tikistitch

This is kind of a fun glass paperweight-y deal-o, once again from that darned glass shop in Main St., WDW.

( Optimize by optics )

OK, so, basically, these pretties were available at Arribas Bros., the guys who run the glass shop on Main Street at any of the Dizzney parks.

( Blingy! )

*opens box*

*pulls out smaller boxes*



*pulls out more boxes*



*pulls out even more boxes*



*tiki opens box*

*tiki sputters*

It's 36 degrees out there.

OTOH, they've finally opened the Urban Outfitters store at the old Tower Records site.



So, this is another boring tiki story. Basically, it was our last evening in warm, sunny Miami Beach, and we'd gotten kinda Stitch-smug. So, we were sitting outside at a local Italian restaurant (they were out of BOTH the calimari AND the octopus bruschetta, plus our table was located right beside the bus stop, but we were drinking a pretty nice Italian Syrah, so life was OK, though the mind drifted towards better things).

Anyways, we were situated right in sight of a little bodega/grocery store kinda place, and we got drunker on the wine, we started bragging, "We bet there's STITCH inside there!" So, at a certain point, after we'd confused the Fabio-lookalike waiter once again by requesting more bread (the waiters all seemed to have been picked less for their interpersonal skills than coiffure), tiki slipped off to the grocery store, where we unearthed this little video holder bag thing, which we proceeded to purchase for no other reason that to further impress upon our long suffering spouse the pervasiveness of Stitch.

So, we actually spent surprisingly little time at the Magic Kingdom during our WDW visit - just two half days, one of them after dark, where we spent the majority of our time just draggling after Mr. Tiki and trying not to trip over a dwarf.

Despite the sheer amount of Dizzney memorabilia we had so far acquired during our sojourn, we actually felt we'd got off easy so far. Plush toys and plastic cups, after all, are quite easy to transport. We actually kind of dreaded coming upon something, with, say, breakable ears.

Then, just after Pirates of the Caribbean, we came upon this guy.....



AWWWWW!!!!

( Glassware )

OK, so, after what seemed like 92 straight hours in the tender mercies of Delta Airlines (normally, we would hitchhike rather than subject ourselves to the Atlanta-based carrier, but you haven't much choice when you're trying to redeem frequent flier miles these days), we're back to our drafty home in the Pacific Northwest, a/k/a, Ice Age for the Global Warming Era. Given the vagaries of air travel these days, we opted to consign most of our park-based booty to the friendly folks of Fed Ex, which is good and bad. The bad is we have to wait, which as Mr. Tikistitch will tell you, is not exactly our forte, although the good is that, in a couple days, we'll have PACKAGES FOR US YAY!! So we'll get to experience the whole OMG Stitch Stuffs! thing all over again, especially since we've already forgotten what all we got.

BUT!!! We managed to smuggle a few of the fragile-y items in the overhead bin (and not beneath the seat in front of us, because tiki is a bad, naughty airline passenger). So, we'll go through the highlights and bore ya silly with some long-winded tiki stories....




Some of y'all might already have seen this. Actually, we've seen it before, but since we'd only seen teensy fuzzy images on eBay, we had no clue how awesome it is in person.

( Bou-tiki )

So, the laptop is refusing to grab all the 6 hundred jillion gator photos from Mr. Tiki's camera, so we'll write down a few quick impressions before it all oozes back out of our brain.

One speciality of the Tikis when we are on holiday - besides buying unneeded plush toys and going to conventions with people dressed as stormtroopers - is viewing wildlife that's lucky enough to still live in the wild. Not that we hate zoos, it's just, if you were, say, a jungle critter, you're probably prefer to live in a jungle than some jungle-esque environment a bunch of zookeepers created out of pasteboard.



So, 'twas on to the Everglades National Park. We started at Shark Valley, where we boarded the Gator tram (and, no, we're not quite sure why it's named after a shark when it's full of alligators), and then ventured through South Florida traffic to another corner of the park to go on a gator walk.

( Read more... )

Going with Mr. Tiks to see the gators today. If you don't hear from us, we've prolly been devoured by mutant mosquitos.

From Mr. Tiki's guidebook: "Do not attempt to feed the alligators."

Since the signal for out Stolen Intarnets is strong on the balcony tonight, we'll try to make sense of our Epcot Experience. Basically, Mr. Tiki remembered this park fondly from baby-hood, so we decided to spend a pleasant afternoon.

The experience started off pleasant enough, with Mission Space! And the whole fact that it had made people literally drop dead just added frisson. Though we're still kinda pissed at Lt. Dan for leaving our asses up on Mars (after we'd completed the mission, we repeat, WITHOUT a navigator, and we're not sure about the feasibility of space travel lacking a partner to slur, "Captain, I need more powerrrrrr!!!"), we had drowned our sorrows at the Cokes of the World place.

Since our Fast Pass for Soarin' wasn't valid for several hours hence, it was then on to the countries.



Mr. Tiki read out the list of Dizznified Epcot countries, and, being the picky sort, we perseverated on the quirks: besides Thailand and China, it appears that, within Dizzney property, "Africa" also qualifies as a country. (Oddly, no AIDS-plagued develping nation had prioritized providing funds towards getting an exhibit in Orlando). Since Germany was represented, many happy hours were enjoyed making tasteless jokes about the demise of an imaginary adjoining Poland exhibit.

One realization, amongst just the tiki component of the group, was that we had actually (in real life and carrying real luggage that is) travelled to almost every one of the real countries represented by the cheesy Small World-ified exhibits. Our skepticism detector increased when Tommy revealed, upon our questioning the somewhat odd selection of coutries in the Epcot park, that the exhibits were in fact paid for by the respective tourism bureaus of the countries in questions.

One of the countries in question was Canada. Now, we love Canada as much as the next man, and what we love most is poking gentle fun at our beloved neighbors in North Montana, who reciprocate by taking our humor in great stride. And, we should mention, the very fact that a country should stand apart due to the fact that the people are so bloody nice is possibly something of which its citizens should take some pride. But, dude, you have a world showcase, and out of a half dozen candidates to represent the diversity of Planet Earth and it's denizens....Canada??

We asked our living guidebook for further information regarding the Canada exhibit. For once, the man who could tell you not only the name of the ride that stood in the park before the ride that came before current ride, but the date it was replaced, the reason, and the name of the Imagineer in question's third cousin on his mother's side, was pulled up short. He hemmed. He hawed. Come on, a Canada showcase? Do all the clerks say "Eh" a lot? Or what? "Um," Tommy began. "You can get English candy there!"

Somewhat later, we went on the jolly Viking ride sponsored by Norwegian cruise lines. It involves animatronic trolls, and you're not allowed to exit before viewing a short film regarding tourism in Norway. And then we tried to eat at the Dining Nemo restaurant with the squid, but it was booked 6 months in advance. Also, our feet hurt after walking from Canada to Mexico.

We found a glass Stitch with a guitar in Mexico.

We're still pissed at Lt. Dan.