Land vs. World – a few final Disney thoughts…

Posted on by Scott / 0 Comment

Just one last blog post about my trip to Disneyland before I get back to writing about, well, my other awesome, cross-country vacation!

One thing that I think was kind of inevitable, being such avid fans of Disney World, was the comparing and contrasting of the two resorts … in a good way, mind you. Over the course of our 5-day excursion, we found a few things that Disneyland did better and a few things that had us yearning for home. Here a few of the points that seemed to stand out the most to yours truly…

Room Keys, Theme Park Admission, Dining Plan All in ONE Place!
Winner: Disney World – It almost seemed a bit silly when Sara showed me the welcome packet that we had received containing not only our park admission in advance, but also a coupon book to be redeemed as our dining plan credits. Here we had assumed that both resorts did it like Disney World does, with everything accessible via a single Key to the World … how we didn’t lose anything important throughout the entire trip, I still have no idea!

“Better” Queue Lines
Winner: Disneyland – Muppets, Pirates, A Bug’s Life, Soarin’ … I didn’t believe it when my wife first started pointing them out, but more often than not, she was right – several of the queue lines around Disneyland just seemed more detailed, colorful, or better themed than their Disney World counterparts. Just don’t tell her about the whole “she was right” part or I’ll never hear the end of it…

No Tipsy Monorail Out in Florida!
Winner: Disney World – Not only does our monorail actually go somewhere, it also stays level the entire time that you’re riding it … something that Disneyland’s version can’t boast when pulling out of the station at Downtown Disney. Were we the only ones who noticed this?!

An Imagineering Presence in the Parks
Winner: Disneyland – Don’t get me wrong, One Man’s Dream at the Studios is cool for looking at the past, but I also really enjoyed the Imagineering Blue Sky Cellar at California Adventure that showed off the new construction projects around the park like Cars Land and The Little Mermaid. It didn’t even have to be big to have a neat impact – for me, something like this somewhere at Epcot would be a great fit!

A Lack of Space
Winner: Disney World – What can I say? Walt even realized this one himself, hence the whole reason for starting The Florida Project in the first place. I think this one was centric to most of my concerns with Disneyland – it was just really obvious in some places that they didn’t have the same luxury of space that Disney World enjoys in abundance. Most notable – Tomorrowland at Disneyland seemed really cramped, some of the areas in California Adventure didn’t seem to transition as seamlessly as they do at Hollywood Studios, and even at our hotel, looking out past our view of California Adventure to see the rest of Anaheim or hearing the surrounding roads admittedly did have some impact on the overall ambience. There’s definitely something to be said for being able to forget about the outside world when I drive under that main gate at Disney World.

If I might be so bold as to say, I am still happy that we live closer to Walt Disney World because overall I’ve just gotten very attached to everything that the Florida parks have to offer, but that said, Disneyland certainly wasn’t a one-trick pony for us and even before we left we started talking about going back in a few years maybe when some of the new improvements are completed and we’ve got kids to explore them with! I feel like I still have more to say about Disneyland and eventually I think I might write a few things for my Disney site once I get that back up and going again – maybe more about comparing the actual attractions and whatnot, but for now … good trip!

Scott’s Official Disneyland Top 5!!!

Posted on by Scott / 1 Comment

Needless to say, my anniversary trip was pretty sweet, but if I had to pick my top 5 favorite highlights of the whole thing, it would probably go a little something like this…

5. The LEGO Store @ Downtown Disney
Sure, it wasn’t as big as the one that I’m used to back home, and I’m not sure I see the logic in some of the awesome displays being way up near the ceiling where they’re tough to see, but I always get a kick out of seeing them anyways, and plus, it gave me a chance to start putting together a list of sorts for when Christmastime comes rolling around!


4. Captain EO Tribute
I don’t care what anybody else who I happened to be married to says – this attraction starring the King of Pop in his former glory was wonderful! Ok, maybe not as wonderful as the dude next to me thought who was cheering and imitating Michael Jackson’s dance moves from his seat throughout the entire video, but once I figured out how to tune him out, it was great.


3. Pixar Play Parade
Now we don’t often watch any of the daytime parades at Disney World and actually only caught this one completely by accident, but by the time it was over I think we were both glad that we had postponed our dinner by 15 minutes to check it out. The acrobatics involved on each of the floats was just incredible – it’s kind of hard to see from the photo, but that Tinker Toy that Rex is holding up? All of the other cowboys and cowgirls on the float were taking turns doing flips on it while the float was still moving!

Plus, all of the floats and characters in general were just really colorful.

Plus, I got to see Frozone, which was just cool.

Pun intended.


2. Blue Bayou Pirate Anniversary Dinner
Again, I ask you – what kind of wife arranges a pirate-themed dinner for their anniversary?!

