Homeowner Show Goes on the Road: Waterfalls, Theme Parks, and Everything In Between

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Homeowner's Show. We are so glad that you could join us for another live episode here in the studio. How you doing, Kev?

You know, I am doing pretty good. I had something very interesting happen to me moments before I arrived.

Oh, okay, spill.

Well, so I'm, I'm driving to your house and I'm driving down Highway 105, pretty big road here, uh, in the Conroe area, and There's no one on the road at this time of night. Nobody.

Sure.

Except one car in the right-hand lane that I'm gonna turn right from. Nobody else anywhere. This car, I, kudos to this car, sees me coming with my blinker on and swerves into the left lane.

Okay.

Because the light was red.

Oh.

So that I could turn.

So that you could turn. Like, that's, that's awfully kind of him.

Heads up driving, y'all. And I feel like more people need to take some notes from said driver. Yeah, but you're just pay attention.

You're also unnecessarily in a hurry most of the time.

Unnecessarily is correct, sir. But I got places to go. Like, I got things to do. I don't know. I, what I don't understand, I'll just tell you. Mm-hmm. I don't understand people that are like, I got nowhere to go. Mm-hmm. I'm just gonna take my time.

Yeah, that's me.

I know it is. Drives me nuts.

'Cause I'm like, unless I'm, unless I'm on a road trip, then I'm just gonna be trucking on down the road. But otherwise it's like, I don't wanna be the first one to the scene of the accident.

Well, I, well, I can, I don't disagree with that. I just, I'm like, Do you people have nowhere to go? Like, you clearly are just—

Yep. Accident every single day. They want to run into each other. They think they're playing bumper cars out there.

It's true.

And they just don't mind their premiums getting jacked up year after year.

So yeah, that is— you're not, you're not wrong about that. But for the most part, there's so many people that are like, you know what, 40 and a 60, I'm good with that, especially on the road heading out to my house, 2854.

Oh yeah, it's just a 2-lane road.

It's a 2-lane road and people are like, it's fine, I'll get there eventually. But anyway, other than that, life's, you know, life's good. No, that was good. That was a nice, a nice gesture of the person in front of me.

I'm, I'm, I'm checking on something here because I'm wondering if we're live on— oh yeah, we are.

Nope.

Um, we're live on my personal channel on Facebook.

Well, that's exactly where I wanna be. Okay. Live on your personal channel. I don't know why.

That's super helpful, Kev.

Why that's where we're live at, I don't know.

Hang on.

I mean, it's my fault cuz I selected what channels we are live on, but you know, this is what I get for giving you access. Well, you shouldn't, you shouldn't do that.

Let's see here.

But I mean, I, I don't think I can, uh, I don't think I can fix it at this point. Uh, we're so—

Yeah, but we're, we're live on YouTube, so that's fine.

Yeah. No, we're live on both places. It's—

Well, yeah, we're live on both places. It's just not on the regular spot on the Facebook page.

Yeah.

So, oh well.

Well, I mean, it can be—

Here, I'll—

I shared it. Adjusted, but yeah, share it to our main channel. I shared it. Yeah. Well, you know what?

There we go. Everything. We're all is well.

We're still learning a new system a little bit. That's right. But the new system is superior.

Yeah.

In every way.

So, but all right. So this week we're doing a, a trip recap.

Yeah.

Uh, you just got back from a big trip yesterday. I did. I got back from a big trip, uh, I guess a week, 2 weeks ago.

Yeah.

Um, we haven't got to, to go over that. Um, and then, uh, so last week, uh, I was not myself.

Uh, well, whose fault is that?

Uh, Willie Nelson.

Willie Nelson.

I got, I got a little bottle right here. Yeah. Right, right there.

His birthday.

Me, me and Willie are good buddies now. Oh, there, there we go. Right there.

Willie. Yeah. This, let me just tell you, I, there's, there's a lot of Craigs that I like. Uh-huh. Last week was one of my favorites.

That was one of your favorites? Yeah.

Well, it was just. It was the most unique because I've known you now for, I mean, it's been 9 years.

Yeah.

And I feel like I've, you know, we've been, we've been good buddies.

Uh-huh.

I've never seen this side of Craig because I don't think it's ever existed before.

Let me tell you, no one has.

Yeah.

It's never, no, ever, ever. Well, like, so this is, and it's not like, this isn't like a personal brag or anything like that, but I've never even smoked a cigarette. I've never had a cigar. Yeah.

Nothing.

I've never had anything in my life. But here's what was going on is for the month of May, my wife and I have signed out on alcohol.

Okay.

We just, and honestly it was because we got back from this really fun trip where we had a really good time.

Yeah.

And we enjoyed ourselves. We spent a lot of money on food and beverages and we're like, you know what? When we get back home, let's just shut the tap off. And, you know, and just be healthy in the month of May. I mean, like, that sounds like a great plan. We've been doing that.

Yeah.

Um, I've lost 11 pounds.

Good for you.

Since we got back from that trip. So like, I mean, you know, and it's not like rigorous exercise and dieting or anything like that. It's just like eating clean.

Sure.

And behaving myself.

Yeah.

But A-Duddle said that he was coming over and he was gonna bring some bourbon and some cigars. And I was like, well, I don't smoke cigars and I can't have bourbon right now, but I wanna be part of the thing. And so I went and got a non-alcoholic replacement beverage. Yes. And the guy at the store warned me. He's like, dude, like 1 ounce.

Yeah.

And then wait an hour. And I said, whatever.

1 ounce? Like 1 ounce and wait an hour?

Well, he said, that is a weird— This is what he said. He goes, it's a really dangerous drink to have. Because you don't feel the effects of it for an hour.

Yeah. Yeah.

And so I said, okay. So before you got to the studio, yeah, Aduttle and I were sitting here talking. Well, I had 2 fingers, which is more than 1 ounce, which is more than 1 ounce.

It's, well, but it's probably what, like an ounce and a half, 2 ounces, maybe 2 ounces, maybe depending on the size of how round your glass is. Yeah, that's fair.

I had a pretty substantial chunk of ice in there.

Sure.

Um, but dude, I just melted into my chair. Like, once we got started with the show, I couldn't even keep up with the conversation.

You were good. You were, you were actually doing really well at the beginning. Uh-huh. Um, but, but then there was a, a noticeable moment where you were like, and then, but, but, and, and I—

yep.

And, and you kind of stumbled. Uh-huh. And I just—

no, my brain turned off.

Yeah, I— you stumbled, which, again, those of you who don't know Craig well, One of the things that you do really well is use your words.

Sure.

You're good at talking your way around pretty much anything.

Yeah.

You're just, you're debate-worthy, I would say, in many ways. And so—

I do enjoy a good debate.

Sure. And so when you wound up kind of stumbling over your words, I honestly, I just thought, it's fine. It happens from time to time. Sure. But then what the, what else you'll notice throughout the rest of the show? Mm-hmm. Is you didn't show up very often. Nope.

