August 5, 2016 - Summer Olympics in Rio and A California Adventure Recap

Elisa's Daily Scoop
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HAPPY FRIDAY!!

Did this first week of August go by in a snap, or what!!

I will say, however, it was relaxing and for the most part, the weather was lovely.

Yesterday, in particular, was magnificent!  Temps in the high 70's, low humidity and gorgeous sunshine.

The girls made tremendous progress yesterday on their summer homework.

Since they each completed two our the three assignments respectively, they began working on their third.

My goal is for them to have everything 100% finalized by next week so the remainder of their summer is free from school work.

I gave them some incentive too ... they want to see four of their barn friends compete in a riding show this coming Sunday.  My directive to them was that if all work was done, we could go.

Of course, it means i have to get out of the house and on the road by 7am on a Sunday! But, if they do their part, I'll take them.

Swimming away (c)travelincousins.com

Water Handstands (c)travelincousins.com

Our late afternoon yesterday was spent at the community pool for a dip.  It is really the best time to go since most of the day people have cleared out and area heading home for dinner.

So, the pool was pretty empty and the girls were able to practice their back flips and handstands.


Wanna take a little trip with me down to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where the Summer Olympics are being held?

Tonight is Opening Night!!

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (credit: gohouse.com)

Just a little about "Rio"...
Rio de Janeiro is a large seaside city in Brazil, famous for its Copacabana and Ipanema beaches.

One of the most iconic sites is the Christ the Redeemer statue, which stands 38 meters high   atop Mt. Corcovado.  

Sugarloaf, another famed destination is a granite monolith with cable cars to its summit.  Its raucous Carnival festival, featuring parade floats, flamboyant costumes and samba, is considered the world’s largest.

In an effort to celebrate the start of the Olympics, I wanted to tell you all some fun facts about this year's games in particular.  

As I was researching, I actually found an amazing article from Sports Inside featuring - 16 - YES - 16 FACTS ABOUT THE OLYMPIC GAMES 2016 IN RIO DE JANEIRO!!!

So, why re-invent the wheel?  I am going to para-phrase Mr. Frederik Mueller from his November, 2015 article:

1. The Summer Olympic Games 2016 will take place from 5th to 21st August in Rio de Janeiro.

2. The opening and the closing ceremony will take place in the Maracanã Stadium.

3. It will be the first Olympic Games ever held in South America.

4. Up until today, the Summer Olympics have been held 27 times (6 editions in North America, 16 in Europe, 3 in Asia and 2 in Oceania).

5. The first Olympic Games (Olympic Games of the antiquity) were held in 776 in Olympia (Greek) and the first Olympic Games of the modern era in 1896 in Athens (Greek).

6. 10,500 athletes from 205 different countries will take part in the Summer Olympics 2016.

7. 306 competitions in 42 different sports will be held in 17 days.

8. Golf (returning after 112 years) and Rugby (returning after 92 years) will be the “new” sports of the Olympic Games.

9. There will be 33 different venues in four different districts of Rio de Janeiro (Copacabana, Barra de Tijuca, Deodoro and Maracanã).

10. A few of the football competitions will not only be held in Rio de Janeiro, they will be hosted by Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Salvador and São Paulo.

11. 7.5 million tickets were available for this event.

12. Ticket prices range from 40 Brazilian Real ($12.50) to 4,600 Brazilian Real ($1441).

13. The total costs of the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro will mount up to 37.6 billion Brazilian Real ($11.8 billion).

14. Up until 2016, there were 45 events held to test the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2016.

15. There will be an estimate 8,000 employees, 85,000 third party employees and 45,000 volunteers working for the Olympic Committee Rio 2016.

16. The slogan of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro is Viva sua paixão (Live your passion).

For scheduling and more information, visit www.olympic.org/rio-2016.

Tanya's Daily Scoop
NEXT TRIP DEPARTS IN: 11 DAYS

A California Adventure Recap

​Is it Friday ALREADY?

Apparently the week really flew by for both Elisa and I, and it's time for yet another weekend...
Hey, I'm not complaining!

In fact, I'm gonna be heading up to LA today for a little stay-cation but, well...
I'm not even packed yet! YIKES 8-O

Obviously I have no choice but to get this done here within the next few hours. It's definitely not a major packing job, but I'm also not a fan of throwing together a few tee shirts and shorts - unless I'm heading on a National Park Trip during the summer...which was last weekend's trip!

