You're very observant, I forgot to mention that Jim's "Superman" shirt is actually a "Bizarro" shirt, which is an odd character from the comic books who's like the opposite in everything superman does.. But that's funny about the mirror thing, because that's exactly what Jim tells everybody!!


I finished the picture links for the next day in San Fransisco, and will post it shortly. I haven't finished the picture links for our last day though, so I will do that tomorrow hopefully..

 

[Mary626]

Mary--I'm so sad that it's almost over! But I think it's fun that you rode the Spiderman ride so much...I went to IOA for the first time in 2002 and rode the Spiderman ride about a dozen times...mostly because my friends and I had gotten so wet on the Dudley Do-Right ride that we needed a warm and dry place to dry off (we liked the fireball on the ride a whole lot, as it was freezing out that day!) But I digress....your wedding pictures are absolutely beautiful--your photographer was amazing! You all look like you had such a wonderful time! Anyways.....although I will be sad when you finish it all up, I've had a wonderful time enjoying your trip report! Thanks so much for sharing it!
P.S. Jim isn't the only one with the obsession with World of Warcraft--my DF is too!

oops you posted while I was posting so I didn't see your comment! That's funny that you were using the spiderman ride as a hairdryer! Thank you for the comments and I'm glad you enjoyed the TR!!

 

[Mary626]

MAY 5TH,, FRIDAY, DAY 16

We woke up pretty early this morning and headed to IHOP again for breakfast. I used the five dollar gift certificate Jim had given me yesterday and they gave us a strange look LOL. I think we were the first people to ever buy a ihop gift certificate and to use an ihop gift certificate at that location.

Jim eating some French toast

It was friggin COOOOOOOOOLD that morning!! I stopped at one of the souvenir shops along the way for a hat. I could only find a ugly beanie hat, but I didn’t care, my ears were cold,, it was windy. Warmth over fashion!!

We headed towards the Trolley turntable, but I had to use the bathroom along the way. We stopped in a place called “The Cannery” which was also a tourist destination, but it wasn’t completely open. It was kind of an open-aired mall, so finally I found a bathroom on the second floor and then we headed out again.

The cannery

the courtyard of the cannery

Along the way, there was a tourist stand for “Bike Tours across the Golden Gate Bridge” and the guy standing outside of it was trying to sell us on it.. I said to him “that’s funny that you think we’re in that good of shape..really that’s sweet”..

We got to the Trolley turntable and bought our 10 dollar one way ticket. We were going to take the Trolley to Chinatown! Jim had asked why we didn’t walk to china Town and I was like “I don’t want to walk up that hill!” (this comes into play a little later..)


One of the Trolley’s came and the 2 porters manually pushed it around the turntable, it was kind of neat. These Trolley’s still work off of mechanical energy and have to be operated in the same way they were however many decades ago when they were first put into use.

We got on the Trolley and took some seats. Some people came up and stood on the sides and the lady was telling her friends “stand in front up there, it’s the best way to ride so you can really see those hills!” I didn’t know that, it made me wish I had taken that “seat”, although I would have been by myself while Jim was seating, he’s far too afraid of heights to do anything like that. I got in a discussion with the girl standing in front of me, who was really nice and had an accent that sounded like she was from Minnesota or Wisconsin maybe. She said that her friend that was showing them around was one of the longest surviving heart transplant patients and had to come to San Francisco periodically to go to Berkeley for check-ups.

We rode up the hill and down the hills in the Trolley, and the trolley does indeed go “clang clang”. It was a fun ride! We got off when the porter announced “China Town”.

Up and down the hills

we got off for China Town

 

[Mary626]

I had printed out and studied a “walking tour” of China Town from Frommers.com so I knew I wanted to start on the corner of Bush and Grant (I think that’s what it was). So we should have gotten off on the next exit actually, since the trolley dropped us off at the back entrance to china town. Well it was a scenic route anyway so we walked the few blocks completely up-hill and got to the entrance to China Town.

We followed along the walking tour, skipping the things that didn’t seem that interesting to us..

I’ve been to quite a few China Towns all over the world, so none of the merchandise particularly holds any appeal for me. But I do find the history of the place interesting. The thing that was really cool about this china town, in my opinion, was the residents walking around speaking Chinese to each other and just going about their daily lives. You could tell it was a truly authentic China Town. We looked around some of the shops that seemed different or interesting.

