Although July did not have as much chaotic travel as June, it was still too much for one post. We were home most of the month, with the exception of a quick staycation for William’s birthday at a Disney resort and one week solo to Boulder Colorado for a PD on the Mongols in East Asia. The first trip was a family one + my parents and I went alone to the Mongol PD. To make it easier on Will as primary parent, William did a summer camp at KidStrong from 9:00-2:30pm with our neighbor’s kid.
Read more: Monthly Round Up: July – at home
What We are Doing
The Disney staycation was pretty low key, all things considering, but still required careful planning on my part. We had to sandwich it in between swim lessons Thursday morning and soccer Saturday morning. So right after swim lessons we all drove over to Art of Animation for a one night stay in a Nemo-themed family suit. I learned that you can get in free to a Disney waterpark on day of check in but we decided to do the hotel pool instead (the boys are a little too young to make the waterpark worth it). It was a very hot day but we had a blast! Then at 4pm we all showered and got dressed for dinner reservations at the T-Rex Cafe in Disney Springs. William is very into gemstones and rocks right now so, with birthday money given by an aunt, we let him pick out a geode and crack it. Secondly, with birthday money from another aunt, he bought something out from the Lego store – carefully steered by Will to something useful and not stupidly expensive (this is the closest thing I can find to what he got).
Day 2 was dubbed “transportation day”: skyliner from Art of Animation to Riviera Resort, bus from Riviera to the Magic Kingdom entrance, the ferry from Magic Kingdom to the Polynesian, then after lunch/drinks/ afternoon snack, we took the Monorail back to the Magic Kingdom entrance to get on a bus back to our starting point to go home. I had budgeted for two FULL days, but by 3pm on day 2 we were wiped out and the boys fell asleep in the car on the way home. Note: you used to be able to go resort hopping easily as a local but now Disney has that on lock down. You have to be a guest in a resort or have a dinner reservation to be able to get on the resort busses from Disney Springs. I don’t blame them.
I will do a more in depth post on the Mongols in East Asia summer institute but I had a blast and learned a lot! The people on these programs are always what makes the time learning memorable; this was a very charismatic group and we made the most of our week. In addition to the organized program 8:30am-4:00pm, we also got together both before and after class. One morning I even woke up at 5am to do a local natural walk! My cousin lives nearby so this was a perfect opportunity to see him and my aunt out visiting for the summer. He both picked me up from Sunday midday mass to take me to Boulder and picked me up 2 afternoons for local adventures. One afternoon he drove me to the breathtaking St. Catherine of Siena Chapel at St. Malo’s Camp (JPII visited while in Denver for World Youth Day in 1993), then we had dinner in Estes Park within view of the famous Stanley Hotel from The Shining. By the end of the week, I was very ready to go home, both because I missed my boys and I was tired of college dorm life.
Read more: Travel Tips: Preparing for an Extended Summer Program
What We are Cooking Eating
Willian’s Disney Birthday Trip:
- Art of Animation cafeteria brought poolside
- Birthday dinner at the T-Rex Cafe in Disney Springs
- Day 2 we ordered breakfast for the boys at the cafeteria then took the skyliner to Le Petit Café in Disney’s Riviera Resort for breakfast for the rest of us; in the afternoon we ate at the Polynesian Resort at Capt. Cook’s, drinks at Trader Sam’s & a sweet treat at the Pineapple Lanai
East Asia under Mongol Dominance Summer PD:
- The program provided breakfast, lunch and dinner at the University of Colorado cafeteria and each meal was amazingly delicious! In addition to the cafeteria, we had a catered meal from Tocabe with musical performance by Ajnai Ensemble and had a culminating dinner at Sherpa’s Adventure Restaurant.
- Although we had free meals, I went out after the end of the day to explore the local area too: The Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse, Pearl Street Pub & Cellar, Fuji Cafe & Bar, Poppy’s Pizza & Grill in Estes Park (my cousin drove me out there), Mountain Sun Pub & Brewery, and Postino. This looks like a lot for one week, but I swear I didn’t spend that much money!
What We are Reading/Watching/Listening To
The culmination of this month was finishing the ginormous binder for my Mongol Summer Institute; what a sense of accomplishment when that was done! During our summer institute, we were given a picture book Warrior Princess: The Story of Khutulun by Sally Deng; I read it to the books when I returned. While traveling to Colorado, I was working through two books that I finished the last week of July at home: 1. audiobook of Empire of the Dawn (last in a trilogy by Jay Kristoff) & a physical book Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
Read more: TEA-NCTAsia East Asia under Mongol Dominance: Reading List
JMF
