Grant's First Garage Sale

A garage sale was something Grant and I talked about doing for a while, but never really wanted to do it. So of course we choose the weekend where we are having 100 degree weather! Thankfully it was cool in the morning of and it all worked out.  

We put up signs around our neighborhood and listed it on a few websites. We both agreed (me begrudgingly) that it should start at 9 am. So I got up at 8 am with the intent of getting everything outside to start the sale at 9 am. Lo and behold, there is already people waiting outside our front door waiting for the garage sale to start. 

I quickly start laying stuff out and a mass horde of people start grabbing it and putting it into piles. Grant must have heard the commotion, wakes up and begins bringing stuff outside. He told me he felt like an auctioneer. As soon as he would bring something out, a person would want to buy it before it made it all the way out the door. 

We planned on being out there from 9 to 12, but in reality it was 8 to 10:30. We sold out of nearly everything and the few things leftover we put outside with a free sign. Our total haul was $1,209.00. Not bad for about 5 hours of total work!

Plus we have more free space for me to buy more stuff. Win-win!  

Del Mar Fair 2018

The theme was sweets, but the drive was more of a cavity.

This years Del Mar Fair was all about the sweets, which means that all of the food either had to have sugar, bacon, or be fried. So standard food fair.

This trip Tarina tagged along and we headed out to the fair around 2ish. What should have been a 30 minute drive turned into a 2 and a half hour exercise in patience. It took forever to get into the fair, but once there we had an amazing time.

We walked through the exhibits, ate some really nasty food and rode rides that made us feel even worse then the food. It was a tortious experience that we all thoroughly enjoyed and look forward to going back too! 

Schlitterbahn Year 4 or 5

The trip started out with a three hour delay, which kind of changed the itenerary, but we definitely made it work out. We got to the airport and there was only one flight attendant. Due to the delay, the plane after ours was being flashed on the monitors as ready to board when we were still getting on. This confused everyone and made the delay even worse. The positive news is that we ended up with a $50 credit so we are fine with the delay! 

Once in Austin, we could tell right away. 95 and humid is way different than 74 and dry. Wendy picked us up and hand-delivered some amazing kolaches from the Czech Bakery. We then drove from Austin to New Brunfeals to get ready for the water park the next day.

For dinner, we ate at our normal joint-- Los Cucos and had some good green salsa until they ran out! The resturant closes at 10pm and we got there at 9:30pm so it’s not completely unreasonable. I ended up “borrowing” some from other tables and even had other tables donating it to me by the end. I am obsessed with their green salsa. 

The next day we woke up early (10am) and made our way to Schlitterbahn. We met our friends Mike and Catey and the five of us (including Wendy) started riding. We got front of the line passes, which let us cut in front of everyone so we were pretty pleased with ourselves and our VIP status. Since it was an odd number I voluntered to go by myself and got some great video as seen above. 

The highlight of the trip was the Congo ride. We went through like normal, but the ride’s extension was finally open and we got to float along the Comal River. So neat floating next to the lily pads and frogs! 

Great trip as always looking forward to next year! 

Reminders for next year: 

1. Go on Sunday (it’s Texas and people are at church) 

2. The normal fast pass and not the super fast pass is sufficient as we could spend the extra wait time in the wave or lazy river.  

Waiting is Not an Option at Disneyland

Yesterday, we went to Disneyland for the first time in about five years. As soon as we walked in we were swarmed with people. The adventure did not start well with our first ride, Guardians of the Galaxy, having a 70 minutes wait and no FASTPASS. So we left to ride Indian Jones, which had the shortest wait.

To our initial dismay, as we were in line the ride broke down. However, as a result they gave us a free FASTPASS that let us ride any ride whenever we wanted! We went over to Space Mountain and got on right away as compared to the standby 95 minute wait.

We conveniently forgot to give the ride attendants our fast passes, which lead us to ride Big Thunder Mountain and Matterhorn with a FASTPASS.   

The final hurdle was to get back to Guardians and avoid the 70 minute line. Confidence is key and so we just went up to the ride attendant and pretended like we had a FASTPASS.  Immediately after I scanned my pass, Grant scanned his. This completely messed up their system as there was no way to go back and review the error. The attendant was so frazzled they let us both in! 

We left the park to eat and came back and rode the reopened Indiana Jones, Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain. Each of those rides had about a 15 minute wait so we begrudginly waited in those lines.  We may not have gone to Disney in a while, but we still know how to work the system! 

Panama City, Panama

So the canal is pretty boring, which should not come as a surprise to anyone. It is something that you have to see to say that you have done it. Ironically, it is not owned by anyone as technically it is considered international waters. The Panamanian people definitely collect the funds. 

There are boats littered everywhere waiting to get through it and it can cost over a million dollars to cross. The city itself use to belong really to the US before it was given back to Panama in 1999. Oddly enough, the US still has the ability to take it away if Panama misbehaves. 

Due north of the the Miraflores locks is Monkey Island. An island that has three different species of monkeys on it that are friendly to tourists. 

Lihue, Hawaii

We had been to Waikiki before and hated it. This time we thought that we would try our luck in Kauai and we definitely had a much better time! We started out ziplining, which was kind of a bust, but it put us right next to Secret Beach, which was one of the prettiest places we have ever been. Of course being the smart child that I am -- I thought my selfie-stick was as indestructible as I am. Unfortunately, both of us were clobbered by a huge wave. We did tubing and then a helicopter ride going past the Jurassic Park falls. It was pretty incredible!

One thing that did happen that I instantly regret was introducing Grant to shaved ice. He would not stop eating Hawaiian shaved ice. Everytime, I asked him what he wanted to eat he would say, "shaved ice."  He was a monster! 

Much better trip than the first!