we3peas

Family ran the 5K this morning. My DD and I finished in 37:21. DMIL finished 1:05 and DU and DA finished in 1:15. It was freaking cold and the organizers gave us a bad start but we overcame and did well.
DH, DFIL , DA and DU run in the 1/2 tomorrow. Then DH and DU run the marathon on Sunday.

Hey TCD your one gator didn't stand up very well to the rain did it? I think I took this picture on Saturday when we were looping...
maybe they all had too much of Stefa's punch? They seem to be leaning, especially vampire Mickey, if it wasn't for the tree he'd be hugging the ground!

I am willing to hold the wine exchange at my site (don't know where I'll be yet-hoping for 1200) on Saturday, October 29 from 2-5 pm if that's OK with everyone.
I think for it to work everyone needs to bring a bottle to open and share and another bottle to exchange with maybe some munchies so we don't get too tipsy.
Let me know if this will work for everyone.

Too funny!

Don't feel bad...as some may know based upon my past trip reports, I am NO fan of Marie. On two occasions, we have been in line to see her and had to wait while she went on break. Both times when she returned, she smelled like kitty litter and cigarettes.

This past Wednesday my dd13 and I went to check out F&W at EPCOT. We went for one afternoon trip last year before Halloween when our passes were expiring and were hooked. She's talked about it all year and wanted to try lots of new things.

dd13

me
So we head out on Wednesday and start at the Festival Marketplace, which we did not know existed last year. We wandered around a bit and bought our F&W swipe card so we wouldn't have to keep pulling cash out of our pockets. This is also the location where they hold many of the seminars and tasting events.


After purchasing our new mascot “Jean Ralphio” as my dd has named her vinyalmation (from the popular NBC show Parks&Rec)

we walked to World Showcase in time for opening of the countries.


On the way we saw the new Ocean Spray cranberry bog. Too cool. My dd wanted to go in and stomp cranberries.



Before I go on I want to let you know that we picked up the Discovery Passport this year and will stamp it in every country. My family jokes about this but I am an avid collector of stamps. On our journey out West last year they got tired of me asking where the National Passport stamps were located every time we entered a park. I also made my dd do every Jr Ranger book there was to be had. But enough on that, we were also going to use the passport to rank OUR opinion of what the food tasted like so if we wanted seconds later we would know what we liked.
Our original plan was to skip every other booth but that flew out the window when we were overwhelmed with all the food we could try. So we jumped from place to place until we were full.
First up was Hawaii. Since we have visited there 3 times I knew we would like the food so we tried the Kalua pork slider. In our ranking we gave it a 4. My dd was worried that the mayonnaise would be too spicy but she ate it all and said she would try it again. I think since the portion was smaller I enjoyed it but I don't think I would want a full size sandwich just because I don't go in for mayonnaise.


Next up was the Desserts and Champagne booth. We decided on the white chocolate Macadamia mousse with dark Chocolate pearls. We both gave it a 5. Really wished it were larger sized. But we will try this again. It has a nice chocolate flavor and the pearls were slightly crunchy.




Then we moved on to Greece, where we tried to Chicken Souvlaki with tzatziki. We gave it a 3. Mostly because it didn't taste like any chicken I've ever had. When I told my dh that it looked like sausage he informed me there is such a thing as chicken sausage. Who knew? I guess that's why HE does the shopping! It still didn't taste like chicken though.


We skipped Canada for now, but I know we will be back to try the cheese soup. I've heard good and bad about it this year.

On to Ireland...last year I was the only one who got to try the Lava Cake since dh and dd wanted to ride Soarin'. I got tired of waiting for them and went to eat instead. The wait for the ride ended up being 90 minutes. So this year I took my dd to all the parks one day a week before F&W and told her to ride anything she wanted to because during F&W we were there for the FOOD! Anyway, at Ireland we ordered the Lava Cake, the Kerrygold cheese selection and I got to try the Bunratty Meade Honey Wine. Cake was OK we gave it a 5, though I did give most of my half to my dd. I really liked the cheeses, I gave them a 4, but the chutney was way too sweet. My Meade was really good, I gave it a 4. Now looking to find out where I can get some. There was actually a lot of cheese so I put it in a container we brought in case we didn't finish something so we could eat it later.


