leisure

Disney MagicBands and FastPass+

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It’s been over a year since we were last Disney passholders (we spent the last 12 months as LegoLand passholders). Back then, the new FastPass+ and MagicBand systems were still being beta tested (and we were never chosen for the test). Our first (and only) experience with FastPass+ didn’t go very well back in late 2013 but nontheless now that the MagicBands were in wide use we were looking forward to trying them out.

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Spring Training 2015: Recap

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4:30am … time to get to the airport. Ugh.

Today was just a travel day home, with the time zone change working against us. We left our hotel in Avondale by 5am and about 30 minutes later dropped off my brother at Terminal 4 at Sky Harbor Airport for his early flight home. Then my sister and I returned the rental car and took the shuttle back to the airport and eventually parted ways to our individual flights.

morning at Sky Harbor

The flight back to Florida was uneventful (I did manage to get an exit row seat) and I landed back in the sunshine state shortly past 3:30pm. I was home with plenty of time to unpack before watching the Dayton/Oklahoma basketball game. It was a great close game until the final moments, and the Flyers lost to the Sooners 72-66. So no magical run like last year’s to the Elite 8, but it was still fun to watch.

Once again, I had a great time at spring training in the Cactus League. Opening Day is still a few weeks away, and the Indians don’t play the Rays here until July, so for now I’ll be watching the Lightning hopefully make a strong push in the playoffs and maybe make a run for the Stanley Cup.

Go Indians! Go Rays! Go Bolts! 😀

Spring Training 2015: Day 3

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Our last full day in Arizona. 🙁

We woke up at a more normal time this morning, intending to go to breakfast at the Black Bear Diner before heading over to batting practice in Goodyear. We got a later start than expected, though, so we ended up dropping my brother off at the training facility and then going to pick up a “to go” breakfast instead. We ended up with Express Donuts (next door to Nothing Bundt Cakes) which were pretty yummy (and only $4 for half a dozen!) and ate while waiting for the Indians to come out to practice. It turned out that we could have gone to Black Bear because practice started late due to the night game yesterday. Doh!

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Spring Training 2015: Day 2

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Day/night double header!

It was a long day yesterday for all of us, but the late (early) night and even climbing Camelback Mountain didn’t stop my brother from getting up early and going for a 14-mile run (marathon training!) while my sister and I slept in. By the time we were all up and showered and ready for breakfast, it was past 11am. We ended up at a Paradise Cafe down the street from our hotel, and were surprised to learn it was actually owned by Panera! Pretty funny since I had always described it as “Panera, but with waffles” since our first trip to Arizona in 2009 but never made the connection.

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Spring Training 2015: Day 1

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St. Patrick’s Day has passed, March Madness is in full swing, so it’s time for my annual Spring Training trip to the Cactus League with my little brother (and little sister, this year!). Spring has already arrived in Florida, but I’m sure my siblings are ready to get out to warmer climes for a few days.

This year’s tech is similar to last year’s, with some upgrades: new are my Surface Pro 3 and iPhone 6 Plus, and no stranger to the trip are my aging-but-still-functional Canon PowerShot digital camera (with EyeFi card), and Garmin nüvi GPS. I left the nüvi at home last year, in favor of Waze on my iPhone, but realized that with all the heavy use my phone gets on these trips, Waze was a big contributor to sucking the battery dry. So I’m back to a dedicated device for nagivation around the valley so I can save my phone’s battery for the important stuff: photos, social media, e-mail, etc. 😉

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Thanksgiving road trip: back home

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It was a long week (4 days of travel, 3 days of vacation) but we’re back in warm Florida after our trip up north to Ohio for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Despite the heavy snow on Thanksgiving day, slightly warmer temperatures on Friday allowed for the roads to be clear and easy to navigate, so once again weather was not a factor in our trip. We left Cleveland around 9:00am (36 degrees!) and stopped for a late lunch with old college friends in Lebanon, Ohio (46 degrees). We ended up staying and visiting a little longer than expected so we weren’t back on the road until 3:30pm. Around 4:00pm we crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky on I-75 South. We stopped for gas and a driver change in Lexington around 5:30pm (55 degrees!) and at 7:00pm crossed the Tennessee border. We grabbed dinner at a Zoë’s Kitchen in Knoxville around 8:00pm (not bad!). Another long night of driving into Georgia and we stopped just north of Atlanta at our hotel in Kennesaw at 11:15pm.

Sunday morning we were checked out of the hotel and driving south on I-75 by 8:30am, and then stopped for a quick breakfast at Sublime Doughnuts in Atlanta. We crossed our final border into Florida at 1:00pm and stopped for lunch in Lake City about 45 minutes later (and it was now a wonderful 75 degrees). We ran into terrible traffic through Gainsville (Gator fans driving home?) that seriously slowed us down. Instead of a three hour drive from Lake City, we didn’t get home until after 6:30pm.

Our total round trip was about 2,739 miles, 48 hours in the car, whew!

Offhand note: I learned that Touch ID on my iPhone 6 Plus doesn’t work reliably when my hands are cold and dry like they were in Ohio.