meinen Reisen MY TRAVELS mijn reizen mes voyages meus cursos mis viajes minhas viagens mo taisteal mine rejser mina resor i miei viaggi

I flew to Moline on the 23rd. We went across the street to my aunt and uncle’s on Christmas Eve. It was a nice time of great food, fun games, and amazing presents and…a little puppy named Pixel. It was a nice time with family. Later we went to a Christmas Eve service and opened some presents (watch the videos if you want).

On Christmas, we went up to my aunt’s home. We had a great dinner followed by opening presents, playing with the presents and playing games. I think Exploding Kittens many people liked.

On the Friday before Christmas Eve, Andrea brought llama canvas designs to paint. It was really fun.

Today, we left Moline around 10 a.m. and made it to Sanford pretty fast. We landed a little before 1 p.m. which was amazing. Everything went really well today and we needed it to as it was the last day for the Holidays around the World. Andrea had never seen the Dickens’ Carolers or the Candlelight Processional. After requesting the Lyft driver at the airport, we boarded his car within 1 to 2 minutes of requesting him. It was very nice.

We made it to Epcot around 3:30 p.m. We saw the mariachi band and the Voices of Liberty (Dickens’ Carolers) at 4 and 4:15 p.m. We went to Norway and saw the Julenissen show. Andrea and I walked to get a tamale which was a coupon given to her in her Christmas present. We rode Frozen Ever After using a FastPass. The ride had a wait time of 170 minutes. Afterwards, we went to the Canadian Christmas sing-a-long. We had the cheese fondue (another Christmas book coupon) on the way to the Candlelight Processional. Both Dad and Andrea were impressed with the processional. Cal Ripken, Jr. was the narrator. Afterwards, we saw Le Befana (some sort of Christmas witch character in Italy) and Helga (a German storyteller) in Germany.

Today was Winter in Florida. It was 60 degrees when we arrived, but it got down to 42 degrees while we were at Epcot. Tomorrow, it is a high of 77 degrees.

The videos of the Candlelight Processional have not made it to Google Photos yet, but here are some pictures from the day that did:

I went home for Thanksgiving. It seems so long ago. I am sorry I have not posted pictures before today.

I flew into Cedar Rapids and Adnrea picked me up. She had falafel from Oasis waiting for me which is always good.

Thanksgiving is the best holiday. Well, it can tie with Christmas, but it was nice to be home. I hadn’t been home since last Christmas. We ate, played games, and saw the trains. We shopped a little around town.

Here are some pictures:

There might be a play button in the upper right corner — if so, it is a movie:

An old friend from high school came into town Friday night. We spent Friday night at Disney Springs and the outlets. The rest of the weekend we went to tour the Christmas decorations at the hotels, went to Magic Kingdom, and ended the weekend at Epcot.

MK was so busy. It was draining for me. Epcot is always great with the holiday displays.

When we went to the Polynesian on Saturday, I walked by Anthony without recognizing him. He and Robert work together, so he told Robert to stop me. We were about ready to board the monorail when I received a text to come back. Anthony and I worked together in 2009. It was great to see Robert and him again. Later, Robert met us and got Elizabeth and two other friends into MK.

Here are some pictures of the weekend: (Yes, I am extremely tired and I had an event which I hosted and led and two intern interviews today)

Oh yes, after 7 or 8 years of being here, I purchased a small little tree for my table.

A few pictures from events from the last few days are below.

I met a colleague from Tampa on Tuesday at the Back Porch midpoint between Orlando and Tampa. We had an event at the Orlando Science Center on Wednesday.

I went to Global Nights  on Thursday night at I-Drive Nascar and to Ven a Comer at the Mexican Consulate on Friday night. We also had our Thanksgiving potluck at work.

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving. I arrive in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday night.

Instead of me running the Des Moines half marathon this year, Andrea and I decided to run the Rock and Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon. I had plans to fly out early on Veterans Day. Dad and Andrea were going to arrive later Friday night.

A week or two ago, Tom and Cindy decided to come out with us. They arrived earlier than I did. When I arrived into Las Vegas, I rented a car and picked them up at the hotel. We went to Red Rock Canyon and ate an old Vegas priced buffet at Red Rock hotel. It was like $8 or $9. We went to the expo and picked Dad and Andrea up at the airport that night. After checking in, we went to eat at Bobby’s Burger Palace where we surprised Andrea with tickets to Love, a Cirque show.

