The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[ajrwdwgirl]

Good Morning! Today we welcome a new teenager in the house! DD hits the big 13.

Happy Birthday to her!

 

[MinnieM123]

Now I'm torn between 2 places to eat. We have an ADR for LTT on a day we're hopping between MK and DHS and now I'm thinking about going over to the Swalphin to the Fountain after checking out a few reviews. We've never been to LTT or the Swalphin to eat. I know first world problems LOL

The Fountain is a very casual table service restaurant, and not that large. I just wanted to mention that. Both the Dolphin and Swan have some wonderful restaurants (a lot more pricey than the Fountain), but I just wanted to mention that in case you wanted more of an "atmosphere" and larger menu options table service restaurant. Again, nothing wrong with the Fountain at all, just letting you know of many other choices as well, but in a higher price range.

 

[MinnieM123]

Has anyone else been to Europe?

Yes, I've been to the Republic of Ireland. Loved the countryside around Galway and the Cliffs of Moher. It was also fun to see remains of ancient castles spread out around the country. As for it's major city, Dublin, that was an amazing city to visit, so full of history. Can't say as though I thought it was the safest city I've been in, but aside of that, my friends and I had a great time there. (This trip was about 25 years ago, by the way.)

 

[Goofyernmost]

Although in Italy, they only have pasta as part of the meal. They don't consider it a complete meal like we do here.

Not entirely correct, they do use pasta as sides often, but, they also have a wide variety of pasta based main meals as well. And they were gooooooooood!

 

[Kate F]

Sadly no. I'm sure you're in the same boat as me where you still vacation with your parents, and unfortunately, my very silly father refuses to travel outside of the United States. And he who pays decides where we go. Someday. I'd really like to see Spain since I speak Spanish and have an accent from Spain. And of course Disneyland Paris.

I have however, been to Hawaii several times, which is the same amount of time zones away as Europe (six), so, there's that.

Yeah, I'm a 20 year old college student who still lives and travels with her parents. I actually turned 20 the day we got on the cruise ship and I got an extra dessert at dinnertime and had some of the staff sing to me (although I'm not the type that likes the attention). My parents were getting a bit tired of going to WDW after last year's trip (and honestly, I was too a little. I think we'll probably go again when Star Wars Land opens). They were pretty much okay with going anywhere but there this year.

I have been outside the States twice before this trip, Belize and Mexico, which were also really fun trips. I'm taking my third semester of Spanish this fall, though I definitely wouldn't call myself a fluent speaker yet.

 

[MOXOMUMD]

8 days until Father's Day.

 

[Kate F]

Speaking of the Mexico trip, check out this giant lizard that came to our table at breakfast one morning...

 

[MOXOMUMD]

For @Cesar R M

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Yeah, I'm a 20 year old college student who still lives and travels with her parents. I actually turned 20 the day we got on the cruise ship and I got an extra dessert at dinnertime and had some of the staff sing to me (although I'm not the type that likes the attention). My parents were getting a bit tired of going to WDW after last year's trip (and honestly, I was too a little. I think we'll probably go again when Star Wars Land opens). They were pretty much okay with going anywhere but there this year.

I have been outside the States twice before this trip, Belize and Mexico, which were also really fun trips. I'm taking my third semester of Spanish this fall, though I definitely wouldn't call myself a fluent speaker yet.

I took six years in middle and high school and two semesters in college and I woupdn't say I'm fluent yet. That takes years and years and lots of practic .

 

[betty rose]

They certainly do and if we don't overdo our efforts to speak their language, it seems to be appreciated. The only words you have to know in each country are hello, goodbye, please and thank you, oh and also where's the restroom. (Toilet, seems to work in every country). I found everyone very friendly and easy to get along with, but, and I cannot over emphasize this, I was always polite, never condescending or demanding and hopefully never thought of myself as superior to others. I also didn't refer to locals as foreigners either since I was the one that was the foreigner.

I flew from Raleigh, NC to Paris via Toronto, Iceland then Paris. Air Canada for the first part and Icelandair for the rest. It was in three segments for me. I never had any significant down time, but, had to get off the plane at every stop to switch planes. To be honest I don't remember the exact flying time because they all seemed to be relatively short segments. I left Raleigh at 6 pm, switched planes, with no particular rush in Toronto and flew to Iceland. There were time changes involved but, I don't remember what they were. I do think that at the time there was a 5 hour time difference between Europe and the States.