A keeper – that’s who! This restaurant, situated just overlooking the beginning of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, had a great ambience, somewhat dim and romantic, and the food was really good, too. Probably the best crab cakes I’ve ever tasted, plus a pumpkin tiramisu for dessert … these are the days that I’ll look back and tell my grandkids about someday…


1. World of Color
We had a feeling right from the start that it was going to be amazing, but I don’t think we had any idea until we looked out our hotel room window the night we got there and watched this brilliant spectacle of colors from above just how cool it was. I think we watched it five or six times total – once from inside the park, but then several more times from our room … heck, there were some nights when they were running three shows a night! It never got old, though, because it’s definitely a very different show from each perspective, and regardless, both views did a great job of adding that final bit of Disney magic onto the end of every night just before going to bed…

One last day of Disneyland fun…

Posted on by Scott / 0 Comment

Tomorrow we have to fly back home to reality, but in the meantime, here are a few fun pics from our last full day at Disneyland!


Daisy was flirting up a storm with Mickey at breakfast this morning!


Genie is by far the star of the Aladdin stage show over at California Adventure!


An army of Space Rangers to defend Tomorrowland’s pepperoni pizza reserves…


The Disney characters throughout the scenes are a great addition … they certainly made an otherwise somewhat monotonous song a lot more tolerable as we searched for new characters in each room!


Here’s looking at you, kid…


One last look at the awesome view from our hotel room at Paradise Pier…

Amazing 2010 Summer Road Trip Review – Ice Cream or Bust

Posted on by Scott / 0 Comment

Adios, Canada…
As much fun as running aboot the Great White North was, we knew that the time would eventually come for us to leave the land of free healthcare and return home to our high crime rates, boring money, and normal systems of measurement! Coming back through Customs this last time was a real pain in the ass because of heavy traffic and people weaving in and out trying to get over to “the faster lane.” Whether it was because the US is cooler than Canada or simply because the Canadians are just much more efficient than we are, needless to say it was such a relief to finally get out of that unexpected parking lot so that we could get back on the road…


Goodbye, Sweet Maple Leaf. We shall return some day to enjoy your Tim Hortons and your maple sugar candy – that I can promise you.

Welcome to Vermont – State of Misleading Roads
…so that we could get back on the road and promptly get lost, that is! Ok, so actually we didn’t technically get lost until we were all the way across the state of New York and trying to make our way into Vermont. If you refer to Exhibit A, you’ll notice that two strikingly similar roads run along the New York / Vermont border – 22 on the left and 22A on the right … take note of that A because you’ll see in just a moment how vitally important that letter actually is! For you see, if you scroll up on that very map, you’ll how that very small body of water along the border starts to get bigger and bigger until eventually it becomes Lake Champlain.

Seeing as we do not drive an aquatic car, we ran into troubles because we got a good solid hour out of our way before we realized that we were on the wrong side of the lake.

Thankfully we didn’t get all the way up to Burlington before realizing our error, but the backtracking did end up costing us a good could of hours and needless to say, we were very tired and a bit grumpy when we finally pulled into the hotel at around 1:30am.

Also, the hotel was a pain in the ass to find in the dark, too, but I digress because…

The Pint at the End of the Rainbow…
The next morning all was made right when we made the stop that we had traveling a good 5 or 6 hours out of our way to see – the Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Factory. It was the completely random and awesome things like this that really made the trip unique and special for me – I mean, we probably spent twice as long driving there as we did at the actual factory. The tour itself was only about 20 minutes long and after that we just hung out for a while buying souvenirs, eating lunch, and of course, eating ice cream, but it was such a cool element to add to the trip … it’s almost funny to look back and realize that it got added completely on a whim after I thought, “Hey – Sara likes ice cream! That would be a neat place to go…”


The tour itself, which by the way was a crazy bargain at only three bucks a piece, showed us a short video about how Ben & Jerry first started the company and then grew as big as it is today, then took us to an observation deck above part of the factory so that we could watch the machines making the ice cream itself. Afterwards we got a HUGE sample of a new flavor – Milk and Cookies – and from there we were released into the gift shop to buy all sorts of ice cream-related novelties. I would highly recommend the tour to anyone who feels like going out of their way for a fun afternoon – it contained a lot of interesting info about the company, and on top of that our guide was an absolute ham and was cracking jokes the entire time, which was really fun.


By the time we were done, we had scored some really cool loot – Sara wanted new ice cream bowls, plus we each got a shirt and a pint of ice cream from a package deal we did with the tour – and from there we probably spent another hour or so just lounging around, slurping down our ice cream that in no way would survive in the car, and also some pizza for lunch from a nearby cart. We also got to watch a video that talked more about the company’s charitable efforts, which was really interesting to me, especially about how they pushed to preserve them once they got bought by Unilever back in 2000. It was kind of neat to see a corporation that actually understood why the brand it was acquiring had been so successful and how they shared their resources, but also let the company do their own thing to maintain the same company spirit as they grew to become a global brand. Being a guy who’s trying to start his own company from the ground up, I like to hear those underdog stories where a phenomenon started as just two guys who wanted to make ice cream…


No trip to the holy land is complete without a visit to The Flavor Graveyard!

