jedijill
Chiefs fan living in Bronco country
- Joined
- Jan 17, 2005
Anyone else secretly celebrating May the 4th at work today?
I'm wearing my Admiral Akbar shirt right now!
Jill in CO
Anyone else secretly celebrating May the 4th at work today?
I'm wearing my Admiral Akbar shirt right now!
Jill in CO
Well said!!
And actually, history is full of people who had friendships with people living far away. Just look at the books being published with the correspondence of famous people. It used to be called pen friends. Today it is just a different word, same old concept though.
I'm wearing my Admiral Akbar shirt right now!
I have finished your trip report and really loved it!
First, Baby Drew is absolutely precious! His smile is absolutely adorable! Sarah, Dave and Scotty look like they are having such a great time! I especially loved that you and your wife arranged the horseback riding and golf trips. It is also very cool that your kids are such enthusiastic learners at the National Parks...too bad the ranger outside of Sedona didn't have any enthusiasm.
I am in awe of your families abilities at touring Disneyland in one day!! Seriously amazing!!
Our family agrees that Slater's 50/50 is awesome! We ate there almost 3 years ago and DS still mentions it as one of his favorite burgers. I think the one we went to was in Anaheim Hills. We had a lot of fun coming up with creative names for our burgers.
I have noted to skip Joshua Tree park and just enjoy the trees from the side of the freeway. Very helfpful info!
i am curious how you felt about ending your trip with Disneyland? For us, I was thinking of starting with Disneyland and we need 3 days minimum but 4 is better! My thought is after 4 days @DL we would be ready for a nice long car trip and the sitting down for several hours would be really nice.
If you are staying in Phoenix and then staying at the Grand Canyon, is staying over in Sedona not necessary? I have been to Sedona once about 20 years ago and we did it as a day trip from Phoenix and walked through the cute town of Jerome too. Sounds like Sedona has really grown though.....
Lodging at the Grand Canyon.....for a family, if you had all options available, would you choose the cabins?
Thank you for sharing your trip with all of us!
As I sort-of-but-not-really promised, I thought I’d give a quick mini-review of my whirlwind weekend in Florida, where I served as Security Guard/Mooch for Scotty’s birthday trip from his grandparents.
It’s been a while since I had basic thermodynamics in school, but I’m pretty sure that an object removed from a cooled environment will begin to draw heat from the air around it until it, too, reaches that ambient temperature of the surrounding area. However, being the mooch on this trip, I knew better than to argue. So I placed my order, and off my mom went to find sodas for everyone.
So, Scotty spent his two hours next to two old women taking a nap, and I spent them being pushed out into the center aisle.
taking the Not-A-Monorail
and had a lunch of French fries and some peanut-butter crackers he found in his carry-on bag
There’s also a putting green where you can try out the clubs and balls of the old days. Oddly enough, I found that I putted just as well with this equipment as I do with modern technology. Which is to say I couldn’t make any putts.
They had a few exhibits showing the trophies and/or items awarded to major championship winners. Scotty decided to pose with a green jacket, typically awarded to winners of the Masters.
while Bubba Watson once wore his to a meal at the Waffle House.
Finally, each member of the Hall of Fame has a permanent exhibit in the form of a locker, with various mementoes from their careers. Here’s one for Phil Mickelson:
Bragging rights. Mark: 1. Rest of Family: 0.
Whereupon we discovered that none of those 3 Best Westerns was the correct hotel. He’d made a reservation at a hotel in the town of St. Augustine Beach, several miles away along the coast. Oops.
I do love my parents, but there’s a reason we don’t travel together much anymore.
Scotty really wanted a cheese pizza, so I ended up splitting that with him. That boy can crush a pizza. He easily ate four slices. I have no idea what I will do when he’s a teenager.
It was a dark and stormy night.
By which I mean it was early morning, with fair skies.
If you are unfamiliar with Southwest, you are able to check into your flight online 24 hours before the departure time.
I had not checked in, but I wasn’t worried about it because my father was handling all of the arrangements for the trip. He had booked the flights, rented a car, made hotel reservations, etc. It was actually a nice relief not to be the one in charge of all of the travel details for once.
It should therefore arrive as no surprise, then, that as of 6:00 that morning, my father had not checked us in for our flight.
2. Someone is going to have a very interesting seat-mate in Scotty.
Scotty was next to two old ladies who seemed to struggle to grasp the concept of buckling the seat belt,
or even to have any clue what the flight attendant was saying to them.
So, Scotty spent his two hours next to two old women taking a nap, and I spent them being pushed out into the center aisle.
(thus negating Joe Pesci’s theory regarding the counter vs. drive-thru window).
If you are subject to narcolepsy, please click the “back” button on your browser now.
This is probably the first time it’s been photographed with someone wearing a bright orange Philadelphia Flyers t-shirt.
Oddly enough, I found that I putted just as well with this equipment as I do with modern technology. Which is to say I couldn’t make any putts.
I can’t quite make out the titles, but I’m pretty sure they were called the fried egg, the griddle, and the waffle iron.
Phil Mickelson was once caught wearing his jacket as he took his kids through a drive-thru lane at a Krispy Kreme donut shop, while Bubba Watson once wore his to a meal at the Waffle House.
You want to know how we did with the island green, don’t you? That’s really all you care about.
Well, look at that. I don’t have a photo of my swing. I mean, I can’t swing a club and take a picture, you know. Darn.
It landed safely on the green.
Ha! You thought I’d drowned my shot, didn’t you?
Look closely at the photo, and you can see the ball hopping straight up in the air, right in front of his head.