We went into one of the kite shops, it was really cool, it had kites EVERYWHERE. And then, this cracks me up.. these two twenty-something girls came into the shop, and one of them asks an employee there “do you guys sell kites?” the guy just laughed in her face, I didn’t blame him, it was so funny. The kites where EVERYWHERE and she was completely serious.

No kites here

We stopped at a few other places that the walking tour said to visit, although a few of the places we couldn’t find. The tourguide said to stop at “House of Dim Sum” for a good authentic, cheap meal.

We found it on one of the back alleys and the lady gave us a order sheet to fill out. I had never been there before, so it would say the name of the type of Dim Sum and then you would mark how many you wanted. Well I was thinking how many pieces you wanted, so I would right down “2” here or “4” there, but it turned out that each ORDER had like four pieces per order… so when we found that out we changed some of our answers lol..

It was a really cheap meal though! We tried a variety of different dim sums, including chive and onion dim sum, shrimp dim sum, and pork dim sum, along with a turnip cake, and a sweet rice cake. For all that and a coke and water, it came out to like 9 dollars or something. Really cheap!

Some of the dim sums were good, the pork was kind of gross. It was good but I hoped we didn’t’ get sick from the food or anything (we didn’t). It was about 11:15 or so

Some dim sums

sweet rice cakes

Turnip cake and more dim sums

We looked around some more,, saw some funny knock-offs for sale, and then sought out the Fortune Cookie company.

It was in one of the back alleys, and there was an old Chinese man playing the violin, it was a pretty cool atmosphere. The fortune cookie factory was just a hole-in-the-wall place, it was really small and easy to miss. The book had said if we brought our own pieces of paper with fortunes written up we could make our own fortune cookies. We had thought about doing it but decided not to, but I think that would be a cute idea for a wedding favor had we thought of it beforehand!! We went in and the lady gave us a sample of fortune cookie. It tasted very fresh and not as stale as the ones you usually eat. We saw a bag of “Adult fortune cookies – NOT FOR CHILDREN!!!” and thought it might be funny so we bought the bag for two dollars or something.

The back alley

the fortune cookie factory – a san Francisco invention

a guy playing the violin, he was good

We went out in the alley and opened one of them up. The fortunes were SO STUPID. Me and jim were like “what the heck?” some of the fortunes were… “Wing Lu Yu says: Farmer who can’t keep hands off his wife better fire them”….. or “Wing Lu Yu says: alimony is like putting gasoline into another man’s car” “wild Indian who not know one end from another end up with a weird collection of scalps”.

Me and my “adult” fortune cookie

Anyway they ended up being kind of funny because they were so stupid, so it was still worth the two dollars and the cookies were good!

 

[Mary626]

We were done with China Town and headed back to the hotel. After freshening up at the hotel we thought we would walk to the car rental place, which mapquest had told me was one mile from the hotel.

Okay here’s where Mary was really stupid! We walked ALLL the way down the huge hill back to our hotel… it took about a half an hour,, no big deal, we thought it would be fun.

A weird street name

We got to our hotel, and I was supposed to pick the car up at 2 pm about, so we relaxed for a while. I called the car company to make sure they had the car and to get their exact location. And then we started walking back towards the car company

Well silly me, I didn’t realize the car rental company was about 15 minutes PAST china town. So we ended up walking UP the steepest, tallest hill in North America and back down it. So much for mapquest.. maybe it was one mile as the crow flies, not counting the fact that you have to climb up into the stratosphere and then back down. Those hills were steep, I don’t know how people walk up and down them every day who live here! I started to pretend like I was pulling an “invisible rope” to climb up the hill. Going down hill was even harder because it felt like you were going to fall face forward and roll down the hill!

A cute san Franciscan street

don’t fall down jim!

and down the hill

It was so absurd that we just kept laughing at the absuridity of the situation. I had taken the trolley that morning to China Town saying “you’d have to be crazy to walk up that hill!” and we ended up walking down it and back up again. If we had stayed in China Town we would have been like five minutes away from the car rental place. I just thought it was really funny, so much for being the master planner!

