M & J: Character Hunters

2011-10-28T18:20:00.000-05:00

Yesterday found us back at Tokyo Disneyland and this time, dressed as B'rer Bear and B'rer Rabbit.

Halloween at TDL runs for two months and is not a hard ticket event like Not So Scary. Everyone can enjoy in the decorations, festivities, and watch the Halloween Parade ("Obake, obake, obake!").

Unfortunately, there is no candy. During the first and last weeks of the Halloween party, guests can dress up in costume. Obviously, this is one of those weeks. It's also one of the most crowded. I wouldn't say it's Magic Kingdom on Christmas Day crowded, but the swarm factor is very high.

Our day started with breakfast a "traditional" "American" diner. There were two options on the menu: scrambled eggs with sausage, bacon and toast or pancakes. Both were served with yogurt (plain) and strawberry sauce. Both were pretty good, although definitely American through the eyes of the Japanese.

Our day was mostly filled with parade waiting/watching, including the aforementioned Halloween parade and the evening parade, Dreamlights -which is pretty much the Main Street Electrical Parade.

We were also treated to an amazing sunset view of Mt Fuji last night.

My Top Three:

Dressing up as Br'er Bear and Br'er Rabbit
Sunset over Mt. Fuji
Eating at Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall

Jeff's Top Three:

Getting good spots for both parades, video recording both and photographing basically every inch of them
The Fish Assortment at Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall
Dressing up as Br'er Bear and Br'er Rabbit

I want to wear a costume again and Jeff want's to see the sunset over Mt. Fuji again.

My least favorite was running over small children (it happened a lot) and Jeff's was waiting around for our Monsters, Inc. FastPasses to go active.

Today is our last full day and we are off to Disney Sea and probably hopping back to Disneyland. As Jeff says, the days always seem to fly by the closer your trip gets to the end.

See you soon!

Tokyo Disney Sea

2011-10-27T18:29:00.000-05:00

Like Morgan said, we're going to have to wait on any long form blogs until we get back to CLE, but we've having a great time in Tokyo Disney. Yesterday we went to Tokyo DisneySea, which is most similar to California Adventure.

There are six themed areas compressed into a very tight little package and barring a few stage shows, we actually did everything. We even were able to grab spots to watch Fantasmic, which they do Disneyland style on the lagoon in Mediterranean Harbor (their version of Main Street).

Inside Mermaid Lagoon

Today we're heading back to Tokyo Disneyland in costume! I'm going as Br'er Bear and Morgan's Br'er Rabbit. We'll post a photo as soon as we hit the lobby wi-fi.

And in the role of Ariel... Katy Perry!

Of course, we realized we forgot to post our Top Three for our first day in Tokyo Disneyland, so here it is:

Morgan's Top Three:

Watching the guests in costume

Mad Hatter and Alice meet-and-greet

Explorer Canoes

Jeff's Top Three:

Star Tours in Japanese

The curry at The Hungry Bear

Watching the guests in costume

Morgan's least favorite thing was the internet not working. I think my least favorite was a tie between bug killing and the no internet.

Morgan Note: I don't do bug killing.

Shockingly, Morgan can't wait to see more guests in costumes, and given how amazing they are, I just hope our costumes don't look lame. I want to go back to Critter Country, I think our on ride photo of Splash Mountain as Br'er Bear and Br'er Rabbit is going to be awesome!

Morgan note: ...and cold. Although it doesn't look like guests get very wet on Splash Mountain here.

And now for our Top Three from yesterday:

Morgan's Top Three:

Meeting Donald Duck

Stormrider

The Shrimp Steam Bun

Jeff's Top Three:

The Shrimp Steam Bun

The Teriyaki Taco

Park themeing - I think this is on of the heaviest themed parks yet.

Steam bun!!

Morgan and I both agree the rides are all too short. Just as they start to get exciting, they end.

Morgan wants to get another steam bun and I want to ride Tower of Terror and Journey to the Center of the Earth again.

Tokyo Disneyland!

2011-10-26T18:40:00.000-05:00

Konnichiwa blog readers!

Clearly we still owe you an update from the second half of our last day in Tokyo; now we also owe you an update of our first day in Tokyo Disneyland. Unfortunately, we are having too much fun in Tokyo Disneyland to even think of blogging!

Just kidding!

Sort of.

We had a great first day at Tokyo Disneyland, blasting through a good majority of the park attractions, gawking at other guests costumes and eating our way through the lands (you knew that was going to be a factor, right?).

Also, the weather has cooled down quite a bit. Jeff has been loving it, but with the super cool breezes off Tokyo Bay, I've been a bit too chilly. Thank goodness for warm hats.

Characters are a lot more sparse at TDL but we did have a really good time playing with Alice and the Hatter.

Although, more than once I have been tricked into thinking a certain character was out, but it was actually only a guest. Yes, their costumes are that good.

Now we are off to DisneySea, which is unfamiliar territory for us, albeit with some familiar attractions.

We are down to one internet connection at a time (no more WiFi *sob*) so bear with us as we try to get images upload and blog posts posted.

Jeff says: I think Morgan summed it up, Tokyo Disneyland is pretty amazing. The hotel is nice too, but I have one serious, serious issue. Lets forget the bug and wifi for now and ask, who puts of coffee pot in a room and DOES NOT PROVIDE COFFEE?!?! The head is pounding for the first time in days. Off to the store of more delicious energy beverages.

Sayonara!

Our Last Day in Tokyo Proper: Part One

2011-10-25T16:50:00.001-05:00

I honestly feel that Tokyo is a frantic place. Everyone moves fast, some people run. There is no stopping, no breathing, just doing. Zig left, zag right. Up stairs, down stairs. Shuffle in, shuffle out. Why wait for the next train when you can just squeeze in. Push a little more and you'll fit in just fine. Push your way back out two stops later.

I like fast. I like busy. But this is something completely different. This is frantic.

So it seems fitting that I honestly can't remember anything we did today. It's a blur.

After our kebabs last night, we literally passed out. I could hardly upload photos. We talked about going to Tokyo Fish Market at 5am to watch the giant tuna auctions. Thankfully they closed those off from the public due to too many tourists. Thankfully? Because we didn't have to get up at 3am. But we still weren't sure if we should go anyways just to see the market.

We passed out with a game plan to get up when we got up and head over there. When we woke up about 6:30am, neither of us was very motivated to go there. Morgan read a few more things about fish guts and a huge mess and wearing your worst shoes and pants. Yeah, sorry Fish Market, but we packed light and can't afford to lose a pair of pants or shoes.

So, skipping that, we decided to head to Sensō-ji, an ancient Buddhist temple located in Asakusa. Getting there involved taking the JR Yamanote Line to Kanda station, then transferring to the Tokyo Metro Ginza line. Seems that the JR and Tokyo Metro lines don't share the same station, so we had to walk about 5 blocks from one to the other stopping for morning set (breakfast) at St. Marc Cafe Choco Cro. The ham and cheese croissant was delicious, but the black ice coffee was bitter.

After a 30 minute train ride, we hit the main vain of tourism and Sensō-ji. A small percentage of Western tourists, mixed with a greater proportion of Japanese and Asian tourists exited the train with us and walked fifty feet to the start of the temple. Joined with several Japanese and Asian tour groups, we walked with a thousand of our closest strangers down the ended row of chachki stalls selling everything from fans to wigs to pastries to the temple.

First we got our fortunes, then we washed our hands and mouths before entering the temple. The actual temple was closed to tourists, but even just standing in the "lobby" it was one of the most powerful experiences I've ever had. I'm normally not one to put a lot of thought into faith, but it was hard not to think about it. This wasn't a Buddhist thing, or even a religious thing, it was just a feeling, a sensation.

We left the temple and picked up some free wi-fi, so of course we uploaded a photo to Flickr. Duh! What else would you do?

The sun was getting hot, so we got some water and Morgan's shoes where killing her, so we went shopping for some socks. Luckily every train station seems to be connected to, or directly across from a shopping mall. Unfortunately the sock didn't help much. Next we were off to the Yebisa Beer Museum in Ebisu. Back on the Ginza line to Ueno, then to the JR Yamanote line to Ebisa. The Yamanote line is basically a big circle, we wanted to go the short way, but got on the wrong side of the platform and went the other, longer way. Luckily it took us right passed our hotel, so we got off and Morgan changed shoes. I did too, actually. my new Bape's are comfortable, but just not made for walking long distances.

Back on the train, we hit Ebisu in less than fifteen minutes. The Yebisu Beer Museum is located at Yebisu Garden Place, a beautiful area similar to Easton in Columbus, with higher buildings and fewer stores. Less a shopping area and more of a live/work neighborhood I think. It took us a few minutes to get to the beer museum by foot.

Morgan told me the Yebisu Beer Museum only open about a year ago, and it certainly looks brand new. The building is huge and really nice inside, with an incredible tasting bar for tour groups. The free walking museum tour is reasonably short, a u-shaped pathway maybe 300 feet long start to finish. I read every description, photographed a number of things and the whole tour took about 20 minutes, although I might have been less. I enjoyed it and there was some good historical information that I didn't know about Japanese beer, but if it was a paid for it, I would have been disappointed.

After the tour we hit the tasting salon, where after getting tokens from a vending machine, we ordered one each of the four beers they had on tap and the snack sampler. The Yebisu is a basic German-style Lager, think Bud. The Kahoku is an Amber, which I think tasted like a Pilsner. The Cream Top Stout is true to it's name with a creamy three-finger head and a hint of smoke. The Black is robust stout, with a decent backbone and a hint of black tea instead of the usual coffee. The snack sampler included crackers, dried peas, prawn crackers and dried fish jerky. Morgan and I both agreed The Black was our favorite brew, with the Cram Top and Kahoku tying for second and the Yebisu a distant fourth. Morgan liked the prawn crackers best, while I liked the dried peas and the fish jerky was better than you'd expect.

Even though this only like 2 in the afternoon, we need to get moving and looking back, this entry is pretty long as it is. I honestly feel like I'm rushing to say the next thing, perhaps part of the Tokyo syndrome. We'll pick up the rest of Tuesday soon and here's out Top Threes...

Morgan's Top Three Things:

Fortunes at Sensō-ji Temple
Sitting on the park benches at Yebisu Garden Place (there's a story there)
The hilariousness of walking through Shinjuku with a 3 ton bag of McDonalds

Jeff's Top Three Things:

Sensō-ji Temple
Yebisu beer tasting
Korean BBQ and Hite

I'd definitely like to drink another Hite and even a Yebisu The Black again and Morgan would like to do more beer tastings.

As tasty as that Bacon Lettuce Burger was, I really don't want to do another walk of shame with a McDonald's bag. Ah, that's something you'l read about in part two!

Morgan does not want to experience the sheer pain and torture of crushed toes in ballet flats again.

Taken for a Tourist

2011-10-25T06:35:00.002-05:00

The past two days have been an absolute blur as I think we've finally adjusted to Japan time and their unusually early (to us) sunsets (4:30pm sunset? Really?).

Monday morning started out much like other mornings with a stop at the hotel store for a sampling of one of the many Japanese cold coffee beverages. Jeff had the Blendy and I had the Dororich, which was labeled "crushed jelly sweets".

I was expecting something akin to bubble tea but was instead treated to a gummy, jelly "drink" sucked through a straw. Not my favorite coffee so far.

After that joyful discovery we set off to the famous Mitsukoshi department store - you may know it's little sister store, located in Epcot. That store is nothing like the actual store. Nothing. The real Mitsukoshi department store is very much an international cousin to my other favorite department store mecca, Harrods. In fact, there is a mini Harrods located within Mitsukoshi.

We started on the ground flour, which housed the beautiful and impressive food hall. Smells, mostly yummy, but at times um.. pungent, wafted from the various cases. Almost anything you could possibly be craving was located here.

Eventually we ascended to the other goods floors, but eventually became bored with clothing we couldn't afford. We decided to get some of the food from the hall and make our way up to the roof, where there were benches and tables for sitting and eating.

We had onigiri (filled with katsobushi, I think), a croquette with mincemeat and onion, and I had a sushi set while Jeff had yakitori and shrimp tempura.

We left Mitsukoshi full and happy but not before I purchased myself a YSL tenugui. Word to the wise: many Japanese bathrooms don't have towels/dryers, so it's advantageous to carry your own tenugui.

From there we headed to Ginza and, more importantly, SanrioWorld Ginza. A single floor devoted to that fabulous feline and her red bow.

This would be where I purchased the best iPhone case ever.

It also happened to be near The Bulldog, a British-style pub that was on Jeff's Beers in Japan app.

After a refreshing drink, I decided we should venture to Akihabara, the electronics district. Once there we got lost and realized it was a bust. The stores looked like low budget Radio Shacks and neither of us were interested in anime or um... other ventures... red light red light... BUT we did find the infamous mochiCREAM!

Which was amazing and delicious and fun to eat as we watched the maids from the maid cafes lure in their prey.

From there it was back to Harajuku, this time with detailed instructions in hand for the places I was looking for. Like the massive toy store known as Kiddy Land and the much sought after Harajuku crepe.

But Morgan, didn't you just have mochiCREAM?

Yes, yes I did.

Full on crepe and about to give up on ever finding the Harajuku streets of the intertubes, I followed a gut instinct and walked down the road to find Takashita-dori alley!! The Japanese street fashion mecca!! Sadly, there are no photos because I was just so deliriously happy to have found the street and so in awe of the fashions and people that I never thought to take a photo. Suffice to say I now own the cutest hat ever.

Jeff says: I honestly thought about pulling out the camera several times, but basically every single store had a sign indicating no pictures. And this place was seriously busy. Picture taking would have required too much energy on my part to function.

And then we ate... again. I know it seems like we are eating every 5 seconds, but I swear there is a lot of walking in-between. Visiting stores, people watching, all of that good stuff that doesn't make for an interesting post but makes for interesting times. So bear with me, because there's more food.

We finally made it to Yakitori Alley (also known as Shomben Yokocho or Omoide Yokocho), which we'd been planning on doing for a long time. Yakitori Alley (or Piss Alley) is a semi-hidden alley way full of tiny restaurants serving up yakitori. Some are for regulars only and will not service tourists, you just have to make your way along and figure out which is which.

Jeff says: Oddly enough, I find Omoide Yokocho the very first night we arrived. Wandering around Shinjuku in our dream-like state, I happen to be looking at all of the random businesses and bam! There it was. Finding it again on Monday was easy.

We were beckoned into one stall by a younger lady and as we turned in, we found it completely empty. We soon found out why: they charged a Y300 per person seat charge. I had read about these places and knew that this was not customary, but for some reason we stayed instead. We shared a bottle of beer and the "special menu" (English tourists didn't get to choose a la carte) and paid entirely too much for our "meal". We left a little disenchanted and unsatisfied.

After wandering Shinjuku for entirely too long (and finding the red light district... we seem to have an uncanny knack for that) we decided to head back to the hotel and hit the doner kebab window on the way. Yes, I said kebab. In Tokyo.

Jeff says: After wandering this city for the past few days, I think you can find a red light district pretty much anywhere. Just pick a random side street, follow that for a block, then turn onto a second random side street, then start looking up.

It turned out to be a pretty tasty sandwich and the proprietor was quite an entertaining guy himself, so we fancied it dinner and a show.

Getting ready for our last day in Tokyo

2011-10-24T18:44:00.000-05:00

Okay, so yesterday was a complete blur and we actually managed to stay up past 10pm local time. Unfortunately, today is our last day in Tokyo proper and we want to accomplish quite a bit more.

Morgan's Sushi from the Mitsukoshi Food Hall

Morgan's Top Three Things:

Buying a New Hat in Harajuku
The Mitsukoshi Food Hall
SanrioWorld Ginza

Morgan at SanrioWorld Ginza

Jeff's Top Three Things:

The Mitsukoshi Food Hall
Navigating the subways like a champ
The Turkish Kebab guy and his street food dinner and a show

Tempura at Mitsukoshi Food Hall

We both agree our tourist trapped moment at yakitori in Omoide Yokocho was our least favorite part of the day. There were two suckers, and we were them. At least the food was good, although more expensive than necessary.

