CaptainsCast 020 – Oh cheese, oh cheese, oh cheese
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Ben & I discuss our trip to Disney World. Tonight’s episode covers the Magic Kingdom. We also squeeze in a quickie review of Transformers 2, and chat about Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, & Michael Jackson.
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What a day for my childhood
As a purveyor of pop culture from the 70′s,80′s, & 90′s, this week has seen some of the more visible icons from my childhood disappear. Trying to explain to Ben about these people is difficult because he doesn’t really have any idea how they contributed to the world and to my youth. I explained to him today that I still remember where I was when the news broke of Elvis Presley’s death. I told him to remember this day as well, so he could explain it to his kids someday on this pop culture holocast.
First off was Ed McMahon. Before I knew the man’s name, he was just known as ‘Heeeeere’s Johnny!!” to me. I used to share a bedroom with my brother Jon when I was a tyke. From what I recall, when I was in a crib up to 5 years old. When I was sent to bed, it was reasonably early, but Jon had two things in the room. One was a Soundesign hi-fi stereo playing Boston, ELO, Genesis, & hits of the 70′s. The other was an orange Zenith black & white 11″ television playing the Tonight Show on Dayton channel 22. I would stay up and watch Johnny and Ed quite a bit growing up in that room. I was also a crabby kid the next day for not going to bed early.
I also remember when the end of summer came, and it was time to go back to school. The Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon was on. I don’t remember it for Jerry Lewis, but I remember Ed McMahon helping co-host.
Farrah Fawcett. I was too young for the”poster”, but I do remember Charlie’s Angels. Most importantly back then, Charlie’s Angels trading cards. Yes, that’s right. Trading cards. They weren’t easy to find, but every year we took a fishing trip to Rice Lake in Ontario, Canada. There was a little general store down the road from our fishing village that sold gumballs, toffee, and various trading cards. I’m sure they sold other things, but what did I care. Me and my cousins would buy as many packs as we could and try and comlete the puzzle on the back of the cards that showed the famous silhouette of the Angels from the tv show. You had Sabrina, Kate, but the best was Jill. It was sad to lose her today.
Michael Jackson. This is a shock. I don’t think anybody expected this at all. Jackson was the epitome of 80′s pop culture. Who didn’t have a Members Only jacket trying to be like Michael? There was the moonwalk, and of course, Thriller.I played drums as an adolescent and took my love of that, & Michael’s glove, and combined the two. I would play fake drums with a golf glove on. I don’t know. I guess I was imitating Michael in the only way I could. I knew I couldn’t sing or dance like him, but it was the closest thing I could do to be like the King of Pop. My mom even had a birthday cake made with Michael’s glove and drum sticks on it. Later in life, he had some rough times and very suspect actions. Hopefully the world will remember him for his contributions to the music world.
Vacation wrap-up
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with my family on this vacation. We truly had a terrific time together. Right now I am sorting out pictures, video, and notes from the trip. Ben & I will be doing our vacation CaptainsCast show this week to talk about everything on vacation including our favorite parts of it. This may expand into multiple shows if we can’t fit it into one. In the meantime we have our vacation photos up on flickr at this link – http://tinyurl.com/m87pqe
Vacation day 12
The return.
Time to head back home. We could stay a few extra days if we wanted to, but it’s just too hot in Florida. We hit the road at 8:39AM and made it back to Cincinnati at 10:00PM that night. I drove the whole way. I’m tired. Goodnight.
Vacation Day 11
This was exciting. For Father’s Day we planned a trip to head over to Kennedy Space Center. It has been 30 years since I was last there. The shuttle was still undergoing testing and would not launch for another two years at that point. We set off early that morning for KSC. It was about a 2 hour drive over there. I was a little surprised by all of the tolls we had. There were quite a few. $6 to get over that way. When we arrived we parked in the Wally Schirra section of the parking lot. They’ve named the sections after astronauts. Here’s the real kicker. How much would you pay for two adults and two children to get into something like this? $50, $60, $75? Try $140!!! Ouch. I know the space program needs financial help, but wow. Getting in to the KSC is also like the security line at the airport. Metal detectors, bag searches, etc. In a post 9-11 age I guess that should be expected.