We got to the car rental place and the lady asked Jim where he was from and said “LA? You must be a dodger fan…” and for the rest of the time we were there pretended to hate Jim because he was a “dodger fan”. They didn’t have the mustang convertible we requested, but they did have a sebring, so that was fine. We put the top down and drove out into San Francisco traffic. It was trafficy but it wasn’t that bad. It took us about a half an hour to find and get to the Golden Gate Bridge.

we head to the golden gate bridge

We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, it was kind of cool! I had fun. On the north side of the bridge it was very pretty scenery. There was the fishing town of Sausalito. We were going to drive to Point Reyes lighthouse, I think it was. We got off at the exit for it, and were driving around the Cliffside. Jim started to get a little freaked out because of his fear of heights. After about 20 minutes, we weren’t there yet, and Jim wanted to turn around, so I said okay. Oh well, another day maybe.

Driving over the bridge

oh yeah, I’m cool

north of the bridge

 

[Mary626]

sausilito, I think

It was still an enjoyable ride. It was about 3:30 or so. We stopped along the way for an icecream sandwhich from a gas station.

We past over the bridge again and paid the four dollar toll (I think that’s what it was).

 

[Mary626]

I wanted to stop at the Presidio for some photos, but we couldn’t find the exit from that side of the highway and ended up taking a half an hour accidental detour to the san Francisco recreational area. There was absolutely no place to turn around! Finally we headed back and were at the Presidio and stopped for 15 minutes to take some pictures.

I say to Jim "did you get the bridge in the picture?" so he took this one. After our infamous "picture in front of the statue of liberty.. seriously we were in front of the statue of liberty in that picture!" picture, I make sure to always ASK that the person got the famous landmark that I am currently standing in front of is IN the picture!!

here’s the aforementioned picture of me and Jim in front of the statue of liberty… If someone asks you to take their picture in front of a famous landmark… isn’t it usually a good idea to get the famous landmark IN the picture?

some real pictures in front of the bridge

We got back in the car and I wasn’t sure which way to go. We ended up driving all around through the Presidio having no idea where we were going. It was pretty scenery anyway so it was no big deal. Finally somehow, we accidentally got back on the right path. It was kind of scary to drive up the hills. We’d see a car in front of us go UP the hill, and then they’d go down the other side and it was like they fell off the face of the earth. It was kind of funny. I can see why they have so many car chase movie scenes in this city.

that car is about to disappear off the face of the earth

We got back on the 101 and headed towards “Lombard street – the worlds’ most crookedest street” , which you have to take at like five miles per hour and make some really tight curves around. It was cute.


Driving down Lombard street

a view of Lombard street behind us

We headed back to the hotel and relaxed for a while.

Later in the night when we got hungry we decided to head to Pier 39 to find a place to eat. Jim was thinking about eating at “Hard Rock Café” again, since there was one right there, didn’t sound like a bad idea to me! I had a coupon at the hotel that said “eat at the Hard Rock and ask about a free gift with this coupon!” so I thought I’d give it a try if we ate there.

We walked to the Hard Rock Café and were seated right away. We ordered almost the exact same thing,, nachos for appetizer, and pineapple quesadillas for me and twisted mac and cheese for Jim. No dessert though. The quesadillas were a little spicier then they had been the other day, but still very good! Jim wasn’t very hungry so he got a box for most of his meal.

nachos, without chicken this time

everything else we ate looked exactly the same as the time before

At the gift shop I showed them the coupon and the guy told me he’d hook me up, and gave me my very own hard rock café pin lanyard with starter pin.. just what I always wanted!

On the way back to the hotel we saw a big group of people dancing and singing some spiritual sounding music, I asked jim if it was a religious group or something, and he said they were hippies and that was a famous hippie song. I guess I don’t know my Hippie pop culture enough. It was kind of interesting to watch.

On the way past some pan-handlers, Jim saw one of the guys just staring at his food, he didn’t say anything but was just eyeing it, so Jim asked if he wanted it, and the guy seemed soooooo appreciative and happy. When we left, we looked back and the guy was sharing it with his friends and they were just devouring it. I felt bad for them.

We got back to the hotel, relaxed, and watched some tv. I prepared the itinerary for the next day.


We were going to head out early and drive to Napa Valley and spend the day exploring there. Our flight was 6 pm so we didn’t have to be back in the city until around 4 or so. If we left early we would have plenty of time to explore. Well we had cancelled the hot air balloon ride, but driving around in the convertible sounded like fun to me, so I was excited!

