Tag Archives: EPCOT

Sep22

Exciting Things in the Next 50 Days!

Posted on September 22, 2013 by mscurlgurl78

So the school year is officially in full swing, and any teacher would agree with me that the days are crazy busy, and the nights just bring full-on exhaustion. I have been doing well with sticking to my training plans, and also staying busy during the week so I can go away on the weekends and run some ridiculous races!

This coming weekend on September 28th and 29th, I will be competing in the Spartan Beast and Sprint at Sun Peak Resort in British Columbia. Upon completion of the Beast on Saturday, which is a half marathon filled with obstacles on the ski hill, I will earn the coveted Trifecta Tribe Medal, as I will have completed one of each Spartan Race distances (Sprint, Super & Beast) in one calendar year, in one country. And since Erin and I will have driven all that way, we are doing the Sprint on Sunday!

During Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, I will be participating in my first ever relay trail race, the Grizzly Ultra in Canmore, Alberta. The total race distance is 50km, but I am responsible for just Leg 1, which is 14 km. I stepped in as a late addition to a team due to someone dropping out. One of my Dopey Challenge Training Crew members on Facebook asked if I was interested in helping out! After checking out the website, I had to sign up!

And then in November, I have my first RunDisney event, the Wine & Dine Half Marathon. It will be a quick three nights in Orlando, with Saturday night being the exciting night race of the half! We will end at EPCOT where an after party occurs until 4 am, with all the food and wine expo booths open, live entertainment, and select attractions open!

As a reminder, my fundraising efforts are still in full swing, and you can check out more by clicking the charities tab at the top of this page. I have raised $1,125 for the American Heart Association and $1,005 for the Heart & Stroke Foundation in Canada. All these funds are being raised in memory of my father, Andrew Lammers, who passed away from a heart attack at age 51 in 2004. If you are able to, please consider donating to heart disease research efforts in North America!

Keep checking back to this page over the next few months, as I will have more race recaps posted from not only the highlighted events above, but other small races I have planned. This will all lead up to my culminating event of a lifetime, the Dopey Challenge 2014 during the Walt Disney Marathon Weekend!

Aug17

My Disney “Beat the Bus” Challenge & Spartan Prep

Posted on August 17, 2013 by mscurlgurl78

Standard

Today ends my 16 day extravaganza in Walt Disney World. Maureen and I are still friends, even after spending August 1-16 in a small Disney “value resort” room, so that’s what matters. We honestly never got sick of Disney World! Really! We just started to get really, really tired….and really, really wacko. Hence, our decision to have me do a “beat the bus” challenge on August 14th. A little background in this decision first….

The last year my mom, dad and I stayed at Yacht Club while in Disney World (2003) we had the luxury of being able to walk to both EPCOT and Disney Hollywood Studios from the resort. This was a great option instead of having to take the bus everywhere. We would usually walk back from the Studios, but if my mom had her way, we would take the alternate option of the boat. One morning, the boat was not there yet so my dad and I convinced my mom to walk with us, because we could “beat the boat.” She obliged, and since the boat wasn’t even at the Yacht Club dock yet, we felt solid. Well, we got past the hotel docks the boat stops at and the boat was behind us, in our sight. Dad and I couldn’t lose, so we started speed walking, and then to a jog, and then too pretty fast clip.

Mom was not pleased.

But, we did beat the boat. And my dad and I thought it was hysterical. My mom, however, did not.

So now fast forward to August 2013. It’s hot as hell in Disney World. The humidity is through the roof. It’s your 14th day of vacation. So naturally, you decide to run 2+miles in the early afternoon heat, without a sidewalk, and without running shoes.

I don’t know how it came up, but one of the times we had to wait for a bus at the Studios it was taking longer than the advertised “every 20 minutes.” I must have told Maureen I could run back to Pop Century faster. On that bus ride “home”, we decided that on August 14th, during our “Four Parks, One Day” mess, I would run back to the resort while Maureen casually walked to the bus stop. We routed the distance the Studios main gate to our hotel room using Google Maps, and the distance was only 2.3 miles. I would run the same route as the bus, all in the attempt to beat Maureen and have the glory and recognition that goes with the title…Thus, the challenge was born.

