summer 2023

The Happiest Trip on Earth–Day Four

LAX—>MSP; 14,650 steps

So this is the point where our trip started to fall apart a bit. We had a fairly early flight from L.A. to Detroit, so we were up at 4:30 (I was up even earlier, because I was pretty nervous about going back to LAX). We called our Uber without any trouble, got checked in with only a little trouble, and made it through security.

We headed to our gate in Terminal 3 (which is apparently the “new” terminal, as in, not quite done…there were very few food options, and they were doing construction on an escalator the whole time we were there). I wasn’t really paying attention to what was going on around me, until I heard the word “cancelled” over the loudspeaker…yes, it was our flight. After a moment of panic, we headed to the help desk to find out what we needed to do. They put us on a flight back through Minneapolis-St. Paul, which was fine, but the flight was scheduled to leave many hours later than we had planned…did I mention there was almost nothing to do in that terminal? They gave us meal vouchers for our trouble…which covered the cost of two meals…did I mention there were three of us? Anyway, we had a very long, very boring, very uncomfortable day in LAX, where we tried really hard not to fall asleep for too long with some success. If I never have to go back to that airport again, it will be too soon!

I did still have one goal before we left California…I was really hoping to catch a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. We didn’t see it on our arrival, but shortly after our plane took off from LAX, Turkey poked me and told me to look out the window…we had swung out just enough that I actually got to see it!

While I was disappointed not to be landing in Detroit (I had a heard a lot of buzz about a cool fountain, and I was also hoping we might find a Tim Hortons there), it was nice to see Minneapolis-St. Paul again (or so I thought).

We managed to get to Wendy’s (directly across from our departure gate no less) right before they closed, and food improved our mood greatly. Until…

Our flight home, which was schedule to leave at 9:55 p.m. was delayed. To 9:00 a.m. The next day. And that delayed flight was the last flight to St. Louis that day, so it’s not like we had any other options. So I figured out how to request the hotel room they let us have, and after a very long wait, we finally got on the hotel shuttle (at around 11:00 p.m.) and made it to the hotel for a very short sleep.

Did we ever make it home?

The Happiest Trip on Earth–Day Three

Disneyland–32,673 steps

We saved Disneyland for our second (and final) theme park…seeing the train station for the first time was just as much of a thrill as it was at Disney World!

We got to watch the welcome show that is held on the steps leading up to the station when the park opens. The characters (minus Donald and Daisy, sadly), were all were their beautiful Disney 100 costumes!

We decided to take care of two things at once, and rode the Disneyland Railroad (something I really wanted to do since its Disney World counterpart was closed last summer) to the back of the park (where we wanted to get coffee).

What I didn’t realize is that station was practically on top of “It’s a Small World!” So we rode that first thing, and I loved it (of course)!

We then made our way to the Alice in Wonderland area, where not only do they have the teacups (a different experience because in California, they’re fully out in the open), but a second Alice-themed ride as well. And we ran into Alice herself, plus, the Mad Hatter!

We also visited New Orleans, home of the Haunted Mansion and beignets, and also Princess Tiana!

We wanted to make sure we saw the Sword in the Stone and the Wishing Well, since we missed both of those things at Disney World. Sadly, none of us was worthy to remove the sword, but we did all get to make a wish!

We were lucky that the “Star Wars Month” events were still going on while we were, and Turkey and Bunny got to ride “Hyperspace Mountain.” While they did that, I walked around and took some pictures of the castle (and let a Disney photographer take a photo of me!). Not as grand as the Cinderella Castle, but still lovely!

We walked back to the castle when they were done, and I found someone to take our picture:

The Disney photographers also got some nice pictures of the three of us:

And then we headed over to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. I’m pretty sure there are some minor differences, but it felt pretty much the same as the Disney World version! We got to have ronto wraps for lunch, and do some shopping and sightseeing.

One of the things Turkey and Bunny were most looking forward to, though, was having another lightsaber building experience at Savi’s Workshop (especially since they updated the parts since last summer). It was pretty cool to just get to be an observer this time, and watch other people do the work!

We didn’t see the Mandalorian and The Child, but we did get to meet Boba Fett!

We didn’t get to go on Rise of the Resistance because it was either shut down or the line was two hours long or it closed early (that was probably the biggest regret of the whole trip), but we did go on Smuggler’s Run…I got to blow things up!

After that, we walked through Downtown Disney on our way to dinner. Of course we had to stop at the Lego Store and admire their creations:

I really like this beautiful floral display:

And then we went to the Disneyland hotel to have dinner at Goofy’s Kitchen…it was so much fun! (Full details to come…)

After our meal, we hopped on the monorail to get back to the park:

We rode Star Tours (always a fun experience), and then went in search of Dole Whips:

We were barely able to find a place to view the fireworks…the crowd was massive!