 

[Mary626]

May 6th (my birthday), Saturday, DAY 17 – the LAST DAY OF OUR HONEYMOON


Well it was the last day of the honeymoon, but I was looking forward to the day!!

We got dressed and packed up our ONE suitcase and went to check-out. I had all my maps with me and guide book. We got some breakfast at the 7-11 across the street (a very healthy donut and bagel breakfast) and sat in the car, ate the breakfast, and I looked over the map to make sure I knew where the heck we were going. It seemed pretty easy, and I had printed out the mapquest directions from the hotel, so there were no problems.

We left around 8 am and headed north past Berkley and into Napa. It was about an hour drive North. We stopped at a grocery store along the way for some “road trip snacks” and continued into the napa valley.

Driving across a different double-decker bridge out of S.F.

and another bridge

stopping for roadtrip snacks

being a dork and taking pics of myself

it was still kind of cold outside, but I still wanted the top down

I didn’t really know what our plan was. Neither Jim or I drink or like or know anything about wine, but I thought it would be pretty and thought there might be some things to do along the way, like my guide book had mentioned. Just figured we’d play it by ear.

We start to see some vineyards along the way

From the south point to the north point of the valley you can basically drive through it in less then a half an hour. The morning started out kind of cold but it warmed up as the day went on.

the sun wasn’t completely up yet

 

[Mary626]

We looked at the vineyards and saw some wineries and thought about stopping. I had heard there was a Francis Ford Coppola owned winery and so we tried to find that, but I think he actually sold it recently and we couldn’t find it. We drove through the valley and then took a road over to the Silverado Trail which is like a backroad to the valley which is also supposed to have some great views.

on the open road..

I wasn’t getting sunburned at all.. nope…

We enjoyed our ride and enjoyed the views. We took the road back over to the main road and decided to stop at the Mondavi Winery, which was supposed to be very pretty.

We looked around and walked around. We stopped in the gift shop, I was thinking of buying some wine for some people back home but I hadn’t the faintest idea what was good wine and what wasn’t. I saw some chocolate truffles filled with wine, sounded good to me! Jim bought them for me and we left. I ate them in the car as we drove some more and they actually did make me a little tipsy, so there was my wine tasting!


The mondavi winery

the extent of my “wine tasting”

 

[Mary626]

Not really knowing what else we wanted to do in the Napa Valley, we decided to head over to Sonoma and see if we could get to Jack London State Historic Park. “The Call of the Wild” was one of my favorite books and I’ve read it like a dozen times, so I was kind of interested to see what was there, and we still had plenty of time to kill.

It took about 45 minutes to get there from Napa,, and we got there almost at noon. We needed to head back to San Francisco by around 1:30 or so, so we didn’t have a lot of time.

I actually thought parts of Sonoma were much prettier then the napa valley

we were getting close

We went into the visitor center and looked around at the exhibits of Jack London’s life and adventures and books. I thought it was pretty interesting actually. The visitor center was the house that he lived in with his wife for a number of years, so we looked around at his house. There was a guy playing the piano there for some reason, probably for fun.

A rock

the visitor center/ Jack London’s old house

a model of the ship that jack London and his wife sailed around the world for three years in…

he traveled extensively.. maybe that’s why I like his writing so much

a guy playing the piano

This house was just a place Jack London was staying until his dream house “The Wolf House” was finished being built, which was about a mile away on the property. It was almost near completion but then it mysteriously burnt down before anyone lived in it.

We decided to walk the trail to his gravesite and see the remains of the Wolf House.

It was a nice walk along the way, beautiful trails with babbling brooks and vineyards here and there. We saw the Wolf House and looked around, and then went to his grave site. And then we really had absolutely no time left and had to hurry back to the car to get to the airport.

remains of the Wolf House

some vineyards on the way back to the car

back in the car.. nope.. not getting sunburned at all…

driving through Sonoma on the way back

back to San Francisco

We drove back, and were making good time, but got stuck in a bottleneck to pay the toll at one of the bridges. It took a half an hour just to get past the bridge toll, it was ridiculous.

Ooo that’s a delorean!

