Day 222: Burger Fest

I talked a little about it yesterday, but yesterday was mostly about the Hot Air Balloons, so I'll go more indepth this time! But this weekend marks the 25th Hamburger Festival in my hometown of Seymour, Wisconsin.

You probably haven't heard of us, but you really should, because our town has probably affected your life. You see, way back in 1885 a man named Charlie Nagreen invented a little thing we like to call the Hamburger. He was selling meatballs at the county fair, which still takes place here in Seymour, when he wanted to come up with a way for the food to be more portable. So he put in between some bread and so the hamburger was invented! Sure there are other people that say they invented it too, but we were first, and the Wisconsin state legislature actually declared Seymour the Home of the Hamburger!

But that's not it! We didn't just invent the hamburger! If you check in the Guinness Book of World Records, you'll also find Seymour, Wisconsin in there for the record of the world's largest hamburger! Now don't ask me how big it is, because I have absolutely no clue, but it's GIANT. We actually have a special grill just to cook the big burger!

And once a year, generally one of the first two weekends in August, the entire town shows up for Hamburger Fest! This was our Quarter Century of it, but that's ok because it never gets old! Never! Along with the hot air balloons I was sharing yesterday, there's a lot of other stuff going on! Today, for instance, we had our parade, which I was in directing the band again. And there's a bun run, which is a 5K run in the morning, and of course, always a fan favorite: the ketchup slide!

Now, I'm not sure what this all has to do with Disney other than the fact that...wait a minute, I do know! It's a Star Wars relation! Did you ever wonder how George Lucas got the idea for the shape of the Millennium Falcon? Well wonder no longer! Can you guess where he got it? A HAMBURGER! That's right, watch the facts:

What now!?! There wouldn't be a Millennium Falcon without Seymour! How's that for a Disney connection!?! Oh yeah, and if you put Home of the Hamburger in annotation, it spells HOTH. How funny is that? I live on HOTH! Or in Hoth...but it makes more sense the other way.

Here's today's Disney History: 2012: Walt Disney World opens its "Lion King" wing at Disney's Art of Animation Resort. Themed to 1994's animated movie, the wind offers family suites and completes the third phase of WDW's newest hotel. The fourth and final phase, themed after The Little Mermaid, will open in September. 

Have a magical day!

Day 158: A Trip to the Museum

Since today was our actual last day of school, well it was mine because I went back, my best friend Megan and I decided to go to the local museum. Luckily we live in an awesome town, the Home of the Hamburger (which I'll talk about more later), and it means that we're also lucky to have an awesome small town museum. It's honestly one of the best ones around if you ask me, and it just opened last summer (a grand opening that I attended!)

Either way, there were several things that really reminded me a lot of Disney, and I figured I would share, because that's what I blog about!

The first thing I noticed and felt was insanely awesome is the fact that in the year since it's opened, there's a lot of new technology that's been added, like an audio animatronic of our very own! That's right, in our little museum there's seriously two audio animatronics! I felt it was really awesome because there's a grandma who seems to be right out of Carousel of Progress too! I mean, seriously, she acted just like the grandma (only this one made a few more pies than the one in CoP). Either way, there's also a grandpa (who technically isn't out yet because that addition opens this July, I just got a sneak peak!) It was awesome to see that something Walt Disney did and worked on himself has taken up a home here in our own town. I mean, he did invent audio animatronics after all! Also, animatronics is an extremely difficult word to spell.

The other awesome piece of Disney was in the special photography exhibit that's at the museum right now. We have two wonderful photographers that run their business here in Seymour, and they have had an exhibit running at the museum for the past few weeks called "A Few of Their Favorite Things." While the exhibit as a whole is wonderful, there was one picture that really caught my eye. The picture got my attention for two reasons, first because it's Disney, and second because of the title: Illuminations. I thought that while the picture had nothing to do with the Illuminations I know, it was still pretty ironic. And so, there's my favorite picture in their collection.

Yeah, a little bit of Disney in my own hometown, although I never really questioned that!

Here's today's Disney History: 1946: BBC-TV in England returns to the airwaves after a near 7-year absence (due to the second World War). In an attempt to emphasize continuity, the first day's program includes the cartoon Mickey's Gala Premiere (the same Disney cartoon that had been abruptly interrupted in September 1939, the day Germany attached Poland).

Have a magical day!