Forums Closed
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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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
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.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
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!
Best wishes for a wonderful and magical new year!
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06-25-2003, 05:39 AM
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#16
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Community Rank: Trailblazer
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Pittsburgh, PA , USA
Posts: 5,943
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Re: 2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
How awesome that you got to take a girls' trip! Sorry the weather messed up your plans a bit, but sounds like everything still went as planned. I'm envisioning you on the beach - what a great way to start your stay in Florida!
Also curious about the brush withe the law thing - more, please... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
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06-25-2003, 08:03 AM
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#17
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Community Rank: Trekker
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 1,574
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Re: 2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
Thanks for the report! Brush with the law [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] Don't leave us in suspense for too long!!!
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06-25-2003, 10:19 AM
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#18
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Mar 2001
Posts: 17,365
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Re: 2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
Another cliffhanger! Don't keep us waiting too long. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
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06-25-2003, 07:45 PM
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#19
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: North Central Ohio
Posts: 21,629
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Re: 2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
Loving your trip report!! I want to do a girl's trip to WDW sooooo bad!!! Can't wait to read about your brush with the law! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
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06-25-2003, 09:36 PM
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#20
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Community Rank: Wayfarer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: St. Louis, MO
Posts: 173
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Re: 2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
First Day at the Beach and Our Brush with the Law…
We woke Saturday morning to a beautiful day! The sun was bright and already hot. We enjoyed a relaxing morning on the patio by the pool drinking coffee and iced tea, and reading the newspaper. [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img] Lucy and I discussed how enjoyable it was to just be ourselves, not mom, not wife, just ourselves!! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
We decided we’d head on over to the beach and start working on our Florida tans. My mom, bless her heart, wanted to feed us this enormous breakfast, but we politely declined since we planned on laying out in the hot sun for a couple of hours. (She did manage to talk us into eating some fruit before we left.)
We loaded up our car with a beach umbrella, beach mats, a big blanket, towels, and a cooler full of bottled water. We had each brought trashy novels to read on the beach and we made sure we had those with us as well. We also brought a bottle of SUPER sunscreen (to make my mom feel better and also because we know just how strong that sun can be on our barely tanned Midwestern bodies!)
Off to the beach – we’d decided to try one of the beaches at Patrick AFB today and as we drove north on A1A looking for just the right location (Patrick has about 4 or 5 beaches), we see this military cargo airplane (HUGE) coming in VERY LOW from the east and I am certain that it is either going to hit my car or that the jet wash after it passes is going to blow us into the ocean [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] – it was that low! Panic sets in – will we not live to experience the rest of our vacation? (I tend to have a flair for the dramatic – but it was REALLY low!) It crossed over the highway just before we got up to it and of course, it did not blow us into the ocean! We watched it for a minute, assuming it was going to land at the base, but it just touched the airstrip and went right back up again! It was then that we noticed the signs on the side of the highway that say “CAUTION – LOW FLYING PLANES.” [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] Lucy and I laughed like fools – it seemed so funny after the fact! In our search for the perfect beach, we were keeping an eye out for the one that my parents said had restrooms – just in case. We found a beach parking lot with a building at the end of it that we ASSUMED housed the restrooms (spell ASSUME!), and promptly found a parking spot overlooking the beach – perfect!! The parking lot seemed quite empty for a Saturday morning – but we just figured we’d gotten an earlier start than most.
Lucy and I unloaded our stuff and walked right onto the beach. We got settled near the water, but could still keep an eye on our car. We relaxed, read our books, got in the water a few times to cool off, and generally just “chilled out.” It was great! We watched our watches carefully making sure not to spend too much time lying on one side – we flipped over every half-hour. We had decided to give it two hours today so we wouldn’t fry ourselves and be miserable for a couple of days – heck, we had 8 more days to work on our tans, no need to rush it!
As we were lying on our stomachs for our last half-hour we noticed a military vehicle pull into the parking lot and a Security Police officer get out of it. He had on full camo fatigues and a black baseball cap. Lucy and I joked about how incredibly hot he must be, poor guy!! Well, we watched him for a few more minutes and we noticed that he was going up to each car in the parking lot, looking at the front and rear, taking out a notebook, and making notes. Hmmmm? What’s this all about? We decided, using our vast amount of knowledge [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] , that he must be taking down license plate numbers and running them as a security check (post 9/11)! Sure, that’s it! I mentioned to Lucy that I hoped there wasn’t a problem with where we parked – we had looked for signs in the parking lot but didn’t notice any in front of us when we parked. Eventually the poor, hot guy got back in his vehicle and left.
