On the road again…. (Part 3)

Scope, Wednesday, and I took a big family vacation with my in-laws to Ohio a couple of weeks ago, which I have been sloooowwwwwwwly telling you all about. (For part 1 of this story, click HERE and for part 2, click HERE.) Here’s what happened next….


DAY 4:


On Day 4 of our vacation, we all decided to take a boat tour and to spend the day exploring a couple of the islands in Lake Erie. We got up bright and early and met up with everyone at Jackson Street Pier after breakfast.




The pier was swarming with seagulls which made me feel kind of grossed out (ugh), so Wednesday and I wandered off to take some non-seagull-y pictures closer to the street where it felt much safer. While we were taking that picture right above there, poor dear Scope and his sister both got bombed by the vile winged rats. Grrr. Thus, the remainder of the time we loitered on that infested pier, Wednesday and I pretty much stayed huddled under a tree, trying to avoid a poo-pelting. See?




And, yeah, that’s 15 year old Wednesday. HUGGING. ME. IN. PUBLIC. She initiated it too. She’s the BEST teenager in the whole history of the world. Clearly. :-)


She also does a spiffing Sean Penn impersonation. Just saying.




But anyway….


Soon, we boarded our boat, The Goodtime I.




Some dude had a Marilyn Monroe mannequin standing on his balcony right beside our boat, so we ogled it with much giggling and mocking until we set off.




(Pffft. Okaaaayyyyyy.)


Pretty soon, we were on our way toward Kelleys Island. Along the way we passed Cedar Point Amusement Park.




Hey, check out these people on one of the roller coasters! God, I love my telephoto lens! Hee hee hee.




We passed Marblehead Lighthouse.




And we saw lots of cormorants flying in rows over the water and we were told the tale of how these massive black birds were valiantly saved from near-certain extinction…. only to end up overpopulating the area, killing the vegetation and soiling the lake with their super-acidic poo, and otherwise causing a literal sh*tload of environmental woes. (Whoopsie on that one.)




When we docked at our fist stop, Kelleys Island, Scope’s parents, his sister and her family decided to rent a golf cart to drive around to see the sights. (‘Bye, guys!)




Scope, Wednesday, and I decided we would rather walk the island instead of wasting money on a golf cart since the boat was only docking there for one hour, so there probably wasn’t that much to see. What could we possibly need a golf cart for, right? So, off we set on foot to explore.


Right off the bat, we found a fudge shop. Wednesday was DEEEEEELIGHTED!!!!




She picked out some peanut butter fudge and some postcards and then we walked across the street to check out Kelleys Island’s teeny tiny little police station.




It wasn’t much bigger than a toddler’s playhouse, I swear. And, look!—Even the police drive a golf cart there!




Ha! How funny.


Right around this time, we got a call from Scope’s mom telling us that there was something uber-splendiferous to see way, waaaayyyyyy down the road, and that we would definitely need a golf cart to make it back to the boat in time if we wanted to see it. They offered to give us their cart because they were done with it, so we met them outside a little café and off we zoomed up the street to go catch a glimpse of what they had found.


Scope was driving and Wednesday wanted to sit up front with him.




So, I was the caboose.




Along the way we saw a wild turkey cross the road.




And soon we found ourselves at Glacial Grooves State Memorial Park.




Holy wooly mammoth! The Glacial Grooves Memorial was amazing! It’s this long stretch of limestone where glaciers once carved grooves (duh) about 30,000 years ago. It’s fenced in, of course, but you can walk up one side of the grooves….




…..then cross a bridge at the end….




….and then walk back down the other side.




And it’s just flat out awe-inspiring to know that those rocky ruts and ridges were carved by mere ice.




Wow.


But there was only so much gaping we could do at the grooves. Time was ticking by and, not wanting to repeat the awkward moment when our tour bus stranded Scope and me on our honeymoon, we were quite motivated to get back to our boat within plenty of time for departure. So, we climbed back in our golf cart and putted back down the road toward our boat.


Hey, whaddaya know? The turkey was still there by the roadside on our way back.




Wednesday was totally digging the golf cart and was kind of bummed to have to return it at the dock.




As we exited our golf cart, some stranger offered to take our group picture. (Awwwww. Thank you, Thoughtful Stranger Chick!)




We found Scope’s mom and dad as we approached our boat. (Say cheese, everybody!)




Back on the boat, we headed off for South Bass Island. Along the way we passed by the Benson Ford Ship House, a real actual boat which was recycled into a vacation rental home on a cliff side. Cool, huh?




And guess who we were told is staying there this summer?….. No, I mean it. Guess…. Wanna know?…. 


Johnny.


Depp.


Yes, really. I know! How cool is THAT?! Captain Jack Sparrow stays in an actual BOAT HOUSE when he’s on vacation. Ha! Wednesday about passed out when she heard that news!


