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July 17, 2014

Fresh Water Pearl – Japan at Disney World

Nick and I went to Disney World for 4th of July Weekend, Here’s the re-cap in case you missed it:

  • Independence Day 2014 Weekend

Ever since I was in the College Program at Disney World, I’ve wanted a Fresh Water Pearl from Japan at Epcot!  I never got one because (1) I was afraid it’d be too expensive (2) It was way too busy or (3) I’m ridiculously indecisive.  Every time my roommates and I would go to Epcot, I absolutely loved going to Japan!  It’s my favorite place to browse in Epcot and I would always stop and watch others open their oysters and receive their pearls!  Once I left the College Program, I never failed to mention it on every trip back – this trip over the 4th of July weekend was no exception!

open-oyster

The conversation went something like this…

Me: I think I’m going to get a Fresh Water Pearl this time!

Nick: Oh good, you always say you want one

Me: Yeah… but then again, I don’t know if I should spend the money

Nick: Heather, you say you want this every single time you come, you should get it!

We get to Japan.

Me: Let me ask how much it is

Sweet Japan Man: $17 for pearl, then you can pick your setting.

Me: Oh ok, let me look around and think about it

Walk around the store a little bit

Me: I kind of like this (a purse, some chopsticks…. whatever!), Maybe I should get this.

Nick: No, go get your pearl.  You’ve always wanted one!

Me: Well okay then!

I got all giddy inside and was really excited when I finally decided I would purchase my own pearl.  I knew I wanted a pearl ring, and I honestly liked the simple look of their cheapest setting, so being the frugal one that I am, that’s what I went with!  Pearl – $17    Ring Setting – $35

The process was a lot of fun and very easy.  They give you a numbered card and when your number is called, you get to pick your oyster from the fresh water.  Being that I’m indecisive, this process caused me a little bit of anxiety at the time.  I finally picked the oyster I wanted though.  Then the super excited Japanese girl teaches you how to count 1, 2, and 3 [Sun, Knee, Itchy].  Then she cracks open the oyster and seeks out the pearl.  They say that the average size is 6.5!  She started measuring mine and it went all the way up to 7.5! [In all honesty though, I saw quite a few pearls opened and all of them were bigger than 6.5]  Then she goes on her drum to let everyone know that you got a large pearl!

fresh-water-pearl

I then went and picked out my ring setting and was told it would be ready in an hour!  At this point, Nick and I had to take a picture with Minnie & Pluto (I get a free 5×7 with the Chase Disney Visa Credit Card I have) and then we came back to pick up my ring!

I originally purchased it to go on my right ring finger, but my fingers were a little swollen from the humidity that day and I accidentally got it one 1/2 size too big for that finger, so now I wear it on my left pointer finger.  I got it as a size 4.5, but I need a size 4.  Nick’s sister-in-law, Kathryn, thought that was insane!  I’ve always had really small fingers though, even after popping them practically my whole life!   Having recently worked at a jewelry store this past Christmas season, I know I can get “speed bumps” to tighten my ring which I think I’ll do at some point so I can wear it on my right ring finger again!

right-ring-finger

left-pointer-finger

I’m absolutely in love with this ring and it will always remind me of the most perfect day Nick and I had at Disney!

  • Have you gotten a fresh water pearl ring before?  Where at?
  • Are you like me about purchasing things for yourself?  I have a hard time buying something unless I know I really want it or really like it!  This makes me very indecisive sometimes.

Filed Under: Disney, Nick Tagged With: Disney, Disney College Program, epcot, Japan, pearl 3 Comments

July 10, 2014

Pool Ready in a Jiffy

flat-tire

Good Morning!

That’s not a great sign, is it?  Apparently I ran over whatever the heck that thing is on my way home from work yesterday.  Luckily I noticed it before heading to church last night.  I was pulling out of my drive way, but felt like my front tire might be flat, so I got out and looked, but it was fine.  I went ahead and looked at all of them and sure enough my back tire was flat.