Yakitori from Omoid Yokocho

Morgan wants to eat sushi again today and I want to ride the rail like a champ again. My Japanese might be horrible, but my sense of direction and knowledge of the railways and subway stations is pretty good considering we've been here three days.

Kebab man, comedian and poor English speaker, yet funny and stange

Tomorrow we're off to Tokyo Disneyland which will hopefully allow us to slow down a bit. Tokyo is unbelievably fast. I seriously think we could run the entire time and still be slower than the locals.

This little piggy went to Shibuya

2011-10-23T19:15:00.002-05:00

Morgan and I just got back to the hotel room at a little after 7pm local time. We're exhausted and our feet hurt and we really don't know why. We just did Shibuya. Oh, and Harajuku. And then there was that little flea market festival thing. And more Harajuku. And more Shibuya. Wait, we forgot about the Meiji Shrine.

Morgan writing yesterday's blog

Oi oi, maybe we did do quite a bit today, most of it walking too. Lets see if I can remember it all.

We woke up about 6:30am local time and lazied around, writing a blog post, checking our Flickr and blog stats and enjoying some coffee and tea. We rolled out the door about 8:30 and stopped at the hotel grab and go for more coffee. There is this thing in Japan where you don't walk and drink. I have to admit, it's a bit weird and sometimes inconvenient, but it's also nice. It forces you to sit down and relax.

Morgan note: As a walking water tower, I am finding the no drinking while walking thing really difficult. I am normally carting around a water or other beverage and sipping around 3 liters of water a day. My overall liquid consumption is down and I think contributing to my overall tiredness. /rant.

After I finished my really tasty Double coffee and Morgan drank her Starbucks Latte, we headed for Keio Station to get our Suica cards, sort of a rail pass plus a debit card. Yeah, we got a little lost in the subway station, but eventually found the Suica kiosk and got our passes. First vending machine down.

Getting caffeinated.

We exited Harajuku station after a short 6 minute train ride and followed everyone across the street. Sorry Uncle Al, no pushing and shoving today, although the train was quite full.

Off in search of the crazy Harajuku kids, I lead us the wrong way down in Harajuku, but a quick trip back and we end up at Meiji Shrine, a shrine to Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken first constructed in the early 1920's. It's such a strange juxtaposition. Fast-paced modern society meets feudal Japanese culture. Oddly enough, there were ten time more Japanese tourists than Western or non-Japanese.

Morgan note: I don't know if I would consider them tourists as much as worshippers. There were a lot of women and children dressed in traditional kimono receiving blesssings.

Words do few things justice, but we saw some amazing architecture, several traditional Japanese brides and lots of children in traditional clothing. Morgan desecrated the site by taking photos of the gift shop and then filled out an ema, a small wooden plaque that Shinto worshipers use for prayers or wishes.

Morgan note: Don't worry mom, I am not worshiping false gods. They encourage anyone of any faith to write out a prayer of thankfulness.

Morgan writes out her ema.

After getting lost in Meiji, we continued our quest for kids in crazy outfits and found ourselves in Yoyogi Park, site of the first powered Japanese flight and home to the athletes village during 1964 Tokyo Olympics. Now it seems to be a place for everyone to enjoy and relax. There was a guy blowing random songs on sax, including The Mickey Mouse Club theme (Morgan note: And Someday My Prince Will Come. Disney fan, apparently.), people doing yoga and lots of kids on some sort of organized Halloween adventure.

The most numerous population was runners though, including an incredibly large number of tandem runners. Seems that fully-able runners partner with less-able runners and they run with them through the park, each holding a small rope ring and using an incredible amount of trust. One specific pair was a sighted and a blind runner, the vocal cues and the absolute trust was inspiring.

We came to the Shibuya Gate of Yoyogi Park and followed the sounds and smells of goodness to some sort of flea market or festival. People of all walks and ages gathered to sell hand-made goods, art and food and to generally have a good time. It was better than any festival I've ever been too. Food vendors serving "American style" pizza, noodle and rice dishes and pork sausage. And then there was the beer. Seems you can buy beer pretty much everywhere in Japan and pretty much any time.

The best pork we've had so far.

As we wondered through the festival I snapped a quick shot of some delicious pork getting grilled up Like any good vendor, the barker was quick with a sample: PORK HEAVEN! Smoky and fresh. He even spoke fairly good English, asking where we were from and offering a little bit of information about their pork. Just pork, salt and a few spices went into everything. There were several types, including a thick cut bacon, a smoked kielbasa, a sweet link and pork belly. Which was the best? All of them. Sorry to our friends at Jim's Meats, but I've never had a fresher, tastier pork. Ever.

Morgan's note: I think the fatty pork belly was the best. Or maybe the thick cut bacon. The sausage was really good, too. And then there was the spare rib.....

After we finished with the pork, we got some W Coffee brand coffee beverages from the vending machines, then headed back off in search of the Harajuku kids. Instead we ended up shopping in Shibuya. Our first stop was a trip down memory lane at Chicago Thrift Store. Seriously, this is where all the good items given to Goodwill end up. Vintage Disney sheets, band uniforms, leather jackets, camo, jeans. This place had everything.

Morgan's childhood bed sheets.

Then we started hitting random stores and shopping area's. Their shopping area's seem to contain multiple stores in an open air, department store style. Picture Dillard's, but with each section it's own little independennt store. Morgan keep finding cute hats, but so far hasn't purchased anything.

After hitting the main streets, we found the back alleyways with even more stores, tons of salons and fewer tourists. It was hot, humid and we started to tire out, so we grabbed some waters at Appetito, a cafetera style cafe, and watched the world pass us by. Realizing we were a bit lost and more tired that we thought, we began a slow trip back to the Harajuku station - and pork ramen goodness at Kyushu Jangara.

On the second floor of a busy little building, we find oishii pork ramen that will live with us forever. I would break ground rule 1 for this place if I didn't know that there was more oishii Japanese food to be had today. Clearly familiar with Westerners, they had an English menu; Morgan got the house broth with everything and I got the all pork broth with pork only. A little old man speaking reasonable English took our order and then we grabbed seats at the counter and handed over our tokens to get our food, made fresh and steaming hot right in front of us.

Jeff's Note: Seems most restaurants avoid ordering at the table. Instead you either place your order with a person, or more often a vending machine, and then exchange your tickets or tokens with the cook or foo runner. It's a it odd, but given the foot traffic, it does seem quite efficient. Pay, exchange, eat, go. And when you're talking about a metropolitan area of 32.5 MILLION PEOPLE, you need to move fast.

My pork ramen was incredible. We were half finished before we realized we hadn't even been talking. Just eating away, savoring the deliciousness in front of us. Mine had some a sweet, fatty porky goodness, with tender pork belly and the right noodle to broth ratio.

Jeff's pork ramen. OISHII!

Morgan's note: I had the house special ramen, which included pork belly, cod roe, and a soy hard boiled egg. Every egg in my life needs to be soy hard boiled from now on. Every. single. one.

Afterwards, we hopped the train down to Shibuya station and one of the most famous scramble crossings. After making it across the street, er, four streets, we headed to The Disney Store, a three story mecca to all things ~~Mouse~~ Duck. All three stories were connected by a tiny spiral staircase that would never fly anywhere in America.

Morgan note: He failed to mention it was an Alice in Wonderland themed spiral staircase. Swoon!

Time to see how far down the rabbit hole it does!

Jeff's Note: The sun sets around 5:00pm local time, which is pretty disorienting. You feel like it's 10 or 11pm, but it's hardly dinner time.

Wandering around Shibuya, we ended up at Bape, a Japanese streetwear company. Of course, I left with a new pair of sneakers, the very last in my size. Then we continued around Shibuya waiting for The Aldgate, a British-style beer pub, to open up. We stopped into a game arcade and Morgan totally owned the crane game, coming away with three prizes for a US$15 investment.

Morgan note: Dad, you taught me well.

Seems we didn't realize it was the Rugby World Cup though, so every Australian, New Zealander and Frenchmen in Tokyo was crammed into this tiny little place. I enjoyed a Baird Jack The Ripper IPA and Morgan had someone's Autumn Ale, but it was too hot, too crowded and we were too tired to stand around any longer, I downed my brew and Morgan left her's.

Looking out at Shibuya/Harajuku from a roof top lounge at Laforte.

Tired, dehydrated and ready for some rest and relaxation, we headed back to the Shibuya station and hoped the train back to Shinjuku - and our hotel. The walk from the station to the hotel, maybe 6 blocks, seemed to take forever. Hot, sweaty and tired, we got back to the room about 7:30pm.

We don't have a pedometer with us, but I'd conservatively guess we walked about five miles today. Which explains why I completely passed out in the middle of writing this last night at 8:00pm.

The Festival in Shibuya

Morgan's Top Three List:

Writing the Ema at Meiji Shrine
The Festival in Shibuya
The ramen at Kyushu Jangara

Jeff's Top Three List:

The Pork Cup at the Festival in Shibuya
The Pork Ramen at Kyushu Jangara
My new Bape shoes (yep, totally wearing those today!)

Enjoying sausage. (INSERT JOKE HERE)

Again, we both agree that our least favorite thing is being hot and sweaty. It's been in the high seventies, which isn't the problem, it's the near 100% humidity.

Morgan wants to go back to Harajuku to hit the shops she missed the first time and Jeff wants to go back to Aldgate when there isn't a Rugby World Cup match on.

Tokyo: Day 1 and a Half.

2011-10-22T17:43:00.002-05:00

Morgan:

Konnichiwa from Tokyo!

Jeff gave a small update in our zombie-like last night, but that didn't cover much, did it?

Our day started around 3am in Cleveland, finishing packing and heading to CLE for our early flight to Dallas. We both marveled at how CLE seems to change it's shopping/eating areas every 3 years as I horked down an olive oil rosemary bagel from Bruggers. There was hardly any waiting time between passing through security, getting me breakfast (because I must eat before getting on a plane) and going to the bathroom.

Our flight to Dallas was smooth and mostly uneventful.

I watched the sunrise from the plane and waxed poetic about air travel (thank you, Pan Am).

Just in time for us to land in Dallas, the guy in front of us started getting smelly. Note: be mindful as to your pre-flight meals, mkay?

In Dallas, Jeff finally got some breakfast for himself while I went in search of the perfect in-flight pillow. Note #2: If you see a pillow you really like (say, at Target) buy it because you won't find it at the airport.

Soon it was time to board AA175 DFW-NRT. We got situated and were ready for the long hault 13.5 hr flight to Tokyo. Almost. In the middle of the safety video the power cut off. Turns out, someone forgot to close the fuel cap on the right fuel tank. We had to re-taxi in to the gate so a mechanic could do an onboard water test.

Almost an hour late, we were off. About an hour in, we got our first snack.

I played Tetris and was, of course, awesome at it.

Jeff made a comment that the last time he was on an airplane the size of a 777, he was in first glass and drinking mimosas. I thanked him for slumming it, Mr. DVC. (See Mom R, I make fun of Jeff, too!)

And then they fed us again. Jeff got the beef and potatoes. I got the chicken and rice. The salad was fresh, the meal tasted like a Lean Cuisine (Jeff's was better), the sushi was meh, the cream crackers were a nice touch of my other international excursions

Jeff's first sushi. On a plane. Yeah.

Jeff says: Hey, that wasn't my first sushi, it was my first sushi on a plane. You make it sound like I've never had sushi before. And as sushi goes, this wasn't horrible, just bad.

And then we settled in and tried to sleep. We watched movies and slept off and on. They fed us again. This time it was a half frozen turkey sandwich. I gave mine to Jeff and tucked into the homemade trial mix I'd brought.

Jeff says: The turkey sandwiches were actually good IF you added the Dijonaise and ignored the ice crystals. I guess they didn't have enough time to thaw before serving. My hot coffee served as a nice warmer though.

Jeff also teased me for my in-flight travel kit which included Evian spray, eye drops, hand lotion and lip balm. Air travel is dehydrating and murder to your skin! My pores thank me.

Around the half way point the flight started to feel really, really long. I tried watching Midnight in Paris. At some point my OCD need to know where we were kicked in and switched over to the flight path screen, not knowing I couldn't return to my spot in the film. So basically, I have no idea how it ends. Can someone please tell me how it ends? I got to the part where they were watching the cancan girls.

They fed us again and we made a very turbulent decent into Tokyo.

Deep dish pizza. Pretty tasty for airline food.

Jeff says: Yeah, this might be some of the best microwave pizza I've every had. The deep dish crust wasn't true DD crust, but considering it's airline food, YUM!

And we got our first glimpse that things in Japan move very, very fast.

It was a whirlwind as we were whisked through immigration, customs and to baggage claim where our bags were already waiting. We exchanged money and bought our shuttle ticket to our hotel. There was no time to stop as the shuttle was already waiting.

Jeff says: Life has never been a bigger blur. In, out, left, right, Jap-lish. I was actully getting dizzy waiting for the travelers checks to clear exchange.

We drove through the outskirts of Tokyo and into the bustling city; through Ginza and past the Mitsukoshi department store, through Akakasa and finally into the bustling neon of Shinjuku and our hotel.

Again, things moved ridiculously fast as we were swept from the bus by two bellhelps to the check-in desk and rapidly up to our cozy room.

Knowing we had to stay up to avoid jet lag, we freshened up and hit the streets of Shinjuku. It was warmer than expected (77 degrees) and very humid and it wasn't long before we realized how tired we were. The sheer amounts of people, neon, shops and well, lack of English, became stimulation overload. Eventually we picked a restaurant that boasted an English menu (cop out, I know) and sat looking like zombies until we could (literally) slurp down our food and return to the room.

Jeff says: I find the language barrier is only an issue when you try to understand what's going on. Perhaps it was the dream like state of everything, but it just felt so surreal that I didn't even really notice or care that most people weren't speaking English.

It was a little awkward in the restaurant when a Japanese couple sat down next to us and said something, an apology for bumping Morgan's bag, I think. I starred blankly at them. I'm just hopping my look said, stupid, tired American and not something more sinister. Of course, they could have been saying, stupid American tourist, keep your bag somewhere else, but I really don't think so.

Misokatsu Udon.

Jeff says: Very tasty, and very much a cop out. I was so tired and warm in the restaurant that I went for things that were familiar. This fried pork cutlet udon was better than the place in North Olmsted.

Zaru soba.

I'm happy to say the bed is crazy comfortable and we are both feeling very well rested (if not in serious need of caffeine).

I've been trying very hard to use my limited knowledge of the Japanese language, but things move (and they speak) so fast it's often hard for me to have synapses and neurons connect that quickly.

Jeff says: We stopped at Lawson to get some coffee beverages and it was like a symphony. The sounds came so fast that they must have been singing or arguing or something because no human can communicate that fast. My grand total of interaction there was, "Thank you." At least I seem to be able to count money okay. But I don't get that the 50 Yen coin is smaller than the 10 Yen coin.

Today it's off to Harajuku and Shibuya! Sayonara!

We made it to Tokyo!

2011-10-22T07:06:00.000-05:00

Well, we're finally settled and getting ready for bed. But first, a quick blog...

Final approach into Narita International Airport.

Jeff's Three Favorite Things:

Flying to Tokyo
Taking the Airport Limousine bus through Tokyo to the hotel
Wandering through Shinjuku

The view out our window

Morgan's Three Favorite Things:

Flying to Tokyo
Standing on the random bridge in Shinjuku
The Shiseido Face Wash in our hotel room

One of Morgan's favorite things.

We both agree jet lag is our least favorite thing and we'd like to explore Tokyo again tomorrow. Okay those are total cop outs, but we're seriously zombies right now. It's been a loooooong day.

