Weird and Ninja’s Pre-Disneymoon [Completed!]

[SoonerGirl]

The DISer you are describing with the Pepsi products is UtahMama, I've read a couple of her reports - she's hilarious!

I buy those sandwich thins too, and know just what you mean about them not being too "bready", I really like them.

 

[stacy347]

Those sandwiches look great! We'll be packing a cooler for our trip down and those look perfect for "on the road" food.

 

[Believeinfairytales]

I like those sandwich rounds, too!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Haha, this reminds me of my mom. She was asking me what pictures I was going to post of her! She didn't want anything that would be unflattering!

LOL, that is hilarious!

Sometime it might be interesting to try and drive to FL. I don't know if I'd be able to last that long though. And the drive back would just depress me.

Mmm, those sandwiches look good.

 

[Jennifer48]

I'm finally caught up!

Sorry I'm just getting to your TR now Ninja but I got sick this weekend and now I'm playing catch up!

Hooray for being on the road! I love your tangents. They tell a story about you and I feel like I know you personally!

Now I have to get over to Sarah's and catch up on hers!

 

[Cat0727]

Your sandwiches looked great

I hear ya about the allergies, mine are really bad. I have to wear sunglasses before I even step out of my building because one outside my eyes start watering and I look crazy

 

[Cinderella16]

Hello fellow teacher!

Just found this TR and love it!!

You are a terrific TR writer. Those sandwiches look delicious! We pack some too on our road trips.

I cannot wait for more fun and tangents..keep 'em coming!

 

[RachelNinja]

The DISer you are describing with the Pepsi products is UtahMama, I've read a couple of her reports - she's hilarious!

I buy those sandwich thins too, and know just what you mean about them not being too "bready", I really like them.

YES! Haha, I kept trying to find her and was typing in stuff like, "OhioMama" but it wasn't working. It's funny what we remember about other DISers; her wackiness and the Pepsi things are what stayed in my mind!

Since we bought them from Costco, we have a stash of them in our freezer now!

Those sandwiches look great! We'll be packing a cooler for our trip down and those look perfect for "on the road" food.

Definitely perfect road food! Ice packed white bread or wheat bread just doesn't taste good. I hate slightly soggy sandwiches! We used to get the big deli sandwich rolls, but that's just way too much bread in a bite!

I like those sandwich rounds, too!

Haha, I think it's funny that everyone knows what they are and has been eating them! I must have been living under a rock for a while!

LOL, that is hilarious!

Sometime it might be interesting to try and drive to FL. I don't know if I'd be able to last that long though. And the drive back would just depress me.

Mmm, those sandwiches look good.

After this trip, Weird and I decided that we would NOT drive down to Florida ever again! It's not possible because it's just too tiring. We'd much rather fly; of course, I know it's just easy to say that now because in reality, I don't like flying! Maybe we just need a roomy minivan or something to make the drive down more comfortable with more drivers!

I'm finally caught up!

Sorry I'm just getting to your TR now Ninja but I got sick this weekend and now I'm playing catch up!

Hooray for being on the road! I love your tangents. They tell a story about you and I feel like I know you personally!

Now I have to get over to Sarah's and catch up on hers!

Aww, it stinks that you got sick! I hope you're feeling 100% at this point!

I love when others go on tangents or write comments about personal things as well! When I tell my friends in "real life" about DISers, they just don't understand why I consider them my friends! I think a few people were thinking it was odd that I was planning on meeting Sarah! Only Disney fans

Your sandwiches looked great

I hear ya about the allergies, mine are really bad. I have to wear sunglasses before I even step out of my building because one outside my eyes start watering and I look crazy

Allergies are just terrible! Wednesday was the worst because I had bad allergies to begin with, and then I had to get on a bus with extremely loud middle schoolers to go on a field trip! I should've brought earmuffs and slapped a pair of sunglasses on to try to block everything out. OR we should all just head back to WDW because somehow the allergies just aren't that bad there!

Hello fellow teacher!

Just found this TR and love it!!

You are a terrific TR writer. Those sandwiches look delicious! We pack some too on our road trips.

I cannot wait for more fun and tangents..keep 'em coming!

Hi and welcome! I love "meeting" other DISer teachers . I actually read your Disneymoon trip report fairly recently, like in the last 3 months or something, so I think it's really exciting that you're here on mine because I feel as if I "know" you to some degree! I'm going to bookmark your other trip report to read as I work on lesson plans!