I was just here for the show, baby.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You're like, this is fun.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, and it, it was, I was having a good time.

Well, and it, and it's just, I don't know. So I, I was telling Uh, one of our mutual friends about the experience. And, uh, she— you, you may figure out who it is just by that, uh, maybe not— she goes, oh, I know exactly what he's feeling. And I was like, oh really? And she goes, my guess is he just didn't care. And I was like, that's what he told me.

Yep.

He just didn't care. And she's like, well, That's because that's what that'll do to you. Yep.

So, so, uh, I was, I was actually having a conversation with my mother who watches the show pretty regularly.

Yeah.

She, she watched the episode and we were talking about it and I told her, I was like, I was like, you didn't see it on the screen, but I, I had some of that Willy's Remedy. And she goes, oh, is that why you were so different? And I was like, different? I was like, yeah.

Yeah, that was it.

And I, she said, well, what was it like? And I started describing it to her and like, you know, my mom grew up in the '60s. And she goes, it's called a buzz, dummy.

You're like, you're like, no, I've had one of those. This was different. Different kind of buzz.

Different kind of buzz. Yeah. So, but to answer your question, like, it, it did stick with me a little bit the next day.

Yeah, I didn't ask.

But like, I've also never been hungover.

Sure.

So I don't, I don't know how to compare that to that. I didn't feel bad.

Yeah.

But I have since tested it because that next— after that experience, the next day I was like, all right, I'm still kind of like a little groggy.

Sure.

And I was like, maybe it was just too much. And so I've since gone back and just done like the 1 ounce, and I can take a 1 ounce and it tastes good, by the way. It's— you can do the 1 ounce, take it about an hour before you go to bed, and you'll sleep super deep and then wake up with nothing.

Okay.

And, and that's, and that's good. And you could, you could mix it with like a soda if you wanted to. It'd be really good with like a Fresca.

Yeah.

That's what, that's kind of what it tastes like.

Yeah.

Um, so, but I mean, like, if you look at the ingredients, there's not much to it.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, it's, but like, I also learned that the one I bought is the strongest one.

Of course. Why wouldn't it be?

So I think, I think if I were to do it again, I'd get the 5 instead of the 10. It's also way cheaper.

Well, I would think so. So it's double.

Yeah, literally it's double.

It's double trouble.

I'm just glad I was at home. Yeah.

I, yeah. Yeah. It's just, it, because anybody who's drank alcohol knows that there is a delay.

Yeah.

It's not an hour. It's not an hour before you start feeling effects.

No, definitely not.

It's not an ounce and a half to 2 ounces that gets you there.

No. So it's much stronger.

Yeah. So I, what you're, you're pretty fortunate, I think, that you listened. Mm-hmm. Because had you like been like, that wasn't anything, I'll take another.

I easily could have gone 2 or 3 deep, right, on that before you got here. And I didn't because I was like, I don't know. He said an hour. I don't know what this is gonna feel like. And he even said, he's like, don't do more than that because otherwise you're gonna go on a trip you don't wanna go on. And I was trying to heed the warning.

Well, I'm glad you did because I didn't want to be responsible for carrying you to your house.

You know, I don't know that that would have been— I don't know what it would have been like. I don't want to find out, honestly. I was loopy enough to be at home that I don't want to go beyond that. Thank you very much. I'm fine with my brain working the way it ought to. Yeah. And I think I talked to you about it that night. And that's the thing that I'm looking back at going like, okay, how loopy was I? Because I remember most of the conversations.

Yeah, yeah.

And I think I even told you, I don't understand how people want to play music like this.

Right.

Because to me, I was just feeling myself going, I wouldn't wanna play my guitar right now. I wouldn't wanna play piano right now. I definitely wouldn't wanna play drums right now. I mean, all the instruments that I know how to play, I'm sitting there going, I would, I don't think I would enjoy that like this.

Yeah.

Um, and maybe like everybody reacts differently to different things, but I was just like, I don't want to do anything.

Sure.

I think I told you that what I would want to do is like maybe read a book.

Yeah.

And that's, I think that would be like a good—

That's the extent.

Yeah.

Hmm.

Or, or maybe like a really good, like, movie. Yeah, maybe.

But what I will also notice Is that there's a lot left in that bottle.

Oh, there's a— yeah.

Which means you just didn't— like, it wasn't— it's not gonna be your favorite thing. What? One, you don't need much.

Yeah, that, that 1 ounce is good. Once, once it kicks in, I mean, you're good for like 8 hours.

That's crazy.

You know, and, and so you don't need to drink that much. Yeah. So, and, and like, so the most you could have in a day to be safe, in my opinion, would be like an ounce.

An ounce. Yeah.

And so it'll last forever. It's true. Cause I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna drink it every day.

No.

Um, but I might have some tonight.

Okay.

Not right now.

Later. Right. We're good right now.

We're good right now.

Well, so speaking of your trip.

Yeah. Speaking of hippie dens, I did go to Portland.

Yeah, you did. And I'm really curious. Mm-hmm. Why did you go to Portland? That's my number one question. Mm-hmm. And we'll go on from there. So I'll let you start there.

Well, so it, it wasn't, we weren't going to go to Portland.

Sure.

We were going, Portland was the airport we could fly into to get to what we wanted to get to, which was all of the waterfalls around Portland. Okay. Um, now the thing that we didn't do that we had talked about doing quite a bit was to go to Astoria.

Oh, okay.

Which is about an hour and a half west of Portland.

Okay.

And for those of you who pay attention, Astoria is where they filmed The Goonies.

Mm-hmm.

And you can go take your picture in front of their house. Um, they just ask that you be respectful. You can go down the, there's different places up and down the coast near Portland where you can go see spots where they filmed that movie.

Yeah.

Me and my wife love that movie. And so she was like, I wanna go get my picture made in front of The Goonies house. Well, when we finally got to the resort we were staying at, it was 2 hours away.

Oh.

And we were like, ah, we, we really only have like 4 days here. So yeah, we don't wanna spend like 4 hours driving.

Sure.

Um, just to go get the picture.

So instead you decided to not heed TLC's warning, right?

Which was we chased every single waterfall, every waterfall you could. So the, the, the main reason that we went and, and that's a really bad joke. Uh, well, I'm just saying. I've heard it like 6 times since I got back. Everyone's like, you know, you should just really stick to the rivers and the lakes that you're used to.

Yeah, that's right.

I was like, no, those are terrible.

Well, if I have a choice between a lake, a river, and a waterfall, gimme the latter.

Gimme the waterfall.

Yeah, every time.

Especially these waterfalls.

Yeah.

So south of Portland, there is a famous state park with the Trail of 10 Waterfalls. Oh. And if you just do the trail that is a giant loop, you're gonna hike about 7.5 miles.

Okay, it's not too far.

It's not terrible, but like, it's up and down.

I mean, that's a, that's a long day.

It's a long day.

Sure.

We ended up doing closer to 10.

Ooh.