And perhaps foolishly, we're both using our Flickr accounts to post photos, check out all of the photos from both Morgan and Jeff's cameras.

Setting a few ground rules for Tokyo

2011-10-19T19:41:00.000-05:00

It's almost time to leave for Tokyo and I can't lie that I'm really excited. Since we're flying nearly half way around the world, I figured we needed to set a few ground rules.

Rule 1: Never eat at the same restaurant twice. Ever.
Without a doubt Morgan and I are serious foodies and I want to maximize our exposure to anything and everything. Noodles, pork, seafood, rice, yakitori, sushi, sukiyaki, shabu-shabu. I want it all. Every last, delicious - and likely strange - bite.

Today's Special Ramen with Fried Pork Cutlets, Pork Belly and Tripe at Noodlecat

Rule 2: Order the house special or rely on recommendations. Always.
As adventurous as I my seem, I'm honestly a bit picky about what I eat, especially when it comes to seafood. But we're going to be in a land with access to some of the highest quality creatures from the deep. Skilled chefs have prepared these dishes for way longer than most people have known American existed. I need to step back and trust the good eats can be found in unlikely places.

Rule 3: Interact with at least one local per day. Anata wa eigo o hanasemasu ka?
I'm not talking about the waiter at dinner. I mean a local. Someone that I'm not paying to provide a service. Just your average every day Japanese person - hopefully one that will speak English, er, Eigo. But if you want to know the best ramen shop or where to buy sweet Onitsuka Tigers, you need to talk to the locals. This might be the hardest rule on the list, but I think also one of the most important.

Rule 4: Buy something from a vending machine once per day. Seriously.
Why not? The Japanese put everything in vending machines, why wouldn't we want to buy stuff from them?

Top 3 from our January 2010 trip to Walt Disney World

Rule 5: Recap every day with our Three Questions.
On one of our Disney World vacations I started asking Morgan what her favorite and least favorite things were, as well as one thing she'd like to do again. Over the years we've added in some extra questions here and there, but we always do at least those three. This trip will be no different.

Rule 6: Daily Blogs.
I say this every trip. And every trip it lasts like two days. Or less. But seriously, I want to try and blog once a day, even if it's just "this was the coolest thing we did, here are some photos". If I can do that, I'll be pretty happy.

Rule 7: Don't behave like a Westerner.
Yeah, I don't know what this really means, but I know I don't want people to look at us like stupid American tourists.

The One With The Lost Footage

2011-09-25T17:13:00.000-05:00

When Morgan and I announced our plans to get married at Walt Disney World, our friends Nick and Theresa offered to help capture our memories on video. Throughout the entire wedding extravaganza, Nick had the camera running almost non-stop.

Our Wedding. Photo by Studio 222 Photography.

The morning after the wedding Nick and Theresa few back home to Ohio. Unfortunately, Theresa's luggage flew to Atlanta and Nick's luggage, well, I don't think anyone will ever know where it ended up. Nick lost his suit, his shoes, a bunch of clothes. And the memory cards from wedding. As hours turned to days turned weeks, hope of recovering the bag faded.

Nick films us on the monorail from the Wedding Pavilion to the Contemporary.

We all moved on. Nick and Theresa got married. Morgan and I celebrated our One Year Anniversary. We postponed our trip to Japan.

Nick and Theresa's Wedding Shower.

Last week Nick mentioned he still hadn't shown his parents photos from their wedding and he wanted to get our opinion about a video he made for them.

It all begins with finding a suitcase in the dumpster.

Seems not all of the wedding video was lost after all. Some of the footage survived on the internal memory of Nick's video camera.

Wait for the part where Morgan sings!

I'm not sure how long they've been cooking this up this surprise, but thanks!

I've been married to my True Love and Best Friend for 365 Days!

2011-05-17T18:27:00.000-05:00

I really can't believe that it's been a year since I married Morgan Lynn Smyczek!

When we started talking about anniversary gifts, Morgan mentioned that she thought we should stick to the traditional wedding anniversary gifts. The first year is PAPER!?!? What do you get someone for their anniversary that is made of paper?

I read a bunch of anniversary gift ideas and there was a recurring theme about printing photos or commissioning a piece of art. Well, I'm not necessarily an artist, but I do work in design, so I commissioned myself to work this up.

Our vows, key wedding theme elements and out favorite wedding photos, printed as two 8x10 prints and mounted in matching frames. View Larger

After literally a year, I finally posted our lo-fi wedding video. No time like the present! Honestly, the video has been done for quite some time, but I just never got around to rendering out an HD version for the web. There is something hilarious about pushing out a HD version of a video that's layered in lo-fi effects.

Morgan wanted a Hi-8 wedding film. I gave her the best I could: footage from two HD video cameras rendered with lo-fi filters.

In continuing with the traditional wedding anniversary gift, next year is cotton. I have no idea what I'm going to do with that, so please start sending in your suggestions now.

We're going to Tokyo for our First Anniversary... even if it's a few months late.

2011-04-29T06:57:00.001-05:00

In April of 2009 I asked Morgan to marry me while we watched the sun set in Santa Monica, California.

Santa Monica Pier. Photo: Morgan Rooks

In May of 2010 we got married at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

Our Wedding Party. Photo: Studio 222

In May of 2011 we planned to celebrate our one year anniversary in Tokyo, Japan. Then Japan was devastated by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11th.

Devastation and debris in Natori, Miyagi prefecture. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

We had already booked our plane tickets and hotel rooms. We were already scoping out the city for must do restaurants and shops. In the wake so such destruction our vacation was pushed into limbo.

I'm amazed at the number of people that kept asking if I was upset about my vacation being ruin. How could think about my vacation when half of Japan lay in ruin? With people living in little pod shelters inside of schools and gymnasiums?

Many evacuees living in government shelters. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

And for the last several weeks we waited to figure out what we were going to do. I'm happy to report that our Japan trip is back on. Instead of going in May, we're going in late October.

And no, I'm not afraid to go in October. Honestly, I'm not afraid to go now, but Japan is having enough trouble getting it back together, it doesn't need some camera happy American tourists wandering around sucking up what energy, water and food that they have.

So, we'll wait a little longer to see Tokyo. It's not going anywhere.

Tokyo's Disneyland reopened April 15th for the first time since
the earthquake and tsunami. Photo: AFP/Getty Images

One Month Marriage Update

2010-06-22T18:10:00.001-05:00

You heard about the wedding right? If not, check out the teaser photos from our amazing photographers Becka and Nate at Studio 222.

The last few weeks leading up to the wedding were totally consumed by design work...

... as well as lots of last minute practicing...

We've got some more photos and videos of the wedding on Flickr and You Tube.

For our one month anniversary, we went to see Toy Story 3... and you should too. Why? Because it's good. See:

Follow Along at Home

2010-05-13T22:13:00.001-05:00

You can keep track of us by following along with these friendly links:

Morgan's Photos on Flickr

Jeff's Photos on Flickr

Our Videos on YouTube

Jeff on 12seconds

Morgan on Twitter

Jeff on Twitter

Home... And boy does it suck.

2010-01-17T21:29:00.004-05:00

Everything must come to an end. I'm not sure why, but we're home, so it must be true. All in all, the trip went by really fast. I can't even remember running the half marathon and our wedding planning seems like a total blur.

I was hoping to do a recap, but I honestly can't seem to remember all that much of what we did, so we'll wrap it up with one of our Top 3 videos:

You can view all of our videos from this trip:

We've got all of our photos up now at Flickr.com, by you can watch the slideshow:

So, that sorta wraps up our vacation. Any questions?

Video Updates

2010-01-15T08:28:00.001-05:00

Finally got some of our video updates to load.

Catch this mornings video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBuunuNH5tY

And Wednesday's video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHKanijfLtk&feature=youtube_gdata

And check out all of our videos on our You Tube channel.
Http://YouTube.com/characterhunters

Well, seems You Tube uploads are taking too long.

2010-01-14T22:57:00.002-05:00

So, it's been a long while without an update, despite our efforts to do so. For whatever reason, we've been having a lot of trouble uploading to YouTube.

On Saturday after the race we walked around Magic Kingdom and got some photos. The most important being Donald Duck. He was hanging out with Goofy in Frontierland.

We enjoyed a healthy lunch of Chili-Cheese Dogs, Bacon Cheese Burgers and Chili-cheese fries. We tossed some apple slices in for dessert so we didn't feel too healthy.

Later on we met up with my parents for dinner at The Wave. Morgan had the Cinnamon crusted Pork Tenderloin and I had the Flank Steak. It was quite a tasty meal.

I think we already covered Sunday, so we'll skip that and move to Monday.

We spent the first part of the day at Epcot. We ate lunch at Sunshine Seasons at The Land. M had the veggie pita and I had the Turkey sandwich.

We hit Imagination, Mission:Space and Soarin' in short order before cruising around World Showcase.

Then we headed back to the resort to get ready for dinner at California Grill, our favorite Disney restaurant.

The food was quite excellent, but it was an interesting experience. Despite having a dress code, it seems they aren't interested in enforcing it. We saw a range of cut off jeans, flip flops and fashion fails.

Ericka, our server forgot to take Dad's order, continually seemed to be confused as to what to do and disappeared completely several times. The circus next to us had barefoot children running around the table.

All in all, the food was as excellent as ever, but I sincerely hope the service and general atmosphere impove or I will be crossing it off my must do list. I'm sure I'll post a much more composed rant once we return home.

Tuesday we had breakfast at The Wave before our wedding planning session. The food was really good, especially my pork sausage. I will definitely be back for that in May!

Our planning session went really well too. It was four plus hours of laughing, stories and chit chat. Yes, we even got all of our planning done too! Hopefully we've got something that will really excite you.

We then hit Magic Kingdom before heading off to Hoop Dee Doo.

And on the official record, I am sorry for drinking Morgan's sangria.

Wednesday morning we hit Hollywood Studios. Our first stop was Fastpasses for Toy Story Mania, then we caught Donald and Daisy by the big, giant hat. For the record, the hat needs to go.

Then we knocked out most of the park, including lunch at Fairefax Fare, Tower of Terror and Rockin' Rollercoaster.

Then we hopped over to Epcot and hooked
up with Nick and Theresa for some attractions and a walk around World Showcase and then we hit Beaches & Cream for dinner.

With a belly full of burgers, onion rings and a No Way Jose, we stopped off at Downtown Disney for a little shopping before calling it a day.

Thursday we hit Animal Kingdom and the best thing that happened was we caught up with Rabbit. Morgan has been looking for him for the past four years and out quest finally ended today in Camp Minnie-Mickey.

And tonight we had dinner at Bistro de Paris, which we've honestly been meaning to try for a long time. Sadly, we screwed up major by waiting so long. It was AMAZING. It was the best beef tenderloin I've had on property and maybe the best ever. Service was top notch and the whole experience was pretty cool.

I know I just ran through an entire week, but I'm rushing to get off to bed because tomorrow is our last day and we've got a lot to do.

We've got lots of photos up and I'm hoping some of our videos will FINALLY load up too.

Sunday: Prepping for the Wedding, Part 1

2010-01-12T08:50:00.004-05:00

Sunday was sort of a slow day. We slept in a bit and had breakfast at Pepper Market at Coronado Springs. Morgan got the Mickey Waffles and I had the Ham and Cheese Omelette.

After breakfast Morgan had her hair and makeup trials for the wedding. There really isn't much to say besides she looked gorgeous.

Then we caught up with our photographers Becka and Nate for our Engagement Photo Session. Despite the cold, I think we successfully pretended to look warm in most of the photos, although the pictures won't lie, so who knows.

For dinner we returned to The Wave at the Contemporary Resort. We enjoyed it the first time we were there and they seem to only have improved in quality. Morgan started with the seasonal soup, Butternut Squash, I believe and I had the Black Bean Chili, by far one of the best I've ever had. There were both chunks and shreds of beef tenderloin mixed in with the black beans. Truly exceptional.

Morgan had the Cinnamon-rubbed Grilled Pork Tenderloin and I had the Grilled Flank Steak. M is so much better at writing about food than I am, but my Flank Streak was cooked perfectly and tasted phenomenal. There was a nice sear on the outside and the inside was a solid medium rare throughout. It literally was as tender as fillet.

After dinner, we headed off to Magic Kingdom to meet up with Nick and Theresa. It was cold, but not horribly so. After a few pictures, we headed over to Main Street Bakery so they could get some cookies and hot coco.

We talked with Martin from New York at the door about the weather and the lack of snow in central Florida. I'm on board with him... we should move down here now.

Once everyone had the change to warm up, we headed back out to the Castle and M practiced her photography skills on Nick and Theresa. This photo is by far my favorite:

Then we took an extremely leisurely stroll out of the park a good hour after park close. Nick was officially the last guest to leave the park.

Due to the extremely late hour, we both got nearly private buses back to our resorts. And some amazing photos of a completely empty Magic Kingdom.

The Half Marathon: The Complete Story

2010-01-10T08:49:00.004-05:00

3am came around really quickly and before I was even awake we were bundled up and out the door and into the frozen tundra that currently is central Florida. It was about 35 degrees when we got up.

We had good luck and Morgan, Dad and I walked right on to a bus bound for the race start. The bus was warm, but the walk to the race cite wasn't.

After checking our bags, we caught up with Nick and Theresa and talked about how cold it was, the snow falling from the sky and how cold it was.

Then we got in line or the port-o-potties, where we continued to talk about cold, snow and cold. After that is was a .6 mile walk to the starting line, where it was again cold, cold, cold.

Finally it was race start and we started to warm up fast. Our pace was super fast for us and we were feeling pretty good.

The Donald Duck Half Marathon begins on Epcot drive, then turns onto World drive, jogs through the main parking lot, goes around Seven Seas Lagoon, underneath a water bridge, past the Contemporary Resort, through the Magic Kingdom, out past the Grand Floridian Resort, back down World drive, onto Epcot drive, through Future World in Epcot and ends in the Epcot parking lot.

As we crossed mile one we saw the first wheel chair racer passing us going the other direction, about the 10 mile mark. When we were crossing mile 2, we saw the lead running passing the 8 mile mark.

Sometime between miles 5 and 6, I chatted with Steve the Firefighter who was running the half marathon in full gear - it was truly amazing and inspiring.

As we ran down Main Street USA, we saw Mom Rooks, got photos with Stitch in Tomorrowland, The Alice in Wonderland bunch at Tea Cups, but the real highlight came in Frontierland. We got our photos with the cast of The Princess and the Frog: Louis, Prince Naveen and Princess Tiana.

On our way out of Magic Kingdom, we passed Captain Jack and this cast of merry men backstage. After leaving the high of being inside the park, Morgan twisted her ankle and our spirits fell.

The next few miles were pretty tough. We ran, walked and hobbled down Floridian Way, past the golf courses, the Grand Floridian and the Polynesian Resorts and eventually ended up back on World drive. The race continued for several more long, cold, uneventful miles.

In the end, we finished at a much slower pace than we set out to run, but given the freezing temperatures and the injuries, I can say I'm happy we finished in 3 hours and 7 minutes.

Watch the entire video documentary below. All ten videos will play in the same video box, so you just have to press play once. The whole show runs about 12 minutes.

The Half Marathon: The Short Story

2010-01-09T20:55:00.004-05:00

UPDATED!

Okay, so it's been a really, really long day and we're just not up to blogging about it, so here's the really, really short version:

It was really cold, we got really wet, we crossed the finish line and got our medals.

Check out a photo of us with Phineas and Ferb!

Okay, okay, we're running behind on the race blog, but at least I got the videos posted to YouTube. Sorry for any confusion with getting them posted to Tumblr or Facebook. I didn't expect them to post they way they did.

Watch our video of the Half Marathon. It's raw, uncut and pretty shaky, but it documents just some of incredible experiences we had on our 13.1 mile journey to obtaining our Donald Duck medals.