Wow.


We also got a gorgeous view of Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial Lighthouse (woo—there’s a tongue-twister!) as we approached South Bass Island.




Once we docked, we were starving, so we rushed straight into the Boat House Eatery for lunch.




The Boat House Eatery was full of delightfully spazzy pirate-y goodies, like this.




And this.




And (ahem) this.




Fun stuff for sure! But the food service? Sooooooo sloooooooowwwwwww. We were given three hours on South Bass Island…. and it felt like we spent at least two of those hours just waiting on our food.


*hungry snarl*


Once we (finally) left the Boat House Eatery, we decided to rent our own golf cart to assist us in all our island-y adventures. Wednesday was thrilled and decided she wanted to be the caboose this time around.




So, off we went, putt-putt-putting down the street with hundreds of other putt-putt-putting golf cart-riding tourists. (Seriously, how frustrating must it be to live on that island and attempt to drive your car anywhere when the roads are swarming with slow-moving golf carts driven by tourists who have no idea where they are going?! I bet that has to suck.)


Our first stop was at Perry’s Peace Monument, which we had seen from our boat. But, as they were doing some restoration work on it, it was fenced off and we weren’t able to get close enough to touch it or anything. It was still quite impressive though. Check it out, you can even see the work crew about 1/3 the way up it.




Alongside Perry’s Peace Monument were British, Canadian, and US flags, flapping in the breeze and looking all majestic and International Peace-y and stuff.




From there we putt-putt-putted around the roads randomly, just to see what we would stumble across. We ended up down the end of a dead end road which went right up to the beach.




We lingered there for a few minutes, walking along the painted concrete blocks and taking pictures, when suddenly a big dog came swimming by out of nowhere and then walked out of the lake to say hi to us. Wednesday’s entire day was complete now: Fudge AND a swimming dog too?!?! What more does a girl need? Nuthin’, that’s what! :-)




The dripping wet dog said hi to us for a little bit, then she suddenly turned around and went right back into the water and left. How funny!




That dog definitely had the right idea though. It was hot as all heck on the island that day and we, too, were in the need of something to cool us down. But forget lake water; we had something better in mind.




Thaaaaaaaaaaaaat’s right. Ice cream. But you wouldn’t believe how hard it was to actually find a place that sold ice cream there. Weird, right? On a popular tourist island. In summer. On a 95 degree day. You’d think ice cream would be sold practically everywhere. But nope. We actually had to stop and ask directions to find a place that sold it.


Crazy.


If I ever move to South Bass Island, I am soooooooooooo opening a chain of ice cream stands. I’d make a killing. That much I know for sure. But anyway….


On our way back to the boat, we saw this fabulous, shark-tastic golf cart parked along the side of the street.




Awesome, huh? I know.


We took the boat back to Sandusky and had dinner at the Thirsty Pony, where Wednesday and I shared a chicken alfredo pizza. Mm-mm-mmm.




And then we went back to our rental house to make plans for the following day when we would be visiting (….wait for it….) the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.


Awww yeah.


[….to be continued….]






© Coracabana

I had no idea butterfly faces looked like THAT! Did you?

Aaaaaaaand now for another update on this year’s Project 365….


Day 121 (2012-04-30) ~ I found the old plastic flowers I used to have on my bike's basket when I was a kid. I can't even believe these made the move to Chicago! I don't remember packing them or anything, but I'm glad I did. It was kind of fun stumbling upon them. If I ever get another bike, I'm soooooooo going to put a basket on the front and stick my 1970's plastic flowers on it! :-)





Day 122 (2012-05-01) ~ The 6th doll in my Strawberry Shortcake series. I loved, loved, LOVED Orange Blossom when I was a kid because she had some seriously kick*ss orange shoes AND a pet butterfly named Marmalade. Lucky!!





Day 123 (2012-05-02) ~ Awhile back I did a shot of some lilacs that I pass by daily which smell sooOOooOOoo incredible. Well, on this day the lilacs were covered in butterflies. They were skittish things and were frustratingly difficult to get decent pictures of because they just didn't seem to trust me whatsoever. And then there was this one. Whoa.This butterfly decided to amuse me for a moment and let me get REALLY close to him.... only now I'm a little sorry I did! I used to think butterflies were beautiful, but now?.... Holy moly! I had no idea butterflies has faces like THAT, did you?





Day 124 (2012-05-03) ~ This particular night a HUGE storm passed over us, bringing thunder, lightning, marble-sized hail, and sheets of rain. This is what it looked like from our balcony: rain was pouring down and hail stones were pinging sideways off of the streetlight.





Day 125 (2012-05-04) ~ A shortcake in the making (part 3). Our strawberry plants suddenly had several little green berries bulging on them.





