Tag: travel

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Family Reuniration

I didn’t sleep great on the hard, flat, box spring-like mattress last night, but it could have been worse. I was pretty tired, but not as tired as I would find myself after another full day with the family. Dad got up and started making some breakfast. I made it downstairs and made myself a couple eggs to eat with the rest of the Ethiopian leftovers, and it was absolutely spectacular. I may have some eggs with the last of the injera tomorrow. Bác Trân brought a load of shredded pork with him for some reason, and kept setting out bowls of it in the kitchen, so I kept eating little bits of it any time I would pass by. Mom always made it with chicken when we were younger, but it was all pretty similar.

Julie ended up taking the adults to get some food for Uncle Tuan while I got ready to go. I hate shower curtains because they always blow in toward the shower. This one was twice as bad because my shower had a window with a curtain that stretched the span of that entire wall. So there I was, taking a shower between two full-sized shower curtains, having a terrible time. It could have been worse too.

I noticed a vehicle parked out front before Julie got back, but he got out when she pulled up. He was here about a couple maintenance issues she reported, and then he was gone. We headed on back to Park Village to visit with the family, and Uncle Tuan seemed to be doing much better than the night before. He seemed to be all smiles, had eaten all of his soup they brought him, and Julie even had him talked into rolling outside for a bit of sunshine.

I wasn’t ready to blame it all on her, but when Lan showed up, things seemed to shift. The Vietnamese started flowing, so nobody else could keep up. Their voices escalated as they always do, and we could see Uncle Tuan’s smile shift to mild anguish and eventually some tears. It was all we could do to force all of the adults out of the room to have their discussion elsewhere, but from that point on, Uncle Tuan was back to being disinterested. I don’t know how much of him was ever there, but the family needed to make a better effort of keeping things positive around him.

Dad found us a room across the property and I said my peace. Then Julie and Lan came down and Dad and I ended up going back to sit with Uncle Tuan. We watched Teen Titans, but didn’t make any other progress after that. Eventually the rest of the family came back around and they wanted to go eat, so we drove up the road to Phở Hoà for a late lunch with Lan’s family.

The food was pretty good, and then we had them over to the Airbnb for a tour. I caught up with Summer while she walked the dogs, and the elders took a nap. When they were ready to go back, Julie and I dropped them off while she went to a wax appointment in the city. It happened to be right next to the Best Buy, so I went there to stand by their Pixel Watch display and borrowed their charger to get my watch back up to 97%.

Julie actually finished before me, but I found her at the car and we headed back to the home to visit. Lan had brought him some more food from home that he ate, which seemed to have spirits up again, but then he was getting a little hazy from his evening medication so we left for the night.

Lan really wanted to show off the house she just bought, so we drove way across the city to see that. She was there with one or two sisters, but I couldn’t be sure without speaking the language. She had some nice things, but overall it felt more like a college roommate situation than anything else. We stood there for a while before we finally made it out.

Julie and I spotted a Jack in the Box nearby, and I was a little bit surprised to see that it piqued her interest as well. We stopped on the way out to try and get some food, but they were only open for drive-through. Julie wanted to order at one closer to the Airbnb so the food wouldn’t get so cold, even though it meant driving past our exit and then turning back. Neither restaurant had good reviews, and they definitely messed up our order, but it was interesting having a late-night munchies type meal with the elders.

After that, everyone fell out pretty quickly. It was a long, difficult day, and I honestly couldn’t predict whether the next two days will be even more difficult, or if they’ll turn around. Eventually a decision will have to be made, and I just don’t know how well it will go for someone who thinks it’s 1990-something.

Oh, how I’ve missed these little talks.

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Half Awake

I got to sleep in a little bit from my normal work schedule, but still had to hit the ground running. I had all but a couple of things packed and ready to go and thought I might have enough time to take the dogs for a quick run, but after staying up so late to pack, I just didn’t make it out. Dad felt like we were super late, so he sped over to get me and then had to go back and get Mom, but they could have just finished loading themselves up first.