We got to the airport and dropped off the rental car, and since they said it was an hour late, they charged me an extra 50 bucks or something. I was livid. My reservation sheet said I could drop it off at 4, and I dropped it off at 4! They told me where to go to dispute it, so we went up to the main office and I got in line and was telling Jim all the things I was going to say and how pissed off I was…. I got up there, I had the printed out reservation sheet that said I could drop it off at 4, and explained the situation to her, and I was all prepared for an argument, which I was determined to win, and the lady said “okay that’s no problem, give me one second and I’ll refund that for you”… “ohh…okay… thanks!” Well I like it when things work out that easily


I had been in the convertible ALL DAY without wearing a hat. I had only put a little sun screen on. Now that we were in the airport I was feeling absolutely RADIOACTIVE. I was SUNBURNED!! I looked like a red hot chili pepper. Thank goodness it was the last day of the honeymoon when I burned, and not before the wedding or something, I looked awful. I was feeling awful from the sunburn. It worked out kind of well though, since it made me feel glad that we were heading home and not that sad. It took me a week before I went back to looking somewhat “normal”.

The flight was really short and uneventful. We landed and went home, and Jim’s mother made me a pecan and apple pie for my birthday,, it was delicious!

Hmm. I guess that’s it. The honeymoon was officially over at that point. But it had been 17 WONDERFUL days of fun and romance, and I couldn’t have asked for more!!

One year of planning, one year of saving money, and it was over. But wait... at least we had our at-home reception in a few weeks... that was something.. .right? Hey.. I need something to look forward to!

 

[Mary626]

I spent the next few weeks trying to get back to reality, but let me tell you, it is hard. No matter where I was or what I was doing, my mind still felt like it was on the honeymoon. Jim and I still felt like “newlyweds” for quite a while.

Chris moved back home, he had been living in Texas with his Dad.. he came with a new addition to the family.. a dinosaur… well, actually, a Great Dane named Diego.. but he’s about the size of a Dinosaur (but wampa loves him)..

On May 20th, we prepared for our “At-home” reception for people in California who couldn’t make it to the wedding (there were a lot of people who couldn’t make it to the wedding). Jim had invited people he hadn’t seen in years so he was really excited.

Jim’s Aunt came down from Seattle, who hasn’t been to California in over 10 years, and her and her friend helped us set up, decorate, and prepare for the event. We were holding it in our house in Van Nuys.
I was in charge of decorating. I figured I would steal all my ideas from our original reception at Ariel’s. I went to Michael’s and bought a bunch of cheap glass bowl-shaped vases.. bought some blue iridescent sea-glass, and went to a florist and bought some white Lillies that were in bloom. I put the sea glass on the bottom of the vases, filled it half with water, and put some Lillies to float on the top.

We practically plastered the house with photographs of our wedding. We had the five minute video edit that Stan had provided us with, and we had them playing on a loop on the tv’s. Jim’s friend had gotten us a really nice gift of a digital photo frame, which displayed our wedding photographs beautifully. I also put the pictures on a slideshow on my laptop and played it continuously. We got some balloons and put them outside by the driveway entrance, along with a sign saying “Just Married”..

Sue ordered a beautiful, delicious cake.. one layer was whipped pineapple.. the other German Chocolate.. we ordered some “el pollo loco” chicken, made pot roasts, along with a bunch of other kinds of foods. I ate a LOT at our party.

I met a lot of people from Jim’s life that I never had the chance to meet before, so it was a lot of fun. I was excited at the opportunity to meet Jim’s GodFather, G.W. Bailey… I had loved him in the police academy movies growing up so I thought that was cool! I also met jim’s old Scout leader and a bunch of friends from Jim’s childhood. We had a really good time.


Here are some photos:

The cake table. I didn't like how it looked against just a plain white wall so I went out and bought the blue fabric to add a splash of color to the backdrop

Jim's Aunt Kelly put our invitation in a frame, I love it! We put out some of our programs, more napkins, and our toasting flutes

On the piano, we put out our unity candle, mickey and minnie, the snowglobe jim bought me, a vase with some more lillies, and a digital frame that was displaying a slideshow of our wedding photos. We scattered some fake white rose petals around it.

some frames

I put out our guestbook and the photoframe from our original reception along with our leftover hershey bar favors

outside

Sue rented some tables and chairs. I did the centerpieces

I maintained continuity from our florida reception to our california reception. I bought the vase/bowls, put blue iridescent marbles on the bottom and put a fresh white lillie in the bowl. Added some votive candles and more blue glass around the base.

