Kirk & John 2012 - DC and Williamsburg VA

May 3 - 7, 2012


Kirk and I have been talking about going to Washington DC and Busch Gardens in Williamsburg for years. Finally this year we got around to doing it.


The adventure started on Thursday may 3. After a full day of work I drove down to meet Kirk in Philadelphia. Kirk had lived in Philly for a while many years ago and went down a few days earlier to visit his old stomping grounds. unfortunately for him the weather was lousey. Still, I made decent time getting down there - not great but it could have been worse - arriving about 9:30. I met Kirk in the downtown Philly Radison hotel. I was hungry so we went to a nearby Planet Hollywood for a bite. We then walked around Philly for a bit before turning in.


May 4 - DC part 1 and the Nationals


We left Philly early and drove to DC. We first went to our hotel - the Best Western Pentagon. The hotel was a bit further from the National Mall then I expected, but still not too bad. We were told by the hotel staff that the best bet was to drive to the Pentagon shopping mall about 2 miles away and take the subway to the Smithsonian stop. When we got to the mall we were both very hungry (it was about 2:00), and we both had recalled that there are not a lot of dining choices in the National Mall so we decided to grab a bite at the food court. After eating we took the subway to the Smithsonian exit (about a 15 minute ride) and arrived about 3:00.


Once we arrived at the Mall we immediately headed to a directory to get the lay of the land. In terms of visiting the monuments our main goal was to visit the Jefferson Memorial as this is one that neither of us had visited in previous trips. If you know the layout of the area you'll understand why - the Lincoln memorial, the Washington Monument and many other memorials and monuments are scattered around the giant reflecting pond, while the Jefferson Memorial is located across a large tidal basin - quite a walk from the other monuments/memorials. Upon looking at the directory we realized that there are several new memorials and monuments located on this same tidal basin, so we decided to head off toward the Jefferson Memorial.


First stop on our tour: The Jefferson Memorial:

As I read the various Jefferson quotes I was hit with a thought: in today's political world, these quotes would have gotten Jefferson (who was the original proponent of a small federal government) labeled as a left-wing radical. Amazing how times change...

We then went on to the FDR Memorial. This was absolutely amazing. One thing we noticed as we went through it was that it is built in a sort of chronological order and that we were going through it backward. Oh well. Still, it is an impressive memorial and a powerful tribute to a man - and his wife - who were among the greatest figures of the 20th Century.

I have to admit to being particularly drawn to the statue of Falla, FDR's dog. I used to have a Scottie name of Merry. He was the greatest dog who ever lived...

Next we came to the Martin Luther King Memorial. Absolutely breathtaking with it's powerful imagery of overcoming adversity through sheer will...

The Korean War Veteran's Memorial, whith it's haunting images of war...


The Viet Nam War Veteran's memorial, a stunning portrait of a country wounded by the specter of  a divisive war that still holds an amazing power over visitors...


And finally the World War II Veteran's memorial, a tribute to the will of the American People.

And, of course the Lincolm Memorial and the Washington Monument.

Later that evening we went to a game at Nationals Stadium. We had gone to a Dodgers game when we went to California in 2009 and neither of us had been to the new stadium. As an added bonus they were playing the Phillies, a team that Kirk followed when he lived in Philly. I've heard a lot of negative things about this new stadium, but Kiek and I agreed it was quite beautiful. Of course it was an absolutely perfect night for a game so that didn't hurt.

One minor dissapointment for me was that I wanted to find a t-shirt for my oldest daughter Natalie that said "Nats" (her nick-name is Nat) but no such thing was to be found.

We ended up leaving the game when it was tied in the 10th inning as we were both hungry. After getting back to where we parked we drove around looking for someplace to eat but most of the restaurants were closed except fast food places. We used the GPS to locate restaurants but with no luck. We were about to give up and go to Arbies when we happened across a place called Los Tios Grill in Alexandria. Man did we luck out! The place was fantastic. The food is Salvadoran and absolutely delicoius. I had a taco and chile relleno, and it was served with an excellent green chile hot sauce. If you are ever in this area be sure to check this place out!

May 5 - DC Part 2 - Smithsonian

On Sunday we went to a couple of the Smithsonian Museums. We had wanted to go to the Museum of Science and Industry but unfortunately it was closed for refurbishment. We had also both thought that the Space Shuttle would be there - but it was at another location (I don't know what we were thinking to have thought that the Shuttle would have been there!) Still, we did go to the Air & Space Museum and the Natural History Museum.

