BBQUEST 2009!!!

Our "family" vacations this year are centering around food. I say vacations but really it is one themed vacation. Bill and I are going travel and try the distinct BBQ styles of the US.

Now there are many sub styles etc and many places say they are the best but what it boils down to is this: North Carolina, Kansas, St. Louis, and Texas. For fun we have added some stops along the way and these are the main towns we are planning on traveling to this year:

Charlotte
Kansas City
St. Louis
Memphis
Nashville
Louisville
Austin
San Antonio

This quest is being split into three vacations. The first is coming up this weekend.

Bill and I will be traveling to visit my good friend (and once vegetarian) Carolyn. Carolyn has been gracious enough to offer us a place to stay and her car on Friday. She has also found entertainment for us in the form of clogging.

Anyway, I'll take pictures and upload and maybe we can convince Bill to blog too

we're back!

Bill and I made it back to rainy windy Chicago on time this afternoon. 

We spent Christmas day at the Animal Kingdom as planned and then had a nice buffet dinner poolside at the resort.  Friday many of us went to Blizzard Beach while Jeff and Giddo drove Larry back to Tampa and Mom and Mimi went on an all day excursion to the outlet mall.  (the excursion really should have been like a three hour tour...)

And like that our trip was over and we are back in the nasty weather of Chicago, though at least it is warm right now.

Thanks for joining us!

more pictuers

Here are some more pictures from last night

Merry Christmas!

I know it will be Christmas by the time this actually posts as it is 11:50 right now. We had a fantastic day today at Epcot.

Mimi Mom Bill and I left for the park opening due to a miscommunication with our groups. We walked over to soarin' first thing and got a fast pass for an hour later. so we rode the boat through living with the land (the hydroponic green house ride) and then had some breakfast. Soarin' was great as it always is, and I think Mom and Mimi really enjoyed it. We then walked over to the Living seas and met up with the rest of the group who had finally joined us. but then we decided they were moving too slow for our taste and Mom Mimi Bill and I went off to see the countries while they spent some more time at the seas and then waited for their 1pm fast passes for soarin'.

We got the package for the candle light processional with the lunch at the German Pavilion. I think it was worth it because after our fabulous lunch we were able to seat ourselves in the American Amplitheater and bypass lines that wrapped through two countries.

The Candlelight Processional was wonderful. the guest narrator was Steven Curtis Chapman. I think all of the adults enjoyed it and the kids were very well behaved.

After the show we were able to walk through the rest of the counties taking a break to see the Beatles cover band in the UK. Mom liked them so much that she Giddo Mimi Bill and I stayed for the next showing while the rest of the group went to ride test track.

We all gathered in Mexico for the Illuminations show. it was as beautiful as always, and they added an extra 5 min of song and fireworks afterwards for Christmas. It was really incredible, but I think Disney has really ruined the normal fourth of July for our group. You just can't compete with that.

Everyone in the group says Merry Christmas to all of you!!! Tomorrow after the kids open Santa's gifts we will be heading off to Animal Kingdom.

pictures

This was in Down Town Disney oops I loaded the test picture in the "large" format

short post

wow i am tired. we had a long day today, or at least I did. Bill got to hang out an relax for the morning, but he and I and my mom went to dinner and then to see La Nouba at downtown Disney.

Brian Christie Bobby and Ben left around 530 today. I am sure they will have an uneventful and safe trip home.

tomorrow is a very very long day so don't expect anything from me. I'll probably blog on Christmas.

because sarah said i would...

75 min does not = 120

We went to Disney Hollywood Studios (aka MGM) today with some of the group. Bill the three boys and I waited in a line that claimed to be 75 min for the rockin' roller coaster. after over 120 min we finally boarded our "limo". The boys loved it and in the end that makes it worth while.

Then we rode tower of terror and then found mom and Maura and got a quick bite. then we headed off the see the Muppet's 3D movie. The kids I think were more into the pin trading then anything else.