Because there are several side trails that will take you to other waterfalls and other little, like, grottos and things like that. Totally worth doing.

Okay.

Um, the whole park is just gorgeous. Um, and even, like, there was about 1/16th of the trail that was completely shut down due to a natural disaster.

A bunch of trees fell and blocked.

Knocked the path out. One of the waterfalls we couldn't even get to.

Mm-hmm.

Um, we actually had to come back another day because that trail, and we had to kind of circle back almost 2 miles in order to get back to our car.

Wow.

Because that trail was shut down. Um, still worth it.

Mm-hmm.

Um, there are about 4 waterfalls on that trail that are big enough for you to walk behind.

Oh, really?

Yeah. And, and like some of them are like the backside of water. Exactly.

I saw that. Yeah.

Yeah.

Recently.

Um, uh, we saw the real backside of water, not the— but the, like, some of them were big enough. You, you remember that scene in Last of the Mohicans where they go behind the waterfall?

Yeah.

A couple of 'em were that big.

Felt like that.

No, they, I mean, like, just, it took like almost 30, 40 yards to go from one end to the other.

Goodness gracious.

Behind it. You know, and so there's just ma— and so like a lot of, I posted a lot of pictures of 'em and it's, it's difficult to show the scale of them.

Mm-hmm.

Unless you kind of get down with them. But when you're down there with them, you can't really take a photo big enough to bring it all into perspective.

Yeah.

And a lot of 'em, man, you, you get down to the bottom and it's not so much the water as much as the wind that it generates.

Oh yeah.

It's crazy.

Yeah.

Like if they're big enough, that wind will push you over.

Yeah.

If you're not careful. It's, it's strong.

Yeah.

Um, and, but like the whole time we were there, the, the temperatures were amazing. Mm-hmm. Uh, I don't think it ever got higher than like 80 degrees the whole time we were there. Oh, nice. And at night it was in the 40s. Whew. And so in the mornings it was just like crisp and bright and everything was blooming. Mm-hmm. And the colors are just different in Oregon, man.

Like, yeah, very, very vivid, right?

Yes. Yeah. And I, I, that's probably the best way to describe it.

Mm-hmm.

I just don't under— like we, they just have totally different colors than what we have here. I mean, like the, like the bluebonnets here are gorgeous. They don't have anything. Sure. like that.

Sure.

Um, but we don't have anything like what they have.

Mm-hmm. Um, so, well, but we've also done, we, we also don't have their politics.

So correct.

There's a, there's a give and take.

Well, so, um, couple, couple of big highlights from the trip. Probably one of the biggest highlights, got to go to dinner with Eric G and his girlfriend.

That's cool.

Um, we, we picked out a restaurant near them. We went and I think we had like a 3-hour dinner.

Nice.

And we shut the place down and we were having such a good time. Just like, we'd never met in person. Sure. He's been on the show a bunch. We've been on his show. Um, so it was really cool to just like hang out and meet him and let my wife meet him. Yeah. 'Cause like she's been hearing about him for years. She's never talked to him, but, and we just had a blast. The, the food was great. I forget the name of the restaurant. It was kind of a weird name. I'll have to look it up. Sorry, Eric. The food was great. We had an awesome, awesome time. Um, so that was, that was a huge highlight.

One of the other parks that we went to has, um, I can't pronounce it. It's, it's on the east side of Portland and it's considered like one of the world's biggest waterfalls. And you, not the world's biggest, it's almost as tall as Niagara Falls. It's not as big of a waterfall as Niagara Falls, but it's almost as tall.

Okay.

Um, and it's a 2-tier, so it's got a huge drop coming off the mountain straight down the mountain, and then it hits a pool and then does another drop almost immediately. And so, and there's a, uh, a house with a restaurant down at the bottom of that waterfall. And there's a real easy mulatanana or something like that. It's, it's something like that.

What'd you call me?

Mul—

I don't know.

So whatever it is, you deserved it.

Yeah.

Um, but that one's really great because it's got a real easy path that really anybody can go up and see the waterfall. There's not really, it's a concrete path and then there's like a bridge that goes over the second drop.

Oh.

And with another path that leads up to the first drop. Super accessible for just about anybody that can walk.

Nice.

Um, and that is on a series of trails. At the top is an observatory, um, and then there's about 7 waterfalls going down to— I think it's Multana is how you pronounce it.

Okay.

Um, Falls. And then there's 2, 2 or 3 more beyond Multana, but those were all closed due to construction, and so we couldn't go see those. So we, in total, we probably saw, I don't know, 18 waterfalls, like big, massive waterfalls.

Um, that's hard. That's, I mean, I don't, I, I don't think it's, it is, it's not lost on me how difficult that is to do in one trip. Yeah. To see that many waterfalls. Like there, there's a lot of places in the world where you can go see some really nice waterfalls in, in the United States.

Yeah.

You know, whether it's Colorado or New Mexico or, uh, some of these other places, um, you know, Arkansas, some beautiful places, Montana. Right. But to be able to see that many in one, like, is nuts location. That, that is nuts. That, that's fun. That's a lot of fun. Yeah.

So that, that was really good. And Uh, you were talking about the politics. We stayed in a, uh, we stayed in a town called Silverton.

Oh yeah.

Which is about an hour south of Portland.

Just south. Okay.

Um, and we stayed there because there was a really cool resort, uh, called the Oregon, uh, Gardens.

All right.

It's actually a state-run garden that's attached to a resort, and if you stay at the resort, you get access to the garden.

Okay.

Um, and so, and it was just really not, every room had a fireplace. There was a restaurant and a bar in the lounge and they had live music every night.

Mm-hmm.

And it was really affordable to stay there.

Cool.

Um, and it was, it was just a great experience. But the town that it sits just outside of is Silverton. And when we are in Portland, man, like, like you can wave your weird flag and boy do they all over the place.

Mm-hmm.

Um, it's, you know, it's, it's an interesting town. It's a great food town. Yeah. We had some really, really great food in Portland itself. But once you kind of get outside of that bubble, and this is something Eric was telling me, once you kind of get outside the bubble, the crazy really gets tame.

Oh, really?

And so like Silverton, there's a bunch of vineyards out there. Um, there, that's like the main crop. And there's, uh, there's some sort of, um, I kept thinking it was chamomile that they were growing. 'Cause it's like a yellow flower.

Okay.

Fields are just full of it. Um, I tried looking it up one time, but I couldn't get like a positive ID through the—

oh yeah, through the app.

Um, but one of the cleanest towns I've ever been in in my life. Every single shop was just kept up perfectly.

Really?

It was full of good restaurants. The people were super nice. When you drove through the neighborhoods, everybody's yard was immaculate and well-kept. Um, everyone was really, really nice and just normal. Um, interesting. And, but like, I mean, it's kind of like that here, man. I mean, like, if you're going to downtown Houston, you're gonna see some weird stuff.

Yeah.

If you go into downtown Austin, you're gonna see some pretty weird stuff. You get about 45 minutes to an hour outside of those city limits, everything tames down.

