Food & Wine Festival at Epcot 11.6.09

Today we have decided to go to Epcot for a few hours for the Food &  Wine Festival that ends on November 8, Sunday…Our day started out leisurely by waking up at 5:30am, the both of us, and staying up for a little bit then going back to bed…I slept in longer than Richard but I normally do…The thought for the day was where to eat a meal before going in to Epcot…The choice of the day was McD’s…The both of us got ready to head out for a while…We had our lunch and headed to the Epcot parking lot, the lot where all the rv’s park because our truck takes up 2 parking spaces…

The first place to hit is bag check…Open up all zippers on all bags…The security officer checks it, for the most part and tells you to have a nice day…Now its time to head to the Cast gate to go in…Our ID’s are inserted in to the machine and then our finger is up on the little green oval…What it does, no one knows…and off we go…

The first thing you see is the big wine glasses, the sign for the festival and a big wine bottle…The Epcot ball is the background of everything…Several pictures were taken by Richard and I…We carry our own cameras and then later on we get to see how many of the same shots we have…It’s pretty funny to see the shots that I have taken and see that Richard has taken the same thing…This is going to be a lazy, slow day for walking and taking pictures…It gives us time to look at disney pins worn around the cast members neck…The beautiful water fountain is our next destination stop…Music plays and the water just squirts upward in sprays and colors…It’s a beautiful sight to see…After getting all the pictures there, we head on towards World Showcase…

I just had to add my sweetie in to this blog…It’s fun to take some fun pictures of him…We had a great time, like always…

As you move past the water fountain and heading towards World Showcase, Epcot has been decorated in many ways to represent the Food & Wine Festival… Have you ever seen such large wine glasses and a large wine bottle…Poor Me More Wine…

Nothing like being in San Juan, Puerto Rico…Didn’t try any food here…Nothing didn’t look appetizing…so we moved on to our next country to see what food was appealing to try… Vienna, Austria…We tried the Paprika Beef Stew…It was very tasty and very small..

Richard just had to stop by New Orleans to pick up some Gumbo…but he couldn’t find the hot sauce…Poor guy…So he ate it with no “spice” to it and he even let me try a bite…It was okay…

Along the way around the world, we ran in to Mary Poppins in England…and we saw Princess Aurora in France and Snow White in Germany…

While going by France, Richard and I decided we wanted to sit and relax a bit so we thought we would get a drink and a pastry…Richard got the ham & cheese croissant and I got the chocolate cake…

Wouldn’t you know, Los Lobos was playing tonight at the America Gardens..The show started at 5:15pm and we were in the right place at the right time, well it was around 4pm but I wanted to sit and wait for the show to start… What we didn’t realize is that they sang the song to the Jungle Book, with Man cub and Baloo…Plus they sang La Bamba…Awesome time listening to them…

The Epcot ball at the end of the evening, when we decided to leave cause our feet were tired…The Epcot ball is shining well at about 7pm…Off to home and relax for the night…What a wonderful time in Epcot…

Favorite Seafood

All my life I have enjoyed the tastes of seafood.  My favorites are Chesapeake Bay crabs, shrimp, Alaskan King crab legs, scallops and fried clams and great big crabcakes…Enjoy the pictures below:

Friendly Farms – off I-83, MD.

B-52’s – Rte. 52, Mt. Airy, NC

Live Chesapeake Blue Crabs

Steamed Chesapeake Blue Crabs after they have been put in a big steam pot, add vinegar and Old Bay seasoning…Steam for about 20 minutes…

Ummm, Steamed Shrimp in Old Bay seasoning…

Or you can have a crab cake sandwich with tomato, lettuce, mayo..served with fries…Make sure they are TRUE MD. Crab Cakes…No additives: Onions, Celery, Peppers, Bread fillers and anything else that is not suppose to be in a MD. crab cake…What is suppose to be in a MD. crab cake:  Lump crab meat, a little mayo, Old Bay seasoning, and possibly a bit of cracker crumbs…

In to the pot he goes…

or if you drop the little devil, he can hurt you with those front claws…

Come and get me!!!

These are just a few things that I miss from Maryland…

Brianna’s 4th Birthday Party 9.26.09

 

It is always nice to be able to go up to Brandi’s place and celebrate the girls’ birthdays…This weekend was no different..We arrived a few days early and on the day of Bri’s party, the decorating was going on…The night before the cupcakes were being iced…One of Brandi’s friends’, Kortney, came down the night before and Kortney was helping to ice the cupcakes…The cupcakes were in the form of ice cream cones…

 

  The party started at 2pm and is ending about 4pm…The guests were arriving from nearby Harpers Ferry, VA and further away as Pasadena, MD…To the left is Uncle Josh and Aunt Sandy who came from Maryland…

Now to the right are Bri’s other grandparents, Grams & Poppop who live nearby in Harpers Ferry…

Wrestling on the living room floor are Aunt Sandy’s two children, Mary and Timmy…I think they had a lot of fun just hassling each other…

Great Aunt Cindy and Great Uncle Doug arrived from Baltimore, MD but they came with a bushel full of goodness, live blue crabs…

 Once the live blue crabs are put in to a large steaming pot with vinegar and old bay seasoning, they are left to steam for about 20 minutes or so…Steaming, orange colored, full of seasoning crabs…All you need now is paper on the table, a claw cracker and a knife in case one don’t have a claw  cracker…A fork can be used to help open the legs to get to the meat…But don’t ever eat the lungs or other goop around the lungs…Break the crab in half and start picking out the meat…Oh la la!!!  I sure do miss having crabs..or for that matter, a very good crab cake…

Does this look like a wanted poster or what???  To the left is Gary, a good friend of Kortney…The one who wondering what is in this hamburger…

This is the Birthday Girl, Brianna…Isn’t she adorable??  She dressed up as Princess Aurora who is one of her favorite princess’s…The other favorite princess is Jasmine…Four candles were in her cupcake and we were all singing Happy Birthday to the birthday princess…Happy 4th Birthday!!