Jean Ralphio enjoying the World

We skipped over France for now. Since we are local we are planning to make around 5 trips to F&W over the next month,so I'll think we will cover it all.
Next we hit Belgium. I'm not a seafood/fish eater so we skipped the mussels and we had the waffle last year, so this year we tried the Guylien Belgian Chocolate Seashell Truffles. I gave them a 2, my lowest rating of the day. First off they were boxed, like not made at EPCOT, meaning not fresh. Second they were pretty tasteless. I could not tell there was any chocolate in them. Hello, it's Belgian chocolate, shouldn't I have tasted something besides sugar. Dd liked them but she's a kid who loves candy. Just saying.


For now we skipped Portugal and headed for Morocco. We tried the Kefta pocket and gave it a 3. It was good sized and easy to share and not too saucy. The seasoning wasn't overdone but there was nothing to say Wow! about it.
\

Next up New Zealand. Dd was excited about this since she hasn't ever tried lamb before. So we ordered the lamb slider with tomato chutney. We ranked it a 4. She did think the chutney was spicy on this one, and didn't finish her half. So I saved it for later. I think she didn't finish because of a combination of people smoking near us and we were getting stuffed since we aren't big eaters, mostly grazers.


We skipped the next few booths and ended up at Hops and Barley to try the Pumpkin Mousse. Dd loves cranberries and pumpkin so for us this was a 5. Once again the portion didn't seem large enough to us. But I am glad it was small as I could see myself eating too much of it.


Our last stop was in Germany but not for food. Our last visit here I bought the Wine Walk and wanted to try some German wine this time. While in the shop I noticed something on a sign called a Wine Flight. This is a sample of 3 wines of 6 that they offer. This would include a sample of ice wine, something I've been wanting to try. I was willing to pay the price but didn't want all 3 wines at the same time (since I was the driver and I'm pretty lightweight for a drinker-2 oz would be OK but not 6-8 oz). So I asked if it worked like the Walk where I could try 1 today and the rest later. Unfortunately it doesn't, you have to consume all at the same time. I'll have to save it until my dh is with us next time. For today I just got the small sample that went with the Walk.
So this ended our day at F&W, and we did collect all the stamps and went back to the Festival Marketplace for our completed stamp. Then I let my dd ride Mission Space and we rode Test Track together and gave away our 4 other fast passes to a family. We then went to Sum of All Thrills and designed a rollercoaster before we left. We departed F&W feeling full and we also had great weather today so it was a perfect day.

This past Wednesday my dd13 and I went to check out F&W at EPCOT. We went for one afternoon trip last year before Halloween when our passes were expiring and were hooked. She's talked about it all year and wanted to try lots of new things.

dd13

me
So we head out on Wednesday and start at the Festival Marketplace, which we did not know existed last year. We wandered around a bit and bought our F&W swipe card so we wouldn't have to keep pulling cash out of our pockets. This is also the location where they hold many of the seminars and tasting events.


After purchasing our new mascot “Jean Ralphio” as my dd has named her vinyalmation (from the popular NBC show Parks&Rec)

we walked to World Showcase in time for opening of the countries.


On the way we saw the new Ocean Spray cranberry bog. Too cool. My dd wanted to go in and stomp cranberries.



Before I go on I want to let you know that we picked up the Discovery Passport this year and will stamp it in every country. My family jokes about this but I am an avid collector of stamps. On our journey out West last year they got tired of me asking where the National Passport stamps were located every time we entered a park. I also made my dd do every Jr Ranger book there was to be had. But enough on that, we were also going to use the passport to rank OUR opinion of what the food tasted like so if we wanted seconds later we would know what we liked.
Our original plan was to skip every other booth but that flew out the window when we were overwhelmed with all the food we could try. So we jumped from place to place until we were full.
First up was Hawaii. Since we have visited there 3 times I knew we would like the food so we tried the Kalua pork slider. In our ranking we gave it a 4. My dd was worried that the mayonnaise would be too spicy but she ate it all and said she would try it again. I think since the portion was smaller I enjoyed it but I don't think I would want a full size sandwich just because I don't go in for mayonnaise.


