Two Chicks and...a Mouse!~ADRs, a wedding, and Property Virgins? 9.25.09

[jewels1916]

So, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out last week. At 12:01 Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

My brother and sister and I have all read the books, and seen the movies, so it was a given that we were going to go see this one. Well. I happen to love midnight movies, plus we were all pretty excited to see it, so we got tickets to go see it at midnight Tuesday night. With my best friend Joey and her husband. Before hand, my cousins (who were also going to the movie, just at a different theatre) met us all for dinner. I don't know if any of you have ever gone to a midnight movie, or tried to go to a midnight movie, but they can get pretty crazy. People dressed up, in line for hours...yadda yadda yadda.

Anyway, so 8pm, we all meet up at Red Robin for dinner. I walk in, and this is what I am confronted with:

My cousins, ladies and gentlemen. Amanda as Professor Trelawney, and Misty as Professor McGonogall.
They are a riot. I love it. We were getting some pretty awesome looks from the other restaurant go-ers.

All of us at dinner

Mandy, me, and Misty

Sisters! (Misty and Mandy are sisters, and obviously Kelsey and I)

After dinner, Misty and Mandy went on their merry way, and we headed over the our theatre. Well, the tickets we got were early entry, so we were able to walk right into the theatre. And sit way down at the front. Unlike the people who'd been there since 6, we had gone to dinner cause we didn't want to sit there for 6 hours. No, we were content to sit there for 3.5 hours. And we paid for it by sitting in the front. But no complaints.

While we were sitting there, I get a call from Misty and she's like "Are there a bunch of people dressed up?"

"Of course."

"Have you taken pictures?"

"I'm not taking pictures of strangers like I am some creeper!"

"Why not? We've had like 20 people come up to us and ask us if they can take our picture!"

"That's cause y'all's costumes are the best."

"What characters do you guys have?"

"The best is someone dressed as Fleur Delacour."

"Take a picture! I wanna seeeeee!"

"Fine."

So we get off the phone and I walk over to these three folks who are dressed as Professor McGonigall (I think), and Harry Potter in his Quidditch uniform, and Fleur Delacour. And I tell them that my friends and I decided that they had the best costumes in the theatre and asked if I could take their picture. They were happy to oblige.

While we are taking pics, John (Joey's hubby) took one of she and I.

She is Gryffindor. I am Slytherin. Sometimes it's good to be bad.

To pass the time, we decided to play Phase 10. Joey, John and I did anyway. Kelsey and her friend, and Ryan and his friend knew a ton of people, so they were mostly running around talking to people. As Joey and John and I are all more than 3 years out of high school, we weren't quite as cool. Obviously, the people our age had something better to do that night.

Anyway, finally the movie started, and I thought it was great. Much funnier than most of the other HP movies I've seen. I'd go see it again.


Well, Harry Potter Night was the last thing I wanted to get posted before we went off to Europe. Had to get all caught up so that I can start my Europe TR when I get back.

I'm almost fully packed now. Well, I say that, but NOTHING is in the suitcase yet. Almost everything is clean and laid out, ready to be put in the suitcase. Would you believe how much stuff I have to bring for this trip? Well, ok so it's a cruise, so you've got swimsuits and swim covers and shorts and stuff. But also, we dress for dinner, so you've got nicer clothes too. And then whatever you are wearing while you are in port. Since we are going to be seeing some old churches and things, we have to make sure and have our knees covered and our shoulders covered. This is the hardest trip I've ever had to pack for, before. I've even cruised before, but it's been to the Caribbean, and even when you are off the ship, you're in a swimsuit and shorts!

I did go pick up travel things yesterday, shampoo, toothpaste, those things. It's kind of surreal that we are leaving in two days, it doesn't even feel like it yet. I think when I leave work Wednesday, then it will be like, "Ok, time for vacation now."

Anyway, this is probably my last post until we get back from Europe. I'll probably still be lurking around y'all's stuff for the next two days, but I hope you all have a great next couple of weeks! We get back August 4th, so I'll "talk" to ya then!!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Fun time at Harry Potter! Love the costumes!

