Barbados

Yesterday we were on to our second Caribbean island country, Barbados. 

The little porkchop shaped island ranks 191st in country size (at only 166 square miles!) Like it's Caribbean friends, they get a whole lot of sunshine (over 3,000 hours of bright, cloudless sunshine every year), and all roads lead to the beach. On these beaches you'll find the foamy surf (called the 'soup bowl'), and flying fish (they glide through the air for distances up to 131 feet, at speeds up to 34 mph). I hear they also make for excellent flying fish sandwiches on salt dough. I had access to neither, so we passed on those for dinner. For the second time we considered inventing some sort of game like cricket, since Barbados has more world-class cricket players per capita than any other country, but also for the second time, yesterday was freezing, and nobody wanted to go outside. (I promise next month I have more activities planned, so the blogs will get slightly more exciting). 

The boys knew why our landmark was the George Washington house. If you need a reminder, Barbados was the only country other than the United States George Washington ever visited. The house where he stayed, as a teenager, can be toured. In other history news, Barbados was once a British colony. Enemies of the British monarchy were often sent to Barbados to work, or more accurately, be slaves, although they weren't called slaves, they were called indentured servants, and they were generally white people. It was such an common occurrence in the 1640's, the phrase 'to be Barbado'ed' was coined. 

The boys made their postcards (Calib made umbrellas because Rihanna is from Barbados). 

For dinner, we had Macaroni Pie, which in Barbados is usually just called 'pie', Bajan Sweet Bread, Asparagus sauteed with a little butter and lime juice, and grapefruit (as there is an old Barbadian legend telling us grapefruit was first developed in Barbados). While Rum is big on the island (and Asa took part), ginger beer is also very popular. We had to run to Costco and Trader Joes yesterday, so we picked up some ginger beer while we were there. Calib passed on it, but Peyton and Hayden are fans. (If you don't know, it's a non-alcoholic drink, like rootbeer but with ginger). 

Since we were at Trader Joes (which is awesome for this project, by the way!), we looked to see if there was any desert that would fit. They just so happened to have Caribbean Popsicles. They were a huge hit here. 

I apparently didn't take a picture of the table, but we just added another little island dot out there. 

14 countries down, 179 to go! 

Next Up: Belarus 

Bahrain

We are on to the 'B's (although we did skip Australia, but we'll get to that). I did our calendar today for all of February, with the hope that we'll get to our Religion unit, after we learn about the 7 countries who are part of the Immigration Ban. But, that won't happen until the first week in February (we've got to finish up January, then Asa is in the office). 

Anyway, today we learned about the tiniest of all the Arab nations on earth, Bahrain. In case you aren't familiar, it's made up of 33 islands in the Persian Gulf, and 92 percent of the available land is desert.

But, besides air and boat, you can drive to Bahrain, thanks to a series of bridges and causeways called the King Fahd Causeway. (Well, sort of, it connect Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, while there is no official U.S. Department of State warning to visit Bahrain, there is one to visit Saudi Arabia). 

Bahrain is a tiny country (it's 181st in landmass), with just over 1.3 million residents who enjoy their weekends on Friday and Saturday. Their Sundays are our Mondays. (They actually used to have weekends Thursday/Friday but decided they should have at least one weekend day the same as the rest of the world). They've got some good (albeit) crazy pearl diving opportunities (traditional divers don't use any equipment- they just hold their breath and are lowered into the water with a weighted rope). They also are home to the only known cat to live in the desert, the Arabian Sand Cat, who is so awesome, it eats poisonous snakes for dinner.  A Muslim-majority country, Bahrain has a strict, no-alcohol policy, so when they hosted the first ever Formula-One Grand Prix in the Middle East, they showered their winner with fizzy, non-alcoholic rose and pomegranate water.  And my final fun tidbit for you is about the Tree of Life. It's a 400 year old tree that stands all by its lonesome in the Bahrain desert. The water source is a mystery, and tree experts think it must have one of the deepest root systems of all the trees in the world. 