It does.

It doesn't mean that there's no weird, it's just like, it just calms down. It's just a different vibe.

Yep.

And Silverton was just like super chill.

Really?

Yeah. And just Awesome. And, and like, again, the food still was good.

Okay.

In that town. So it's, it's worth going outside of, it's prettier.

Yeah.

And all that kind of stuff.

It's a lot slower pace.

Yeah.

And all that.

Yeah. So 2 biggest highlights from being on the trip. One is we went to the Kennedy School.

All right. Never heard of it.

I had neither.

Okay.

And apparently it's a, uh, It's— there's a group that owns a bunch of these, not like the Kennedy School, but they do this kind of thing with old real estate. The Kennedy School was an elementary school, and I believe it was built back in the '40s.

Oh.

And so the— it's in the middle of this neighborhood, but it's not a school anymore. The Kennedy School is now a coffee bar, a hotel, a pool lounge, and about 5 or 6 bars and restaurants. Really? And it also has a theater on the inside. So they use the old school theater as like a movie theater slash presentation theater. And the night that we went there, they had a guy giving a lecture on the, uh, significance of history in comic books.

That's random.

Yeah. But like, you know, like the propaganda that they put in comic books back in like World War II and stuff like that. So they're, They were looking at stuff like that.

Yeah.

Um, we didn't go to it. Um, but they have, uh, a really small bar in the school called Detention.

Hmm. Interesting.

So you can send yourself to detention. That's funny. And drink your cares away.

Sure.

Um, they have one called the Boiler Room, which is literally the old boiler room of the school that they've converted into a 2-story bar.

Interesting.

Um, the cafeteria is their full-service restaurant. It's, it's, but like the whole—

Do you have to go through like the, for the cafeteria? Is it like, do you go through the cafeteria line? No, they don't.

No, you sit down.

'Cause that would be pretty crazy.

You have a waiter and all this stuff.

It's not a buffet.

No.

Uh, I'll take one of those, please. Take 2 of those.

Hey, lunchroom lady.

Lunchroom lady. That's right. Slappy Joe. Slap, slap it. Anyway.

Okay. But the one, one, okay. So. Here's, here's what I'll tell everybody. You can stay there and I don't know how expensive it is.

Mm-hmm.

But I'm pretty sure the rooms don't have bathrooms.

Okay.

Because the one time I went to the bathroom, there was 2 naked guys taking a shower.

Interesting.

Um, and okay. So, but that was because it was the locker room.

It was the locker room.

Yeah. And so that's where you could go take a shower.

Yeah.

Um, and, uh, what's the other thing I would tell you about it? It has, it has kind of a Shining vibe.

Oh, interesting.

You know what I mean?

Uh-huh.

It, it, like, it's not scary.

Sure.

But it has that vibe. Like, it's, it's very old Art Deco. Um, and there's like, they have pictures of old school groups up on the wall, but like with weird pieces of art intermingled with all that. And then like news clippings of stories about the, the school, you know, this year's favorite teacher, stuff that they've been able to collect about the school. They've got it up all over the place, but it just, it just has kind of like that weird vibe and it's cool. Sure.

But this, but it's almost like this doesn't exist anymore, but yet you're still here.

You're still here.

Okay.

Yeah. It never, it never went away. Never went away. Yeah. And so the other thing that was my personal favorite, uh, was the Benedictine Brewery.

Oh.

that we found, uh, just outside of the Trail of 10 Waterfalls.

Okay.

Uh, which, I mean, like, just FYI, the Trail of 10 Waterfalls is legendary.

Yeah.

It, people who hike, it is one of the premier destinations for hiking and just looking at nature. Like, it, it's all over. If you, if you just put it in, like, if you get it in your algorithm, like, it won't stop.

Yeah.

People go there all the time.

Sure.

And talk about it. Well, and The Benedictine Brewery is, uh, in Mount Angel. It's called Mount Angel Abbey, which is just outside of Silverton by about 20 minutes. And so it's only about 15 minutes from the Trail of Ten Waterfalls.

Okay.

We just happened to find it. It happened to be on a Sunday. They're only open 2 days a week, which is Saturday and Sunday.

Of all days.

And so we went on a Sunday.

Okay.

And it, it is— that's what it is. It's a brewery run by monks.

What in the world?

And it is amazing.

That's— I mean, it's, it sounds amazing. And it's at the Abbey?

Yes.

What?

Yes.

Oh my goodness.

So we— so, well, there, it's actually in 2 places. So the brewery is down at the bottom of the mountain.

Okay.

The actual Abbey is at the top of the mountain.

All right.

Um, so we hung out at the brewery for like a good 2 hours. We ate some food, drank some beer, and it's, it's all— they made like Belgians.

Really?

Like the stuff that I love.

As you say, that's right up your alley.

So I was in heaven.

Yeah.

And then Brandy—

No pun intended.

Yeah. Brandy was like, hey, I think there's stuff going on up at the top of the mountain. We need to at least go look. And there's the pathway going up the mountain. There's Stations of the Cross.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah. And so you get done with the Stations of the Cross and you actually get to a graveyard where all the monks that have lived there and dedicated their life there have passed. When they passed, that's where they bury 'em.

Okay.

And then we enter the campus. It's actually a seminary.

Oh, okay.

And so it's a massive campus with a chapel at the edge of the mountain ledge.

Sounds beautiful.

And so we just got to, we got to go sit in the abbey chapel and pray and hang out with monks and just kind of walk around the campus. Um, which by the way, maintained by robot lawn care.

Really? Yes. Of all the things.

Like they had 2 of them.

Oh my goodness.

That mowed the entire campus.

That's funny. How big is the campus?

Um, at the top of the mountain?

Yeah.

It was, it was probably like 8, 10 acres.

Yeah. 'Cause some of those like robot lawn mowers can do multiple acres.

Yeah.

So that's interesting.

Yeah.

Okay.

They were, they were pretty good-sized robot mowers too.

Interesting.

Um, and I was like, come on, monks.

Yeah, I mean, what else do you have to do up here?

I know you're wearing sandals and black robes, but come on, you can mow.

You pray while you mow, right? Like, it's a thing.

It's a spiritual experience.

Yeah, of course. So we ain't got time for that. We're brewing beer. What are you talking about?

But like, I, I— anyone that's in the area and you enjoy a beverage from time to time, dude, I highly encourage—

That's a unique experience.

Yeah, you're not gonna get that anywhere else. No, like, like that. And, and when we were there, the monks are in there drinking with you.

Okay.

So we got, we got some stickers, we got some t-shirts that we brought home. I'm apparently not allowed to wear them to church. Well, even though there's some pretty cool iconography on the shirt, but yeah.

Um, it says brewery on it.

It says brewery on it.

So what are you gonna do? I don't know. Not wear it to church?

Well, maybe I'll wear a jacket.

Just like, like just zip the bottom part a little bit.

Just to get my way.

Get that, you know. The iconography out the top?

