Dana

Wow. What a fun week! My parents and my aunt and uncle came into Orlando last Sunday and we all spent the week together hanging out at the parks. It was so much fun! I got the whole tourist point of view of Disney once again.

I was scheduled to work a few of the days while my family was in town, but I was able to get one of them off so I had three days to spend in the parks with them. On their first day we all went to Animal Kingdom for the entire day. The first thing we did when we entered the park was ride the newest roller coaster called “Expedition Everest”. My dad loved it, but the rest of the family was quite fine with only riding it once.

My family and my boyfriend Ryan were able to come meet Alice at the Grand Floridian for breakfast last Tuesday. It was a lot of fun, and I know they enjoyed meeting her. Also at the breakfast were Mary Poppins, Pooh, Tigger, and The Mad Hatter. It’s a pretty interesting bunch of characters. I guess they’re going for a British theme.

It was great getting a whole week to spend with my family. The next time I will see them is at my college graduation, coming up this June. I am looking forward to graduating so much! I am especially looking forward to being back in the Northwest, even if it’s only for a few days. It will be so nice seeing some of my college friends again; after being away for three months.

We all got to meet Donald together! What a sweetheart!

Posted by Dana at 07:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had the last two days off and had another chance to play in the parks. On Monday Ryan and I had a blast from the past. Our camp friends Penske and Denim (camp names) were in town and met up with us at the Magic Kingdom. Although Ryan was only able to stay with us for a few hours, I had a long chance to catch up with those two. It was so much fun spending the day at “the happiest place on earth” with two of my favorite camp people! I think we rode practically everything.

Toward the end of the evening the three of us decided to venture over to Toontown and take a peek at Mickey and Minnie’s homes. While we were looking around a character attendant ran up to us and said, “Alright, if you hurry I’ll let you meet them.” We didn’t know exactly what he meant but we followed him into another room. Once we walked in we were blown away to see Mickey and Minnie waiting there to meet us! It was so great! Penske and Denim’s mouths were on the floor. We had a personal meet and greet with the big cheese and his first lady! It was a lovely ending to a wonderful day. I hope to see Penske and Denim again soon in the near future.

Yesterday Ryan and I both had the day off from work, so we took full advantage of it. Neither of us had visited Animal Kingdom yet, so we boarded a bus over there to check it out. It was such an amazing theme park! I had no idea how environmentally conscious the park was. I was very impressed, and I know my fellow Greeners would have been too. We spent the day watching some amazing shows and riding the biggest roller coaster on Disney property: Expedition Everest! One of our highlights was riding the Kilimanjaro Safari ride, which was a jeep tour across the plains to see live African animals! It was truly amazing.

In the evening Ryan and I went to Downtown Disney and had some excellent pizza at a fancy Italian restaurant. It was a nice ending to our date day. Downtown Disney is always happening, and although we had a long wait to be seated for dinner, I was glad we had some time before dinner to do some shopping. It was great having day for just the two of us. I can’t wait for another date day!

Posted by Dana at 09:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This weekend I went down to Vancouver, WA to visit my Aunt and Uncle. Vancouver/ Portland is only two hours south of Olympia. It’s nice to be able to bop down to Vancouver for concerts and visits with family.

Since I am leaving for Florida soon I wanted to get one last visit in with my Uncle Larry. He is my dad’s brother, and he has been like a second father to be over the years. I have just written a fictional story about my father’s childhood, and it was great having a chance to show it to my Uncle Larry. He laughed all the way through, and thought it was a very good story.

Also there for a visit was my cousin Elise. She is also from Olympia, and she graduated from Evergreen in 1999. It was great seeing her again and talk about some of the same teachers we have had. She is a herbalogist and works on the local Native American Reservations. She also just wrote a book about medicinal uses with native plants. She made us all lip balm out of calendula flower petals, lavender, and beeswax. It’s so inspiring to see an Evergreen grad out in the real world working in a field of interest!

On Sunday my Uncle and I went for a walk down on Evergreen Hwy where a Vancouver fish hatchery is located. We went and watched the fish jump and walk on the nature trails. I was very impressed with this fish hatchery because it has become an education center for children. They have a lot of hands-on projects there, which is great for children.

My Uncle out front of the fish hatchery.

The Hatchery.

A really neat tree on the walking trail.

Posted by Dana at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Oh, it was such a nice weekend here in Olympia! 50 degrees and sunny! And when I mean sun, I mean the whole thing, no cloud obscuring the bright wonder of the sun this time! I swear when the sun actually came out on Saturday I saw a few Greeners shudder. I’m not quite sure some of them had ever actually seen it before. Haha, no I’m just kidding, but our winters can get pretty cloudy over here so when that sun does finally decide to pop out it’s a pretty big deal.

I was able to share this warm weather with my parents this weekend. They drove over the passes from central Washington to come visit me. It was my dad’s birthday on Friday, so we celebrated it at The Oyster House downtown. If any of you are looking for some fancy seafood that’s the ultimate in Olympia! We had such a great meal there! I highly recommend the calamari appetizer, but they give you a lot so make sure you split it with at least four people! It’s delicious though!

It was nice having my folks in town. I got to give them the official tour of Evergreen on Saturday. They really wanted to see the campus again, and this time I showed it to them as if they were prospective students and I was their tour guide. It was kind of fun to show off what I do to them. They have always been impressed with all the amazing resources Evergreen has to offer their students.

Overall it was a nice weekend, full of fun and good family. It’s always great to see them and show them wonderful Olympia.

Posted by Dana at 10:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ah, the weekend. It’s so nice to have a moment to myself and not have to worry about any schoolwork. I plan to work more on homework tomorrow, but right now it’s just me and a good book.

Last night I went downtown in Olympia to watch my boyfriend play his guitar at a local bar. He works at a music store and his buddies that also work there all got together and decided to put on a small show. I was very impressed with all the talent these boys had to offer! When my boyfriend got on stage he had intended to fly solo and just play/sing some of his new stuff. But two of his other co-workers hopped onstage and accompanied him with drums and bass. I was so impressed how the others could just pick up where my boyfriend was going and play along with him. I am fascinated with music, but I don’t understand the half of it.

Posted by Dana at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)