Day 126 (2012-05-05) ~ Goodbye Norma Jean. For nearly a year, Chicago was home to Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn, a gorgeous statue standing 26 feet tall, had been grinning along Michigan Avenue. This shot was taken a day or two before she was dismantled and left The Windy City for Palm Springs. Wednesday, Scope, and I went downtown to say goodbye to Marilyn and, about 30 seconds after I took this picture, there was a huge BANG! Three cars crashed in the street right in front of her. I'm so not kidding. Clearly, the girl has still got it!





Day 127 (2012-05-06) ~ It's not the most creative or well executed picture, I know, but it's the best I've got for the day. This one is just a quick snapshot of my hubby, Scope, at the movie theater. We went to see the Pirate movie by the Wallace and Gromit people (which was hilarious, by the way!) and in the lobby we found this MASSIVE Dark Shadows display with a built-in chair. It only seemed fitting to take turns posing with it. Hee hee hee.





And that puts us at about 34% finished with this project. We’ll do some more catching up on it tomorrow too.





© Coracabana

Disneyland Version 2.0 (Part 2)

[For part one of this story, please click HERE.]


So, last we left off, it was the end of Day 1 of Wednesday’s and my second trip to Disneyland back in 2008. (Yes, there is a REALLY good reason for all the recent Disney yappin’ going on around here lately, trust me, but you’ll have to wait for it.) (Sorry.) As you recall, I had met Mary Poppins and Bert when I went to the bathroom on Day 1—but just wait and see who we met on Day 2!!!! Read on….


DAY 2:


The Santa Ana winds hit the morning of our second day in Disneyland. And they hit HARD. Holy Clarabelle Cow, they were strong suckers! They made walking in a straight line much, much more of a Herculean effort than it ever should be. And worse? They were carrying soot, smoke, stink, and debris from all the nearby Orange County wildfires, which really made the winds quite brutal. The smoke stung our eyes and the soot penetrated through our clothes and made itself at home in…. umm…. all sorts of delicate places where one NEVER wants soot to settle. (*wince*) By the time we had walked the half mile trek from our hotel to the theme park, we had already renamed them the SATAN Ana winds.


(So there, Mother Nature!)


It was amid the vicious (and pervy) attack from the Satan Ana winds that we met Alice in Wonderland, The Mad Hatter and Peter Pan, attempting to put on a skit for the crowd just inside the park gate.




But it’s kind of hard to put on a skit when you’ve got soot in your eyes and you can’t stand upright or keep your skirt down.




Ohhhhh, to be a character encased in a full-body armor costume, eh, Alice?! Speaking of which, we met Mickey Mouse all dolled up for Halloween!




And Minnie!




And Goofy too!




It was 95 degrees that morning and, because of the Satan Ana winds, we were kind of afraid to take off our jackets, so naturally a breakfast of ice cream sundaes at Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor for breakfast seemed like a stellar move! Mmmmmmmmmm!




(Again, sorry about the quality of some of these pictures. The ones I got from my sister are on super-glossy paper and, for some reason, my scanner just insists on making them look all stripe-y. Grrrr.)


After breakfast, the Satan Ana winds magically died off. (YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) We all de-sooted ourselves in the restrooms, and then trekked over to New Orleans Square because Wednesday really, REALLY wanted to show the other kids in our group the Jack Skellington makeover over at the Haunted Mansion.


The two preschool boys we were with were up for the Tim Burton-ness even though their parents and grandmothers were not so sure it was a good idea. There was some fretting among the adults that it might be too scary. However, the little fellas both thought Wednesday was about the coolest person on the whole dang planet and, if she thought it was awesome, well, heck, then it must be!




Here is what it looked like as we got near the front door of the mansion. Soooooooooo cool!




As we climbed into our “Doom Buggies” the massive sign there changed from Merry Christmas to Scary Christmas.




Not the best shot in the world, but this was the man-eating wreath lunging for us from the ceiling in the dark hallway. Eeeeeek!




Here was a huge snake eating Jack Skellington’s Naughty and Nice list.




This was Jack’s swirly hill covered with snow and jack-o-lanterns in the graveyard. The pumpkins at the foot of the hill were singing “We Wish You A Scary Christmas”.




At the end of the ride, the boys gave it a thumbs up, but the adults in our group? Yeah, not so much. It wasn’t that the ride was frightening, as they had feared, but that (….wait for it….) they were offended by the Tim Burton-y transformation it had undergone. They all wished it had stayed untouched and looked just like they remembered it from their childhoods.


(Yeah, I know. I’m surprised Wednesday still talks to any of them too!)


Next, we took the little kids into Tarzan’s Treehouse.







Somewhere along the line, Wednesday found a JACK-o-lantern! (Ba da dum tish.)





