Disney World Day Two-Magic Kingdom

For the uninitiated the Magic Kingdom is the Disneyland of Disney World. This was probably our favorite day of the trip. We started out bright and early so we could ride all the things we wanted to ride.

We zipped over to the Buzz Lightyear ride first and found no line at all. When we got outside Ian found a Bullseye horse (from Toy Story) to take home. He has Woody, Buzz, and Jessie so now his collection is almost complete. I am not sure if he wants a "Stinky Pete" though!

We found Stitch all alone by the Carousel of Progress so stopped by for a visit. We hurried over to Fanatsyland with a quick try at the Sword in the Stone (no luck there) on the way to Dumbo. Ian and I rode Dumbo together and then we all rode Peter Pan, Snow White and it's a small world. We have been talking lots about the different rides and characters so Ian was pretty excited to see Dumbo, Peter Pan, and Snow White (who he refers to as "Heigh Ho"). I think he liked soaring above London best of all.

We passed through the back of Fantasyland to get to the Liberty Square area. Buck was sorely, sorely disappointed to find that his favorite ride of all time, the Haunted Mansion was closed for refurbishment.

We carried on to Frontierland where we saw a Woody-themed dance outside and the Country Bear Jamboree inside. By this point it was pretty hot outside and the crowds were picking up so we headed over to Adventureland and Pirates of the Caribbean! The ride was awesome. I was so amazed by the new Johnny Depp audio-animatronics! I was sure that one of them was an actor in a costume until our second ride-through.

By this time we were all pretty tired so we walked back to Tomorrowland and ate lunch at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe. After lunch we rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (the People Mover) around Tomorrowland. Ian was getting pretty tired so we decided to do one more ride before we went back to the hotel for a rest. My cousin Caroline and I chose to do Space Mountain while Buck, Ian and Grammy rode the Indy Speedway. Ian was asleep by the time we were done so we went back to our hotel.

We swam, we rested, we showered and then we all had a nice dinner at the steakhouse restaurant at the Contemporary. Buck, Caroline, and wanted to go back to the park. Ian and Grammy wanted to hang out at the hotel. We hopped on the monorail and waved goodbye to Ian and Gram and headed back to the Magic Kingdom. It was dark by then and not nearly as busy. We had loads of fun and rode lots more rides together. We did Pirates 2 more times, the Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, the Astro Orbiter (ugh, I didn't like that one), Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear. We shopped a little and then after we watched the fireworks we went back to the hotel, tired but happy.

Disney World Day One-MGM

We got back from Walt Disney World 3 weeks ago (and I still have the temporary tattoo that was only supposed to last a week) so I figured I would write about the trip.

We stayed at the Contemporary Resort. Although I loved being on the Disney property and getting to take advantage of free transportation and extra hours at the park, I disliked that we weren't in the main tower. When I made reservations I chose "garden view" since it was cheaper than "theme park view." I didn't realize that "garden view" really meant "not-even-in-the-same-freaking-building-and-inconvenient-to-everything view" but other than that we were really happy with the hotel.

We went to Disney-MGM Studios the first day. We figured our plan would be to go at a slower pace than we had pre-Ian and maybe leave in the afternoon, rest and come back. Ian loved the Star Tours set and the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. But the absolute bestest part of the day, maybe even the trip, was a visit with Mater and Lightning! I couldn't even get him to look in my direction for a picture because he was so excited.



After the daily afternoon thunderstorm at 3 (it is Florida after all) I rode the Rock 'n Roller Coaster by myself since no one else was interested in riding. I found a street sign near the Tower of Terror that said Gower St.

I thought that was pretty cool since my husband used to live on Gower when he was a baby and his parents lived in Hollywood. We went back to the hotel at about 5 and decided we were too tired to go back. We spent the rest of the night swimming, watching TV, eating, enjoying fireworks, and relaxing.

Their floors are sticky-mart......

Here are some pictures from our visit to the Kwik-E-Mart in Orlando: I swear I own more than one shirt!

They were all out of Buzz Cola so we got Squishees instead. Big mistake.

It was rad.

Missing my brother

I am missing Jensen a lot these days. I dug up some stuff that he drew just to make myself smile.

I think this one is a wishful thinking self-portrait








Inspired by actual events!



This was a Christmas present to my mom and if you look closely you can

see that it says "Merry Christmas."

The Pedestrian and TV

Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite authors. I was recently watching an episode of 'The Ray Bradbury Theater" (RBT) based on his short story 'The Pedestrian'. I have been really been on a RBT kick ever since Jensen told me that he bought me a DVD set of them right after Christmas. He was never able to give them to me in person but I found them in his apartment after he died and now I have assigned them some special, tallismatic significance to them since he touched them and meant for me to have them and I miss him a bunch. Anyway, Buck walked in while I was watching and we talked about how it is one of his favorite Bradbury stories. It is about a man who goes for a walk at night in a future where people don't leave their houses or their TV sets. The man is questioned by a police as if he is a criminal for not going with the flow by sitting at home in front of the TV. Of course right after we watched it we got all fired up and went for a walk.

The other day on one of the unschooling lists I read there was a link to this article by Ray. He says in the interview that 'Fahrenheit 451' was never about censorship but about his dislike of television. That seemed ironic when the interviewer pointed out that he had a flat-screen TV turned on during the whole interview! I think that Ray Bradbury is one of the greatest authors out there but I don't agree with his comments about TV. I know that watching TV has led me to read things I wouldn't have otherwise found, investigate new-to-me things, and make connections and strengthen relationships with my family.

For example, we are going to Florida next week and we are making a special trip to visit a 7-Eleven because of 'The Simpsons'. For the month of July they are making certain stores into Kwik-E-Marts complete with Buzz Cola and Krusty-O cereal. My little family has had hours of laughter and inside jokes and pop culture and trivia and connections from this show. We are thrilled to be able to see the Kwik-E-Mart. We would sure be missing out if we never watched TV.

I took a Bath....

We went to Bath, NC this weekend. It is the oldest town in North Carolina (established in 1705). The town has almost the same dimensions as it originally did so we were able to walk the whole thing. Blackbeard the Pirate lived there for a while when he got married for the 14th time.

Ian was interested in the graveyard. He has been talking about my brother a lot lately. When we went on a walk a few nights ago he commented at every manhole cover that Uncle Jensen was buried there. I think he must be processing all this new info about death and grieving right now. He tells me that Uncle Jensen is dead a lot. He tells me that he (Jensen) is in a big hole. He tells me that he misses him. I tell him that I have lots of dreams about Jensen and he says, "Me too!"

The best part of the day was the visit to the swimming hole. We found a little state park with a cool spot for swimming. The water was a murky green-brown and salty, but felt great on a hot day. We found tons of shells-some with barnacles on them and some with living creatures still in them! Ian was able to walk all the way out to the edge of the swimming area without the water going over his head. He was thrilled to be in the water with me and Buck. He asked for rides on our backs and called us "Mommy and Daddy Seahorse".

I am so glad to have these two guys in my life.

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