After a harrowing trip across town, Julie took over and got us to the airport. We got parked, through security, and onto the plane without any trouble or much wait. Things seemed pretty quiet in the airport. We had a straight shot to Charlotte, but then that airport was under major construction. It was a mess getting out of there, but we finally got our rental van and made it to the Airbnb.

It was an old house, next to some brand new construction, all behind a church. It seemed like an odd place, and just a couple blocks away there was a coliseum where Jo Koy would actually be performing on the Saturday after our departure. The house was pretty rough, and it basically looked like someone moved out and filled it with a bunch of cheap furniture to rent out. I suppose it suited our needs at a better price than multiple hotel rooms, but I think I would have preferred something with better housekeeping.

We didn’t get to spend much time settling in because we had to get back to the airport to get Bác Trân. If anyone thought it was a circus before, then I don’t know what it turned into at that point. It was a wonder he didn’t get kidnapped, but with some help from a kind stranger we found him and loaded him up. Julie wanted to look for food, but we went back to the Airbnb first to get him settled. I finally got a call from the Genesis Cancer and Blood Institute to schedule my visit, and of course that’s another two weeks out. Then we ended up going to an Ethiopian restaurant just up the road called Abugida.

We struggled to get some help with the menu at first, but after talking to who I presume was the owner, we ended up on a big platter for all of us to share. It all came with one spoon for serving, and the rest was eaten with our hands. I think it went much better than any of us expected, and the food was great. Mom ended up using the spoon to load her injera, but everyone got fed.

After we ate, we went further into the city and found a Trader Joe’s, which I think was too organic for everyone but Julie. Mom wanted some sweeter coffee creamer, and they didn’t have any eggs, so Dad and I walked to Target a couple of blocks back. Julie drove Mom and Bác Trân to meet us, and we got the rest of what we needed. Importantly, I got some Simply Spiked and mango Blue Moon for Julie and me.

Most of us were up too late once we got back to the house. I eventually had a video call with Summer to catch up. Julie and I sat in the dining area on our laptops for a while, and eventually everyone but Mom and Bác Trân went to bed. They stayed up in front of the TV until the wee hours of the night, talking too loudly and watching gameshows.

Half Asleep

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M3SORED

I had an absolute fit trying to sleep last night. I went to bed for a couple hours, maybe dozed for a few minutes, but laid awake for most of it. I ended up getting out of bed and puttering a bit, then trying again. My mind wouldn’t quit wandering about any random topic. It could have been remembering facts about the Byzantine Empire, or cats. It could have been pondering alternative methods to make peanut butter. Anything but sleep.

I dozed again briefly for about 20 minutes before my alarm went off, then got up and ready to go to Kansas City to pick up the new Model 3. Summer was a dear and loaded all of my accessories into her trunk. Eaddie was slow to rise, but we eventually made it out the door.

The drive to Kansas City was pretty terrible. It rained pretty hard for most of it. There was a ton of fog and mist, so I really had to push the car through it. We charged in Ozark, Lowell, and Nevada before making it to the showroom. Eaddie sat up front with me while Summer worked on her laptop in the back.

The parking lot was absolutely packed with cars for delivery. It was the greatest concentration of Cybertrucks I’d ever seen, and it was a little bit glorious. I had a pretty good idea which car was mine, but we went inside to check in since we needed restrooms by then anyway. I talked to two different staff members. The first was kind and led us to the car to check it out. That was the end of any courtesy we received. I guess they were just too slammed with deliveries to entertain the idea of helping us get a charge on the Model Y, and I got a deadpan one-word response when I asked if I could drive my car before I accepted delivery.

Fortunately there didn’t seem to be anything amiss. I loaded up my floor mats, and we made our way to a public charger a couple miles away to leave Summer’s car while we took mine out for the day. Our first stop was the Red Door Woodfired Grill. I didn’t know what to expect, but it was delicious. We got super meaty calamari, and three excellent entrées. Eaddie had a big cheeseburger, I took the recommendation of the prime rib French dip, and Summer had a sirloin. The portions were small, but I guess they were going for “upscale sports bar.” The flavors were on point, but I think it did me in on sodium for the day.