So August 14th rolled around. Alarm went off at 5:30 am, as we had an early magic hour morning planned at Animal Kingdom. After Animal Kingdom, we headed to the Studios for a short while. We had already done a lot that morning when 10:30 am rolled around and we slowly started heading out of the park. 10:30 am is early…but in Florida, the heat is already kicked in. Note in the two photos below how “gung-ho” I am to begin this challenge

As we left the main gate, I bid Maureen ‘Adieu!’ and started bolting out of the lot. Please note—I had not ran since the 10 miles I did on July 31st. Sure, we had been logging 10+ miles of walking each day while in Disney, but I was taking this vacation as the break I probably needed from my running. And because of that, I did not pack my tennis shoes. So, I ran in my Keen’s hiking sandals. Oh, this was going to be good….

I was going at a fast clip out of the lot, mainly because I felt like an idiot running from the park. At my first turn onto the main roadway (Buena Vista Drive) I came in contact with my first “obstacle”—no sidewalk. I was aware this would occur, as I knew what this route entailed, so I dug my Keen-wearing feet onto the soggy Orlando sod and trucked along. This was some resistance training! I came to find out later that Maureen lucked out and caught a bus immediately after going to the bus station, so she passed me at this point, but luckily got a photo of my efforts.

I kept trucking down Buena Vista Drive and at my first mile, I clocked 7:58! I was racing! It was at this point the sweat poured into my eyes and my shoulders started to burn from the heat. I had no idea myself where Maureen was, so I kept booking it. I turned right at the ESPN Wide World of Sports sign, and then straight ahead I could see my final turn into the resort.

I cut through the resort exit driveway, through a parking lot, ran to our building and up to our room on the 2nd floor. After digging my room key out of my shorts zipper, I entered the air conditioned room hoping to claim victory!….but Maureen was lying on the bed. Yes….she won this time. But her bus arrival was perfect timing! So I will defend myself and say I COULD have beaten her if the bus even was 8 minutes late, or if someone needing assistance with a wheelchair had needed to get on. The final distance from gate to room—2.3 miles. My time—19 minutes and 30 seconds. Not to shabby, if I do say so myself.

And running in those Keen’s……while i wouldn’t make this a normal occurrence, I had bought them before the Disney trip, and let me say….I recommend them for anyone wanting comfortable sandals who do a lot of walking. I didn’t buy the heavy-duty ones for all-terrain hiking, but these were perfect for trekking through Disney for miles upon miles a day. I even took the liberty of taking a creepy photo of a family wearing coordinating Keen’s while walking around EPCOT….no big deal!

So now as my flight from Denver approaches Calgary, I reminisce abut the memories from the past 16 days…this “beat the bus challenge” was just one crazy idea we had, and if I were to list all of them here, you would never read my site again. I did joke that this challenge was good “Spartan Race” Preparation, as this Sunday, my husband and I will be participating in our SECOND Spartan Sprint! This one is just a 5 km race and is in Calgary at a bike park. So, the terrain isn’t mountainous like the one we did in Montana…and while I haven’t been running or doing Spartan Specific Workouts of the Day, I have been sweating my ass off daily in Disney world, running in ridiculous conditions, and dragging a backpack around the airport while in layover. I think my backpack did weigh about 30 pounds today, no lie, and I wandered for a good hour in Denver.

So how will I do in the Spartan Race Calgary? Who knows. My mom thinks it will be laughable given I was vacationing and living the good life for the past 16 days. We will see…and I will show her. Remember, I showed her when dad and I beat the boat back 10 years ago!

Aug10

Thoughts So Far….

Posted on August 10, 2013 by mscurlgurl78

Standard

Yes, I am still in Walt Disney World. Today was day 10 of our 16 day extravaganza. We are now turning the corner on the weekend and heading into the home stretch! So far, Maureen and I haven’t wanted to kill the other person yet. And that is step one. We keep joking it is like we are back living in a college dorm, and that joke is even more of a real fact right now because as I type this, Maureen is out of the room roaming the balconies of Pop Century talking on her phone and looking for cell phone service. Oh man.

So many of you who read this are my friends and family, so you probably have seen a lot of my updates on Facebook or Twitter. So instead of posting a ton of photos and rehashing a bunch of stuff you may have already noticed along the way during my travels, I am going to touch on a few key Best & Worst Moments of this visit so far. Bear with me here—-I am working on adrenaline, magic and wine.

Worst Ride in Walt Disney World
Holy shit. I read all the blogs about it, but didn’t believe it could truly be that bad. If you have someone in your group that suggests trying this ride, shut them down, or please skip it yourself. Stitches Great Escape is so horrendous, I wouldn’t wish it upon my worst enemy. Maureen did determine the small target audience is ages 4-6, because at that age you have some understanding of simple jokes and are amused by pointless humor and bad effects. Never again!