The big packing event for Europe takes place next week. 

I really couldn't get anything accomplished yesterday because the entire day was spent at Disney's California Adventure Park.
 
There was a mess of traffic getting over there, yet somehow we made it exactly at the call time...unlike a number of others.

​I'm not a fan of people being late, so I myself try to get places early, and even before the actual time/appointment/etc. 
I'm also not very patient with people who are late - not to say that I don't allow for a grace period, but yesterday there was one family who didn't arrive until almost 2 hours late!!! GASP

Lucky for them (and I don't blame the kids/ambassadors) that I'm not the director. Because when it's my plan, I'll only wait so long for you and then I continue on with my plans and leave you behind. 

Can you believe they showed up 2 hours late?!
And not only that, but lied about where they were on the occasions that we contacted them while the entire group of timely folks just stood around waiting!
UGH can you tell how annoyed I get at stuff like this?
It really shows such a lack of disrespect for all other parties involved.

Okay enough about that.

So we arrived at the park, met up with our group/choir, went backstage - my first time backstage at any Disney Park...and it totally DID NOT live up to my expectations.

Almost ready to enter the park (c)travelincousins.com

I was expecting a hustling bustling world of behind the scenes - when it was very much not anything like that and was rather BORING - sorry absolutely no pictures were allowed.

After the kids all got changed into their costumes it was time for them to take the stage.

Going on stage (c)travelincousins.com

Going on stage (c)travelincousins.com

Sister and Brother Duet (c)travelincousins.com

Time for the Tarantella (c)travelincousins.com

International Peace Choir (c)travelincousins.com

And as you can imagine, once they began singing 'It's a Small World', it drew the attention of every passerby to pull up a seat and watch the performance...what really shocked the crowd was when our IPC Ambassadors sang the iconic song in 9 languages!

Great job kids! 

And once the show was over, and they changed back out of their costumes, it was time to hit the rides (and the lines). ​

Time to go ride (c)travelincousins.com

A Roaring Rapids good time! (c)travelincousins.com

Heading to more rides...(c)travelincousins.com

Goofy's Coaster (c)travelincousins.com

California Adventure (c)travelincousins.com

Goofy kids (c)travelincousins.com

Ride after ride we rode, and somewhere in there also squeezed in watching the new Frozen LIVE - which was quite entertaining with great backgrounds and amazing costumes! 

Frozen LIVE (c)travelincousins.com

Frozen LIVE (c)travelincousins.com

Frozen LIVE (c)travelincousins.com

No expense was spared and it was fun for the whole family - not just wee little girlies.

In fact, the group of BIG KIDS that I was chaperoning couldn't stop laughing, had a fabulous time in the show and really found the Weselton character absolutely HILARIOUS!!

Good times (c)travelincousins.com

The afternoon then led into the evening and us continuing from ride to ride until the park closed, and even at that time we still weren't done - it was time to watch the water and light show 'World of Color'.

Fun Day! (c)travelincousins.com

We're a wee bit wet (c)travelincousins.com

World of Color (c)travelincousins.com

World of Color (c)travelincousins.com

All in all we had an excellent day filled with laughter and spent with friends. Good times and great memories were made! 

Once it was time to leave, we were pretty much soaked, and after 16,757 steps (7.19 miles and several hours) the soles of my feet we a bit beat - I also wasn't exactly wearing shoes with much (or any) padding, and so much for my hair - that turned out to be a disaster!

The kids were also rather pooped - especially Cosette. I had to remind her that this was only a warm up...
Our Florida Parks trip is going to be this times 10!

As you know, today I have to still unpack and then pack right back up again, do a bit of cleaning, get some work on the computer taken care of, take Cosette to her horseback riding lesson, and then also take her to the other stables to visit and care for Dream. Yup it's a 2 stables type of day.
I'd also like to hit the gym, heavens knows I had no time to do that yesterday.

So I better get crackin'!!! 

Check out Elisa's SCOOP - full of info about the olympics.
I'm a HUGE HUGE HUGE Olympic fan, and going to the Olympics is something that I've always wanted to do.
It's definitely on my list, but I'm also very particular about the location of which I would like to watch the Olympics, and my preference would be the winter games.

This year the games are taking place in Rio de Janeiro - another location on my list of places to go! So I do at least hope to catch some of the games and ceremonies on the boob tube.

Okaaaaay I've got a busy day ahead - see y'all tomorrow,
​-T