Tonight we sat all 21 of us down to dinner at Spoodles. the food was good the service not so much. I know serving 21 of us is rough, but our server was just not friendly and unhelpful. no worries though because we all still really enjoyed ourselves.

After dinner back at the hotels we all piled into Maura and Jeff's room for Wii and Pinochle. Even Mimi played Wii!

I have been trying for about an hour to load pictures but it just isn't meant to be tonight. Tomorrow maybe if you, my gentle readers, are very good Bill will blog and get some pictures up on here.

safe and sound

We have made it to Florida safe and sound.

We left very early this morning and it was -5 degrees (-24 with the wind chill) and when we landed it was a beautiful 75. Bill and I rushed off to meet up with the family at the Magic Kingdom.

When we arrived most of our group was off on different rides, but Bill and i had a nice welcoming committee of Mimi, Giddo, and Mom. Mom Bill and I went to Buzz Light year (to infinity and BEYOND!) and then Mom and I rode in the tea cups. In the later afternoon we went on the pirates ride with Mimi ,Giddo, and Mom, and then met up with Brian and Christie for some haunted mansion fun and a viewing of the Philharmagic.

We watched the light parade not once but twice and enjoyed the holiday fireworks (though I missed my normal Wishes).

Bobby came over to our room to hang out for a bit and now I am sitting here with mom going to sleep and Bill in the shower.

If going on a family vacation teaches you anything it is that you need to have more patience and a very good plan. I am all about flexibility on somethings but trying to coordinate 21 people is not an easy task. Planning is key to a good Disney vacation, and with a good plan you will have time left over with which you can be flexible.

I will try to get some photos up tomorrow.

Good night.

back to disney!

Bill and I are going back to disney for a Michael/Weber/Shibley/Hillard/Young crazy Christmas adventure. I am hoping to convince Bill to help me update this blog with disney pictures etc.

hmm thinking about using this blog for other purposes. but first maybe we can use it for out up coming trip to disney

in case 1700 was too much

our slideshow

PICS

link to snap fish

We'll add the last 2 days tonight. the up loading is a pain.

back

We made it back a day late and a few pounds short after having to stay overnight at a heathrow hotel.

we'll write up a final post or two and give links to our photos in the next day or two.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this.

-Sarah

France in 2 days.

Sorry about yesterday… I was under the weather … so much so that we skipped our morning excursion today. I think it’s a mixture of not enough sleep and bad allergies. Anyway we ended up not doing the morning excursion that we switched our night time casino excursion to…. Everything worked out well in the end… but we’ll get back to that in a bit.

Yesterday was Marseille and we had a half day excursion to Aix. It was a hour and a half walking tour with about an hour and a half on your own. The walking tour was nice but Bill and I had a good time just walking through the town. We did the up hill hike to Cezanne’s birth place. We walked around the markets and got some delicious chocolate croissants. We came back to the ship as I was already not feeling the best and napped during the siesta time. We then went into Marseille for a few hours. I guess Marseille is really god for shopping but it was too rich for my blood. We got some souvenirs and walked around a bit and then hurried back to the ship. We didn’t want to miss When Disney Dreams show. The show was great and there was a much bigger audience than the Twice Charmed one. Pirates night was also going on so we got a nice pirate pic taken and went to the deck party after dinner. Fireworks were great. The dis folks with an early dinner had staked out one of the “raised” decks in the back with a few tables so after we had the fireworks we headed down and hung out with then for a bit.