 

[RachelNinja]

Saturday, April 3: Counting is HARD!

Students love the weekend, but they don’t realize that teachers love the weekends even more! Not only do I actually have the chance to nap, I can also wait until nighttime to work on lessons. Plus, weekends after a Disney trip are perfect for writing installments for trip reports!

The only sad thing is that Weird is working overtime tomorrow to make up for his days off due to the Disney vacation. That means he won’t be driving over a bridge to see me. But let’s look at brighter things, and I’ll think about how 2 weeks ago, we were on the Delaware Memorial Bridge on our way to Disney!

We were quite amazed by it because it was so high up! Weird was telling me about the structure of the bridge, and I knew a little bit about it just because a former student did his science project on bridges the year before. I love when I can learn things from my students!

At this point, Weird was eating his sandwich. We had to take this picture even though his mouth was full since we were going through our 2nd state! Yay! One state closer to Florida!

Here’s the Maryland sign. I had initially planned to get a sign of each state, but that didn’t happen because I eventually fell asleep. Later on, I learned that it was so much easier to take pictures from the front, so you’ll see a ton of those when it was Weird’s turn to drive!

My dad had to stop at the Maryland Welcome Center to get Starbucks coffee. Weird and I just hung around by our car to stretch our legs.

My dad can be such a silly with the Starbucks. He rarely goes since he doesn’t see the point in spending so much money on a cup of coffee. However, he LOVES Starbucks! And even when he has gift cards to spend, he’s still frugal with them! I had received a gift card two Christmases ago from a student and then I received another one this past Christmas as a gift from administration, so he had about $2o to spend. Driving to and from Florida is one of the only times that he’ll indulge in the treat. I, on the other hand, would have taken the gift cards and bought sandwiches instead! They had this turkey and havarti cheese sandwich that I would splurge on when I worked at my church’s summer school and we had to go on field trips. If you’re a teacher who has gone on a field trip with a bunch of crazy kids, you’ll know that you need a treat for yourself to make it through the day! But even though I liked them, I knew I wouldn’t get the same amount of enjoyment out of them like my dad would with his coffee, so they became his gifts!

Anyway, as I was just walking around, stretching my legs, and somewhat dancing (I never had dance lessons as a little girl; did I miss that rite of passage?), Weird played around with his camera and took a picture of this tree. It was as close to the Washington DC cherry blossoms that we were going to get!

I also munched on a few snacks and took a few swigs of Weird’s juice.

I’m really bad on the mornings of road trips. I don’t drink ANYTHING except for the necessary water to take my first medication. I’m so bad that I even skip my second medication because if I drink an entire glass of water for that, I’d have to stop almost every 45 minutes to use the restroom! Haha, wait, who am I kidding, I don’t say restroom … to use the bathroom! Anyway, I do end up dealing with stomach pain later on because of it, but I hate the feeling of being in a car and waiting for a rest stop. At least when we stop, I always go! When I was very young, we’d stop at each rest stop and my mom would line the seat for me, but I wouldn’t go! I held it in for 13 hours straight. Haha, unfortunately, once I turned 20, I seem to find it difficult to last 13 minutes at times!

When my parents came out, we found out that my mom had seen a few people from our church! They were on their way to actually see the cherry blossoms! I understand bumping into people at Disney World because it has happened before, but I think bumping into people at the Maryland Welcome Center is a new one!

At this point, we were back in the car and on our way. I thought this was a funny sight to see! I mean, we’ve seen people have bikes attached to the backs of their cars or trailers of some sort. We had never seen a golf cart on the highway though!

Well, it’s a good thing I don’t teach math because apparently I can’t count. I held up 2 thinking that we were in our second state. Oh wait … I do teach math …

Hehe, seriously though, I don’t know what happened here. I don’t know why I thought we were still in the 2nd state, but I must’ve gotten mixed up from all the excitement! Yes, the excitement of being on I-95!

Well, as long as we were on I-95 south and not I-95 north and ending back in New York!

As long as we were on our way and one step closer to Disney (and watching costumed characters from afar!), I was in a good mood despite my inability to count!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Saturday, April 4: Counting is HARD!

Students love the weekend, but they don’t realize that teachers love the weekends even more!

Woo, Rachel, you are on a roll. So many updates!

