August 14, 2026
There are a couple of advantages to staying at a Disney property. One, which we never actually used this trip, is early entry to the parks. The other is hotel specific character interactions. In the past, when we stayed at the Santa Fe, we often saw Pluto against a Route 66 background. Here, the background was wilderness and that first morning, our character was Donald Duck.
We’d discovered earlier in the trip that the autograph book Monki had bought specifically for this trip had been left at home. Therefore, while Rasa waited in line, Monki and I went into the nearby giftshop to find a new autograph book and a special pen for signings. We made it back in time for Monki to get her first autograph and some great pictures with Donald. We also started our Photopass. Doing research, we’d been told to get a temporary Photopass card and at the end, if there were enough photos to make it worthwhile, then upgrade. So that’s what we did.
The next three days were a blur of seeing friends and doing things around the house with the parents.
This is incredibly cool! Due to the cyclical nature of, you know, the laws of the physical universe, there are only a handful of different variations on the annual calendar. It so happens that this year, 2015, matches up perfectly with 1981. 1981 when Marvel comics put out an absolutely brilliant calendar featuring all their heavy hitters.
I think, somewhere deep in the bowels of Hollywood, there’s a guidebook for the third installment of superhero movies. It says you have to take everything good from the first two films and since it worked, you add more of it. You make it bigger, better and more overdone. Unfortunately, Sam Raimi received a copy of this guide and held to it while making the latest installment of the incredibly successful Spider-Man franchise. 
Getting the Hang of Thursdays 