As I mentioned earlier, I'm so sorry I haven't kept up here! I guess I can't imagine anyone keeping two TR's going at once, so I'm trained to look for one. And yours is in the Disney World TR section....I completely forgot this one! What can I say? I'm an idiot. Anyway, I'll try and catch up now.
I grew up riding my bike all over town without the fear of foulplay, we rollerskated on Friday nights, and watched the boys play league ball on Saturdays. We had TPing-Each-Other’s-Houses Wars every weekend, and swam in our friends’ pools until midnight all summer long. I could not have asked or wished for a better place to grow up.
Sadly, Hemet has turned into a cesspool of filth, gangs, urban sprawl, and crime.
I know the feeling. I drove through the neighborhood where I grew up in order to show the kids my old house a few years ago. It used to be a nice middle-class neighborhood. Now, my old yard is all dirt, my parents' precious rose bushes are long torn out and gone, and there is tin foil over the windows. We did not linger.
Perhaps it is also that innate call to revisit one’s roots and find solace in the fading, yet familiar, places that still draw you there.
Well said.
I haven’t gotten to hit triples in a car in quite a while, and it was FUN!
The air became surprisingly cleaner as I went east, and MY HEAVENS! What was THAT?! That glorious yellow orb in the sky? Shut the front door- it’s the life-giving, joy-inducing, spirit-lifting thing we call the… Sun.
Never heard of it.
Quoted for posterity.
Originally, my plan was to just spend a couple of hours visiting with the cousins and my aunt after our lunch, but on the way to the restaurant, he informed me that she was planning dinner for me and EVERYONE was coming over- that’d be about 15-20 people!!
Well...good thing I packed nothing but sweatpants!
That's purty.
Seriously, gorgeous area.
I found these to share with you, thinking that those of you who “wanna know” can dig a little deeper into the ultimate depths Disney goes to provide you with a believable, authentic story. I am thrilled that this particular one has a personal connection to me.
Very cool! I did not know that.
Who the heck steals a plane?!
Oh! That would be the “Mexican drug cartels”.
Well, then...asked and answered.
I’d wake to the scent of orange blossoms (yes there was a reason Soarin’ flies over my house and pumps in orange scent! Yes, for real!)
More Disney connections! Glad to see Imagineers did their homework!
That’s what money can look like.
That's about as close as I'll get to it, too.
D'OH!!!!!! You doofus! You used it to take photos of orange trees and left it 20 minutes back in Hemet.
Sigh.
(In case you wondered, it's where you can still see a hat.)
I'm happy to leave it there.
Okay, okay. Only half of that is true. I’ll leave it to you who are still paying attention to figure out which half.
Hmmm, that's a tough one. Let me think about it a bit.
She felt no need to move the bed to bar the doors.
Not expecting any visits from the pizza guy?
“Liesa?”
"Yes?"
"You've just won the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes and will never have to work ag....."
Liesa?
Wake up.
"Liesa?"
"Yes... <recognizes friend> pkondz!!"
“Yeah! Headed to the park?”
“I am! You guys?”
“Yeah, hop in! We’ll give you ride.”
A DISMeet before the DISMeet! Those Canadians are so nice.
Because something happened to Steppe for the first time ever for her; the ride broke down and she was evacuated along with a bunch of others:
D'oh.
Don't worry, Little Ducky! Whales eat krill. And occasionally runaway prophets and wooden boys.
Oh, look! Krill!
Yes, please! I miss Mr. Toad at WDW. Still stunned that a Disney ride ends with a literal visit to hell.
HOLY CRAP!!!
I'm in THE CLUB!!!
1st post of a page and I didn't even try.
Woot!
#imacoolkidnow
That's because your readers are uniformly polite, upstanding people.
What was it like in $ixbucks, you ask? While the staff was efficient, the customers were not. People! It’s coffee, not a custom Ferrari.
You wouldn't know that from the way people order coffee in there. I still don't speak Starbucks.
Introducing:
@pkondz (pkondz) and his daughter, Kay (HI, Kay!), and
@franandaj (Alison). They’d pre-arranged this Meet for quite some time and, at long last, it was time to unleash some crazy amounts of fun.
Now there's a cool group of people! Alison makes for a wonderful Fairy Godmother around DL.
@Poolrat - Hey, someone loves you; keep your head about you!
@GoofyFan1515 shouldn't deface Disney property like that.
They all agreed that an indulgence of beignets and mint juleps was in order. Why not?
Because beignets.
At some point, they stopped for a Dole Whip- because that’s what’s done. Every time.
Well, yeah.
Don’t you agree we make a pretty good looking trio?
Maybe the two on the left.
There were 3 decided highlights of this day for Steppe, as far as things seen or done in the parks were concerned: seeing Carsland for the very first time, our dinner coming up shortly, and World of Color after that. But first, Carsland.
Ummm… wow!
Alison surprised the group by making sure they entered through the “back way” so they could get a grand vista as their first impression.
The Fairy Godmother at work! That is a better way to enter, for sure.
This was one time Steppe did wish she had her DSLR at the ready… ah well… a perfectly great excuse to make sure she visits once again.
Whatever justifies it is acceptable.
The ice spheres are pressed for some serious wow factor, and it’s the little touches that push this place into the realm of dreamy and posh... yet comfortable.
Those ice spheres are just the coolest thing ever. I want one of those machines. I don't even care if I only use the sphere in glasses of water.
In fact, The Gang of Four over-ordered by a bit, but not to worry!
Calories don't count on vacation!
Exactly how it USUALLY happens when Steppe is anywhere within 25 feet of anything that has even the remotest possibility of it causing a 100-year flood all over the table. Oh, don’t worry, she was nice enough to spare the nice duds of her tablemates, but it was close. They still giggled at her; maybe next time she should aim.
D'oh.
Many of you may not know that Steppe adores the music in and around the parks. All of it. She often will find a bench and just sit and listen to the background music.
Still convinced this is the biggest secret to the success of Disney parks. Life is better with a soundtrack.
And then it was time for World of Color. If you haven’t seen it yet, you really should. It’s a gorgeous water and projection show, with fantastic music. Steppe would like to inform you that it’s her favorite Nighttime show after MSEP. That may change after she gets to see RoL at some point. Time will tell on that, but for now, WoC is pretty high up there. WAY above Illuminatons, but that’s another rant altogether. I’ll bet you’d like some photos.
The show is cool. The viewing area and the wait in the sardine pack beforehand? Not so much.
After a bit of chit-chat, Steppe learned that the gal also grew up in Hemet and knew a few of her old classmates' siblings. Seriously, SoCal is a BIG place- what were the odds of meeting someone with mutual acquaintances from a place you'd just been back to after 10 or more years the previous day?!
Way cool!
I also apologize for the slower pace of getting chapters up.
I should be thanking you for this!