Have a great time in Spain!!! I can't wait to see the pictures!

 

[stacikristine]

AAHHH!!! So exciting! I can't wait to hear ALL about your trip!!! And your cousins' costumes were great

 

[redlight]

Love the pictures Courtney. I haven't seen HP yet, but have read all the books. Have a wonderful time in Spain!

 

[amandaluvsgoofy]

Great costume pics!! I think your cousins' were awesome!
Have fun in Europe (which you will!)! Can't wait to hear about the trip!!

 

[jewels1916]

We're baaaaack! More of an update tomorrow, hopefully, depends on how long it takes to get the pics uploaded, plus I have a ton to do tomorrow after being off work for...a long time...but update soon!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Welcome home! I am looking forward to hearing all about your Spanish adventures!!!

 

[redlight]

Welcome back!

 

[jewels1916]

So, 11 days, 1,000 pictures, 12 pieces of luggage, 37 pages of notes, and 4 countries later…
I am ready to start the mini-TR from the Mediterranean Trip! (plus the week it took to upload and organize the pics) It really was a great trip, one of those once in a lifetime kind of things, and I am super excited to share it with all of you! So here we go!
7/23/2009 – 7/24/2009
Day One, Travel Day!
We were up at 7am this morning to leave for DFW Airport at 8am. It took two cars driven by two of our kind neighbors to get the five of us, plus our luggage, to the airport. Nanny had her sister drop her off and we met at the curb, then trooped off to check TEN bags. Yes, ten bags. At 8:30, going through security was a breeze. That never happens at DFW. After checking the bags and going through security we stopped off at Burger King to grab some breakfast and headed to our terminal. The first leg of the flight was taking us to Philadelphia. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 10:30, so we took to waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting. (Brother is not always thrilled when I pull out the camera.)
Finally just after 11, we boarded and headed to Philly. We sat 2, 2, and 2. I sat with Mom, and I think she and I are the only ones who didn’t sleep. Actually, it’s kind of an inside joke in my family that NO ONE wants to sit with Dad on the plane, because he immediately falls asleep. He barely has to sit down in an airplane chair and he is snoozing. So we all joke around that we don’t want to sit with him. So I sat with Mom, and we looked at our Barcelona books for a while, trying to figure out what we wanted to do first. Then we played some gin rummy. After realizing neither of us remembered how to play gin rummy, we moved on to Go Fish.

Mom, being goofy on the plane.
The flight was otherwise uneventful, and we landed in Philly for a three hour layover. Much of my three hour layover was spent on the phone with -------------------------------(this sentence has been removed because it will give away my mystery ticker)---------------------------------------------. We ate some bad airport food and then headed to the international terminal! Our flight to Barcelona boarded late. I sat with Ryan this time. We are international travel buddies. Actually, we’ve only been on one other international trip together, when we went to Malaysia and Singapore. I was 11, and he was 6. We stayed awake the ENTIRE flight and kept ringing the flight attendant to ask for more soda. To the point of her waking up our mother to see if it was alright if we had more soda. Anyway, when this trip was planned, Ryan and I decided that we would sit together and relive that experience. However neither of us drink soda anymore, and the seats are quite a bit smaller than I remember.
The flight, scheduled to take off at 6:30, finally took off at 8:30. After they served dinner (bleh), it was about 10:30 CST, so I decided to get some sleep. I grabbed one of those little travel pillows with the beads in it. And just to make the flight more interesting, the tag on the pillow got caught on something and ripped, and those little Styrofoam beads flew all over the place. I was still finding them on me for days to come. I found a plastic bag and quickly stuffed the remnants of the pillow into it. Could have been much worse, but it was pretty funny. I turned on my audiobook on my ipod and shut my eyes to get some sleep. Well, I can recall missing about 20 minutes of the book. 20. That’s how much I slept on the 8 hour flight to Spain.
Just a quick reality check, the time difference between Texas and Barcelona is +7 hours. So, when I say we landed in Barcelona at 9:35am, that was really about 2:35am at home.
We went through immigration/customs pretty quickly and found our luggage. Dad had arranged for transportation from the airport to our hotel, the Torre Catalunya Gran. It was a bit cramped in the van with all of us plus the luggage, but we survived.

