travels, races, and other musings

Background/Pre-Race My very first CapTexTri was also my first triathlon ever. In 2006 I became a triathlete when I raced the super sprint distance of this event. The following year, I signed up for my first Olympic distance at the same race. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans and due to insane rain all night and all that morning, the race was cancelled.  I didn’t sign up for the race again until 2012 and also in 2013 and both races went well. But starting in 2014, the weather had other plans. The year I was about a mile from the finish when a giant thunderstorm forced me and hundreds of other athletes off the course. The following year in 2015, more rain cancelled the swim and we did a bike and run event. Last year was even worse and the swim and bike were cancelled and we only ran.  I can hear your thoughts, “Why on earth do you keep signing up for this thing?” Well, for one thing, they gave me this year’s entry for super cheap. It was $25 or something. And I fi...

The Harry Potter areas of Universal are incredibly immersive and jaw dropping in their detail. It exceeded all expectations. We had a lot of fun exploring and enjoying those areas in both parks. Unfortunately, the rest of the parks didn’t really offer much that we enjoyed. We don’t do big coasters or thrill rides and the smaller coasters are so short, it’s hard to enjoy them. I enjoyed the Mummy and Gringotts and Roger liked the Mummy okay, but felt Gringotts was brought down by the 3D motion simulation aspects and would have preferred more of the real motion sections of the ride. Volcano Bay offered some really great slides but the capacity of the rides is such that, even with Tapu Tapu, on busier days, people will be waiting a long time for rides once crowds grow. Right now, the only way to really enjoy this park is to be there right at opening. Early entry if staying on properly and it’s available is a huge bonus. If we hadn’t gone to Volcano Bay, our four days there would have ...

back to the real world We set the alarm for 7:30 to give us enough time to pack up and be downstairs at Islands for our character breakfast. Roger blow dried wet shoes while I packed and Emmaline read a comic book on her iPad. Once packed, we checked our bags with the luggage desk and went to our breakfast. They had both a menu and a buffet. Ordering off the menu was more cost effective and Roger argued for that approach, but Emmaline and I liked the variety of items on the buffet. I pointed out that we could stuff ourselves silly and skip lunch, having an early dinner at the airport. Emmaline and I won out and we ate an $84 breakfast while meeting Gru, a minion, Bart Simpson and Homer Simpson. We ate a ton of food and I regret nothing.  After breakfast, we jumped on the water taxi and entered Islands of Adventure, heading directly for Pteranadon Flyers which was posting a 35 minute wait. I explained what happened the previous day to a very nice man who took us direc...

I solemnly swear, we usually rope drop theme parks! We slept in! Having already ridden Forbidden Journey, I didn’t see a lot of point to early entry at Islands of Adventure. After another leisurely morning of sleeping in and cereal in our hotel room, we made our way to Islands of Adventure around 10 AM. First we spent a little over an hour in the Dr. Suess area of the park. It was cute, but obviously the rides were geared to a smaller, younger, crowd. Emmaline still enjoyed it and had fun meeting some of the characters. Characters sure are low key at Universal. It’s more like I remember the characters being when I was a kid at Disneyland. We had some snacks and went next to the Lost Continent and checked out the Mystic Fountain which was fun and silly, then watched the Posiden’s Fury show, which was pretty good. Some aspects were a little hokey, but Emmaline thought parts of it were really scary and so it wasn’t a huge hit. We were right next to Mythos, but it was only 12:10...

let’s go to a new water park a week after it’s opened!  Volcano Bay had early park admission for onsite guests starting at 8 AM so we decided that would be the best plan of attack. We left our room at 7:40 and made our way to the bus pickup where we arrived around 7:45. We must have just missed one because we waited about 15 minutes before a bus came at around 8. Then we picked up people at Sapphire Falls before arriving at Volcano Bay around 8:10. We picked up our Tapu Tapu bracelets and I found a spot by the wave pool for our stuff. We didn’t get a locker, leaving phones in our room and taking our other items in a waterproof pouch that I kept around my neck. After that, we headed straight for Krakatau Aqua Coaster. It said “Ride Now” so we got in line. We waited probably 10-15 minutes to ride. I loved it but Emmaline and Roger weren’t sure. Roger said he had a headache and unfortunately, I didn’t have any advil with me. Usually I carry some, but since we only brought the bare...

in which we sleep in! I always wake up before my family and this day was no exception. I snuck out of the room quietly and went down to the front desk to ask where I could buy a toothbrush because I realized the night before that I had forgotten mine. I’m not usually a forgetful packer, but I guess in the rush of gathering and packing everything in just a couple of hours I forgot it. The front desk gave me a free one! Then I asked her to repeat all the info from the night before because I wasn’t in a position to absorb everything at 1:00 AM. Then I set off to get the lay of the land and figure out how to walk or take the water taxi to the parks. After that I went back to the room and everyone was waking up so we had some cereal in our room while we watched a tree full of baby raccoons outside our window and got changed to head over to Universal Studios. We immediately made for Diagon Alley. Entering Diagon Alley was so exciting as I’m a huge Harry Potter fan. Emmaline is, too, as I...

