The Mac and Cheese Chronicles » Adventures

Ice Castles

Lorri — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:24:29 +0000

Last weekend we headed up into the mountains near Denver to visit the Ice Castle in Silverthorne.

In a word: amazing!

The drive was a longer one than we normally make with 16 month Pipsqueak in tow, but it was worth it.

We arrived, had a quick lunch, then bundled up in the snow pants, boots and gloves we’d packed along. Good thing, too. It was much colder than even we were used to!

I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

If you go (and you should!), bring warm clothing and sunglasses.

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There Goes My Baby

Lorri — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 23:15:10 +0000

Boo is on this ship, sailing out of Pearl Harbor. They left about an hour ago. He’s just gotten so out of hand with his adolescent self that we made him join the Navy. I’ll miss him.

Actually, he’s on a tiger cruise, courtesy of my friend Shanti, who commands said vessel. I figured that since the Navy trusts her with a ship, I can trust her with my boy. Even though he’ll probably talk her ear off.

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A Few Magical Moments

Lorri — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 21:30:28 +0000

I still haven’t figured out how to sum up a Disney Cruise in just a couple of posts. I could talk and talk, but I’d probably bore you. So I’ll show you a ton of pictures instead. I hope you don’t mind. I think I’ll split the pictures up into a couple of different posts, though. And now I’m just kind of babbling to make the text line up nicely with that picture on the left. It’s one of the ship’s stacks.

Here’s Bip, with his friends Patches and Whee, looking out of the porthole in our room.

We enjoyed having a porthole this time around. Some of the things we saw (besides the Cubans) included…

this neat boat as the sun set over Key West.

And Mexico…

Every night after dinner we attended the show. Sometimes it was a musical, as only Disney can do them. Other nights it was a variety show. One night it was movie night and we saw “Tangled” in 3D. We hadn’t seen it yet, so we were excited about that. We loved it! Then after the show we’d usually head off to bed. Waiting for us was a towel animal sitting on our bed.

Or just hanging around.

Our room attendant often staged the children’s stuffed animals, too.

Of course, most of the magic happened outside of our room. There were plenty of opportunities to meet our favorite Disney characters, get their autographs and have pictures taken. Everyone has the opportunity to attend one character breakfast during the cruise. Here’s the children with Chip.

Other characters at breakfast were Mickey, Pluto, Goofy and Dale.

The waiters kept us entertained by making hats out of the napkins.

But the best moments happened during chance encounters around the ship. One of our favorite memories from our first cruise was finding Belle sitting and reading by herself in a quiet corner of the ship. This time we found her just walking along. Pumpkin Girl and I were headed to the gift store when we found her. She stopped to chat with Pumpkin, and posed for a picture.

Bip and Philip were meeting up with us at the store, and I was thinking it was too bad they’d missed Belle, when Bip came running in, telling me that Belle was right there in the hallway! She spent a long time talking with him and showed him the book she’d been reading.

He was completely enchanted.

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Rescue At Sea

Lorri — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 04:47:50 +0000

Our first full day on the Disney Cruise was a half day at sea and a half day at Key West. Our progress was interrupted mid-morning by an announcement that we had altered our course to intercept a vessel that was in distress.

Not long after that announcement, a second one was made that we had reached the vessel, which could be viewed off the port side, and we’d be waiting there until the US Coast Guard could arrive.

Conveniently, our room was located on the port side and we had a nice porthole. We could easily see the vessel and my first thought was, “Blog fodder!” and I took some pictures. The vessel – it was clearly not a boat- was very close to our room, so I got good pictures. When I zoomed in and showed the pictures to Phil, he immediately said they were Cuban refugees.

We waited there for about 15 minutes until the Coast Guard arrived. While they waited, the men occasionally waved at our ship. Boo, who was up on the highest deck watching from outside, said that there was a number of people up there with him, including a number of the ship’s officers. We were speculating about what the Cubans were thinking, floating out there in ocean. They were almost certainly despairing of reaching land safely, when out from the horizon comes Mickey Mouse himself. God bless America!

But it was Coast Guard that came to the actual rescue.

The refugees were given life vests.

Then they boarded the Coast Guard boat.