I went ahead and made an appointment last night so I could get my car in quickly this morning.  Thankfully my boss has been out of town these past few days and so I’m not extremely busy at work or I’d be a wreck right now.  I was caught up on everything when I left work yesterday.

What’s really funny is I’m picking my friend Lacy up from the airport today and she said her plane was delayed due to a flat tire also!  We’re all having tire trouble apparently.

It’s a dreary day here in Mississippi.  In a weird way, I love days like this.  I would love a day like this more if I could curl up on the couch reading blog posts and updating my own blog.  What’s your weather looking like?

me-karla-stephen

I’ll be visiting my cousin in a week & a half.  The excitement is overwhelming.  My friend Lacy is joining me and then we’ll be greeted by our friend Noelle who just accepted a job in Texas! I plan on parking myself by the pool pretty much all weekend.  In order to do that though, I need to ramp up my workouts.  I did the 30 day squat challenge a few months ago and saw a lot of improvement with that so I’m going to start that again today.  I also need to take all the ab classes offered at my gym between now and then!

Some other necessities to get pool ready in a jiffy:

  • Drink lots of water!
  • Cut back on my Sodium intake!
  • Apply Jergens Firming Lotion

30-day-squat-challenge

{source}

Besides spending the greatest quality time in the world with my sweet Cousin and her beyond wonderful family, I’ll also be attending the Houston Veg Fest!  I probably won’t attend the entire day, but I’ll be there for a few hours learning about vegans/vegetarians, listening to speakers, and trying products!  You’ll for sure see a re-cap on the blog!

Did I mention that Nick and I want to do the Goofy Challenge?  It’s at Walt Disney World and it’s a Half-Marathon on Saturday, Full-Marathon on Sunday.  The problem is, I’ve never done a marathon.  I’ve done a hand-full of Half’s though.  We haven’t signed up yet because it’s not full and I’d like to see how I feel in a few months.  To kick off our training, we’re doing a Half in Starkville on October 18th.  When I trained for the Disney Wine & Dine Half-Marathon, I planned on using this great training plan I found that was created by (or for) Ellie Goulding.  The training didn’t go so great, the longest I ended up running was about 8 miles and I didn’t have a gym membership so rainy days were a problem and I also didn’t have a good yoga class to go to or a decent DVD / floor space for my yoga.  I still believe the training plan is one of the best I’ve seen because of the heavy amount of x-training and strength training involved as well as yoga.  I’m giving it a try again for this training and I feel it’s going to flow more smoothly now that I have a gym membership with yoga classes offered and a rainy day option on longer runs that are critical to my training!

  • What do you do to get pool ready in a jiffy?
  • Have you attended or even heard of a Veg Fest?  How was it?  What can I expect?
  • Share your favorite half-marathon training plan!
  • What’s the likelihood that I’ll succeed at doing a half & full in about 6 months when I’ve never done a full?

Filed Under: Disney, Family, Fitness, Nick, Races, Summer, Training, Travel Tagged With: Disney, flat tire, half-marathon, marathon, running, squats, Veg Fest, vegan, vegetarian, wine & dine Leave a Comment

July 8, 2014

I high-fived a Tumble Monkey!

You are in for one heck of a Disney re-cap, so buckle up!

Not only did Nick & I travel to Gainesville to visit his brother and sister-in-law, but we also made our way to Disney on Saturday!  Since the trip down is only about 2 hours, it was the obvious choice.  I’m sure by now, most of you are aware that we know how to squeeze as much as possible into a Disney trip!  This past Saturday was NO exception!

We woke up around 5:45am so we could be out the door by 6:15am.

We stopped for gas and some McDonald’s breakfast (My first choice was Starbucks, but they weren’t quite open yet).  I ordered a egg & cheese bagel.  The guy in the back thought I wanted chicken on it and I saw him actually place the chicken ON MY BAGEL, then take the chicken off my bagel, wrap it up and give it to me.  Although that was frustrating, I don’t want to waste food, so I ate it – I was just annoyed.  Some of you may not understand why that is, but if you’re a vegetarian, then I’m sure you get it.