The boys drew some cute postcards, with lots of info on them. (They've been on point with their cards lately). 

For dinner we had three bean soup, a pretty popular dish in Bahrain. (Although they make it MUCH spicy-er than Asa did, as he was trying to make it Corinne and Calib friendly). For our main dish, we had traditional Bahraini Chicken Machboos.

Our fruit tonight was watermelon, commonly grown in Bahrain. 

Dinner earned three spoons up. 

Hayden announced to everyone he didn't care for rice. (Hm, I think it's going to be a tough year for him). Peyton and I are combining for a spoon, because he liked the main dish, but not the soup, while I liked soup (it was like a really hearty vegetable and was super good on this cold Florida night), but thought the main dish lacked any sort of flavor. Calib and Asa both ate everything on their plate, and in their bowls. 

Another island country, we just had to make a nail polish dot in the middle of our Persian Gulf work. 

13 Down, 180 to Go! 

Next Up: Barbados 

A Vacation From Our Vacation

It had been a sort of exhausting week for us, between everything going on in the world, and our trip to the inauguration, it was nice to have a bit of an escape from it all and take a trip to Disney. We actually had it planned more than a month ago, since they were having a Pro Bowl 5K and Calib and Asa really wanted to run in it. Another shout out to our pet sitter who once again stayed with our furry family members, so we could enjoy yet another vacation (I promise, we're not going anywhere for awhile, Tracy!) 

We headed out late Thursday morning, in time to arrive for lunch. Asa and I had both downloaded the Blaze Pizza app to get a BOGO pizza offer, and they even honored our passholder discount too, so lunch for all of us (with just waters), came in at under 20 bucks. Not bad! 

Also, fun fact: Asa and I hate giving our names at resturants, because nobody knows how to spell them or pronounce them. He's been Jackson, and I've been Rachel (in a nod to one of Asa's favorite presidents).  

After lunch, we were able to check into our hotel. We got a really great passholder discount for Port Orleans: Riverside. It's one of the moderate resorts, and while we'd never stayed there before, we had been wanting to do so. It has easy access to Disney Springs (you just hop on a boat), family friendly lounge entertainment (I'll get to that), and it's just overall quiet and relaxing. 

Plus (and this is a big plus), the regular rooms actually sleep five, thanks to a small pull down bed. I hate when we have to get 'suites' to sleep my whole family, or we have to bring along the air mattress, find a spot for it, and not register one of the kids. As a family of 5, that's just sort of annoying. 

Anyway, the rooms are cute. Nothing too fancy, but we were happy (also, that's Asa telling Calib he better not snore and keep him up, a common problem when we stay in hotels). 

Disney is also really on top of that Zika thing, which I guess I didn't really know was still that big of a concern here. But, anyway, you get some bug spray in your room and a little note about it. 

Thursday was pretty warm, nearing 80 degrees, I think, so we decided we'd spend the afternoon at the pool. Our room was by the 'quiet' no-frills pool, but we only had a small walk to 'Old Man Island' to get to the big pool with the slide, water features, a hot tub, and a pool bar. All of which we took advantage of, and it was a nice walk, we even stopped to hang out in the hammocks. 

After swimming, we hung out in the room for a bit, and then decided to catch the boat to Disney Springs. It's not a short ride, I think it takes like 20 minutes. And it does drop you off way at the end of Disney Springs, but the weather was nice and we enjoyed the trip. Plus, our captain was kind of funny, and we decided someday we have to stay in the treehouses. They look awesome. 

Nobody could commit to dining reservations, even though I'd been asking for weeks. Even at dinner time nobody was all on board with any one resturant, so we decided to do a Disney Springs food crawl, and get a little of this, and a little of that from some of our favorite places. 

We started with drinks, and a few happy hour appetizers at Jock Lindsay's Hanger Bar. The boys had never been, and they were not all fans of my Teddy's Tea (it's my favorite drink! It's green tea, tangerine and mint), but they did all try it. Calib and Hayden got the 'Antidote', basically Prohibition cocktails, and Peyton enjoyed some weird watermelon and lime foam drink. Asa, meanwhile, the 'Wrong Island Iced Tea', which he thought was pretty good. 