Mom in the van with all the luggage behind her.

Kelsey and I, We’re in Spain!! (We’ve now been awake for something like 21 hours)
At 11am we arrived at the hotel, fully expecting to not be able to check in yet. But much to our surprise two of our three rooms were ready!
Now, if you’ve never stayed in a hotel in Europe, there a few things you should know before you go, other than the generic, “you need an adapter for your flat iron.” The beds are quite different. Our two options for rooms were either a king (the equivalent of a queen size bed in the US), or two twins. Kelsey and I were sharing a room with two twin beds. Another strange thing about this hotel was that in order to have electricity, we had to keep one of the room keys in the in a slot just inside the door. Even to just have the air going, we had to do that.
Hotel pics

Kelsey was not combating the jet lag very well.

Like our little turquoise bandanas? That’s how we identify our luggage whenever we travel. It’s worked out well so far!
After dropping off the luggage in the rooms, we headed out, not to waste our day on jet lag. One of the nice things about the Torre Catalunya was its proximity to the train station.

This is the train station as seen from our hotel window. So, less than a five minute walk and we were headed on the train to go towards downtown in search of some lunch. We got off at a stop called “Diagonal” and found a restaurant called Trobador (the wandering musician!). This is where we learned something else. I am a water girl. I mostly drink ice water, the colder the better, usually. The rest of my family likes to drink iced tea. Well, water is usually no charge, right? Not so in Spain. Or anywhere else we went, for that matter. Even if we asked for tap water, we were still charged. Oh well. Lessons learned. Mom, Nanny and Kelsey ordered hamburger steak, and Dad and I ordered the grilled tuna, which was amazing. Ryan ordered something called cuttlefish. I’d never heard of this, and according to him, it tasted very rubbery. By the time we’d eaten, it was about 6am at home, and I was going on my 23rd hour of no sleep. My head was seriously drooping and the jet lag was threatening to take over. But, no rest for the weary! After lunch, we headed towards a church called the Sagrada Familia.

Sagrada Familia – from far away, the only way to get a full picture of it.

The Sagrada Familia is a church designed by architect Antoni Gaudi, a very prominent architect of Spain who designed with a very modernist eye. They began building the church in 1882. It was still incomplete when Gaudi died in 1926. Notice the scaffolding in the photos? It is still incomplete. They’ve projected it to be finished in 2030, but I am not inclined to believe them, are you? Even incomplete, it is still breathtaking to see. There are all sorts of different religious scenes carved into the building. The word “Sanctus” is featured prominently as well. Sanctus is a Latin term for “holy.”
The walk to Sagrada Familia proved to be a bit much for Nanny, so after leaving the church, we hopped back on the train and went back to the hotel to rest our feet. It was 4:30pm in Spain now, and I was seriously dragging. But press on we must! I just kept reminding myself that in about 4 hours I could shower and sleep. Yes, it had been a long time since I’d slept, but it had been a long time since we’d been able to shower as well, so that was gross. After a few minutes of rest, we headed back out into the heat of Barcelona, minus Nanny. She wanted to rest, so we let her sleep. We headed to La Rambla, which is one of the most well known streets in Barcelona. It’s like a big street market with lots of little booths of people selling things and street artists and such. When we got off the metro, we realized we were right at the sea port. This was one of my favorite places in Barcelona. The pier was nice and clean, there were interesting shops and restaurants, lots of neat boats sailing in and out and of course the water. I love anything on the water. The breeze coming off of it was very refreshing.

Then we headed on to the street of La Rambla.