Our next stop was IKEA. Summer was reluctant, but Eaddie and I outvoted her. We didn’t waste much time, and basically made a quick pass through the whole place so we could get to some meatballs. We were all full from our late lunch, but they both actually really wanted meatballs. I started feeling bad, with a racing heart and likely high blood pressure. The city driving started it, and the racing heart pushed me to the edge where I just had to sit down in the restaurant after taking my metoprolol and a clonidine. We shared a plate, and I eventually felt good enough to walk out of there.

We got back to Summer’s car and headed toward home, stopping to charge in Belton, Nevada, and Lowell for a long final leg of the trip. Eaddie rode with me from Nevada to Lowell where I developed a really elaborate pee-dance for about 45 minutes. I didn’t let myself go through the same thing, and stopped at Ozark for another break while the girls continued on home. Just past Ozark, I nailed a small-to-medium sized opossum dead-on. It didn’t make much of a sound, and I didn’t see any damage when I got home, but I still felt bad.

The girls crashed instantly, and I fed the dogs and got things picked up a little bit before finally settling in. I’ll have to do some shuffling tomorrow to get the Model 3 into the garage.

The Brewdy Kitten Café

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Over Pressure

I woke up to some pretty good numbers, and the lump in my chest was gone. I just had to keep that up for a drive to Fort Smith, and things would be peachy. I took it a little bit too easy all morning, because I was late getting showered and over to my parents’ house to pick them up.

Eaddie had rehearsal with her quintet, so Summer, my parents, and I headed to Fort Smith for the magic club Christmas potluck. It was pretty rainy most of the way, but we made it with plenty of time. I could feel my body tensing up the entire drive, so I knew my numbers would be high when we got there. I was at about 142/89 when we stopped, so I ended up taking a clonidine as soon as we got inside to try and bring myself back down. That may have actually worked against me, because by the time we left I was above 160/100. My heart started racing a couple hours before that, and I couldn’t get it to slow down all night.

I had Summer drive us home while I tried to get myself calmed down. I felt reasonably relaxed in the back seat, but my heart just kept beating hard. We stopped in Ozark to charge, and I jumped around a little bit outside, thinking that maybe I could burn off some adrenaline. I felt okay for the most part. My heart was just trying to beat out of my chest.

We dropped my parents off and made it home, where I kept relatively active the rest of the night. I had several Vine packages to unbox and photograph, which means I need to get some more reviews done. I tinkered with some stuff in the car for a bit, and ended up taking apart the USB console because it had some soda spilled in it. Summer did her nails, and we waited for Eaddie to get home from watching Wicked for something like the third time. I eventually took another clonidine and did some breathing exercises in bed to try and calm myself down. My heart rate came down a bit, but my blood pressure never really did. I just had to wrap things up and get to bed.

I feel like Jason Statham in “Crank.”

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We’re in for Some Chop

I was on the verge of crashing all day long, but still stayed up late trying to get things back into order. We rolled out of the hotel and hailed a Lyft as we walked down the hallway. The ride was quiet, and traffic wasn’t bad at all until we got right into the airport. Evidently there was a convention for the National Federation of the Blind this week, because I’ve never seen so many white canes in my entire life. It was interesting to witness them traveling through such a hectic environment that even we struggled to navigate, and I’m sure they appreciated the time to see each other face-to-face.

We timed things just about right, so we had plenty of time to get through security and grab some pretzel breakfast sandwiches from Auntie Anne’s. I watched part of Dune: Part Two on the first flight, which was pretty smooth. We had just enough time in St. Louis to switch planes, and then I watched a bit more during our much more turbulent flight to Little Rock.

Eaddie wanted Mexican food for lunch, so I found a well-reviewed place called Tortas Mexico in North Little Rock that had some of the best food we’d had all week, at a third the price. I felt rich. Then we continued home, unloaded, and played with Muad’Dib for a bit before Eaddie and I went to get Stilgar from the vet.