There are ten separate videos that will place continuously in the video box below. Just press play and you'll see them all. It'll take about 12 minutes in total, so you might want to get some coffee or hot coco before you start. Hope you enjoy.

And check out all of our photos so far:

The end of our Travel day, the start of 13.1 miles

2010-01-08T22:50:00.001-05:00

Our day started out a bit rough with our taxi forgetting to pick us up an the Cleveland roads being a bit crummy, but we made it to the airport and got moving on time.

The flight was super smooth and other than a few interuptuons from screaming children, it was totally uneventful.

Once we got to Orlando International Airport, we picked up our Magical Express bus and headed to Coronado Springs Resort. We checked it and hoped a bus to the Marathon Expo to pick up our race packets.

The Expo was hopping and it general seemed a bit disorganized. Even the cast members were bumbling about.

It didn't take long to get out race bibs, but getting out race bags and t-shirts was another story. The line was long, outside and in slight drizzle.

Never the less, we made it through and even picked up a few additional race souvenirs.

After the Expo, we hit Pepper Market at Coronado Springs for lunch and then headed to Magic Kingdom.

Once the sun set, the temp started to drop pretty fast, but we made it through a round of Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin and a trip on Space Mountain before we set off to see Wishes!, Magic Kingdoms nightly fireworks display.

We had hoped to broadcast Wishes on our Ustream channel, but I guess my phone had enough of a work out or one day and the battery was completely dead. Sorry if you tried to tune in, we'll be rescheuling soon.

It's a shame too because it was one of the most interesting displays of Wishes we've ever seen. The hazy skys an low clouds made it almost impossible to see the fireworks, but instead it was a crazy display of colored skys and clouds of smoke. There were times you couldn't even see the castle.

After Wishes we headed back to Peppe Market for dinner and now it's off to bed. We'll be up at 3am to get ready for the Half Marathon.

Sadly, I think I'm going to need to skip streaming the race, as it's supposed to be 38 degrees at race start and it's only going to get colder as we run.

More news, photos and video soon.

The Night Before

2010-01-07T21:38:00.002-05:00

We're too lazy to type, so we made another video.

Looking for the links I'm talking about in the video? Keep scrolling down the page, below the next video.

Time for another Adventure

2010-01-03T22:36:00.002-05:00

We're too lazy to type, so we made a video. It's about 12 minutes long, so go grab a cup of coffee, a hot coco or perhaps an adult beverage and relax. You can enlarge the video by clicking on the four arrows in the bottom right corner of the video player.

Play along at home with these links:

Our Main Flickr Photo Channel

Jeff's Flickr Photo Channel

Our You Tube Video Channel

Morgan's Twitter Channel

Jeff's Twitter Channel

And new this trip:

Our Streaming Video Ustream TV Channel

Be sure to check our Twitter channels for details about our live video broadcasts from inside the parks!

Also, we really want you to get involved! Leave comments on our blog entires, photos and video. Feel free to ask us some questions or make some suggestions as to what we should do next.

So please, get involved. Send us messages via Twitter, Facebook or even email.

The Weekend: Happy Birthday, Jeff

2009-10-01T11:00:00.005-05:00

Wow, has a week gone by already? It's been a rather cold, rainy week here so hopefully the weather will improve for this weekend. And as it's J's birthday this weekend, I've decided to close out with a Flickr Friday Five dedicated to him. Happy Birthday, Jeff.

J filming a stand-up | Bork! Ev'r'y t'ng is oh'kay doh'ky | J in World Showcase | Peter Pan to the Rescue | Prince Charming, Who?

The Weekend: Brunch

2009-09-25T10:14:00.004-05:00

This weekend treat yourself to the luxury of a homemade Sunday brunch. We put so much emphasis on dinner parties and meeting up for dinner that I think the gathering for brunch has been overlooked. It's time to delight in a relaxed, late Sunday morning with good conversation and a really good cup of coffee (maybe a mimosa or two).

Quiches are easy to serve, completely delicious and deceivingly easy. For our Sunday brunch we made two: bacon, leek and Gruyere, and sausage, bell pepper and cheddar. Oh, and homemade doughnuts!

Bacon, leek and Gruyere Quiche
1 pie crust (use the store-bought refrigerated kind to make life simple)
6 slices of bacon
1 leek, rinsed and chopped
1/4 cup Gruyere, plus extra for topping
2 eggs, large
1 cup heavy cream, half and half or whole milk
salt, pepper, fresh nutmeg

Cook bacon in a skillet until cooked through and lightly crisp. Chop/crumble and set aside. Drain off most of the bacon fat, leaving some in the pan to sautee the leeks. Cook leeks until they just begin to become limp and translucent. Remove from heat and set aside.

Prepare pie tin with non-stick method of choice and roll out pie crust. Add in leeks, bacon and Gruyere and spread around the pan evenly. Whisk two eggs into heavy cream and combine until well mixed and frothy. Add salt, pepper and a some freshly grated nutmeg. Pour into pie crust, taking care to distribute the mixture evenly throughout the leeks, bacon and cheddar. Top with remaining grated Gruyere. Place into a preheated 350 degree oven for 35-45 minutes. You'll know the pie is done when it springs back to the touch and it yields no liquid when a knife is inserted.

As for the doughnuts.. if you want that recipe you'll need to pay a visit to Mister Brown.

Good Noms: "Stuffed" red peppers

2009-09-23T10:43:00.003-05:00

These were quite delicious, if I do say so myself. And quite fast; perfect food for after a long day of work when you don't really feel up to being a culinary genius.

2 red bell peppers, seeded and cut into "boats"
1/2lb ground turkey
1 package Viggo beans and rice (we used Santa Fe this time)
1/2 cup red and green bell peppers, diced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1/4 cup cheese + more for topping (we used Vermont cheddar)

If you haven't tried the Viggo rice and bean products, you should. They are so delicious and so fantastically easy. Just boil water, add package, cover for 20 minutes and you have pretty idiot proof rice and beans.

Sautee ground turkey; season with salt, pepper, cumin - maybe some hot sauce. Add in your onions and peppers and cook until just tender. Add cheese and prepared rice and beans and stir until combined and cheese is melted. Spoon into pepper boats and top with remaining cheese. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes or until cheese has melted and ooey-gooey. Enjoy with a nice cold cerveza.

Have I mentioned I've been bitten by the craft bug lately?

Good Noms: Sprinkles Vanilla cupcakes

2009-09-17T11:55:00.003-05:00

Sometimes you just need a cupcake. And sometimes you just need a little taste of Southern California. But when SoCal is 2300 miles away, you resort to what you have locally. And by locally I mean in our pantry. That can of Sprinkles cupcake mix that had been gifted to me and sat so long it had dust. I know, I know. But it was still good!

I can't say if these tasted at all like the real deal. Yes, we went to SoCal in April but with everything there is to do (and eat - Hello, The Hat? In N Out?) we never quite got around to standing around on Little Santa Monica waiting for our cup of heaven. But they were quite delicious, and quite easy, too!! I think using gorgeously delicious fresh farm butter helped, too.

Cupcake preference is way personal; like how you take your coffee. I take my cupcake Sprinkles-style, thanks. Dense, with a heavy crumb, rich and buttery. This isn't your light and fluffy box cake mix, kids. This is decadent. The frosting recipe isn't half bad, either. Honestly, it was at its best two days later when it had a time to harden up and get a nice sugary crust. When I first made it, my kitchen was pretty warm and the butter kept trying to melt. It is a very sweet, very rich, frosting.

Today, Sprinkles sent me an e-mail about their new Dolce Vita cupcake: vanilla-hazelnut cupcake with Nutella like frosting. Oh my goodness! I think there will definitely be some homemade experimentation with that one.

Good Noms: The Labor Day Picnic Part II: Lemon-Blueberry pie

2009-09-08T12:00:00.004-05:00

Nothing says summer to me like berries. You start off with strawberry season, progress to raspberries and blackberries and end the summer with the sweet-tart blueberries. There's nothing quite like an end of summer blueberry; just like there is nothing like a mid-January, picked 2 weeks ago, fresh shipped from the Southern Hemisphere blueberry - yuck!

My inspiration for my lemon-blueberry pie came from my favorite dessert at Jiko: The Cooking Place, one of the restaurants at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge. They serve a house-made meyer lemon curd with pomegranate-blueberry compote and sour cream ice cream. This pie isn't quite so fancy but still very delicious!

The recipe:
1 Keebler shortbread pie crust
Yes, I cheated and used store bought pie crust to save time and the need for a reconnaissance mission on my pie tin. If you are insistent on doing the whole thing from scratch just buy yourself some Shortbread Sandies or other shortbread cookie, place in a gallon sized zip lock bag and attack with a wooden spoon, mallet, shoe, whatever. Then drizzle in just enough melted butter until the crumbs stick together when kneaded (in the bag, mind you). Press in to your pie pan and get moving on the rest of the recipe.

Lemon Curd (courtesy of Alton Brown, slightly modified):
4 large egg yolks, whisked until light and fluffy
1/3 cup corn starch
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tbs. butter
1 tbs. lemon zest
The juice of 3 large lemons

Blueberry compote:
1 pint fresh blueberries
1/3 cup sugar
2 tbs. + 1 tsp cornstarch
1/4 cup water

First, the lemon curd. AB is really big on mise en place and for this recipe, I agree. It helps to have everything measured, separated and ready to go. It's also nice if you have cute, matching mise en place cups and such, but those will be on the registry.

In a saucier, mix together the cornstarch and water and place over medium-high heat. Slowly mix in your sugar and continue stirring until the mixture reaches a boil. Once it reaches a boil, allow to simmer for a full 60 seconds.

After you've allowed your sugar/starch mixture to simmer you can start to temper in the eggs. This is why it's a good reason to have your eggs pre-separated, whisked and ready to go. Use your whisk to scoop up some of the hot mixture and add it to your bowl of yolk; mix well to combine and repeat. This method allows you to gradually increase the temperature of the eggs without ending up with lemon-flavored scrambled eggs. Yuck. I can usually tell when the yolks have reached a good temp when the bowl they are in become warm to the touch. Then add your tempered yolks back into the sugar/starch goo.

STOP!! This next step is very important. In order to avoid making lemon flavored soup, you must (yes, must) bring your yolk/sugar/starch mixture back up to a boil for one full minute. Two, if you want to be doubly safe, still stirring often.

Then kill the heat under your saucier. Add the butter and stir until melted, then add the lemon zest and juice. Stir well until all the lemony flavors are well incorporated and then pour into your awaiting pie crust. Let it sit on the counter for a few minutes to cool before you pop in your fridge and let it set.

Now would be a really good time to start on your blueberry compote. Which is super easy, I might add. Wash out your saucier and add in all of the ingredients: sugar, cornstarch, water and blueberries. Stir well to coat the berries, cover and place over medium to medium-high heat. Ideally, your berries will start to pop and seep lovely blueberry juice in the sugar/starch goo. A nice gentle simmer will allow the starches to latch on to the juice and thicken it, leading to compote nirvana. Once it looks like this, kill the heat and let it cool.

Once everything has cooled down, pour the blueberry compote on top of the lemon curd and allow to set. You can use any left over shortbread crumbs (or broken pie crust that you dropped on the floor) as a lovely streusel-topping. Refrigerate to set, and enjoy at a lovely Labor Day picnic.

Good Noms: The Labor Day Picnic

2009-09-06T21:34:00.005-05:00

It's well known that I am not the chef of the two of us. Jeff is much more adept at the culinary arts than I (well, at least the non-baking side) and is responsible for me consuming something more than Ramen or cereal on a daily basis. However, the odd thing happens that whenever we are invited to a picnic, cook-out, potluck or whathaveyou I tend to take the reigns on bringing a side or dessert. And of course I am the over-achiever so when asked to bring either a side or dessert, I bring both.

I figured since Labor Day is typically regarded as the last hurrah of the summer, I wanted to utilize as many fresh, in-season end of flavors as possible. For the side dish, I tackled this recipe from Giada DeLaurentis. There's a lot knife work, but really it's fairly simple, especially for so many great flavors. Fresh summer corn, sweet mango, fragrant basil. Delicious!

Find yourself a few nice ears of end of summer corn.

De-husk, removing all of silk and give it a good rinse down to make sure your ears are clean. Since we are apartment bound and do not have a grill, I chose to oven roast the corn. Place the ears on a large sheet of aluminum, seasoned with some salt, pepper and whatever suits your fancy. I used our house-made poultry mix. It's definitely good noms. Top with some pats of butter and close the foil tightly. Roast in a 350 degree oven for 30-45 minutes.

While those are roasting you can do the rest of your busy work: rinsing and draining the beans, mixing up the vinaigrette and chopping the mango, onion and peppers - oh right, I almost forgot that I added red onion to the mix. It gave a really nice balance to the salad.

Once your ears of corn are roasted and cooled, use your knife to cut downward on the cub to cut off all of the corn. Do this over a bowl or in your final bowl so you can reap some of that nice milk from the corn, too. Then chuck everything in your final bowl and mix - with your hands, if you're not too squeamish about that kind of stuff.

Chill for about an hour to let the flavors meld and serve. It's great with chips or just on it's own; the longer it sits the better it gets!

Tomorrow, we'll talk about the pie...

It's Red Letter Day

2009-07-20T12:15:00.000-05:00

Well, it's Red Letter day in FlipCam land. After delaying for nearly 2 months, I finally edited and posted our video blogs from May to You Tube. Nothing like staying on the ball, huh?

May 8th: Going Down To Dayton

May 9th: Going to Brunch in Dayton

May 9th: "Don't stick your fingers in the jam."

May 16th: A Day in the Life... Part 1

May 16th: A Day in the Life... Part 2

May 30th: M and J make a Sonic Commercial

Our Engagement Party

2009-07-19T18:59:00.002-05:00

M & J... That's Us
Originally uploaded by M & J: Character Hunters

Wow... I'll say it again. Wow! We had a great time at our Engagement Party yesterday.

The event was held at Aunt Linda and Uncle Don's house, which was the perfect location. It was simple, yet elegant with our closest friends and family.

Many, many thanks to Mom and Dad R, Mom and Dad S and Aunt Linda and Uncle Don - they made our day absolutely perfect.

I'm sure there was a ton of working going on in the background, but everything seemed flawless and smooth to my eyes. I'm sure I owe M&D R, M&D S and ALinda and UDon another debt of gratitude for that a well.

I'm really not sure I was prepared for this, it was completely overwhelming. When we first started talking about having an E-Party, I had a casual BBQ in mind... and we got it.

I just missed the part about M and I being the focus. It was a long day of mingling, chatting and standing on my feet. I don't think my legs have ever hurt a much in my life. It surely was good preparation for the actual wedding because we almost never got to pee and barely had any food.

And although I know that I talked with most everyone, I'm positive that I ran out on some conversations - to those of you, I'm sorry.

Hopefully everyone there enjoyed it as much as I did. Words really cannot express how much we both appreciated you joining us.

I'm sure M will add her own, more elegant perspective on this soon, but I just wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who came in my own way.

Check out our photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/characterhunters/sets/72157621564255261/

Look for Dad R's photos on his Flickr soon.

It's been a while... No really.

2009-07-16T22:31:00.002-05:00

Six trays of Pulled Pork
Originally uploaded by M & J: Character Hunters

Wow, seems like time flies all the time. It's been a while since I
posted something, so we've got a lot of ground to cover...

For those living under a rock in the jungles of Papa New Guinea, M and
I got engaged in mid-April while we were visiting Los Angeles. Since
then we've been enjoying the wonderous process of planning a
destination wedding. Shockingly enough, we'll be getting married in
Walt Disney World in May of 2010.

