Check Mate

Nick just made his first Check Mate!
(He is yellow)

Chess

Right now Wuggie Norple and his dad are downstairs playing chess. (Just a reminder that Wuggie is 6.) He learned when we were visiting our Geology Professor friends. Since then he asked "can we go back to visit them this weekend?" Since it won't be for a while, we are all learning chess together instead on Papercup Mixmaster's old wood board that came from his grandfather.

Cousins

Wuggie Norple and his mom just got home from visiting his Baltimore Cousins. Here are his top 3 moments:

1) Swinging in the roller-coaster-harness swings at Tallest Mountain Playground
2) Tumbling and tickling on the bed with his cousins (after 5 boo boos the game is over)
3) Getting help from his uncle on his Winne the Pooh Video Game

Favorite Songs of the weekend:
The Intermission Song
Do De Rubber Duck

Favorite Story:
The Tiger and the Brahman (From Rabbit Ears Radio)

Favorite Food Experience:
Eating Lots and Lots of Spaghetti ("We hope you like SPA-GHE-TI")
Mom says ALL the food was good

Disney Day 7: Leaving

Even though our magic tickets will get us into any park today, and even though our flight out is not until dinner time, we decide to forego the commute to the parks. Instead we pack up and check out. We have a change of clothes in the bag we leave with the bell hop, and head back to the hotel dock. This time we rent a canoe, and in so doing, find our last hidden Mickey! It is an oar rack on the back of our dock's light house. We paddle around the lagoon a bit, and then walk back over the bridge to our hotel pool for a swim. We swim a little, sun a little, play some video games and walk the path around the lagoon for the last time to the "customs house" where we will catch our bus for the airport.
We arrive very early for our plain, early enough for dinner. After we pass through security, we notice on an airport map that our options for dinner are McDonald's and Outback Steakhouse. The latter is clearly superior, but requires an extra tram ride to our gate afterwards. We go for it, and the food is delicious to hungry travelers. Unfortunately, in the meantime an international flight has come in, and now we have to go BACK THROUGH SECURITY and take a tram to our gate for a flight that leaves in 30 minutes. We are panicked, but it all works out. Wuggie watches the map channel again, Mom reads some and watches part of "Pretty Woman" Dad got stuck in the back row of the plane, separated, but takes it in stride.

We drive home from Syracuse in the dark, and prepare for school and work the next morning. We flagrantly slept in until 9:00 am, and went tardy to school and work. The normal whirlwind of daily life swept us away, and it is only now that we have time to look back and reflect.

When asked for comment Wuggie Norple says, "I want to go back to Epcot so I can ride Mission Space as many times as I can." We resolve as a family to save up so someday once again our commander can lead us on his Mission to Mars.

Disney Day 6: Magic Kingdom and Polynesia

Today we take the train right to Mickey's ToonTown Fair. WE did not manage to get to the park before it opened to beat the rush, but we realize that ToonTown doesn't open until 10:00, so we are one of the first. We walk right on to "Goofy's Barnstormer" but even this mild roller coaster is too much for Wuggie, who is just getting tired fo doing scary things. So we jumped on the next train to Adventure Land. There was Aladdin's Magic Carpet, and the Swiss Family Treehouse, the Jungle Cruise, Tom Sawyer Island, and the Enchanted Tiki Room. The Tiki Room was "under new management" which meant it had been updated from the show we saw at Disneyland the year before. Here we hear the famous line "Not Big Bird A big bird" which Wuggie now oft repeats.

After lunch we take the train back to Mickey's Toon Town Fair. There was another playground here, but the water thing was slightly broken, and hence less fun than the others. Mom ran through the sweet park by the train tracks to get a fast pass for Buzz Lightyear while Dad and Wuggie played on the playground. There I saw a talking trash can freaking out preschoolers, and wished Wuggie was with me.