Well, the, the pretty ones on the back of the shirts.

I don't know. Oh, well, that's a problem. Yep. I, I don't, I don't have really good options for how to get around that.

So, but like, we, we had some good food while we were there. Um, first day we were there, we had a, we ate at a Thai, uh, barbecue fusion place.

Whoa.

Um, I think I already told you about that with the white curry and the burnt ends.

Oh yeah.

Like it shouldn't have worked. It just did.

It did.

Um, I think that restaurant was called EEM. Um, and then the—

I think I've told you before, like one of my favorite brisket plates, places here in Houston's called Brisket and Rice. Mm-hmm. It's like a Chinese barbecue fusion place.

And they have, they got good brisket.

It's, yeah, but they make brisket fried rice.

Oh, that's fantastic.

And it's, yeah, it's like, uh, It's unbelievable. You and I need to go sometime. I've been there multiple times. It's delicious. Like, they— you literally get the brisket fried rice with a slice of brisket on top of it. Oh, that's awesome. It's— so, I can see this working.

It did. It just did. And there was some other dish that we had that had, like, pulled pork or something on it. Everything there was good. And it was just like a cool, quirky little restaurant in, like, a weird district in Portland. The last day we were there, I can't remember the name of it, but it was like an egg sandwich shop. That's all they did was egg sandwiches.

Really?

And it was just, everything was on grilled sourdough. I like sourdough too. You could put a tire between 2 grilled pieces of sourdough and I'd probably be happy.

That's true. That's true.

One, I don't eat bread that often, but like, it's just delicious when done properly.

Yes.

So anyway, like, it wasn't a big food trip for us. We didn't eat a whole, like, it wasn't, Because you know us, I mean, like if we go to a town, we're usually just gonna tear it up, like finding all the chefs and all this. And so that was the other thing. We didn't know where we were staying when we went.

Oh.

The only thing that we knew that we were doing was the Trail of 10 Waterfalls. That was all. That was, we bought our plane tickets and we knew the thing that we wanted to do. Other than that, we had planned nothing.

So how'd you, how'd you find the place you did stay?

Uh, we used AI.

Okay.

And told it what we wanted to do and Uh, we said what would be our best options for staying near that?

Mm-hmm.

And, and then also give us access to these other things that we're interested in doing.

Interesting.

And it just found it. That was like the top pick.

Ah. Um, and it worked.

And it worked.

It was right. Yeah.

It wasn't like the number one option or anything like that, but like it found it and we were like, oh, that's kind of cool. And we started looking into it. It was like, well, and so that was the other thing about the resort that we used. It had free breakfast every morning. Cool. And it wasn't like, Cheap, like, dinky breakfast. It was like—

Little small pastries or something?

No, like the, like biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit. They baked, uh, banana bread every morning.

No, don't you add me at banana bread.

They had apple bread. They, I mean, like all kinds of stuff.

Wow.

I mean, coffee, milk, juice. It was like, it was way more than I was expecting for like an an included breakfast at a resort.

At an already relatively, you know, reasonably priced place.

Yeah, I think, I don't quote me on this 'cause I don't want people to go there and like get their— I think, I think it was like $130 a night or something like that.

What?

Yeah.

I mean, you can't stay at a Holiday Inn Express for that a lot of times.

And I wouldn't.

Well, I'm just saying like, that's a brief, that's extremely, even, If you would have said anything under $200 a night for the location with a really nice breakfast, like, I think that would be reasonable.

Yeah. The, okay. So he, the only thing that I wish that we had done in advance before we got there, and we learned this one the hard way, was to rent a car and reserve it before we got there.

Oh, okay.

So when we got there, The Trail Blazers, I think, were in the playoffs and the game was in Portland.

Oh, okay.

And they had no cars.

Sure.

And so I wasn't completely unhappy because we paid a little extra and got a, uh, Toyota 4Runner.

Okay.

So I actually fit in the car.

Yeah.

Um, and so that was nice. We, yeah. And we, you know, had something with 4-wheel drive. We were doing a lot of outdoor stuff. Mm-hmm. So I was like, okay, this is kind of nice.

Sure.

Um, but that was all they had.

Take what you can get at that point.

What we could get.

Yeah.

And this is, well, it's, it's kind of a double-edged sword on that one too, because everyone that got off the plane that had made preparations all rented from the same car rental place.

Oh.

And so we knew, I think it was like Budget or something like that. The line was just out the door to be getting a car from Budget, right? Well, there was like 6 other car rental places in there, so we just picked the one with the shortest line. We're like, what you got?

Sure.

And we were, we were in and out of there in like 15 minutes.

Okay.

Everyone else was still standing in line waiting to get their car. Now, had they been completely outta cars, we'd have been, you know, at the mercy of Uber.

Yeah. Which would've been okay. But I mean, you wouldn't wanna do that. I mean, cuz you, everywhere you go that adds up pretty quickly.

Yeah. And we probably could have, uh, gotten like a Toro or something like that.

Sure.

Um, once we got into the city, but like, man, the, the, the airport was a nightmare.

Oh, I'm sure it was. Getting to your car. Yeah.

Um, beautiful airport. Fun trip. Yeah. What do you got?

Well, I, no, no, no, that's, that, that's all good. In fact, I don't, I think you answered all the questions that I would, that I would ask you. Um, I mean, I guess the type of person that wouldn't want this trip is someone who doesn't want to go out and go hiking. Sure. Yeah.

Because that, that was pretty much everything that we did. Yeah.

That, I mean, if that's not who, what you're trying to do, wrong type of trip. So yeah, I guess my question is, if I wanted to experience some of those things, but didn't want to hike, are there options for like, Like you donkey to see the waterfalls. Yeah.

Like, so like you can, you could see, you could probably see 4 waterfalls real easy with just driving and walking less than 5 minutes.

Okay. So there, there are some options.

Yeah. And you don't, I mean, like, and you don't even necessarily have to go all the way down to the waterfall to see them.

Sure.

Um, like that, we, we were at the first big waterfall that you could walk behind within— we were down at the bottom of that waterfall within 10 minutes of getting out of our car.

Okay.

So I— and then there's other ones. If you, if you just pay attention to, uh, some of the parking areas, there's— I think there's like 4 separate parking areas, and most of them are connected to a waterfall that's right there by them.

Okay.

So you don't have to do— I mean, you could just drive. I mean, you could knock out 4 or 5 waterfalls you know, in 3 hours, just by driving and doing some short walking.

Um, yeah. And I, I think you, you made a good point of like, look, if, if you really want to do that sort of thing, it, it would make sense to go to AI, right? And say, hey, I want to experience waterfalls, but I really don't want to do a lot of hiking, or I can't do a lot of hiking. What are my options? Is it, you know, is there a way to do this? And it, it could put together a pretty good itinerary for you.

Oh, for sure.

Yeah.

You know, like it's, it's gonna take into one, if you've been using AI for a while, it's gonna know some of the things that you like already anyway.