Next up was the Desserts and Champagne booth. We decided on the white chocolate Macadamia mousse with dark Chocolate pearls. We both gave it a 5. Really wished it were larger sized. But we will try this again. It has a nice chocolate flavor and the pearls were slightly crunchy.




Then we moved on to Greece, where we tried to Chicken Souvlaki with tzatziki. We gave it a 3. Mostly because it didn't taste like any chicken I've ever had. When I told my dh that it looked like sausage he informed me there is such a thing as chicken sausage. Who knew? I guess that's why HE does the shopping! It still didn't taste like chicken though.


We skipped Canada for now, but I know we will be back to try the cheese soup. I've heard good and bad about it this year.

On to Ireland...last year I was the only one who got to try the Lava Cake since dh and dd wanted to ride Soarin'. I got tired of waiting for them and went to eat instead. The wait for the ride ended up being 90 minutes. So this year I took my dd to all the parks one day a week before F&W and told her to ride anything she wanted to because during F&W we were there for the FOOD! Anyway, at Ireland we ordered the Lava Cake, the Kerrygold cheese selection and I got to try the Bunratty Meade Honey Wine. Cake was OK we gave it a 5, though I did give most of my half to my dd. I really liked the cheeses, I gave them a 4, but the chutney was way too sweet. My Meade was really good, I gave it a 4. Now looking to find out where I can get some. There was actually a lot of cheese so I put it in a container we brought in case we didn't finish something so we could eat it later.


Jean Ralphio enjoying the World

We skipped over France for now. Since we are local we are planning to make around 5 trips to F&W over the next month,so I'll think we will cover it all.
Next we hit Belgium. I'm not a seafood/fish eater so we skipped the mussels and we had the waffle last year, so this year we tried the Guylien Belgian Chocolate Seashell Truffles. I gave them a 2, my lowest rating of the day. First off they were boxed, like not made at EPCOT, meaning not fresh. Second they were pretty tasteless. I could not tell there was any chocolate in them. Hello, it's Belgian chocolate, shouldn't I have tasted something besides sugar. Dd liked them but she's a kid who loves candy. Just saying.


For now we skipped Portugal and headed for Morocco. We tried the Kefta pocket and gave it a 3. It was good sized and easy to share and not too saucy. The seasoning wasn't overdone but there was nothing to say Wow! about it.
\

Next up New Zealand. Dd was excited about this since she hasn't ever tried lamb before. So we ordered the lamb slider with tomato chutney. We ranked it a 4. She did think the chutney was spicy on this one, and didn't finish her half. So I saved it for later. I think she didn't finish because of a combination of people smoking near us and we were getting stuffed since we aren't big eaters, mostly grazers.


We skipped the next few booths and ended up at Hops and Barley to try the Pumpkin Mousse. Dd loves cranberries and pumpkin so for us this was a 5. Once again the portion didn't seem large enough to us. But I am glad it was small as I could see myself eating too much of it.


Our last stop was in Germany but not for food. Our last visit here I bought the Wine Walk and wanted to try some German wine this time. While in the shop I noticed something on a sign called a Wine Flight. This is a sample of 3 wines of 6 that they offer. This would include a sample of ice wine, something I've been wanting to try. I was willing to pay the price but didn't want all 3 wines at the same time (since I was the driver and I'm pretty lightweight for a drinker-2 oz would be OK but not 6-8 oz). So I asked if it worked like the Walk where I could try 1 today and the rest later. Unfortunately it doesn't, you have to consume all at the same time. I'll have to save it until my dh is with us next time. For today I just got the small sample that went with the Walk.
So this ended our day at F&W, and we did collect all the stamps and went back to the Festival Marketplace for our completed stamp. Then I let my dd ride Mission Space and we rode Test Track together and gave away our 4 other fast passes to a family. We then went to Sum of All Thrills and designed a rollercoaster before we left. We departed F&W feeling full and we also had great weather today so it was a perfect day.

This past Wednesday my dd13 and I went to check out F&W at EPCOT. We went for one afternoon trip last year before Halloween when our passes were expiring and were hooked. She's talked about it all year and wanted to try lots of new things.

dd13

me
So we head out on Wednesday and start at the Festival Marketplace, which we did not know existed last year. We wandered around a bit and bought our F&W swipe card so we wouldn't have to keep pulling cash out of our pockets. This is also the location where they hold many of the seminars and tasting events.