Here are som pics from Air & Space:

And here are some from the Natural History Museum:

	One can only hope...

After we were done with the museums we drove to Richmond, VA. I have prfeviously written about how much I like the show "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" on the Food Network and how, when I get a chance, I go to one of the restaurants featured on the show. There are 2 such resturants in Richmond and we went to one of them - La Caraquena - Saturday night. La Caraquena serves Latin American food - and it didn't register with either Kirk or me that it was Cinco de Mayo! We sat outside, and in celebration of Cinco de Mayo, the owner started passing around tequila shots. I suspected he had already had a few himself and his mother - who also helps run the business - seemed none too pleased. Kirk doesn't drink and I had a long drive the next moring so we passed on the taquila. The food was quite good - very unusual. Honestly we agreed that Los Tios Grill was better, but we still enjoyed La Caraquena.

We stayed that night at the Best Western Plus Richmond Airport hotel - which was OK.

May 6 Busch gardens Williamsburg VA

In the Spring of 2010 Kirk and I went to Busch Gardens Tampa. For this trip we went to Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Our hotel was about an hour from Busch Gardens Williamsburg (BGW) so we rose early, had breakfast and hit the road. The idea was to be there 30 minutes before opening. As an experienced theme park goer, I can tell you that there is no better strategy to avoid long lines at the most popular attractions than to arrive early. I have found this to be true of all theme parks - whether Disney, Busch or Six Flags. Anyway, we arrived about 9:30, parked, and exchanged our vouchers for tickets. The gates opened anout 9:45 and we headed in.

The park is advertised as "The Worlds Most Beautiful Theme Park". Oooookaaaayyy... Um... I don't think so. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty little park that uses the natural beauty of it's surroundings quite well. That said, this park is in a completely different league from any of the Disney parks as well as Universal's Islands of Adventure. I mean, I would not even attempt to make the comparison - it's really not a fair comparison to make. But when you bill yourself as "The Worlds Most Beautiful Theme Park", well you bettr be able to back that up. And BGW clearly can't. Still, I won't hold it against them - it still is a very nice park.

The first this on our agenda was Griffin. Like SheiKra in Busch Gardens Tampa (BGT), Griffin is a "dive coaster" - meaning it sends you down what is pretty much a vericle drop. We made our way through the park but were stopped at the entrance to Ireland and could not get to Griffin. We were right nex to Loch Ness, which was running. We hesitated because we were both hoping that our first coaster of the day would be Griffin, but it made no sense to wait so we rode Loch Ness which was a walk-on. Loch Ness is a fairly long Arrow coaster with several inversions. It's a very good ride which we both enjoyed. Once we finished Loch ness we could see that people were riding Griffin so we headed over there.

With a dive coaster like Griffin, the first row is definitely the place to be. At the top of the first big dive you are suspended momentarily before the big drop and the effect is most ipactful when you are in the front. for this reason there is usually a wiat for the front. For us the wait was 10 minutes while the other rows were walk-on. It was well worth the 10 minute wait. I don't know if it was my imagination - but that first drop didn't just seem to be totally vertical - it actually appeared to duck in a bit. Kirk agreed that he had the same sense. I don't know if it's true or not, but the overall effect is amazing. And to add an extra thrill, Griffin actually has 2 dives - though the second is somewhat smaller. Add a couple of inversions to the mix - as well as an amazingly smooth ride - and I would rate Griffin as a "don't miss" for any serious coaster fan. In fact we rode twice - the second time was a walk-on, sitting in the third row. And I will say this - it's a great ride from any row but the first row is the place to be!

We next headed over to Germany to ride Alpengiest. Big mistake. Alpengiest is a suspended coaster. I have ridden on many suspended coasters - but this thing messed me up big time. Kirk as well. In my it messed up my stomach - in Kirk's case it messed up his equilibrium. At any rate, after Alpengiest we decided to forgo any more coasters for a while. Instead we boarded the sky buckets in Germany. When we were kids we loved to ride the sky buckets  at Disneyland and take any chance we have to ride them in any park that still has them - especially sine they have been removed from most parks.