Best Ride Refurbishment
Test Track. While the ride system is the same as the original, the theming was redone by the new sponsors, Chevrolet. We were both hesitant, but were pleasantly surprised with the main feature of the ride—designing your own vehicle to “test” on the SimTrack. It is fun designing your vehicle in the reshot and we have a good time seeing how it performs on the course. Also, the post show area has lots to do.

Best Ride Surprise
Enchanted Tales with Belle! We did this on our first rope drop morning, as we had heard the lines really get long later in the day. While we don’t have kids, we do have an appreciation for the cuteness factor…and this show has it. It’s an interesting mix of live entertainment, meet and greet, and walk-through experience. Every time will be different, as audience members participate. Highly recommend it, especially if you have small children.

Best Crockpot of Butter
No contest—this category was designed for the French Onion Soup at Les Chefs de France that Maureen had for lunch today. Now, we are not making fun of or complaining about the amount of butter we saw used within the soup….it was delicious. But Maureen knew upon seeing it arrive in front of her it was going to be a rough go.

Best Castmember
Oh, and our server at Les Chefs de France was awesome—his name was Mehdi. He was adorable. Had only been in Florida since August 1st. Told us in advance he is still learning his English, and it was his first day on his own at the restaurant. So maybe we had a soft spot for him right away, but he did a very good job, was super sweet and even asked us questions about where we were from and wanted to know where it was located. We could tell he had been a server before because he knew how to carry out lots of plates with ease. Mehdi—your boyish charm will win your tables over.

Worst Counter-Service Meal
The “butter chicken” I had at Art of Animation’s Landscape of Flavours. I have eaten butter chicken before from Indian restaurants back home, and other Indian foods also, and this was disgusting, it was almost laughable. Ew.

Best Child Meltdown
Actually haven’t seen a blown out chld meltdown yet. Those are saved for the adults this trip. But we have heard many kids saying some random-ass things. And one of the best was when it was 1 pm at EPCOT, pure sun, no clouds, 95 degree heat…and a set of parents were casually looking at the Yorkshire Fish Shoppe counter service menu, but they walked away. Their son, about 8 or 9, naturally exclaimed “Just pick one restaurant and stick with it, COME ON!” He had to be hungry.

Best Adult Meltdown
Hands down had to be while at Cinderella’s Royal Table for dinner. And this isn’t one adult, but a whole family that wins the award. Family came in for dinner and immediately started arguing—between the one teenaged daughter and the dad. Mom tried to calm it down telling them to just drop it, and to get over it (must have been from an existing argument earlier). Long story short, dad dramatically left (he was in a wheelchair so it was dramatic as he had to leave but then wait for the elevator), then the problem daughter started crying, mom started getting pissed, second daughter started standing up for her sister, and then mom told them to just wrap up the food and she left. And to top it off, the two daughters were on our bus ride back to the hotel later that night. Nicely done family. Way to waste approximately $250 on a dining experience.

Best Feature of Pop Century Resort
The white blanket on the bed. Wrote a note to the housekeeper to keep using the soft white blankets instead of the nasty pink ones (didn’t write nasty) . They are luxurious. And appreciated in this value resort dorm room.

Worst Feature of Pop Century
The cockroach Maureen found in the bathtub that I had to try to get out, but then disappeared down the drain. And currently, the alarm going off in a nearby room which is obviously unoccupied at the moment. Ahhhhhhhhhh.

Best Character Photo
Our Toy Story friends meet up, where I got to recreate my dad’s photo from April 2003. The picture says it all.

Only five more full days in the park to go! So many more things to occur…..what will happen next?

Jul27

16 Days of Disney Shenanigans are About to Occur…

Posted on July 27, 2013 by mscurlgurl78

Standard

I have visited the Walt Disney Resort on 14 vacations – 6 of these vacations have been with my parents, 3 of them were with my high school dance team, 3 of them were just my mom and I together, and 2 of them have been with one of my best friends, Maureen. On August 1st, her and I will be heading on our third trip to WDW, but this time we aren’t messing around—we are going for 16 days!

We knew about a year and a half ago we were going to be heading on a WDW trip together in August 2013, and originally we thought maybe a week. We are great travel partners and most importantly, the way we both want to tour the ‘world’ is the same—–early morning alarms, be first at every gate to enjoy a rope drop, cry tears of happiness at every possible moment, eat tons of food, and overall do every possible thing we can.

