Worship Your Body.
Earl treated Jamie and me to hour-long massage sessions today at the spa here at Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa. We are just getting back from the experience.
Per the instructions we were given when the reservations were made, we arrived 10 minutes before our appointment and checked in with a wispy, handsome man named Phil. He kept my Disney key card and escorted us to the changing facilities. Once robed and slippered in the exclusive locker room (there are two, one for the fitness folks, one for the spa folks, well actually there are four locker rooms since they’re not co-ed but as a guy there are two available to me), we were invited to wait in the spa lounge and await the arrival of our massage therapist. My massage therapist was a very talented woman by the name of Tenley. She called me John and escorted me to “treatment room #2”. She left the room as I disrobed and got under the top sheet. I never know whether to keep my underwear on or not because I have been in several, em, let’s call them situations, where when it comes massage where one wouldn’t keep their underwear on but I don’t ever know if that’s what EVERYONE does so I played it safe so I kept my underwear on as I got under the sheet. I have no inhibitions about nudity so I think I’m overly cautious about that sort of thing.
Tenley spent 50 minutes kneading and prodding and coaxing every bump in my muscles out to relaxed enchantment. She even coaxed the knot in my right shoulder out; the knot that has been there since the late 1990s.
The ambience was candlelit with serene music pumped in over the speakers; the oil was slick but not smelly. The 50 minutes flew by and I was feeling quite nice. Tenley left me to regain myself and met me outside with a glass of water. We were encouraged to enjoy the amenities in the exclusive spa locker room; Jamie and I headed down and spent some time in the steam room where we sweated out our impurities. Jamie then opted for the sauna but I skipped it because I always feel like I’m baking like a cake in a sauna (and I didn’t flour myself before jumping in and I was afraid I would stick) and I took a nice relaxing shower before getting myself ready for the day. There’s a certain amount of bonding going on in a locker room when you’re grooming yourself alongside others that are doing the same. It was an enjoyable experience. For those that are curious, it wasn’t titillating for me at all (those that worry about these sort of things in the military and such are just silly). I took my underwear off for the shower and the steam room and all that. I figured it was safe there.
All in all it was an amazing experience and I feel like my body has been given the attention that it deserves for carrying this old soul well. Yesterday was a vegetarian day for me (well, I had two chicken nuggets that I probably didn’t need); I need to concentrate on giving my body that proper attention more. I surely feel much better for doing it.
FastPass.
The Cubster has been showing me some tricks to try out when taking photos. Here’s a demonstration of what he’s been showing me. This is my photographic depiction of Disney’s FastPass. One side of the line moves along at a rapid pace, the standby side of the line waits and waits.
Here we are waiting for “Soarin'” at Epcot.
Legacy.
Today we went to Epcot. As you enter Epcot, you’ll notice walls and walls made of granite with metal plates attached. On these plates you’ll find thumbnail shots of various Disney visitors who chose to contribute to “Leave A Legacy”. I believe the program ran from Fall 1999 to June 2007.
Here’s a blurb about it:
The Leave A Legacy program, first launched at Epcot in Fall 1999, has been discontinued as of June 16, 2007. The current display of more than 550,000 tiles at the main entrance of Epcot will remain for the time being. The Leave A Legacy Locator station will be relocated to the Camera Center underneath Spaceship Earth. If you need to get information about your Leave A Legacy tile from home, contact the following email address: WDW.EC.legacy@disney.com
Introduced for the Millennium Celebration! Granite and steel sculptures are being covered with engraved images of Guests from all over the world. Here’s how it works: Photo Capture Stations will take your photo digitally. It will then be etched onto a steel tile. Within approximately four days, the tile will become part of the stone sculptures.Leave A Legacy The cost is $35 for one image per tile, $38 for two images per tile, plus tax.
There are computers at the site to show you where your tile is located. Certificates will also be mailed to you so you can come back on a future trip to see your Millennium image. Also within about 2 weeks, your image will be posted on the Internet at Disney’s Leaving a Legacy page.
“The Leave a Legacy plaza was designed by veteran Imagineer John Hench, along with a team of Walt Disney Imagineering interns. Hench started as an artist with The Walt Disney Company in 1939, and went on to help design and build Disneyland. He was the original art director for Epcot, and chief designer of Spaceship Earth. The megaliths range from 3 to 19 feet high, and the heaviest weighs more than 50,000 pounds.” (Disney’s Press Release)
Earl, Jamie and I took the opportunity to find our two photos, from 2000 and 2007, amongst the thousands that are displayed. Should you go to Epcot, here’s where you can find us:
2000: East-2-F-14-11-33
2007: West-6-H-31-10-28
I think it’s important to Leave-A-Legacy. So we are going to do this for a while. If you send or e-mail us a picture of you pointing to either one of our photos on the Leave-A-Legacy walls, we will donate $25.00 to your favorite charity.
Since the program was discontinued, Disney is no longer able to print our pictures out but I did snap a photo off the screen when the cast member was looking up our information. Look who had the red beard back in 2000!
