Disneyland Paris

Disneyland Paris

Our visit to Disneyland Paris in August 2010 during our trip to France.
It is an easy train ride from Paris for a day trip. I recommend buying your tickets in advance and getting there prior to the gates opening. We lost an hour waiting in line to buy tickets to get in. Prepare to spend much of your day waiting in lines…even at the food counters. Service isn’t efficient there. All and all it was a nice day at the park.

The guests can totally sit in the planters during shows

Seriously. I used to work at Magic Kingdom in Orlando doing crowd control and this would NEVER happen there. I don’t think my former cast members would believe me unless they saw this pic.

Stage show 

Show went back and forth between French and English.

Its a Small World

Sorry about the blur…I am still getting used to my new DSLR.

Fantasyland

The rest of these were taken with the phone and are of bad quality. I guess I got tired of using the fancy camera?

Haunted Mansion

 

Thunder Mountain

 Tomorrowland

 

The most painful Space Mountain I have ever been on.

Seriously. Do not go on this unless you like having your head banged around painfully and want to walk off with a concussion. Our heads were throbbing post ride.
 

 Snow White

 Alice’s psychedelic labyrinth

This whole area felt like a strange psychedelic trip. We liked spending time wandering around here.

 The Storybook ride

Such a cute ride, even the one in Disneyland in California.

 Casey Jr

A cute train ride with a catchy tune.

Jake’s Beer Festival

Last weekend I was able to attend Jake’s Beer Festival with the Lady Crafters. This festival is in its inaugural year. We were lucky because this year it wasn’t too crowded. It is sure to be busier next time when word gets around what a great deal this festival is. For $35 you are able to all-you-can-eat German inspired dishes  paired with craft beers.  I got to sample numerous beers and the folks at Jake’s were very welcoming to our group. We were given reserved seating and even got a chance to sample some special beers.

Mercado de San Miguel

One of my favorite food places in the world is the Mercado de San Miguel in Madrid. The mercado is what I would call food heaven. After our first visit all I wanted to do is return again and again while we were in Madrid. You can get small samples of anything you can think of Spanish related. We had so much fun going from booth to booth tasting things. We ended up spending a large amount of time at the Vermut (Vermouth) and Sherry tasting booth. It is there that I discovered my new love for Vermouth. Evenings there are fun but crowded. Serious eaters should arrive earlier to avoid the lines.

My favorite was the Vermut tasting. A glass of sweet, dry or semi-sweet vermouth was great with a plate of olives.

It wasn’t until the end of our Madrid stay did I discovered that I liked Sherries as well.

One mustn’t forget desserts as well. There were plenty of those to try.

Citrus and Kale

The key lime is not doing well. While we do have some key limes growing this season, the leaves are falling off just like they did with our lemon bush (the lemon has since been removed). At first I thought it was a nitrogen deficiency but fertilizing doesn’t seem to help. Then I thought the problem was mites, but pest control measures seemed unsuccessful. I am now thinking it has a problem that citrus gets in central Florida – Citrus Greening. From what I have been told and what I have read, there really isn’t much I can do to treat it. Our local hardware garden guy recommended just trying to keep that and other citrus around it healthy so it can fight it off. So that is my new plan – try to keep my plants healthy.

The spring kale is still lingering around. I pull up about one a week. We aren’t eating it and it looks sad. I don’t know why I don’t just pull it all up and throw down new seeds. My garden still needs some cleanup work for the fall.