Sunday, September 25, 2011

Week 26 Report! The long lost blogger returns!

 Well, as we can see from the weekly chart, I lost a bit of ground while on vacation.  I expected worse, but all the walking and continued running seemed to keep it in check a little bit better.  Week 23 I was at 246, so I still have some work to do to get back to pre-vacation weight!

Week Date Kipp   Weekly% Overall%
  3/22/2011 275      
25 9/13/2011 250 -4 -1.63% 9.09%
26 9/20/2011 250 0 0.00% 9.09%

 Well, on with the vacation re-cap.  Most everything began smoothly heading out on the evening of 9/1.  We managed to miss most heavy traffic and made it to the hotel in Dalton, GA close to the time I expected.  The hotel was a big disappointment. For the price, it was poor in my opinion.  Unfortunately, this would also be the hotel we'd be staying at on the return trip.

  The day of driving on 9/2 was a very long day.  We made it to Grandmas very close to the time I expected.  On my quick turnaround to return to Orlando, I ran into some heavy traffic and one parking lot near my exit.  I made it to my nephews first Marching Band Football game in plenty of time to see them on the field at half-time.  Dad had already gotten us checked into the hotel, all we had to do was get there and I could quickly "unpack" and crash for the night.  

  Bright and early on 9/3, I got up and did my run around the resort.  It was very nice running at Port Orleans, but I was having a hard time breathing!  I think being several hundred feet lower than normal with the Florida Humidity took its toll.  I managed to eek out the whole session.  Runkeeper log found here.  After grabbing some breakfast, Dad and I headed out to Magic Kingdom.  We easily hit all the attractions we wanted to in plenty of time.  Dad and I went to Downtown Disney, as there was some RunDisney merchandise I wanted to try and get.  Team Micky did have the shorts and top, so a quick $70 later I had them in a sack.  We went to World of Disney store also, but were less than impress on the selection of shirts.  Dad and I wanted to get matching shirts again.  I also had some specific shirts I wanted, but so far had no luck in finding them.  We then went back and pick up my Step-mom for Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern at the Magic Kingdom.  We all agreed that we enjoyed the dinner there, it's served Family Style.  They also have new sponsorship since the last time I ate there.  It used to be Stoffers, but is now Crazins.  About the only thing different on the menu was the dessert, it of course had Crazins in it :)  We did a few more attractions and shopping until it was time for the evening parade, Main Street Electrical Parade.  We then waited for the Castle Show and Wishes Fireworks.  For the Castle Show, I HIGHLY recommend that you get up closer to the castle, as we were near the start of Main Street and couldn't really make out the pictures on the castle all that well.

  9/4 we were at Epcot.  We had probably the worst meal of the trip for breakfast at Sunshine Seasons in the Land Pavilion.  I do NOT recommend that you get the breakfast panini... Dad and I agreed taht it was terrible. The crowds were a little bit heavier, but still VERY manageable!  We managed to see quite a few of the live performances that are done around World Showcase.  We saw the first show of the day for Voices of Liberty at the American Pavilion.  We also got to kick back at the Canada Pavilion to see Off Kilter, a group that I really enjoy seeing perform. Dad and I even did a ride call Sum of All Thrills, a simulator where you create your own ride.  I previously couldn't do this ride because my belly wouldn't allow the harness to lock down over me. We then went back to pick up my Step-mom for dinner.  We wound up getting to see the last show of Voices of Liberty before dinner, and we were treated to a rendition of Back Home again in Indiana.  It wasn't Jim Neighbors, but was still a good rendition :)  We had Dinner at the Japan Pavilion, Teppan Edo.  It's a Japanese restaurant that they cook the food right in front of you on a big grill.  It was very good.  We then went to the Boardwalk Resort area and did some more shopping.  Dad and I were looking for matching shirts that we both liked.  We wound up with a Lime Green Polo shirt with Micky Mouse emblem on the front.  We watched the Fireworks and then headed out for the evening.

  9/5  Labor Day.  Dad and I headed out to Hollywood Studios.  We had quite a good day on the rides and were able to hit even more than we planned on.  The park crowds were heavier, but still not much of a bother on line wait times.  We once again headed back and picked up Step-mom from the pool and headed back to the Studios for dinner.  We went to 50's Prime Time, which is modeled after a 1950's home kitchen/dining room.  It's very fun to watch the old TV previews on the "black & white" tv's.  50's Prime time specializes in what most would call comfort food.  I usually end up ordering Dad's Meatloaf... and this time was no different.  We pretty much were stuffed from dinner and decided to do a few more rides, while we'd be waiting to queue up for the Fantasmic fireworks show for that evening.  We did the fireworks show, which is probably my favorite of all of the evening firework shows at Disney World.

