Day 1097: Raw Fish

I mentioned in my last post that one of the things I really hope to do this year is to revisit old blog posts, especially those from 2013, and revamp them for a new, 2016 world. Apparently, that's going to happen faster than anticipated thanks to my brother.

"What do you want for dinner" is probably the most common question around my house other than "what do you want for lunch," and today's answer from my brother brought us to the world of sushi once more, and since I'm on hiatus from social media, I had no where to post the pictures from tonight's dinner adventure. Back on Day 161, I discussed briefly how I tried sushi for the first time at Disney, and I go on to talk about how I influence my friends and their growing love of Disney, but I didn't go much into detail, which is really a shame. After all, I'm not lying when I say that Disney is the reason I love sushi, and Disney is the reason I love a lot of things. 

I first tried a number of years ago when my family decided to head into the counter service restaurant in the Japan Pavilion at Epcot, which, at that point, was yet to be renamed to Katsura Grill. My brother seemed more interest in trying the sushi than I was, but I'm never one to turn down from a challenge, so I tried it right along with him. A few minutes later, we were hooked and from there on out we've tried sushi from all over the Walt Disney World Resort. In addition, we took two classes on the art of making sushi when we got back home, and now making sushi in our own kitchen is a rather regular occurrence. 

In addition to sushi, Disney has brought a lot of other new foods and experiences into my life. Cobb Salad, and actually salad in general, became a favorite of mine thanks to the Brown Derby at Disney's Hollywood Studios, among other various Disney dining locations (I once had a salad at Pecos that was SPECTACULAR). I used to absolutely despise roller-coasters, but this past summer I went on several with very big drops and quick turns while at ValleyFair Amusement Park in the Twin Cities, and I credit every bit of the courage it took to get on those coasters to Expedition Everest. Even my love of just traveling in general has a lot to do with the fact that I grew up traveling to Walt Disney World. 

All of these thoughts just from making sushi for dinner. Although I suppose that if your dinner was inspired by Disney, it's kind of hard not to think about the other things that have been inspired by Disney. Which leaves the question of the day for you: what in your life has been inspired by Disney? 

Have a magical day! 

Day 898: Cheater Cheater

I don't often go to other amusement parks, and quite frankly, I really don't enjoy them more often than not. So it takes a lot for me to have an honest to God good time in a "theme park" that's not Disney. It's really, really hard. My band director has been trying for years to take us to amusement parks on band trips, and not once have I enjoyed it...other than our Disney trip of course. So when I was asked to come along on this summer's band trip to film and record their experiences, I was delighted by the end of our first day when I realized that I had a really great time at Valleyfair amusement park in Minnesota.

The day started off, of course, with a nice six hour drive from little old Seymour, and we arrived to approaching clouds and storms for the band to play a pep band performance. Luckily, they got it finished and we were off to lunch before rain hit the pavement, but the first bits of our Valleyfair experience were a bit wet.

We did quite a bit during our day at Valleyfair. We found obnoxiously priced water...

If I ever hear a complaint about expensive Disney water again...not to mention the obnoxiously priced food...

But I'm making this sound all bad when in fact most of the day really was good! We hit up several of the rollercoasters and our band director made several challenges to students in return for them forgetting instruments or music they needed earlier that day. I watched, mostly, but it did lead to one of my favorite parts of the day: the Lazer Maze! Basically it's like in the movies or on TV with the spies and the lazers and it was an absolute blast, especially since I beat my friends and band director! 

However, it was a group of guys that really made our day: The Acafellas! As an a capella group, they were dressed pretty dapper, and we passed them earlier in the day before we all took refuge in one of the stores during the rain. They noticed our bright orange shirts from the performance earlier in the day and gave us a special performance right in the store! We saw them again later on and it didn't take long for them to recognize us (and the camera). We hit up their show later in the day and loved every second of it!

So overall? Yeah we had a pretty darn good day at Valleyfair...although I may have had to bring along a bit of home to make myself feel like less of a cheater!

By the end of the day, we were all pretty tired out, and I have to tell you...the bed felt like a cloud where I had some pretty sweet dreams of the Acafellas singing once more.

If I ever find myself out in Minnesota again, I'll seriously debate returning to Valleyfair, although I'll still take Disney any day. If you've ever been to Valleyfair, let me know in the comments below!

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on June 24 due to travel).