When our final half-hour was over, we packed up our belongings and headed back to the car. As we were loading all of our beach stuff back into the trunk, we noticed a bunch of signs…. Hmmm? What did the signs say, you ask? “Restricted Parking – DOD (Department of Defense) Sticker Required!” Oops, where did those signs come from? Surely they weren’t there when we pulled in!?! Now I’m paranoid!! I’m certain that Mr. Security Policeman is just sitting by the side of the road waiting to pull me over and give me some ticket for a federal offense or some such!! Not only that, but what about that building we assumed was the bathroom building? My parents had told us that the beach with the bathrooms was a public beach – what was up with that? Well, upon closer inspection (including actually reading signs) we found that to be the NCO Club! Yikes! We decided to get on out of there and head up into Cocoa Beach to have lunch at the world famous Coconuts on the Beach, and do some shopping. (I did say a “brush” with the law! [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] )
Cocoa Beach is actually the next community just north of Patrick AFB – you just hop on A1A (the highway that goes along the coast) and follow it north to Cocoa Beach. Well, we headed north on A1A, still in the Patrick AFB area, and what do you suppose we saw – yes, another parking lot (very crowded) with two small buildings – the bathrooms!!! This was the spot my parents had been talking about! Funny, Lucy and I both consider ourselves to be fairly intelligent women, but apparently we left the functioning parts of our brains back in St. Louis!
North to Coconuts! If any of you have ever been to Coconuts, you know what a happenin’ place it is – especially on Saturdays when they have their world famous bikini contests! Lucy had never been there, and I love the place – it’s just lots of fun, so I suggested we have lunch and a cocktail there and do a little “people watching.”
Coconuts has a restaurant/bar inside, but their claim to fame is their huge deck/bar overlooking the beach and ocean and that is where we headed. Dozens of resin tables sit on this large deck, and you can choose to have an umbrella if you prefer. We preferred not to. We found a nice, sunny seat and asked our waitress for a drink suggestion. She suggested a drink called “pain in the a**.” Sounds good – but what’s in it? It is half pina colada and half rumrunner – with an extra shot of 151 rum! Oooh, now you’re talking! We said, “sure!” For our lunch we were looking for something light and cool – salad or shrimp cocktail, etc. They don’t serve cold shrimp there! Actually, I know there are several places in the country that don’t have cold shrimp, but it surprised me at the beach where it gets so hot!! We ordered the grilled shrimp and the waitress offered to bring it out on a plate of ice! The ice didn’t last very long so basically we had lukewarm, floating shrimp! It tasted fine – it just looked a little odd!!
More and more people began to show up and I told Lucy we should stick around and watch the bikini contest (not participate!!!!) just so we could tell people we’d seen it. A side note here – while Coconuts is known for its party atmosphere, it is still a fairly family-friendly restaurant; there were several families dining on the deck while we were there. Actually, there are all kinds of people there – families, couples, bikers, older adults, teenagers, young adults, etc. People also dress in various ways there – from just a bathing suit to all dressed up, or as dressed up as Floridians get. (While we were there we saw a group of girls – probably in their mid-twenties – gathered to enter the bikini contest and one of them was wearing a thong!! A thong!! Now, I know some people rave that they are so comfortable, but really, how can they be? They look painful! [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] Plus, this particular girl had a very tan bottom with very blond “peach fuzz” all over it!! You couldn’t miss it!! You can see just about anything at Coconuts! )
As Lucy and I waited, we had one more cocktail (another pain in the a**). Two men at a table next to us struck up a conversation with us and then proceeded to try to talk us into entering the bikini contest – NO WAY!! This may be our wild and crazy getaway vacation – but we have to draw the line somewhere!! We decided it was time to head up the beach to Ron Jon’s Surf Shop to get some souvenirs.
Next up, souvenir shopping and tatoos…do we get one?
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06-25-2003, 11:43 PM
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#21
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Community Rank: Jetsetter
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Louisiana/Mississippi
Posts: 2,300
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Re: 2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
Great Report. Thanks again
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06-26-2003, 12:35 AM
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#22
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Community Rank: Wayfarer
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Cincinnati
Posts: 197
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Re: 2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
Great report. No good vacation is complete without at least one brush with the law!
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06-26-2003, 05:37 AM
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#23
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Community Rank: Trailblazer
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Pittsburgh, PA , USA
Posts: 5,943
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Re: 2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
Quote:
Originally posted by Tigger's Mom:
Lucy and I discussed how enjoyable it was to just be ourselves, not mom, not wife, just ourselves!! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
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<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">I'm hearing you on this one - you go, girls! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Glad you survived the low-flying plane and the officer! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
I'm so enjoying hearing about your beach adventures - now I want to go to the beach!!!
More, please....
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06-26-2003, 07:14 AM
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#24
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Community Rank: Trekker
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Massachusetts
Posts: 1,574
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Re: 2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
Loved hearing about the day at the beach - makes me want to be there now!
