Disney

Disneyworld (and Savannah)
March 14-17

Well, here I am writing about less exciting travels than a month-long tour of Europe, but I have to tell you, we had a BLAST in Disney. This is mostly because we were there celebrating my birthday. My 30th birthday. 30. I'm 30.

A few things contributed to us going on this trip:
1. I was turning 30 and was slightly depressed about it, so I thought getting out of dodge would be the best way to make me happy about my big day.
2. My parents graciously let us use their Disney points so we could get a room at a Disney Resort.
3. We received a couple park hopper passes for Christmas.

Everything really fell into place for this trip!

We stayed at the Old Key West Resort, which was lovely. Very vacation-like and relaxed. Here's a picture of it that I stole from Expedia.com:

They also gave me a JMU flower at check-in. (I was also tired at check-in, it seems.)

What was really nice about staying at a Disney resort was being able to take the "Magic Buses" to all the Disney properties. It was great to not have to think about driving anymore after our six-hour trip down there. 

We immediately went to room to change and then headed out to the Gurgling Suitcase, the little bar at the resort for a happy hour drink. It was cute, but had only two walls, so we were fairly chilly. I imagine in the summer, it's the place to be! We then boarded a bus to Downtown Disney for dinner and fun!

At Downtown Disney we found a Lego store, which made Aaron very happy.

The next day, we tried to recreate our honeymoon by getting a morning cappuccino. They weren't the same, but they did contain caffeine, which at 8am was all that mattered. 

Here we are in front of Cinderella's Castle:

Unfortunately, I had forgotten my sneakers at home, so Aaron bought me some lovely Mickey ones. He also got me goofy socks. I admit, I wasn't super happy Aaron's forcing fashion choices on me, but by the end of the weekend, I appreciated having comfortable shoes. (I felt a little like Gloria on Modern Family when they go to Disneyland and her husband buys her giant slippers because her feet hurt. "They're like pillows on my feet!")

Another exciting part about being at the Magic Kingdom was seeing the new Fantasyland! Now Belle has a castle, Gaston has a pub, and Ariel has her own animatronic ride! (The ride was awesome). Here's Belle's castle. (Or maybe it's the Beast's castle? Either way, they both live there now, right?)

Aaron also had his obligatory Disney banana.

After going on all the rides we wanted to at the Magic Kingdom, we realized we had a lot of time before dinner, so we used our amazing park hopper passes to go to the Animal Kingdom for a little bit. We got there via boat:

And here we are at the Tree of Life

We rode only one ride (Everest) and then left to go to dinner at Merakesh in Epcot's Morocco. We made it just in time!

Dinner! For me! For my BIRTHDAY!

We stayed for the fireworks (great!) and then since we were then in EMH (extra magic hours) we rode the Norwegain ride and Spaceship Earth with some very happy and drunk ladies who wanted to do the Harlem Shake on the ride. I still do not completely understand the Harlem Shake, so we did the ride like normal people but enjoyed their enthusiasm. 

The next day we ate our way across Epcot. We started at France for a cappuccino and chocolate croissant. (Still not the same)

And tried to recreate a few of our Honeymoon pictures. Here's Paris:

And Venice:

We had a hard time recognizing Epcot Venice without the flooding and the pigeons. 

We also went to Epcot Britain and ate a Scottish Egg. Do you know what that is? It's a hard boiled egg wrapped in MEAT and then deep fried. Amazing. I promptly had a heart attack. There was also beer and pretzels in Germany, wine in Italy, a smoked salmon thing in Norway, and bangers and mash in Britain. And then no longer hungry. 

We found this very stealthy duck waiting to eat this lady's food. He must have been very, very hungry as no one feeds the animals at Disney. (They really had no idea he was there...just...watching.)

Aaron also made me this lovely Figment version of myself at the Figment ride. We're pretty much identical:

We rode all the rides we wanted to and decided to head back to the Animal Kingdom for the rest of the day.  On the way out, we found the place where our faces are on the wall of faces thing at Epcot's entrance. See? That's me and my brother (at approximately 11 and 15) and my parents! 

We're located at the East side, row 6, section C, panel 17. Boom!

When we got back to the Animal Kingdom, we rode Everest again and visited the tiger. Hi tiger!

He is totally posing for us there and look how Figaro makes the same pose. 

It's obvious they're related.

We realized we were running late for dinner, and getting from the Animal Kingdom to Downtown Disney (where the restaurant was) is a little involved, so we decided to board the first bus going to any Disney Resort knowing that, once there, any bus stop will then have a bus to Downtown Disney. We thought we were brilliant!

However, on the bus, we witnessed something. First of all, let me say that there were a LOT of motorized scooters at these places. A LOT. And being the callus person that I am, I think that half of the people who use them are just lazy and don't want to walk around the park and/or want to get in the faster line for the rides. 

Anyway, on this bus there is an older gentleman in a motorized scooter who when getting on the bus, was angry at the bus driver for wanting to help him put the scooter in the right spot. He didn't want her help and at one point almost ran us over. (No joke. He pushed on the gas too heavily and the driver bounded in front of us to protect us.) When getting off this bus, so the driver wouldn't have to help him, he PICKED UP the scooter and FLUNG it out the door. Too frail to walk the park but strong enough to throw a scooter? I think my theory has been proven correct.