Our other goal for this day was to ride on the spaceship thing in Tomorrowland. This had one of those long hot lines, characteristic of older rides, but the spaceships spun higher and faster than we expected, and it was cool to be at the top of the tower in Tomorrowland. Buzz Lightyear was great as usual. We headed out for the last time, passing a parade going the opposite direction. It has been a long day, but we had been told by a lifeguard at our hotel dock that the lagoon is bigger by the Magic Kingdom, and the motor boats go faster. But by the time we reach the gate, it seems to late to ever make it to a hotel dock in time.

Thwarted. Nevertheless, we decide to take a Monorail to the Polynesian resort. Once again we are hot, tired, and out of patience. But the Monorail ride is very quick, and there is no line. We head to the dock just in case, and the rental agent lets us take out a boat for a 30 minute ride! This is a high point for everyone. There are white cushions across the bow of the boat on which Wuggie and Exploding Poptart lay in the sun watching the water go by and feeling the breeze. Papercup Mixmaster finds the boat hard to steer, but does a great job. We motor all the way to Magic Kingdom and back, past he Disney Wedding Chapel (complete with Cinderella Style carriage) and the Super Fancy hotel.

A lifeguard boat stays not far away, and lets us know when our half hour is up. We are refreshed and grateful. We get tropical drinks at the pool bar and watch Wuggie play in a water fountain under the hybiscus flowers. We decide to take a ferry back to the Magic Kingdom, just to be on the water a few minutes longer. After the long bus ride home, Papercup Mixmaster is wiped out and resolves not to leave the room. We order pizza from room service, and afterwards Wuggie and his Mom head to the Old Port Royale to see the fireworks, and are in time to see the tail end of a cover band playing on the dock. Exploding Poptart had promised Wuggie a trip to the arcade, but they are baffled when the credit machine will not take the credit card. It turns out that tonight there are FREE VIDEO GAMES! That's right, all the Mario Kart and Centipede any mother and son could want. A wonderful end to our last day.

Disney Day 5: Double Dipping

Our plan for day 5 was to try not to use up all our energy walking to and from rides. Papercup Mixmaster has a brilliant plan: We will take the Magic Kingdom train to Frontier Land. It leaves from the front gate, there is no line, and Wuggie Norple is spontaneously invited to be a Junior conductor! He gets to stand at the back of the caboose and make announcements over the loudspeaker.

We start our morning at Frontier Land with Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, which Wuggie Norple simply hates. We catch some of the rides in Fantasy Land, like Dumbo, and the Mickey 3d show. We were disappointed that we never found that hidden Mickey in the Pooh ride, even on repeat visits. It is crazy crowded, because many schools are on break, and all the young kids come to Disney World to see Fantasy Land. But this is to be a short day, as we have lunch reservations at the Wilderness Hotel, and get to take another boat ride. The Wilderness Lodge pool is so beautiful it makes us want to hurry home to OUR hotel pool, which we do. It is great to have an afternoon floating around and reading in the sun and the breeze that always seems to run over our lagoon.

The plan is to head to Epcot at night for dinner. Apparently this is everyone's idea. It seems that Epcot is the food court of Disney world. We stop first to ride Mission Space again, and find that all the fast passes are completely gone for Test Track for the day. The line backs up all the way out to the soda stand. We head right to the World Showcase. There is live music everywhere (though Exploding Poptart sadly notes that we missed the Chinese acrobats). We don't have reservations, but enjoy "Japan" as we wait for our table. We are so exhausted and hot by the time we get seated that we are a little chagrined to be seated around a hot grill. It seems this is a restaurant like in our own home tomn where they will grill dinner right in front of you. But we are not in the mood for a show next to a heat source. We just want white rice and AC.

The food is of course delicious, and eventually we are rested enough to appreciate that. We decide to take the long walk around the circle to see at least a little of the "whole world" with our final destination to be Mission Space. No matter what the wait is for Mission Space, we will brave the lines, because it is Wuggie's favorite. It is a long walk, especially since we want to walk back to the World Showcase for fireworks. But Wuggie is so happy, it's worth it. We find a bridge not too far from the World Showcase that is off the beaten path, and sit on a bench where we can't see the show floating on the lake, but can see way more than from our hotel beach.

