2020 Epcot's International Flower and Garden Festival

Unfortunately not many people are going to get to experience Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival this year.     It was only running for 10-or-so days before Walt Disney World parks shut down to limit the spread of COVID-19.  Our trip was booked months ahead of time and the concept of social distancing was coming into play towards the end of our trip. Luckily we left Orlando for home on schedule, before the announcement of the park closures.

Overall impressions:  Same festival, different year.   With Epcot's construction a few things were out of place and there wasn't the usual grand display at the park entrance.  The butterfly house was between The Land and Imagination.

Things we experienced

• We played Spike's Pollen-Nation Exploration scavenger hunt game.
• Enjoyed the temporary entertainment in Canada - Marc Angers and Friends.  This is the best act we've seen in the Canadian Pavilion since the departure of Off-Kilter.
• Took in 3 Garden Rock Shows:   Peabo Bryson in the front row, The Orchestra featuring former members of ELO, and The Guess Who.
• Ate or drank something from most of the festival food booths.   
• Had dinner with friends at Takumi-Tei, the newish restaurant in the Japan Pavilion.  We had excellent service and food.    Our table enjoyed the omakase (tasting) menu along with wine/sake pairing.

We put together a 20 minute video from our festival experience which includes all the locations of Spike's hiding spots, some topiary characters, Marc Angers and Friends, and bits from the three Garden Rocks artists we watched.

Never Homevember 2019 - Las Vegas

Never Homevember Intro and Walt Disney World

Not spending weekends at home in November meant no Christmas decorating.   Full Christmas decorating is an 8-10 hour process and tear down slightly less.   This year we went with our 2’ prelit tree and 2 star showers on the lawn.   Cleanup will be easy.   

We decided to take the first flight out to Las Vegas since we didn’t really want to waste a portion of a day off from work at home.  We landed around 9am.  Our reason for taking this trip was to run some of the Rock & Roll races on The Strip at night and to spend time with friends Tom and Maggie (father and daughter).    

We were able to check into our room at The Linq early.  When we visited in May we thought the hotel was a good choice based on location, the number of eateries, a good beer selection at a couple bars, and they had the horse racing game where the horsies go around the track.  Our rate was pretty reasonable too for an event weekend.   Before heading to the race expo via Monorail we grabbed a burger at In-n-Out.   This was our second time at the chain and we still don’t understand what all the fuss is about.   Holly was thrilled to be doing the half instead of the full marathon this weekend, but out of habit she went to the wrong check-in tables.  Dave ended up getting Corral 1 for the 10K, which meant if he stayed in that corral race day he would likely be trampled.  

After dropping Expo stuff back in our room we made our way south towards Mandalay Bay with a few stops beforehand.  The monorail took us to MGM Grand, which we toured around a bit before crossing over to New York, New York.   We made our way to a little park that was home of the Hello Kitty Café.  This is basically a semi-permanent trailer/food truck selling snacks and coffee.   Some items are shaped like Hello Kitty characters.   

After snacking we got some walk-around beers at a nearby bar and headed towards Excalibur.   We enjoyed the continuity of theme throughout the casino (Sherwood Forest Bar and suits of armor lining an entryway).    The MGM casino monorail took us over to Mandalay Bay, which we thoroughly walked through.   We were disappointed to find the Shark Reef required admission and the pool had been closed (it’s a nice pool to look at).  We were hungry and decided to eat at Noodle Shop in the hotel.   We decided we’d eat a lot of Asian food this trip since the Asian restaurants in our town are awful.  Our final stop was at Luxor to take a look at their Egyptian theming.

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Our evening activity was Cirque to Soleil’s Beatles' Love.   We’ve never been to a Cirque show and figured having music we are familiar with would help us ease into the experience.   We were surprised that the show was more of a dance show vs. people hanging from the ceiling or balancing on each other.   We ran into Tom and Maggie after the show and we decided to meet up again in the morning for a trip to the Hoover Dam.  We went back to The Linq for dinner at Virgil’s BBQ before calling it a day.