Dinner was at Bongos and it was delicious! After dinner, a band set up and played some cha-cha music, so (after some cajoling from Aaron) we got up and put our lessons to use. (Having a full dance floor helps me be brave.) Here's me and the ceviche. So good.

While waiting in line, we were given free tickets to see some guy named David Bisbal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bisbal) at the House of Blues. It seems as if he was a rather big deal in the Latin community because when we got there (just in time for his encore!) everyone had their phones out, people were singing along, girls were crying, it was great. We were also the only non-Spanish speakers there, which in hindsight, was a bit like being back on the Honeymoon!

I should probably mention that the day was March 16, so everyone was out celebrating an early St. Patrick's day. Green everywhere. It was pretty overwhelming but fun to see!

On our last day, actual St. Patrick's day, we decided to hit the road early so we could stop by Savannah and see their holiday shenanigans around lunchtime. We had heard that they do things like die the river green, and have parades, and be fairly nutty about things. We missed the parade, and most everyone was heading out of town by the time we got there, but that enabled us to get a parking spot and a seat at an Irish pub called Kevin Barry's. People were singing Irish songs and we got to eat some shepherd's pie and drink a beer, so all in all it was a successful trip.

Final note: Disney Parkhopper passes are totally worth the extra money! We'll be doing that from now on.

A long-delayed epilogue

Well, it's been almost four months since we returned from our adventures abroad and of course, we miss our travels. We no longer have our daily cappuccinos with pastries (and sadly, when we do have them, the cappuccino is burned half of the time), our clothes fit a little more snugly without the daily 12 mile walks around foreign cities, and we've seen zero museums. Also, we're required to show up for this thing called "work" five days a week. So strange.

Actually, getting back into a routine was kind of nice. We missed our pets (who stuck to us like glue for the first month of our return. It's nice to feel that they've missed us even if what they're really excited for is dinner.), our friends, and families. It's also nice to be back in our own home with space to breathe instead of teensy hotel rooms.

Also, cooking! It feels great to be cooking again.

We are glad that we kept this little blog while we were away. It's fun for us to return to it from time to time to remember where we've been and what we've done. Therefore, I (Katie) am going to try to add to it from time to time when we travel. I'm sure for a while, our trips will consist of less-than-exotic places like Savannah or Disney (see upcoming post!) but hopefully we'll have some farther-flung adventures in the years to come.

Philadelphia

Philadelphia
Nov. 8 -- Nov. 9

We made it back to the US! Or, more importantly, we made it back to the states with all the food/wine we wanted to bring back with us! Horray!

Here is Aaron checking out the exchange rate for the last time:

I made a list of things I missed from the US to make me a bit more enthusiastic about returning. Not that we didn't want to return, but, well, who actually wants to return to real life after traveling for a month?

Katie's list of things she missed from home:
1. Not needing adaptors for our electronics.
2. Our KITTENS!
3. Being able to use 3G for our phones or, being able to use data wherever we are whenever we want it! (This is what we call a first world problem, but it's really nice to be able to check my Facebook.)
4. Using our credit cards wherever we want without the extra international fee.
5. Hairdryers that are not reverse vacuum cleaners. Also, hair straighteners.
6. Not being the couple with the American accent
7. Cooking
8. OUR KITTENS!
9. Not having to check the currency exchange rate wherever we go.

After collecting our bags, we hopped into a cab run by possibly the angriest cab driver in the world. So yeah, we felt like we were back home.

We had enough time to drop our stuff off at the lovely B&B Aaron reserved for us called "Le Reserve." (I appreciated his efforts to make it seem as if we were still in Europe.) It was the most beautiful place we stayed at our entire trip by far, so of course, I forgot to take a picture of it.

We then went to see Independence Hall and had the most enthusiastic tour guide of all time. Look! There's George Washington in front! (Not our tour guide)

The courtroom

And the room where the Constitution and Declaration of Independence were signed! And, contrary to what I had thought, lil' Rhody was NOT one of the last states to sign, so I've got a little state pride there. (Of course, SC WAS, so there's that.) Also, check out Washington's rising sun chair.

All in all, it was pretty interesting to lean about our own country's history after spending the past month learning about Europe's. Our country is such a BABY!

Then, Aaron and I went to a hole-in-the wall bar called Franklin Mortgage and Investment Company (no joke!) for a VERY strong drink followed by a trip to the Ranstead Room for a less strong drink. Both places were very cool and old-timey. The bartenders at both had handlebar mustaches and wore suspenders with those things that hold up your sleeves while all the waitresses had that thick Adele eye makeup. We were the least cool people there but enjoyed ourselves nonetheless! Here is Aaron enjoying himself while also looking very concerned:

We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant called El Ray, but by this time, the time change was hitting me pretty hard, so we went back to the room and crashed.