So why are we going for 16 days? Simple answer—because we can. But, it really isn’t all that simple. Maureen and I are both teachers, her back in Wisconsin and myself up in Alberta. Summer trips work best for both of us. And historically, the WDW Resort has value rate pricing in mid August, so it makes hotels more affordable. The last two trips together, we stayed at Pop Century—we like to refer to it as Pop Century Resort & Spa…..but it’s anything but. I’m not going to knock it—it serves its purpose. It’s a Disney value resort on property, with a solid location and good bus service. You can get pretty low rates during value season, and if you get a AAA rate like we did the last two times, it makes it even better. Add on to it that we split the room cost and it makes it really affordable. We swore the last trip, though, we were staying moderate the next time. Maybe even a non-monorail deluxe resort! We just couldn’t handle the craziness of this resort again….

…flash forward to our planning for this trip. Maureen has a friend who works part time at WDW and he offered to use one of his family and friend rates for us for our stay. Well, lets just say the discount is ridiculous. So, it was either we stay at a moderate for 7 days OR we go back to the Pop Century Resort & Spa for 16 days for basically the same price….

We chose to go back to the “spa.”

So from August 1-16th, Maureen & I are moving in to Pop. We joke we need to do a change of address with the post office….we are going to be gone for a about 1/24 of a year….but this is a time in our life where we both still don’t have kids, so we can manage and afford to go away for this long. And since we are both Disney fanatics, there is no discussion ever of going anywhere else together.

Expect random updates and entries the next few weeks, but they will probably all be Disney related. So if you read this just for running, you will have to wait until my Spartan Race 5km on August 18th in Calgary. Actually, there may be running segments in my posts, as I run after getting a fast pass after rope drop to meet Maureen across the park at a different ride! This trip is the first step to my RunDisney experiences, however. I have been so pumped for this trip, and then it gets me equally excited for my trip in November for Disney’s Wine & Dine Half Marathon and my January trip-of-a-lifetime when I compete in the Dopey Challenge during Disney Marathon Weekend.

Jul7

Disney Scrapbook 2003

Posted on July 7, 2013 by mscurlgurl78

Standard

With my mom here in town, I have been lucky enough to have someone at my disposal who is willing to talk about Disney World pretty much non-stop. I have been addicted to watching any videos I can find to do with RunDisney events—official RunDisney videos and fan’s unofficial race recaps. I have made my mom watch the WDW Planning DVD in anticipation of my 16 day bonanza with one of my best friends, Maureen, which starts on August 1st. She is back in Wisconsin, and we talk daily about our craziness we have planned. She makes video clips like the ones below (full of our inside jokes that stem back from our first trip in 2008) which make me almost pee myself with laughter:
Disney Preview #16Days

Whenever my mom comes and visits me in Canada, I always get sentimental and reflect of past trips to WDW with her and my dad. Our last trip in Spring 2003 was one with so many great memories. I know I will touch on this trip lots over the course of this year, but what I wanted to talk about today is a scrapbook I made from this trip. My senior year in high school was 2002-2003, and I was fortunate enough to get into the highly sought-after photography class. It was not a digital photography class, but a “SLR camera then develop your own film in a darkroom” class. I am assuming that by now my alma mater has revamped this course and sadly made it in to just digital—-being able to develop black and white film in the dark room in the science hall was fantastic! Our final project for the course was anything we wanted it to be, and since my family was going to WDW during Spring Break, I got approval for my project to consist of a scrapbook of our trip. I purchased black and white film for my point-and-shoot camera, loaded it up, and off to WDW we went.

Before the trip, I was lucky enough to find an unused scrapbook from the 1930s in my parents basement. It was with all the old Stengel family photos, and even had the little black corner pieces to hold the photos. I decided to make my theme of the project to be old-fashioned, and I ran with the whole black-and-white theme.

The pages in the scrapbook consisted of things outside the parks (hotel, Downtown Disney) and details within each park. In looking through this scrapbook, I only have one photo with my parents, and the others are either landscape and surroundings, or myself in front of iconic pieces. Here is the intro picture of myself and my parents:

Each section that focused on a Disney theme park had a header page with the icon for the park. I decorated the area around it in a white ink design.

I also had pre-planned three photos to do as “flashbacks”, where I would reenact a pose in the Magic Kingdom from our first family trip in 1991. I put the colored photo from 1991 side-by-side with the black-and-white photo from 2003.

That is the gist of the scrapbook! There are many more photos and entries in each section, but I thought I would just show the highlights and cover pages. I want to do a form of a scrapbook for my RunDisney Dopey Challenge in January 2014—-just not really sure what direction I plan on going with it! If you have suggestions or ideas for scrapbooks, let me know!

