h20skibum

It is really a simple one. We just use this mix, and add the blueberries to it. I have used this mix forever, and add to it. I think the first one I made I just added a can of peaches to it. It became a favorite of all the kids. I think it may have discovered it in that classic book called “A Man, A can, A Plan” Sometimes those simple things turn out good.

Today was a hike on a river trail, and tonight we are enjoying an outdoor concert. Our temperature really dropped fast. It was 78° for our hike, and now it is 62° at the concert. Will be 52° overnight. Some of those blueberries made it into a cake. It was gooood! Tomorrow we will visit with Ricky. He has been living the life!

Thanks Harry. Yeah, I know those dinners will take longer, and this is only my second iteration of the spreadsheet. It is currently something to pencil in ride times once I get those booked. My first iteration, I had planned certain parks on certain days based on when I hoped to get dining reservations, but that ended up with arrows and changes once we found some of the popular ones already had all the good times already gone. I am glad we will be able to book rides seven days ahead, although we will be looking at an extra $500-$600 for the lightning lanes. It is a shame that people have to do that, given what you already pay for park tickets. Neighbors of my daughter took their two little girls to Disney, and they went with just the park tickets and didn’t spring for the current genie+. They were really disappointed that they were only able to ride two rides in Magic Kingdom.

From what I have read, they are more frequent and reliable at Wilderness Lodge, where we are staying. There are a couple other options to get to AK, but that seems the most direct. We could take the boat and monorail to Epcot, but the bus seems quicker. we are ready to adjust if we need to. Enjoy you NY trip, and post some more photos when you can.

oh, we will fit in more pool time. My spreadsheet is just something to keep things organized at the minute, then fill in some blanks. We could have lasted much longer than him last year at Universal. He has made a couple trips to Universal in California with his mom and dad since then, so he has built up some theme park stamina. I think we will keep up.

I am sorry to read this.

🤣🤣 Maybe we will squeeze those in at meal times.

Thanks for the photos of Wilderness Lodge. I continue with my planning, and there are many things that will change on my spreadsheet between now and then. The things we have locked down so far are only the evening dining reservations. Once we can book rides, I will have to adjust my park visit times. I plan to pencil in times and move the rides around once those can be booked. Since we have the Disney Dining plan, I have tried to maximize the value for our dinners, quick service meals and snacks. We get six credits of each, per person, and I like that I can pick an adult beverage at most of these places, and it is included with the credit. Looks like we can book rides 7 days in advance of our stay, once they make the changes next month.

I have been reading stories here about the long TSA wait times at Pittsburgh airport. Many people missing flights. It is probably a combination of the airport construction project, understaffing, and start of the summer travel season. Are any other airports seeing long wait times?

Yesterday was a perfect day for boating, so we took our grandkids and daughter out. Enjoying water toys We anchored just off an island the kids like to explore. Swim to shore. The water temperature is 75° They did find a couple nests on the island. I am pretty sure these are geese eggs. From the smiles, I would say they are happy. Then stopped at a boater friendly restaurant after our day out.

Thursday, our fun was picking blueberries. Even though the area they gave us to pick in was sparse, They did manage to pick 6 pounds. We may have managed to miss the signs that said “Don’t pick past this point”, and some nice large ones ended up in the buckets. Of course, we backed out after seeing the signs. Enjoying an amusing tale, I’m sure. And what better way to recover from working in the fields than to add to the duck collection?

+1 @George C Happy 33rd anniversary

That would be the Pesky Parrot. I know I am looking forward to checking it out in 35 days.

Me too, @Sea Dog. Better buy more rum. According to Waze, I can be there in 12 hours.

My daughter does that every year with her first grade students. She just cuts some milkweed to put in the screen house, and then keeps switching it out. Her students love it.

This is the one we did, and it was all from the shore. No catamaran. https://www.royalcaribbean.com/shore-excursions/cur/willemstad-curacao/beach-hop-turtle-snorkel-experience/cue8 If I recall, @Lionesss Sue did a snorkel with turtles in Curaçao, and didn’t have much luck seeing them. Early in the day was best for us.

+1 @lenquixote66 Happy birthday to your granddaughter

SOF1 would have been 2021. 2 was in 22, 3 was in 23, and this year was 4. We didn’t have our CA grandson here during lockdown. We did spend a lot of time on our boat with the other two grandkids that summer

I haven’t posted any photos of our SofF4 lately, but we have been busy. Then, our CA grandson had a fever for a couple days, so we took it easy. It is good that it is back to normal this morning. Prior to that, we kept busy with. Some golf, with instructions from the pro. She is learning Plus some hiking with wild life spotted And always lots of games during bad weather. The kids are getting excited for the cruise, and they are looking forward to hiding and finding ducks. (Yeah, we will end up being those people) These light up ducks arrived in the mail, so I wonder how many will actually make it to the cruise? Granddaughter wants one of each color. We already made tags to attach.

Good luck to you if you get a call. The closest I ever came was when they filmed “She’s Out of My League”. Part of it was filmed during a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game we were at. Everyone had to acknowledge that they may be filmed and appear as part of the crowd. No pay for any of the crowd, though. I have watched the scenes a few times to see if I could pick us out, but could not.

From the Port of Ponce Authority 🇵🇷 ON THE WAY TO PONCE, PUERTO RICO 🇵🇷 Just as happened in January this year with the ICON OF THE SEAS, the new UTOPIA OF THE SEAS will arrive at the port of Las Americas Rafael Cordero Santiago for a 3-day technical stop. The cruise ship that is not yet in service and has only crew and contractors, will be putting final touches on Ponce, as well as a U.S. Coast Guard 🇺🇲 inspection, among many other details. It is expected to arrive on July 6, 2024 and depart on July 8, 2024 according to the latest update from authorities. Ponce has become a super important port for Royal Caribbean International's new ships, before it enters service. STAR OF THE SEAS, the second ship of the ICON generation, is expected to receive in 2025. Before starting the transatlantic route, the cruise ship will make a refueling stop and then set course to The Pearl of the South.

That does sound better, and it should be in place before out trip. Since we are in a resort, it looks like we get access 7 days in advance. I wonder if it will give us access for every day of our stay, 7 days in advance of our first day? That was the way dining reservations worked.

Our daughter and her family stayed there, and we will be staying there in August. I hear it is very nice. We are supposed to have a view of the fireworks from our room. I am getting into more planning now that our dining is booked. Looking forward to hearing more.

We did the Beach hop and turtle excursion a couple times, because we saw so many sea turtles on the snorkeling excursion. The last couple times we were there, Royal wasn’t offering it. You can see a few of the underwater photos from this excursion in my Odyssey review. We always take our own snorkel equipment. You never know how well those operators clean their equipment.