This comment though made me all of a sudden remember a t-shirt we saw when we were going to the MK that morning. There was this family of 4, and the father was wearing this t-shirt that said something like the "psychology of a teacher." It then had pictures for each day of the week...on Monday it was a big smiling face but as the days progressed the smiles got smaller and then on Friday it was like a crazy face with his hair sticking out in all directions. It was hilarious.

Boo to the people who thought it was weird we were going to meet. I was kind of surprised, when I told my dad that we were planning on meeting up he was like "you should!" LOL.

 

[Brave teacher]

Those little sandwiches are so cute! I would totally eat those. I'm going to have to look around at our Sam's Club to see if they have something like that.

I like to check out the scenery on our drives as well. It doesn't take us nearly as long as it takes you. We are there in 10 hours.

BTW, I don't think students understand exactly how much teachers love the weekend.

 

[dellasgirl]

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[TokyoDina]

Haha in Ga you didn't see all the golf cart madness? I know when I went back there almost two years ago it was all the rave! My parents told me they were trying to get golf carts street legal. I couldn't believe how many golf carts I saw just driving down the street! Luckly none were on 1-75 but wow!

 

[Bridora]

I think your short installments are just the thing!

And don't even think about stopping your tangents--they are part of what make your writing so much fun to read!

At least you weren't too far from your house when you went back. I once left some cash at home that we were planning on using on our trip--yup had to go back for that. It set us back by 40 minutes probably.

I am going to have to find some of those sandwich thins...they look soooo good!

I'm loving all the pictures you are posting!

I hope you have a relaxing weekend.

 

[RachelNinja]

Woo, Rachel, you are on a roll. So many updates!

This comment though made me all of a sudden remember a t-shirt we saw when we were going to the MK that morning. There was this family of 4, and the father was wearing this t-shirt that said something like the "psychology of a teacher." It then had pictures for each day of the week...on Monday it was a big smiling face but as the days progressed the smiles got smaller and then on Friday it was like a crazy face with his hair sticking out in all directions. It was hilarious.

Boo to the people who thought it was weird we were going to meet. I was kind of surprised, when I told my dad that we were planning on meeting up he was like "you should!" LOL.

The fact that Weird and I both have a TON of pictures means that I have to take it little by little! Haha, it'd be too overwhelming otherwise. Plus, I wouldn't mind still writing this TR a few months from now! I know we won't be heading back to Disney in a while, so I'm doing my best to prolong the experience.

Haha, love the idea of that teacher t-shirt! I think I'll eventually get a t-shirt (or at least a keychain or something!) that says, "Don't make me use my teacher voice!" Either that or something like, "My penguin ate my lesson plans" just because penguins are my favorite!

Yeah, I was surprised that my parents were all for it too! My mom was even watching the time to remind me when to call!

Those little sandwiches are so cute! I would totally eat those. I'm going to have to look around at our Sam's Club to see if they have something like that.

I like to check out the scenery on our drives as well. It doesn't take us nearly as long as it takes you. We are there in 10 hours.

BTW, I don't think students understand exactly how much teachers love the weekend.

Bread can be so dangerous! Haha, all those carbs, but it's just so so so good! I got Weird to LOVE bread because he was able to try all these yummy things since we started dating. The latest thing he tried was the Earl of Sandwich bread!

Same with snow days! When they'd get all disappointed, I'd be like, "Um, I think we want a snow day more than you do sometimes!"

caught up
Aren't welcome center the best-and you say the Maryland one had STARBUCKS
man that is simply fantastic The one near us just has average coffee
(i also have a love/hate relationship with starbucks)

Welcome centers can be so inviting! It's such a relief to see one since it means you're one state closer to your destination and because the bathrooms are usually so much more cleaner than any gas station!

I never got into coffee, but I do love tea! The warmth is great in the winter. Plus, tea has really helped settle my stomach at times, whereas coffee would just upset it more. I remember thinking that adults were weird for always wanting a hot beverage. I guess I'm an adult now!

Haha in Ga you didn't see all the golf cart madness? I know when I went back there almost two years ago it was all the rave! My parents told me they were trying to get golf carts street legal. I couldn't believe how many golf carts I saw just driving down the street! Luckly none were on 1-75 but wow!

Wow! If golf carts were legal on the streets, I would've started driving a long time ago! Haha, I did always want to take a ride in one after watching the episode of Saved by the Bell when Jessie has to rush to go to her father's wedding!

