Be My Guest

A few weeks ago, Choppie suggested I use a guest writer for one of my blog posts, just to switch things up a bit. Well the opportunity presented itself last weekend after my family and Hannah visited from Arizona. Normally the only people to share experiences with me here in Orlando are my roommates, but I would never let them write a post for me (though they beg me to allow them almost every week, of course). About the only two people I would trust with that massive responsibility are Hannah and my brother. Maybe I'll get my brother to write a post later this summer, but for now, what follows in this post is Hannah's story of our weekend together. Enjoy!

But don't get too comfortable. I'll be back next week.

Mmmm... Spicy!

Would you be my guest? Well, I answered yes to that question this week when Jeremiah asked me to be his guest writer. I am Hannah, Jeremiah’s girlfriend, the one in the pictures at the top of this blog, the only one without a code name, and the guest writer for this week’s edition. Some of you may be thinking, “Oh, great… Jeremiah is such a great writer, why is he letting someone else do they writing??” Well, he decided he wanted to spice things up a little bit this week, and I am the lucky one to bring the spice!

Before I get started I want to warn you that most of this week will focus on one weekend; Jeremiah will have to fill you in on his past few workweeks in his next post.

Last weekend was a very exciting weekend! It started out at a very early 4:30 in the morning last Friday (4/25). But knowing that by the end of the day we would see Jeremiah made it much better. I went over to the Dwight’s house on Thursday night so I wouldn’t have to wake up quite so early and that would it would just be more convenient all around. Jeremiah’s parents (Whom I don’t think have been named yet! Therefore I will name them and Jeremiah’s brother), Orbital and Coach were so kind and generous and purchased this flight for me for my birthday! It worked out perfectly that they were planning on going to Florida in April so we all went together. Before we left Arizona we had checked our bags and arranged with Disney transportation to get our bags and deliver them right to our room. So once we checked them in Phoenix we didn’t even touch them until later that night when they were in our hotel room in Orlando!

I couldn’t stop smiling once we landed in Orlando because I was about to see Jeremiah and we were about to have a great weekend in Disneyworld! Disney’s Magical Express took us right from the airport and dropped us off at the Art of Animation Resort. This is a new resort that features some of the great Disney cartoons. When you first walk into the lobby there is a whole wall of sketches of Disney cartoons. There is even an artist in a sitting area drawing out some cartoons, and you can draw along with him!

We stayed in the Cozy Cone Hotel of the Cars area! As you would probably expect, all of the classic Cars characters were featured and our particular building was decked out with cones. Very fun, and a few pictures from our suite are posted below. Even though it was a suite, because Jeremiah and his brother, Choco, are so big they each had to have their own bed so I got a makeshift bed made out of couch cushions! 

So once we got to this hotel room, we had still not seen Jeremiah! He thought we were supposed to arrive an hour later than we actually did so he was caught off guard when I texted him that we had arrived. It felt like forever, but he finally got there and I was waiting right outside the elevator for him! I was so happy to see him again! Each time I see him again it still feels almost unreal, but it becomes normal after about one minute! He was very excited to see his family too of course! So we all did some catching up and then we headed off to Downtown Disney! If you stay in a Disney resort they have buses that will conveniently take you to any other Disney property. So we hopped on the bus and arrived a short time later at Downtown Disney. Jeremiah had made a reservation for us at the Rainforest Café, and man was it a good thing he did! The wait time for everyone else was three hours! Even with the reservation we had to wait around for about thirty minutes after our scheduled reservation time. Turns out the Rainforest Café is very loud, but we all had delicious meals. 

So as you may have come to realize by reading this blog that the Dwights do it big with dessert. And when I say big, I mean BIG… (Insert from Jeremiah:  HECK YEAH!) Especially on a Disney vacation. It’s awesome. They are always very proud of me when I finish my dessert. So we went to the Ghirardelli ice cream shop after dinner and all got our own, quite large desserts. We also walked around some of the shops around Downtown Disney. Overall a very nice night and so great to be all together again!

At the Parks

Day 1 of Disney parks! It’s not a complete Disney vacation if you don’t wear something Disney related. And we did it right this time. About a month ago all of the Dwights and I designed an Incredibles themed shirt. We chose a character and some sort of funny slogan or quote on it. It was very fun and we got quite a few comments on them! Hopefully you can make out the sayings on some of our shirts in the picture. 