The park is open for a couple of hours after the fireworks, so we had time for a few more things. We were three minutes late for Rise of the Resistance, so we headed toward Runaway Railway, instead. I love how the line is set up like a museum dedicated to Mickey Mouse!

After that, Turkey and Bunny decided to ride the Matterhorn while I took care of what was left of our shopping, and took some more pictures:

We rode the teacups one more time, and even managed to get on Dumbo the Flying Elephant.

We shut the park down (which I would somewhat regret the next day), and didn’t get back to our hotel until about 12:30. It was really hard to get to sleep after all that excitement and knowing we had a full day of travel ahead of us!

Chickadee Thursday

Here are some pictures from our trip to Ohio last weekend…at the Cincinnati Zoo, the Historic Canal Experience, Tony Packo’s, and a Toledo Mudhens game. Chickadee had a really fun time!

The Happiest Trip on Earth–Day Two

Disney California Adventure–26,156 steps

The real fun began on the second day of our trip, when we walked from our hotel to Disney California Adventure!

We stopped by Radiator Springs first thing, only to find out that our number one ride opens late. We did get to see some characters, though, and Lightning McQueen wished me a happy birthday! (Since we were also celebrating my birthday on the trip, I got one of the park’s “Happy Birthday” buttons…you would not believe how many cast members notice and congratulate you!)

After that, we headed over to Pixar Pier, where we got to ride an eccentric ferris wheel (I think there are only two like it in the country!), a carousel, and a roller coaster (OK, only Turkey went on that). We also met some characters from Up!

After Turkey got off the roller coaster, we headed over to Adorable Snowman Frosted Treats, where we go the “Pixar Parfait.” The combination of soft serve and slushy was surprisingly good!

Then we headed back to Radiator Springs, were we got in line for Radiator Springs Racers, a ride we all wanted to go on. The line was long, but you really felt like you were in the movie, so we didn’t mind, because there was a lot to see (and a lot of back story explained). The ride itself started off very calm and relaxing, just like when Lightning and Sally went for the same drive in Cars, but then it turned into a race (we won!).

We also went on Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters, which was just plain fun!

We stopped by Flo’s to share a traditional diner meal of a burger, fries, and a milkshake:

Then we headed back to Pixar Pier. We went on the Little Mermaid ride (but sadly not Goofy’s Sky School, because it was closed all day), but more importantly, we found someone nice enough to take a great picture of us!

Buena Vista Street is a great place to find characters (sadly for me, no Daisy Duck), and we took full advantage:

We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to do after that. The Monsters, Inc. ride broke down while we were in line. A few of the other rides we were considering going on were closed, too. We did finally make it on Soarin’, which is a fantastic ride, and makes amazing use of scent, and that was a lot of fun. We also visited the Avengers Campus and the Shawarma Palace, and lived out our superhero dreams…we even got to pose as various characters!

By that time, it was starting to get late, so we headed back to Radiator Springs to see the neon and grab a snack at the Cozy Cone Motel, where you can get ice cream cones, chili “cone” queso, frozen cone-coctions, a popcone, and…churros. We picked the churros, partly just because the ridiculousness of trying to make churros fit a cone theme amused us!

And then we went back to the pier for the light show, which was really beautiful…it’s amazing what they can create with light and water!

We stayed pretty much until the park closed. The walk back to the hotel felt much longer than it had in the morning, and we were exhausted, but we still had a full day at Disneyland to look forward to!

The Happiest Trip on Earth–Day One

STL—>MSP—>LAX; 13,823 steps

Are you ready for a look at the “Happiest Trip on Earth?!?”

To celebrate Turkey’s and Bunny’s graduation, the three of us went on a trip to California, where we visited Disney California Adventure and Disneyland! Two weeks ago, we set out from St. Louis’ Lambert Airport:

Even I, an airport novice, could tell that Lambert is a very small airport:

It was the first time either Turkey or Bunny had flown, and it’s probably been 25 years since I have, so it was quite an adventure for us!

We had a decent layover in Minneapolis-St. Paul, so we had plenty of time to explore the airport, which we all really liked. It was big and bright and busy, and almost like a mall, with shops and restaurants everywhere. There was plenty to see (and lots of moving sidewalks, which I love, because they’re so much fun), so the time passed quickly.

We stopped at Shake Shack (another first for us) for lunch, and we absolutely loved it!