Anyways… onward and downward toward Orlando we went!

We arrived at around 8:30am and it seemed a lot more crowded than I originally anticipated at that time, but we hustled through the crowd, go our bags checked, and scanned our Magic Bands.

MAGIC KINGDOM

Magic Kingdom was our first stop for the day.  They always do a spectacular opening show in the morning and Nick had never seen it, nor had heard that it existed, so he was pretty excited about that!

magic-kindgom-opening-show

The characters rode out on the train to wave us all in.  Anna & Elsa were there!

The second we got in the park, we ran to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train!! It wasn’t open when we visited in May, so we were both really excited about finally riding it!  It wasn’t a big thrill, but it was a lot of fun and the animation was superb!  At this point, I expect nothing less of Disney.  Somehow our timing throughout the entire day was spot on!  They did open the park about 10 minutes early though.  We were out of the mine train by 9:10!  We were on our way to Splash Mountain when I saw the Peter Pan ride.  I’ve only been on it once or twice, but I remember loving the animation in it and you literally feel like you’re flying in the clouds above the rest of the world.  We hopped in since it wasn’t even a 10 minute wait.  Nick didn’t remember riding it before, so I’m really glad we decided too because he enjoyed it a lot!

We finally made our way to Splash and waited maybe 5 minutes.  After Splash Mountain, we hit up Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.  The wait time said 20 minutes, but we literally walked straight onto the ride.  Like I said, our timing was spot on.  What we assumed happened (after seeing a thousand little 15 year old international kids) was that they all went on Thunder Mountain first, while we were on Splash.  They increased the wait time to 20 minutes.  They all finished as we were walking to Thunder and headed to Splash.  Basically we bypassed all of them which was awesome because honestly… those tour groups from overseas are my worst nightmare at Disney.  That’s another story, for another day from my Housekeeping Days at Disney!

Once we finished Thunder, we ran to the other side of the park – Tomorrow Land!  We wanted to ride Space Mountain since it was still pretty early.  Unfortunately, we had a bit of a wait, but it’s not so bad because they have games throughout the entire line.  I got front seat and that spot can be scary!  I felt like I wasn’t really sure if we were going to run into something the entire ride.  If you’ve ridden Space Mountain then you know it’s pitch black!

We were going to ride the People Mover until we learned that it was closed for refurbishment.  That’s one of our favorite rides, so I look forward to seeing what they change!

We stopped for lunch at Cosmic Ray’s Café in Tomorrow Land.  Nick got the burger & fries.  I munched on some of our snacks and nibbled on some fries w/ ketchup.

At this point, we decided our time at Magic Kingdom was over and we were ready to head out to Animal Kingdom!

ANIMAL KINGDOM

I had been looking forward to Animal Kingdom ALL WEEK!  My absolutely favorite thing is the Festival of the Lion.  When we were there in May, it had been closed for refurbishment.  They were moving locations.  I wasn’t sure if it was opened back up yet until my friend David told me it was!

Our first stop was Mount Everest though which is my favorite ride.  We always do single-rider because there is barely a wait time.  You could stand in line for 50 minutes the regular way, but it took us about 10min. to do single-rider.  After that, we headed for the Festival of the Lion King show.  We waited in line about 30 minutes, but I was fine with that – we got great seats!   The show was absolutely spectacular (as usual).

I have this list of Disney Experiences/Memories I want at some point during my life.  One of those is to be the person they choose for the start of the show.  I haven’t made it there yet, but one day it’s happening because I’m practically a Festival of the Lion SUPERFAN!  Although that memory didn’t make it this go round, I was able to experience the greatest memory I’ve had to date at Disney.