Poor Wuggie is overcome with sadness. He realizes it will be a long time before he can come back to Epcot again. We sit in a big family hug as the fireworks show finishes. We let the tremendous post-show surge of humanity pass us by and sit together in our oasis. We decide we are not quite done having fun, and go to claim our extra hours wrist bands for resort guests. Are we up to one more ride? Yes. We choose Spaceship Earth. Really it's a pretty goofy old-school look at the history of the world complete with animatronics. But Wuggie Loves it. It is cool to be inside the geodesic dome, and look at a sky filled with faux stars, to ride backwards in the dark, and most importantly to design our own video, in which cut outs of our faces star in the movie of our future. Afterwards we are let out into an arcade of science-based games. Eric and Nick find a cool game about energy consumption and distribution. Wuggie Norple is almost giddy. It is his new favorite. When asked why he says"because we got to make our future."

Exploding Pop Tart encourages us to get home while we still feel good and save some energy for our last day. We go right to bed.

Disney Day 4: Animal Kingdom

After taking some pictures of our own Animal Kingdom at the hotel, our first activity at Animal Kingdom was to have our pictures taken with Pooh, Eyeor, Tigger, and Piglet

Wuggie Norple says: "I wish you got to hug Piglet too. He was doing dance moves I could see while I was waiting in line with Pooh."

But now it is mid-morning, and the park is congested. We get separated and lost. Just heading over to "Africa" to get a Safari Fast Pass makes us tired and grumpy.

Now it is HOT and we are already sun burned. NO breeze.

This park has the Disney mix of rides, shows, restaurants and shops, with a bit of zoo and nature trail mixed in. The central landmark is a huge tree that is beautifully carved with animals, but is not in fact a real tree. I want to photograph it, but I feel conflicted about the fact that there is a fake tree at the center of this faux nature preserve.

The whole place is a mix of real and unreal, native and imported. I am not sure what to take pictures of. If you have taken a look at the Carrots and Ginger blog in the last year, you know that most of the pictures that appear are taken within a block of my home. I love to photograph the little flowers that come up in my neighborhood as I learn the local ecosystem. I tend to photograph local things, native things, personal things. Here I find an amazing water bird at my hotel, and the next day see the same bird in Animal Kingdom next to a hippo or a lion who are a long way from home.

We see a bird show with trained exotic birds, but the highlight is not the birds or the witty banter, but the fact that we finally find our own hidden Mickey! Right in the bricks of the stage set!. This redeems our day and makes Wuggie feel like a great hidden Mickey detective.

Disney in general is incredibly well orchestrated. The service is excellent, the "cast" is friendly, the bathrooms and streets are immaculately clean, and it delivers something that Great America can't even touch. But the whole things is very surreal.

A pizza place spotted by Papercup Mixmaster makes it all good. It is out of the sun and filled with hand painted murals and sculpture. In fact, scattered throughout the real nature and the faux nature is hidden cool pieces of public art which appear to be hand made.

We had learned by now that when Wuggie Norple is at the end of his rope, what we need is to find someplace where he can play in water. We find a fountain that makes a smooth sphere of water. Wuggie calls it a force field fountain and in retrospect says it was one of favorite moments in Disney World. We play at breaking the force field with our hands. Next we head to the most giant playground in Disney World, one disguised as an archeological dig. There Wuggie is certified as Junior Paleontologist, while his parents sit on a rock near the giant fans.

