ABCs of A Trip Worth Waiting For + PNWMM: P: A Practically Perfect Pacific NW Mouse Meet- pg. 26

Hey Howdy Hey! Nice wrap up, even without pics. Nice you had such a great last night!

I have big news ! We are moving back to Oregon! Jim leaves next weekend to get his HR stuff done, and he starts Oct 30. I'm going to stay and save money here until Summer. It is extremely hard to leave our family here, and I'm worried they need help, but the older kids are great helpers, and we need to take care of our house and our impending retirement. We have been in limbo for five years and it us time to settle down. We are looking forward to time with our Oregon grands also. Crazy how this all turned out, but we will come full circle. So, I may be there for the PNW meet up next year!
 
If you've been following my "liking" progress over the last two days, you'll know that I finally arrived at the conclusion of this TR! It took me long enough to get over here, but I'm glad I finally made it! I had far too much to catch up on, so I saved us both the trouble of me quoting everything. But seeing your photos and hearing your stories has seriously increased my desire to see Disneyland!! In fact, as I was reading yesterday I took a break to send Nathan a message that said, "Did you know you can fly from Toronto to LAX in 5-6 hours?!" Thanks so much for sharing this! I'm really looking forward to also hearing about Seattle! How exciting!
 
Some good old-fashioned pasta sounded like it’d hit the spot… because vacations are not about watching one’s waistline.

Totally agree with this. No dieting on vacation especially in Disney.

had called earlier for a table, so it didn’t take us long to get seated.

This is good.

...At a table with bird poop and tree poop on it.

Yuck, this is bad.

“That guy’s tip is now at 10%. We’ll see if he can get above that.” I adored her snarky side. Perhaps her dad has a different opinion. I know I do about my own kids' tudes. :scratchin

Love this! Tip is very important so the service better be good.

They ended theirs with a trip through the Haagen Dazs ice cream shop. I was just too full.

There should always be room for ice cream.

1. The best part by far of this trip was the time I got to spend with Alison (@franandaj ), Fran, @pkondz and Kay. It was fabulous that we got so much time together and that we seemed to enjoy one another’s company. They invited me back, so I'll take that as a good sign. Alison bent over backwards to make our trip one that was filled with fantastic, lifelong memories and was a lovely hostess. I cannot thank her enough. Well, except to maybe buy her a few drinks and a meal or two in April.

I really enjoyed reading this report and a big part of that was your meets. DIS peeps are the best.

2. Club 33 was something I’d only ever dreamed of. I have many, many more things on the Proverbial Bucket List that I’m slowly scratching off, but ticking that one off kinda rocked my world.

This was fabulous.

I will be sticking around to read about the meet.
 
WARNING: THIS POST HAS ABSOLUTELY ZERO PHOTOS. SORRY FOR MAKING YOU SUFFER THROUGH READING.
Thanks... making me work to read. And it took me 4 times of starting to read this and having to leave and come back due to distractions to get through it.

one sashaying, one sauntering, and one limping- off to find noshables. (Hint: The Limper wasn’t me.)
You clubbed @pkondz in the knee, didn't you? I knew it!

And then we waited for a long while for a face and a greeting. Hmm….. When my water and our other drinks did come, mine was without the lemon that I’d specifically asked for. How hard can that be? At that point, Kay’s personality began to shine. “That guy’s tip is now at 10%. We’ll see if he can get above that.” I adored her snarky side. Perhaps her dad has a different opinion. I know I do about my own kids' tudes. :scratchin
I can certainly appreciate her attitude there!

(Nuts? Seeds?
One in the same. You should know that!

Kay declared his tip just shot up to 20%.
In other words, if the service didn't suck, she'd be ready to give him 50% after that.

Club 33 was something I’d only ever dreamed of. I have many, many more things on the Proverbial Bucket List that I’m slowly scratching off, but ticking that one off kinda rocked my world.
::yes:: So glad you got to experience it! I'd love to just get to go inside the place sometime!

The PoTC in Cali is 1,000 times better.
::yes::

Really expensive, frou-frou drinks in tall stemmed glasses in the swankiest bar in Orange Co are the easiest to spill.
:rotfl2::rotfl::lmao:
 


Sigh.... long week. I suppose ya gotta pay to play, and that means work. And a lot of it. I'm under 30 days now til my trip and that means running around like a chicken.... hmmm, remind me to tell you all about the homegrown turkey and the full axe...