  9/6 Up early again for my run.  I decided to keep on Week 2 of B210K, as I didn't think I'd be able to handle the increased time.  I did pretty well, but had a mid run incident that I won't go into here.  Got back to the room, showered up and Dad and I headed out for Breakfast.  Once we were done breaking fast, we headed out to Animal Kingdom.  We got the major things done we wanted to, as on the first ride it started to rain.  I got a ride in on the rollercoaster right before it really started coming down harder.  Dad and I put on the ponchos and continued onwards.  As it happens, Finding Nemo show as just about to start so we ducked in there to get out of the rain for a bit, hoping that it would stop raining while we were in there.  Well, we didn't have that luck and it was still raining.  Dad and I decided we'd done all we wanted to and headed back to the room.  We picked up Step-mom after resting for a bit and headed to Downtown Disney again.  Did a bit more shopping before we had our dinner at Raglan Road Pub.  Had a very good meal.  We walked around a bit more before heading back to the room.  Dad and Step-mom stayed at the room to call it an early evening while I went over to the Magic Kingdom and rode did some more attractions.  I even went onto Space Mountian, which still jars me around enough that my back really doesn't like it.

  9/7 We were all at Magic Kingdom for the day.  It was all of us together and we watched a parade and mostly took it easy.  Right before the afternoon parade, I got into the Main Street Barber Shop for a much needed haircut:

  We had a very nice dinner at Tony's Town Square.  This place is fashioned after the restaurant in Lady and the Tramp.  They have their likeness on the windows and a set of paw prints in the cement outside. Since we had watched the nighttime activities earlier in the week, we went back to the room.  Dad and Judy called it an early evening, but I went to watch Yehaa Bob perform at the bar in the resort main hall.  I didn't stay for the entire set, as much as I really wanted to, but I knew the next day was last day and I needed to get some packing done before going to bed.

  9/8 We packed up our bags, grabbed some breakfast.  We headed out to Epcot for some last day fun.  We had reservations at Le Cellier at the Canada pavilion at 1pm.  Once we were done with lunch we headed out going our separate ways. I went back to Lake Worth to meet back up with Mom and Grandma.

  9/9 Mom and I spent the day just kind of goofing off.  We went to Wellington Mall and it so happens that it was Waldenbooks/Borders last weekend for business.  There was a Waldenbooks in the mall and I managed to snag a couple of paperbacks that I wanted.  The 2 paperbacks cost me $2.90!!  They were even discounted further than what was posted on the walls!  We had lunch at TooJays and then picked up a few items for our return trip home at the grocery store.  We had a nice dinner with Grandma at Red Lobster.

  9/10 We got up and ready to leave.  We were on the road a little ahead of what I was planning on.  I had already taken the big suitcases to the car the night before, so we only had the smaller weekender suitcases to take down to the car.  We said our goodbye's to Grandma and headed out.  We made a lunch stop back in Orlando at Downtown Disney.  We had lunch at Earl Of Sandwich and then did a little bit of shopping before getting back into the car for another long haul.  We wound up having dinner at a Sonny's BBQ somewhere mid-state GA.  We arrived at the hotel that evening and crashed pretty hard.

  9/11 Last leg of the journey.  Weather Channel was showing that we'd be running into rain heading through Tennessee, Kentucky and Southern Indiana.  It was pretty much spot on.  We grabbed some quick breakfast at McDonalds and were once again on the road.  Funniest part of the return trip is that we stopped for lunch at the same exit we had the year before!  Same Dairy Queen!  To top that off, it was the same exit that we stopped at for gas on the way down!  True enough, we began to get rain off and on most of the trip back to Indianapolis.  We were back home by 3pm.

Well, that pretty much covers it without going into more detailed information.  Shame on me, I skipped the runs for the 8th and 10th.  If I had done them, maybe I wouldn't have gained 5 pounds, I might have kept it down to 3 or 4 :)

I'm still sorting through pictures, and I will try to find a picture of Dad and I together.  I've got to transfer them from my laptop to the home computer to finish sorting them out.


Thanks for Reading!  Regards,

~Kipp



Running to 2012... and BEYOND!
Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon - January 7, 2012