***

Saturday morning we ate the most expensive Starbuck’s breakfast in Harrah’s (you thought airports were overpriced) before meeting Tom and Maggie at Mirage.   Tom rented a mini van to take us on the hour trip to The Hoover Dam.   We spent time walking around the dam, making every “dam” joke you could imagine, before taking one of the shorter tours offered by the Bureau of Reclamation.   Although the dam is big, it was actually smaller than we thought it would be.   It’s worth the trip to see the dam, but an added benefit is the beauty of the area.  There were some great desertscapes intermixed with the river and Lake Meade.   We stopped for lunch in Boulder City, a town created to house the builders of the dam.   The town was very cute, but our lunch location was lackluster.    On the way back to town we stopped in Henderson and enjoyed some beers at LoveLady Brewing. 

Back in Las Vegas we split up since Tom and Maggie were running the 5K race that evening.   We walked down to the Fashion Mall to visit the ABC Store – a Walgreen’s sized convenient store from Hawaii.   They have good snacks from Hawaii.   We stocked up on macadamia nuts, Hi-Chews, and Kona beer for the room.   We toured around our hotel area visiting Flamingo, Cromwell, and Caesar’s Palace.   We discovered a great craft cocktail bar in The Cromwell – Bound.  We ate dinner at Beijing Noodle No.9 and gambled a bit before calling it an evening.

***

Sunday: Race day. Afternoon/evening races are not our favorites since it is hard to judge what to eat and when. We had an early breakfast at the hotel and then tried to figure out how to kill time. We headed to The Venetian and just sat on the steps enjoying the sun and watching gondolas go by. Dave had to leave around 2pm for his race and Holly could walk to her start line a little later. Dave would start the 10K 45 minutes before Holly would start the half.

Dave’s 10K Comments

I had too much time to kill. I exited the Monorail at the Sahara (nice casino) and crossed through the casino with many other runners. A Plinko type machine caught my eye so I gave it $5. Our staging area was the fairgrounds, which is just a vacant lot when there’s no fair.  Many of us chose to soak up the sun on the artificial turf while waiting to corral up.   We had access to real bathrooms, a plus.     When it was time to get to the corrals I decided to go to the back of Corral 1 so I could avoid getting in the real runners’ way (I actually do not run but can walk fast).  Unfortunately we did not have a wave start as advertised so I ended up moving really fast to try to get to the side and out of the way.  Spacing on the course really didn’t open up until Mile 2.   I probably ended up with my fastest single miles ever in a race.  I ended up finishing at 1:22, better than expected.

It was fun getting to see a part of The Strip I’d normally never go near:  The old wedding chapels, biker bars, run-down dispensaries, and urban decay.  Some bars near Fremont looked fun though and the casino lights on the way back were pretty.   I was hoping for a margarita to cross the finish with but the race barriers kept me from reaching the stand.  The light show at the finish was decent and course entertainment was adequate.   The process to go through the finish chute and cross streets to get back to the sidewalk was underwhelming.     I figured Holly was going to be coming to my area soon so I grabbed a beer from Sin City Brewing.   I videoed her running by before heading back to Linq for a shower.

Holly’s Half Marathon Comments

I was excited to run on the Vegas strip.  I wasn’t excited to start running at 4:45pm.   I usually eat very little before any race so I wasn’t sure what to do.  I had a big breakfast and then just had a Lunchable as a snack around 1 because I was starving.  It worked out well.   The start area was much more chaotic for me.  It took forever to get from the staging area to the corrals.  You had to funnel thousands of people into a small alleyway.  Not fun.   After I got to the start corral it was fine.  I enjoyed running up and down the strip and it was great to see old Vegas.   I’m glad I did the race.  It did kill the whole day though.   By the time I was done running and got through the finish and got a shower, it was probably 8:30.

Video from the Race – mostly from the 10K

After the race we were hoping to meet up with Tom and Maggie for dinner but someone ran into Maggie while running the half and she was icing down.   We had burgers and beers at Black Tap in the Venetian, played a few games, then went back to our hotel for drinks and some live music.     While it was fun to do the races, afternoon/evening races really kill the whole day.

***

Monday, time to head home.  We had a late-afternoon flight so there was still time to play.    Breakfast was in the hotel at Hash House a Go-Go.  We started the morning with mimosas and obscene amounts of food.   We left our luggage with bell services and played a few games.  We were down around $220 for the weekend and decided we should stop soon.  Holly wanted to try the Jurassic Park 3D machine so we gave it our last $30.   She ended up winning around $250!  Hot dog, back in black!  We played a few more games and maybe left the town $30 up.   