On Saturday morning, we toured the Bellagio and ate crepes for breakfast. Then, we went to the running expo. It was a streamlined process. The expo was pretty nice. There were a lot of samples. Meb was there signing autographs and talking to people.

Afterwards, we met the Murphys at the Irish Restaurant at New York New York. I had the lamb stew. It was really good. Then, we headed back to get ready for Love. The Beatles show really was amazing. There definitely Cirque related parts to it. I am not a huge fan of Cirque de Soleil, but the Beatles infused into it was quite good. The set cost over $100 million. The performers are so talented. It was very neat. Sometimes I don’t find the Cirque stories to have story lines, but, in this case, you could see the beginning of the group to the end. The beginning started in WWII where the scene was being bombed. I think there was so much going on though, that I became really tired. I barely could stay awake. As we walked out of the theater, we saw Coach Ferentz on the tv speaking to the announcers about the Iowa win. (I thought there was no chance Iowa would beat Michigan, I didn’t even bring a Iowa shirt to wear just in case.)

Yesterday, we took it easy. We went to the Linq. We went to a really neat bath shop where soap is shaped like donuts, cakes, etc. We ate a little breakfast at Paris. Then, we walked around the Shops at the Miracle Mall and ate at Earl of Sandwich. Andrea and I went back to get ready for the race.

We went to Harrah’s to catch the monorail. We took the monorail to the MGM and walked to beginning of the race line. Snoop Dog was performing. I didn’t think he really was appropriate for the race. I also didn’t hear the national anthem before starting. We started running South around 5:15 p.m. Then, we turned and ran down the strip starting at Mandalay Bay. We ran all the way down to the Stratosphere and around downtown. In downtown, we were able to see the Pawn Stars place where the tv show is filmed. I thought they were going to be mad at us taking pictures, but one worker asked if he could take our picture. We saw many wedding chapels and ran back to the finish line. The race wasn’t the best as so many people were walking 3 or 4 to a row and not properly pulling over to the right hand side. It was annoying running horizontally. Later, we ate at California Pizza Kitchen.

Today, we ate breakfast at the Mirage and headed to the airport. I took Dad and Andrea to the airport for their flight to Des Moines. I picked Tom and Cindy up and we drove to Valley of Fire State Park and we even stopped at the snow cone place Dad loved in August. We made it to Zion National Park. It was about 3:30 p.m. when we arrived, but we really had enough sunlight. It was amazing for a variety of reasons. The fall trees were really pretty and the traffic was down. We were able to drive the loop instead of taking a bus. We saw so many deer. I walked a little ways to the Narrows and saw more deer. We ate at the Zion Lodge where I had a buffalo burger again. After eating, we went back to Springdale and returned to Las Vegas. I dropped them off and headed to the airport. I am at the airport. I am pretty tired, so I am hoping I can sleep on the way home.

Wow.

On Tuesday afternoon I told my dad that one day it would be nice to have the silent majority rise up and surprise us all.

Surprise!!!

I gasped twice this year:

June 12, 2016 when Mayor Dyer said the Pulse victim count went from 20 to 50

November 8, 2016 when Wisconsin was declared for Trump

Some did vote for Trump, but I think more probably voted against Clinton and the arrogance/ condescending tone from the last eight years. I think that constant, accepted ingrained tone is why we are shocked. According  to the media, social media, the current President, who could ever be so stupid, backwards, racist, sexist, deplorable, etc. to vote for someone other than Clinton. I think most people didn’t like the holier than thou attitude coming from people behaving like they are above the law and putting their own self-interests above America’s. It was nice to see that there are many other people that feel the same way.

Most people probably didn’t pay attention to the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, but I think we owe Trey Gowdy, Jason Chaffetz, Jim Jordan, and many others a lot for trying to get to the truth (even it was lost, destroyed by hammers, or BleachBit). Enough of the truth came out.

If you had time, you could watch all of it. I selected them to start at a certain time to show highlights.

Happy Birthday to Aunt Debbie and Weston!!

I hope you have a great day!! See you at Thanksgiving!!