I love riding sky buckets because it gives you a unique view of the park. In the case of BGV you get sojme really cool view of the coasters.The sky buckets in BGW have 3 stations and they don't let you stay on if there is a line. We had to get off in England and there was a 10 minute wait - which made sense as England is close to the park entrance. We had to disembark again in France but getting back on was a walk-on. This brought us back to Germany where we started.Once in Germany we decided to check out BGW's newest coaster - Verbolten. Verbolten hasn't opened yet but we were hoping they'd be doing a soft opening. No such luck. They were doing ride testing, but no guests were allowed to ride. Bummer. 


We chilled out in Italy for a while then boarded the train at the Fiesta station in Italy and took it to the Caribou station in New France. It was 1:45 so we decided to head to Trappers Smokehouse for lunch. We both had BBQ chicken combos which were very good. 

After lunch we caught the train again at the Caribou station and took it to the Tweed station in Ireland. We checked out a couple of the water-themed rides - Escape from Pompeii and Roman Rapids - but in both cases it looked like riders were getting quite wet and we just were not into walking around soaked - so we skipped them both. There was one more coaster to check out however - Apollo's Chariot. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that we opted to get QuikQueue passes - an option that costs extra and gets you to the front of the line on some of the most popular attractions. It was probably a waste of money for us, but we had them so we used them on Apollo's Chariot.


Apollo's Chariot is a solid coaster which is all about hills, it has no loops - but I have to admit what I remember most was something of a - mishap. At the top of one of the hills, at a spot where you would expect the car to slow down, it came to an abrupt stop. We sat there for a while when a voice came on and said "Raise your hands if you can hear me" - so we raised our hands. The voice told us that there was a problem with the ride (stating the obvious) and that we would be back on our way soon. I honestly thought that there was no way that the car would gather enough speed to make it through the remainder of the ride. After a few minutes I was proven wrong. The car started moving again and we did, indeed, make it through the ride - though very slowly. I have never been through a loop at that low a speed. It was definitely an interesting experience.

Next we sat and watched a show called "Mix It Up" at Teatro San Marco. The show was somewhat nonsensical - having something to do with chefs and food - but it had a fun mix of dance, singing and brass instruments which was surprisingly fun. 


After the show I went on Curse of Dark Kastle (CoDK) using the QQ. Kirk wasn't sure if he wanted to ride because he sometimes has trouble with "motion simulator" rides so I went on it with the intention of reporting back what it was like. I had heard that the ride mechanism was similar to what is used in "Spider-man" (SM) at Universal Islands of Adventure, It is true that, like SM, CoDK has a mix of 3D projections incorporated into a physical environment which you move through is a small motion simulator vehicle - but that is where the similarities end. First, obviously the story line is totally different. Regardless of the story line, the level of execution is vastly different. Where SM seamlessly blends all of the elements of the ride, CoDK seems rather thrown together. A good example was one effect which used fog to make it look as if you were passing through fire. OK, fine, but the fog made my 3D glasses all foggy which meant I missed the next few gags. There was one effect that worked really well, where the main antagonist comes out of a painting and looms above you - it was very convincing.


Anyway, after the ride I reported back to Kirk and he did not think it sounded like a good idea for him to ride it. This decision was reinforced by the fact that I told him it simply wasn't that good.

We then watched a live wolf show which was fun, after which we decided to check out "Europe in the Air". Based on how this was advertised we were thinking it would be something like "Soarin'" at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Boy were we wrong. It was nothing but a big theater-sized motion simulator - and a particularly bad motion simulator at that. There is nothing worse than a motion simulator where the ride motion is not properly coordinated with the image. That was certainly true of this. The biggest offense was that the ride designers felt it was necessary to make the motion particularly herky-jerky and a much rougher ride than the image justified. Awful. Skip it.


We decided to end our day at BGW on a high note with another ride on Griffon - but ti was closed because of some technical glitch. Bummer. So we consoled ourselves with another ride on Loch Ness. After that we decided to try Griffon again and were rewarded - it was running again. So, our last ride of the day was what we both felt was the parks best coaster - a nice way to top off the day.


We left the park and decided to get a bite to eat in Williamsburg. Kirk had remembered a restaurant that he had visited some years ago that he really liked - but we could not find it. We ended up at a place that, unfortunately, I don't recall the name of. I will say it was quite good - we had a very nice light dinner (neither of us were extremely hungry after our big lunch). I wanted dessert but we decided to have dessert elsewhere - but then we could not find anywhere to go. We ended up at a grocery store we bought a pint of ice cream to eat in the room.