After the carnival rides and games, we make the effort to make it across the park for the Nemo Show, which turns out to be Exploding Poptart's faorite part of the day. It made really wonderful use of costumes and puppets, was cast with skilled dancers and singers (and this from a musical comedy cynic!) We just hadn't expected to find well crafted theatre so close to a tilt-o-whirl. This 40-minute version of the Finding Nemo story was surprisingly moving, almost tear-jerking.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel. Because it was an early evening, we had the bus let us off at the "Old Port Royale" (read restaurant, hotel store, bar, dock). Here we discover the arcade, and Wuggie Norple discovers Mario Kart. He wins first place in race after race, and is crushed when we run out of credits and have to leave. We had chosen this hotel in part because it has a running track all around the lagoons, but there were so many miles of walking each day, Exploding Poptart never once went running. But it was a relief to roll out the yoga mat in the hotel room and stretch the tired muscles while the local baseball game played on the television. The whole family enjoys the Epcot fireworks on our beach, and having learned our lesson, we once again go to bed early.

Disney Day 3: Epcot

The next goal to be attained was Mission Space at Epcot. We also wanted to ride Test Track, a goal of Papercup Mixmaster. Epcot was beautiful, and filled with massive space-shaping structures. Much less cluttered with small attractions than the Magic Kingdom style. The downside, is that everything is a long walk from everything else. As the sun finally started to break through the clouds, we encountered Florida Sun for the first time, made soft by the cold New York winters.

That place is huge, and everything in it is huge. We got tired just walking from one ride to another. We get our fastpass for Test Track and go right to Mission Space. We are a little nervous, because caution signs are everywhere. I mean, I didn't think I had trouble with confined spaces, but by the 10th caution sign, I was starting to wonder if I might spontaneously develop a problem. This is one of the brand new rides, and so the line process is much more sophisticated than on the older rides. The idea is, if you make the walkway really long, then people will be mostly walking, and not feel as grumbly as if they are standing still. Also, we are walking through a maze surrounded by cool space stuff, and short video broadcasts preparing us for the mission ahead.

Finally, when we are "on deck" two teams of 3 or 4 line up on designated spots on the floor. Then, as the video is "giving our final briefing" they spotlight each one of us to tell us our job. Wuggie Norple is the Commander, and feels pretty good about this. We each have buttons to push to assure the success of our space mission. As the simulation begins the rocket blasts off into space. Now we are getting used to each "straight up" being followed by "terrifying plunge down" but this one just keeps going, right into space. Eventually there is a problem with the launch and we are forced to go to manual controls. Wuggie Norple yells out instructions to his crew. We land safely. Wuggie Norple is thrilled. We are let out into a "Training Center" that is filled with video games and a climbing gym. I sent a couple you goofy messages from the e-mail message center. We are ready for whatever's next.

For some reason there is also an aquarium in Epcot. This becomes a Nemo attraction, of course. This line starts outside, and there is no fast pass. It is hot now, and the line is moving very slowly. The heat is making us grumpy. The ride is okay, it combines real fish, and movie projections and we head right into the line for Turtle Talk with Crush. We are kind of at the end of our ropes, but it ends up being nice, even though Crush doesn't answer Wuggie's question. We need lunch. We had heard that Norway had good food, and since it was only a mildly long walk, we went for it. Unfortunately, Exploding Poptart was the only one who likes Lefse, and even the live Norwegian music outside could not turn the day around for Wuggie Norple and Papercup Mixmaster.

Fortunately our return route to Future World lead us right through a butterfly garden, which turned out to be Exploding Poptart's favorite part of Epcot. A little butterfly sanctuary that had a quiet peace to it even with one of the sidestreets leading right through it. And, more good luck, there was a playground right next to it, and a set of fountains that shot right up through the ground to help keep those daring enough to run through it wet and cool. We were getting some of our rope back. There were even chairs for parents to sit and enjoy a cool drink. There was a special garden show at Epcot, and they were showing off not only their impressive displays of chemically induced flowers, but also made a number of nods at ecology, including a living dog-house roof, and a water reclamation display. Exploding Poptart pondered the irony, and began noticing the Disney recycle bins all over the parks and at the bus stops, and the "certified green hotel" signs at the hotel. It turns out that something like 30% of Disney World is set aside as open space wetlands. Exploding Poptart was not sure how to feel about the ironic juxtaposition, and decided that ultimately whenever the corporate overlords decide to get on the green bandwagon it is a good thing.