Today we had originally scheduled the night time casino, but we canceled it and changed to the bus tour (it was the only thing left) because we were going to miss out on too much. And it is a good thing since in the end I wasn’t feeling the best today. However, we skipped the new excursion we had switched to because at 715 I felt pretty crappy. So we got up around 10 and took a train to Nice on our own. Nice (niece) was really nice. The beach, however, was a “pebble” beach or what I would call small stones. Not very good to walk on in bare feet. After wandering through tiny twisty streets of store fronts, we made our way back to the station. We took the train directly to Monte Carlo and the Casino. The Casino was very beautiful stain glass windows in all the rooms frescos and paintings very James Bond. Unfortunately for Bill, the black jack room didn’t open until 5:10 and the latest we would want to leave to catch our train was 5:10. so we playd at the 5E min roulette table. It was fun and we went up and down for a bit. But in the end we were down and played our last chips. I was playing black and red (with only one 0 I had good odds) and bill played a few numbers. One of his numbers was then winning one and we walked away up for the gambling and about break even for the day (considering the tour we payed for and skipped). Anyway we had a lot of fun, but I don’t know if the 25E min Black Jack tables would have been 4 hours of fun at night.

Tonight was a new show called when Mickey Dreams. It was Cirque-like, but rather short and had a lot of filler. The acrobats were cool though. Tonight was semi formal night and the “midnight” buffet. Lots of fun but now it is 1am and I am ready to go to sleep. I think we’ll try to load some pics tomorrow if we have extra min.

-sarah

1 Pic ... Internet's being dumb

Riomaggiore the southern most town in the Cinque Terre region

Cinque Terre & La Spezia

Today we were at the port town of La Spezia. This is the port that is the “entrance” to Florence and Pisa. Bill and I had a really hard time deciding weather we would want to go on the 2.5 hour bus trip for an excursion that gave us a very limited time in Florence or to take the day after Rome easy. In the end, we decided to take an easy and to check out the port and then go to Cinque Terre (Chin-QUAH Ter-ray). Considering we slept in until almost 11, I think taking today easy was the best thing for us. If we had been on the 11 day cruise with the sea day after Rome, we might have had an easier decision in going to Florence. As it was we were really happy about the day we had. Aside from Barcelona, I think this was Bill’s and my favorite port. (Rome is not a port btw). The port was clean and quaint but it had lots of shops and eateries. The train station was nice, but if we hadn’t gone into the “Cinque Terre tourism ticket office” I don’t know how easily we would have navigated the train station. As it was, we ended up with only enough time to really see one of the 5 towns but we did walk part of the path to the next one. It was very beautiful and I can really see why it is one of Rick Steve’s favorites. Not over crowded, still charming, farming town.

We would have had more time but we really wanted to make it back for the Disney show Twice Charmed. Wonderful show!!! Tonight was our DIS group dinner at Palos. Very very good. Bill and I couldn’t get dinner there on our own so we were really happy that our Dis group got the big room. Part of our group almost missed the last tender…. The tents and everything Disney set up had been taken down and they had to sprint for the tender boat before it left.

Tonight after dinner we are trying to catch up on the laundry a little and then we need to get to bed we have an 8:30 tour to Aix. Ciao!!
-Sarah

some pics from rome

Forum

Pantheon

Pantheon

ciao bella

Rome. Wow.
We had the Highlights of Rome and the Vatican Museum excursion. It was a long day but I think worth it. The first part of the trip is a bus tour that went around most of “ancient Rome” We went to the Trevi fountain and then were given some free time. free time was based on how much time we had left before lunch was scheduled. We got about 40 minuets. In that period of time, Bill and I were about to walk to the Pantheon and to Piazza Navarro and get a taste and feel of a little of Rome. We then had to walk a ways to meet our bus and go to lunch. Lunch was at best ok but it sustained us and provided working wash rooms. We then walked a ways back to our bus and then drove through the Villa Borghese. We met our Vatican guide outside the Vatican and then waited in the security line for the museum for about 15-20 min. it really wasn’t a bad wait but it was very hot outside. Once through security we were allowed to use the washrooms while our guide bought our tickets. And then….

Our Vatican museum tour was wonderful. there is so much to see that we have to come back. Our guide gave wonderful descriptions and enough time to see what we saw but I feel like there is so much more. Went we got to the Sistine chapel we were given about 20 min to enjoy all the frescos. It was amazing! After the chapel we went to the basilica and saw all the amazing sculptures and mosaics. The pieta was breathtaking, though I do wish we could have gotten closer. After a tour of the basilica, we went out to Saint Peter’s Square and then had some gelato. We were then given about 20 min to shop for souvenirs.

