mini-vacation to Florida

My Momma and I had a mini-trip to Florida to visit Miss New Hampshire.  We were a little delayed getting into the Tampa airport but finally made it and settled in at Debbie's around 2:30am.  This would be a whirlwind trip since we arrived Wednesday early am (our 2:30 bedtime) and departed at 6am Saturday.  Plenty of time for my mom and her best friend to get into trouble and for me to bail them out (trouble, yes.  bailing out, no--thankfully).

We started our Wednesday off by sleeping in before heading to SparkleSkirt headquarters.  I am obsessed with my SparkleSkirts and this was on the way to Disney so we just had to stop.  I loved looking at the rows and rows of skirts and picking out a few new lovelies to take home.

 Of course they have a red carpet down the center of their warehouse.  My mom and Debbie decided to try on a skirt.  Debbie came out of the dressing room and was very surprised by how comfortable it was.  Both of them left with a skirt and proceeded to wear them the rest of the afternoon and very much enjoyed being "hands free."  Meaning they didn't have to carry a purse or other stuff since they shoved it in the leg pockets and waist band zippered pocket.

 I was excited to see this sign:

 We also stopped in the Disney-esqu town of Celebration to go to the RawThreads retail store.  RawThreads is a bamboo clothing place.  Their shirts are beyond amazing for comfort.  Still not sure if I want to run in one but they are so soft and cozy for wearing around.  I saw the Disney Vacation Club building (and other buildings in the area) that reminded me very much of classic California around the time Disney was building his Disneyland.

 The very BEST sign in the world.  Yup, we went to Disney World.  We did not go to any of the parks but we did go to Downtown Disney so I could get my Disney fix.  We did some shopping and then I had the brilliant idea that I would venture on my own if mom and Debbie didn't want to come with me. I was going to go to a resort and catch the Magic Kingdom fireworks and come back.  Lucky for me they decided to go on this adventure.

 We ended up sitting on the beach at the Polynesian resort and having dinner and watching fireworks.  While waiting for fireworks they had The Little Mermaid playing on the beach.  I haven't seen the movie in a long time and it was nice to catch a little bit of it.  Unfortunately they had to end the movie early (after the intermission for the fireworks) due to a storm in the are.  I guess we were also very lucky since some lady said it was the first time all week they had fireworks cause of rain and storms.

I was a very happy girl to have a little bit of my Disney fix and am very excited I get to go back for the races in January.  The only thing that would have been better would be if they had Dole Whips but due to renovations they did not.  This was just day one of our adventures with Miss New Hampshire in Florida.

Happy February!

Wow, sorry about that!  I completely skipped over blogging here for the month of January.  I did however do a nice job of blogging over at my running one.  If you want to read about the 5k and 10k you can check it out here.

As you can see I am a pro at wearing amazing outfits that make people scratch their heads.  Yes polka dots and strips plus crocs with socks.  I have no shame.  My friend Kelly and I wore matching Sparkle Skirts for the race.  

 You can read about my half marathon adventure here.  It was hot and humid but of course I enjoyed almost every minute of the race (there is always some time where you are like, enough already, where's the finish).

 And I broke the marathon into two posts here and here.  Happy reading on what most of January was about.  Other than that it is just getting back into routines here at home and signing up for new races.

EPCOT candlelight processional

I had heard that the Candlelight Processional at EPCOT was amazing so it ended up on my list of things to do while at Disney for the holidays.  After getting up early for a run I dragged Luke out of bed to make the most of our day at EPCOT.  They had this cute holiday display made of gingerbread and confections.

 We went on the Living with the Land boat ride that shows you innovative ways they are working on growing crops and such.  They had a few touches of holiday in the attraction with a sand-man.

 I loved the Santa Mickey hat with attached scarf/mittens but I didn't need it so it stayed in the store.  It is awfully cute though.

 Luke went on this attraction.  Basically you have a few minutes to build your own ride and then you scan your MagicBand and hop into a pod thing that flings you around with your ride on a screen in front of you.  He gave it a big thumbs up and would have probably done it again if it wasn't a half hour wait for 1 minute of ride (plus I sat there bored since it's not my thing).

 After his thrilling attraction we sat down to watch some holiday Gospel thing they had nearby.  Apparently the action of his thrill ride was too much for him and he fell asleep on my shoulder.  I showed him the picture when we a got home and he was in denial and does not recall the incident.

 To ensure that we were going to have seats for the Candlelight Processional we booked a dinner package at the Germany Biergarten.  Food was a buffet and was delicious.  We were even treated to some entertainment.  I highly recommend the Biergarten for anyone visiting EPCOT.  With our dinner we were guaranteed seats at the 6:45 show of the Processional and did not have to stand in the standby line for hours with no guarantee of getting into any of the 3 shows (people wait for 6 hours in that line and still don't get into a show sometimes).

 After our feast we walked to a few more countries before standing in line for 30 minutes to be let in to our Candlelight show.  It was a perfect evening with the temps cooling off into the low 70's.

 I highly suggest catching the Candlelight Processional.  The chorus is amazing and the 50 piece orchestra and celebrity guest narrator are the icing on the cake.  We had Sigourney Weaver as our narrator for the night.  Amy Grant and Neil Patrick Harris are among some of the other narrators during the holiday season.