Pam
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06-26-2003, 08:29 AM
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#25
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: North Central Ohio
Posts: 21,629
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Re: 2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
Thelma and Louise got nothing over you two!LOL [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Loving your trip report and can't wait for more!! Hurry!! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
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06-26-2003, 09:23 AM
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#26
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Community Rank: Wayfarer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: St. Louis, MO
Posts: 173
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Re: 2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
Thanks for all the nice comments everyone. Writing this is great fun - I am enjoying reliving our vacation! (As you know they are over with all too quickly!!) [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img]
LUVNWDWGAL - Your comment about Thelma and Louise made me laugh - Lucy's DH kept referring to us as " Elma (instead of Thelma) and Louise" before the trip!! Too bad for us, we never came across Brad Pitt on our adventure!! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]
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06-26-2003, 01:54 PM
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#27
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Community Rank: Wayfarer
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: St. Louis, MO
Posts: 173
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Re: 2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
DAY 2 – PART 2
Souvenir shopping and tattoos…do we get one?
Ron Jon’s Surf Shop is near the north end of the Cocoa Beach area and is a HUGE place! They have absolutely everything you could think of in the way of souvenirs – tons of T-shirts (especially men’s), swimwear, jewelry, surfing equipment (including boards), and all kinds of misc. stuff! They also have live music in the shop on weekends and all during spring break! It’s a cool place to go - if you’re ever in Cocoa Beach make sure to stop at the World Famous Ron Jon’s! [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]
Lucy and I perused the store, and I picked out several T-shirts for the men in my life (DH and 2 DS’s), as well as postcards, a waterproof tube-watch for DS1, and light-up mini surfboard keychains for each of the boys! I was on the lookout for a spaghetti-strapped top with the Ron Jon logo on it and there was not one to be found in that store!! Men’s t-shirts in every design imaginable they had, but not too much for the ladies. Oh, well. [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] I did find a cute top with cut off sleeves and the logo, so I bought that one for myself. Lucy didn’t buy anything here.
We left and walked next door to the Cocoa Beach Surf Co. store (owned by the previous CEO of Ron Jon’s, FYI) and looked at swimsuits (better prices than Ron Jon’s) and some beachy jewelry. Lucy found a mood toe ring for her 13-year old daughter (she quipped that it would probably always be black if it was truly able to tell her daughter’s mood [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] ), and I found this wild looking carving of a “dude” (there is no other word to describe him) on a surfboard that DS2 would be sure to love!
As Lucy and I were heading to the check out area, we noticed a sign offering “henna” tattoos (guaranteed to last up to 3 weeks). Now, I must tell you, Lucy and I are fun loving girls, and we each tend to have a little bit of rebellion in us – which I think is one of the reasons we are such great friends. However, I have been becoming more and more conservative (read “boring” if you ask some people) over the years (marriage, raising children, etc.) while Lucy has held on to more of her free spirit. This trip was all about getting some of that “old me” back. This henna tattoo idea appealed to both of us – I would love a real tattoo (small – on the small of my back) but I am TERRIFIED of it hurting!! Lucy feels pretty much the same way! We had teased our DH’s before leaving that we would come back all tattooed and baaaaad – so this seemed like a relatively painless way to show our spunk! [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img] Plus, they would last a few weeks and they looked pretty good, except they were all black.
Ok, we decided to go for it! (It didn’t hurt that the tattoo person was a very attractive young man). Lucy got a cute little frog on her leg, just above her ankle. I chose 2 dolphins inside of a sunburst, placed between my shoulder blades (I wasn’t sure how the folks I work for would feel about it being obvious) – plus I personally like the location I chose.
Dimitri (tattoo guy from Greece – need I say more, ladies? [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] ) went to work and had us both finished in about 30 minutes total. He told us to make sure not to let anything touch them for 45 minutes, and then to flake off the dry stuff and rub Vaseline over it. OK, fine! We can handle that! Lucy and I spent the next 45 minutes walking around the shops in the area and once we were “safe” we got back in the car and headed to Mom and Dad’s – we were going to meet some friends of theirs at a sushi restaurant for dinner!
Next up – Sushi virgins!
(If this is getting too boring, just let me know and I can cut some stuff out and get on with the Disney part – that starts on Day 4)
Kris
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06-26-2003, 07:53 PM
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#28
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Community Rank: Legend
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: North Central Ohio
Posts: 21,629
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Re: 2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
Kris, don't you dare cut anything out! I want to read every sordid detail....."brushes" with the law, tattoos.....LOL [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
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06-26-2003, 08:39 PM
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#29
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Community Rank: Jetsetter
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Louisiana/Mississippi
Posts: 2,300
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Re: 2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
More please. Ditto, I want to hear all of it.
Kim
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06-26-2003, 09:48 PM
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#30
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Community Rank: Trailblazer
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Pittsburgh, PA , USA
Posts: 5,943
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Re: 2 Girls + 10 Days = Too Much Fun (6/12-6/22) Day 10 now up
So is the tattoo still on? [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Sounds like you got some good shopping in, as well.
Looking forward to your sushi experience and hoping it was better than my recent one!
Next, please... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
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