Here are some pictures I took at BGW:

Griffon	Buckets
Nice view	Verbolten
Roman rapids	Apollo's Chariot
Griffon	Loch Ness and Griffon

May 7 - Richmond and head home


The next morning we decided to drive down Richmond's famous Monument Avenue and look at some of the statues:




Our final stop before heading home was another restaurant i had hear about on "Diners. Drive-ins and Dive": Dot's Back Inn. The restaurant is a very cute, funky little place with a fun atmosphere. I had an oyster po-boy and Kirk had meat load. My po-boy was absolutely fantastic - fresh and delicious. Kirk had equal praise for his meatloaf. This place is highly recommended.


After that I drove Kirk to the train station where he would catch his train I then drove the 8 hours back home. Nothing either eventful nor exciting to report there - probably a good thing.


Well that's it for this year. For next year we have something particularly exciting planned. The bad news is that we have to wait until August 2013. The exciting news is that we are going to the 2013 Disney D23 expo! WOOHOO! I can't wait!



More Adventures with John & Kirk:

Kirk Intro
2001 Part 1
2001 Part 2
2001 Part 3

2002 Part 1
2002 Part 2
2002 Part 3
2002 Part 4

2004

2005 Catch-up

Review - HARVEY on Broadway with Jim Parsons

Charlotte and Elwood

Last night (Wednesday, June 13) my daughter Charlotte and I saw HARVEY on Broadway with Jim Parsons (of TV's "Big Bang Theory") and Jessica Hecht. Charlotte and I made an evening of it with dinner at Sardi's and a stroll through Times Square. I'll start out with a quick review of the show and then relate a few thoughts about the rest of the evening.


For those not familiar with Mary Chase's Pulitzer Prize winning comedy, HARVEY is the story of Elwood P. Dowd (Parsons), a kind, gentle mild mannered man who makes friends with everyone he meets. This causes a bit of a problem when he befriends Harvey, a 6-foot 3-inch white rabbit who is, of course, invisible to everyone else. Fed up with her brothers odd behavior, Elwood's sister Veta Louise Simmons (Hecht) decides to have Elwood committed. When the doctor at the sanitarium mistakenly thinks it is Elwood's sister who needs to be committed, hilarity ensues. HARVEY opened on Broadway in 1944 with Frank Fay as Elwood and Josephine Hull as Veta. The role of Elwood was later played by James Stewart who recreated the role in the 1950 film (which also starred Hull who won an Oscar for her performance.).


Those who do know the film often think of it mostly as a star vehicle for Stewart, but in reality it is very much an ensemble piece. To that point, this is a wonderful ensemble cast. Every performance was strong, and in fact the actors playing the two smallest roles (Elwoods "Aunt Ethel" and a cab driver) both received enthusiastic applause when their scenes were over. The stars of the show - Mr. Parsons and Ms. Hecht - both gave terrific performances. Both actors are somewhat younger than the roles are normally played, which brought a certain energy to the show that it might have otherwise lacked. This also meant that the cast was able to play up the shows many sexual double-entedres, greatly enhancing the humor. One standout scene was between Parson's Elwood and veteran comic actress Carol Kane (of TV's "Taxi") as the wife of the head of the sanitarium. The way Mr. Parsons and Ms Kane played off of each other was priceless.


One of the reasons I was excited about seeing this show was that it gave me the oportunity to see another actors take on a role that I myself had once played. I played Elwood a few years ago in an amateur theater in Connecticut. This experience was quite fascinating to me as Mr. Parsons somewhat twitchy approach to the role, while very much an approach that maintained the integrity of the character, could not have been more different from the approach I chose to take. Speaking of having done the role, my familiarity with the play meant that I noticed a few additional lines toward the end of the play - not in the original text - which nicely capped the story arch of two of the minor characters. A very nice touch.


Speaking of nice touches, I have to give kudos to director Scott Ellis for his wonderful handling of the ensemble cast as well as David Rockwell's ingenious set which broke apart and came back together like a giant origami. This is a first-rate revival of a classic commedy and I recommend it. The show opens tonight (June 14) - the performance we saw was the final preview.

Living the dream!