Somehow some people seem a bit surprised about our plans, which pretty
much just flips my wig - we've been talking about this for years.
Besides that, there are a whole host of restrictions and provisos
imposed by the folks at Disney. And did I mention that we can really
start planning until September? Yeah, they make it about as easy as
hauling a yard of cement up a hill and it's about as clear.

Besides this whole wedding business, we've been training - rather
poorly - to run the Disney Half Marathon this coming January. I've
been excessively under motivated pretty much from the start. It's not
so much the effort or ever the distance, it's the lack of energy after
a long day at work.

Which brings us to work... Oy, work. So we fired one person in our
department and since then it's been crazy. Somehow we're getting it
all done, but just barely. We should have a full time replacement in
soon - and I can really use the break.

In other news, I finally got my iPhone 3G S... I'm using it to post
this right now. I was inpressed with M's iPhone 3G and the S is just
insane. I fear an intense addiction to it already and it's only 24
hours old.

I'm already using it to make real time updates in meeting and tweeting
pictures. Of course, there was the great contact fiasco. The import
from my sim card resulted in a jumbled mess of duplicates and partial
contacts. I then tried to move to Google Contacts, but that resulted
in quadruplicates. After backing everything up, deleting everything
from my iPhone, syncing, restoring the list to Google, syncing and
then hand matching it with my Blackberry I think I finally have
everything setup. We'll see what happens when I sync again tomorrow.

Speaking of syncing... That's sort of a pain. Not really sure why I
can't drag and drop files like I can with my iPod Classic. Oh well, at
least it's helping to ensure I actually listen to the podcasts I
subscribe to. I'm a big fan of the IndieFeed series - great way to
find new, good music.

Finally, we're in the process of making 56lbs of pulled pork. Our
parents are throwing us an engagement part this weekend. It's a
vintage picnic theme, complete with fried chicken. Not sure if pulled
pork is really period correct, but it sure tastes good. Why 56lbs?
Well, it would be a shame to run out before Christmas.

Well, it's time to turn to pork before it burns.

How quickly the week goes by...

2009-05-08T14:29:00.002-05:00

Okay, so last weekend, we filmed some videos with the intent of posting them sometime sooner than today. Of course, that didn't happen, so here they are...

From last week Friday:

From last week Saturday:

From last week Sunday:

And because I love this great city we live in, I offer you this wonderful video:

Better Late Than Never

2009-04-29T22:06:00.002-05:00

Finally we made time to edit the last videos - we've only been home for four days - that's way better than Nick's track record. Anyways, there are four episodes today.

These first two videos are of us driving around the city...

Then we finally had out celebrity encounter... with Speidi!

And finally we had to come home. Why do you always have to come home.

And so ends our SoCal trip. But since we have this whole wedding this to plan, we're going to try and keep this updated regularly, so be sure to keep checking back.

And if you're looking for M's ring, keep scrolling...

Seeing is believing

2009-04-29T16:55:00.001-05:00

I should've waited until my nails were polished to take these.. and yeek, my hands look old.

Land vs. World - My List

2009-04-26T12:32:00.004-05:00

Since we left Disneyland for the rest of Southern California I have been wanting to do my comparison write up of lands and attractions. Basically I am doing a Land vs. World list, since inevitably the question of "Which do you like better?" is going to come up. So it break it down simply, here is my list.

DLR = Disneyland Resort / WDW = Walt Disney World

Castle: DLR

Fantasyland: WDW
Tomorrowland: DLR
Toontown: Tied
Adventureland: WDW
Frontierland: DLR
Liberty Square/New Orleans Square: DLR

Tea Cups: DLR
It's A Small world: DLR
Space Mountain: DLR
Nemo Clams/Nemo Subs: DLR (Nemo Subs)
Innoventions: WDW
Buzz Lightyear: DLR
Pirates: DLR
Haunted Mansion: WDW
Monorail: DLR
Dinosaur/Indiana Jones: DLR (Indy)

Character availability: WDW

Animation Studio/Academy: DLR
Tower of Terror: DLR
MuppetVision 3D: Same
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster/California Screamin: WDW (RnRC)
Toy Story Mania: Same
Soarin: WDW (only because it's newer)

Downtown Disney: DLR

Finally, the videos where nothing happens

2009-04-25T23:37:00.001-05:00

Even though we are home, keep checking for videos as we have to upload all of the ones that couldn't be uploaded because of poopy hotel intertubes. So without further ado... the day where nothing remotely interesting happened.. at all.

Computers Suck.

2009-04-24T01:26:00.002-05:00

At least the internet connection in our hotel. See, the connection keeps resetting itself every few minutes. Which wouldn't be a major issue if we were typing a blog post or reading an email.

But when you're uploading a 300MB movie file... when the connection resets, things get messed up. And then you don't get to see our videos.

I guess we'll keep this baby charging all night and we'll try to find a nice place with Wi-Fi tomorrow morning for another shot at uploading.

Hope all is well.

Spent most of the day shopping, spent tons of cash and have bags and bags of things to show for it.

See you all soon.

Arg! Battery gone flat

2009-04-23T13:44:00.001-05:00

Well, the first video was almost done... When the computer ran out of juice.

Sorry... It'll be a little longer.
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It's Grey in LA Today

2009-04-23T13:34:00.001-05:00

Well, it had to happen, it's grey. High of 65 today. Grabbing a quick breakfast at Tart on Fairfax before heading over to the Grove, then to 3rd Street.

Trying - again - to upload our videos. Seems slow, but functional so far. Heres to hoping. Got about a third of the way through the first video.

The food at Tart is really good. Perhaps my mid-western tongue could use a nice heavy dose of salt, but still quite tasty.

Once the videos get uploaded, you'll be able to find them on our YouTube page. The link is down on your right. We'll just keep hoping.
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The Streets of Los Angeles

2009-04-23T10:56:00.002-05:00

Okay, so we HAD two more videos for you to watch this morning, but there seems to be an issue with them uploading. I'm not entirely sure what the deal is yet, but we'll keep trying.

Ultimately, nothing interesting happened yesterday. Nothing.

We drove up from Anaheim and hit the Fashion District. If we had a week to rummage or could go on a regular basis, we could probably find some great bargains, but with our limited schedule, it was a flop.

So was the North Vermont shopping district in Silver Lake, although they were totally filming something there. I couldn't see purchasing a $110 tie. It was nice, but it was still a tie.

Then there was Canter's on Fairfax. Nom! Totally yummie deli sandwiches.

Looks like the videos are FINALLY uploading through Google Chrome.

After Canter's, we hit Melrose. M finally scored some deals at Gossip and Mini Choi. Boy has Melrose changed. It used to be all funky and hipster - and it sorta still is - but all the stores have changed.

On a hugely disappointing note... My record stores. They've closed. Beat Non Stop... it stopped. Surely there is a new area for record stores in LA, but know not where it is.

After Melrose we checked in to our totally fabulous Beverly Hills hotel. We've got photos on Flickr. Then we rode through Beverly Hills and insane LA traffic to Santa Monica for shopping on 3rd Street.

Ta\hat said, we only made it a few blocks before we were interupted. But what? You'll have to wait for the videos.

Which have FAILED again!!! DO NOT WANT!

Arg!

More soon. We're looking for breakfast spots with Wi-Fi.

We're moving to Beverly Hills

2009-04-22T12:39:00.001-05:00

We'll at least hotels anyways... here's yesterday's video blogs.

Good Morning... It's our last day in Disneyland

2009-04-21T09:54:00.002-05:00

Wow... so I just woke up from the most bizarre dream. Apparently "Eric" didn't want me taking extra sauce from Quizno's, so he decided to fight with me in the parking lot. What the heck is that? What is in the air out here?

But, as I re-focus on reality, here's our videos from yesterday... presented in 4 easy to watch episodes.

In Search of Duckeh, Part 1:

In Search of Duckeh, Part 2:

That's Just Who We Are, Part 1:

That's Just Who We Are, Part 2:

And now, I'll go drink a Red Bull.

Off to bed after LOTSA video editing

2009-04-21T01:54:00.002-05:00

Wow, we took a ton a video today. I've got the vlogs uploading now... all 4 episodes. Why 4 - Cause even YouTube has limits!

I'll post the videos here in the morning when we get up. They are uploading now and need to process, so I'd guess they'll be available around 4:30 or 5am Eastern time if you're up all night awaiting patiently for our videos.

All of today's photos are up now on Flickr... Enjoy!

View More Photos

It's 104 in the Mickey and Friends parking structure.

2009-04-20T15:17:00.000-05:00

But it only feels like a solid 88. And there is a nice breeze too.

This morning has been pretty laid back. We spent most of it hunting for Donald, no luck so far.

Space Mountain was totally awesome, way better than World. Although, SM in World just went down for an entire rebuild... Can't wait for it to reopen with the Disneyland system.

M killed me on Buzz. Again. Check out the on-ride photo in our Flickr stream. http://www.flickr.com/photos/characterhunters/

We've been recording a lot more video blog entires todat too, so look for those tomorrow mid-day Clevo time.

I think the coolest thing we've seen today has been the stage show at Sleeping Beauty's Castle. Only wish we knew the name... Things tend to run a little differently here.

So, the unnamed stage show featured the Disneyland Marching Band, Mickey Mouse and his friends Donald, Chip, Dale, Pluto, Goofy, Pinoccio, Alice and the Hatter.

It was basically a little song and dance with the characters and the band, b ut the really amazing thing is how close to the crowd everyone is... They are right there in front of you.

We took video of the whole thing, so look for that on YouTube tomorrow too.

And now it's time for the Cafe Orleans Monte Cristo Challenge. Which Cristo will reign supre........... BREAKING NEWS!!!

NO THREE CHEESE CRISTO!!!!! :(

The kitchen has sadly informed us they are out of the Three Cheese Cristo. And we no longer get to see which Cristo reigns supreme.
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It's a Heat Wave... The Movie

2009-04-20T10:24:00.004-05:00

Did we mention it was hot yesterday?

And did we mention we've got lotsa photos up on Flickr?

We'll update more on the move.

All tucked in our beds....

2009-04-20T01:46:00.002-05:00

Well, it's about 3am Clevo time and M's already passed out and I'm waiting for the FlipCam video to finish saving so I can upload it to YouTube. We might finally be running West Coast time. Surely the bottle of Faillia Pinot Nior will help us finish adjusting.

Despite the heat, we had a prety good day and a great dinner. I'll leave the food reviewing to M, but I was quite please with Heather, Jorge, Kym and the rest of the staff at Napa Rose. The food was quite nommie as well.

Not exactly sure what plans for tomorrow are yet, but we're in good shape on parks. We've got about 2/3 of Disneyland finished and nearly hald of California Adventure.

Plus, we've still got more time up in LA, where we'll be hitting the hot spots, the notso hot spots and the food spots inbetween.

Check back soon for video and photos.

California Adventure

2009-04-19T13:49:00.003-05:00

Happy Birthday to me! We are sitting in CA awaiting the Animation Academy drawing class, always one of my favorites. Maybe we will get to draw Duckeh!

It's hot today in socal but we are still enjoying the park. I have my birthday button and am enjoying all of the extra attention. Tower of Terror here is awesome. Not only is the exterior theming better, but the ride itself is awesome. We uave also been on Monsters Inc and Muppet Vision 3D. So far a great day!

I am really looking forward to dinner tonight at Napa Rose, California Grill's Calfornia counterpart. East coast vs west coast; let's see who's cuisine reigns supreme!

Vlogging from the Original Magic Kingdom

2009-04-19T11:16:00.002-05:00

Watch the video blog we made yesterday:

Plus, we've got our photos uploading now, so they'll be on flickr soon.

And, don't forget, it's MORGAN'S BIRTHDAY!!!

Happy Birthday Morgan!

M on Main Street

2009-04-18T22:37:00.002-05:00

So, J says it's time for me to update the blogs so here I am, standing in Disneyland, waiting for fireworks, blogging. Gotta love mobile technology.

I am feeling pretty tired after a long and fun day. We discovered the Buzz here has guns you can pick up to shoot with and you can also email your ride photos to yourself, which are on our Flickr. I also discovered that Indy is way cooler than Dinosaur. The weather was gorgeous today, too. We had a great lunch at River Belle Terrace where they served sandwiches with hand carved meats. They were so fresh and flavorfull - I challenge you to find anything that fresh in MK.

We had dinner at Blue Bayou, quick is the restaurant inside Pirates. I owe it a real review and not something rushed that I write while I am standing in the middle of Main Street.

So, this may be brief but it's what you get for now. My legs are tired!

It's been a great morning.

2009-04-18T12:02:00.000-05:00

Despite waking up still on Clevo time, we're doing quite well.

We made it out the door before 8am and it was a quick 5 minute walk to the park, including waiting to cross the street. In less than 8 we were inside of the park.

M has been amazed by the scale and either they've changed a lot or I've seriously forgotten.

After walking down Main Street and getting some great photopass photos - thanks Juliette! - we hit Sleeping Beauty Castle and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

And then we found true happiness in the magical land of Alice! M feels Tea Cups are hands down better here, however the line for Alice in Wonderland was a little long, so we'll have to head back - and hit Tea Cups again, I'm sure.

Matterhorn was good, but two adults in those cars are a bit tight. After a quick walk through Tomorrowland, we found a mysterious vegetable garden in the middle of the park. Craziness... I wonder how long until the avacadoes are ready?

We're breaking now for some breakfast... A nommie Sticky Bun and blended mochas. Nom.

M has been uploading some photos from her iPhone, so check out our Flickr photos. The link is down on the right under "around the web" or something like that.
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It was a long day.

2009-04-18T09:03:00.001-05:00

The flight was pretty uneventful. I watched a few movies on my pod and M played a bit of Mario Bros. on her DS. The "Beef Charbroiled" Burger was interesting. I think we'll skip that next time.

M was ultra excited as we made out final approach to LAX. We had a pretty good view of the entire area, even thought it was a little hazy.

< At this point, it's around 11:30pm LA time, 2:30am Cleveland time and I'm typing this - in the dark - in bed when M rolls over and says to me, "You're too cnnected. Go to bed." Not wanting to make our first day stressful, I went to bed. We now resume the story at a cheerful 6:30am LA time. >

I think the captain went to Butta-School of plane landing because I've never had a smoother landing. No hops, no skips, no jolts and no shutters. The rest of LAX was a breeze too.

Our luggage was like the ten bag to come down the shoot and we only waited about 10 minutes for the shuttle to pick us up. No celebrity sitings though - much to M's dismay.

Our flight crew was on the shuttle with us, sounds like there was a pretty little bio-spill towards the end of the flight. Oddly enough, the first song we hear is an obnoxiously loud "California Love." M was wondering if they get paid to drive around LAX blasting it.

One stop later, we were picking up the White '09 Corolla from Mid Way Rental at the Radison. The people at Mid Way were phenominal with a capital phenomincal and a slice of phenomincal on the side. We were in, we were out, we laughed, we learned about all the red light cameras and we were on the 105, headed towards Norwalk.

And then we made the gaunt over to the 5 south towards Anaheim were we came to a dead stop 5 times or more. For a while my max speed was 34. Once we got hrough the construction, we made good time.

I'm really not sure M was prepared for Disneyland - and it really is a bit odd to be driving down the road and being able to hear the screams of people on Tower of Terror - because she was absolutely amazed at it all.

Hotel check-in was quick and efficient, personality took a back seat, but who cares - it was quick and efficient. The room is huge, there is enough room for a line dance and a keg stand. Parking, however, seems to be a minor issue. Imagine that!

Then it was off to the biggest Target in my universe - it wasn't even a Greatland Target and it hadn't even been updated yet, but damn it was huge. Watch the video... It's huge.

But by far the hit of the night was In-N-Out in Anaheim on Brookhurst. I think M was a little surprised at how packed it was and by how many people were waiting for their order.

I know there is no way I can describe the look on M's face when she tasted her extra pickle, extra toasty burger, but if bliss exists, M might have found it right there. I have begun saving to open my own franchise in Clevo, as I cannot go another decade without a tasty double double.