Notice the guy on the far left is getting patted down and that all the Coasties have gloves on.

Take a good look at this picture (click on any of them to get a better look). A square, tarp covered vessel, small rudder, some kind of engine. Think of the desperation that prompted them to this. The secret planning, the willingness to leave everything behind.

In the end though, the Cubans were repatriated. In fact, they made it home before we did.

Posted on Thursday, 02.10.11

The U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 30 Cuban migrants this week, including five men spotted on a raft on Sunday by the Disney Magic cruise ship. The men were found about 21 miles southeast of Key West. A small Coast Guard crew boat picked up the refugees to transport them to a larger cutter for repatriation. The other Cuban refugees were picked up in separate incidents in groups of seven, 15, two and one. All the Cubans were returned to Bahias de Cabañas.

In addition, five Haitian migrants were returned to Haiti.

“The U.S. Coast Guard policy is to deter and respond to dangerous, disorderly and illegal maritime migration by intercepting vessels that pursue perilous and illegal voyages,’’ said Capt. Steven Banks, Seventh Coast Guard District chief of enforcement, in a prepared statement. “We continue to maintain a robust presence of cutters and aircraft throughout the Caribbean to respond to illegal migration and migrant smuggling activities.”

Once aboard a Coast Guard cutter, migrants are provided food, water, shelter and basic medical care.

Miami Herald Staff

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Disney Cruise 2

Lorri — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:42:48 +0000

How to capture the essence of a Disney Cruise in just a few blog posts? I don’t think it’s possible. I shall try.

This was our second Disney Cruise so we were a little less excitable when we arrived at Port Canaveral. Just a little. After handing over our bazillion pieces of luggage to the porter, and parking the RV, we entered the terminal. As you’d expect from Disney, their terminal is fun and fully themed. On the floor is a mosaic of the Caribbean and Bahamas, including a little spot to indicate their private island, Castaway Cay.

After we checked in – in our special line for members of the Castaway Club (return cruisers), and received our special Castaway Club lanyards, Phil got in line with the children to take pictures with Minnie Mouse. I nursed Pipsqueak on a comfy chair. Phil then got Pumpkin Girl and Bip their electronic bracelets for the kids clubs, we changed Pipsqueak’s diaper and then it was time to board.

Boarding a Disney ship is so much fun! First, they corral your family to take a group picture and then you prepare to board. They ask your family’s name and announce you as you walk in.

“Disney Magic, please welcome back the Mac and Cheese family!”

And several crew members applaud as you walk on. The lobby is fabulous and you’re completely in awe. A crew member steps up to tell you all you need to know about lunch, when your room will be ready and other details of the day.

We ate lunch at the buffet and to my delight, I found the much loved Disney strawberry soup. I love this soup. I had some every time I found it in the lunch buffet. It’s cold and sweet and creamy and…here, my online friend Tinker Kell gave me a link to the recipe. I saw the recipe in a Disney cookbook they were selling on board, it is pretty much the same. Disney’s Strawberry Soup

We cruised with my parents this time, but they were not with us when we boarded. I knew about what time they should be arriving, so we headed down to see if we could find them. We were standing near to where passengers were boarding and after not even 5 minutes, we saw them. We cheered when they were announced and hugs were exchanged all around.

Lifeboat drill, then the sail away party. We danced and sang with our favorite characters until it was time to count down.

And then the ship’s horn sounded. Not just any horn, of course. It plays the opening line to “When You Wish Upon A Star”.

That moment – when the ship horn sounds – is magic. All the dreaming and planning and hoping and praying have resulted in this. Magic.

We waved to the staff at the terminal, who waved back with giant Mickey gloves. We were off!

Our dinner the first night was in the restaurant called Parrot Cay, a Caribbean themed restaurant. On the menu – my most favorite food from our last cruise, cold Mango Papaya soup. I got the recipe from the chef last time and this time I took a picture to go with it.

The day ended with a fun show before we headed off to bed.

Next time – a rescue at sea!

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Scenes from the RV

Lorri — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 00:50:18 +0000

All ready to go!

Notice the children are in long sleeves, but no coats. Remember, this is Colorado. In January. Before the week was out, local schools would close for 2 consecutive days, not for snow, but for cold. My powers are awesome!