As I mentioned earlier, this was the cap of a very nice evening for Charlotte and I. After getting off of work I picked Charlotte up at Grand Central and we walked to Sardi's. While it would have not been my first choice, Charlotte wanted to go to the restaurant with "the pictures of all the famous people". And I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Charlotte had cheese ravioli which she absolutely loved. I had a bite and it was, indeed, quite tasty with a simple yet delicious cream tomato sauce. I hade a club sandwich which was quite good, and the french fries were cooked perfectly. Simple food, yet well prepared.


After dinner we walked to the theater via Times Square. We stopped in the new Disney Store and looked around. One thing we saw was a mannequin with a dress for Merida, Disney's newest princess. Upon seeing the mannequin Charlotte exclaimed "that mannequin is living the dream!" If you want to understand that refference, you'll have to read about our 2010 trip to Walt Disney World.

Kirk Catch-up

Well I have been horribly remiss keeping this blog up to date and, as a result, have not posted anything about my yearly outings with my good friend Kirk. Look at earlier blog entries for blogs on our earlier trips as well as an intro which describes the history of our friendship.


Kirk Intro
2001 Part 1
2001 Part 2
2001 Part 3

2002 Part 1
2002 Part 2
2002 Part 3
2002 Part 4

2004

2005 Catch-up


With this post I hope to catch up on what we've been up to. I don't know how much I'll remember - I do have some notes and I've also been in the habit of keeping receipts from trups to help jog my memory (Kirk's suggestion, actually). I'll do my best, but I can promise that there will be stand-out experiences that I remember which I will write about here.


Well... here goes...


In 2005 we went to Las Vegas and Anaheim. While in Las Vegas we stayed at the Tropicana and while in Anaheim we stayed at the Anabella. Staying at the Trop was a big treat for me because, while it is now somewhat old and worn out, the Trop was "the place" to stay while in Vegas when I was young and I never got the chance to stay there. I still recall the commercials for "The Island of Las Vegas" narrated by Geoffrey Holder. The age of the resort aside, their pool is still first rate. One highlight for us on this trup was "The Star Treek Experience" at the Hilton. Neither Kirk nor I are big Star Trek fans, but I had done this some years earlier and I thought Kirk would enjoy it. I pride myself in my ability to figure out the way they do illusions in theme park attractions but I can't for the life of me figure out how they did the floor in this attraction.


We drove with my brother Todd (who lives in LV) to Anaheim. Unfortunately something came up for Todd not long after we arrived (we had actually just gotten into Disneyland) and he had to leave suddenly. Another unfortunate thing was that I got sick the last day we were there, plus the temperatures turned somewhat cold, so I was miserable the last day. On the plus side it was Kirk's first visit to California Adventure which was fun. Still, we decided we would have to come back again and sort of re-do this trip.


In 2006 we went to WDW staying at the Hampton Inn. I honestly don't recall much about the trip except to say it the first time on Expedition Everest for both of us. What ana amazing ride EE is! And we even got to see it with the Yeti working! Yeti or no, it's still one of my favorites. As I say to people - it's a roller coaster with a plot twist.


In early Spring of 2007 we went to Tampa. The highlights of the trip were going to a Spring training game at Legend's Field (now George M. Steinbrenner Field) and a trip to Busch Gardens. A particular highlight at Busch Gardens was the coaster SheiKra, which has a pretty much vertical drop. Awesome ride! Additionally we had dinner at Ruth's Chris - one of my favorite steak houses. I had a Kobe NY Strip that was quite possibly the best steak I've ever had. Of course I had to take out a second mortgage to pay for it...


We skipped 2008 but went back to WDW in January 2009, staying at Saratoga Springs. Kirk and I had started a sort of tradition - on our first day at the world we head to Disney Hollywood Studios (DHS). We get to the park right at openig and go straight down Sunset Blvd where we get one FastPass (FP) - usually Rock 'N Roller Coaster (RnRC) and we ride Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (TXToT). If it's a slow day we may even ride TZToT as well and if we're really lucky we might even get a second FP. Once we're done with Sunset Blvd we head over to the ABC Commissary for breakfast. It's funny, folks often dis the commissary on different Disney blogs and podcasts I listen to, but they never talk about breakfast. IMO the breakfast at the commissary is among the best of any of the in-park breakfasts - at least in terms of counter service.


