h20skibum

Happy birthday this evening. I hope you have a great celebration.

My son, who has a PhD in O Chem may disagree on it being worthless, although it is for some fields. Whenever I attempted to read any of his papers, I may as well have been trying to read Greek. I was over my head. It has served him well in his field. His wife also has a PhD in O Chem, and it has served her well too. I just tune them out when they discuss work.

On SW, we have been known to upgrade to the A1 to A15 boarding group. We did that on our trip home from Myrtle Beach this summer, because our assigned boarding group was so low that our grandkids would have been sitting with strangers.

And I hate it when you are at the back of the plane, and a lot of those people ignore that.

And then they pick up the pace and start eating a lot. No one was starving at our house last night, with big plates of lasagna (sorry, no pictures). Then we topped it off with s’mores at the campfire. Granddaughter had to make hers after she got back from cheer practice.

That is about a 15 minute walk between those gates. Hope you are not further delayed.

My granddaughter was talking to her mother about her gymnastics class. She told her that someone in her class was better than her. So my daughter shared this with her. Then her brother said, “yeah, but then there’s some leftover kernels at the bottom of the bag that never pop” 😂🤣 That boy is quick!

Yesterday, we had all our grandkids at our house. They decided they were going to make a movie, so they wrote some scenes, and I was drafted to be the cameraman, and had to edit and splice the scenes together. It was pretty amusing. Even Susan got drafted to play the part of a tv reporter. This morning, we are picking up the other two and taking them to breakfast while my daughter has an appointment. My grandson from here has to go to the school later today, because they want him in a video they are shooting for the school. Maybe yesterday’s acting will help with his role today.

Great photo, those kind of pictures bring back memories of my college years.

Have a great cruise. I would love to take our grandkids on a cruise, and they all want to go on one. Problem is, my daughter got sea sick on the one cruise we took her on when she was probably 11, and she never wants to go on another cruise. She doesn’t want us to take her two without her, so that doesn’t work. We have tried to convince her that the Oasis class ships are much smoother sailings than the ship we had her on in th 90’s. Maybe next summer.

Somehow, my agreement with Susan that I do the outdoor chores and she do the indoor chores, has morphed into I do the outdoor chores and half of the indoor ones She has never touched our tractor. I only had a lawn service cut our grass, the one summer we spent in California and Europe

Add me to the list of those wishing you well on the journey.

Yesterday, we made our third trip to Kennywood Amusement Park, but this time we had all three grandkids. It was busier than the other two times this year, but the kids (and us) had a blast. Lots of coaster rides and water rides This morning, I am waiting at the airport for my son’s flight to arrive. He will be here for a week and a half, before he takes our grandson back to California. Time for school to start soon, and for the final wrap up of Summer of Fun 3.

But then you get grandkids and start again.

+1

Evidently, I won the lottery. Not the money one, but I received an invitation from the census bureau to fill out the American Community Survey. What a long, and prying survey. In true government form, the program crashed when I was reviewing all my answers before submitting. I will have to log in later to see if my answers were saved. Anyone else lucky enough to get one?

Shhhhh! 🤫. We don’t want a crowd there.

It is $3.89 here in Western PA too. If we drive across the Ohio border to Sam’s club, it is $3.40.

There were plenty of them there. I can’t believe the number of kids (and some adults) wearing black, Harry Potter robes in that heat.

Today is National Lighthouse day. Gibbs Hill Lighthouse in Bermuda. I need to start looking at cruises to go back there.

I think that was what we enjoyed. Not knowing what to expect, we thought we would have a steep drop, then it stopped and went backwards. Also, when the track section dropped 10 feet or so, then reversed direction in the dark was a surprise.

We took Hogwarts Express five times between parks. There is a different experience, depending on which direction you are traveling. We repeated it going to IOA, so we could film the walking thru the wall illusion once we discovered it. Gringotts wasn’t a long wait, but they shut it down for about 10 minutes due to some technical difficulty, so that added to our wait. I think our favorite was Hagrid’s Motorbike Ride. We were among the first ones for early park entry that day, and made a beeline for that ride. It is one ride that doesn’t have an express lane. I think our wait was 30 minutes, but later the wait times were 120 to 150 minutes. I will edit to add that although we were doing the parks at a leisurely pace, we averaged around 22,000 steps each day.

A few final comments on the Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure Parks. I mentioned it had been years since we were there, and I think our kids were about our grandson’s age now. So many things have changed. I would hate to try to do everything in a day, or even two days, especially if you only had a regular admission ticket. Much like Royal, they use dynamic pricing, and some days are more expensive than others. For the days we were there, unlimited two park express passes were going for $240 per person, per day. Two park, one day tickets were going for $233 per person. Of course, they currently have promotional tickets that give you 2 day, 2 park tickets with 3 additional days free for $341 per person (this is without express pass costs) Doing several days with the express passes was much more relaxing, and we didn’t feel rushed. We were able to ride everything we wanted to ride, and see what we wanted to. I think maybe it was @bobmacliberty who commented that by the time he took a grandkid in 10 years, that it might cost as much as a cruise. Well, I can confirm that we could have taken an 8 day cruise for less, so that time is already here. So for a few last photos. This is what Diagonal Alley looks like when you are almost the first one there. We had early park admission to IOA and took the first train over to Universal and arrived before their main gate opened. We were also the first to breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron. We wanted to get there early, because we had a photo appointment that was part of our package. They filmed our grandson in front of a green screen and inserted him in some Harry Potter scenes and gave us a dvd. It was pretty amusing, and I don’t think acting will be in his career path. It also had an 8x10 included, and this is the one he wanted. Watch out for the fire breathing dragon. IMG_8484.mp4 What is up next, you might ask. Another day at Kennywood Amusement park, but this time we are taking our daughter and the other two grandkids as well.

We finished our trip to Universal Florida, and have returned home. I think I mentioned we had the Wizarding World of Harry Potter Vacation Package. Since we stayed at the Portofino Bay Hotel, I thought I would give you my impressions of it. The hotel is one of Universal’s Premier hotels, and one of three that includes unlimited express passes during your stay. We really enjoyed this hotel. Very quiet and picturesque. Every evening, they have performers singing opera and popera favorites from a balcony overlooking the plaza. Directly beneath this balcony is Sal’s. They have excellent pizza and their Italian sandwich was delicious. You can also get beer or wine at Sal’s, if you want some while listening to the music. We requested a room in the west wing, which is closest to the water taxi. The water taxi runs to a pier at City Walk between the two park entrances. It was nice to be able to look out our window, overlooking the harbor, and see if the boat was there. They ran every 10-12 minutes. Portofino has three pools, and the beach pool is the one by the west wing. We definitely enjoyed coming back for a swim, mid-day. I can recommend this hotel as a nice place to base a stay for the parks. I only wish the room would have had a microwave to heat some leftover pizza. (Yes, there is such a thing) It is a little on the pricey side, but the perks are worth it. I think I would stay there again if we ever return to the parks. Of course, now that we are home, we have a house full of wizards running around today.

Nope, our California grandson is with us. He went to Universal just after school was out, while we were in California getting that grandson.