Maybe tomorrow I'll find a minute or two to get some writing done. I mean one can always hope, right??

Hope your week's gone well and you're poised to have some nice weekend time!

Cheers!!
 
****WARNING: THIS POST HAS ABSOLUTELY ZERO PHOTOS. SORRY FOR MAKING YOU SUFFER THROUGH READING.****

What the heck???

Oh... wait... I've done that....


Nevermind!

Even girls with feet that feel like they’ve walked on a hot bed of coals get hungry.

:laughing:

The evening before, Kay, Pkondz and I decided that if it worked out with their touring, we could meet in DTD for a quick dinner.

And it did!
Not without some drama.... but it did.

I’d wanted to try Catal since reading @Flossbolna ’s report a while back, but it seemed a bit more upscale than I’d wanted after having spent a pretty hefty wad at Club 33.

So that's why we wound up in that dump!

because vacations are not about watching one’s waistline.

::yes::

If that’s your objective, might I suggest a field trip to your produce aisle for some take out and a brisk tour of your local gym.

:lmao:

I got a text saying Kay had been dropped off in the GA lobby and to meet her there.

Two things.
You got a PM or email since I didn't have a phone that could text.
Did I just tell you to meet her there???? I truly apologize if I did! I meant to ask if you would/could. Certainly not to order you about like a servant! I'm sorry!

<mortified>

I hoped I wasn’t too intimidating.

Oh, dear. She didn't say anything. Did she seem intimidated?

If I was, all that seemed to melt away when I showed her the little Gaston-infused gift from me. I hear tell she used it as a cover photo for a while?

::yes:: And thank you again for doing that!
That, after the baby capybara was probably her second favourite thing of the trip.

one sashaying, one sauntering, and one limping- off to find noshables. (Hint: The Limper wasn’t me.)

I don't recall her limping... huh.

...At a table with bird poop and tree poop on it.

Yeah... just... no.
Good thing I called early for that table. :idea: :rolleyes:

:laughing: Thank goodness!

When my water and our other drinks did come, mine was without the lemon that I’d specifically asked for.

I do remember that. Not much else, though.

“That guy’s tip is now at 10%. We’ll see if he can get above that.” I adored her snarky side. Perhaps her dad has a different opinion. I know I do about my own kids' tudes. :scratchin

:rolleyes:

Sometimes she's hilarious.... other times.........

I would love to share with you what I got. Or any of us for that matter. But, I cannot,

Nor can I. If I look at a menu and ask Kay... maybe.

since I never, ever embellish or make stuff up for these reports, I can’t just make something up. I mean, I could, but then nothing would be believable.



And everything would be exactly the same.

:rotfl:

All I can tell you for sure is that we did start with a Caprese Salad and it was good.

We did?
I mean... sure! We absolutely did!

(I have no idea.)

Wait! Who needs underwear when you have a Tiki Cup?!)

Well, when I played sports, I wore a cup, so...

Back at the table, tree poop kept falling (Nuts? Seeds? I dunno, but it was a mess!) and we waited for our meals.

Didn't we decide it was seeds? :confused3

It did eventually arrive and it was fantastic whatever it was. I’m going off of general impressions, not specifics.

I seem to recall that it was good, too.

Kay declared his tip just shot up to 20%.

Nope. She never got that high.
I remember that because she wanted to know if I'd tipped... around 13% or so... but I tipped above 20%.

They ended theirs with a trip through the Haagen Dazs ice cream shop.

Well, we did go... but I don't think I got anything?
I might have, but seem to remember that it was just Kay.

They were gracious enough to offer me a ride back to LAX the next day as our flights were around the same time, so I took them up on it.

Oh, pish. We were leaving from the same spot and going to the same spot.

It was an attractive option since rental cars around there eat cameras

:laughing:

1. The best part by far of this trip was the time I got to spend with Alison (@franandaj ), Fran, @pkondz and Kay.

:hug:

4. Little Red Wagon Corn dogs be da best!

Still sad I missed that.

6. I still need to try the Plaza Fried Chicken Dinner.

I'm one up on you there!

7. I’m incredibly sad they tore down the Anabella Hotel. It holds some very dear memories for me from trips past.

Yeah. Me too. :(

And NOS may still hold #1 place for favorite “Land” for me.

I will admit... it was so crowded that I didn't really get a feel for... much of the park at all.