Right.

It's gonna take that into account.

Sure.

In, in forming that, you know, unless you do like, hey, turn off my preferences thing.

Right.

Um, but that, that's probably not a great idea. I mean, I wouldn't, if, if, if that's what you're using it for, you want it to know as much about you in order to help you plan that trip.

Yeah, I just, I think that those are, those are really good ways to use AI, in my opinion. I mean, it knows more than, like, that's going to be a lot more intuitive than just going to Google and going, I want to do this. Google's just going to pull up a bunch of random stuff, random links for you to go.

Whoever's got like the best SEO on their restaurant or whatever.

Exactly. Yeah.

So it takes into it like, and you can even, you know, prompt it. with like your preferences. Like, hey, I wanna go do this. This is really important to me. I'm looking for something. And so it's gonna search through all that kind of stuff. And we were able to do a lot of that on the plane.

Sure.

Just 'cause we had Wi-Fi on the plane.

Yeah.

Um, it was, it is, it is rather fun when like, uh, the pilot is a friend and buddy. Oh, I didn't know that.

How'd you get that deal?

I, we, it was random.

Oh.

Like he, he called us and, uh, it was, this was actually on our way home. Um, his, his wife reached out and was like, are you flying at this time?

Oh, that's Portland.

And we're like, yeah. And she's like, oh, he's gonna be your pilot.

That's awesome.

And I was like, awesome. And that's nice. So we have never been attended to so well.

Oh, I bet. I bet. That's awesome.

Yeah.

Uh, just a, just a little AI advice. Mm-hmm. Um, if you were to do that, what I would say is just give it a, give it a pretty You don't have to prompt it too much. Sure. You can say, uh, you know, my wife and I are looking to go to this location. Mm-hmm. And do this thing, but we want to have a really good experience. Ask me questions that you need. Mm-hmm. Answers to in order to put together a really great itinerary for me. Right. So, You don't even have to prompt it with too much because it's going to say, well, what kind of activity level are you looking for? Do you have any dietary

restrictions? Are you interested in a certain type of food? Like, what kind of hotel do you like to stay in? And it will ask you all these questions. You just answer the questions and it'll spit you out something that you're going to go, that sounds fantastic.

Yeah. So a couple of things that we found helpful to tell it in, in doing that, when we told them it was our anniversary.

Yeah.

Um, we told it specifically what days we were gonna be there.

Mm-hmm.

And that, that ended up being really important because there's a lot of stuff that's just closed certain days. And so, sure, if you get all revved up to go do it, but then you decide to go do it on this day, well, it's closed that day.

Then you're sunk.

Yeah. And, and you get really disappointed. Yeah. All that kind of stuff. So I, I found those, you know, like, why are we here?

Mm-hmm.

What days are we here?

Yep.

And then like, honestly, from there it just kind of took it.

That's great.

Um, but that's because like my wife uses hers quite a bit.

Mm-hmm.

And it knows her really well.

Yep.

I use mine quite a bit. I use like 3 or 4 different ones now.

Yep.

Um, and they all know me and I'll actually get them to talk to each other. Sure.

Now.

And that I found that to be really helpful.

Yeah.

Um, so anyway, it was a good trip, man. I, I highly recommend, um, just an absolute gorgeous place. Um, a lot of weird stuff in Portland. If that's not your vibe, don't hang out in Portland. Don't go, go outside of Portland. Go somewhere else and go see what's pretty.

Yeah.

Um, again, not that Portland, Portland's a, it's a cool looking city. Yeah, it really is.

Mm-hmm.

Um, just not where I'd want to hang out most of the time.

Sure. Sure.

But things, things in the city, like, like I'd definitely go to the Kennedy School again.

Yeah. Sounds awesome.

I mean, because half, half the bars were closed just because it was a weekday when we went. Oh, okay. Which was nice because there was hardly anybody there.

Sure.

So we got to explore it.

Yeah. By ourselves for the most part. Yeah.

Makes sense. So anyway, very cool.

Very cool.

All right, let's hear it.

Well, I mean, we, I, I just got back from Disney World, which is not an uncommon place for me. Mm-hmm. To go. Um, probably the unique thing about this trip is I left my wife and kids at home. Mm-hmm. And it was just me and Eric that went. Uh-huh. Which first, a lot of people would be like, that's weird. It is. Yeah. But it's not at all. It's really not. We like, look, he and I have been best friends since we were, I was 6, he was 7.

Mm-hmm.

And once a year we like to get together and do stuff like hang out, spend a week together if we can, whatever. Or at least, you know, multiple days. And, uh, you know, we both really enjoy Disney and It's, it's something that can easily be done with, with 2 adults. No big deal.

Mm-hmm.

Um, I think, I think what there, that there is this misconception out there that like, oh, like you, you can only go to Disney if you have kids and enjoy it. And that's not true. I mean, there's tons of stuff to do at, in and around Disney that are not just kid-friendly.

Sure.

Um, especially if you enjoy eating and enjoy, you know, there's so many experiences outside of like riding the teacups, you know, that—

Did you ride the teacups?

No, I didn't. Okay. Um, for multiple reasons.

You butched it up a little with that one. So yeah.

Yeah. Uh, and, and on top of that, I think that there's this misconception that that ladies are, and girls are the only people that really like Disney. And that's also just not true.

Sure. And so, no, I love Disney. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. And so, uh, you know, we, we just went and the great thing is like, you can go at whatever pace you want to go at. I mean, if you want to move quickly, you don't have to worry about like, hey, small child, do you have to go to the bathroom right now? Can you do this without eating first? Like, You know, I don't have to get any other people ready for the day to get out the door. Like, do you have sunscreen on? Do you, you know?

Yeah.

Do I have all of the things in a backpack that you need? You know, I kid you not.

Like, if I got— If it's forgotten, it's nobody's fault but yours.

Right.

Yeah.

And you can deal with it. And I didn't even carry a backpack. I literally had, uh, in my pocket I had my cell phone.

Yeah. That was it, dude. That, that, okay. So that is like my dream day. I hate carrying a backpack. I do too.

I do too.

I've done it for years just because we've always taken the kids with us.

Yeah.

But, and like, I, I will like try, like, I, to me, that's almost worth, I don't even know if they do like the, the dining plan anymore.

They do.

Um, you can do it, but like, I never wanted to carry water.

No.

Or anything. I was just like, I'll get it when I'm thirsty.

Right.

I'll, I'll buy it.

Right. And you can do that. You can buy it if you want to. Now, there are a lot of places where you can just go up and ask for a cup of water and they'll give it to you. But yeah, I was just like, look, I, my, everything is, you don't need cash while you're there.

No.

So everything's cashless. You can pay with, I literally pay with my phone or my watch. Um, I've got a MagicBand on. I can, you know, tap into whatever I need to, as far as, you know, all my tickets are on there. My room key's on there. My, Lightning Lanes are on there. Everything's kind of just there. So I don't, yeah, I didn't have to have anything else. I'll tell you like, okay, well, let's, it was great.