Magic Kingdom.
So yesterday we spent the day at the Magic Kingdom. We have it in our head that if you’re going to spend some time at Walt Disney World then you have to spend the first day at the Magic Kingdom and we stayed true to form to our beliefs. Let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.
Even though we stayed true to form by going to the Magic Kingdom first, we mixed it up and went clockwise around the park instead of counterclockwise. This change was nice because it gave a fresh perspective on what we were seeing and experiencing.
The park was fairly crowded. We have made some noteworthy observations based on our time here thus far. First of all, there isn’t nearly as many Disney cast members waiting around to take your photo. Where there would be a dozen or so wanting to take your picture as soon as you entered Main Street; this year we didn’t see any, in fact, we saw maybe only one cast member taking photos of families with Cinderella’s Castle in the background. I found this a little surprising.
Secondly, folks that don’t speak English as their second language are surprisingly chatty in the auditorium based exhibits, i.e. “Carousel of Progress” or “The Hall of Presidents”. While the narration is playing, some folks are opting to discuss various subjects in their mother tongue at full voice. At first I thought there might be some translating going on, which I would be perfectly fine with, but three ladies to our right decided to light up their map of the Magic Kingdom with their cell phones during a surprisingly stirring presentation at “The Hall of Presidents”. I found this to be kind of rude.
All in all the day gave me a giddy feeling and I had a smile on my face the whole time. There isn’t a huge number of new things at Disney this year but many things have been refreshed and exhibits that were closed last year are open this year. We are having a grand time.
Life is good. Especially with ears on.
Celebrate Today.
We arrived at the House of the Mouse yesterday afternoon slightly ahead of schedule (thanks to traffic moving at around 80 MPH on I-95 and I-4). As per custom we were greeted warmly and enthusiastically here at the Saratoga Springs Resort and Spa. I might try out the “spa” part of the resort this week with a visit to a masseuse. We’ll have to see.
We are approaching this week with a relaxed, less frenetic pace. Our schedule isn’t filled with activities; we are being casual about the whole thing and I think the change of pace is just what we need.
I noticed the banners all say “Celebrate Today”. I’m finding it much easier to do that these days but it’s a beautiful reminder to see.
Savannah, Ga.
We are spending the night at one of the hotels at Savannah / Hilton Head Int’l Airport. Today has been all about driving. We were on the road in Pennsylvania by 8:30; it was cold, windy and rainy all the way to Roanoke, Va. (hi Thom, did you see me waving?) where the sun came out and the temperature reached nearly 60.
The rest of the drive was quite pleasant yet uneventful. I had the opportunity to be a passenger for a little bit and it was quite nice to watch the countryside without having to concentrate on the road. I’m a bit of a control freak so I couldn’t completely relax but I simmered down as the ride went on. I finished up the driving after a pit stop in Charlotte, N.C.
We stopped at a Ruby Tuesday’s along Interstate 26 for supper. The folks down here are much nicer than many in Upstate New York. There are certain elements of southern hospitality that I enjoy.
Pine Grove, Pa.
Earl, Jamie and I have situated ourselves for the evening in the lovely town called Pine Grove, Pa. I don’t really know much about this place except that there is a nice Hampton Inn, we are close to an older McDonalds and we are at milepost 100 on Interstate 81 in Pennsylvania.
We are on our way to Florida for a week with our first night at the House of the Mouse being Sunday night.
This is how everyone should start a new job: work two weeks and then get a week off for vacation. My new company has been quite understanding about my existing plans. Speaking of which, the job is going along fabulously and I am LOVING it.
Earl has kindly done the driving tonight. I hopped in the backseat after dinner and promptly fell asleep; I woke up in Scranton, Pa. That’s quite the place to wake up.
Tomorrow we continue our trek south. I’ve heard that there may be wild weather between here and there. This could be quite exciting.
Pour.
We picked up a carton of orange juice at the local convenience store. It’s your usual (in the states) half gallon sized orange juice and it comes in a waxed cardboard carton. We usually use the returnable glass bottles but we were lazy this time around. The carton has a plastic spout drilled into the side of it.
I am curious about this.
For decades there was a marking on one end of the carton that had two little circles and it said “press here to form spout”. The task was as simple as implied; push in the correct spot with your fingers and the cleverly folded waxed cardboard will pop out into a convenient spout that allows you to accurately pour into the vessel in which the liquid is going to be contained. (How’s that for fancy writing!)
I fail to understand why we have gone from this cardboard spout setup and have decided to include a piece of plastic in this formerly easily recycled container. Has the dumbing down of the American public resulted in the failure to comprehend the instructions of “press here to form spout”, complete with two little pictures? Were people trying to do this on the wrong side of the carton? Will some lack of plastic throw of the delicate chemistry involved in the unnatural preservatives contained within, thereby nullifying the impossibly long expiration period? Was the simplicity of the carton not sexy enough? I miss that simplicity.
I’m going to remember the glass bottles next time.