It bounced a few feet and didn’t even make it to the pond.
For about a tenth of a second, anyway. Then I bust a gut laughing. Come on, seriously? A pond that big, and you can’t even hit that?
St. Augustine holds the distinction of being the oldest permanently-settled town in the United States,
Remember, I had left all of the travel arrangements up to my father. As we drove into town, he told us to look for a Best Western. I knew from previous stays that there was more than one, and he said he couldn’t remember which one he’d made the reservation for.
I do love my parents, but there’s a reason we don’t travel together much anymore.
Man, I really needed to use the bathroom.
That boy can crush a pizza. He easily ate four slices. I have no idea what I will do when he’s a teenager.
It was a dark and stormy night.
Clever. I may use that.
He got it from me first. Or not. I probably stole it from somewhere else first.
I was just thinking the same thing! Pen pals were encouraged when I was a kid. It was supposed to help broaden your knowledge of the world, I think. Now it's more fun because you can share it with more people.
Well, keep in mind that the way the loop set up for us, we were coming from Phoenix. It's a long 5-hour drive to the coast. The only thing worth doing that for, to us, was Disneyland. Otherwise we would have finished with some National Park sites in the desert, which really felt anti-climactic to us after the sights we'd seen before. So we thought Disneyland would be a better ending. We don't mind being exhausted at the end of a trip--it's kind of what we expect. I like to save the best stuff for last. This is why we're doing Yellowstone near the end of the trip this summer.
Sedona is about 2 hours from Phoenix, so you could easily do it as a day trip. It's grown, but the distance is still the same and it would be very do-able.
The cabins are nice because they're a very short walk from the rim. It's neat to say you stayed near the edge. However, they're just as spartan as the rest of the rooms there. No TV, no A/C, etc. We couldn't stay in them due to the size of our family. But I think if you offered us the choice of staying in a cabin near the rim or in a standard motel room in a big parking lot, the cabin would win easily. Just make sure you make reservations as early as possible!
Thanks for reading it!
Two thoughts on our predicament:
1. Great! Middle seats for everybody!
2. Someone is going to have a very interesting seat-mate in Scotty.
My parents hatched a plan for our arrival. When we landed, my father and I would retrieve the bags and get the rental car. My mother and Scotty would head for McDonald’s to grab some cheeseburgers and fries for everyone for lunch. To save additional time, they’d go ahead and buy some bottles of soda for everyone to have with their lunch now.
In Baltimore.
With lunch 2 hours away in Orlando.
With many bottles of soda available, I’m sure, for purchase at overpriced airport rates in Orlando.
while my mother passed out the warm sodas and three cheeseburgers she’d bought.
For four people.
We passed one on the outskirts of town, and he was pretty sure that wasn’t it. O-kay.
In town, we saw another Best Western on the main road. No, he said, he was pretty sure the reservation was for the one near Old Town where we’d stayed before.
We found the third Best Western near Old Town, right where he said it would be. Great. We pulled into the parking lot and dug out the papers with the confirmation number.
Whereupon we discovered that none of those 3 Best Westerns was the correct hotel. He’d made a reservation at a hotel in the town of St. Augustine Beach, several miles away along the coast. Oops.
Anyway, we eventually found the right place and checked in. We got the keys to our room and entered, and immediately my mom decided the room was way too moldy and musty due to the Florida humidity, and we needed a room on the 2nd floor. So they went back to the front desk and asked for a different room. We got a room on the 2nd floor, trudged up the stairs, and moved our belongings into a room that smelled equally musty.
I do love my parents, but there’s a reason we don’t travel together much anymore.
Scotty really wanted a cheese pizza, so I ended up splitting that with him. That boy can crush a pizza. He easily ate four slices. I have no idea what I will do when he’s a teenager.
Yeah!!!
Hmmm, I remember that!! And the funny thing is, that this is one of the things you learn in school that are actually useful later in life: Because you know that if you want a cold drink on a warm day, don't carry it around with you in the warmth!! Must have been a long time since your mother was in school....
Sorry for that!! You should have put your small child in the seat with so little space!!
Yes! You as an engineer know that is not a monorail!! I think it is actually just a fancy electric bus... Not even a duo-rail (is that a thing? I guess it would then be called a train).
poor guy! I am a bit surprised that your mother did not pack pbj sandwiches, I thought that that would have been a long standing family tradition in your family.
Wow! Scotty has grown since last summer!
I think it is just due to your incredible skills that you could not see the difference! Who needs modern technology when they are a genius anyway?
Nice contrast between the green and the orange!
I think he just wanted to try out their waffle irons for putting...
This looks very pretty!
That looks like a neat exhibit!
See, I was right when I was talking about your superior talent above!
I can see that - it is surprising how well your travel planning skills turned out. You definitely did not get it from them!
Oh! I see hard times coming for you! He will eat up your travel funds...
Hey congrats on making the shot! I think you definitely get bragging rights for the next year or so.
But I would love a course that's all long putts! Granted, my golf experience is limited to one time at a driving range and numerous cheesy side-of-the-road mini golf places, but I'm actually pretty decent on the long putts. And Joe isn't, which means I'd beat him. So I'm all for it.
Seriously, we have a running record of mini golf from the start of our relationship. Currently we're tied (much to my annoyance). One time we actually did tie the round, and we both just stared at each other because neither one of us could rub it in. Can't you tell we love each other dearly?
Sounds like you guys had a great time at the Hall of Fame!
I feel your pain about the hotel and dinner though, because I'm just like you. I have nightmares where people road trip and decide to "just find a hotel along the way." Shudder.