10. Really expensive, frou-frou drinks in tall stemmed glasses in the swankiest bar in Orange Co are the easiest to spill.

:rolleyes1

Don't go away!!! I am going to use this TR as a platform for the Pacific Northwest MouseMeet. It is the country's largest unofficial fandom gathering held each year near Seattle and I got to go with @Malia78 in August. I have tons of photos and a bombdiggity time! Stick around!!

Standing by! Can't wait!

Maybe tomorrow I'll find a minute or two to get some writing done. I mean one can always hope, right??

Good luck! Don't work too hard!
 


Was gettin' my best Tanya Harding on. ;)
:lmao:

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They obviously get along!
 
I just completed a thorough read through of each of your chapters, I just couldn't stop reading :yay:

:welcome::welcome::welcome:

Three cheers for a new reader!! Huge welcome and a big hug to you Crashbecky!

I had heart palpitations for you when you realised you left your camera in the rental!
I thought that surely, after two days, you were not going to get it back!

I had very, VERY little hope I'd ever see that camera again! The relief was overwhelming when the guy walked in with it!

It is something that has happened to me, so I felt the stress!
Actually, the last time at Disneyland while I was at one of the nearby restaurants, I left my brand new phone in the bathrooms, I went back (about an hour later) and was thankful someone had handed it in!

OH, so done that too. Historic Mt. Vernon bathroom, tickets at the theater (live) bathroom, you name it. Call me brainless... or, scattebrained at best.

Best of luck for your upcoming trip & work in Africa.

Thank you so much! A dream come true for sure!
 
I definitely do not have any photos of the Pacific NW Mouse Meet. I wasn't there.

Then they'll wait for a loooong time since I wasn't there.

sigh.... I was talking about the last dinner at Naples. Not the PNWMM. Sorry, that wasn't clear. :)

Mork's tummy didn't have teeth!

Are you sure?

I said no such thing.
Twirl on!

Phew! I thought you were going to take all the fun out of waiting in lines.

That's about right.
I wouldn't wish night shifts on my worst enemy.

While not fun, I don't hate them. I do get a little pay differential and that mostly makes up for it.
 
Hi Liesa
I am one of your readers that bothered to read your report to the near end because I enjoyed reading it.Will be sticking around to read the rest about your Pacific north west mouse meet adventure. One question what is the NOS Land in point number 8 of your TR Wrap UP section.

Thanks, Mac! I'm glad to have some readers that are still here and enjoying. :) I'm hoping to get the first chapter written today!

I'm not Liesa, and I hope I'm not stepping on any toes here, but NOS is New Orleans Square. :)

No toes stepped on AT ALL!! Thank you for chiming in as I had a super busy week and couldn't get here until this AM for real replies other than phone quickies.

Well that was a fun week! Hope to do it again this April and that @Malia78 chooses to come along and celebrate her special day with us!

How do you not remember what you ate? Almost all my Disney meals are memorable. :rotfl2:

It was!! I think things are falling into place for that! And the last I heard, she is re-arranging her schedule to be able to join in the fun. :)

Normally they are, but I just didn't take any photos nor take any notes, and it just didn't cement in. It was good, but not good enough to be remembered, I guess! LOL!
 
Hey Howdy Hey! Nice wrap up, even without pics. Nice you had such a great last night!

Thanks, Tammie! :)

I have big news ! We are moving back to Oregon! Jim leaves next weekend to get his HR stuff done, and he starts Oct 30. I'm going to stay and save money here until Summer. It is extremely hard to leave our family here, and I'm worried they need help, but the older kids are great helpers, and we need to take care of our house and our impending retirement. We have been in limbo for five years and it us time to settle down. We are looking forward to time with our Oregon grands also. Crazy how this all turned out, but we will come full circle. So, I may be there for the PNW meet up next year!

Well that IS big news!! Wow!

I can imagine how hard it is to leave behind the family there, especially the grandkids, but understand the need to come back and focus on things here. We'll have to make it a point to get together this summer, and yes, the PNWMM is a nice one to do!

If you've been following my "liking" progress over the last two days, you'll know that I finally arrived at the conclusion of this TR! It took me long enough to get over here, but I'm glad I finally made it! I had far too much to catch up on, so I saved us both the trouble of me quoting everything. But seeing your photos and hearing your stories has seriously increased my desire to see Disneyland!! In fact, as I was reading yesterday I took a break to send Nathan a message that said, "Did you know you can fly from Toronto to LAX in 5-6 hours?!" Thanks so much for sharing this! I'm really looking forward to also hearing about Seattle! How exciting!