Jul1

RunDisney Costume Prep & My First Run Since Surgery

Posted on July 1, 2013 by mscurlgurl78

Standard

I apologize for not having a post out yesterday like usual—-my mom came in from Wisconsin on Saturday night. We stayed up until 2 am, didn’t sleep in, went to the horse races, and were exhausted! She didn’t think it would be possible to fall asleep when it was still light out at 9:30 PM up here in Alberta, but she proved that wrong!

We were up until 2 am on Saturday night/Sunday morning 1.) because we were wide awake after getting back from the train station and 2.) I was making my mom watch RunDisney videos on YouTube. My husband was out of town golfing until later today, so I wanted to get all this Disney talk out before he came back—-he is a Disney beginner and doesn’t care to humor me when I want to show him pictures, talk about my races down there, show him other peoples’ videos, etc. Also, I was rather pumped because since my mom had just arrived and unpacked, she had “gifts” for me, and a few we’re RunDisney related!

My first RunDisney race is this November 9th when I run the Wine & Dine Half Marathon at Walt Disney World. My friend Teresa and I are running it together, along with her boyfriend and her sister-in-law. Teresa and I already discussed we want to wear costumes. She said even if hers just amounts to a giant tutu and Mickey ears, she will be rocking something ridiculous. I decided already I want to have a character costume, and the character I set my eyes in is the under-advertised but awesomely important Mary Poppins. I love, love, love Mary Poppins—she is the one character I will always wait in a line for to get my picture with in WDW! Love the movie, love the songs……dislike the lack of merchandise….but I knew I had to be her for my half.

I decided I would replicate Mary Poppins when she is dressed in her “nanny” clothes. I opted for this outfit versus the white dress in the Jolly Holiday scenes because I thought it would be most runner friendly. First thing I knew I needed was a sparkly blue skirt to wear over some spandex shorts. There is a demand for running skirts like these in the women’s running world, and yes, you can order them online. But that costs around $30 plus shipping—-and shipping to Canada is never cheap. That is where my mom came in! She found a $0.99 pattern, listened to my ideas, and made me a Mary Poppins approved skirt for about $7 total!

Another costume piece that has been completed is the hat. Now, I didn’t really want to be wearing a full fledge hat for 13.1 miles, so I improvised. I went to Michaels and bought blue pipe cleaners, fake daisies and berries, and got to work. if you were wondering what I did for 2+ hours one of the days in my medical leave, this is the answer

So far I have the skirt, a top, a bow tie and a hat. I am planning on getting some white compression socks so they can act as white tights, and I am also going to go a bit over the top and make a green parrot head over to it on the bottom of an umbrella! I figure if I buy a cheap black dollar store umbrella and make some tighter backpack-style arm holes to attach to it, I can carry it on my back. Mary Poppins needs an umbrella!

I will be making other outfits for the races in the Dopey Challenge in January. I plan on being Mary Poppins for the half portion of that race also, but the 5km, 10km and full will have different pieces put together. As I train for these races and get myself pumped up, I now have my new RunDisney “In Training” hat to wear! I bought this online two months ago, had it sent to my mom’s house in the states, and she brought it up to me this trip. I wore this today as I set out on my first run since my septoplasty surgery!

I was planning on doing a mile run very slow today. I have made a very slow and easy “get back into training” schedule for this month, as when I get back from my two-week WDW trip in August, official Dopey Challenge training will start. I hadn’t ran in two weeks and it was ridiculously hot even by 9 am. I set out on my route to the LDS church by Sunridge, but I am apparently an idiot because when I got there and my watch beeped for the mile, I didn’t realize I then had to turn around and run another mile back. I had only planned on doing a single mile today! Oops—must have just been anxious!

Thanks for reading today, and to all my Canadian readers—-Happy Canada Day! And to the American readers—-Happy early Independence Day!!

May5

Wine & Dine in Walt Disney World…Yes Please!

Posted on May 5, 2013 by mscurlgurl78

Standard

I am registered for a second RunDisney event! On November 9, 2013, I will be running in the Wine & Dine Half Marathon in Walt Disney World! My friend Teresa and I are going to be running it together! Her and I worked at Badgerette, went to the same university, and coached a JV Pom Pon Squad together. This will be her first ever half marathon. The timing worked well since we have a Friday-Monday off of work that weekend for Remembrance Day. All it took was a couple late-night discussions, a check of AirMiles flights available for myself, and we registered and never looked back!