All ready for bed!

Boo was happy to finally be allowed to sit in the front seat!

He helped navigate, reading the Triptik and learning to follow along with the road signs. I could only hear snippets of conversation from where I was sitting, but I could tell that he and Philip were bonding. One conversation I remember was about the difference between spying and intelligence gathering. It all depends on who the bad guy is and who got caught.

Bip gets his turn at the wheel.

He said, “It’s on cruise control!” Pumpkin Girl replied, “That’s good because your feet don’t reach the pedals.” Siblings!

Pumpkin Girl enjoyed playing on the iPad while Phil drove.

Looking out of window during breakfast in Little Rock. It’d been raining for a few hours, with no end in sight.

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RV Trip

Lorri — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 06:28:47 +0000

For various and sundry reasons, we decided to drive from Colorado to Florida for our second Disney Cruise. I don’t know, it made sense at the time. Then we decided to not just drive, but to rent an RV. The children and the husband were thrilled! Me, I was just along for the ride.

As the departure date approached, the weather started looking increasingly bad. My love for snow and cold is so great that it causes a sort of inverse reaction in the universe. Where ever I happen to be experiences record heat, while at the same time, where ever I just was is now getting slammed with the Storm of the Century. I’m a sort of sun god. If I believed in such things.

So we decided to outrun the storm by leaving a day early. As I left the state, taking my heating abilities with me, the storm grew in strength and size and was unleashed like water from a broken dam. This was the storm that covered most of the country in snow and ice and below freezing temperatures. You’re welcome.

And we journeyed along in our RV. The trip went something like this:

DAY 1. We hit the road about half an hour earlier than planned. My plans of doing school and playing games in the RV along the way went quickly down the drain. The RV was loud from road noise and the rattly-bang of the stove, microwave and luggage. It was also swaying and moving in a different way than a car does. Poor Bip got car sick. He missed the bag I’d given him, but fortunately I was able to access his clothes and got him a clean shirt. The trip took longer than we planned and when we arrived at McConnell AFB (Kansas), the gate was closed. We had to drive around looking for another one. We were tired and discouraged, but the weather had been good.

DAY 2. We woke to frost on the ground, but not the ice pellets that had been in the forecast. Our destination for the day was Little Rock AFB. At some point our Triptik directed us to leave the interstate for a state road. By now it was dark and we were not quite sure where we were. Not lost, just unsure. We drove through an area that looked a little sketchy. Not inner city scary, but southern swamp scary. I told Phil that whatever he did, he should not pull over for directions. I worried that someone might decide that he had a purty mouth.

We did find the base just fine, except that the gate had barricades that our RV could not negotiate. If you’ve been to a US military base, you know what I’m talking about – those blockades that make it impossible for terrorists in Winnebagos to speed straight through the gates. So we had to turn around and find a different gate. The MP’s instructions were vague, with no street names and filled with things like “turn left at the Sonic”. We got lost of course. We did eventually make our way to the family camp site around 6:30 PM.

It began pouring rain in the middle of the night and continued on into

Day 3
When we woke the next morning, we were surrounded by huge puddles. The storm we’d been outrunning had caught us. We packed up and headed out, this time for Maxwell AFB, AL. After about an hour or so of driving through unrelenting rain, I used my phone to check the weather. The storm system was sitting right on top of us, with no real way for us to get ahead of it. The forecast called for Maxwell to be getting severe storms with the potential for tornadoes.

Have I ever mentioned my phobia of tornadoes? Yeah, and here we were, driving right at them. In an RV.

I’d been sitting in the back this whole trip, so I moved up to talk to Phil about the situation. What I saw confirmed that we needed to pull over somewhere. Visibility was down to about 2 car lengths. Between the heavy rain and the other cars kicking up water, it was not good. Phil agreed that we should find a place to stop for the night rather than try to keep going. We found a rest stop, made some calls and found another military RV near Memphis.

Once there (yes, we went in the wrong gate again) we did a lot of school reading and when the rain stopped, let the kids run around outside. I was feeling a little sheepish about making Phil pull over. Even though my fear of tornadoes is real and profound, was it really worth delaying our trip for a whole day? I thought about it for the rest of the afternoon.