Muad’Dib seemed a little happier to see us specifically, while Stilgar seemed happy to see anybody. He did pee a little in the excitement. The lady that helped us was really concerned that we might have lost Muad’Dib, but I told her they simply didn’t have room to board both of them while we were gone, and we decided to make sure the younger spirit was kept safe.

Stilgar wolfed down a whole bunch of food, as though he hadn’t eaten anything all week. We played with them for a bit, and then I went inside to unpack and get things in order. Noah came back after work and Summer had a talk with him about some responsibilities, but you could tell he was just sitting in silence to receive the lecture.

Once I had things put away enough, I took the dogs out for a roll through the neighborhood on the Onewheel. They did really great, but I did finally see worms in Muad’Dib’s poop. He had to stop a couple more times on our journey to and from my parents’ house. We didn’t stay to visit for too long, and made it nearly all the way home before Stilgar got too hot and tired, and flopped onto some cool dirt. He refused to move, so I tried to get Summer to bring us some water. She and Noah walked up the wrong street, but it didn’t matter because a girl came out of the house across the street from us, and her dog ran at us full-force off-leash, which got Stilgar up and full of energy immediately. They wagged and sniffed, and then we were on our way home.

One or the other of the dogs kept chewing on potted plants I had on the deck, so I repotted what was left of one of them. Hopefully having both of them here again will settle them down overnight, but more importantly, hopefully they can’t get out of the fence again.

The ants we had in the master bathroom looked to have moved on, but after just a short while they came back. They went straight for the bait, but I wish I knew what triggered them to come back in the first place.

Finally down for the long snooze.

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All Parks and No Play

We got up extra early this morning for the Animal Kingdom. We didn’t quite get out as early as I wanted, but my sleep deficit has only grown while we’ve been on vacation, and I just didn’t care as much on the last day. We headed straight for Flight of Passage, where everyone else seemed to be headed. In reality, we probably could have circled the entire park and ridden or watched everything else while everyone else was waiting for that one ride, but instead we just followed the leader and watched the rest of the wait times in the park go up.

I got us a little breakfast snack that the girls didn’t really ask for, and we ate in line for the Na’vi River Journey, which was the last of the Pandora area. We spent the rest of the morning and a large part of the afternoon in Africa, wandering in circles. I got incredibly hot, tired, and irritable after seeing pictures of the ruin that Noah has left around our home, and I just wanted to scream at Summer.

We ate lunch a little early at Tusker House and got to see Mickey, Donald, Daisey, and Goofy multiple times throughout our buffet. It made me appreciate them that much more, because at Cinderella’s castle, we just got to see her sign autographs from afar. I did ask Mickey to blink twice if he was being held against his will, which got a silent chuckle and zero blinks. I still think something’s up.

We finally moved on after giving up on the Lion King show, and watched the Feathered Friends show instead. One of the crows brushed my face when it flew by us in the audience. Then we made it to Asia where we got stuck in line for the Kali River Rapids while they waited for the distant lightning to go away. Everest was so fun that it was basically the last thing we did. We weren’t able to do anything else because of how much time we sank into walking around the gorillas. We thought we’d at least get to Dinosaur, but the girls opted not to wait for the entire last hour at the park in line for that. Luckily we were able to get back on Everest back-to-back eight more times because they were just speed running people through it. We walked back on every single time. We tried to get ten, but they had a security guard posted at the start of the line after we got off our ninth ride. I made the comment to him that we only needed one more ride to make ten, and without a smirk, giggle, or friendly tone, he said to try again tomorrow.

The bus back to the resort was packed, but a short ride. The girls spent some time in the gift shop there while I went back to the room to make some green tea and change for a swim. They ended up closing the pool for more storms, so I went out on the balcony down the hall and watched the zebras, giraffes, and whatever else was outside.

Get me outta here.