In the spirit of this race, my entry today is talking about my family’s history of Disney ‘wining and dining.’ Now, I have never been to the official Food & Wine Festival at EPCOT yet, so this will be a Disney first for myself. But since our first trip in 1991, we have wined and dined our way through WDW, and I think it is safe to say that our level of dining has possibly increased over the years….

Take this first photo. Here I am at age 7 during our first trip indulging on some tasty nachos at MGM Studios. Not exactly first class, but it was a start.

Now, this is more like it! October 1993. Here my dad and I are at Rose and Crown Pub in the United Kingdom pavillion at EPCOT. Me running in the Wine and Dine Half Marathon is perfect since EPCOT has always been our favorite of the parks. While my dad is clutching his beer, I am clutching my EPCOT passport, which I still have! I already loved this park, but it was a way to encourage a kid to go into each country (for their parents’ sake). At each country, one of the workers would sign and stamp the corresponding page in the passport, usually writing something in the country’s language. They now have tons of other activities like this at EPCOT but this was one of the first ways Disney attempted to get children more interest in World Showcase. Love it!

Also in 1993, we trekked over to Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground for the Hoop De Do Musical Revue! Sangria and beer was the beverage provided to adults, and washboards were used for audience participation. And the second photo was at Diamond Horseshoe at Magic Kingdom. Back in the 90s, you had to book a reservation for this show at guest services in the morning. Lunch was also served during the show. The show does not operate anymore and the building space is occasionally used during high-traffic seasons for a quick service dining location. We were fortunate enough to experience this attraction while still in full operation!

1995 brought us to Sci-Fi Dine In!. We had been to this dining location the trip previous, and while it is slightly corny, we still enjoy it. My friend Maureen and I have been here once together, and my mom and I went here again during our most recent trip (see below)

Needless to say, you can see in the later years we really enjoy the “wining” part a bit more than the “dining!”

It was in the year 2000 that we started to kick it up a notch.. Here are my parents at California Grill on the top floor of the Contemporary. We were celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary. This was our first Disney meal of this caliber. And we got hooked. It was a great dining experience, and being able to view the fireworks from the rooftop deck was the best way to watch. We plan on going back to California Grill this January after the marathon weekend. They are closed right now for refurbishments so I can’t wait to see what it is like!

During our last family trip to WDW in 2003, we revisited a tried and true favorite-Teppan Edo.. In the Japan Pavillion in World Showcase, this dining experience features the teppan chefs preparing your meal on the grill in front of you. It is always a fun time and the meal is also awesome. We went to a lot of great restaurants this final family trip, including Brown Derby. But one of the most memorable experiences food and wine related from this last family trip was the complimentary upgrade to concierge level at Yacht Club. It was a fantastic surprise and I know my dad definitely enjoyed the complimentary food and beverages all day the most!

In 2006, my mom and I drank around the world-World Showcase of course! Here is one of the final stops, back at a familiar place, in front of Rose & Crown Pub.

On our most recent trip together, my mom and I indulged in the best of World Showcase, by partaking in the little advertised Wine Walk.. We sampled two wines in three countries, starting with Germany. We had a great time in Germany talking with the cast member Isabel. France and Italy were the other two stops on the Wine Walk. It was a small fee and totally worth doing if you go to World Showcase at a time that is not Food & Wine Festival time.

The most amazing dining experience of my life has been at Victoria & Alberts.. It is a five star restaurant at Grand Floridian, and I am lucky (and spoiled enough) to have been here twice—once with Maureen and once with my mom. The seven course meal was paired with wine and is an absolute must for any “foodie.” It is safe to say that my mom and I have come a long way with our Disney “Wining & Dining!” Cheers!

Mar24

Disney Photo-Ops…It’s Tradition!

Posted on March 24, 2013 by mscurlgurl78

Standard

There is always something new at WDW no matter how many times you go. It may be a ride, event, show, merchandise, restaurant or hotel. But there are always things you have to do each trip. This may be eat at a certain restaurant, see a certain show, go to a specific park first when arriving. It may also be taking the same photo as you do every year. In the same pose. In the same spot. With the same people.