My itinerary for the flight was leave Raleigh at 6pm and arrive in Toronto at 7:45pm. Then leave Toronto at 9:05pm (1 hour, 20 min. layover) and arrive in Iceland at 6:20am (at least three timezone changes in that) then depart Iceland at 7:40am (1 hour 20 min. again for layover) and arrive in Paris at 12:55pm. (If I remember correctly, which I might not, there should have been about two times zones in that.) Taking this just at straight time that when it was 1pm in Paris it was 8am Raleigh time. So total travel time, in real time 14 hours travel time with two stops along the way for layover. The longest segment was from Toronto to Iceland, which was about 6 hours. The rest seemed like short little hops to me. If you can get closer to the east coast then Toronto (and you might just as well, because @JenniferS didn't show up at the airport to greet me or anything) it makes each segment about even. Not bad at all. Icelandair had some really nice comfortable planes as well. And the price was very reasonable. Of course, we did take the Transatlantic cruise back to the states and with stops that took 14 days. You can do it much less expensively and mindbogglingly faster, by air but, it wouldn't be as much fun.

Thank you for all the great information. I'm glad you loved the cruising part, I love a cruise too! Doing a 7 day in October. The price is now cheaper than last cruise, we were given 100.00$ on board credit.

 

[betty rose]

just google "prevent windows 10 from installing" plus your windows version. You will find a lot of pages.
unfortunately, windows will keep trying to sneak that "upgrade" all the time.

Thanks, hubby took care of that last night. I hope they don't sneak it in. Hubby had lots of problems after accepting it on his computer. I don't want to go through that.

 

[betty rose]

View attachment 145572

Spectacular picture. Thanks for posting. This made my Saturday!

 

[betty rose]

Although in Italy, they only have pasta as part of the meal. They don't consider it a complete meal like we do here.

That's a good idea, then you don't just fill up on carbs.

 

[betty rose]

I also love cool air breezes coming through the windows. We have 2 window a/c units (one in livingroom, and one in bedroom), and I hate blocking off the windows. (At one point years ago, the landlord offered to put in central a/c, but I said no. We don't need to have a/c in the entire place. Plus we're out a lot, so we don't want to be paying more on our electric bill for a central cooling system.) In your case, however, you're off work for the summer, and in the house more often than we are, so I can see where central may make more sense.

Anyway, those window units we have are definitely necessary for a/c, especially in the bedroom at night for sleeping. Still, I'm always happy in the fall when we can take out these things and open up the windows again.

We sometimes go with just the attic fan. Removes the heat and lowers the temp in the house. But, with asthma that is triggered by allergies and just plain old allergies, it's hard to allow to much air from outside. We can use the fan in the morning, and air conditioning in the afternoon, and night. It cuts the bill down a little.

 

[betty rose]

Bets, your pictures are wonderful and thank you!! Side note: just wanted to mention that I hope I didn't cause any confusion. It was never my intention to say that larger pictures in posts aren't as appreciated as the smaller ones, in case people didn't have time to view a lot of them. In my initial reply post to you, I was referring to just my own preference only, if I was posting a bunch of photos, (not just one or two for example) I'd prefer to use a smaller format to save space in the thread. (I think your comment above might have also been referring to @Songbird76 's post a few pages back.)

Anyway, as long as you're happy now with the smaller sized photos, that we can easily click open and enjoy, that's all that matters. I love your posts and I love all your pictures, no matter what size they are! Thanks for sharing all your wonderful trip pictures and fun commentary!!

You are most welcome, I didn't take your post personally, I didn't know about the small format, hubby showed me how to post the big pictures. When I made the "mistake", that couldn't be fixed, I didn't want to post big pictures too. Thanks for the great information, I still have a lot to learn in this new to me computer world. I do like the small, as you can post all the pictures in one tiny spot. I don't feel like I'm monopolizing the thread either!

 

[betty rose]

For @Cesar R M

View attachment 145606

Where are the aliens?

 

[betty rose]

Day 5 pictures.

 

[Songbird76]

I'm going to post pictures with the small format.

Where were the little cakes?

 

[betty rose]

Where were the little cakes?

Amorrette's Patisserie . We were so full that we didn't get to try any. Next time, that's first on my list. They have milk in them, so only one small bite for me.

 

[StarWarsGirl]