leisure

Epcot International Food & Wine Festival

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My wife and I were at Disney World for our honeymoon when Epcot held the first International Food & Wine Festival back in 1996. And yet, with all the times we’ve been to Disney World since then (which also was my first time ever), we’ve never been there again during the festival … until this weekend, celebrating its 15th year.

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Football split decision

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I knew it was going to be a tough start to the 2010 NFL season because one of my two favorite teams was guaranteed to start with a loss. That’s because the Cleveland Browns were in town playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the season opener. The last time these two teams played each other was in 2006 and this was the first time the teams had met in the opening game of the season.

In other firsts, this was the first time I had gone to a Bucs game in Raymond James Stadium and the first professional football game I took my daughter to. The last Bucs game I attended was back in 1995 when they lost to the Bears in the old Tampa Stadium. I didn’t even live in Florida at the time and the Bucs were still wearing the orange and white with the feather hat logo. In fact, that might have been the last NFL game I’d attended, which coincidentally was also the last year for the “old” Browns before Modell moved the franchise to Baltimore.

Going to the game was actually the only way to see it if you lived in the Tampa Bay area since it was blacked out locally (the first blacked out home game in 12 years). The stadium was pretty empty … I joked with my daughter that they should have let everyone move down into the better seats so the stadium would look more full on TV. Americal Idol finalist (and St. Pete resident) Michael Lynche sang the National Anthem and the F-16 flyover was fantastic … now it was time for some football!

It was hot during the first quarter (heat index of 105), but right before halftime our typical afternoon Florida rainstorms blew through and cooled it off for the second half. I was wearing a Browns jersey, so I was happy for most of the game as the Browns led 14-10. With about 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, my daughter and I decided to leave so we could beat the crowds and traffic and the more serious weather we could see approaching. As we were walking in the parking lot, I heard the crowd and the cannons announce a Tampa Bay touchdown. We listened to the rest of the game on the radio driving home … the Browns had a good chance to still pull out a victory, but it wasn’t to be and the Bucs won their home opener 17-14. So it was a split decision for me seeing the Bucs win at the expense of my Browns losing, but my daughter and I still had a great time at the game so it was win-win for us.

Disney Labor Day weekend 2010, Day 2

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The plan was to meet an old buddy from high school and his daughter at 8am over at the Ticket and Transportation Center so we got up early and grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel before driving over to the Magic Kingdom. What we didn’t realize was that the 2010 Trek Women’s Triathlon was going on so a lot of the roads around our hotel were blocked off for the cycling portion of the race. We ended up being routed all the way back out to I-4 (!!) and had to find our way back onto Disney property. As a result, we were a little late meeting our friends but still got parking in the first row of the lot so it was a short walk to the gates.

Our reason for meeting early was so we could redeem another Give-a-Day-Get-a-Day voucher for FastPass Exchange cards for the five of us to use in the Magic Kingdom. There was no line at will-call, so getting the cards was quick and easy and soon we were back in the car together (leaving the other one in the lot for our return later) driving over to Animal Kingdom to start the day. Despite our “late” start we still made it into the park shortly before opening.

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Disney Labor Day weekend 2010, Day 1

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We got up early on Saturday and drove Hollywood Studios for the Extra Magic hour. Following our usual pattern, we made a bee-line for Toy Story Mania to get FastPasses. By the time we got them, around 8:20am, our return time was three hours later at 11:20am (and the standby line was already 50 minutes)! That’s only 20 minutes after the park opened to resort guests! I could only imagine what the times would be like when the park opened to the general public at 9am.

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Night out at Tropicana Field

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We went out to Tropicana Field tonight to see the Cleveland Indians take on the Tampa Bay Rays. Wow, parking at the Trop is now $20! I miss the good old days (i.e., before the 2008 World Series season) when parking was free! Anyway …

My daughter was in need of a new Rays t-shirt and wanted a “jersey” so we hit the team shop first thing. I wasn’t about to drop $90 on a “real” jersey so I ended up getting her a t-shirt instead with Ben Zobrist’s name and number (#18) on the back. Apparently she didn’t want to jump on the Evan Longoria bandwagon. 😉 It turned out to be a good choice: Zobrist walked three out of his four times at the plate and scored two of the Rays four runs. The Indians unfortunately (for me) lost the game 4-0.

Usually when I go to the Indians/Rays there are quite a few Cleveland fans in the stands with me. Not so this time. While I did see a lot of Cleveland shirts and jerseys (including myself of course), I was the only Indians fan in section 121.

We were supposed to see the Go-Go’s after the game as part of the Rays Summer Concert Series, but unfortunately the band cancelled their tour last month. That was a shame as my daughter was really looking forward to jamming to “We Got the Beat.”

Overall, though, we had a great time at the ballpark. I almost totally forgot about LeBron.