To celebrate we took a lift to China Town (nice area) and had drinks at The Golden Tiki.   This place was fantastic!   The good thing about going to tiki bars early is they tend to be empty.   The bartender was super friendly and told us about how the place was designed by former Disney Imagineers.   Many Disney references and props all around the bar.  They had two replica Tiki Room birds that had raunchy banter from time-to-time.   Back on The Strip we had one more Asian meal at Noodle Asia in the Venetian.  

Another fun weekend in the books!  Next stop, Jamaica.

Mount Desert Island Marathon Race Report and Video and Acadia National Park - October 2019

Holly’s Report

This was the Maine marathon I wanted to do for my 50 State Challenge, but it never worked into our travel/work schedule.   This would finally be the year.   The course pictures always looked great.   I was always scared by the hills, but figured I would give it a go.   The Mount Desert Island course is a point to point course that starts in Bar Harbor and ends in Southwest Harbor.  You wind your way along the course and through the edges of Acadia National Park.  We were staying a short walk away from the start and got there about 7:30 for the 8:00am start.   Enough time for one more bathroom break and then got in the corrals.    Pretty soon we were off on a nice downhill start.  Unfortunately that didn’t last long.   The first hill was crazy and long.   I was mildly concerned.  (Ok,  majorly concerned).   I decided to just enjoy the scenery and whatever happened, happened.  

The scenery was amazing.  Beautiful fall foliage, rocky coastlines and cute harbors.   No boring sections on this course.   Dave wasn’t sure how he would be able to get around, but he did fine and saw me several times (starting at mile 7).    I kept running up those hills (walking some of the steep sections) and was doing well.   I started to tire in the last miles, but I’m happy with how I did.   The camber of the road was tough as we were mainly running facing traffic on open roads.  That would be my only real complaint.

The finish was great and I got my name announced which is always fun.   I got a really cute lobster claw medal, a few snacks, and then we hightailed it out of there.  

Race video

I was motivated to finish quickly and get back to the hotel because we had a reservation at the Jordan Pond House for their famous popovers.   That was their last day of the season, so it would be our only chance.    Dave did a stellar job of parking the car close to the finish.   We made it back to our hotel, showered, and made it to Jordan Pond with 35 minutes to spare!   The popovers were worth every hill I climbed.   I highly recommend this race.

Dave’s Race Chasing notes

The race materials cautioned to only spectate at several locations and made it very clear you couldn’t follow the course easily.   I figured out some back roads to get to mile 7, which ended up being a very isolated section of the course.   After seeing Holly I was able to follow the course until mile 14.   I connected backup with the course at mile 17 and followed until 21.  After that, I took the long way around to get to the finish area.  

Bar Harbor and Acadia

First the positives:   The area is very pretty, especially with the foliage this time of year.   The town of Bar Harbor was really cute and everyone we encountered in shops, restaurants, and bars were very friendly.   Bar Harbor is a town of about 5,000 residents that shuts down by November.   The business district is 2 blocks x 4 blocks and it’s filled with bars, restaurants, and lots of shops.  This is a great launch point for Acadia National Park touring, whale watching and puffin sighting tours, and lobster boat rides.

Now for the negative:  This small town is a popular cruise ship port.   Some days the cruisers outnumber the population.   Driving in town is difficult when ships are in because the cruisers do things like stand in the middle of the road, don’t look before crossing streets, and block narrow sidewalks with their indecisions on what shop to go into.   The grocery store parking lot is a nightmare!  Our hotel, The Harborside, was next to one of the cruise ship tender docks which provided us some entertainment.  

Some highlights of town were Atlantic Brewing, Finback’s, Side Street Cafe, and our favorite was Cottage Street Pub.

Our time in the Park was fun.   We started at the Visitor Center to figure out what to do.   We ended up driving to Cadillac Mountain observation for a panoramic view of the island.  Next we took the Gotham Mountain Trail to its summit for some pretty views.   That picture by the summit marker was taken ten seconds before Dave had the rocks slip from underneath him and he fell hard.  The camera and Dave are both fine.