Malia78
Flotsam and Jetsam
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2012
O is for: Off to Other Disney-Centered Occasions
The pre-trip excitement reached its normal, insomnia-inducing levels, and I slept fitfully wondering what I’d forget this time. Trust me, it was plenty. But that was more due to the fact that I had absolutely NO idea what to expect for this event than to anything else. But that, my friends, is getting WAY ahead of myself. Let’s begin where all good stories do… on a freeway going somewhere. Which is never quite as good a story as one beginning on a plane to somewhere, but this, Dear Reader, was only a trip from Salem, Oregon to Lynnwood, Washington.
At the last minute, I ended up being scheduled to get off of work at 3:00, so instead of leaving in the evening, I was free to leave in the afternoon… much to my rush hour-loathing relief. If you have never experienced Portland or Seattle rush hour traffic you have no concept of “just give up and don’t bother” traffic. It is soul crushing and not to be attempted unless migraines are your thing. I was loaded up, my bags were anyways, and I took off straight from work at 2:30 because I got off early, and without any hulabaloo or hoopla arrived at Karilynn’s around 6:00. Err…. except the little inane scenic route Google Maps took me on through in one little spot. I mean, isn’t the most direct route always to get off the freeway, toodle through town and several signals, and then get back on, only to continue north again?
She gave me a tour of her museum-like home of which I’m pretty sure has more Disneyana than all of EBay, World of Disney, and the Emporium combined, and then we loaded her bags and we shot off like Thelma and Louise.
For dinner. As noted before, Seattle rush hour traffic is soul crushing, and it’s best to just not. Eating is always more enjoyable than crawling at 5 mph for 2 hours, but then again, so is having a femur reset. Maybe.
Kinda a tossup.
We ended up at a little Chinese place near her home where I took exactly NO photos. I mean, I sure thought I did, but there’s nothing on my phone, so just close your eyes and imagine some respectable Americanized “Chinese” food sitting on a plate. It more than filled our tummies and we were ready around 7:30 to hit the road, hoping to make it to our hotel by 8:30. Which we did- The Embassy Suites Convention Center in Lynnwood, WA.
Check-in was super easy and we were in our room by 8:45 or so. Neither of us expected a suite-style room (ummm, yes, I’m aware it was Embassy SUITES) but, I think it took us both aback a bit. It worked out super well because I slept in a little extra in the mornings, and Kari had a place she could go and read or primp while I snoozed. Here are the obligatory photos of the pre-trashed room.
Not bad digs, if I do say so myself…
It didn’t take us long to ditch the bags and set out to scope out the Door Decorating Contest Entries (see what I did there?) I didn’t take a count, but I think there were around 15 entries or so. All of them obviously had a ton of time put into them and the creativity was amazing! But a couple really stood out. She and I nailed it in predicting the Winning Doors.
One had a little matching game of what quotes came from which Disney movie, another paid homage to retiring Chef Oscar, and yet another had the entire Jungle Cruise mapped out with the corresponding jokes that went with each location. All very fun!
Other random photos:
This one, which took one of the top 2 places (sorry! I can't remember which one actually won!) was a mock Trick or Treat Trail from MNSSHP complete with candy, a Photopass Photographer, characters and the Boo to you Soundtrack
My favorite, and I think the winner (?), but for sure in the top 2 was a Beauty and the Beast-themed display with hand cut silhouettes of Disney couples. An obvious incredible amount of work went into this one, and I was completely impressed:
This one's theme was Disney parks worldwide, but focused on the Asian parks where @Malia78 happens to be right now!
We may give it a try next year. The competition is pretty stiff!
By the time, we’d done our little walk-about, we both decided it was time to hit the sack; it’d been a long day for both of us. While visions of Fairies and Pixies danced in our heads, we quickly fell asleep excited for what the day of the Big Meet would hold.