Have you seen or heard of the Tumble Monkeys?  They’re my favorite part of the show!  Okay, that’s probably a lie… the entire show is my favorite part of the show.  Check out a video of the tumble monkey’s from my trip back in November for the Wine & Dine.

So back to my now greatest Disney memory…. A Tumble Monkey, who we have now established is the coolest thing in the world, hopped up to our seats and HIGH-FIVED US!!!! I didn’t see him coming, but he popped up, I literally SCREAMED, “OMG, YES!!!!!!!” and gave him the biggest and best high five of my entire life!  My entire day was made!  They’re like celebrities to me.  It was epic!

So after that, we did Primeval Whirl and then treated ourselves to a Vegan Donut (which is delicious!) and my fave – Mickey Pretzel w/ Cheese!

vegan-donut-disney

We wanted to do Kali River Rapids, but decided the wait time wasn’t worth it.  Before we headed on to the next park, I knew I wanted to visit my old Disney Roomie, Nicolina.  She’s doing a Professional Internship at Disney right now and I hadn’t seen her in almost 2 years!  It was a short reunion, but it was completely worth it just to hug her and hear a little about her life right now!  She was such a joy to be around during my time at Disney and I know she’s spreading that same joy to her new Disney friends & cast members!

me-nicolina-wilderness-lodge

After our mini-reunion, we took a boat to the Contemporary and then the monorail to Epcot!  Epcot was our last stop for the day.

EPCOT

We started off with Starbucks because we knew there was still a lot of the day left to accomplish.  While we sipped on that, we found ourselves in Club Cool & Nick had never known you could try the different flavors of Coca-Cola here!

nick-me-starbucks-disney

nick-coca-cola

It started raining some, so our goal was to start looking through the countries and if the rain wasn’t too bad, then hurry to the next one before it started pouring.  Luckily, it never got that bad and we enjoyed our time looking around!

Nick’s brother & sister-in-law decided to drive down for dinner and my friend got them in so we could eat at La Hacienda de San Angel & watch the Epcot firework show.  Before they arrived though, we had a fast pass for Soarin‘ and it’s one of our favorite rides because it’s so relaxing!  Somehow we managed to squeeze that in right before our dinner reservation.  I got a hefty run in from Soarin’ to Mexico though!

The evening ended perfectly with dinner & fireworks!  I also got to catch up with my old Disney friend and fellow Housekeeper, David!

epcot-fireworks

mexico-dinner

I enjoyed the veggie enchiladas and Nick & I split a Margarita.  They also served black beans  & rice for the table.

veggie-enchildas

So for the record:  We accomplished 3 parks, 8 rides, 1 show, 1 extra awesome high five from a tumble monkey, visiting with 2 special friends from Disney, 2 restaurants, 1 fire works show & one of the greatest Disney days I could have asked for!

I am a little shocked that we made it back to Gainesville safely because we were both unbelievably exhausted from this full fun-packed day!  Little side note: Katy Perry was there on Saturday as well and stayed in Cinderella’s Castle.  No I did not see her because if I had, we’d have a picture together.

Questions:

  • What is your all time favorite Disney Memory?
  • What’s your favorite Disney ride?
  • What’s your favorite Disney show?
  • I would love to know you if you’ve been able to accomplish more in a day at Disney, because you’d be my hero, so introduce yourself below!

Filed Under: Disney, Family, Nick, Travel Tagged With: animal kingdom, Disney, Disney College Program, epcot, festival of the lion king, gainesville, magic kingdom, mexican, starbucks, tumble monkey, vegetarian, wine & dine 5 Comments

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The views and statements expressed on No Bologna are my own. You are reading No Bologna at your own risk and I am not providing any type of professional advice. Unless otherwise noted, all material on No Bologna may not be used, reprinted, or published without my consent. I do occasionally have affiliated links on my blog - this does not raise the price of the product, I simply get a very small commission from the regular retail price if something is purchased using an affiliated link on my site. I appreciate any support by you in regards to affiliated links.

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