And so ends out day of travels. Now if we could just get hooked to LA time and stop waking up at 2am, 4:30am and 6am, we'll be in great shape.

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On the Plane.

2009-04-17T15:52:00.000-05:00

At long last, we're finally on the plane. We're got five long hours on a nice metal tube with wings. Thankfully we've mostly perfected this "flight" thing.

We'll see you all again in a week and we're update you again once we land.
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Way Way Ahead of Schedule.

2009-04-17T13:32:00.000-05:00

So, yeah, we're actually back at the house chillin' because we literally have nothing else to do. At least we're not rushed.

Dad R. will be taking us to the airport in about half an hour and we'll get to wait more there. Guess we'll just have to enjoy some frosty beverages in preperation for our 5pm departure.
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Ahead of Schedule means Corned Beef sammiches.

2009-04-17T11:58:00.000-05:00

What do you do when you're ahead of schedule? You get sammiches at Luna's. Corned Beef and Pastrami for me and Salami and Pastrami for M.

We still need to hit Target for a few last minute things, but we're solid otherwise.

More news from the road soon.
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Did I mention it's going to be 76 and sunny with no chance of rain?

2009-04-17T10:27:00.000-05:00

So, we're getting ready to take get out of the house. The bags are mostly packed and barring a few last minute things, we're in great shape.

No photos or video yet, but we've go the links down to the right... Look under the "Visit us on the Web" section for links.

Don't forget to vote for what type of pictures we should take... We'll try to follow your recommendations.

Well, that's it for now, got to finish getting ready and hit the road.
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Picking a hotel when you are completely indecisive

2009-02-18T21:42:00.003-05:00

With about two months to go until our plane departs Lake Dreary, we/I finally decided on a hotel in Anaheim.

As a WDW vet, hotel selection for Disneyland is a rather daunting experience. At WDW it seems more simple: you pick your price point, you pick your theme, maybe you wait for a pin code, and then you book. Easy peasy lemon squeezey. For us, it has been even more simple lately as Jeff's parents have DVC. So basically we tag along with where ever they are using their points (AKV is fabulous, daahlinks!).

Disneyland is.. slightly different. First off, there are only three official Disney hotels in Anaheim. Second, at our point in time of travel, they don't come cheaper than $300/night. Yikes. No All-Stars here.

No, rather the "values" lie across the street and around the general vicinity of Harbor and Katella. Hotel, motel, Holiday Inn. Chains, franchises, individually owned. Castle themed, Candy Cane themed, and one strange place called Little Boy Blue Motel. The reviews are NOT friendly for the latter.

Early in our trip planning I had convinced myself that I understood the financial irresponsibility of actually staying at a DLR hotel, so I jumped into the idea of the HoJo Anaheim. Yeah, really, a HoJo. I ate up the kitschy retro decor, the super friendly staff, the newly renovated rooms. Oh yeah, and the exceptional Entertainment Book Rate. But it's me... and instead of jumping on the rate I stalled. And realized I really, really wanted to stay at the Disneyland hotel.

As a WDW veteran, part of me craves that room theme; returning from a long day at the park to flop on the bed and discover a new Hidden Mickey; my hands smelling that familiar Disney soap scent. I hoped and waited for some sort of discount.. that never materialized. And in the process, we lost the Entertainment Rate at the Hojo.

So the search resumed and of all places we booked.. the Fairfield Inn. Right across the street and behind a McDonalds, but mostly because a)I've slept in their beds before and I know they are comfortable and b)they have Disney posters on the walls in your room. Something so small really meant a lot. It may not be a Hidden Mickey in the wallpaper, but the idea of slipping off to sleep with Donald and Daisy above my head is close enough to make this WDW vet feel like home.

We're booking our trip...

2009-01-22T21:02:00.002-05:00

Well, it's confirmed, we're going to LA. The flights are booked and we're staying at, at least in part, at the Crowne Plaza Beverly Hills just outside of Century City.

We lift off Friday, April 17th and will return Saturday, April 24th... which means we'll be celebrating M's birthday in Disneyland.

So far it sounds likes we'll be spending four days in Disneyland before moving up to Century City for three days in the city. I'm not sure what M's more excited about, but I'm most excited just to head back to LA.

Blogging gets away...

2008-10-20T11:49:00.001-05:00

It seems like we always stop blogging mid-week, doesn't it?

Well, we are home now but never fear because we have lots of video to show you! And you can always check out our Flickr for tons of photos!

Back to the real world, there is new plotting to be done! Particularly exciting this one (no, we're not engaged) and I look forward to keeping you all posted if the plans become a reality!

Catching up with us...

2008-10-14T11:17:00.000-05:00

So far we've been pretty lucky when it comes to weather. It's been in the mid-80's without too much humity. The sun has really been our only problem, it's blazing hot when it's out. It rained most of Monday afternoon, but nothing too terrible. It didn't even stop us from swimming at the Hotel.

Sunday after the race we hit up Epcot for Food and Wine, which was quite yummy. We noshed at about half of the pavillions - we'll be hitting the rest tonight. We both think our favorite thus far has to be the Quesadilla from Mexico City. Morgan will do more justice to I on all the food reviews, so look for that soon.

Monday we hit Magic Kingdom, which was surprisingly empty considering it was Columbus Day. We got in around 9:30 and we hit almost everything we wanted to do by 11:30 - Morgan even beat me twice on Buzz Lightyear.

We had a nice light lunch at Chaos Ray's. Morgan had the Chicken Ceasar and I had the Turkey Bacon Wrap. We both agreed the Eclipse Chips were the best - who doesn't love homemade potato chips?

After some shopping we headed back to AKV for a swim and a shower before dinner at California Grill. Mom, Dad, Morgan and I drove over to eliminate travel complications. It's amazing what a twenty does for you valet service... More on that later.

I think it was great to finally share the California Grill experience with someone else, sometimes it's just too hard to explain it without a point of reference. Carol and David took very good care of us throughout out three and a half hour meal. We even got to enjoy HalloWishes from the observation deck.

When we finally left, Karl - the valet - not only remembered my name, but also our car, which he sprinted to and spun it up faster than you could say Hello.

Thanks to two bottles of wine, Mom drove us back to AKV, where we just had to stop off for one last drink at Victoria Falls.

Today we're in Studios. We're already hit Muppet Vision 3D and Tower of Terror, plus had some yummy breakfast sammiches at the ABC Commissary and now we're in line for Rock'n Rollercoaster starring Aerosmith.

Appearently the contract with Aerosmith is up soon; if they don't renew, the rumor is a re-brand to Rock'n Rollercoaster featuring THE ELECTRIC MAYHEM!!! Rock on Dr. Teeth with your golden teeth and golden tones!

This afternoon we'll likely grab another swim before taking care of the other half of the Food and Wine pavillions in Epcot. I'll try to get more of our video blogs posted then too; we've got two days worth to post.

Until then, check out our photos on Flickr, the link is just to your right....
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Race Day... Yes, I said "Race Day" on Vacation.

2008-10-12T19:56:00.000-05:00

So, we got up at the unearthly hour of 5am to get ready for the Race for the Taste 10k. After slamming a few Red Bulls and strapping on some shoes, we hopped in Sully and shot down the street to Disney's Wide World of Sports. We arrived around 6:15 only to mostly stand around about 45 minutes, unfortunately next to a man who smelled quite unfortunate... for our tastes at least.

Here's some pre-race video....

For the most part the race went pretty smoothly, althought I really don't get the whole Run/Walk timing thing. It really just seems like a way of running a race without running to me - but then again, I'm the guy who went from not running to running a 10k in around 6 months.

Let's Get This Party Started...

Crossing the Starting Line...

Closing in on Mile One...

Chatting with Morgan...

Entering Studios...

Jeff crosses Mile Two...

Running Through Lights, Motor Cars, Action...

Jeff Vlogs while in Studios

Backstage... that white truck in the distance reads... "M & J: Characters"

Jeff Vlogs at Mile Five

Jeff talks with a CM on a Segway...

Entering Future World

Jeff Crosses the Finish Line

Morgan with a DUCK after the race

Straw - Berry - Short - Cake!

Jeff's Post Race Wrap Up Vlog

So, that's pretty much the whole race. I'm sure Morgan will post a more detailed description of it on her running blog, but the most important part is... We started and finished.

Video Blogging - Day 1

2008-10-11T16:35:00.002-05:00

At The Airport...

Welcome to Animal Kingdom Villas!

A Last Hello From Parma

2008-10-10T21:48:00.000-05:00

Well, it's that time again. We're off to the home of the Duck - and the Mouse too.

We'll be taking the Rooks Taxi Service first thing tomorrow morning. Then our friendly neighborhood Continental pilot will be delivering us to MCO. It would be extra nice if they did that safely.

Then we'll be hopping the Magical Express bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge and the real fun will begin.

For those of you following along with the Disney Vacation Home Edition board game, we'll be doing the usual blogging and photos, but this year we've got a few extra ticks!

Thanks to the Target clearance racks we'll be running a webcam and Morgan picked up a Flip video camera.

Some highlights for this trip include the Race for the Taste 10k on Sunday Morning, dinner at California Grill, the Food and Wine Festival at EPCOT and not going to work for a week.

Well, it's about time to get to bed, cause tomorrow is going to come around really fast. See you all on the intertubes.
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10 Days to Go!

2008-09-30T13:05:00.002-05:00

Ten days to go until we leave for our latest Disney adventures. This will be our second October trip coinciding with the Food & Wine Festival and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. What we are doing new this time is running the endurance event of the F&W Fest called the Race For The Taste 10k!

It's hard to believe that we only have 10 days left until we leave. Both of our costumes (you can dress up for MNSSHP) are needing finishing touches - mine more so than Jeff. My blazer needs a dye job and my skirt need a waist band and a hem. At least my hat should arrive in the coming days.

The draw of the Food and Wine Festival is the booths that line World Showcase offering tapas style samples of delectable dishes from around the world. I am particularly looking forward to the bacon-and-butter boxty from the Irish booth. YUM!

How did it get to be Friday?

2008-06-13T11:21:00.001-05:00

Wow, it's almost the end already. Before we get sad, lets remember, if we can, the past few days.

On Wednesday night, we went to Hoop Dee Doo at Fort Wilderness. The longest continuously running stage show, HDD has performed over 36,000 shows in the past 37 years. It's also the home to fried chicken, ribs and bottleless sangria, something which most of us consumed quite heavily.

M was mostly fine, but I ran across the "drunken-ness" line like a champion. A minor headache and some general rustiness aside, I was fairly okay Thursday morning. Others faired worse than I, though.

Thursday we tried something new... Well, new to M - Typhoon Lagoon, one of Disney's two water parks. Move over Dover Lake, this park is top notch. While we spent most of our time in the wave pool, we swam through the snorkle tank and rode the water coaster, Crushin' Gusher, twice.

The coolest part of the park was the photopass photographers in the water.

The we went to dinner at Boma at Animal Kingdom Lodge which features an African-inspired buffet. Afterwards we headed to Downtown Disney for a little shopping.

Tired out from the water, we headed back to the resort and watch The Hunchback.

This morning we did the coolest thing ever - Segway! After the half hour training segment - and Aunt Linda falling off her Segway - we started our tour of Fort Wilderness and the Wilderness Lodge.

Our all-terrain trip overed black top, sand, wood decking, cement and wood chips. Ron and Robert guided us on the journey and told us some trivia about WDW, FW and even Donald Duck. Somehow Kevin managed to get thrown from his Segway, leaving us all laughing.

Segway is by far one of the most exciting things I have ever done.
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Plagued by Transportation - Again!

2008-06-11T10:00:00.000-05:00

It would seem the curse of OKW stuck again, as it too us 90 minutes, two buses, numerous stops and a walking pass four resorts in the rain to get to our dinner ressie at Le Cellier yesterday. Although we got to the bust stop a full 80 minutes early, not bus for EPCOT cam for the 25 minutes we waited at our stop, nor for the 15 minutes it tooks us to get out of OKW on a bus bound for Downtown Disney.

Unfortuantely, our travwl situation put us in a less than savory mood when we got to dinner. While Le Cellier is still good, M and I both felt that the food and service has taken a decline in the past year or so. Gone are the speaches about the province you're sitting in or why they serve pretzel, sour dought and multigrain breads.

All in all, it was a nice family gatheing, but I believe the sun has set on our love affair with Le Cellier.

Afterwards, we strolled around World Showcase and I enjoyed 20% of M's fried ice cream before hopping on a monorail bound for Transportation and Ticketing Center. We then continued our stroll around the Polynesian Resort.

Photographer M wanted to get some good photos of Wishes, so we headed in to MK. We shared a garbage can by Crystal Palace with 200 of our strangerist friends and M got some good shots of things exploding over Cinderella's Castle.

We had a late hot dog snack at Casey's - the best hot dogs this side of, well, Casey's. Then we took a relaxing ride around Tomorrowland on the TTA, one of my favorites. As we were getting off, we bumped into the Kasych's and did Buzz Lightyear three times with them. M won the first two rounds and Bonus Jonus Kevin (aka Stevie) won the third.

Grabbing some popcorn, we headed back to OKW.

This morning we got up early to head to Hollywood Studios, making a B-line to Toy Story Midway Mania. We have offically become Midway Maniacs!!! We're in line for our third ride of the day now and we have FP for 12:55 as well.

We definitely have a new favorite ride. M won the first round, I won the second. It's about time for us to board, so... Pour me some coffee Alejandro.
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Once again we join our intreped explorers...

2008-06-10T14:29:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we made short work of EPCOT. We got Fast Passes for Soarin' then rode Mission:Space standby. We convinced the two kids riding with us that it would be their faults if we crashed, knowing full well that part of the attraction was a crash landing on Mars.

Afterwards we hit Soarin' which seemed really short to me, it's a great attraction, but it's over faster than it really begins. Then we ate lunch at Seasons. M had the Turkey sandwich with cous cous and I had the Grinder with Tabboule. The sandwiches were excellent, but the sides were a little off. Good, just not great.

Then we headed off to World Showcase, enjoying the films of Canada, France and China. By far the highlight was our visit to Japan where M got another pearl. It's a 6 3/4 Green and Gold the we had set in a nice silver ring.

Then we hopped back to the hotel for a refreshing shower - it's been supa hot here - before our dinner ressie at The Wave.

The Wave is Disney's newest restaurant, located at the Contemporary Resort - we were joining them for their second day of operation. I'll leave all the brilliant food reviewing to M, but I can say I quite enjoyed the food and service.

As M puts it, "it's suffering from an identity crisis." It looks, feels, tastes and costs like an upscale, 'signature' restaurant, but the screaming babies on either side of us and the children crawling around under the table behind us made it seem more like Chef Mickey's than a classy place to eat.

M and I are both looking forward to trying The Wave for breakfast, lunch and dinner again soon, perhaps even sometime this week.

After dinner, we joined the whole bunch down at the pool for another relaxing swim before passing out as Mike and Sully tried to save Boo from Randall.

This morning we headed off property to check out the Orlando Premium Outlets. We both got some new running shorts, but struck out on everything else.

We spent a go half an hour trying to locate the Sonic Drive-In, but ended up settling for Uno Chicago Grill. It was okay, but not as good as I remembered. The group of Disney employees seated behind us were making some interesting conversation though.

Our adventure continued as we searched for Body Glide, an anti-chaffing gel that runner use. Just as we were about to give up, we found it at Sports Authority.

David a the Publix Liquior Store gets our "Most Helpful Person" award for the day. Although they didn't carry the bottle of St. Germain, he offered to call several of his competators to locate one for us. We declined, but still, very, very cool. We will continue to shop at Publix.

