Collecting Stories

When last we talked, our main characters were sitting quietly in an airport waiting approximately 9 hours for their flight and I suggested there would likely be at least one more story before we got home, and boy was I right! 

First story, which I thought might be the best I’d get, but I was wrong:  A couple came and sat near us at the gate, and Clare heard one of them joke that they could write a novel before they board.  Clare laughed and asked if they were also on the WestJet flight.  They said yes, and they all laughed about waiting at airports.  Four hours before our plane was to board, that couple boarded a WestJet plane going to Calgary, at the same gate.  They had not written their novel, and neither had we!

Finally we boarded our plane and settled into our seat with two other women.  Once in the air Clare pulled out her iPad, hooked up her earbuds and started watching the movie she previously downloaded for the flight - “Come From Away”.  For those who know what this musical is about, think about it for a moment, because I happen to know that Clare did not think about this at all when she decided it would be a good thing to watch ON A PLANE!

For those who don’t know, Come From Away is about the towns in Newfoundland that doubled in population for five days after 38 planes were forced to land in Gander on September 11, 2001.  Yeah, she chose to watch THAT!  Let me tell you, you get a whole new appreciation of the song “28 hours” (about the passengers who were stuck on the planes for over a day while security checks were done etc) when you are sitting squished in a tiny can flying through the air!

But wait, this story gets better… about an hour into the movie, Clare’s seat mate tapped her and asked if she had headphones.  Clare pulled out her earbuds and looked at them, puzzled.  Turns out, the earbuds battery had died, and everyone around was being entertained by the music of this wonderful play.  Clare was clueless because the volume had barely changed and the iPad had just switched to speaker from earbuds.  They had waited about 10 minutes before saying something, so who knows how many people in the surrounding seats were enjoying the music as well.  Yeah, we were THAT passenger!  I climbed under the seat and promptly disowned Clare.  

We finally landed, flew through customs and got to White Van, oops I mean Red Car in record time, and lucked in with a driver already there picking up someone else (not what usually happens).  We were on the highway within half an hour of landing!  No more stories.  

Finally home.

Whatever!

Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten… I promised pictures of Disney…

My personal Banshee

Earning my badges

The ice cream we tried to get in California parks but they were always sold out of.

Pandora

So tempting… (also Pandora)

 

As Always…

 The slower days when we have lots of time to write a blog post, there’s nothing to write about, and then we have a good day and I have a ton *I* want to say and Clare tells me she’s too tired and just needs to go to bed.  Well she can suck it up tonight because I want to tell about my day! 

So that’s as far as we got!  Clare noticed it was after midnight, so even if she posted right then, nobody would get it until tomorrow anyways *sigh*   Clare won.

We are now writing this from the Orlando airport because, well… Clare was done driving with these crazies and the hotel wouldn’t budge on check-out time, so we returned the car at 11:30 and here we are (flight isn’t until 8pm by the way).  Not as long as my layover in Peru, but it might feel like it by the time we board!

Ok ok I know none of you came to read about that nonsense.  

You want to know about Disney!

It was awesome.  Nothing like my experience in the California parks, but still amazing.  The only downside was it was a long weekend so it was crazy busy!  The wait time for most rides was an hour and a half or more. At one point the most popular ride was nearly 3 hours long (we know this thanks to an app the gives you a map of the park and wait times).  Thankfully we had a pass that lets you wait virtually, so we got to wander and see things while we waited just over two hours for that most popular ride!

So, my first question is why?  Why would you pay a crazy amount to get into these parks only to spend most of your day standing in lines for a ride that is, at most, 5 minutes long?  The rides we got on were cool, don’t get me wrong, but we would have seen NOTHING else if we had to wait in every line.  You humans just continue to make me shake my head in wonder.

K, I think Clare must be bored or tired because I just can’t get her hear me and she keeps writing like a boring travel review and that is so not me.  Wake up Clare!  I’d say “We don’t have all day” but we kinda do, so umm… just get with the program.  MY words!

Animal Kingdom, if you don’t know, is a cross between a theme park and a zoo, meaning it has live animals but their habitats are way cooler than any zoo I’ve ever seen.  I kept saying “magic zoo” like some little toddler.  The tree in the middle was covered in animal carvings and I tried to get photos of all of them.  Not sure why, since I can’t get them all in the blog anyways.  Most of the time we were walking I was just in awe at how it all looked.  I’d forgotten how Disney could make me feel like I was somewhere else. 

So what is this most popular ride?  It’s called Flight of Passage, where i got to pair with an avatar and fly on a banshee.  Honestly hard to describe but so well done and one of the highlights of my day.  I actually felt like I was flying!  Worth a two hour wait?  Yup!  Sorry, no pictures.  Too busy flying.

Also in Pandora was a Na’vi River Journey, also a 2 hour wait.  Worth the wait?  Nope.  As I heard Clare say afterwards, it was a beautiful ride, but she was SO glad we didn’t wait in an actual line for it.  

My favourite ride of the day - Expedition Everest, a roller coaster, mostly in pitch black and about half of it backwards.  If we’d had time, I would have set another 2 hour wait and ride it again!  I definitely need more roller coasters in my life.  What a rush!

My favourite activity of the day - collecting “badges” (stickers).   All around the park were stations with people dressed kinda like Girl Guides/Scouts and we did an activity for that area to earn that sticker for our book.  It was free and no line-ups!  Sadly we didn’t get all of them because a bunch were on the safari and train journey, both with 2 hour waits, and we just ran out of waits.  We got all the rest though!

Obviously, there was the obligatory shopping, and obviously I still don’t quite get it.  Toy banshees were acquired (a small stuffed one just my size) for me, uh, I mean Clare, and an animatronic one for KayRena’s daughter that you even did an adoption ceremony for.  Ok, that was rather cool.