Next we were off to the House of Blues for everyone's favorite nachos. You don't even have to go in to get them (in fact you can't get them inside, they're only available at the kiosk outside). 

Next up we hit the Daily Poutine. Calib and Hayden wanted the same kind we got when my mom was here, the Italian, but everyone also wanted to try the Classic. And two poutines is better than one. 

So for dinner up to this point we had nachos and fries, and nachos and fries. We needed to mix it up a little, so we headed to Aristocrepes, and got the Smores and the Strawberries & Cream. Like I need to tell you they were awesome, I'm sure you already surmised given the description. 

I was done at this point, and so was Calib and Peyton. But, Asa and Hayden decided to make one more stop at B.B Wolfs sausage company, with the 3 Little Pigs Trio. The homemade pickles were a hit all around, as was the chili dog. The Reuben one left something to be desired, and the bacon wrapped sausage with salsa was a little on the too spicy for Hayden side. 

We did make one more stop at Goofy's candy store to get a little something to take back to the room. They have custom made apples which are always a hit. You just decide what you want, fill out your little form, and they make it for you. We all split one, which is easy to do when you slice it up. (I realize now I never took a picture of the actual apple. Opps!) 

 We nailed our boat timing, and hardly had to wait at all to catch our boat back to the hotel. If you haven't been to Disney Springs in awhile, you should get there. I wasn't a big Downtown Disney fan, but we kind of love Disney Springs. 

Calib, Hayden and Asa later decided they wanted to go night-time swimming. Peyton and I thought they were crazy, because since the sun had gone down, it had gotten significantly colder. But, with our room right by the pool, at least they'd have a short trip back, and the water was warm, so I didn't protest (the next night when it was in the 40s, however, I overruled the night-time swim). Further evidence that they were crazy: they were the only ones in the pool. 

That was it for day one, we all got tucked into our beds for a good nights sleep. 

When we had been near the food court at our hotel the night before, Calib saw French Toast on the menu, he swore if we woke him up in time, he would get up for breakfast just to have french toast. (If you know Calib and Peyton you know it's almost impossible to get them out of bed before 11 AM, and even harder to get them to eat anything before 1, such is life of a teenager, I suppose). I told him I was skeptical, but I would wake him up. He did deliver though, so Asa, Hayden, Calib and I went down to the food court for breakfast the next morning (Peyton was up, but again, rather uninterested in breakfast). 

After breakfast we headed over to the Wide World of Sports. The Pro Bowl is today in Orlando, and Disney was getting in on the event. Usually, it's so boring, and nobody cares about it (and it's also usually in Hawaii), but this time it's in our backyard, so it was kind of exciting. Plus, Disney was hosting a fun run to go along with the weekend, and like I said, Calib and Asa were all about it. So, anyway, we headed over to package pick up for the 5K on Friday morning. 

Not only was package pick up at the Wide World of Sports, but so was practice. We caught the end of the AFC pro bowlers practicing. (If you can call it that, they were all just screwing around, and Andy Dalton was just hanging out,  playing catch with his son) 

But there was also a fan zone, where we ran into some mascots, including Miles from the Broncos. Peyton was rather excited to see him (You can't tell, but Miles picked him up and swung him around, I missed the picture, as I got it right when he set Peyton down). 

Along with the mascots there were all kinds of games and activities. You could run the 40 yard dash against Demaryius Thomas on the screen (nobody came close), practice your long snapping (nobody hit the targets), and run an obstacle course (Asa had the best time on that one). 

Luckily, we went early, because the place really packed in later in the day. It was a good time though, and we're all hoping the Pro Bowl stays at Disney so we can do it all again. 

Oh, and Calib finally spent some of his Christmas money on a NFC visor at the Pro Bowl store. 