Photo-op traditions have become more significant to me as the number of Disney trips I have gone in has increased. Family trips to Disney World with my mom and dad total 6, however, my overall total is much more. I went to Walt Disney World 3 times in high school with the Franklin High School Pom Pon Squad as part of the Badgerette All-Star Talent Tour. My mom and I have gone together 3 times since my dad passed away. And my friend Maureen and I have gone twice together. And this year I am getting an annual pass, since Maureen and I are going for a crazy 16 days in August of this year…my mom, husband, and I are going for the marathon weekend in January…and my mom and I will also go next July for a week. So yes, the current visits total 14 times, but after this year I will have been to my favorite place on Earth 17 times. Insanity!

Photo ops with my parents didn’t get that crazy until in later years when I started to feel nostalgic. I started making my mom take photos of me in the same pose as older photos probably in Spring 2003. That was the year I was in Photography class in High School and we could do whatever final project we wanted. I did a family trip to Walt Disney World scrapbook, where I used black and white film and captured moments from our final family trip to WDW. I put them in an old-timely scrapbook, wrote our captions, and decorated it appropriately. It was at the end of this album that I did a few “flashback photos.” Below is one example I did, where you have a photo of me in October 1991 on our first trip, on the carousel, and a second photo of me in 2003, attempting to strike the same pose.

Cute, right!?!? So now I make a point of doing photo-ops like these on trips I go on now. I love the nostalgic feeling and it reminds me of the great times we had on initial trips as a family. Another photo-op most people who visit WDW take part in is a photo with the wooden stockades as you enter Frontierland. I have a photo from every trip in this said stockade. And it all started with this solo photo in 1991:

Please take note of my style and height. I am 7 years old and rockin’ a lavender and white tank top and corduroy short set. My fanny pack is gigantic, so I can fit my disposable camera and autograph book comfortably. I look to be in much pain, as I can barely reach the head hole. Go forward two years later, and it was a little better:

October 1993. Again, matching tank tops and shorts must have been a thing, or at least it was for me. I upgraded my fanny pack to a gigantic pink one. Who the hell knows why? The only extra thing in there had to be my EPCOT “passport” that got stamped in every country. I didn’t do a good job of keeping it in there, though, as I left it in the United Kingdom bathroom. It did get recovered, thou. Phew! After 1993, it seemed like a good idea to add something to these annual trip photos. My dad:

I am still a “style icon” with more patterned shorts and a coordinated tank top. However, the fanny pack has been ditched, since it is not cool anymore (Was it ever cool?). And I now do reach the stockade openings with no effort. But the addition of my dad in 1995 was glorious. He had his triple bypass surgery in June 1995, so this was a big trip for us three. In photos other than this one, you notice how thin he is, compared to his built-bulky-strong self we were use to. He never could fit his arms through those tiny openings, but he enjoyed posing with me anyway. May 1997 was the same old news

Um, please…why didn’t someone tell me that my middle part in my hair was bad, that my ‘short-alls’ were ugly, and that I was a soccer player so I shouldn’t be wearing those Adidas shoes?. My dad was wearing his usual WDW garb-a muscle shirt, athletic shorts, sandals, and no sunscreen. Could it get any better?….

Well, in June 2000 we messed up our positions, with me on the other side. But now I am back to what I was so good at back in the day-wearing patterned shorts and a matching tank top. Blue Hawaiian floral was so hot in the millennium…and I had a navy tank top to match. My dad coordinated with me well too, going for the American look of a red muscle shirt and navy blue shorts. Little did we realize his shirt coordinated so well with my unnecessarily massive red purse. Why do I always carry gigantic bags in WDW? In the heat nonetheless? I have to work on that.

So then there was one more family trip left. Spring break 2003. Little did we know this would be the last opportunity for a Dad-Daughter stockade photo. Even at 18 years old, I had to get this done. It was a tradition!:

This one isn’t a total fashion disaster. Actually, we look pretty put together if I do say so myself. I now have jean shorts on and a crazy top, and dad has on his go-to athletic wear. I am hiding my gigantic purse somewhere, and we don’t look like idiots. We are happy to be in the stockade together.

Ever since this last trip I still always get a stockade photo taken, either by my mom or by Maureen. It has to be done! And this year maybe I can get Dan to start taking them with me, when we go down for the marathon. There are so many other photo-ops and traditions that occur on my WDW trips now, but this one is a personal favorite.

Below are three newer stockade photos, from August 2008, Spring Break 2010 (both trips with Maureen) and from August 2010 (with my mom). My mom has the photos from May 2004 and Spring Break 2006 at home, so I will need her to scan those for me…..hint hint Mom!

and for one last final thought…lets take this full circle….Spring Break 2010…almost 20 years after the first carousel picture…

Jan13

And the seed was planted….