The next morning we woke up insanely early and then had breakfast with a very nice couple from Belgium and a very narcissistic couple from Florida who are currently writing their memoirs "because our children really want to read about our lives." Upon seeing us, they told us to "be on our best behavior" in order to make a good impression on the Belgian couple and then proceeded to tell the couple how nice is must be to be from Amsterdam. We were pretty insulted but are also pretty sure we weren't the ones making a poor impression on anyone.

We had enough time before our flight to see the Liberty Bell, so we headed that way and saw this cool exhibit at the same time. Archeologists have unearthed the foundation of the original President's Residence, and the exhibit has partial walls where actual walls once were and tell the stories of the slaves who worked in the house. Here's the foundation:

Then we saw the Liberty Bell!

We were in Philly, so we had to have a cheesesteak at some point. We went to Campo's, which was close and quick. The cheesesteaks were less cheesy and more bready than anticipated, but still good.

Then, it was back to Charleston for us! It felt surreal to be heading back home after so much time away, but we were excited to back home and sleep in our beds and snuggle with our cats and shower in our shower!

Next up: Epilogue

Dublin

Dublin
(Nov 6 - 8)

So our last stop in Europe was Dublin.  We stayed at the Charles Stewart Guesthouse, which was one of our larger hotels, so that was nice.  We pretty much dropped our bags and headed down to the pub for a bite to eat, because Katie was starving.

Then we felt like we needed a drink, so we headed to the old Guinness Brewery (now called the Guinness Storehouse).

Katie was cold, so she went into babushka mode.

It was a little bit Disney-esque, but you actually could learn quite a bit about the old brewery, the process of making casks, some of the old ad campaigns, that kind of thing.  The tour starts with the original 900 year lease of the property

About half way up the pint glass-shaped tour, we noticed that they had decorated somewhat oddly for, well, Ireland.

I mean, we knew that Europe paid attention to the American elections, but really?  Turns out the American embassy had rented out the brewery to watch the election.  I'm sure these weren't for us, but we took advantage anyway.

As we continued the tour, you can learn how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness Draught, so that was fun.

(side note:  In the above picture you can actually see both of my wife's awesome birthday presents to me.  A new watch and a suit!  She's awesome.  OK, back to the beer.)

And of course the best part of learning how to pour a beer is drinking it.  We headed up to the gravity bar to enjoy our beers.  The room is full of mirrored tabletops with lights shining down on them so that the reflections on the ceiling look like the head of a Guinness. (Katie seems to think that was intentional.)

Then we headed to Temple Bar for a drink before dinner (I feel like there's a theme here).  They had the obligatory Irish drinking songs, but there was also a couple of musicians (guitar and banjo) who were quite good and made some of the old standards much more interesting, so that was fun.  Katie and I tried a couple of new beers from 8 degrees (Sunburnt Irish Red and Howling Gale Ale) which were both pretty good and waited until our reservation.

Since Katie's awesome, she made me a birthday dinner reservation at White Friar Grill, which turned out to be excellent.  We started with a bone marrow appetizer and had venison over gnocchi and rabbit leg with mashed potatoes for mains.  For dessert we had creme brulee with Jameson and cherries for dessert!  It was awesome, just like my wife.  (d'awww)

The next day we grabbed breakfast at the hotel.  We're told this is a traditional Irish breakfast, but it seemed more like something I would have made from whatever happened to be left in the pantry and fridge while hungover on a Saturday morning in college.

Then we went wandering around town and ended up at the Jameson Distillery (by accident, of course), but not before we saw this amazing selection of movies currently available for viewing.

Since it was already 11:00 in the morning, we had a drink while waiting for the tour to start.  The Jameson Distillery was also a bit Disney-esque, but again, still kind of informative.  Katie received the golden ticket at the beginning of the tour and so was able to do a whiskey tasting at the end. She was kind enough to share with me.  Not exactly a fair fight, as the other whiskeys they have you taste are Jack Daniels and Johnny Walker Black...  But Katie enjoyed all the whiskey anyway.

After our morning drinking, we went to the Black Sheep (kind of a theme for this trip...) for a drink and some food.  They have an excellent beer selection with lots of local microbrews and very good food.  We split some thick-cut fries with chili and a leek sausage with stout.  Also, apparently the light in there makes me look like a goober.

They also had excellent over-urinal advertisements.

We finished the night wandering about London and stumbled upon more than one of these on the sidewalk.

Apparently they've excavated various bronze-age and earlier sites in Dublin and these stones commemorate what has been found.

The next day we met a very interesting taxi driver and headed back to the states.  Hooray!

There was a couple in front of us who were early to mid twenties and had never been on a plane before (or so I'm assuming from the sheer amount of movement of their seats) and a gentleman across the aisle who was either very nervous about flying or Irish.  I took this picture a few hours in to the flight while he was in the bathroom.  It's kind of hard to tell from the pic, but they're all empties.

If you're anything like me, you rarely get anything to eat on an airplane that isn't peanuts or pretzels, so whatever they feed you is kind of a treat.  This is, of course, simply false optimism.  Here's the Italian sandwich.  I'm quite frankly amazed that the Food Channel isn't running specials on these guys.

Well, that's it for Europe!  Now on to Philadelphia (and phones with working cell and data service!)...