Let's start with this. Where'd you guys stay?

Okay. So we stayed, so Eric, uh, has—

Don't tell me it was a Princess and the Frog room.

Well, no. Uh, those were unavailable. Um, no, he's, he's a DVC member, which is Disney Vacation Club, which is the Disney version of timeshare, but it's it's not a crappy timeshare. Like, they're really good. Yeah, it's one of the only timeshares that actually not only retains value but actually increases in value, which is not— timeshare and value are not typically put in the same sentence. No, uh, DVC is one of those.

But yeah, there's a reason there's entire law firms dedicated to getting people out of timeshares.

Oh yeah, oh yeah, absolutely. Um, we stayed at Wilderness Lodge.

Nice.

Uh, which is a Magic Kingdom resort. Mm-hmm. Um, it's not on the monorail loop, but it's accessible by boat.

I was gonna say, you can take the boat from there.

You can take the boat. And, um, we did that multiple times actually. So, uh, we stayed there and, uh, in the actual place we stayed was Copper Creek.

Oh, okay. So the newer—

well, Copper Creek's the older one.

Copper Creek's the older one.

Boulder Ridge is the newer one. Okay. And so you've got Wilderness Lodge, which is the, the main resort, resort. And then the Disney Vacation Club have 2 resorts there. It, it, they're all, they're all right there.

Are there cabins?

They, Boulder Ridge has cabins.

Okay.

And they've also got like another wing that, that is part of that.

Okay.

Uh, Copper Creek is more in the, the main lobby type area. Like literally we, Our rooms were up the elevator and around a corner. I mean, our room was right next to the elevator basically. So really, really nice place. It was a one-bedroom. So in the living room is a Murphy bed.

Yeah.

So I slept on the Murphy bed. Eric had the one-bedroom. There's nice big bathrooms, kitchen in there. Really nice room. Um, although we didn't spend much time there because we're— we, we, we had basically 4 days in the parks and we, we did pretty much everything. This was, this was a crazy trip in the fact that we, every day we did rope drop to close the park down every single day. Um, we were exhausted. We, In 4 days, we logged just under 45 miles.

Oh, dang.

Yeah, it was, it's a long, so, but a lot of movement.

You guys didn't have Park Hoppers, so you just did—

We did.

Oh, you did? Okay.

Yeah. Well, I wasn't going, Eric has a season pass. I wasn't going to do a Park Hopper because it's more expensive. Sure. But we had 2 very specific reasons. One, it was only $90 more to get a Park Hopper. So I was kind of like, look, that's to give me the opportunity to do some things. I felt like it was, it was worth it. Um, but one thing, like one of my very favorite attractions at Disney is at Epcot and it's Soarin'.

Okay.

I love Soarin'. I've always loved Soarin'. Well, they're, they're implementing a new show for Soarin' for the 250th anniversary of the United States, uh, called Soarin' Across America. Well, the day that we got there was the last day of that show. Oh. Before the last day of the old show, before they switched over to the new one. The new— so the ride was gonna be down for 2 weeks. And so We were not going to Epcot our very first day. Uh, it wasn't going to be the best day to go. Um, and so we went to Hollywood Studios the first day and wound up hopping over to Epcot just to ride Soarin'.

Did you do like the Skytram?

We did. We did the Skyliner over and then we rode a boat to go back. Okay. Um, over to Hollywood Studios, but we literally went over to Epcot to watch Soarin'. After ride soaring, we got dinner there or lunch, and then we went back over to Hollywood Studios. So it, you know, we used it for that. And then on our Animal Kingdom day, which is our last day, this was, this was our craziest day. Um, our last day we did Animal Kingdom. We rope dropped. We were done with that park. Like we were back on the bus to go back to the resort. at 12:15. Did the entire thing that we wanted, like everything. Well, because,

uh, the whole, you know, Dino Land, it's gone.

Yeah.

And it's completely closed. It's under construction. They're making it into a completely new area with Indiana Jones and Encanto. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A completely new area. So that's, that's closed down. Um, and so we did every, literally everything we wanted to do. We had Lightning Lanes and so it was, it went really quickly. And we went back to the resort for 3 hours. So about 3:30, we were, well, we had reservations at Cape May Cafe, uh, at 6 something, 6:30. And I've always wanted to eat at Cape May Cafe. It's an all-you-can-eat seafood, uh, buffet place. I've always wanted to eat there.

My wife— Where's it at?

It's at the Beach Club.

That's the Beach Club.

Okay. Um, and my wife doesn't really love seafood. She, she'll eat it, but it's not really her favorite. So I've never really been like, hey, let's do this. Um, but she wasn't with us, so we're like, let's do it. So about 3:30, we're like, we've been in the resort too long. We've just been hanging out. So we went over to Epcot and rode Spaceship Earth and then Living with the Land on our way to back to Cape May Cafe. And so we did 2 rides there, went to Cape May Cafe. After that, we went over to the Magic Kingdom. We'd already seen the fireworks, uh, earlier in our trip. And so we know that during the fireworks, a great time to get on some rides.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we, we did 6 different attractions from 8-ish to 11 when the park closed. So we, we got home about 11:30 that night. We got to Animal Kingdom at 7:15 that morning until 11:30 that night. So we, that was a long day.

So let me, let me ask you this because, um, you're, you're a good sport with like your family and kids.

Yeah.

I'm, I'm curious, is there something you've you were able to do on this trip that you haven't been able to do before? Like a ride maybe that you hadn't been able to ride because of them? Well, not necessarily because of them. Like, it's like they weren't telling you no, but like, you know.

Um, no, we, my, my kids are old enough at this point that they'll, they'll ride pretty much everything. Mm-hmm.

Um, but was there one you've never ridden before that you got to do?

No, I've, cuz I've ridden everything. Uh, multiple times. Um, but there, there were some new things that I really wanted to experience. Uh, they redid Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

Oh, is that done now?

It's completely done. It's different than what we thought we were gonna wind up getting, cuz they, they have some like explosions at the end of the one at Disneyland when they redid it. We thought we were getting that. Mm-hmm. Uh, but that's not what we got. We got something a little bit different at the end, but they completely redid the track. Oh, it is unbelievably smooth. Oh, which before, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was always kind of rickety.

Sure.

And it's just an older metal roller coaster, but this new one, it is smooth. In fact, they lowered the height restriction on it. Oh, and I think that was why, because they, they wanted more people to be able to experience it. Yeah, they made it smoother. Um, but they had some cool effects, uh, and everything was working really, really well. It's a, it's a beautiful ride. Um, and then the other, the other thing that was brand new that I'd not done is the new Zootopia: Better Zoogether, which is inside the Tree of Life.

Oh, where they replaced the bug thing.