We started off on the bus tour, a 3 hour tour of some of the facilities across the center. We started at the Complex 39 observation gantry. It’s a four story platform where you can see both pad 39A and 39B. The gantry is wired for sound, and for some reason, they were blasting the Wrath of Khan soundtrack. A little too dramatic. Although we didn’t see a launch while on vacation, we did get to see the shuttle. Technically. We could see the tip of the external fuel tank several miles away.
We then saw the Saturn V complex. They walk you through a simulation of the Apollo 8 launch from here, including shaking glass in the windows. They have a Saturn V rocket on its side here. This is an amazing site to see. Just the size of this vehicle blows your mind.
We were then off to the International Space Station Facility. It was here that you could see actual components of the ISS being prepped and tested for future launches to the space station.
After that we were back at the main area where we ate ($$$$), hit the gift shop ($$$$$), and later got a drink for the ride back to mom & dad’s ($$$$$$). all in all a great time and an awesome place to visit. I enjoyed my early Father’s Day with my boys at the Kennedy Space Center. Ben & I will be talking about this particular trip to the KSC on a future episode of the CaptainsCast.
Vacation Day 10
Sorry about the delay, but I walked away from the computer for a few days to relax and recharge. Here’s a quick summary of the rest of vacation.
Today was spent lying around. After a week at the house of the mouse it was definitely time for a respite. We slept in, ate lunch, then hit the pool for a few hours. We then hit Chili’s for dinner. At this point we could definitely tell the boys were tired of vacation. They were rotten at dinner. They haven’t been this wild in ages. It was time to go home.
That was the extent of the day. We watched TV and I planned our trip for our early father’s day festivities to Kennedy Space Center on Saturday.
CaptainsCast Supplemental #3 – Kim Possible Adventure
I got the Flip to work one last time. Here’s Ben working on the Kim Possible Adventure in EPCOT.
Click to play.
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Vacation Day 9
The final day of our trip to Disney. After getting packed this morning, we headed out to the Magic Kingdom for some marathon riding. We started out on the Astro Orbiter, Carousel of Progress, Buzz Lightyear, Tomorrowland Speedway, the Teacups, and finally, the merry go round. We then had a final lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern. After lunch we headed over to the Animal Kingdom and saw Finding Nemo the musical. The storms started to fire up again, so we cut our day short. We headed back to the hotel, got into the car and headed to mom and dad’s house in the Villages. We picked up a pizza for dinner, and vegged out for the evening.
I will never forget this family vacation at Disney. What a wonderful time. Ben & I will be podcasting about this when we get back to Ohio, but for now, we have a few more adventures on our vacation. Stay tuned.
Vacation Day 8b
Time for our 15th wedding anniversary dinner. We went to the Hoop de Doo Revue to celebrate. We had dinner here 15 years ago on our honeymoon. It is basically a vaudeville dinner show. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and the boys really loved it. I think I overdid it on the chicken & ribs, but hey, it was a celebration.
Vacation Day 8a
Time is wearing down on our vacation, and there is still plenty to do. We promised Ben we would head back to EPCOT and do the Kim Possible adventure. I have a bit of video of that coming up. We first started out at Test Track. The wait said it was only 30 minutes long. 2 HOURS LATER we finally rode the stupid thing. That was the only thing to sour my vacation other than my cold.
We then started the Kim Possible adventure. We hit our Kim Possible kiosk in Italy. The agents there gave us a Kimmunicator, which is a GPS equipped cell phone and much, much more. He explained that our mission would last about a half hour and that all the information we needed was on the Kimmunicator. The Kimmunicator is a really neat device that speaks your instructions to you while displaying animated characters on the device screen. You’re instructed to go find clues in certain locations. In our case our entire adventure took place in the Germany pavilion. Besides giving instructions, the Kimmunicator interacted with objects in the pavilion. For instance pressing a key on the device opened doors, moved objects, etc. This adventure was amazing.
We then hit Soarin’ one last time before we had to head back and get ready for our anniversary dinner….