And she turned Chip n’ Dale into Playboy Bunnies. Ha!




Back in New Orleans Square later that day, we ran into Jack Sparrow. Jack was a slippery swashbuckler, and was constantly swiping things from visitors, running around, refusing to stand still for pictures, and just generally being very pirate-y. Go figure.




See? Off he goes again!







The guy who played Jack Sparrow was awesome. AWE. SOME. He had the voice, the accent, the mannerisms and the attitude down pat.




He also had a crowd of people chasing him, begging him to pose for pictures, but would Jack oblige? No, me hearties, Jack would not. I admit it, I was one of the women chasing Jack that day. And—*sigh*—there are pictures to prove it too. See?




(Oh, shut up.)


I was trying to talk Jack into stopping his pillaging for two seconds to pose with me and Wednesday for our Christmas card picture. That’s it. I didn’t want much. But Jack wouldn’t do it. Nope. I tried flinging flattery at him and everything! I called him "Captain", so he called me "lass" in his nearly dead-on Johnny Depp-ish accent. I called him "sir", so he called me "saucy wench," swaggering and swaying drunkenly in his rock star pirate fashion and hypnotic Jason Castro-like dreads.


While chasing and tossing cheesy pirate-y lingo back and forth with Jack Sparrow was fun, eventually I gave up. With much bitterness and festering resentment, I might add. It would have been one fabulous Christmas card, people! Gah!


*grumble—stupid Jack Sparrow—grumble*


However, I should point out that I’m no longer mad at Captain Jack. You see, I later found out that Disneyland went all Donald Trump on the Jacks they employed in the park and fired them all in one fell swoop. (It was freaking Mickey Mouse Mutiny! Savvy?) So, why did Disneyland send their Jack Sparrows sailing across the well-charted waters of the unemployment office? Hmm? Simple. The wenches. The lasses. The yo-ho-ho-bags.


You see, it turned out, that there had been a big problem having Jack Sparrow in Disneyland: he was turning the chicks on, making the Happiest Place on Earth a tad too happy, ifyouknowwhatimean. Reportedly breasts were flashed. Breasts in Disneyland?! Mickey no likey. And that was the reason Jack Sparrow wouldn’t pose with anyone in the park, because he was under strict orders not to, lest any women might lose control. (ARGH!) But the don’t-stop-and-linger-with-the-lasses rule didn’t deter the breast-flashers, so Jack was booted from the park shortly after our trip there.


It’s a shame, really, because the Jack Sparrow we chased mercilessly saw was absolutely phenomenal at his job! How sad.


But anyhow….


I was under strict orders from my Neurologist to avoid all the wild rides while at Disneyland due to the whole spinal trauma thingy, so my sister accompanied Wednesday on Splash Mountain for me.




(See Wednesday screaming near the back of the boat there? Soooooo funny!)


And what was I doing while Wednesday partook in all the wild rides?…. Why, lounging in one of the preschooler’s rented strollers, of course!




(See, I told you they come in handy!)


The one year old girl who was part of our group was pretty confused by this whole Disneyland thing. She had no idea where we were or what was going on and just kind of had this perplexed expression permanently plastered on her face the whole time. Wednesday and I felt kind of bad for her and decided to take her on The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh ride.




Wednesday and I had never been on the Pooh Bear ride before, but we figured surely it would be cute and baby-friendly because it was Winnie The Pooh, right? Umm…. no.




The ride was really freaky. The props were huge and painted neon, so they glowed in black lights. The music was loud and creepy and the whole experience was just…. wrong.




This is what the one year old looked like as we exited the Pooh Bear ride.




She was traumatized for life.


Clearly.


(Sorry, girly! I swear we didn’t know! Really!)


That night, Wednesday and I went off on our own and took several trips through the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. This was a stellar plan…. until we boarded a virtually empty Pirates boat, which went rocketing down the waterfalls like…. well…. a rocket. I hadn’t realized how violent that ride could be in a nearly-weightless boat. On the second waterfall, I actually flew off my seat (there’s no seat belts, of course) and came crashing back down right on my spine on the rock-hard seat back.


Owie. :-(


Sheepishly imagining my Neurologist sitting me in the corner with a dunce cap, I decided I was done with rides for the rest of the night and should probably try to walk the pain off. So, Wednesday and I went hat shopping and she was delighted to find Mickey ears that looked like Jack Skellington….




….and these guys too!





(Sorry, I had to borrow those last two pictures from Google because I forgot to take my own in the stores. Oops.)


Then, with our snazzy new Mickey ears and Wednesday’s Jack Skellington doll, we walked back to our hotel.


[….to be continued soon…. where you’ll find me unintentionally sloshed like Jack Sparrow and making an *ss of myself in front of a dude dressed like a skeleton.]







© Coracabana