This was a four-day trip, the 10th through the 13th. On the 10th we went to DHS in the morning and the Magic Kingdom (MK) in the evening. On the 11th we went to MK in the morning and Epcot in the evening. On the 12th we went to Animal Kingdom (AK) and went to The Boardwalk in the evening. While at the Boardwalk we ate at the Big River Grill. This was a pleasant surprise with very good food. One mistake I made was to order one of the house beers. I just don't like specialty beers. The only beers I like are lite, crisp and simple. I also like stouts - like Guinness - which I guess is a little odd. Anyway, on the fourth day we went back to Epcot where we had lunch at the San Angel Inn.


In September of 2009 we re-visited Las Vegas and California.We arrived at LV on the 15th and stayed 3 nights at the Hard Rock Hotel. I have to say that the HRH was a lot of fun. We flew to John Wayne Airport for the California leg of our journey. We stayed at the Portofino Hotel in Anaheim for 3 nights - the 18th to the 22nd. We did the obligatory Disneyland trip - 2 days in this case - and also went to a game at Dodger Stadium.


A little side story here. I love the show Diners Drive-in and Dives on the Food Network. Any chance I get I try to go to one of the restaurants featured on this show. A few weeks before this trip I was watching DDD and the host - Guy Fieri - says "next time you are going to a game at Dodger Stadium be sure to go to Mom's Tamales!" needless to say this got my attention. Se, we went to Mom's on our way to the stadium. One problem we had was that they took forever to serve us, but once we got our food it was excellent. the tamales were great, but I also ordered a chile relleno and it was the best I've ever had.


I hadn't been to a Dodgers game since I was about 13 so I was very excited to go back to Dodger Stadium. It's a really nice stadium built right into the rolling LA hills. One thing about the stadium is that the LA haze and the bright sunshine actually can make it hard to see the ball. This was a bit disconcerting for us because we were right along the first base line and on more than one occasion we did not see a hard hit foul ball until it was already past us. But, we made it through without getting hit...




In January 2011 we returned to Walt Disney World. We stayed at the Pop Century Hotel for 3 nights, January 20th - 23rd. We did a couple of things differently on this trip. First, for the first time I worked with a travel agent for a Disney trip - Dreams Unlimited Travel. Our agent Marla did a terrific job. I highly recommend working with Dreams Unlimited. Also, for the first time Kirk and I took advantage of the Disney Dining Plan. Personally I think the dining plan is not a great deal in most circumstances - but for 2 guys like us who would use every dining credit we were allowed it was actually a good deal. Also we really used our credits well - as an example we had lunch one day at Le Cellier - which costs 2 dining credits at dinner for what is essentially the same menu.


Another highlight of this trip - for me at least - was doing the American Idol Experience (AIE). A friend of mine had told me about how she and her son did AIE, but didn't get past the first audition. Anyway, I went to an early audition and was selected for the show. At first I planned to do Elvis Presley's "Suspicious Minds" but I ended up doing Brooks & Dunn's "Boot Scootin' Boogie". It was a lot of fun to do the show, but when it came to do the show I found that I was up against two 14-year old girls. Needless to say, I did NOT want to win! And, luckily I didn't.

The only other thing about this trip to highlight was our trip to the new Hacienda de San Angel. We enjoyed it in general, the food was pretty good though honestly the menu was a bit... odd. I ended up ordering from thr appetizer menu. I love Mexican foos but I wish Mexican restaurants would include at least some basic combinations - I mean the only tacos on the menu (outside of the appetizers) were shrip tacos - and that's not what I wanted. Our biggest complaint, however, was that we waited over 45 minutes for or seat.

Anyway, that brings us up to date. Kirk and I went on a long planned trip to Washington DC this year and I will be posting that as my first "new" blog post soon. Woohoo! I'm all caught up at long last. I hope you enjoyed and will check back with the blog on occasion.
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South East Florida January 2012

Well, this is my first "new" blog since starting this site (everything else was either copied from my old site, or about something that had happened some time ago).

My daughter 18 year-old Natalie is going back to college at the end of January, so my wife Andrea and I decided it would be fun to take a small trip to someplace warm before Nat leaves again. For this post I'll write a bit about the trip in general, and I'll get into a bit of detail about where we stayed while in Florida as well as a couple of places we ate.

We wanted the trip to be cheap, so we booked cheap flights for the four of us (including Nat's 14 year-old sister Charlotte). We flew into MIA on Friday night, January 13. Our flight was delayed a bit so we didn't get to MIA until about midnight. We spent the first night at a Hilton in downtown Miami (using Hilton points) and the remaining 3 nights we stayed at the Palm Beach Shores resort about an hour and a half north of Miami. PBSR is a timeshare property and we paid for our stay there using Disney Vacation Club points.