I also got to introduce Turkey and Bunny to Caribou Coffee (something I really enjoyed when I lived in Chicago)…we’re very excited that they’re slated to come to the St. Louis area soon!

Our gate was much bigger and more modern than the one in St. Louis:

We settled in for our long flight of the day, to Los Angeles:

I won’t lie, the airplane snacks and being able to watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off made me much more comfortable on this long flight!

It was fascinating to watch the landscape change from 35,000 feet as we traveled across the country…we even saw snow on the Rocky Mountains!

As we approached L.A., we were impressed by just how sprawling the city really is:

The airport was busy, although we certainly didn’t see much of it!

We took an Uber (another first for us) to our hotel, the Castle Inn and Suites, a “Disneyland Good Neighbor Hotel” just a few blocks from the parks:

I loved the theming!

Our room was simple, but nice:

I’m not going to lie…it was hard to get to sleep knowing that we were going to visit Radiator Springs the next day!

Markel Family Combo Breaker 2023 Getaway—-Day Five

Our weekend in Chicago ended on Memorial Day. We stopped at Wally’s (again):

And went to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, Portillo’s.

After that, there was just the boring drive through Southern Illinois before we finally made it home.

Stay tuned for more of our summer adventures!

Markel Family Combo Breaker 2023 Getaway–Day Four

We did venture out from the hotel on Sunday of Combo Breaker, including a stop at “The Jewels.”

We also returned to the church of my childhood for the first time in several years:

We didn’t have a chance to go to the original Rainbow Cone location on the South Side like we used to, but we did visit one of their newer locations in Lombard…I love how the place looks!

The rest of the day was spent back at the event.

King of Fighters was another game that drew my attention this time…the commentators and crowd made it impossible not to want to watch!

We even found time with everyone’s work schedules to take our traditional family picture:

Tekken 7 is a game I always look forward to watching:

We found time for an evening walk outside:

I didn’t stay up as late as some, but I made sure to see a bit of the final top eight, Guilty Gear-Strive-.

After that, I headed back to the room Chickadee and I were sharing (that was a whole saga) for one last night at the hotel.

Markel Family Combo Breaker 2023 Getaway–Day Three

On the Saturday of Combo Breaker, we spent most of the day at the event (Turkey and Ladybug worked almost the entire time we were there!):

The arcade machine room is always a popular destination (even I played a few games):

We watched the Them’s Fightin’ Herds top eight, which was a ton of fun!

I really love finding interesting games to watch…even though I don’t know anything about fighting games, I find the energy of the crowd to be quite contagious!

Markel Family Combo Breaker 2023 Getaway–Day Two

Our second day of our trip to Chicagoland was the one that is always the most exciting to me, because it was the day we took the train from Palatine into the city!

When we arrived downtown, we started walking east toward Millennium Park. Of course Bunny had to feed the pigeons along the way!

We visited the Bean:

There may have been less people in our selfie than in previous years, but they’ve all gotten so big, you still couldn’t see much behind us!

We walked down to the lakefront:

And Buckingham Fountain:

I never tire of visiting Chicago and noticing new things and seeing old favorites!

We dropped Bunny off at the Art Institute so she could see the new Van Gogh exhibit…here’s a look at a few of the pictures she took there:

Then we walked along the Chicago Riverwalk for the first time, where I got a great look at my “corn on the cob” buildings:

After we had taken in the sights there, we headed back up Michigan Avenue toward the Wrigley Building and the Plaza of the Americas, where I was surprised to find that the “Wings of Mexico” art installation we saw last year was still on display:

We stopped at Ghirardelli and shared a frozen hot chocolate:

After we collected Bunny, we headed to Marshall Field’s (sorry…Macy’s), where I was happy to see some references to the old store:

Saying goodbye to the city is never easy!

After we got, we moved some of our stuff into the third hotel room we had for the weekend, and then checked out some of the action at Combo Breaker, but we reserved Saturday for really participating…say tuned!

Markel Family Combo Breaker 2023 Getaway–Day One

It’s already been two weeks since Bunny, Moose, Chickadee and I drove up to Schaumburg to join Ryan, Turkey, and Ladybug for Combo Breaker 2023!

It’s become a tradition to stop at Wally’s on the way up…it’s no Buc-ee’s, but it’s still quite a spectacle!

We made pretty good time (Moose took the initiative to rearrange his few remaining finals so we could leave earlier in the day), and were happy to see the Renaissance for the second year in a row:

Chickadee and I took a swim that night, and Moose helped out with some of the registration stuff, but mostly we just had a nice, chill evening following our drive.