Quick recap – it’s now 6pm as we head to this outdoor market, it’s jam packed with people, it’s hot and sticky outside, and we haven’t slept or showered in like, 28 hours. Nerves are running pretty high and I don’t think anyone enjoyed this as much as we could have. So we didn’t spend much time at La Rambla (right now, anyway), and we got back on the metro and headed back to the hotel to get Nanny and find some dinner. From the hotel we start walking, assuming we’ll find something to eat as we do. Well, we walk. And we walk. And we walk. Everyone is complaining now, even me, whose usually the “silent sufferer” of the group is like, “Dad, please just pick something! I would sell my left hand for some ice water right now!!” Finally he does, and we sit down to eat. Once we get back to the hotel, it’s nearing 8, and Kelsey jumped in the shower. I busied myself with finding the ice machine and pouring myself a big glass of ice water.
Then finally, after 31 hours of not sleeping or showering, I was able to shower and climb into bed.

Whew! Just remembering that all makes me exhausted.

 

[pipermae]

Sounds exhausting, but fun! I'm so jealous. I wonder if there's a jealous smilie... I can't find one. I'll just use this :

Haha! I can't wait to read more! I smell a bit of Wikipedia research in there somewhere... unless you really do remember all of that stuff about the church, in which case your memory is much better than mine!

 

[jewels1916]

Sounds exhausting, but fun! I'm so jealous. I wonder if there's a jealous smilie... I can't find one. I'll just use this :

Haha! I can't wait to read more! I smell a bit of Wikipedia research in there somewhere... unless you really do remember all of that stuff about the church, in which case your memory is much better than mine!

Ha ha, I like the snooty face. Nope, no wiki for me, I took notes religiously while we were traveling. I have 37 pages (front and back) full of stuff about the trip. Ryan said it made me less fun. I told him that when we got home and I remembered stuff and he didn't, then he would be jealous.

Welcome back!

Thanks, Redlight!! It's good to be home!

Welcome home! I am looking forward to hearing all about your Spanish adventures!!!

Thanks Jackie!

 

[tinkgurl]

Oh my gosh! Looks like you had a busy LONG day traveling to Spain. So cool though that you're doing a mini-TR of that, since I've never been there!

 

[Leger13]

So, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince came out last week. At 12:01 Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

My brother and sister and I have all read the books, and seen the movies, so it was a given that we were going to go see this one. Well. I happen to love midnight movies, plus we were all pretty excited to see it, so we got tickets to go see it at midnight Tuesday night. With my best friend Joey and her husband. Before hand, my cousins (who were also going to the movie, just at a different theatre) met us all for dinner. I don't know if any of you have ever gone to a midnight movie, or tried to go to a midnight movie, but they can get pretty crazy. People dressed up, in line for hours...yadda yadda yadda.

Anyway, so 8pm, we all meet up at Red Robin for dinner. I walk in, and this is what I am confronted with:

My cousins, ladies and gentlemen. Amanda as Professor Trelawney, and Misty as Professor McGonogall.
They are a riot. I love it. We were getting some pretty awesome looks from the other restaurant go-ers.

All of us at dinner

Mandy, me, and Misty

Sisters! (Misty and Mandy are sisters, and obviously Kelsey and I)

After dinner, Misty and Mandy went on their merry way, and we headed over the our theatre. Well, the tickets we got were early entry, so we were able to walk right into the theatre. And sit way down at the front. Unlike the people who'd been there since 6, we had gone to dinner cause we didn't want to sit there for 6 hours. No, we were content to sit there for 3.5 hours. And we paid for it by sitting in the front. But no complaints.

While we were sitting there, I get a call from Misty and she's like "Are there a bunch of people dressed up?"

"Of course."

"Have you taken pictures?"

"I'm not taking pictures of strangers like I am some creeper!"

"Why not? We've had like 20 people come up to us and ask us if they can take our picture!"

"That's cause y'all's costumes are the best."

"What characters do you guys have?"

"The best is someone dressed as Fleur Delacour."