Replaced, uh, yeah, It's Tough to Be a Bug. And it, it was really good. Um, as far as you know, what it is. There's a couple of really cool gags in it, but there was not much story to it. It was just kind of a— they just hopped from one— no, no pun intended, uh, hopped from one thing to another, and there wasn't really much cohesion to it. But, um, and then Remy's Ratatouille in Epcot, that used to be a 3D ride where you wore glasses, and they've removed that and it's now a 2D ride.

Oh.

And, and you would, yeah, I was kind of like, what are they doing? Like, why would you do that? But it was better. Oh, it, I, it was better. The, the, you know, sometimes whenever you do like 3D stuff, you got the glasses on, sometimes it's still kind of got that blur to it.

Sure.

It virtually eliminated the blur and they, they did some forced perspective stuff that made you, it made it feel like it was sort of like, uh, the Mickey Yeah, yeah, yes, but more screen heavy.

That one's not 3D, right?

It is not.

Okay, I didn't think so.

No, but there is perspective. Yeah, there are some screens in it that, that give you that, that sensation.

Um, are there any like 3D rides? I mean, like, is the, the Pandora one— it's still— I guess that's a 3D.

Yeah, I mean, you've, you've still got, uh, you've still got that. That's a 3D That's a 3D ride. I don't know how you get it done. Yeah, again, it makes me wonder, like, after what they did to, uh, to Remy's, if you could make it a not-3D ride, but I don't think it would be as good.

I don't think you could.

I don't think it would be as good.

So.

So. But... I mean, we literally—

But that's like the only one left, right? Pandora?

As far as the 3D? Yeah.

Right? So what is it called? What's that ride called?

Oh, Flight of Passage.

Flight of Passage. Thank you. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, there, there's some other 3D experiences. Like, one of them would be, uh, Toy Story Mania.

Oh yeah, the— yeah, the, the other one in Disney World, not 3D? Um, like, which one? It's like the Space Ranger.

Uh, oh well, so, so that's what the other one I was gonna say is Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin has, uh, been updated as well. It is not a— you, you don't wear 3D glasses on that. Oh, um, but it It's a much different experience, um, in that they've like, the blasters that you use used to be like stationary, but now it's like a, a gun that's on a—

Oh, it's like on a, on a rope or whatever.

Yeah. On a wire. And, uh, so you can move it around a little bit better, uh, which is really kind of handy cuz you like literally turn all the way around if you want to and get some stuff behind you. Um, things like that. So that was, That was some, some cool stuff that, that we normally wouldn't do. Uh, but I will tell you the thing that probably to answer your question, it's, it's a lot to do rope, rope drop to close every day.

Oh yeah.

And not go back and like take a nap. Um, we, I couldn't do that with my kids right now. Like they would, they, they just wouldn't make it. It is, it was tough. Like every, whenever you get back to the resort at like 11 o'clock and, but by the time you wind down, take a shower, all that kind of stuff.

Yeah.

It's midnight. And then you're getting up at 5:30 to rope drop the next day. Like that in and of itself, you're, you're really, you're really cutting into what most people can handle.

Here's my theory on this. I think most people struggle to do rope drop to close because they don't know how to relax in the park.

I would agree with that. You know, I, when you, if you go ride to ride to ride to ride to ride, then yeah, it's tough.

So, I mean, well, even, even if you like ride to ride to ride, but like if you just take a moment, like when my, when my, my wife and I have gone by ourselves twice.

Mm-hmm.

Um, now we were much younger. Sure. When we, when we did that, but I feel like we could still do it now. Um, but like we would take time to like in the middle of the day, like siesta at a restaurant, you know, and like drink and just enjoy ourselves. Most people just can't do that. Yeah.

Well, because you feel like there's, there's, you're missing something. I spent all this money, you know, but, but honestly, there's something nice about just sitting there and taking in. Yeah. The atmosphere.

It's like one of our favorite, it's like part of our ritual of going to the, like, even now, like when we go with our kids, like we will like, hey, we're gonna stop and we're gonna eat.

Mm-hmm.

We're gonna enjoy ourselves. Yep. We're not gonna rush through this. Like we all know what we're here for.

Yeah.

We're not gonna miss anything.

Yeah.

You know, like we, and we let everybody like pick. It's like, okay, what do you, what's one thing you don't wanna miss?

Mm-hmm.

And we will absolutely do that thing. Yeah. Other than that, let's play it by ear. Sure. Um, but like that freaks some people out.

It does.

Like they need a schedule. Yeah. They need all this. And I was like, I don't care. care. Yeah.

And it is, it is one of the things with Disney that like, if you don't have a plan, mm-hmm, you can really feel like you got gypped because a lot of people don't realize how much, especially how different it is.

Like if you've never been, it used to be, and you feel like this is my shot, this is my one time. I, I, I get that. Yep. But like at the same time, dude, enjoy it.

Yeah. And I, I would say, or don't go, or don't go, or don't go. Yeah.

Really?

Because It really, I actually didn't see one this time, but I, a lot of times you'll see shirts there. It's like most expensive day ever.

Right.

And I'm like, really? Everybody knows that's true, but you don't like, you're just—

So you had to add onto the cost by making a tacky t-shirt, right?

You're just, you're just like blatantly telling people, I wish I wasn't here. Right. You know? And it's like, you, you're making choices everywhere. Mm-hmm. And you're here, so why don't you enjoy it? So. I would say this, like either A, recognize that you're going to go multiple times. And so you don't have to do everything.

Yeah.

You just don't. So go fewer days.

Well, just, I think I'll go knowing that it's impossible to do everything.

You know, you can't. There are still things that I've never done. We did, we did 2 experiences that one, one that I would say, are you talking about this trip? Yeah. One that I would say maybe wouldn't do with my family. And the other one, probably not.

What were they?

Um, so, well, before I get there, let me tell you, say this. Okay. The other thing I would say is like, the other way to enjoy Disney is to spend, like, add a day or two to your trip so that you can rest.

Which is typically pretty, pretty cheap to do.

The longer, and I know this sounds counterintuitive, but honestly, the longer you stay there, the cheaper it is.

Tickets.

Tickets-wise, like you're gonna, like you're still gonna spend more money.

Yeah.

But per day, it, it winds up being more economical per day.

Yeah. It doesn't get any cheaper at the resort.

No, it doesn't.

If you're staying at the, if you're staying at a resort. Right. Um, but yeah, the tickets get way cheaper. Yeah.

So, uh, the 2 things that we did, one, there's a new, um, there's a new bar experience there, uh, at Pirates of the Caribbean called Beacon Barrel.

Okay.

And it is a, it is a cool experience in there. Okay. Uh, you, first of all, you have a 2-drink maximum and a 45-minute maximum. Oh, they, you're gonna be in there and be out. But in that 45 minutes, a lot happens.

Okay.

Like I can show you a video, one of the, uh, just crazy. Um, you, you look over, there's like a, a fireplace with a mantle, and on top of the mantle, there are 2 ships in a bottle. Mm-hmm. At one point during the experience, they get into a fight with each other and they're shooting cannons back and forth.

Oh, that's fun.

And one of them sinks in the, like, disappears into the bottle.