I think your short installments are just the thing!

And don't even think about stopping your tangents--they are part of what make your writing so much fun to read!

At least you weren't too far from your house when you went back. I once left some cash at home that we were planning on using on our trip--yup had to go back for that. It set us back by 40 minutes probably.

I am going to have to find some of those sandwich thins...they look soooo good!

I'm loving all the pictures you are posting!

I hope you have a relaxing weekend.

Thanks! I try to make sure I have the right balance of text and pictures. It's a lot easier on the eyes when both are mixed together. Haha, I think I'm just going by my own preferences since reading TRs is definitely my thing! After VMK ended, I still needed a huge daily Disney fix.

As organized as some people may be, sometimes leaving things behind just happens! They can sometimes turn out to be interesting stories though! I once forgot contact solution, and because we were in Bahamas or something like that, it was so difficult to find it since there weren't any of those 24-hour pharmacies where we were! We were taking all of those CVS, Rite-Aid, and Walgreen stores for granted! That's why I think those chains are so smart for opening up a store near clusters of hotels!

 

[RachelNinja]

Saturday, April 3: Saving Souvenir Money

One of the stops we always make as we’re driving down is the Perryville Outlet Center in Maryland. Growing up, we used to stop at so many outlets, much to my dismay! I hated shopping, and I didn’t want to stop and walk around when I could’ve been sleeping! That was also when reading in the car didn’t make me carsick, so that would mean time away from my books. Now I don’t mind the stop as much since, as I stated earlier, my bladder has decided to act like that of a 73-year old’s bladder, so a bathroom break is much appreciated!

My dad always goes straight to Nike. He’s a tennis fanatic and has won many local tournaments. (When I was younger, I used to say that he loved tennis more than he loved me. That was before I understood the stresses of work and the need for a way to release the tension that comes from work. Disboards is that outlet for me!) He is always on the lookout for sneakers on clearance or just with great sales since playing sports apparently causes one to wear out footwear much faster than just walking around! Haha, as you can tell, I’m far from athletic. I love my New Balance even though my dad calls them “amateur sneakers.” Hey, the podiatrist said they’re the best, and they definitely have been. Therefore, there’s no need for me to ever go to Nike!

My mom loves going to the Book Cellar. She looks for Christian books since they usually have sales there as well. Sometimes they end up being so much cheaper than any online price on Amazon or CBD.com. I used to enjoy looking through the humor section since my older brother and I loved Garfield and Family Circus comics. Now I’m a Foxtrot girl because of the nerdy references; I even have school-related/subject-related comics posted on the walls of my classroom! But alas, that store has disappeared from the outlet! My mom was sorely disappointed.

As mom dealt with the loss of her favorite stop, I dealt with almost paralyzing fear when we saw that there was an Easter bunny sitting around reading to take pictures! I posted this picture as a teaser in the PTR, so some of you may have already seen it. Weird took the picture really quickly (from the other side!), and we continued on our way.

The only store that I used to enjoy going to was Rue21. I’ve gotten t-shirts and even sweaters for only $3! The greatest thing was that the sweaters were the same style as the Gap sweaters I had wanted; plus, I got compliments on them! Although I knew there could be bargains to be found, I didn’t want to spend any money. I really wanted to save it all for Disney souvenirs! I had saved up a good amount from my after school private tutoring, and I wasn’t willing to “waste” it on a store in Maryland!

However, the t-shirts they had there were really cute, so it was definitely time for a brief photo shopping spree!

I don’t know why the cupcakes have to be so mean. Cupcakes can be extremely delicious though! A few months ago, a student brought in cupcakes from a local bakery that made me swoon! They were so moist and didn’t crumble and fall apart when I bit into it. I think if I skip the wedding cake, I’d like cupcakes from that particular bakery! So maybe cupcakes can be a little mean because who has ever heard of having muffins at a wedding?

Too bad I didn’t get the bottom of this shirt! I did look it up just now, and it says: “Don’t hate me cuz you ain’t me.” Not really the kind of grammar I want displayed on my person!