"Take a picture! I wanna seeeeee!"

"Fine."

So we get off the phone and I walk over to these three folks who are dressed as Professor McGonigall (I think), and Harry Potter in his Quidditch uniform, and Fleur Delacour. And I tell them that my friends and I decided that they had the best costumes in the theatre and asked if I could take their picture. They were happy to oblige.

While we are taking pics, John (Joey's hubby) took one of she and I.

She is Gryffindor. I am Slytherin. Sometimes it's good to be bad.

To pass the time, we decided to play Phase 10. Joey, John and I did anyway. Kelsey and her friend, and Ryan and his friend knew a ton of people, so they were mostly running around talking to people. As Joey and John and I are all more than 3 years out of high school, we weren't quite as cool. Obviously, the people our age had something better to do that night.

Anyway, finally the movie started, and I thought it was great. Much funnier than most of the other HP movies I've seen. I'd go see it again.


Well, Harry Potter Night was the last thing I wanted to get posted before we went off to Europe. Had to get all caught up so that I can start my Europe TR when I get back.

I'm almost fully packed now. Well, I say that, but NOTHING is in the suitcase yet. Almost everything is clean and laid out, ready to be put in the suitcase. Would you believe how much stuff I have to bring for this trip? Well, ok so it's a cruise, so you've got swimsuits and swim covers and shorts and stuff. But also, we dress for dinner, so you've got nicer clothes too. And then whatever you are wearing while you are in port. Since we are going to be seeing some old churches and things, we have to make sure and have our knees covered and our shoulders covered. This is the hardest trip I've ever had to pack for, before. I've even cruised before, but it's been to the Caribbean, and even when you are off the ship, you're in a swimsuit and shorts!

I did go pick up travel things yesterday, shampoo, toothpaste, those things. It's kind of surreal that we are leaving in two days, it doesn't even feel like it yet. I think when I leave work Wednesday, then it will be like, "Ok, time for vacation now."

Anyway, this is probably my last post until we get back from Europe. I'll probably still be lurking around y'all's stuff for the next two days, but I hope you all have a great next couple of weeks! We get back August 4th, so I'll "talk" to ya then!!

Love these pictures! Looks like you guys had a great time at the movie. I saw it too but not a midnight showing. I just can't bring myself to stay awake past 10:00pm anymore.

Love the start of your Europe trip!! The pictures are great! Glad the flights were uneventful. That hotel with the way you have to get the electricity to come on sounds weird but at least you guys figured it out. Can't wait to see the rest of the pictures!!

 

[Megablocks]

Hey! I finally caught up again -- I was seriously neglecting the DIS and my subscriptions.

I'm so jealous that you went to Spain, but I'm glad you had a good time. My best friend actually went to Barcelona with some people when she was studying in France last semester, and I remember her mentioning that church. I'm glad you posted pictures because I was really interested in seeing it and she didn't upload any of hers.

I can't believe your Disney trip is getting so close -- hard to believe you have been writing this since before I went on mine.

Can't wait for more

 

[redlight]

Court, I love your pictures thus far and am waiting eagerly for more. I liked the one with the caption: "Kelsey was not combating the jet lag very well." I guess she wasn't. Barcelona looks wonderful. Did you see the movie Vicky Christina Barcelona?

 

[Charleston Princess]

I can't believe you lasted 31 hours before collapsing! I would have passed out as soon as I spied the beds a la Kelsey!

 

[stacikristine]

Wow! What a busy day! I don't know if I could have gone that long without sleep...actually, I know I couldn't have. I'm a baby when it comes to sleep. I don't even do midnight well anymore! But the pictures are GORGEOUS! I especially like the pier. I think I would stay there a long, long time. So pretty. And the church looks very pretty too. I'm glad you finally got a shower and a bed...and I can't wait to hear about day 2!

 

[TxRabbit]

I just read day 1! How cool is that? I've never been overseas. From what I understand though, you have to do what you did, and have a rough day at the begining to get yourself more on track with the current time zone. Sounds like rough business though. It is exhausting just to read about it.