After purchasing our new mascot “Jean Ralphio” as my dd has named her vinyalmation (from the popular NBC show Parks&Rec)

we walked to World Showcase in time for opening of the countries.


On the way we saw the new Ocean Spray cranberry bog. Too cool. My dd wanted to go in and stomp cranberries.



Before I go on I want to let you know that we picked up the Discovery Passport this year and will stamp it in every country. My family jokes about this but I am an avid collector of stamps. On our journey out West last year they got tired of me asking where the National Passport stamps were located every time we entered a park. I also made my dd do every Jr Ranger book there was to be had. But enough on that, we were also going to use the passport to rank OUR opinion of what the food tasted like so if we wanted seconds later we would know what we liked.
Our original plan was to skip every other booth but that flew out the window when we were overwhelmed with all the food we could try. So we jumped from place to place until we were full.
First up was Hawaii. Since we have visited there 3 times I knew we would like the food so we tried the Kalua pork slider. In our ranking we gave it a 4. My dd was worried that the mayonnaise would be too spicy but she ate it all and said she would try it again. I think since the portion was smaller I enjoyed it but I don't think I would want a full size sandwich just because I don't go in for mayonnaise.


Next up was the Desserts and Champagne booth. We decided on the white chocolate Macadamia mousse with dark Chocolate pearls. We both gave it a 5. Really wished it were larger sized. But we will try this again. It has a nice chocolate flavor and the pearls were slightly crunchy.




Then we moved on to Greece, where we tried to Chicken Souvlaki with tzatziki. We gave it a 3. Mostly because it didn't taste like any chicken I've ever had. When I told my dh that it looked like sausage he informed me there is such a thing as chicken sausage. Who knew? I guess that's why HE does the shopping! It still didn't taste like chicken though.


We skipped Canada for now, but I know we will be back to try the cheese soup. I've heard good and bad about it this year.

On to Ireland...last year I was the only one who got to try the Lava Cake since dh and dd wanted to ride Soarin'. I got tired of waiting for them and went to eat instead. The wait for the ride ended up being 90 minutes. So this year I took my dd to all the parks one day a week before F&W and told her to ride anything she wanted to because during F&W we were there for the FOOD! Anyway, at Ireland we ordered the Lava Cake, the Kerrygold cheese selection and I got to try the Bunratty Meade Honey Wine. Cake was OK we gave it a 5, though I did give most of my half to my dd. I really liked the cheeses, I gave them a 4, but the chutney was way too sweet. My Meade was really good, I gave it a 4. Now looking to find out where I can get some. There was actually a lot of cheese so I put it in a container we brought in case we didn't finish something so we could eat it later.


Jean Ralphio enjoying the World

We skipped over France for now. Since we are local we are planning to make around 5 trips to F&W over the next month,so I'll think we will cover it all.
Next we hit Belgium. I'm not a seafood/fish eater so we skipped the mussels and we had the waffle last year, so this year we tried the Guylien Belgian Chocolate Seashell Truffles. I gave them a 2, my lowest rating of the day. First off they were boxed, like not made at EPCOT, meaning not fresh. Second they were pretty tasteless. I could not tell there was any chocolate in them. Hello, it's Belgian chocolate, shouldn't I have tasted something besides sugar. Dd liked them but she's a kid who loves candy. Just saying.


For now we skipped Portugal and headed for Morocco. We tried the Kefta pocket and gave it a 3. It was good sized and easy to share and not too saucy. The seasoning wasn't overdone but there was nothing to say Wow! about it.
\

Next up New Zealand. Dd was excited about this since she hasn't ever tried lamb before. So we ordered the lamb slider with tomato chutney. We ranked it a 4. She did think the chutney was spicy on this one, and didn't finish her half. So I saved it for later. I think she didn't finish because of a combination of people smoking near us and we were getting stuffed since we aren't big eaters, mostly grazers.


We skipped the next few booths and ended up at Hops and Barley to try the Pumpkin Mousse. Dd loves cranberries and pumpkin so for us this was a 5. Once again the portion didn't seem large enough to us. But I am glad it was small as I could see myself eating too much of it.