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Island of Misfit Toys

As far as we could tell, we were on the first bus to Hollywood Studios this morning. We got to the park and past the box office where they held everyone, and then made a dash straight for Slinky Dog. We stepped up all the way to the ride as they started loading people, and just as our turn was coming up, they stopped the ride. Evidently one of the doors to the loading platform wouldn’t close correctly, and they had to shut it down for safety. Luckily we got Lightning Lane passes for it.

After that, I checked us in to Oga’s Cantina for our reservation, but we rode Smuggler’s Run before that, while the wait was low. The guy that wanted to pilot with me was awful at it, and kept crashing into things. After that, we were a little late to our table at Oga’s, but they weren’t busy. I had considered cancelling it because they didn’t actually have any proper breakfast, but we ultimately decided to check it out. The girls enjoyed it.

After some weird juice and charcuterie, we headed to Rise of the Resistance for a long wait in line. It started to get hot pretty quickly, but the line had lots of fans and shade. The ride was great, but kind of breezed by after such a long line without a virtual queue. We continued around the park through Star Tours, and then had to make lunch at the Brown Derby.

The food there was really good. I had a root beer brined pork steak as recommended by our server. Eaddie did not like the grapefruit cake we had for dessert, because as she discovered not long ago, she doesn’t actually like grapefruit.

After lunch, we continued to tick rides off of our list. Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Rollercoaster were good, but the lines were long and the sun was hot. The Runaway Railway was fun, but with another ridiculous line. At least it seemed fair with less Lightning Lane nonsense. After that, we were able to catch the last Indiana Jones show before trying to wrap up Toy Story Land.

Unfortunately, we ran into more trouble, as the Alien Swirling Saucers also had door problems and we were stuck loading. Then just before we were about to load onto Toy Story Mania, they had another door fail. Luckily we just barely got out of there and up to the 50s Prime Time Cafe for our dinner reservation.

Dinner was good, and some of the cheapest we’ve had so far on our trip. Our server wasn’t particularly sassy to us, but I had her laughing myself. As soon as we finished eating, we headed to Fantasmic to finish the night. Eaddie had suggested we might skip fireworks, but she was glad we didn’t.

Somehow we managed to miss the last bus that was packed shoulder-to-shoulder, so our bus had plenty of empty seats on the way back to the resort. One more, much shorter day, and then it’ll be time to figure out how to get home.

Keep up.

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Springstime

I slept in super late today to catch up, and woke up feeling much better. I was still the first out of bed though, which I just don’t understand. We got everyone up and headed to Disney Springs to shop for souvenirs. I told the girls we should find something to eat for brunch so we could have a nice dinner, but we just started walking through stores instead. They were the only two to walk up to a giant physical map of the place, and still asked me for directions. We pushed through as it got hotter and hotter in the early afternoon, and just went straight to T-Rex for a late lunch. Our server seemed good, but our food took forever to come out, and my pot roast pot pie had a film of dried gravy on top. Everything tasted alright, but this whole trip, I’ve been thinking the food has only tasted as good as it does because we’re all so hungry by the time we eat.

We circled the property, then doubled back so Eaddie could find a keychain that we ultimately could have just bought in our resort gift shop. Then it was a sleepy bus ride back to the room. Summer went down to lay out by the pool, and after taking a break for a while, I got Eaddie to go down and swim with me. She didn’t last long before heading back up to the room though, and then Summer and I followed shortly after that. Then the two of us went to the front of the resort to visit our gift shop before settling in for the night.

Storms comin’.

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Give It a Rest

I slept in a little bit today, but didn’t want to miss seeing any animals. That was kind of the point of staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. I was the first one up and spotted an addox in the field outside our room. I woke the girls up to show them my picture, and it wasn’t long before we saw some giraffe as well. We eventually got everyone rolled out of bed to try and swim for a bit, but then we smelled breakfast cooking at Boma, the restaurant downstairs from the lobby. We were able to walk up and get a seat nearly immediately, and the buffet was incredible. There was some pretty typical breakfast stuff, but a lot of new African things to try as well. I particularly loved the orange, passion fruit, and guava juice blend, as well as the stewed tomatoes. I stuffed myself silly, and then we went outside to swim under some direct sunlight.