Posted on January 13, 2013 by mscurlgurl78

Standard

Today is the 2013 Walt Disney World Marathon. My college roommate Kim actually ran the half marathon yesterday with her dad! They raised money for the Scleroderma Foundation, and have really outdone themselves! Their fundraising page is here: Scleroderma-Kim & Tom LaGuardia. To see everything they have done in regards to awareness for something important and personal to their family, it makes me even more excited for this coming year and raising funds for the American Heart Association and the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Alberta, NWT, and Nunavut. That being said, I figured today would be the perfect day to start explaining the importance of Walt Disney World to my family. So far, I really have only talked about the running aspect, with a mention about Disney. But they really do tie in together, I swear. It may take a few entries for it to start making sense…but without this first trip to WDW in October 1991, I wouldn’t be planning a culminating crazy race weekend down there for January 2014.

Disney World was always someplace I wanted to visit. Might seem hard to believe that a preschool-age child really would want to go someplace, and have their mind set on it, but I did. My cousins Kevin, Jennifer and Kyle had been to WDW a few times when we were little, and since they lived two blocks away and I was always over there as a kid, I clearly remember looking at photo albums with them of their trips. I wanted to go! I remember the photos of the pool of Caribbean Beach Resort…I wanted this trip! I also remember commercials during this time frame for the soon-to-open MGM Studios. My Mom tells me that the decision to take a family trip to WDW was set in stone due to the fact that 1.) Auntie Debbie and Uncle Chuck and the kids went before and loved it and 2.) My dad and her wanted us to go on a family vacation someplace other than road-tripping to Birmingham, Alabama, to Grandpa and Grandma Lammers’ house and going to Perdido Key, Florida.

I can joke with my mom now that she is the cheapskate and that my dad wanted to spend money and do things together, though he never could carry out a vacation plan himself. I can now recognize that it was this trip that forever changed my dad’s vacation attitudes. And it created a monster.

My dad wanted us to go on a trip together, and let my mom plan this one to WDW, but he was still very reluctant. You have to understand that my dad didn’t really understand the whole theme-park excitement. He didn’t understand Disney at all. my dad had an amazing childhood, getting to travel and live in Switzerland for much of his elementary and middle-school years…but he never saw “Wonderful World of Disney” or “Wonderful World of Color”. He didn’t watch the “Mickey Mouse Club”. He really was hesitant because he did not understand how an adult could enjoy WDW. He went along with this trip thinking that it would be a one-time thing, and they were doing this for me.

The best things from this first trip are the things my mom tells me now. We stayed at the Polynesian Resort on the Magic Kingdom Monorail. We had only been there half a day, and were waiting for the monorail that next morning…and my dad straight-forward asked her “when can we come back?” My dad was not a vocal person, but he was having a great time already and wasn’t afraid to admit it. He got the Disney “bug” and I am thankful for that, since he was a driving force in planning the future trips.

This trip had lots of time spent at EPCOT and at the pool at our resort. Funny thing is, I hate swimming now! I still love EPCOT, and this stayed true through all our family trips. But at my age of 7, I still loved swimming. My mom is telling me right now (she’s sitting next to me, as she is visiting me in Canada for a few weeks) my dad and I were pissing her off because we would be at a park for a few hours and then beg to go back to the pool. This partnership of my dad and I teaming up against my mom would continue every WDW trip. While i was ages 7-18, it was dad and I getting our way at WDW…what we wanted to do, see, ride, eat…so it’s funny that he was the one who didn’t want to go in the first place, but loved every second of it.

I could go on and on reminiscing about this trip. But that is not the point, nor is that what I want to do. Hopefully this helps shed the light on why Disney plays an important part in my life, and why even after my dad has passed away the significance keeps growing.

This beautiful father/daughter photo was taken on the beach at the Polynesian Resort. Please enjoy my dad’s striking USMC t-shirt that is so large it covers his signature Speedo. Also, enjoy my ridiculous Afro and matching ridiculous bikini. So gorgeous. Love the 90s!

Je Me Souviens-To Infinity & Beyond!

Running, Disney & Dad–My Journey Continues…

Tag Archives: EPCOT

Exciting Things in the Next 50 Days!

My Disney “Beat the Bus” Challenge & Spartan Prep

Thoughts So Far….

16 Days of Disney Shenanigans are About to Occur…

Disney Scrapbook 2003

RunDisney Costume Prep & My First Run Since Surgery

Wine & Dine in Walt Disney World…Yes Please!

Disney Photo-Ops…It’s Tradition!

And the seed was planted….

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: