May 29, 2002 - 2:35 p.m.
My oxymoron for the day is ... baked ziti and a diet sprite. But it sure was good. Pasta and baked cheese goodness. So, my weekend in review. I give it a thumbs up and note that while the plot and characterizations were good, the pace was choppy. The plane rides were long and tedious and really added nothing to the script. :)
Trimaris Coronation was lovely - Martin and Islay make great hosts in that tropical land to our far south. The site is HUGE and as such we got a golf cart for our sue for the weekend. Yay for the golf cart - who let Cuan drive? And yes you really can fit 4 people all of my clothes, all of chuck's armour and god only knows what else we brought on one of those things. I thought we would sink into a sand dune never to be seen again, but this was not the case. Thank god.
Their coronation includes fealty of all the various groups - the officers, the royal peers, the knights, the pelicans, the laurels, the populace. Oddity from my perspective ... the monarchs have a set fealty oath, yet the people swearing fealty get to all mumble their own words all at the same time. The best fealty oath I heard was Martin's son Chris - "I promise to be as good as I can" Gotta love the relativity of a small child. However, come to think of it if we made all the peers swear that oath ...
Palm trees lots of cool palm trees. And a cactus - a live growing out up from the sand cactus. Not sure that I have ever seen one of those in the wild before. And lizards playing in the sand. Then there was the scorpion that Cuan found dead in a spider's web above the doorway. I shudder to consider how a scorpion got above the doorway and confess to zipping my shoes back into my bag after than. It isn't paranoia I swear!!
The land of the big rat - known to everyone but Ragnarr as Disney's Magic Kingdom. If you ask the boys they will tell you that it was really hot and filled with lots of long lines for mediocre roller coasters. Me, I really dug all of the animatronics and the things that make the rides uniquely Disney. Disappointments for the day ... Space Mountain broke before we could get on it. I have a lot of good childhood memories tied up in that ride. Memories of a day in September with the park nearly empty and going on that ride over and over and over ... my parents are so tolerant. What am I saying - my dad is more of a coaster junkie than I am, and we bribed mom (the non roller coaster fan in the family) with promises of carousel rides. And the other disappointment ... the 90+ minute line for the Pooh ride. We didn't go for that.
On the other hand, I spent the day in great silliness with great friends. Tricia and I went on one of the kiddie rocket rides (you go up, and down and well dorky but fun, no way the guys would have fit in that thing). And there was the something Mountain Railroad - wooden coaster. Very bumpy. And the Pirates of the Caribbean, of course. Photos all over the place and iced cream. Rags bought me an Eyore, awww.
We wrapped up the day with a side trip to Downtown Disney (think Disney meets the boardwalk and yet more shopping). Dinner at the Wolfgang Puck Express - amazing food, fast. It made for a very long day and equally tired feet. Then we hooked up with Tricia's aunt who was also there vacationing, said brief hellos and goodbyes and went to the hotel for sleep, blessed sleep.
Day 3 - Disney Quest. Arthur and Tricia had to get up and get on the road for their unenviable 10 hour drive home. We hooked back up with Martin and Elizabeth and they took us to Disney Quest. It is this building in Downtown Disney that doesn't look large enough to consume an entire day ... from the outside. Inside it is filled with 5 floors of Disney by geeks. There are simulations and video games galore. This includes a place to design a roller coaster ... and then a simulator to ride it. Tres Cool. Ours had 7 loops and several good banked turns. There is a place to white water raft through a river of dinosaurs - this one I found too much like work paddling, but much less work and wetness than real white water rafting. And the one of much coolness ... this pirate ship that Martin steered while we all fired cannons at the other pirates.
Lots of video games everywhere that take no quarters - so lousy players like me can have fun with impunity to the wallet. There was air hockey that didn't score right. Chuck won again (we did that Sunday too). And yet more bad for your food. I think I have left out things, no I am sure that I have left them out.
I will spare you all from stories of planes and delays and just tell you that we got home in the 1am hour and that I am still behind on sleep. It was a great weekend and I am so glad that I have this weekend to sleep in, do laundry and be at home again :)
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