November Already?

Did anybody see where October went? I swear I didn't see it at all.

Well, anyway, it's November now, and that meant I had some family come and visit! Yay! My sister and my mom came down for almost a week recently, and we had a lot of fun. It was nice to be able to take them to parks with my magical blue pass, it allowed us to do what we wanted to do at the parks and not feel like we had to "Get our money's worth", etc. My sister arrived first, and Jeremy and I picked her up from the airport, got her checked into her hotel (Port Orleans: French Quarter, nice place), and let her get some rest.

I had the next day off, so we went and got some lunch, our first destination wasn't open on Sunday (Cafe 118 in Winter Park), so we visited Whole Foods, and then went to Dandelion Communitea Cafe. Which was really cool (reminded me of the old Cafe Aquarius), and the food was really good (I had a BLT with tempeh bacon, and we split some nachos).

Then we went and picked up mom from the airport, got her checked into the hotel. At which point we surprised her with tickets to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.

She was really excited, since she'd been asking about it since she planned this trip. Luckily I was able to convince her that it was sold out.

Lisa made us a joint costume to wear, of the Soarin' ride from Epcot. She sewed and glued and spent a lot of time putting it together and it looked great. We got a lot of compliments at the party, enjoyed the parade and the fireworks. The highlights was getting the Evil Stepmother and Evil Stepsisters commenting on our costume, and going to the Laugh Floor, where my Mom and Sister got to be part of the act. Great times!

We got lots of candy (which none of us could eat, but I'll keep trying to give it to the other canadians), but were worn out by 10:30, so we got back in the car and headed back to the hotel.

The next day, Jeremy didn't start until 3:30, so we planned to go check out Cafe 118 since it would then be open. I'm so glad we did, because the food was fantastic. Cafe 118 is a raw restaurant in Winter Park, each of us got a different dish, so we could share. I also had a raw "Milk"shake (chocolate banana and awesomeness). Between us we tried the raw lasagna, pad thai, Salad rolls and Nori rolls. Everything was soo good.

We dropped Jeremy off at work and headed over to Hollywood Studios, where we convinced Mom to go on Rockin Rollercoaster for the first time ever. She didn't like it one bit, but she went on, and I'm proud she did. I think she'll like it more next time. After that we went and did Toy Story Mania, which is fun, but the lines are too long still. And then off to Ohana' at the Polynesian Resort. There we had a fantastic 5 course vegan meal prepared for us by Chef TJ. There was fresh salad, vegan rolls, chips and 2 kinds of hummus, salad rolls (with pineapple), and a great veggie tempura. For desert he gave us these little spoons of deliciousness because we were so full we could only fit a tiny bite.

The next day I had to work, but Jeremy was off, so the three of them went to Epcot for the day, the came by and saw me a few times, but mostly were off trying wines from around the world. They seemed to have fun, we went to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner, and then made a trip to the bookstore, Whole Foods, and the kitchen appliance store for plenty of great things, books, food and kitchen supplies. (Thanks Mom!)

Wednesday was a great day. I didn't work until Noon, so we picked them up from the hotel and went to Animal Kingdom. I had time for one ride, so we quickly went over to ride Expedition Everest, which my sister and mom had never been on. And my mom loved it! I was worried she wouldn't like it, but she had a huge smile on her face in the photo.

I went to work and then afterward met up with the family at Sanaa (I think I've eaten there 10 times by now, but I love it). And then headed to downtown disney to see the La Nouba (the Cirque show at Disney). Mom and sis really liked it, I'd seen it before, but it was neat to see it again from a different angle.

The next day it was time to say some goodbyes, my sister caught a plane ride home, Jeremy and I had to work, but we went and visited my mom at the hotel later on. The next day we went to downtown disney to do some shopping, had sweet tomatoes for lunch, and then she started her drive home in my car. (Which I really appreciate, the Volkswagen people made me send it home).

So they are both back home now, but we had a great time having them here. Hopefully we'll have more visitors soon! Miss you all!

Oh yeah, in all the excitement of having the family around, I passed both of my menu spiels, so I'm on my way into service (still probably a month away or so), I'm really looking forward to it. Jeremy also passed his first, so we should be both going into service around the same time!

Ok, that's all for now, I don't have any pictures (my camera is broken still), but if I get some from the family, I'll try to update them here.

I'll also try to keep this place updated more often.

-Dano