Easter with donkeys, historic homes and a spa COMPLTED 4/26 - Page 17 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
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We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
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Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Love the seaside village. Sorry the weather was working against you but you did well wth the pix despite the dreariness. The boats look so sad sitting in the mud waiting for the tide to come back in.
They did - and I think dreary is a perfect way to describe that day.
What a beautiful B&B! That was a pleasant ending to a dreary day. I can't believe your camera is acting up again!
No, neither could I! It's been fixed (factory reset, which is what I suspect they did last time) and frankly I'm just waiting for it to go wrong again. I'm sure it will, sooner or later....
That area you traveled through to get to the B&B was definitely bleak. But Exmoor looked much more interesting and the B&B is beautiful. Dinner looked delicious, though I agree it does seem pricey.
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A roaring donkey? Maybe that should be something to see on your next trip?
I just dread to think! I think, judging by the symbol next to it, it could be an entertainment venue or perhaps a pub with music? Very odd name though.
Even with the clocks going forward, we were still awake before 7:00am. I immediately got up and brushed my teeth, as my mouth felt last night had been a real party, given the garlic mushrooms, three different types of cheese, and the two glasses of wine! I have to say I felt better after that.
Frustratingly, breakfast wasn’t served until 8:30am, and I wanted to be on the road by then, but never mind… it was an hour and a half to the Donkey Sanctuary, and I wanted to get there as early as possible to enjoy our day there.
Thankfully, the weather appeared to at least be cooperating. It wasn’t raining when we got up, which was a pleasant change, and it looked like it would be a nicer day than yesterday. The forecast last night had been for heavy rain for much of the day in Sidmouth, where we were heading for, but now it was saying the heavy rain would be done by about 9:00am, and then it would be light rain showers for the rest of the day. Ok, that I can live with! Even better, the storm that’s heading our way looks as if it will hit tonight and early tomorrow morning, rather than during the day on Easter Monday, which was what was originally forecast. That’s a definite improvement.
We headed down to load up the car…
… then we headed into the breakfast area, and we were the first ones there, about 10 minutes before they were due to start serving, but thankfully they were early, and were ready for our orders. I thought the table layout was lovely…
… and the Lindt bunnies were a nice touch!
I had some cereal, while Mark dug into the homemade bread. Sadly I couldn’t enjoy it, as it had apricots in, and I’m allergic to those.
To make up for that, I had the vegetarian full English with homemade baked beans (which I asked to be left off, as I can’t stand baked beans), griddled avocado, potatoes, Portobello mushrooms, baked tomatoes and fried eggs. I was intrigued by the griddled avocado, but it did exactly what it said on the tin, and tasted very good.
Mark went for the full English breakfast, made up of two rashers of bacon, sausage, black pudding (which he asked to be left off), Portobello mushrooms, oven baked tomatoes, fried bread and fried eggs. He seemed very pleased with it.
As soon as we were done eating, we headed out, as we had a very important place to get to today – the Donkey Sanctuary! We headed through the desolate stretches of Exmoor National Park, knowing the rain would catch us sooner or later, as we could see it coming…
Sure enough, it soon did, although thankfully it was more like heavy rain showers, rather than continual downpours, as it had been yesterday.
At one point, we came around a corner, and found a police car, with a car at a 90 degree angle that had obviously crashed. There was no sign of the driver, although we could see the airbag had deployed, so either he’d escaped and they were after him (and we did see a police dog unit a few minutes later, so it’s possible) or he was already on his way to hospital…
Later on, we came across a set of temporary traffic lights, which were stuck on red. We sat there for about five minutes, behind one other vehicle, and eventually he’d had enough and set off through the red light, so we followed, as did the half dozen or so vehicles behind us. When we got to the other end of the roadworks, and sure enough, that set was stuck at red as well. Thank goodness the guy in front of us had the initiative to just go for it!
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A Lindt chocolate bunny is the perfect way to start the day! I don't think I've ever had avacado warm/griddled either. Very interesting.
Hey, there was even a little sunshine happening there! It's very hilly there, beautiful.
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I love those Lindt bunnies - they were in our Easter baskets this year.
Glad they could get your breakfast a little early, given your important task this morning!
I love those Lindt bunnies - they were in our Easter baskets this year.
Glad they could get your breakfast a little early, given your important task this morning!
Tell me about it! I was like a little kid going to Disney - I just wanted to get there!
So nice that they were serving breakfast early so you all could still eat and get out early for your adventures at the Donkey Sanctuary. It looked liked a very tasty breakfast, too. The scenery today seems much more interesting.
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It's been fixed (factory reset, which is what I suspect they did last time) and frankly I'm just waiting for it to go wrong again. I'm sure it will, sooner or later....
Maybe that should be something to see on your next trip?
I think, judging by the symbol next to it, it could be an entertainment venue or perhaps a pub with music? Very odd name though. 
Even better, the storm that’s heading our way looks as if it will hit tonight and early tomorrow morning, rather than during the day on Easter Monday, which was what was originally forecast. That’s a definite improvement. 
We headed through the desolate stretches of Exmoor National Park, knowing the rain would catch us sooner or later, as we could see it coming… 
The scenery today seems much more interesting. 
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