Our last stop was in Germany but not for food. Our last visit here I bought the Wine Walk and wanted to try some German wine this time. While in the shop I noticed something on a sign called a Wine Flight. This is a sample of 3 wines of 6 that they offer. This would include a sample of ice wine, something I've been wanting to try. I was willing to pay the price but didn't want all 3 wines at the same time (since I was the driver and I'm pretty lightweight for a drinker-2 oz would be OK but not 6-8 oz). So I asked if it worked like the Walk where I could try 1 today and the rest later. Unfortunately it doesn't, you have to consume all at the same time. I'll have to save it until my dh is with us next time. For today I just got the small sample that went with the Walk.
So this ended our day at F&W, and we did collect all the stamps and went back to the Festival Marketplace for our completed stamp. Then I let my dd ride Mission Space and we rode Test Track together and gave away our 4 other fast passes to a family. We then went to Sum of All Thrills and designed a rollercoaster before we left. We departed F&W feeling full and we also had great weather today so it was a perfect day.

My dd and I just did our first pass at F&W today. We were using a ranking system of 1-5 (5 best).
Here's what we tasted until we got full:
Hawaii:Pork slider-4 dd doesn't like mayonnaise and still liked this
Desserts&Champ-White choc mousse-5 very good wished it were a bigger portion
Greece-Chicken souvlaki-3 it did not look nor taste like chicken, more like a mild sausage
Ireland-Cheese selection-4 too much cheese as we did not finish, but saved it for later. Lava cake-5 once again wished the portion was larger. Meade honey wine-5 sweet taste, did not taste the alcohol in it (plus for me!)
Belgium-choc seashell truffles-2, these are given to you in a sealed box. Not made up in the kitchen that day. Did not really have much of a choc taste.
Morocco- kefta pocket-3 nice sized and not too spicy
New Zealand-lamb slider-4 dd said hers was too spicy with the tomato sauce. I would agree based on that we don't really like spicy food, but I still finished it.
Hops and Barley-pumpkin mousse-5 loved the sweet taste especially the cake inside.
That's as far as we got today because we were full. Going back on Monday with dh so he can try a few things too.
Weather was awesome today. Nice breeze and not too hot. We didn't wait more than 2 minutes at any booth to be served.
If I ever figure out how to post pics from webshots I will.

My dd and I just did our first pass at F&W today. We were using a ranking system of 1-5 (5 best).
Here's what we tasted until we got full:
Hawaii:Pork slider-4 dd doesn't like mayonnaise and still liked this
Desserts&Champ-White choc mousse-5 very good wished it were a bigger portion
Greece-Chicken souvlaki-3 it did not look nor taste like chicken, more like a mild sausage
Ireland-Cheese selection-4 too much cheese as we did not finish, but saved it for later. Lava cake-5 once again wished the portion was larger. Meade honey wine-5 sweet taste, did not taste the alcohol in it (plus for me!)
Belgium-choc seashell truffles-2, these are given to you in a sealed box. Not made up in the kitchen that day. Did not really have much of a choc taste.
Morocco- kefta pocket-3 nice sized and not too spicy
New Zealand-lamb slider-4 dd said hers was too spicy with the tomato sauce. I would agree based on that we don't really like spicy food, but I still finished it.
Hops and Barley-pumpkin mousse-5 loved the sweet taste especially the cake inside.
That's as far as we got today because we were full. Going back on Monday with dh so he can try a few things too.
Weather was awesome today. Nice breeze and not too hot. We didn't wait more than 2 minutes at any booth to be served.
If I ever figure out how to post pics from webshots I will.

Wow, Love that you posted the link to all those pictures! Thanks!

Thanks for posting your pictures,they're great! I love seeing real pictures of campgrounds, especially if I'm planning on staying there. I've picked some really bad campgrounds in the past based on staged pictures and ratings. What RV park did you stay at in Vicksburg? Your pictures are great because you've already been on all the trips we're planning. What time of the year did you go to the Grand Canyon? The park didn't look full and I've had trouble getting reservations there in the past. And what did you think of the Rafter J Bar Ranch? I had that one picked for when we go to South Dakota. Sorry for the rambling and endless questions.