 And a little video of the Candlelight Processional as the choir was leaving at the end of the show.  Amazing and I had such a great time at Disney for the Holidays.  Now to check it out for Halloween and...well, any time of the year.

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

We decided not to get a park ticket to Magic Kingdom for the day since we would be allowed to enter the park at 4 pm for the Party and stay til midnight (plus I'd be back in January and Disney is more of my thing).

 They had a Mickey and Minnie snowman standing on top of the entrance gates on the road to the park.  Once we arrived by bus we went to the will call booth to get our tickets put on our bands.

 We were then given special wrist bands to wear in addition to our MagicBands so that we would be allowed to stay in the park when the closed it at 7 for the Party.  Love the outfits they were wearing.  Their giant candy cane striped bows were attached to a headband.

 First on the agenda was to hit up our fastpass attractions and check out the decorations during the day since they look different at night all lit up.  I was in love.  I had seen most of the decorations before but to have holiday music playing made the wow factor for me.

 They had filmed the Christmas day parade earlier in the day as well as the previous two days.  It was crowded but not as bad as I was expecting.  Of course our first fastpass was for Dumbo.  There wasn't really a line though.  I like the no line at Dumbo thing lately, it is really working out in my favor.

 Although everything was decorated and holiday music was playing I can say it just didn't "feel" like Christmas was only 17 days away since it was warm (hello 70's) and I am used to cold days and usually some snow.

 The castle looked absolutely stunning draped in icicle lights and the Christmas parade did not disappoint.  I think it might have been better during the day though.  I still enjoyed the music and the holiday magic that only Disney can bring.

 We had dancing candy makers and bakers and gingerbread men.

 

 We watched the parade from near the hub area (so we were kind of by the Castle) and if we had been on Main Street it would have been snowing on us.  Later that night we walked down the snowy Main Street and I soaked up every minute of it.  Snow is really beautiful when you aren't shivering from the cold.

 Our Party came with cookies (snicker doodles) and cocoa.  I ate a lot of cookies and drank a lot of cocoa.  Luke was tired and I know it wasn't really his cup of tea but he was a trooper and let me wander around all night and do whatever I wanted.  If I wanted to watch a show he just found somewhere to sit down and such until I was ready to move on.

 One of my favorite parts of the evening was the Jingle Cruise.  They decorated the line area and added in some new jokes with holiday references.  I loved it.  We probably would have gone for a second trip through the rivers of the world if it weren't for the fact that the line grew significantly and there was a lot more that I wanted to see and do.  The part of the cruise where they are chanting and dancing about were apparently carolers so our skipper told us to duck and pretend that no one was home and maybe they'd go away.  She was "milking" the jokes for all they were worth, especially the one about Ginger the croc that snaps.

 After I watched the Totally Tomorrowland Christmas we called it a night and headed for the bus.  It was about 11:30 and the park closed at midnight.  I figured we'd miss the rush of the party leaving.  I did walk extra slow through the snow on Main Street though as we left.  Just thinking of the music, lights and snow now puts a huge smile on my face.

 Merry Christmas to All and to All a Goodnight!

It's a Disney Christmas

After our Cruise we took a few days to check out Disney for the Holidays.  Love!  I was a little disappointed since I figured there would be more decorations but it was still amazing.  I was expecting more since I've seen decorations at various stages when at Disney for the races in January.  Still amazing though.  We stayed at the Pop Century resort.  Apparently so did a bunch of Pop Warner Cheerleaders and Football Players.  They were rowdy by the pool the one night at 11pm and I was trying to sleep so I could get up early for my long run the next day and then hit up the park early.

 After we checked in we headed over to the Grand Floridian to see the life size gingerbread house display.  It did not disappoint.  Entering the lobby doors you could smell gingerbread.

 The details on the house were amazing and were made of confections.  The flowers were "edible" materials, not silk ones glued on.

 There was even smoke that they had coming out of the chimney.  I treated myself to a "shingle" at the bakery window (they sell gingerbread goodies out of the house).  It was ok tasting but not the gingerbread I am used too.  Not super strong gingerbread flavor and kind of soft (I like mine a little crunchier and flavorful).

 We took a little time to look at the decorations before resort hopping to check out others that we had read about displays and such.

 A quick trip on the monorail landed us at the Contemporary for the gingerbread tree in the main concourse.  The tree was very tall and they also had confections available to purchase here as well (though we passed, the shingle was quite large).

 

 From here we walked to the Magic Kingdom and hopped a bus to the Boardwalk Resort area.  I knew they had a display and a Gingerbread Carousel nearby.  There was a fairly large miniature Christmas village with lots of nods to Disney.

 And a short walk down the Boardwalk we were treated to the Carousel made of gingerbread.

 They have some very talented bakers and artists.  I get frustrated with my little house after about an hour.  I can only imagine the time and effort put forth to make such an amazing display that is only going to last just over a month and be destroyed.  After our confectionary stops (all the resorts had cute theme decorations but I could tell Luke was over it) we headed to Down Town Disney for some shopping and dinner.

 We ended up at the Rainforest Cafe Lava Lounge outside.  It was a little bit of a wait but an absolutely picture perfect evening to be eating outside.

Very excited about my 16 mile run the next morning and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!