I didn’t want to stay out and burn, so we weren’t out terribly long. We came back to the room and the girls played on their phones. I started to doze a little bit, but never took a proper nap. We went back outside for a little bit at one point, but eventually had to start making our way to the Beach Club Resort for our reservation at the Cape May Cafe. I wasn’t prepared for another buffet, but the girls were hungry again since they hadn’t eaten much at the first one.

We took the bus to Hollywood Studios, the Skyliner to EPCOT, and then a boat to the resort, where we had some time to kill in some rocking chairs by their pool before it was time to eat. There, some of the food was super good, but then I was disappointed by some others. I guess most of the seafood I had was pretty good, but I could only eat so many fried calamari. The pork loin and prime rib(?) were both pretty tough and unenjoyable. I did really like the clam chowder, and the glaze they used on their salmon was super good. I wished I liked the taste of salmon more, because they were really thick cuts.

After stuffing myself again, we headed straight back to Hollywood Studios by boat, and then took the bus back to our own resort where we went out for another dip in the pool. Eaddie joined us at the side of the pool for a little bit, but then went back upstairs. Summer and I goofed around in the water for a little while, and then headed back up for bed.

You’re a nuisance to my plans.

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Dusted and Busted

It was super hard to wake up for a second day in a row with only a couple hours of sub-optimal sleep. We didn’t make it out of the room quite as quickly as yesterday, but we still got there for park open. Summer scored us really early virtual queue tickets to the new Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind coaster, so we ended up cancelling our breakfast reservation at Akershus and tried to be first in line. They didn’t actually open that ride until 8:40 though, and recommended we try something else for our early hours. We didn’t want to walk far, so we just stopped next door for some Starbucks and then came back.

The whole ride seemed pretty out of place for EPCOT, but it was super cool nonetheless. We were so early that there wasn’t a queue at all yet, and in fact we were the only three people on our train. The ride was incredible, and I only partially jokingly asked if we could stay on for another ride. The first guy said we didn’t want to know what was behind the door that led back to the start of the ride, but then another woman asked if we wanted to ride again, and took us through a staff door and loaded us on the back of the next train, which only two other people were on. After riding both first and last cars, I think the rear was my preferred. It really was an excellent experience, and getting to ride twice, back-to-back, was super special.

The rest of the day was some tough bouncing back and forth, partially to hit rides, and partially to make our lunch reservation at Space 220. Overall the food was great, but the experience was fairly middling. The screen for the “space window” could have been way better, and we were seated too close and too far to one side for it to be even noticeable at all.

By the time we got back to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, the reported wait time was like 160 minutes. I think we actually got through in just under an hour though. The ride was super cute, but we kind of thought it was more kiddy-cute than something we really cared to ride repeatedly.

We squabbled a bit in pain as we decided how to attack the rest of the afternoon and evening. I really wanted to at least experience the new Frozen ride, and we eventually made it. Eaddie and I both came away with the exact same thought, that Disney has started relying too heavily on projections for their rides. We preferred actual animatronics, and felt the projections just took away from the experience.

Overall, I think most of the things we’ve experienced this trip have been disappointments, and I’m definitely falling out of love with Disney. There are just an intolerable number of people here, and everything feels like a blatant money grab. The only other highlight for the day was really the special fireworks display over the United States pavilion. Julie and Kevin missed it because they went to the front of the park, but we watched from right next to the pavilion and it was intense.

We all made it back to the resort without too much trouble, but a little worse for wear. Everyone’s feet were hurting pretty badly. I have a pinky-toe that’s more blister than toe. The girls crashed pretty quickly, but I didn’t get to sleep until late because I kept trying to wake Noah up off of our couch at home by playing music over my speakers remotely. Then I had trouble stopping them when he finally woke up. I just wish he’d leave, because I’m tired of him blatantly disrespecting us.

Wake me up before you verti-gogo!