I have!! LOL! You were quite diligent at it too!! And TBH, while I love that you are reading, I'm glad you didn't comment on the entire thing! I have so little time to reply right now, it would have been hard. Although, now that I"m packed for Africa AND Disney and the last supplies are done, my free time has eased up. :) I think every Disney fan should go there at least once so they can see where it all started. I love to look up at Walt's apt and see the light on and give a little hat tip myself to the guy who started it all.

Hoping to get that part going today after I get my laundry folded! ;)
 
Totally agree with this. No dieting on vacation especially in Disney.

Here, here!

Yuck, this is bad.

It was odd to have junk falling from above you when eating....

Love this! Tip is very important so the service better be good.

Yes, it is! But they do have to earn it!

There should always be room for ice cream.

I have a confession... not a big ice cream fan. I mean, I'll surely eat it if offered, but not my first go-to. Now, if it'd been creme brulee....

I really enjoyed reading this report and a big part of that was your meets. DIS peeps are the best.

So glad you enjoyed it! Lots more coming.... And yes, they are!!

This was fabulous.

I will be sticking around to read about the meet.

Thanks, Vanessa!! Glad to have you here! I'll start to work on the Seattle trip soon!
 
Thanks... making me work to read. And it took me 4 times of starting to read this and having to leave and come back due to distractions to get through it.

Yeah, I just suck like that.

But, as for distractions... aren't those universal in the land of DISReading? I'm not convinced you have the monopoly on that dept.

You clubbed @pkondz in the knee, didn't you? I knew it!

I was framed!!

I can certainly appreciate her attitude there!

She was being pretty funny for sure.

One in the same. You should know that!

Geez, getting all scientific and technical, aren't we? Next you're going to tell me corn is a type of grass.

In other words, if the service didn't suck, she'd be ready to give him 50% after that.

Hey, I wasn't the one tipping. LOL!

::yes:: So glad you got to experience it! I'd love to just get to go inside the place sometime!

I really hope you can someday, Andy. It was very special!
 
What the heck???

Oh... wait... I've done that....


Nevermind!

On rare occasions, I think we have all resorted to that.

And it did!
Not without some drama.... but it did.

Well, then we'll all have to wait until you get to that chapter.

So that's why we wound up in that dump!

I'm not sure I'd go so far as dump... LOL!

Two things.
You got a PM or email since I didn't have a phone that could text.
Did I just tell you to meet her there???? I truly apologize if I did! I meant to ask if you would/could. Certainly not to order you about like a servant! I'm sorry!

<mortified>

Correct! My mistake. And no, not told... just informed that she was there. :) Sorry, poor choice of words. Relax, just was trying to get across the point that it worked out and I met her there. :) Ya done good.

Oh, dear. She didn't say anything. Did she seem intimidated?

She at times was quiet. And I think it took a little bit for her to warm up. :)

::yes:: And thank you again for doing that!
That, after the baby capybara was probably her second favourite thing of the trip.

I loved that it just happened. I'm glad I ran across him in my wanderings!

I don't recall her limping... huh.

I recall you telling me she was having a hard time with her feet a few times. I think she was moving slower than usually due to sore tootsies.

I do remember that. Not much else, though.

So, we agree that while it was good, it was no fantastic enough to be memorable! LOL!

:rolleyes:

Sometimes she's hilarious.... other times.........

So, a typical teen.

Nor can I. If I look at a menu and ask Kay... maybe.

I tried! Just couldn't do it.

We did?
I mean... sure! We absolutely did!

(I have no idea.)

Yep! :)

Well, when I played sports, I wore a cup, so...

A very good kind of insurance policy!

Didn't we decide it was seeds? :confused3

Yeah, I think so. I just remember them falling during our whole meal. Every time one would fall it'd scare me.


Nope. She never got that high.
I remember that because she wanted to know if I'd tipped... around 13% or so... but I tipped above 20%.

I guess it'd have to be pretty bad to be less than that for me too.

Well, we did go... but I don't think I got anything?
I might have, but seem to remember that it was just Kay.

ANd that is very certainly possible! Clearly by that time, the memory was failing as badly as my last souffle.