After blowing out the candles, and having the ice cream cone cupcakes and ice cream, it was time to have the little princess open her presents…Brianna got crafts, clothes, and toys… Oh my, what is in this little box, a cute pair of earrings that Aunt Cindy and Uncle Doug gave me…"Aunt” Kortney took me to the mall up in PA. when I was there a whole week and for my birthday I got my ears pierced…Now I have another pair of good earrings…Look what else she got…Her Sleeping Beauty (Princess Aurora) gown…She was so excited…As you can see, it didn’t take long for her to put on her new gown…

Brianna received lots of cool gifts…There were even some play dolls/characters from Disney…Belle and Jasmine…

The time had come for the kids to go down in to the garage for some Pinata hitting, if they could…Gary bought this cute Dora pinata and filled it with candy…The kids had a blast with it…Eventually the string to the pinata had to be pulled to let out the candy…All the kids were scrambling to get every last bit of candy that they could…The Birthday Princess went first, of course..

One by one, whacking at the pinata…It just wouldn’t open up…Once the pinata was hit open, it was a free for all…

The day had ended with the kids having fun…The adults watching the kids have fun…Taking lots of great photos…and the ending of eating steamed blue crabs…It was a great day!

One crazy family here…Uncle Josh, in green tee; Aunt Sandy, holding down Uncle Josh; Me (Mommom), in purple tee; Poppy, in purple tee standing behind couch; Mary & Timmy…This was one of those crazy poses…It turned out cool…

Halloween Weekend at LRRvResort

It is Saturday and the weather looks like it may cooperate today…Last night as the guests arrive, the magic pumpkin seeds (at a cost of $5) were being bought…What the magic pumpkin seeds do is change the little pumpkin candy wrapped in cellophane and tied with either an orange, a black or a purple ribbon with a small card attached to put their name or site on…The magic pumpkin seed is then placed on a hay bale outside that same night and the next morning the little ones or older ones come and see what their magic pumpkin seed has grown in to…The little ones are truly amazed at how big their magic pumpkin seed has gotten over night…The guests then bring their new pumpkins up to the crafts room and they can paint their pumpkin to enter in to the Pumpkin Painting Contest that is held sometime between 5 and 6pm at the Halloween Carnival held down in the cafe area…

The crafts room opens at 10am and slowly the guests come in to the room to start their design on their pumpkin or just wanted to paint it…Many parents were with their little ones to help out on the design if the little ones wanted help…So many designs and artsy painting…The crafts room is packed (from time to time), every table is sometimes taken up with kids/parents working on their pumpkins…If the older kids didn’t buy a magic pumpkin seed, they can buy a pumpkin and paint it…The influx of guests was amazing… By the time that everyone had come in to the crafts room to paint, there was anywhere from 2 to 20 pumpkins outside on the tables drying…

This was a possible winner at the Pumpkin Painting Contest held in the cafe area for the Carnival…There were a few good pumpkins that were hard to decide on a winner…Thank goodness that the moms and dads got to put a navy bean in a little cup and the most beans in a cup is the WINNER…

Among the pumpkin painting contest was the Best Decorated Site and Costume Contest…There were several decorated sites located in the wooded section of the campground and down in the lower section of the campgroud where there are no trees…The evil wicked witch was only a few sites up from where we are parked…This site also had out some tombstones and a black kitty cat…

A site up in the woods was decorated with evil looking clowns…Even the owner was dressed up as a clown… Can you tell who is the owner in the clown costume????  This guest also won the best (only dressed) adult costume…

At 5pm the Halloween Carnival begins in the cafe area…There are the  cake walks, horse races, pumpkin painting contest, costume contest & apple bobbing…The kids come in all dressed in their favorite costume and the family picks out a table for the hour of the carnival…For the pumpkin painting contest, there are 2 tables set up…The ages for each table is under 7 years old and 8 years old and older…It gives the little ones a fair chance of being picked for their pumpkin…The cake walk is easy…Numbers are placed on the floor and the kids pick out their favorite number to stand on…Richard picks out a number out of his goblet and that number is out of the game…The game ends when there is one person on the number left…They win a prize packet and a cake of their choice that was bought for the game…Two cakes are bought for the 2 cake walks…The adults get a chance in the cake walk too…The horse races are very simple…Six kids are on one of the numbers and Richard draws out a card that gives the horse number and how many spaces that horse (person) moves forward…There is a total of 6 blocks to make it to the winner spot…It becomes fun to watch the  kids “gallop” to the finish line…Brianna got in to a horse race and she did the apple bobbing…When one apple bobs and if they get an apple, the reward is a free ice cream…Who can resist?  Bobbing for apples was the last event of the carnival and everyone was ready to head home and have dinner…I just want to add one more picture of Brianna in her  Princess Aurora gown…