We wanted to go to southern Florida to escape the New York January chill. Turns out it had actually been a very mild January, And while we were in Florida the weather was chillier than usual - not really beach or pool weather. Still, it was warmer than New York, it was a nice relaxing trip and it's always a treat to stay someplace right on the beach.

Restaurants: While in Palm Beach we had 3 memorable meals. Everyone in my family are vegetarians (except me) and Natalie is a Vegan. So, we had to find places that cater to vegetarians. For our first night in Palm Beach we went to Ta-boo, which is apparently a fairly well known. It is in a very upscale shopping district in Palm Beach. It's a fun place with a retro tiki-style decor. The food was good, though their vegetarian selection was limited. We also felt a bit under-dressed, though nobody else seemed to care. Funny thing, there was a party next to us with a gentleman that Nat commented looked like a heavier version of Al Gore. After our meal I was waiting at the valet for our car and I heard "Al Gore" apologize to the others in his party for the "lousy food". After that we joked that we liked Ta-boo, though Al Gore didn't.

The next night we went to Seasons 52 which was right up the street from our hotel. We loved this place. So much so that we came back the next night. The name of the restaurant comes from the fact that they have a seasonal menu that changes weekly. The decor is very nice - elegant and contemporary with wonderful views of the inter-coastal waterway. The food was very good, and much to the delight of the others in the party they not only had a separate vegetarian menu, they even had a vegan menu. I would highly recommend Seasons 53 - and it should be noted they have several locations.

Palm Beach Shores Resort: PBSR is a timeshare resort with about 275 (by my estimate) one and two bedroom villa suites. For those of you unfamiliar with timeshares, one big different in the rooms is that they pretty much always have separate bedrooms as well as full kitchens. The rooms at PBSR are not an exemption.

Overview: PBSR is a pleasant property with a great beach location. It's a bit "tired" (as an Australian gentleman on the elevator said), but well maintained and fairly well appointed. It has a small gym (which we did not use - although I did go out for a very pleasant and long walk one morning), a spa (which we also did not use) a restaurant (where we did have lunch one day) and a nice pool with a pool-side bar and a Jacuzzi. I would rate all the amenities as average with the exception of the restaurant which was well below average.

One thing we noticed was that there were a LOT of timeshare tours coming through. And I mean a LOT. There were always folks in the lobby or touring the property accompanied by a sales person. They also take every chance they can to get you into a presentation. As an example, when you check in you have to take your parking voucher to another desk to get your parking permit. Here they try to sell you on a sales tour by offering free lunch and a $55 coupon you can spend at the resort. We simply declined.

 Overall I would give the resort 3 stars out of 5.

Rooms: We had a one bedroom suite. As is typical of timeshare properties this was a true suite with a separate bedroom and a full kitchen. The room was pretty spacious and tastefully decorated. The bed was unusually comfortable for a hotel. The one complaint I would have about the room was the bathroom which was... odd. Partly resulting from the room layout, the bath was bigger than it needed to be. This allowed for a separate bath and shower. This is usually a good thing - except the bathtub was just a plain and simple tub. Not a Jacuzzi, not a soaker, just the same sort of tub you would expect in your typical hotel with a shower/tub combination.

Location: This is where the resort really shines. It's location right on the beach is absolutely spectacular. This was especially true of our unit. We were very fortunate to have an end unit - room 501. These units are right on the beach and have fantastic views. If you stay at PBSR try to get an end unit - from what I could tell these would be room numbers ending with 01, 02, 49 or 50. On the other hand, Palm Beach itself was not a location we were crazy about. If you're in to golf or high-end shopping - neither of which we are - then I suppose it's a terrific spot. It just wasn't really our cup of tea. Given that, I give the location 4 out of 5 stars - I would give it 5 if you like Palm Beach.

That's it. hope you enjoyed the post.

Trip to Orlando, August 2010 - Intro and Day 1

Intro
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7

Well over a year ago I showed my 2 daughters (Natalie and Charlotte) a press release announcement from Universal Orlando about a proposed addition to their Islands of Adventure theme park - The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (WWoHP). The girls and I are all Harry Potter fans - the girls more so than me - and we have all read all of the books and seen all of the movies. We even went to midnight "release parties" of the final three books. So, when the press announcements were made for WWoHP there was, needless to there was a good deal of excitement in our house about the prospects of visiting the park.