Amazing 2010 Summer Road Trip Review – Just One Last Bite…

Posted on by Scott / 0 Comment

Yes, it deserves its own post.

When we were in Gaylord, Lori and James went on and on about how they were getting one, but I didn’t understand just how significant that really was. To be graced with such a dedication to flavor and quality is a blessing, and I can only hope to one day welcome them into the southern United States in a manner befitting of their awesomeness.

I’m talking, of course, about the magical breakfast experience that is Tim Hortons.


Sara and I first dined at this wonderful eatery the morning we were set to leave Sudbury and drive down to Toronto. We had spotted one across the street from our hotel the night before and thought that it was high time to finally see what all of the fuss was about, but boy let me tell you, never before has so much fuss ever been so completely and unequivocally right on the money than the boasting that had been suggested with regards to Tim Hortons. It certainly wasn’t planned this way, at least not by me, but in that lone meal on a calm, Sunday morning, all other counter-served breakfasts were single-handedly ruined for me.

I think we ended up stopping at Tim Hortons at least two or three more times before leaving Canada, even making it a point to grab breakfast there in Niagara one last time before heading back across the border to give us an opportunity to burn through whatever Canadian cash we still had left! Their Cheddar Cheese Bagels were divine, their breakfast sandwiches rendered Dunkin’s basically inedible, and oh yeah, their Ninja Turtle Gingerbread Cookies were pretty swell, too…


Seriously, what’s it gonna take to get a Tim Hortons down south that’s closer to me than, oh say, Kentucky?! Name your price, Canada! No matter how much multi-colored, monopoly-looking money you guys want, it’ll be worth it! I’ll start up a collect, go door to door if I have to … just name your price.


Just look at that bagel and tell me that it doesn’t make your mouth salivate. Look at it!

P.S. For one last Tim Tableau, check out this pimp pose that my book got with one of their more patriotic offerings during our final meal before crossing back over into the land of inferior donut shops!

Futurama-o-rama!!!

Posted on by Scott / 0 Comment

So even though Futurama technically “returned” to Comedy Central earlier this summer, I’ve kinda been holding off on watching the episodes – partially because I didn’t think the direct-to-DVD movies were all that great, and partially because our reception was so horrible during the premiere that I just sorta gave up. That said, when we got home from vacation, I noticed that I had more than a half a dozen episodes piled up and starting to take up valuable space, so now that I finally managed to have a weekend where I feel like I actually got stuff accomplished, that means only one thing…

…Futurama marathon!

On top of that, I thought it might be fun to blog along with each episode, so below you’ll find a few of my favorite quotes from each of the 7 (6) that were backed up on our DVR. Surprisingly, all in all I actually found most of these to be pretty entertaining. I’m not sure if they had a different writing staff than the movies or maybe they’re just taking things a little more seriously now that they’re back on TV, but it actually kind of renewed my faith in the series.

But enough jibberish – on with the show!

Attack of the Killer App
Reception sucked – couldn’t watch.

The Late Philip J. Fry
“It only goes forward in time – that way you can’t do something disgusting…like sleep with your own Grandmother…”
“There’s certainly no harm in a fertility banquet!”
“Just slow it down – I’ll hit Hitler out the window.”

That Darn Katz!
“You’ve been my grad student for 12 years – you were ready 6 years ago! I probably should’ve told you…”
“And though the world is spinning in the wrong direction, it’s good enough.”

A Clockwork Origin
“I don’t understand evolution, and I have to protect my kids from understanding it!”
Turnips – Chickens of the Dirt
“This is a cool way to die!!!”

A Prisoner of Benda
“I hate paying $14 to see Nicholas Cage solve things.”
“That’s the dumbest thing anybody’s ever done … you’re hired!”
“You make Fat Albert look like Normal Albert!”

Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences
“I’m sick of being critiqued by nitpicking nerds – I’m taking this to a comic book convention!”
“My wife hates me, and planetary conquest has become a chore.”
“NdNd just wants what any she-beast wants – to feel like you’re listening to her nagging.”
“To hell with Little Orphan Annie!”

The Mutants Are Revolting
No Top Hat, No Monocle, No Service
“Mom, why have I never heard this?!” “My mother’s nuts!”

This is incredible…

Posted on by Scott / 0 Comment

INTREPID COMPLETE (On show)
INTREPID COMPLETE (On show) by Lego Monster, on Flickr

Looks like we’ve got yet another excuse to get out to Seattle again – I really need to go checkout BrickCon one of these years!

Seriously, you’ve got to click through the making of gallery to see just how sweet this thing is – multiple decks, including an interior deck to store the planes and everything! Must’ve been a bear to transport from his house to the convention…