Now we're sitting on a bus that will eventually get us to Le Cellier at the Canadian pavillion in EPCOT for our dinner ressie with the whole fam.
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It pays to be a celebrity

2008-06-09T08:22:00.001-05:00

Hola from the Millers Road bus stop. We are waiting for a bus to EPCOT and enjoying a nice but hot morning.
Yesterday we hit Hollywood Studios and Star Wars weekends. It was very crowded with folks hitting up all of the SWW festivities! We were there to see Stormtrooper Donald, of course!
We got shut out of the first line for Donald but did manage to catch Princess Leia Minnie! She was very excited to be attending SWW!

Third time ended up being a charm for that cuddly duck but we bided our time in between with a drawing class where we sketched some Pooh Bear.

After Studios we headed back to OKW to meet up with the rest of the family who had finally arrived. We swam and I slept/tanned before we departed for dinner and Illuminations at EPCOT. The shwarma at Tangerine Cafe was fabulous as always and I discovered a new favorite alcoholic beverage: Nuvo! It's a pink, fruit flavored, sparkling vodka. Fabulous!

As we were setting up the camera for
Illuminations (two hours early) we were awarded for our dedication with
Magical Moments passes for VIP Illuminations viewing in the French Lower. It was great viewing, I just wish my photography skillz were better!
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The food just keeps getting better.

2008-06-08T09:07:00.001-05:00

It was super hot in MK yesterday. As we walked under the train station, we saw Chip and Dale meetin' and greetin' in front of the flag pole, so we had to stop. Check out the photos of Morgan with the Munks on our Flickr page. There is a link over there on the right side...

So then we headed back to tomorrowland for some more Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. Then we hung out with Donald, Pluto and Goofy back in Mickey's Toon Town Fair.

Iced Coffees in hand, we went on the search for ink for Morgan. Nothing says vacation like a new tatoo! Luckily these ones have cartoon characters on them and the wash off in 3 to 5 days. Sadly, we struck out.

I found my new favorite counter service (fast food) restaurant in MK: The Pirate and the Parrot. Their taco salad, complete with toppings bar, is brilliant! The give you seasoned taco meat in a torillia bowl and the you can make your own salad with lettuce, tomato, onion, cheese and salsa. It was nice and refreshing on such a hot day.

James and Dominique were both very nice and made the experience so much better. James was our "order taking guy," yes that's a technical term, and he kept giving Morgan a hard time about not getting the taco salad, telling that she was "getting the taco plate." Dominique was our server person and she just seemed super excited to be serving food.

After lunch we did some photos with Captain Hook, watched Dream Along with Mickey in the searing heat, hit Buzz and TTA and grabbed Mickey Preimium Ice Creams on the way back to OKW.

Some swimming, relaxing and burning later, we got ready to head to California Grill for dinner. I forgot dress socks, which really bother me, but all was well. It would seem they are getting very relaxed in their dress code.

We had some time to kill before dinner, so we had some drinks at the Outter Rim bar before heading up to the 15th floor.

While I'll leave the actual food reviewing to Morgan, I must say this was my favorite trip to CG. The food was absolutely perfect and Mike, our exceptional waiter, was nothing short of, well, exceptional.

This morning we're off to get Stormtrooper Duck at Star Wars Weekends at Hollywood Studios.
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Good Morning from OKW!

2008-06-07T08:10:00.002-05:00

Yes, we slept in a bit. We needed!!

ME dropped us off first at OKW and we quickly exited to the lush greenery and the warm sounds of island tunes. Marti was amazing and, completely reading my mind, set is back at building 18 in the Miller Road area - which is our favorite! It's very quiet and relaxing back here; super close to the Hospitality House, too!! We are even enjoying a second floor studio which, unlike the first floor studios with their a/c unit view, offers us a beautiful view of the lake, fountain and golf course. Sweet!!

Our groceries were delivered with no problem and I managed to snag us an ADR for the brand new restaurant at The Contemporary, The Wave. I am so excited!!

We chose to end the the night at MK. We rode Buzz and Space Mountain, although we waited too late and got pooched for a good spot for Wishes, we still managed to get some good shots on the camcorder. Add in a midnight swim and everything is off to a great start!!

Back to MK today for some Gay Days (heehee), maybe some other Mountains, definitely a Duck and then off to CG tonight!!

The eagle has landed...

2008-06-06T16:50:00.000-05:00

After a delay at CLE, we got off the ground about 30 minutes late. But we've made it to Orlando fine and all is well.

Appearently Continental no longer does snacks on short flights, as we only got some Pibb. We found the quite funny beacuse of the Continental ad on the wall at CLE that talks about how they, unlike other airlines, haven't cut back on service.

The flight was pretty smooth and the pilot was cruising. We made the whole trip in under two hours.

We grabbed a quick sandwich at the chik and now we're on the bus waiting to start our journey to Old Key West. With luck we should be in the park before 8. That gives us a glorious 6 hours to enjoy! Go extra majic hours!
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So this is how it feels to be ahead of schedule!

2008-06-05T12:21:00.004-05:00

Wow... I'm at a loss, because we're ahead of schedule. We got 95% of our stuff packed last night after having some yummy Don Ramon. I have to admit, last week I had visions of us shoving clothes into our bags Friday Morning. Of course we've still got some last minute stuff to pack, but I think we're on easy street.

Now if the day would only go by faster, I'd be eternally grateful. There are tons of things I can do, but they are all large projects, ones that I can't really get done in one day - half a day I guess now. Come on quiting time!

And while I couldn't really think of anything to do on vacation except relax the other day, now I'm getting excited about all the things we can do. The Haunted Mansion, Tower of Terror, Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story Mania... when will we be there? When, when, when!?!?

It's beginning to look at lot like...

2008-06-03T11:41:00.006-05:00

I've been working hard to prevent vacationitis, but little can stop that now as we're underneath the 3 day mark. Thankfully we've accomplished a lot towards pre-packing and after a fun filled evening of laundry, we have the bulk of our stuff ready to pack.

I've even found some time to get the video iPod loaded up with some movies to watch on the flight down. Now if only Ratatouille would cooperate, we could enjoy that as well. Is it too much to ask?

After looking through the recent Twisney tweets, I've starting to think about what I'm most looking forward to doing, but nothing seems to be standing out. I think a break is the most important thing right now, as I feel like we've done nothing but rush the past month. Between work and weddings and family gatherings, I feel like we've been doing everything but relaxing for a long, long time.

Just knowing that we can do whatever we want, when we want, without needing to rush to get something. Some good food, fine drinks and exceptional cheese. Now that is vacation.

Notes from Morgan: Relaxing is good, Buzz Lightyear is better and YES, PLEASE GOD CHEESE TRAY!! (I think I'm losing it.)

Seven days makes one...

2008-05-30T14:00:00.003-05:00

...ready to go on vacation!

This is Morgan, for a change. And as the clock ticks down to less than seven days until we depart on a jet plane for Sunny Orlando, preparations are beginning to take place for our impending departure.

A mobile-friendly Google Doc has been created for our Crackberries detailing ADRs (Advanced Dining Reservations) with times and ressie numbers, as well as sheets listing park times and who has EMH (Extra Magic Hours) when. It is much simpler than - albeit not as cute as - our normal printed trip card where we usually struggle to fit all that information on to a 5"x4" card.

At some point in time I need to make a new pack list as well because I fear my old list is woefully out of date. I have a tendency to be very specific in my clothing items on my pack list (i.e., Navy Blue H&M roll-up pants) and I believe most of the clothing on my previous pack lists has since been handed off to Goodwill. Jeff seems to have a knack for packing without a list, but myself I find it to be necessary. Especially since I have, on multiple occasions, forgotten to pack socks. I will have twenty pairs of undies for a 5 day trip (thanks mom!) but nary a pair of socks. Go figure.

So not that I think anyone has really bothered to start reading this yet but if you do.. what do you always forget to pack?

It's Wednesday and that means we leave in just 9 days!

2008-05-28T08:48:00.001-05:00

It occured to me this morning as I drove to work that we are running out of time. While I really can't wait for vacation, I'm beginning to feel the stress of the pre-vacation rush.

There is laundry and dishes and shopping and recycling and the apartment is a mess. Plus there is runnng and Danny and Jessie's wedding this weekend in Toledo and packing and more packing. And that doesn't even include all of the stuff I need to get done at work.

And, so, in the face of a million things that need getting done, I've decided to do the only reasonable thing... take a short break so I can get use to blogging from the Crackberry, cause, as we all know, that is by far one of the most important things on the list.

What does that countdown clock read?

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It seems that my techno-addiction know no bounds!

2008-05-25T12:17:00.003-05:00

In less than a week we exponentially increased our connection to the intertubes. We've - translation: J has - added an intertube connected Crackberry, Twitter, Mobile Blogging and YouTube to our list of intertube activities.

Although many may be surprised to find we didn't do these thing already considering my job as a web developer, I had resisited such technologies for the very reason. When you're making the intertubes, the last thing you might want to do is spend your personal time on the intertubes.

All that said, I've become addicted to these things in about 48 hours. And so I resign myself to a life of intertube addiction. Of course, remember that this is for the betterment of all Disney-kind! Of this new level of connection means better and more frequenty Disney Blogs, Tweets, photos and video.

See, I've completely justified my position as I sit comfortably on our couch sipping coffee while blogging and tweeting on my crackberry. And what does M think about all of this? I dunno, but she's surfing for new Firefox search engine plug-ins and YouTube videos as I type. See, we have no addiction problems! :)

Check out the custom countdown clock for the up-to-the-minute details on when we depart poohy Cleveland for Magical WDW!!! Until then, pour me some more coffee Alejandro!

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Well, Aren't we just the techno-hounds

2008-05-23T05:51:00.003-05:00

So, we setup a Twitter account last night. What's that? Honestly, I didn't even really know until I started looking into it yesterday. Twitter is like an ultra-short blog, where you are supposed to post what you're doing "Right Now."

So, I figured it would be just another way for folks to keep track of us while we're in Disney. Plus, we really wanted to use it so we could Twisney! Thats right... up to the minute updates from around the World. Need a vacation? See what your missing at Twisney.

Well, it's time for breakfast. Pour me some cereal Alejandro!

Our first phone blog

2008-05-21T21:20:00.000-05:00

Well, it's almost Disney time again. Since we always start out blogging, get about two days in and then forget to do it, we've decided to try something a new.

So get ready to join us as we blog mobily in Disney!

The magic begins in just 16 days.
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Tuesday... in the Kingdom of Animals

2007-12-04T16:32:00.000-05:00

Sadly, today has been almost a little chilly. It was only 53 degrees when we woke up. With a high of around 70, no clouds in the sky and no chance of rain, we clearly had a tough day ahead of us.

We made our way to Animal Kingdom to catch up with our friends Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and, of course, Donald. Mickey and Minnie were dressed for the holidays and Goofy was playing the part of Santa. Donald, ever dedicated to his job as park ranger, only added a small glimmering star to the top of his hat.

After making the rounds we headed to the new Asian themed restaurant, the Yak and Yeti. Opting for the counter service experience, we shared the Kung Pao Beef, the Crispy Honey Chicken and an order of Pork Egg Rolls. The Egg Rolls were excellent and the rest of the meal was quite good. We will definitely have to try the table service side soon.

We then hit Dinosaur and meet up with Goofy and Pluto for a quick photo-op before taking the Expedition Everest challenge. There is nothing like climbing Everest with a Yeti on your tail!

Now we're back at the hotel getting ready to head to dinner after a nice relaxing swim. Tonight we're trying Kona Cafe at the Polynesian Resort. Having eaten there several times for breakfast and already check out their menu, it will undoubtedly be exceptional. Then we're heading off to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party at the Magic Kingdom, another first.

Look for the full report tomorrow. Check out all the photos today.

Monday - Another Smoother Day

2007-12-04T08:39:00.000-05:00

So far we've been extra lucky. Despite the cheer and football teams in for a tournament at Disney's Wide World of Sports, the parks have been pretty empty.

We hit Mission: SPACE as soon as we got to EPCOT. I am always amazed by how they actually make it feel liked you're flying a rocket to Mars. From the g-force on take off to the weightlessness of outer space they make it feel real.

Then we grabbed a frozen coffee and meandered through the stores before we headed to Journey into Imagination and our friend Figment. Who would have through that a purple reptile could give two grown adults that much joy?

Next we hit The Land. With Soaring posting an 80 minute wait, we got FastPasses and opted to ride Listen to the Land. After a brief history of farming, you see new farming techniques in the Disney Greenhouses. The really brilliant part is they actually use these vegetables at Disney restaurants.

We had lunch at Seasons inside The Land. Morgan had the Turkey and Munster and I had the Ham and Salami. As usual, I'll leave the food reviewing to Morgan.

Then we headed to World Showcase for Santa's Around The World where each explains the holiday traditions in either country. We saw the Three Kings in Mexico, Julenissen in Norway, Helga in Germany, La Befana in Italy and Japan.

Morgan and I both agree that La Befana was our favorite thus far. She was the funniest, most energetic and who doesn't love an old school Italian Mafioso accent?

They we headed to the Contemporary Resort for dinner at Chef Mickey's with my family. Served buffet style, the food is okay, but who goes there for food when you get characters? Chefs Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy all come visit your table individually, something my Aunt Myrna, Gram and Mike all enjoy - like they we 5.

Morgan and I enjoyed the cheese plate at the hotel bar much better, but thats another story. We've got more photos uploading to Flickr now - like 600+ - and we're off to Animal Kingdom soon. And, yes, that's 600 from yesterday.

Sunday - A Perfect Day

2007-12-03T22:56:00.000-05:00

After the a great night, Sunday started off perfect. We got to Magic Kingdom around 10am and walked right on to Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Morgan totally womped me 900000+ to 300000+, but it's okay, I've known she was a better Space Ranger that I for quite some time.

After Buzz we we asked to take a survey about the attraction; hopefully our input help keep Buzz around, as it's one of very favorite. Next we hit The original mountain in the Disney Mountain Range, Space Mountain. Then we got one of our favorite treats, Cappuccino Floats at the Enchanted Grove.

As we cooled off with our coffee treats, we spied Donald Duck. In a flash we were off to see him. As if one Duck wasn't enough, we were lucky enough to hit Donald and then we got right back into line for Uncle Scrooge. Morgan was in Duck heaven.

The Haunted Mansion was recently refurbed and all I can say is WOW! Okay, I can say that they really did a lot. The enhanced and upgraded over half of the attraction and two sections were completely new. It has always been one of their vest best attractions; these additions will prove to keep it so for a few more decades.

We then enjoyed burgers before we hit Splash Mountain. They need to update their signs. The signs say, "You May Get Wet." They need to say, "You Will Get Soaked." Neither of us have ever gotten that wet before, so I think they might have made the attraction "wetter," but who knows.

After wandering around for a while and hitting Buzz a few more times, we ended up in front of Cinderella's Castle for the Castle Lighting Ceremony. Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy did a little song and dance then called upon the Fairy Godmother, Cinderella and Price Charming for help in lighting the Castle for the holidays. It truly is a spectacular sight.

As soon as the ceremony was over, we made a mad dash for the boat to Fort Wilderness, home of Pioneer Hall and the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue. My parents, Gram & Mike and Great Aunt Myrna joined us for dinner. It was especially great to see my Aunt having such a great time; she smiled so much her cheeks must have hurt.

It's so hard to express in words what it's like here, there is magic in the air.

Good Morning From The Sunny South!

2007-12-03T08:38:00.000-05:00

Wow! It's already Monday? Lets flash back to Friday Night. Our plane departed Cleveland at 5:05pm. It was nice and smooth; Morgan and I enjoyed watching Ratatouille on the laptop as we moved south through the air. After a quick dinner at Chick-Fil-A at the airport, we hopped onto our Disney Bus. By 9:15pm we were check it and on our way to enjoying a little R&R at Downtown Disney.

We walked around, ordered some ornaments, did some shopping, had a drink and were back on a bus by midnight. Unfortunately, our bags were a bit delayed in getting to our room and we ended up staying up to 3am.