Once the proposed opening dates were announced for the park I suggested that we go in the summer when the kids were out of school. Knowing that more than 2 days at Universal are more than enough we thought it would make sense to combine it with a trip to Walt Disney World (WDW). My wife Andie suggested that the girls would have more fun if they each had a friend along for the trip so we told them to both invite somebody to come. Once we decided on this, Andie (not a big theme park fan) decided to beg out of the trip, so it was going to be me and four teen-agers. I have to admit I was a bit trepidatious about this prospect but as you will see my concerns were unfounded.

As the date for the trip approached we finalized plans. I am a member of the Disney Vacation Club (DVC) and my home resort is the Boardwalk Villas (BV). I booked us in a 2 bedroom villa with a Boardwalk view for 6 nights, arriving on Sunday and leaving on Saturday. Our flight - JetBlue - left La Guardia at about 7:00 AM with a 7:30 PM departure from Orlando. I purchased 3-day park hopper passes for WDW and 2-day multi-park passes for Universal for all of use using a site called "Tickets at Work" that I was able to connect to through my work benefits site. The passes were discounted ($265 for the WDW passes and $139 for the Universal), but more importantly each had additional days bringing the WDW passes to 5 days and the Universal passes to 4 (although we only intended to go to Universal for 2 days anyway).

I looked into renting a car but the car rental costs were unbelievable - about $500 before taxes and fees. Instead I signed us up for the Disney Magical Express service (DMX) which would get us to our hotel, and I figured we would not need a car while at WDW. The only time we'd need a car was to get to Universal. I had heard about the Mears shuttle previously, but someone else who had recently organized a trip to Orlando for a large group recommended Lincs. I called Lincs and decided to go with them, mostly because their schedule was a bit more flexible. I figured I'd arrange to use them the first time we went to Universal and if they didn't work out we could use Mears the second time.

The only other real issue with not having a car was that we could not go grocery shopping. One of the benefits of stating at DVC - or any timeshare property for the matter - is that you have a full kitchen and can prepare some of your food in your room. This can save a lot of money, plus it means you end up eating at least a bit healthier. Even if all you do is eat breakfast in your room it's such a treat to be able to do it at your leisure and not have to worry about getting up and getting dressed first. Anyway, I poked around online a bit and found a site called gardengrocer.com where I could order groceries online and have them delivered. Very convenient, although the choices were a bit limited.

I had also made some dining reservations - but only three - two in Epcot at the World Showcase (WS) and one at Disney Hollywood Studios (DHS - although Charlotte insisted in referring to it as MGM).

Now, I'm a bit of a planner. In fact, half of the fun for any trip (especially a WDW trip) for me is in the planning. Sometimes I worry that others in my party will think I'm planning too much - more about that later. Still, my approach is simple - the idea behind having a plan is mostly so that you don't waste a lot of time deciding what to do. You come up with a plan that makes sense and then, once you get there, you see how it goes. If the plan continues to make sense, go with it. If not, abandon it. Also, I told the girls that they need not feel they had to stick with me the whole time. If they found something they wanted to do on their own - go for it. I did want the younger girls to stay in the same park with me, but they did not have to stick with me if they didn't want to.

OK, so, here is the schedule I came up with for our visit:

Sunday: Epcot. Dinner reservation at the San Angel Inn at the Mexico Pavillion, 7:30. This way we would be nearby the hotel when we need to check in and get our groceries.
Monday: DHS in the morning. Extra Magic Hours (EMS) at DHS means we can get in early at 8:00. 12:25 reservation at the 50's Prime Time Cafe (PTC). Evening at the Magic Kingdom (MK). I always think that MK at night is the best way to see it for the first time.
Tuesday: Universal. Dinner somewhere on CityWalk.
Wednesday: MK in the morning. Dinner at T-Rex in Downtown Disney (DD). Evening at DHS which has EMS until 10:00.
Thursday: Universal. Dinner somewhere in Citywalk.
Friday: Disney's Animal Kingdom (AK) in the morning. MK at night - EMS hours means MK is open until 3:00AM.
Saturday: Epcot - lunch reservation at Merrakesh in the Morocco pavillion.