The day ended way too soon, and we headed out to get KayRena and my friend Bunny to the airport.  Clare got us a special pass so we could go all the way to the gate.  Bunny got flagged at security again, but this time I was there for moral support!  It was sad saying good-bye. 

And that pretty much catches you up folks.  I mean Clare and I got to our hotel, argued about blog writing and eventually slept, and you know the rest.  

The internet here isn’t letting me add photos easily, so you all are going to have to wait one more day for those!  Besides, I’m likely to have at least one more story before I got home.

Whatever!

Ummmm…. Yeah….

Sorry guys, I’m basically writing this to tell you I am alive and survived this Conference thing (which Clare says she loved and wants to come to next year - I may or may not join her).  

Tomorrow is Disney!!

Whatever

Yaaaawwwn…

 So this might be my shortest post ever (not counting the days I didn’t post at all).  

Conference just means talky talk talk.  I sat.  I stared at walls.  I stared at Speakers.  I stared at Clare and tried to mind meld with her to get us out of there, but she seemed perfectly content to ignore me.  

AND it rained all day and all evening, so not even time to explore pools or gardens or anything.

The end.

Whatever 

Token photos.  Both were were actually taken last night (yeah that’s how much I was thought about today, although I WAS brought everywhere so I guess that’s something)  

Our hotel is next to Sea World
Lots of these murals around

Look a restroom with MY name on it!

A Very… Very… Long… Day

 Both my friend KayRena and my trusted (most of the time) travel companion were up at the crack of stupid today.  Both had to be up at TWO in the morning to get to their respective airports on time.  I believe a lot of planning was put into coordinating these flights and as far as I see, it worked perfectly, but I digress…

Once again I got to ride in Red Car (Guelph airport taxi for my newer followers) and I’m pleased to say that it is still not red and it is still not a car.  However, we enjoyed the pleasure of two chatty drivers, one who is in training and was literally on his fifth day in the job!  He did great, and Clare even told them about my blog and the “not red or a car” joke and they laughed.  Somehow I don’t think it will ever be a red car.  I should try and find out if it ever was???

Hamilton is a, ummm… small airport.  One gate.  I think two exits from that one gate, but yeah one giant room with chairs.  Enjoy my photo evidence:

Sunrise in the OTHER
side of the plane

Sadly, not many stories on my end of the journey.  The only slight adventure was that we landed half an hour early but were not allowed off the plane because customs doesn’t open until 10am.  Seriously?  I would have thought they ran 24-7 at a big International airport. 

We eventually got through customs, and Clare sat herself down beside this pretty fountain, figuring it was a good landmark to send KayRena too.  KayRena, feeling slightly overwhelmed, just kept asking people to direct her to the fountain.  Me, getting bored, demanded that Clare take a picture of me and the fountain.  Little did either of us know that the last photo we took had KayRena in it (pink dress, black face mask in the middle right side of the photo, in the darkness).

While I didn’t have much of an story on my journey, my friend here (Bunny) had quite the adventure, falling onto the floor somewhere in the Salt Lake airport before security check, only to be discovered AFTER KayRena went through security.  My heart skips a beat knowing that she didn’t abandon my stuffed friend as I’m sure many would, but she actually did go back and find her, and then do the security check a second time!  Yay for humans who take care of us little stuffed guys!  And then, as if that wasn’t enough, Bunny got flagged at security and had to have extra swabbing and checks before she could get on the plane with KayRena!  Now that’s an adventure I haven’t had yet!

Me comforting my new friend after her harrowing journey here!

After some boring stuff… pick up rental car, groceries at the ever present Walmart and eventually checking in to the hotel, my humans had all of half an hour to get their head in the game for this conference thing they’ve dragged me into.  I don’t exactly know what a mental health conference is about, but I think these might be my kinds of humans.  SO many of them had stuffed companions.  I don’t quite get it, but I am totally up for investigating further tomorrow… I’ll keep you posted!

Whatever!

Oh yeah, and here’s just one of the pools on site, looking forward to checking it out more later :)

Wait, is that a Passport I See?

I knew it!  I knew it!

First I heard whispers of flights and car rentals but nobody was including me in the planning, so all I could do was bide my time.  I even heard Clare going on about carry-on restrictions making it impossible to find a duffel bag small enough to go on the plane but big enough to carry her stuff so she eventually just made her own.  And yet still nary a word to me.  I was left sitting on my dusty shelf, listening to tidbits of hints of maybe a trip, but no mention of me.  I began to get concerned that perhaps there WAS a trip, and I was just not going to be invited.  I may or may not have got a little sulky.

But today… today Clare pulled me off the shelf, cleaned me up and then fixed my head loop thingy so I could hook onto her newly made backpack.  Yeah, she made a matching set.  She’s weird, but I digress.  Oh yes, I AM going on a trip!

What I know so far:  

- It’s a short trip (only 5 days) which is why we won’t be checking luggage.

- We are going to Florida - first time back into the States since that strange illness thing stopped my travel dreams in their tracks.

- Friday to Sunday is some boring conference thing Clare is going to with my old best-bud KayRena, but they have both assured me that they will try to find me some kind of adventure each day.  If it was anyone else I might question this, but I have full confidence in KayRena helping me find trouble…errr I mean fun!

- Monday is Disney Day, but not the Disney we did before because those two parks were in California.  Clare tells me there are FOUR Disney parks in Florida.  Dang this mouse character gets around!  We are only going to one park though, because well, one day is all we got.  Needless to say, this is the part I’m most excited about. 

- Tuesday is open for discussion as it will just be Clare and I until we fly out in the evening.  

So now I just have to wait… a little less than two weeks.

Until then my friends

Whatever!