Saturday morning came around faster than we would have liked, but it was time to go to the filming of the Christmas Parade. After a quick stop by the front desk to voice my concerns about the luggage situation, we were on the bus to Magic Kingdom.

We flashed our special Audience badge and received our secret purple filming wristbands - that were not supposed to be worn on our wrists - and were ushered into the park. As we walked in, Regis and Kelly were perched above Main Street and the Lion King float was being filmed.

It was really weird to be watching the parade like this. They would perform for 8 to 30 seconds and then stop for 3 to 10 minutes as they reset the cameras. After the Lion King float came a few groups of dancers, the villain's float, more dancers, a few large balloons, latin sensation Menudo, the Power Rangers, the Incredibles, Mike & Sully from Monsters, Inc., Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars and the Little Einstein characters.

It was cooling being there, but after an hour on your feet and a very limited chance of actually ending up on the small screen, we opted to get hot dogs at Casey's. Nick - you'd be proud, we did them up right.

With the heat of the afternoon pouring down, we hopped back on our bus for a swim and a nap. I again check in on the luggage situation and we prepared for our dinner at California Grille - I'll leave the full review on that to Morgan. Undoubtedly she will compose a much more beautiful and elegant version the likes of War & Peace.

Personally, I feel the magic of our vacation begins here. We had the best dinner of our lives, with the most breath taking view and by far the best service. It was absolutely perfect.

Then we returned to our room to find that Julie, one of the hotel managers, had made up for our delayed luggage by decorating our room with balloons and beads. Plus there were coffee mugs, a hat, a bag, a photo album and a pair of Christmas Stockings. It was the perfect end to a rocky day.

We're off to EPCOT now and we have photos uploading to our Flickr now. I'll try to get caught up on the rest of the story this afternoon and I'll let Morgan begin her War & Peace on dinner as well.

Finally... We Get To Monday.

2007-04-25T21:48:00.000-05:00

On Monday, we started with breakfast at Kona Cafe, located at the Polynesian Resort. Morgan had the Macadamia Pineapple Pancakes served with macadamia nut butter and bacon and I had the Two Eggs Your Way served with home fried potatoes, a biscuit, and bacon. After breakfast, we hopped the Monorail to EPCOT.

We made our way over to Mission: SPACE for the More Intense Training. Morgan was the engineer and I was the commander of our training mission to Mars. I still say the worse part of the attraction is the ending... it comes far too soon. There is something truly amazing about feeling like you are actually in space.

After grabbing some Ice Mochas and checking out some of the Flower and Garden Festival, we rode Imagination! and then visited with Figment, who seemed very lonesome.

We then began our trip around the World Showcase in search of characters. We found Snow White outside of the Germany Pavilion, Princess Jasmine and the Genie in Morocco and Marie in France.

Opting to try something new, we went to the Lotus Blossom Cafe at the China Pavilion. Morgan tried the Rou Jia Mo - a Chinese sandwich with thin slices of beef inside of a soft wheat flatbread. I had the Orange Chicken and we split an order of the Pot Stickers. Over all, the food was better than your Chinese chain restaurant, but not as good as your corner Chinese takeout shop.

Shortly after lunch we headed back to the hotel for a swim and Morgan worked on her Walden. Be sure to read her masterpiece on our experiences at the California Grill.

2007-04-24T14:57:00.000-05:00

Well, we've covered a lot of ground over the past several days. On Saturday, we hit Magic Kingdom (MK). The park was pretty busy, but it was overcast and not terribly hot.

We had a bit of trouble getting into the park and even had to have Morgan's park pass replaced. Then we headed over to Town Hall to get her Birthday Pin. The CM, Echo - from Japan - was nice enough to translate Morgan into Japanese as well, which pretty much just made her day!

After a walk down the very busy Main Street USA, we hit the brand new Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. It's a great way for little kids to interact with Mike Wazowski, but it lacks a little for the older kids, like us.

After the Laugh Floor, I went to get FastPasses for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, only to fine that my pass didn't work, so we had to get that replaced as well.

New park passes and fast passes in hand, we bopped over to Mickey's Toontown Fair to visit with Donald and Daisy and Chip 'N Dale. And then we had to take a moment to let Morgan get her dance on with Dance Dance Revolution Disney Rave at the Tomorrowland Arcade.

In preperation for our meal at California Grill (You DID read Morgan's Walden about CG, right?), we decided to split a Chicken Wrap from Pecos Bill's.

Sunday, we slept in a bit and then headed back to MK for more fun. We meet up with Jiminy Cricket and took a few photos and released some lady bugs for the Earth Day Celebration before heading over to hang out with Alice.

We rode the Haunted Mansion, which is desperately in need of a refurb. They rushed us through the attraction and leaving us very disappointed. Thankfully, it's scheduled to be closed all summer for an overhaul.

After some walking around, we stopped at the Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch. We started with the Tavern Fried Cheese, which were excellent. Warm and slightly gooey, they were coated in a light batter. Morgan had the Colony Salad, which was served in a huge triangle shaped bowl, while I had the Tri-Corner sandwich, which was shaped like a triangle.

My sandwich, had juicy roast beef, swiss, coleslaw, creamy horseradish and arugula on focaccia bread - very tasty. Morgan's salad was a good mix of sweet and smokiness, with crisp vegetables, creamy cheese and tender grilled chicken.

The real treat came with dessert. Our waitress, Randi, brought out our Caramel Apple Tart. A town crier followed close behind, ringing a bell, informing all of the impending birthday celebration and a cast of wait-staff appeared to sing the Liberty Tree Tavern version of Happy Birthday. However, the best part was the autographed birthday card, which likely dates back to the early 1990's.

After lunch we had to ride one of our favorites, Carousel of Progress. Despite constant rumors of it's demise, it's a favor of many a guest and the virtual chorus line of us singing along to "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" proves it.

Then we headed back to the OKW for some rest and a swim. We got back into MK in the early evening and hit a few attractions before lining up to see SpectroMagic. After Spectro, we basically turned around to see Wishes!

As the crowds began to leave the park, we headed over for some dinner at Pecos Bill's, where we both had Cheeseburgers with Bacon. While they were good, they definitely weren't as good as we were expecting. After eating, we rushed off to Pirates of the Caribbean to catch up with Captain Jack Sparrow.

Well, that pretty much wraps up Sunday... and it's already Wednesday morning. So, for those of you following along back at home, I'm sorry we're running so far behind. We'll try to get some more updates in soon. Until then, keep checking out our Flickr, as I've been uploading the images every night.

High on top of the World - The California Grill

2007-04-22T07:40:00.000-05:00

Last night we dined for my Official Birthday Dinner at Disney's California Grill at The Contemporary Resort. The California Grill is located on the 15th (top) floor of the hotel and is surrounded by windows offering a spectacular view of Disney property. Seatings here during The Magic Kingdom's fireworks spectacular, Wishes, are highly sought after.

We were less concerned with the view and more concerned with the Chef's Counter -where you are able to sit and watch the food Magic happen. Unfortunately, the counter spaces were full, so I decided to "settle" for a regular table.

There was no settling.

The view was incredible. Breathtaking. Directly in front of us the sun was transforming in a glowing, firey orange ball on the horizon, painting the sky brilliant shades of orange, pink and purple. Slightly to our right MK and Cinderella's Castle sat, basking in the glow of sunset, the Castle itself glowing softly in a mixture of shadow and light. Slightly to our left was The Grand Floridian resort and Seven Seas Lagoon, both lit by the setting sun behind them. To our rear we could spy the white capped peaks of Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom and the sphere of Spaceship Earth at EPCOT, twinkling in the light of the sun.

Our server was Benjamin - he was incredible - knowledgeable, personable and around just the perfect amount of the time. I started with a glass of Wild Horse Pinot Noir - a lightly sweet, slightly velvety red. Jeff had a glass of the Gundlach Bundschu Merlot - dry and fruity, with a hint of earthiness.

We started with the cheese board: a collection of five cheeses and their compliments.

Serena: A rich, creamy Gouda-Parmesan cross. It's taste was rich, slightly sharp and with a hint of smokiness. It was excellent on its own, but paired with the pear paste it unveiled a heavenly richness offset by the sweet, pungent fruitiness of the pear.
Winchester Gouda: A dry, crumbling cheese. Exceptionally sharp, but with a distinct richness. It was paired with raw Honey Comb. The pairing was nice, but not incredibly memorable to me. Perhaps I would've enjoyed it more if I was more of a honey fan.
Flixer: A very subtle, mild cheese. Only in its finish do you really ascertain any distinctness in flavor - a warm nuttiness - however, paired with the Candied Marcona Almonds, this cheese really comes along. It brought to mind a savory nut brittle, with the sweetness of almonds and the exceptionally smooth taste of the Flixer.
Sofia: Mild, extremely creamy goat cheese that may have Jeff rethinking his feelings on goat cheese. I can see this cheese being an excellent addition to a chicken dish - melting ever so slightly to enhance the flavors of the chicken. Paired with raisins on the vine, which added a delightful chewiness to the butter smooth cheese.
Echo Mountain Blue: Crisp and yet mild in its blue cheese flavor. A mixture of goat and cow's milk lent to its overall texture and depth in flavor. Paired with a sweet-tart Apple Chutney, the combination danced on your tongue with the complexity of the flavorings.

Following the cheese, Jeff had the Chipotle Braised Chicken flatbread with sweet onion marmalade, crispy bacon and chili aioli. The flatbread itself had a light, chewy texture; the perfect bed for the tender, juicy, pulled chicken and the contrasting flavors of the sweet onion marmalade and the creamy, slightly spicy chipotle drizzle.

Due to the fact that the incredible sushi chef Yoshi was in, I had the Double Crunch Rainbow Roll sushi: tuna, yellowtail, salmon, avocado, tobiko and crunch. The colors on the roll itself were bright while maintaining an almost translucent hue. The fish was fresh, slightly sweet, with a smooth texture and mouth feel. The crunch added a playful touch along with the tobiko, which popped and danced on my tongue. Chef Yoshi heightened the experience by offering a fireball sauce in place of the traditional soy; the sauce was a supercharged kick to the mildness of the roll on its own.

Our entrees were two of the Calfornia Grill's signature dishes: the Oak-fired Filet of Beef with Gruyere-Potato Pave, broccolini, and Teriyaki Barbecue Sauce and the Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Creamy Goat Cheese Polenta, Cremini Mushrooms, Zinfandel Glaze and Sage.

The filet was cooked perfectly; seared nicely on the outside, reddish-pink and juicy on the inside. With each bite, the layers of taste unfolded; first, a hint of soy, followed by the tangy sweet of teriyaki and the smokiness of the barbecue sauce, and finally the delectable taste of a good piece of beef. The potatoes were light and creamy, sliced wafer thin and added a richness to the overall dish. The broccolini hinted at being steamed in a mix of soy and teriyaki, adding to the taste harmony of the entire dish.

The Grilled Pork Tenderloin was unlike any pork I have ever eaten before. Cooked perfectly, the tenderloin was blissfully juicy and perfectly spiced. Fork tender, it was ready to be shredded into pulled pork with little effort. The rich, velvety Zinfandel glaze added new depth to the overall flavors and the goat cheese polenta lent its smooth texture to the mouthfeel of the dish. The polenta was as much a star as the pork itself, offering its own depth and complexity in its simplicity.

Dessert was a warm, freshly baked Pear Tartlet served with fresh made Almond Ice Cream and a molten, liquid chocolate-centered Valrhona cake with fresh made Strawberry Ice Cream. The pear tartlet was warm with comforting flavors of vanilla and cinnamon. The tartlet pastry was delicately light and buttery, giving way to fresh, lightly sugared sliced pears in a sumptuous pear glaze. The warm Valrhona cake was decatently rich; the warm liquid chocolate center oozing out to coat the moist, fluffy chocolate cake. The sweet-tart strawberry ice cream recharged the taste buds when paired with the rich chocolate. Both desserts were accompanied by a delightfully sweet, fruity and refreshing glass of Mission Hill Rieseling Ice Wine.

Contented, and in an almost dream-like state, we finished our dinner at The California Grill. Over the course of 2+ hours we enjoyed the most sumptuous foods our taste buds had ever entertained. We were filled with amazing food, an incredible view and the enjoyment of a night well spent.

Greetings From Walt Disney World

2007-04-21T15:55:00.000-05:00

Hola DisWishersYouWereHere-ers!!

Obviously we are in the great place known as Walt Disney World! We arrived late yesterday night after a very, very smooth flight in from Cleveland. It seems that the employees at CLE have been bitten by a bit of the Magic themselves as everyone there was just as friendly as can be - even the old guy selling us the Red Bull.

We landed in Orlando and had dinner at Chick-Fil-A in the MCO food court - did you know in the south they offer lettuce, tomato and CHEESE for your Chick sandwich!?! Mmmm, cheese!! (Sorry, no photos!) Our Magical Express bus driver and checker-in person were both pretty Magical and Doug, our driver, was nice enough to drop us off at Old Key West first.

Here's where the not-so-magical part comes in... I kept thinking to myself that I should see if we could get in Building 18 - where we've stayed two times before - but I didn't and my payback was a night with no sleep. For those of you that know me, you know I am a light sleeper. Our suite was right on top of the road and I "woke" up a very unhappy Morgan. Our combined unhappiness was further compounded by the "brilliance" of Kiki and Eric at the Check-In Desk who were completely UNmagical and UNhelpful in everyway. Well we did end up getting a new room, which is quite nice and near a pool.

The weather is beautiful here and our day at the Magic Kingdom was fun and relaxing. I got my birthday button, which has my name in both English AND Japanese (yay for Japanese CMs!!) AND has "hidden" Mickey's!! I was totally overwhelmed at how many people wished me a Happy Birthday - its truly magical how both regular people and CMs are so friendly when they're in Disney!

Anyway, we are about to get ready and head off to California Grill for my Birthday Dinner. I am so excited about the delish food I am sure we are about to have! We've got 200 some photos uploading now, so be sure to check out our Flickr in a bit!

Happy Birthday, Morgan!

2007-04-19T07:38:00.001-05:00

Sushi
Originally uploaded by M & J: Character Hunters.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Thank you everyone for your kind well wishes and thoughts on my birthday - I really appreciate it!

I also appreciate the fact that in a little less than 36 hours J and I will be in sunny (by that time, dark) Florida!

But, in the meantime, I am happy to celebrate my birthday with family and friends here in Cleveland. Last night J, myself and Mom & Dad Rooks ventured to Tomo in Strongsville. I munched on some extremely yummy sushi (volcano maki, salmon skin roll and norway roll) while J enjoyed some tasy chicken teriyaki.

Tonite we dine with the Smyczek's at Bucca di Beppo! (Can we pause for a second to acknowledge my extreme excitement at garlic mashed potatoes?) We will be sure to post photos tomorrow.

One more day!!

Welcome! Bienvenue! Willkommen! Boa vinda! Benvenuto! Recepción! Добро

2007-04-17T18:03:00.001-05:00

Wii Boxing
Originally uploaded by M & J: Character Hunters.

Welcome to our little place on the web. So, it's the week of M's B-Day and things just got really, really good. She won the grand prize and we're going to NYC to see the new Scar-Jo movie The Nanny Diaries. It's an all expenses paid trip direct to the red carpet. More details to come!

Oh, did I forget to mention we're leaving for Disney in just 3 days? Yep! Even though it's right around the corner, it seems so far. Between trying to wrap up stuff at work, packing and planning B-Day dinners for M, it's busy busy busy. But, then again, I don't think we can really complain.

We went out to Quaker Steak & Lube with our friends on Saturday to start celebrating M's B-Day. Afterwards, we came back to our place to Wii. If you haven't Wii-ed yet, DO IT! It's pretty sweet to be able to go bowling in your living room. Don't believe me? Check out the photos at our Flickr page.