Ok this part is for all of you DISers: This tour is not like the description.. The 2-2.5 hours for free time doesn’t exist. We had 40 min but other buses on our tour got as little as 20 min. The buses didn’t all drive through the same paths and it sounds like much of your tour experience is dependant on the guide. 2 of the 3 couples at our table did the same tour as we did, one on a different bus the other was with us. The last couple at our table did the VIP tour and for the money they said they were disappointed. There guide didn’t talk the entire ride to Rome. And they said they felt like too much was being squeezed into their days so they never had a chance to stop and really see anything. We liked our tour and we had an excellent guide at the Vatican. BUT if we didn’t have the 40 min on our own we would have been very disappointed. The tour was nothing like the description on the Disney website. It was good but not was had been advertised.

-Sarah


I have a couple of extra comments I’ll share as well.

First off, I’ll talk a little more about olbia yesterday. We didn’t do an excursion and it was a good thing too. The town itself is very small and it was Sunday, so 9 out of every 10 stores were closed. We got gelato, so it wasn’t all bad I suppose. But really, the town is a work in progress. Literally every other building was under construction. Once you step off the boat, you will see that a lot of money is being put into the area. Even the palm trees were freshly planted. That bodes well for the future, but for now, we found it to be boring. Sure, those of you in cruises hitting the island NOT on Sunday will probably find the streets with a bit more life, but other than quaint, I can’t say much more about it. Given that, we really enjoyed our time at the spa – very relaxing and very unique.

Ok, back to rome. My overall impression about rome was that city was simply too busy. Chaotic street layouts, a lot of history, plenty of cars and very little public transportation means that everything has a wait. As sarah said before, we got 40 minutes of free time. Disney clearly did not factor in Italian traffic. Going into the city we were lucky – traffic was bad, but also normal. The traffic going in the opposite direction had 3 accidents and was backed up for miles. That could have easily been us. Also, roman streets were not designed for gigantic motor coaches, so there were limited routes that were available to us.

Because Italians drive on the right side of the road, I recomment sitting on the right side of the bus. You get the better angles for the quick pics for the majority of sites. People with little ones needing strollers have a hard time with this excursion – many of the places we went did not have elevators, but had plenty of stairs…

For me, lunch sucked. It’s a crude description, but it fits so well. The restaurant basically tried to “cater” the 5 bus loads of tourists but came up short. Service was machine-like and the food was “eh.” Because of the sheer numbers, wait staff could only serve the food and could not follow up on requests. We had a salad with tuna fish to start (yeah, I had that reaction too, and I like fish!) some overcooked lasagna and then the saddest little prep bowl of tiramisu I’ve ever not finished. I hate to think what I actually paid for that meal…Two thumbs down for me.

The Sistine chapel. Michaelangelo was definitely a “master painter.” The frescos were certainly awe inspiring, but the environment that they’re in is poor. The chapel is not lit with artificial light so it’s rather dark and dingy inside. Also, the constant “please no photos” and “silence please” issued by the security guards (that nobody pays attention to) were incredibly annoying. The room is not air conditioned or ventilated properly – so adding in 400 already hot and sweaty people means the rooms is kinda gross. and really people, don’t take pictures – just enjoy what you can. You don’t want to be an ignorant and ugly American..

Finally, my favorite sight to see in rome had to be st. peters basilica. The sheer magnitude and scale that it was created in was something to behold. You just don’t get that kind of opulence in today’s buildings.

I’m sure everybody has questions, so fire away. We’ll try posting pics tomorrow as things are giving us trouble.Tomorrow is la spezia which means we’re doing the cinque terre area of the Italian Riviera on our own. Can’t wait.

-bill

olbia or not

sorry folks, it's getting late and tomorrow is rome, so we're going to have to put off blogging about olbia for now. nothing much to it in the end though.