Around dinner time I checked on the weather for the next day in Alabama. I saw the radar of the current weather and it showed the storm bearing down, a red band of rain right on top of Maxwell AFB. I showed it to Phil. He reminded me that we had planned to be arriving right about then, in the dark, in the storm, in the RV. It was indeed a good thing we had pulled over.

Days 4 and 5
We continued our trip to Maxwell AFB under clear skies. We arrived early and used the time to do some laundry and little more school. We woke to icy roads and a few ice-caused accidents on the highway. Icy conditions were expected to last until 10 am so we decided to wait until then to leave. Ten o’clock rolled around and the weather advisory had been extended until noon. We really couldn’t delay much longer, so we left. The roads were fine.

We arrived in Jacksonville at a decent hour and found the correct gate the first time around! We finished up the last of the precooked dinners from home that we’d brought along, as well as most of the other perishables.

Day 6
We spent the day doing laundry and repacking for the cruise. Phil walked to the commissary for food for dinner and when he returned he took the kids for a walk. There is a manatee viewing area on base, but they didn’t spot any.

Day 7
We packed up all the luggage and made sure the RV was neat and clean. Gassed up and hit the road and headed out for our last stop – Port Canaveral and the Disney Magic. That was probably the longest 2 hours of the whole trip but the last 15 minutes were a blur! As we exited the freeway we spotted the ship and she was just as beautiful as we remembered. Pulled up, handed off our cruise luggage to the porter, parked the RV and walked to the terminal. We’d made it!

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D is for

Lorri — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 06:21:36 +0000

DORK!
I totally forgot that Monday we were supposed to share our D pictures! Such a dork. So I should totally put a picture of me here, right?

Not so much. How about I give you a little preview of what our vacation was all about?

D is for Disney Cruise!

Isn’t this a great picture? I took this while riding a tender to Grand Cayman. Because of the coral reefs around the islands, cruise ships can’t dock. So they drop anchor and those going ashore ride little boats back and forth. Makes for beautiful pictures.

—–
You know the deal – if you have a D picture, leave a link in the comments back to this post. Even if you haven’t participated yet, now is a good time to jump right in!

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Back

Lorri — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 15:59:07 +0000

I’m back.

Back on land, back in the country, back at home.

Did you miss me? I’ll tell you all about it once the laundry is done, the luggage put away and the souvenirs, um, whatever it is they do. Our adventure involved causing a major storm to descend upon the country, a rescue at sea and a medical evacuation. Good times!

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Winter Expedition

Lorri — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 04:09:19 +0000

We’re finally getting back to school after a l-o-n-g winter break. I meant to get restarted last Monday, but Certain People Who Won’t Be Named went on a snowshoeing expedition. OK – it was Boo.

He and other members of his Boy Scout troop headed out in the wee hours of Monday morning and drove 2 hours to the trail head. Then they loaded up their sleds with all the food and supplies they’d need for the next few days, donned their snowshoes and headed out.

They trekked for 6 miles and ascended an additional 1,000 feet plus in elevation. They stopped at a hut just shy of the Continental Divide. Some of the boys built a snow cave to sleep in – in the negative 20 degree overnight temps!

The next day they went sledding. Somebody built a ramp out of snow, all the better to catch some serious air. Or so I’m told.

Here’s Boo going airborne –

And his buddy, who crashed.

A splendid time was had by all.

It was a tough trip – for a mom staying home. Boo had never been snowshoeing and doesn’t have any winter sports experience beyond sledding. He had new hiking boots, which he wore constantly for 3 days to break in, but I worried about his feet. I made him swear that if his feet began to hurt that he would tell an adult and ask for help with moleskin. Blisters would ruin his trip and there was no way to get back to the car at the end except on his own two feet. No sitting out or changing to sneakers. And then there was his backpack. He took all the necessary supplies and nothing more, but that pack weighed 15 pounds.

He did fine, of course.

He needed a little help at the very end with his pack and his feet were fine. At the end of three days he returned flush faced and worn out. That evening he was the most subdued that I’ve ever seen him, except that time we took him to Disneyland and he fell asleep before dinner and didn’t wake up until the next morning.

He had a grand time.

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