For lunch we headed back to Disney Springs, because there's SO many places to eat there. But, we decided to go to Raglan Road, the Irish pub and call it Ireland Day (we did our lesson and our postcards for Ireland when we got home on Saturday). 

After lunch we went back to the hotel, and despite the fact it never got all that warm, the boys wanted to swim, so we obliged. Mostly because I knew I could get in the hot tub and not freeze to death. 

After swimming, changing, and warming up we went over to the docks to play some games, and to rent a surrey bike to take along the trails. The four person bike worked for the five of us, since Hayden could squeeze in the middle. Calib and Asa had to be in the front, since they needed the most legroom, so Peyton and I peddled in the back. Once we figured out our seating and peddling arrangements, it was lots of fun. We took the trail around three times, it was pretty easy except for this one uphill part that took us up and across a bridge. But then the down part was pretty fun! 

Like most resorts, Port Orleans has a fire pit for nightly (or every-other night in the slow season) marshmallow roasting, so we made sure not to miss that. 

And then we decided we'd take the sort of long walk over to the Port Orleans hotel, the one themed after the French Quarter. On our way we passed the horse carriages coming in for the evening. 

Port Orleans French Quarter is a little more kid friendly than Riverside in its theme, and the pool is a bit more exciting, so the boys suggested next time maybe we stay there (although they did like Riverside).  

But we mostly walked all the way over there for the Beignets. They make them fresh there like in New Orleans. I don't think my pictures do it justice, but we might have gotten powdered sugar EVERYWHERE. 

Not many of us were very hungry, so we also got a few side items to split. Hayden, however, claimed he was starving to death, so he got a gigantic bowl of pasta. The food court at French Quarter takes Tables in Wonderland, so we got the 20%  discount there, which was nice. For some odd reason, Riverside's food court offers no discounts. Blah. 

It was dark by the time we were done with our mini-dinner, so it had gotten rather chilly. But, it was still a nice walk back to the room. 

Later that night we walked down to the lounge at Riverside to see Yehaa Bob perform and get some snacks and drinks. He plays the piano and sings Disney songs and such, but he totally gets the crowd into it (even my kids!) It's like Jellyrolls, but family friendly! We all had a really good time, and we highly recommend checking it out if you're at Riverside. He does play to a pretty packed crowd, so get there early for a good seat. We were lucky enough to snag a table as people were leaving right when we got there, but it was in the very back. 

The next morning, Asa and Calib were up bright and early to run their 5K. Asa nearly beat Calib this time, but it's hard to tell how close they were since it wasn't officially timed. They did end up with some cool medals though! 

I am a big fan of Disney breakfast, but nobody is ever hungry enough to go. I thought since Calib and Asa were up so early to run the 5K they'd at least be hungry enough to have breakfast, so we made reservations for Whispering Canyon on Saturday morning (early enough so we could make it back in time for Asa to work). Peyton wasn't super hungry, but he did get a waffle, and was pretty excited when he found out you could get the Whispering Canyon all you can drink milkshakes for breakfast. 

Hayden got a milkshake too, and Calib ordered the Pulled Pork Eggs Benedict, which he ate most of. Breakfast for Calib two days in a row, that's unheard of! 

 Asa, Hayden, and I got the breakfast skillet that is served family style. You can ask for more of anything, but that really was plenty. 

Whispering Canyon Cafe is one of the boys favorites for the food, and the antics. The servers are loud and slightly obnoxious (by design). They throw straws on your table, and give you a hard time about things- all in good fun of course. And, if you ask for ketchup, you get more than you might need. Although, you're then responsible for running all that ketchup to the next table who yells for it. 

After breakfast we headed home. We never made it into the parks, which I'm still dying to do (it's been FOREVER), but we always have that mentality that hanging around the hotel is more fun when we're actually staying there, since we CAN go into the parks (almost) anytime. 

That's it from here. I'm off to help Asa with dinner for tonight's country. 

Next Up: We're having a quiet 'weekend' with a few house projects, errands, and a few more countries.