Oh, pish. We were leaving from the same spot and going to the same spot.

And yet, I'm still grateful.

I'm one up on you there!

April.... I'll get even.

I will admit... it was so crowded that I didn't really get a feel for... much of the park at all.

Shoot! Maybe April will be less so. (But not likely. )
 
Next time I'm there I'm going to pay attention to what kind of trees are shading the dining area and solve this dilemma!

Someone posted not long ago, that there is an app or website that catalogues all the DLR plants. Maybe we can find it there?
 
O is for: Off to Other Disney-Centered Occasions


The pre-trip excitement reached its normal, insomnia-inducing levels, and I slept fitfully wondering what I’d forget this time. Trust me, it was plenty. But that was more due to the fact that I had absolutely NO idea what to expect for this event than to anything else. But that, my friends, is getting WAY ahead of myself. Let’s begin where all good stories do… on a freeway going somewhere. Which is never quite as good a story as one beginning on a plane to somewhere, but this, Dear Reader, was only a trip from Salem, Oregon to Lynnwood, Washington.

At the last minute, I ended up being scheduled to get off of work at 3:00, so instead of leaving in the evening, I was free to leave in the afternoon… much to my rush hour-loathing relief. If you have never experienced Portland or Seattle rush hour traffic you have no concept of “just give up and don’t bother” traffic. It is soul crushing and not to be attempted unless migraines are your thing. I was loaded up, my bags were anyways, and I took off straight from work at 2:30 because I got off early, and without any hulabaloo or hoopla arrived at Karilynn’s around 6:00. Err…. except the little inane scenic route Google Maps took me on through in one little spot. I mean, isn’t the most direct route always to get off the freeway, toodle through town and several signals, and then get back on, only to continue north again? :confused3


She gave me a tour of her museum-like home of which I’m pretty sure has more Disneyana than all of EBay, World of Disney, and the Emporium combined, and then we loaded her bags and we shot
off like Thelma and Louise.


For dinner. As noted before, Seattle rush hour traffic is soul crushing, and it’s best to just not. Eating is always more enjoyable than crawling at 5 mph for 2 hours, but then again, so is having a femur reset. Maybe.


Kinda a tossup.


We ended up at a little Chinese place near her home where I took exactly NO photos. I mean, I sure thought I did, but there’s nothing on my phone, so just close your eyes and imagine some respectable Americanized “Chinese” food sitting on a plate. It more than filled our tummies and we were ready around 7:30 to hit the road, hoping to make it to our hotel by 8:30. Which we did- The Embassy Suites Convention Center in Lynnwood, WA.

Check-in was super easy and we were in our room by 8:45 or so. Neither of us expected a suite-style room (ummm, yes, I’m aware it was Embassy SUITES) but, I think it took us both aback a bit. It worked out super well because I slept in a little extra in the mornings, and Kari had a place she could go and read or primp while I snoozed. Here are the obligatory photos of the pre-trashed room.

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Not bad digs, if I do say so myself…

It didn’t take us long to ditch the bags and set out to scope out the Door Decorating Contest Entries (see what I did there?) I didn’t take a count, but I think there were around 15 entries or so. All of them obviously had a ton of time put into them and the creativity was amazing! But a couple really stood out. She and I nailed it in predicting the Winning Doors.

One had a little matching game of what quotes came from which Disney movie, another paid homage to retiring Chef Oscar, and yet another had the entire Jungle Cruise mapped out with the corresponding jokes that went with each location. All very fun!

Other random photos:

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IMG_4668%202.jpg


This one, which took one of the top 2 places (sorry! I can't remember which one actually won!) was a mock Trick or Treat Trail from MNSSHP complete with candy, a Photopass Photographer, characters and the Boo to you Soundtrack

IMG_4661%202.jpg


My favorite, and I think the winner (?), but for sure in the top 2 was a Beauty and the Beast-themed display with hand cut silhouettes of Disney couples. An obvious incredible amount of work went into this one, and I was completely impressed:

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This one's theme was Disney parks worldwide, but focused on the Asian parks where @Malia78 happens to be right now!

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We may give it a try next year. :scared: The competition is pretty stiff!

By the time, we’d done our little walk-about, we both decided it was time to hit the sack; it’d been a long day for both of us. While visions of Fairies and Pixies danced in our heads, we quickly fell asleep excited for what the day of the Big Meet would hold.
 

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