Why I Oughta...

Here's a matched set of Disney Parks pins that were in that little stash that we came across last weekend - but these are a matched set of a matched set.  Of holiday character themed-mittens.   With the whole Bernie Sanders inauguration mittens meme,  I'm so *on* trend right with this post now, amiright?  The first one below is from 2015 Christmas at the Polynesian Resort (note: not yet the Polynesian Village Resort) featuring Stitch.  And the other one on the left is from the same 2015 Christmas/holiday celebration at Disney's Contemporary Resort featuring...for some reason...Tinkerbell in a Santa hat and outfit.  Both of these are on cute cards that carry the whole mittens-theme forward and are both marked "Limited Edition".  This is the most recent of the discovered 'stash' pins from Disney Parks on the blog.  ALL of my posts about various Disney Parks trading pins can be found here .  I also have created this running log of everythi...

I had this experience riding the monorail from the Polynesian earlier this fall.  We had just finished breakfast and I had to split to do something without the family, so I rolled into the monorail sans stroller, sans diaper bag, sans kids, sans wife.  And had the whole thing to myself.   Weird.  But quite delightful at the same time.  

We walked from the Grand Floridian to the Polynesian one morning recently for breakfast at Kona Cafe and on that walk, we came across this large Tiki.  He is outside one of the Longhouses, just a bit west of the Grand Ceremonial House.  In what is seemingly a random location.  But, he is big.  And angry looking.  And something that makes your stay at the Poly just a little.bit.more special.  I've written about the Tiki Room at DLR here .  And I've posted photos of some of the other art at the Polynesian including this painting  and this print that we picked up in Boutiki .  

There are a few movies that are tear-jerkers for me.  I mean...no matter how many times I watch them, they turn on the water works.  When Tom Hanks is torn up about executing John Coffey but can't bring himself to say those words.  Or just about any part involving Rudy's dad in the movie Rudy.  But, in particular this scene. Every.time.  The music, the build-up.  The whole thing between Rudy and his Dad and brother. That line. "This is the most beautiful sight deez eyes have ever seen." That was going to be the caption for this photo below.  But that's ridiculous, right?  Or maybe not.  Those of you who are in the know, might agree with Rudy's Dad.  Especially because they're floats.

If you find yourself down by the Seven Seas Lagoon on New Year's Eve, go down to the beach at the Polynesian and plant yourself.  On December 31st, they do a show early at 7 pm, then another show at Midnight.  If you're staying Club Level at the Polynesian, they set up a little seating area with wooden chairs that give you a really great view. These photos don't do the show justice, because they launch what they call 'perimeter fireworks'  so the view isn't just straight ahead, but feels like the entire horizon between the Grand Floridian and the Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary.  And during the Midnight show, they also launch fireworks from this middle island in the middle of Seven Seas Lagoon.  Yeah...that one that the ferry boat goes by every time?  That one. The kids didn't make it until Midnight, but Nat and I did.  Here's a look at what we saw from our balcony in the Hawaii building.  We snapped a few photos, but there was no substi...

I came across this print from Shag ( Josh Agle ) at Boutiki and it caught my attention because it reminds me of this Tiki Room one by Joey Chou that we picked up last year .  This one (above) doesn't have the Dole Whip reference, but is still pretty cute. The back reads: "On hot summer days, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room offers a magical, cooling, and calming oasis for the Disneyland guest.  Unchanged since 1963, the Tiki Room still gets kids to squeal in delight and adults to relive their childhood."

This interesting piece is hung up in the little nook by the elevators in the Grand Ceremonial House at the Polynesian.  Standing there, waiting for the elevator (so we can take the stroller up to the Monorail entrance), I saw this for the first time. After walking by it dozens of times, I'm sure.

In sorting out some of the girls Disney pins from our last trip recently, I came across this Christmas-time one from last year.  I wore this one through most of the holiday season, but now it'll go into one of the girl's pin books/boards and will serve as a reminder of the holiday trip we took.  We didn't stay at the Polynesian on the trip where we picked this pin up, but we stopped there to have a few drinks at Trader Sam's and the bar upstairs with the pineapple drink while the kids were at the playhouse setup there at the Poly. I can't ever remember the difference between Chip and Dale.    But a quick Google search turns up this: Chip has a small black nose that looks similar to a chocolate chip while Dale has a larger red nose. Chip has two close together front teeth while Dale has two spread apart teeth. Finally the last visual difference is their fur. So that's Chip on the right and Dale on the left.  And it isn't just the nose color. The teeth...