Very cool to see all the pictures and hear about the travel though. I would like to go overseas, this is giving a good picture about what it is like. Can't wait to read more.

 

[jewels1916]

I just read day 1! How cool is that? I've never been overseas. From what I understand though, you have to do what you did, and have a rough day at the begining to get yourself more on track with the current time zone. Sounds like rough business though. It is exhausting just to read about it.

Very cool to see all the pictures and hear about the travel though. I would like to go overseas, this is giving a good picture about what it is like. Can't wait to read more.

Yeah, you really do just have to push through the jet lag. Or get really cranky. Which is what we ended up doing... Oh well! We had a great time, and thinking back on it, it was totally worth it to see the things that we did.

Wow! What a busy day! I don't know if I could have gone that long without sleep...actually, I know I couldn't have. I'm a baby when it comes to sleep. I don't even do midnight well anymore! But the pictures are GORGEOUS! I especially like the pier. I think I would stay there a long, long time. So pretty. And the church looks very pretty too. I'm glad you finally got a shower and a bed...and I can't wait to hear about day 2!

I loved the pier! It was gorgeous. I really wanted to eat dinner down there one night, but we just ran out of time!

I can't believe you lasted 31 hours before collapsing! I would have passed out as soon as I spied the beds a la Kelsey!

Yeah, I surprised myself a little by surviving that long. I didn't even do that much in college...

Court, I love your pictures thus far and am waiting eagerly for more. I liked the one with the caption: "Kelsey was not combating the jet lag very well." I guess she wasn't. Barcelona looks wonderful. Did you see the movie Vicky Christina Barcelona?

Thanks! Yeah, no she wasn't handling her jet lag very well. Barcelona is fabulous, we really loved it! I haven't seen this movie, but I've heard of it. Should I check it out?

Hey! I finally caught up again -- I was seriously neglecting the DIS and my subscriptions.

I'm so jealous that you went to Spain, but I'm glad you had a good time. My best friend actually went to Barcelona with some people when she was studying in France last semester, and I remember her mentioning that church. I'm glad you posted pictures because I was really interested in seeing it and she didn't upload any of hers.

I can't believe your Disney trip is getting so close -- hard to believe you have been writing this since before I went on mine.

Can't wait for more

Hey! Glad you are back! I have a ton of pics of the church, but I just couldn't post them all !
I know, I started my PTR almost a year in advance...

Love these pictures! Looks like you guys had a great time at the movie. I saw it too but not a midnight showing. I just can't bring myself to stay awake past 10:00pm anymore.

Love the start of your Europe trip!! The pictures are great! Glad the flights were uneventful. That hotel with the way you have to get the electricity to come on sounds weird but at least you guys figured it out. Can't wait to see the rest of the pictures!!

We had a great time at the movie. I love midnight movies, they are kind of a tradition for my siblings and I. We love going to them. I know, the hotel was a little weird. I thought at first that might be something at all hotels in Europe, but we stayed at a different one on out last two days in Barcelona, and it wasn't like that at all.

Oh my gosh! Looks like you had a busy LONG day traveling to Spain. So cool though that you're doing a mini-TR of that, since I've never been there!

It was long! In fact, when I wrote about it in my journal, it was like, 4 pages. Just of travel! Oh well! Hopefully my mini-TR can be like a virtual trip for you, since you've never been!



Hey everyone! Just wanted to say that I am working on day two, but it looks like it probably won't be posted until Monday......I am STILL trying to catch up at work, and there is a lot going on this weekend. Kelsey is a senior in high school this year, and she and I are hitting the SAT study guide pretty hard this weekend, because she is taking it soooooon!

 

[redlight]

Glad you enjoyed Barcelona. Vicky Christina Barcelona is very funny. I actually liked Rebecca Hall and Chris Messina's performances more than Scarlett Johansson's and Penelope Cruz's.