I love any t-shirts that have school supplies on them. Okay, so the rock really isn’t a school supply, but the paper is just so adorable! I once wanted to get a shirt from Delia’s that had something about a #2 pencil having to be just #2. It had special significance because when I came home from a day in high school to tell my parents that I was the salutatorian (ranked #2 out of 434 students), my dad said in typical Asian-father fashion, “Why aren’t you #1?” I never bought the t-shirt, and I think since then, I’ve always looked at shirts that remind me of it.

I can’t really wear these shirts anyway because I always think about how I would feel if I bumped into a student’s mother at the mall as I was wearing a shirt like that! Disney is still okay though. I don’t mind if I’m wearing my Disney tees!

Weird was good too and he didn’t spend any souvenir money at this duck store. Oh, I mean decoy museum. Haha. We were just really baffled as to why there was this random storefront. They did have duck puzzles there on display!

Okay, what’s with the creepiness, Perryville? We saw this colonial-like outfit. They were advertising a local historical museum. Or that could just be a front and these things just come alive at night! Wow, I have too much of Kingdom Keepers on the brain!

In that same display was this extremely hairy rocking horse. Maybe it was a disguise …

After the quick run through of … well, nothing, we headed to Nike to meet up with my dad. My parents were on the lookout for an inexpensive hoodie for Matt. Why? Because the paper wasn’t the only forgotten item! Matt didn’t bring his hoodie , so he had didn’t have any jacket at all! Both my mom and I told Matt in the morning to put his hoodie on before we left the house, but he claimed that it wasn’t cold. He believed it was packed in his duffel bag, but we later learned that it wasn’t! We weren’t about to turn around to get THAT.

For the remainder of the trip, he had to wear one of my mom’s zip-up fleece hoodies. Thankfully, that’s not a serious thing to forget. Besides, once we got to Florida who knows if we’d find really amazing Disney hoodies that just had to be purchased!

While my parents were on their search, I saw a really cute duffel that I liked. It was on display elsewhere, so Weird and I went to find it because I was curious about the price. Before looking at the tag, we both guessed a price, and I said I’d get it if were $15. Unfortunately, it was more than $15. I forgot what it was exactly, but it was in the $25 range. It was a pretty good deal since the bag would be perfect for overnight things and for longer stays like Disney since we have a laundry machine at our condo. I just knew I didn’t NEED it, so I declined on spending any souvenir money on it.

Weird palmed a basketball, hehe. I thought the baby bball was really cute, but neither of us actually enjoys sports! Well, we did have a blast watching this year’s NBA All-Star Weekend Skills Challenge though! That’s about as close to sports as we really get. Though other people don’t seem to understand why Weird isn’t a typical guy in that aspect, it benefits me a LOT. Never will I have to deal with his sports addiction, choosing to skip or rush events just to watch a game! Never will I have to fight for the remote to have him change it to something non-sports related! Hehe, he does look cute with this baby basketball though, but then again, I’m extremely biased!

Oh, and for all you Office fans reading, I know you'll appreciate Weird's shirt!

The brief stop was good since we got to stretch our legs a bit. I was just glad that we all left with the same amount of money! Well, everyone but Matt because he bought black sneakers since he needed new ones; they’re part of his school uniform. Or because he wanted to have Jordan’s since that’s apparently the thing. I was just hoping that there’d be a lot of good things that I could buy later on in my trip!

 

[SoonerGirl]

I soooo can NOT relate to the no sports thing! They consume our lives I live with 3 sports fanatics. Between the kids games, going to sporting events, watching them on TV, getting the daily dose of what's going on in the world of sports from ESPN, I'm surprised we get anything accomplished around here! I am a sports fan myself though, so it doesn't really bother me too much.

 

[floridascgirl]

Rachel, you are one funny gal. I love that your updates go off on crazy little tangents. I really do look forward to reading them. Thanks for being such a loyal poster.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Haha, love the idea of that teacher t-shirt! I think I'll eventually get a t-shirt (or at least a keychain or something!) that says, "Don't make me use my teacher voice!" Either that or something like, "My penguin ate my lesson plans" just because penguins are my favorite!

Yeah, I was surprised that my parents were all for it too! My mom was even watching the time to remind me when to call!

OK, are you my long-lost sister or something? Because I love penguins too! hehe

Aww, that's funny. After I called you my dad suggested I call you back and tell you we'd be over by the Haunted Mansion.

 

[Brave teacher]

How fun! A mini shopping trip in the middle of your Disney drive south. Is there a large Amish population shopping at that outlet in Maryland?