The great disappointment of the day came when we went back to Test Track and found that there were huge lines in the brutal sun, even with Fast Pass. Blerg.

The next part of our plan seemed crazy. We had heard that you could take a boat from Epcot to the restaurant where we had dinner reservations, departing from the "International Port." This seemed crazy and doomed to failure, but in fact we took the first of our lovely ferry rides around the lagoon to the circle of high-rise hotels connected to Epcot. The Swan, where we had gotten reservations because we knew Goofy and Pluto would be hosting, turned out to be very elegant and fancy.

After all the crowds, restaurant almost empty. Pasta Bar! Luxurious mini deserts! Wuggie Norple could get as many helpings of "pasta his way" (plain spaghetti with butter and parmesan cheese) as he wanted. Plus there was a special kids buffet at kid-height with silver lidded containers of chicken nuggets and roni cheese. Plus, Goofy walked us to our table, and Pluto paid a personal visit. This meal serendipitously turns into one of the best parts of our whole trip!

We realized that if we took a boat to Hollywood, we could get the bus home, it would be a shorter commute. We were getting to like this boat thing.

We were exhausted, but mom was a little sad to leave before the famed fireworks display, so she went down to the main beach at the hotel to see if the lifeguard was right, that from just the spot fireworks could be viewed. What a perfect ending to the day, fireworks in a hammock at a private beach. No crowds, no lines. She vowed to bring the family the next night, and everyone turned in early. Wuggie Norple is bright red with sunburn, and we are all exhausted. We decide not to get such an early start in the morning.

Disney Day 2: Hollywood

We start the day waiting for groceries. We had placed an order online before we left NY. We have ordered fruit and yogurt, and the other kinds of things it can be hard to find when you are far from home. We brewed some Ithaca coffee, and breakfasted on bagels and yogurt, and made a late-morning start for our first full day.

Every day starts at he bus stop, where the family of ducks that live in our lagoon ask Papercup Mixmaster for a piece of his orange. (Yes, PM occasionally eats a piece of real fruit.) We are still getting used to waiting for a bus to go everywhere, because we are spoiled car-drivers by habit. By the end of the week, I realized that this Disney bus system is far more reliable than any municipal bus I have ever ridden, or waited vainly for. but this first day it seems like buses are going everywhere except Hollywood Studios which is where we want to go.

We go right to Star Tours, Wuggie Norple's pick for the day. You have to go through the Ewok forest to get there, and there we adopted his new Ewok, Teebo. Expding PopTart and Papercup Mixmaster picked Muppet 3D, which was every bit as charming as going to the Muppet Show in person. Later Wuggie Norple asks "When that guy says 'Everyone else thinks I'm talking to them, but I'm really just talking to you' how does he do that?" We try to explain that 3D looks that way to everyone, but he remains skeptical.

Exploding Poptart's boss mentioned that last time she went to Disney World she went to "the one with all the shows" I realize what she means. Most of what to do here at Hollywood Studios are is some version of sitting and watching. We are not used to this from our brief visit to Disneyland. We are more ride-centered. We are generally not in favor of waiting in any more lines, so we slip into "Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular" standing room only and watch cool acrobats and stunts, and some lame banter by the host. It is still pretty breezy and overcast, but warmer than the day we arrived. We notice that Disney seems to be doing a brisk business in fleecies.

After our lame dinner the night before, we got reservations for "Hollywood and Vine" which had a great buffet and a yummy dinner was had by all. Poor Wuggie was flagging at times. Perhaps the late night the night before and all the walking were catching up to us. We Went home to get ready for "Fantasmic," the famed evening show at Hollywood Studios. We had been warned that seats filled up, and were not interested in another SRO event. So we got there almost an hour early, general admission, like watching a show at shoreline. We read our new Star Wars book ("Last of the Jedi") , ate popcorn, and got a cool Buzz Lightyear toy that spins light-up tenticles and looks really cool in the dark.