 

[Mary626]

some refreshments

a really good brussel sprouts & artichoke heart dish

Tuna and pineapple dip and wheat thins, it was really good! Sue went up to someone early in the day and asked if they wanted a pineapple and some tuna. If you didn't know that she was talking about the dip she made that would be a very strange question to be asked. The look on the person's face was priceless!

Sue made us wear our ears again, but I didn't mind all that much

Jim's old boyscout leaders brought us a bunch of framed pictures of pictures of our wedding that they got from our website, it was so thoughtful of them!

I got to meet Jim’s godfather, g.w. bailey

Gracie looks like she’s up to something

Jim’s old boyscout troop reunited.. Troop 303 representing!

Jim prepares to stab the cake but I was sworn to protect it

The honeymoon is definitely over...

Okay, seriously, time for cake...

jim trying to kill me

uhoh, they’ve found Jim’s lightsaber collection…

All of the photos can be found here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmary/sets/72057594141341501/

 

[Mary626]

I have no idea waht I'm going to do now that I have no more trip report to write!! I had so much fun writing that trip report... It felt like..as long as I was still writing it, it wasn't over yet!! It was like I was reliving it as I was writing it.


To everyone who read it and to everyone who commented along the way THANK YOU SO MUCH!! Your kind words and compliments meant more to me then you know!! Thank you for allowing me to share my wedding and honeymoon with you all I'm so happy that I could share my wonderful wedding day and honeymoon with others. It trully was the most magical experience of my life. I don't regret any of it. I wouldn't change any of it.

If any of you want to keep up to date with future activities Jim and I may be up to, we have a picture website here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmary/sets/

Who knows.. maybe I will start a blog one of these days! I did write another Trip Report that Jim requested I write for another website, about going to the Superman Returns premiere the other day, which was sooo much fun... if you're bored you can find it here:
http://bluetights.net/theplanet/showthread.php?t=15091



The name of this thread "Dreams do come true" is a line from Julie Andrews at the end of the "Wishes" firework spectacle here in Disneyland (not 100% sure if it's in the WDW one) ... at the end, she says "and remember... dreams DO come true..."

I never thought I would find someone who makes me as happy as my husband makes me, and I never thought I would be getting married in EPCOT and having a magical honeymoon in Walt Disney World. It was always my dream, but I never thought it would actually happen. How many times do the things we wish for actually come true? It is so rare, and to have had my dream wedding and honeymoon.. well.... it really WAS a dream come true

-Mary

 

[Philadisney]

Mary! I am sad your report is over but it was a wonderful read, like many people on these boards I feel like I know you and Jim personally now. It is always good to see two people who have found each other in this crazy world and made each other so happy. Ya got me a little choked up at the end there. Bravo!

 

[RadioFanatic]

I'm so sad the report is over - I absolutely loved it - are you sure you can't do a report about your big move?

My dh and I can't wait to see the superman movie - we're going to his hometown though b/c they have an IMAX theatre so I can't wait to see it bigger than life and in 3D. I already read the book and loved the story so we're excited.

 

[jackdis]

Mary,
Just wonderful! What a great "gift" you have given to Jim (and yourself!) by writing this trip report. Thank YOU for sharing it with us. You are a beautiful person - inside and out!!!

 

[RadioFanatic]

okay, now I just read the superman report and am SOOOO jealous - that sounds absolutely amazing - how in the world did you get tix to that? I forwarded the link to my dh, I know he is going to be green!

In reading the book, I know the ending and boy, did it absolutely shock me - I really didn't expect that!

And I'm a huge fan of Lois and Clark too - I also saw every episode. LOVED IT! Are you sure we aren't related in another life?

 

[Blythep]

Thanks Mary for your wonderful TR. I have spent 3-4 days at work reading and enjoying it. I am 337 days from my DH and my vow renewal. I am an ultra planner and it is so much fun to plan. We are going on a cruise and then to Disney afterwards. I am a Disney nut, we are going to wear matching Disney attire for our ceremony and it will only be the two of us.

I have really enjoyed all the pictures and disciptions of your days leading to, day of and honeymoon. I am sad that it is over. I did notice that you mentioned eating bread again, and other comments about diet. Did you go on Atkins a year before your wedding/honeymoon? I am trying to motivate myself into weightloss before as well, and am still looking for the plan that would work for me.

Again thanks for your TR and I hope you and Jim have many years of happiness!!