weather

Labor Day Weekend 2018 at Disney: Day 2

by

We’re taking it easy this weekend, so no getting up early to do any Extra Magic Hours. After waking up around 9:30am, we walked over to the French Quarter to pick up fresh beignets for breakfast.

At 11:30am we were getting off the bus at Animal Kingdom when my daughter announced she had forgotten her MagicBand back at the hotel! Rather than having to bus back, we went to guest services at the front of the park to inquire if we could get her a replacement. The cast member (Ryan) informed us that our Passholder card was also actually a valid park ticket! We’re so used to the MagicBands we had completely forgotten the “old school” plastic credit card-like ticket (which luckily we had with us). It did turn out that my daughter’s name was incorrect on the ticket (we had never used it so never noticed) so Ryan corrected that and also gave us each two “generic” FastPasses good for any attraction in the park (except Avatar: Flight of Passage, of course). Nice!

Read more

Long Memorial Day Weekend at Disney

by

Last Wednesday night my Tampa Bay Lightning lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the Washington Capitals, so there will be no Stanley Cup Finals games here in Tampa this year. 🙁 Go Vegas?

With the end of the hockey season also came the end of the school year for my daughter. So with the upcoming Memorial Day holiday weekend, we headed over to Orlando for a mini vacation at Disney World. The 2018 hurricane season doesn’t start until June 1 but already the first named storm of the season (subtropical storm Alberto) was threatening to rain out our plans!

Read more

Spring Training 2018: Flying Out

by

Due to scheduling conflicts, I’m heading out to Arizona for my annual Spring Training trip a little later than usual … actually the last weekend of the season! My brother wasn’t able to make it so it’s just me, my sister, and my daughter (who hasn’t been out to see Cactus League baseball with me since 2012). My travel tech hasn’t changed much from last year: iPhone 7 Plus, Canon PowerShot SX710, and FitBit Charge 2. The new addition is my Surface Laptop (just in case work calls while I’m away).

Today was quite the busy day. We started early driving over to Orlando for my daughter’s saber solo at the FBA State Solo & Ensemble contest at Lake Nona High School. After she received her superior rating, we started back west towards Tampa but made a quick stop for lunch at the Flower & Garden Festival at Epcot. After lunch we drove back the Tampa International Airport and my wife dropped us off for our flight to Phoenix.

The five hour flight to Sky Harbor was uneventful and our luggage arrived relatively quickly. The line for the rental car shuttle, however, was really long (not too surprising for a Friday night around spring break time though, I guess). After getting our car (free upgrade from mid-size to SUV!) we drove to Goodyear and checked into our hotel. By now it was 8:00pm Arizona time (11:00pm for us!) and we were hungry. Pulling a recommendation from a past trip, my daughter and I went to Bella Luna in Litchfield Park for dinner and then Yogurtini next door for dessert.

After dinner, I dropped my daughter back at the hotel and then drove back to Sky Harbor to pick up my sister. By the time we were all back at the hotel it was about 11:30pm (2:30am for us east coast travellers) so we crashed for the evening. Baseball starts tomorrow!

Hurricane Irma recap

by

animated Irma NHC forecast cone

We had plenty of warning that Hurricane Irma was coming, but the uncertainty of when, where, and how bad continued to be the wildcard right up until the last minute. Whereas at the beginning of the week it looked like Irma was going to skirt up the east coast of Florida now it seemed that it was going to come up through the Keys on the west (Gulf) side of the state, aimed directly at the Tampa Bay area.

Read more

Bracing for Irma

by

With the devastation in Houston from Hurricane Harvey barely two weeks old, here in Florida we’re bracing for Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm with 185MPH winds:


We had our impact windows installed back in 2008, and replaced the overhead garage door in 2015, but still hadn’t gotten around to the entry doors. Trying to find plywood has been difficult so far and there were lines at the gas stations last night when I went to fill up the car and my gas cans in case we have to evacuate (I don’t live in an evacuation zone, but if they evacuate the entire county, we’ll leave). Our supply closet is stocked (refreshed over this past Memorial Day weekend as is our custom) and ready to go either way.

Fingers crossed this thing continues to track east and spares the state!

Labor Day Weekend 2017 at Disney: Day 1

by

Labor Day weekend … time for our annual mini family vacation to Walt Disney World!

We couldn’t drive over to Orlando until this morning because of Friday night high school football yesterday, but we got a relatively early start and made it to the resort area by 10:00am. We parked at the Contemporary resort (since that’s where we’ll be staying this weekend) and walked from there to the Magic Kingdom. Disney has re-organized the bag check/security setup at the Magic Kingdom for the better. Now you go through bag check far before the ticket gates (so before getting on the ferry or monorail at the ticket/transportation center or right after getting off the buses). A welcome change!

Read more

Spring Training 2017: Day 1

by

It’s been two years since I’ve been out to the Cactus League to watch my Cleveland Indians at Spring Training … but it’s time! The tech arsenal is pretty simple this year: my Surface Pro 4, iPhone 7 Plus, Canon PowerShot SX710, and FitBit Charge 2 (I also brought my trusty Garmin nĂŒvi GPS but ended up not using it because the rental car didn’t have a CD player so I couldn’t use my magnetic slot mount and hadn’t brought the beanbag dashboard mount … oops! So I ended up using Waze on my iPhone).

Read more

Labor Day Weekend 2016 at Disney: Day 4

by

Happy Labor Day!

My wife and I work up early and let my daughter sleep in. To get some extra exercise, we walked around the Polynesian along the beach and took the trail over to the nearby Grand Floridian resort. We’d always seen the wedding chapel from the monorail but took this opportunity to check around the grounds. It definitely has some scenic views of Cinderella’s castle across the lagoon from the chapel and outdoor flower arch in the back. Back at our room after the walk, our daughter was still asleep (teenagers!) so we decided to take the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom to catch the park opening ceremony. This is something we’ve always wanted to do but never seemed to arrive on time. It was neat watching all the characters arrive on the train and greet the family selected to help open the park after a big countdown.

Read more

Labor Day Weekend 2016 at Disney: Day 3

by

Traditionally we would do the resort pool and Disney Springs on Monday before heading home, but we decided to mix things up this year. No early plans today so we slept in and spent the morning at the resort, enjoying the Polynesian’s two pools after grabbing a light breakfast from the concierge lounge. The pools and waterslides were fun and my daughter enjoyed using my underwater camera to take photos and movies. I’m sure I got a few strange looks swimming around with a camera strapped to my arm, heh. After enjoying some malasades from the Oasis Bar, we cleaned up, dressed, and drove over to Disney Springs to do a little shopping.

Read more