The show was the strangest mix of things: Disney meets Las Vegas meets Burning Man. It was a Gesamkunstwerk using live action, lights, fire, puppets, and (most originally) animated projections casting light on huge sheets of spraying water. And for the finale, all your favorite Disney characters riding illuminated boats (like a moat-parade around the stage) and fireworks. We went back to our hotel happy and tired.

Disney Day 1: Arriving

First of all, we love Jet Blue. Direct flight, leg room, TV in every seat. Wuggie Norple watched the map channel the whole way.

Our experience of the famed Disney lines began at the airport waiting for our hotel shuttle, but we also find that the lines move pretty quickly, and everyone is very nice. We realize that there are staff whose only job is to be friendly and answer quetions.

We arrive at our hotel (named "Carribbean Beach Resort" which feels like I'm telling a fib every time I say it, cause of how it's inland and not in the Carribbean, and resort makes me think of rich people). The lines are mercifully short, we are given magic cards which are room key, park ad mission, and credit card. We discover we are "Family of the Day" which means we get a maracca, and our photo is taken in the middle of the hotel entrance with colorful straw hats, and later the photo is delivered to our room with an autographed photo of Micky and Minnie congratulating us.

Our hotel is very spread out, and carefully landscaped with palm trees and hibiscus flowers. There are many separete buildings in the complex, and each “island” has its own pool, playground and sand beach. We realized later on that this hotel is in the suburbs of Disney World. Hotels closer to the action are huge high rise buildings. All these buildings are two stories, with lots of rolling lawns, ponds and gardens (it reminds me a little of the corporate campuses in Mt. View CA) and there is more of commute in to the parks than from other Disney World resorts.

We take the shuttle bus to the building that has the restuarant, food court, gift shop and bar to eat a very late lunch at the only place still open. We resolve not to eat there again.

One of the main selling points of this hotel had been the possibility of boat rental at the dock. Hoping I had not seriously misunderstood, we headed to the dock to investigate. We ended up taking a paddleboat around the whole lagoon, under 2 bridges, while Exploding Poptart obsessively snapped pictures of alll the wetland birds. It was lovely, and a nice way to get to know this place where we would be staying.

Soon it was time to take the bus to Magic Kingdom for the “Spectra Magic” parade. We were impatient with the long wait at the bus stop, and the long bus ride to the Magic Kingdom, but when we arrived, we walked right up Main Street to the castle where a live performance was just beginning, and felt finally we had arrived.

Next we headed right to Tomorrowland to ride Wuggie Norple's top 2 rides: Buzz Lightyear and “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.” We were disppointed to discover that the Pooh ride was not as good as at Disneyland, but more, Wuggie Norple had heard about hidden Mickey's on the Travel channel, and had heard there was one on the Pooh ride, but no luck finding it.

Buzz Lightyear, on the other hand, is GREAT! It's a brand new ride where riders can shoot their laser guns at targets, and the red light coming from the gun really is read by the computer which tallys your score. The middle-seat rider rotates the car too and fro. Also, there were cool graphics and stuff that lights up. We checked out the Monsters Inc show that integrates live audience response with unseen actors voicing computer animations.

We also learned that we love Fast Pass. It lets you choose between "planning ahead" and "waiting in line." If you "plan ahead" you can pick up your magic ticket, and when you come back later, you can go right to the front of the line. That was cool.

As the sunset, people started claiming their spots for the Spectra Magic parade. By the time the parade began, there were huge crowds. Papercup Mixmaster forged out a spot by a fence, Wuggie Norple rode on dads shoulders as much as he can, conducting furiously as the music rose and fell. Exploding Poptart has her usual short-lady partial view, but the huge illuminated floats in the parade are still wonderful to behold.

Dog is 10

Today is Dog's 10th Birthday!
We so lucky to have such an easy-going, sweet, fun dog in our family.
Happy Birthday Dog!