a very long (and late) travel day This trip was a surprise for Emmaline and, as hard as it was, we managed to keep it a secret from her. The day of the trip, she spent the afternoon with my mom while I packed, then my mom and Steve came back to the house to pick Roger and me up to take us to the airport, which is when we gave her an acceptance letter to Hogwarts that I had made. She was in complete shock! I don’t think it sunk it for a bit! She was completely dazed all the way to the airport! It was pretty funny. I’m glad we managed to keep the secret. The rest of the day didn’t go so well. We were delayed boarding (for reasons I’m not clear on) then we got on board and pulled away from the gate, only to sit there for awhile. Finally the captain came on and said that we had a mechanical problem and would be pulling back in for the mechanical team to come back and check. We waited…. Finally the captain came back and said that we wouldn’t be able to use that plane, but that they had a...

Disembarkation Day Disembarkation Day dawned painfully early, like it always does. My plan was to let Emmaline sleep as long as possible, but alas, as soon as the ship was cleared, those annoying and loud announcement woke her up. We got up and went for breakfast in Lumiere's. We said our goodbyes to our table mates and serving team and told the latter that we would see them next year.  Once we were done with breakfast, we picked up our photo CD, hit the bathrooms and then left the ship. Luggage pickup and customs was a breeze and we went outside to find the rental car shuttle. We asked a few people and found the right spot and waited for the shuttle. We all loaded up and waited for a few more people to get on and were driven back to the Avis in downtown Miami to grab our minivan. Thankfully this was completely uneventful.  We made the short drive from there, back past the port (bye Disney Magic, *sniff*) to Jungle Island. Jungle Island was very pricey (like, I almo...

Castaway Cay The last day of the cruise is always so bittersweet. So much fun to be had, yet the packing and knowing it will be over soon is always in the back of my mind. It’s so hard! The last two times we went to Castaway Cay, Roger ran the 5k and I stayed with Emmaline. This time, we asked my mom and Steve if they would stay with her so we could run together. We woke up and I tossed on my running clothes and went up to deck 9 to grab some snacks for us. When I got back, Emmaline was awake, despite my hope that she would sleep in a bit. My mom arrived at our room at 8 and we made our way to Fathoms to check in for the race. We checked in and waited until around 8:15 when they started the pre-race briefing. At 8:30 we gathered together and disembarked the ship. First we all stopped at Scuttles Cove so that those with kids that needed to get dropped off could do that. Then we arrived at the start line and waited some more. I was glad I had a hefty snack. According to my GPS, we ...

Nassau I debated about getting up and working out this morning, but I decided to sleep in and take it easy in the morning. Still, I was up before everyone else so I went off to deck 9 to have some snacks. After a bit, I came back to the room and got everyone else up. We opened the curtain and there was an ambulance there loading someone on. I didn’t mention in my previous post about the events from the night before. The night before, while I was putting Emmaline to sleep, around 10:45, I heard screaming in the hallway near our room. At first, I dismissed it as kids, but then I realized that it was legitimate distress. I opened the stateroom door (as did many) to see a woman running down the hall with someone in her arms frantic screaming, "HELP ME!!!! HELP!" Someone was on the phone calling to get her help. I was so shaken and I can still hear her voice. Unfortunately, the ambulance increased my concern. I did find later that the woman (who was on our Facebook cruise grou...

At Sea Our day at sea promised to be jam packed with activities. Once again, I awoke to the sounds of the neighbors alarm clock. This time they weren’t so snooze-happy and I was able to get back to sleep. Still, as per usual, I awoke before anyone else and went to have a snack on deck 9. I came back to the room and Emmaline and Roger woke up and got ready. At 9:15 Emmaline went off to the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique with my mom supervising while I went to spin class and Roger went for a run on deck 4. I believe Steve relaxed in their stateroom. My spin class was a great workout and I enjoyed it very much. After class at 10, I met Emmaline and my mom back at our stateroom where I did some slight hair restyling to add the special Rapunzel hair piece I made to go with her dress before I took Emmaline to the princess meet and greet at 10:15. After the princess meet, Roger met us in the atrium and he and Emmaline went off to meet Captain America at 10:45 while I went back to the room to sh...

Key West One thing I didn’t realize when I booked our room was that it was a connecting stateroom to the one next to it. This ended up being less than ideal. First, we were missing an entire piece of furniture—the little chest of drawers that usually resides at the foot of the bed was a door and second, we could hear the neighbors pretty well through the door. Somewhere between 5:45 and 6 AM, a chiming sounded from the other room, waking me up. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but it continued. It was some kind of alarm clock - probably on their phone. It finally stopped and I tried to go back to sleep, only to hear it start in again 10 minutes later. This time it went on forever. Finally, it stopped. I got comfortable again and it went off again 10 minutes later. This time I counted. That stupid thing chimed 38 times. No joke. 10 minutes later? You guessed it! Finally, at 6:30 (ten minutes before my own alarm) I got up, tossed on my running clothes and made my way up t...