We started off the day at the Magic Kingdom with all of the classics- Jungle Cruise, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, and even made time to watch Mickey’s Philharmagic show! The Magic Kingdom is one of the busiest parks because it is considered one of the most classic of the Disney parks. Subsequently, we had some very long lines to wait in. But one of my favorite parts of Disney trips are these long lines because we do this sort of “Question Game.” Coach has a book full of questions that we’ll ask each other and discuss while we’re in line. They can be anything from “If you were a food, what food would you be?” to “What is the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do in your life?” It’s really great because we get to know new things about each other with every question. So next time you are waiting in a long line, you will know what to do!

After we wrapped up in the Magic Kingdom, we took a Disney bus to EPCOT. In case you didn’t know, an interesting fact is that EPCOT stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. It really is a very unique and interesting park. We went on Mission: SPACE, Test Track, tasted Cokes from around the world, and wandered around the World Showcase. We ate at a very authentic Italian restaurant for dinner, so authentic that our waiter was even from Italy! Once again, a delicious meal, and had dessert at a Werthers shop in Germany. Caramel everywhere! I had this delicious rice krispy treat covered in chocolate and caramel! Yummm.. I only actually had a tiny bit of it that night because I was so full, but Choco helped me finish it up the next day. He keeps telling me to eat my own food, they’re all trying to expand my stomach. Maybe some day I’ll be able to eat a Dwight size piece of cake (Jeremiah, again:  HECK YEAH!), but I’m not seeing that happening anytime in the near future. At the end of the night Jeremiah gave Choco an early birthday present. It was another hand-designed shirt. This one was probably the best of them all. Choco plays trumpet, so it was a shirt with Gaston from Beauty and the Beast on it looking very puffed up and cocky as usual and it said “Why yes, yes I do play the trumpet!” Very funny and perfect for Choco!

Day 2 we decided to drive ourselves around because we were travelling to one of Disney’s more secluded resorts, the Fort Wilderness Lodge where we took a walk on a very nice quiet path out to Trail’s End Restaurant. Jeremiah has described this restaurant in an earlier post and he loved it so much the first time that he decided to treat us all to the brunch buffet! It lived up to expectations, everything was… you guessed it, delicious! After we rolled ourselves out of the restaurant, we drove to the Animal Kingdom! Another unique park, it’s almost half zoo. We saw many animals on the Kilimanjaro safari, explored Mount Everest on Expedition Everest (a personal favorite), rode Dinosaur, Kali River Rapids, and saw the Bugs Life Show! Then it was off to Hollywood Studios to round out the visits to the parks! I have officially decided that this is my favorite park. It has my ultimate favorite ride- the Tower of Terror. I absolutely love this ride. Jeremiah and I are the only two that like it, so we ride it by ourselves. We got on twice this trip! The other three are really missing out. This picture is not from this trip, but it’s one of my favorites of Jeremiah and me on this ride. Whenever a ride takes a picture we try to come up with some funny or creative pose for the picture. Once Jeremiah even asked me to Homecoming during the picture on Splash Mountain! That afternoon we also got on Toy Story Mania, Star Tours, and Rock’n’Roller Coaster. We had dinner at the Brown Derby restaurant. I need to come up with another word besides delicious, it was… delectable! We ended the night off with dessert at a small Ice Cream Parlor and watched Fantasmic. A perfect, fun way to finish off our time in the Disney parks!

The following picture is from last weekend, though. Kilimanjaro Safaris, to be precise.

Hakuna Matata

I tried to keep this “Hakuna Matata” attitude Monday morning, but unfortunately, I was about to leave the magic of Disney and Jeremiah behind and head back home to two papers and six tests! It was difficult, and very sad as usual. Jeremiah reminded me that if he had not extended his internship through the summer then he would be coming home in twelve days. While it seems great, we both agreed it wouldn’t have been right. He is accomplishing so much and is just in the middle of great projects that he wouldn’t have seen finished! It would have been incomplete, and I know that I would not want him to leave that experience behind. So while it hurts every time we say goodbye, I am so proud of all that he is doing in Orlando and know that this experience is great for both of us.

I had an absolutely awesome weekend in Orlando with Jeremiah, Orbital, Coach, and Choco. I am so grateful that the Dwights have adopted me into their family. They make me feel completely welcome and I love them like my own family. Standing in lines in the heat isn’t so bad when it is in good company.

This is probably the only time that I will get to write on this blog so I would like to say what I’m pretty sure everyone is thinking! Jeremiah is doing such an amazing job with this blog! I knew he was a great writer already, but he has gone far beyond expectations on this blog! I find myself laughing out loud many times and smiling the whole time. So thank you, Jeremiah, for your bi-weekly entertainment. I am realizing how long these posts take to write! Also, I am so so proud of all that you are doing! You truly amaze me!

Sorry it took so long to get this post up, but finals are coming up this week, so that means very little time! I hope you enjoyed the change in pace this week!

- Hannah