Disney's Art of Animation Resort

Susan and I stayed at the Art of Animation Resort at Disney World in Orlando last week. The resort opened in May of 2012 and is located on property originally planned for "The Legendary Years" of the Pop Century Resort, but those plans were abandoned due to the tourism decline following the 9/11 attacks. The service was great, typical of Disney, and the food court had a nice variety of choices, but I did not like the layout of the rooms. There were only two of us in a room that can sleep four and we did not have enough drawers for our clothes. The dresser looked large, but half of it was the refrigerator.

The resort opened with "Finding Nemo" being the first theme followed by the Cars suites, the Lion King suites and the Little Mermaid Suites. Our room was in the Little Mermaid complex. The resort features the art of animation of those four popular films.  The outside of the buildings is similar to Pop Century, just using a different theme.

Animation Hall - the front hall in the main building at The Art of Animation Resort.

Our room in the Little Mermaid building.

Some of the great decorations throughout the grounds of the Little Mermaid buildings.

Decorations are always clever at Disney. We got a kick out of this ship made up entirely of fish. There were also shells in the flower beds of the Little Mermaid buildings.

A statue of King Triton. I did not get a good picture of the Finding Nemo pool, but it is the largest swimming pool at Disney World.

Darling recreation of a scene from the movie Nemo.

Prince Eric

Sebastian

This was the doorway we entered to get to our room. Our room was on the fourth floor and as you can see, Ursula is huge.

This is one of the photos hanging in the food court.

Guest can walk over to Pop Century, or walk all the way around the lake between the two resorts.

Pop Century is located very close by. My niece Julie worked at Pop Century when it opened.

Check back soon for more pictures of our Disney adventure.

British Columbia to Mexico

During the second and third week of my cruise, some of the ports of call repeated themselves, so I decided to post the last two weeks in one message. The rainy weather in Alaska followed us until we got to California. The first picture was taken from the highest point in Victoria.

I toured the Dunsmuir Castle in Victoria. The history of the castle was fascinating.

The Big Wheel, Seattle's new ferris wheel is visible on the waterfront along with some nice boats. You can also see the roof of both the Mariners and the Seahawks stadiums. I rode the wheel earlier this year and was impressed by how high you get and the view from the top.

Our ship docked at Pier 91 along with the Holland America ship that followed us around Alaska. There was a Celebrity ship docked at the cruise ship terminal at Pier 66. I am looking back at our ship (in the foreground) on my walk downtown.

I took this picture as the Sapphire Princess sailed out of Seattle.

Little cars you can rent in San Francisco.

In Chinatown. I wish I could remember how many people live in a 30 block area in Chinatown, but the number was staggering. San Francisco has the largest Chinatown outside China.

This grassy area, called Crissy Park is a venue for artist to display sculptures, but it was originally a naval airstrip.

Everyone in my immediate family are hotdog fans and we use to have a business just like this in Yakima, but it closed two years ago.

Walking around Pier 39 in San Francisco. This place was incredible and popular.

Just of few of the many sea lions that call the harbor home in San Francisco.

The Walt Disney Family Museum was very interesting. I love the seven drawfs!

San Diego has a very strict building design code - even Starbucks looks like everything else. You think it would be boring, but it actually looks nice.

A picture of the ship's tenders taking passengers ashore in Santa Barbara.

The San Diego airport is right downtown and just across from the cruise ship terminal.

One of the buildings in Seaport Village, San Diego.

A very cute little hat shop in Seaport Village.

These last three pictures were taken in Ensenada, Mexico; two by the natural geyser and one in town.

Alaska

During my recent visit to Alaska I took way too many pictures - something I always do.  Since I can't show them all here, I decided to select a few of my favorites from each of the three weeks I was gone. My favorite of almost all my photos was this bald eagle in Juneau.  I could not believe how close I was when I spotted the eagle.  If you click on the image for a larger view, you can actually see the individual feathers on his head and back. 

I really liked the tram ride up the mountain in Juneau. Our tour group went on a short nature hike once we reached the summit. We saw several bald eagles on the mountain.

Even though I have seen the glaciers before, this was my first visit to Glacier Bay. I am always surprised at the tremendous noise the glacier makes when part of the ice breaks free and falls into the bay.

This is a picture of Creek Street in Ketchikan, the original 'Red Light District'. The salmon run was incredible even though I was there during low tide.

I finally rode the White Pass railroad out of Skagway. This was an incredible trip and well narrated by our guide.

Neighbor's Grass Fire

The homeowner to the south of our property had a pile of debris burning today but unfortunately for him, the winds picked up and it quickly spread across the field. The fire spread to the west, crossing the property line.

At first the fire was headed southwest which was great but then the wind changed direction. You can see the blackened grass in the back of this photo showing where the fire burned initially. 

Not sure how they managed to save the cars, but they did. I was not the first person to call 911 and even then, the first firetruck on the scene was not a water truck, so even more land burned before a water truck arrived.

They ended up with four different water trucks on the scene before they stopped calling for more help.

Even though I knew the fire would not reach our property it was still a little scary to see how fast the field burned. 

The ever diligent Toby watched as the firefighters hosed down the hot spots. That is enough excitement for me for the day.

Famous Dave's

Famous Dave's opened last weekend in Yakima and we went to lunch there yesterday before going to Art in the Orchard.

Susan and I ordered different sides so we could taste different options. The potato salad, coleslaw, beans and mac and cheese were all good and all prepared just a bit differently than most restaurants. The atmosphere is fun and the service was really good, especially for a brand new crew.

We loved the pork and the ribs and intend to go back and try a few more items. YUM!

Art in the Orchard

On Saturday, Johnson Orchards located at 4906 Summitview in Yakima held a fundraising event for Children's Village. All donations plus 20% of all art proceeds goes toward helping children in our community with special health care needs.

Artist sell a variety of items at this event including jewelry, glasswork, birdhouses and signs.
Well known artist such as Duane Heilman, Lucy Valderhaug, Dennis Pedemonte and Boris Gaviria are featured along with other vendors.

Susan and I loved the watercolor work of Sally Griffin from Sammamish so we purchase two of her pictures. Last year this fundraising event raised almost $3,000.

Snipes

Mom and Dad spent the long holiday weekend with us and while they were here we celebrated Susan's birthday, which was earlier in the month. They told Susan they would take us out to dinner anywhere she wanted to go and she picked Snipes in Sunnyside.

The actual name of the place is Snipes Mountain Brewery and Restaurant. The restaurant is family owned and was designed to reflect the surrounding countryside.

You enter the restaurant through large double doors with beautiful glass etched scenes to enter the main dining room. There are banquet rooms available and kids are welcome.

If you order pizza, they bake it in a wood fired oven and brew their own beer. Susan had been to Snipes many years ago, but none of the rest of us had ever been there and we loved it.