BenSpark Family Adventures

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02457 Well, I've gone through all of my comic books over the past several weeks and I've determined that over 40 years of collecting I am missing 40 comic books in m collection. So, the hunt has begun to fill in those gaps. So, I'll be visiting comic book shops in the area and trying to find those hard to find books. There have been times when my shop didn't pull a particular comic and I missed that. There were other times when I was just a kid and couldn't get to a comic book shop on a regular basis to find the books for my collection. The biggest gap is in my original Transformers comic book collection. Those were from when I was 10-14 years old. The hardest time to stay consistent in collecting. These are also some of the hardest to find books out there. The final issue goes for around $40. That's crazy but I'll keep looking.  This shop was in Putnam, CT and was about an hour ride. It was worth the ride because it was such a nice store ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02441 The second day of the convention is the relaxed day. Eva had a very simple cosplay today as Adaine from Fantasy High. As we walked around together there were three people that recognized the character. Eva had made three special bottle cap buttons and gave them to the three people.  after our breakfast at the bookstore down the street we came back tot he convention as it began. We decided to load upt he car and then went across the street to the SNHU center for the other part of the convention. There were things like the Big Dumb Robot convention where people displayed robots that they had fabricated with 3D printers and other materials. There were some amazing ones there, too. Down on the floor of the arena were additional vendors. Eva found a tea to try and I picked up a set of books signed by the author and we even found some figures that andy likes to put together. They are called Eugy figures and they are made from cardboard or wood pieces that you glue ...

Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02440 This morning Eva and I headed up to New Hampshire for the Granite State Comicon. This is an event that we attend together every year and each year we have more fun. This year Eva worked so hard on a cosplay costume that really spoke to her. She is cosplaying as a character from her favorite book, The spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White. Her character is that of Silas Bell. Eva spent months designing the costume from the ground up. From working on the pattern to making mock ups to embroidery to so many other details too numerous to mention. Eva did an outstanding job. This was the first time participating in the contest since 2018. This year Eva met a number of other cosplayers and made some new friends. Eva also got to catch up with several of friends that they made over the past few years. Eva's friends also participated in the contest. While none of them won any of the prizes they did have great experiences. Eva and I arrived close to 10am and too...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02392 We are up in New Hampshire today visiting Allison’s brother and his family as well as Allison’s parents and her uncle Tom. We’re there for Allison’s parents’ 50th wedding Anniversary. We drove up this morning and met everyone on Market Street in Portsmouth. There we wandered the shops. Andy found a very cool pocket watch that is actually a holder for tiny D&D dice. Eva and Allison also found a few things. after our adventure on Market Street we went to Nate’s house for a cookout. We enjoyed a very nice meal and the kids hung out with their cousins a bit. We had a nice time and Andy played with the dog a bit. Then we went to our hotel room for the night. We stayed at a local Courtyard and We split up the beds to have Eva with Allison and Andy with me. Andy repeatedly whacked me in the back as they flailed in the night. A very active sleeper.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02186 For our final day at Disney we went to The Magic Kingdom. Most of the family was going there and were going to take photos with the bride and groom near the castle but we did not end up doing that. We did, however go to The Haunted Mansion. Eva really wanted to go to that attraction. We also did It’s A Small World and several others. One of the attractions we went on was the Laugh Factory Floor which was a Monsters Inc themed attraction and I got singled out as “that guy”. Every time there was a punchline of a joke they’d put me on screen and say That Guy. It was pretty funny and the kids loved it.they were laughing like crazy. At the end of the show I was given a sticker that said, “I was That Guy at the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor”. So that was fun. We caught up with The bride and groom at the end of the day and had lunch with them. Then we got a bus back tot he hotel and headed back to Dan and Marcia’s. While we were in the park we found more shoulder pals ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02185 Tonight is the wedding reception but for the day we decided to get tickets to go to Hollywood studios because we had never seen Galaxy’s Edge before and I really wanted to see it. We were able to get on one ride, the Smuggler’s Run and that was a decent ride but we could not get anywhere near Rise of the Resistance unless we wanted to start paying extra for special passes. But we explored the park for a bit and went to two attractions. The park is just so cramped. We also saw Muppet’s 3D which is a great little show to see plus there is virtually no wait for it and we were tired and cranky so that was good to do for a bit. We got some lunch and then searched for a special little shoulder pal for Andy. Andy wanted to find the Remy shoulder pal from Ratatouille. We were able to find him in one of the emporiums and Andy wore that for most of the rest of the trip. When we were in Galaxy’s Edge we wanted to get some of the blue milk but found out that it wasn’t ...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02183 On our second full day at The Villages we did some shopping and at night went over to one of the town centers for their live music. There was supposed to be vendors there as well but that did not happen. The music was good but it was a bit chilly so we did not stay long. We went home and enjoyed more of the cake from Allison’s birthday.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02182 We’re in Florida for a few days for my cousin’s wedding and before we head down to Disney to celebrate we’re spending a couple days with Allison’s parents in The Villages. Allison and I took a walk around the neighborhood this morning and then I went for a longer walk because I have been trying to do 10,000 steps a day whenever I can. Walking around The Villages is nice because there are so many walking trails around and the weather is pretty warm so I didn’t need to bundle up. Tonight we celebrated Allison’s upcoming birthday. Her parents got her a great big cake and we had a meatballs and pasta for dinner. We would not go hungry all week. The day was pretty relaxed, we did not go far from the house. Allison and Eva and Marcia went for a ride on the Golf Cart but otherwise we stayed put.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #02181 Today began or trip to Florida for my cousin’s wedding reception at Disney as well as a few days of visiting with Allison’s parents. Two years ago the family went to Florida for the Christmas holiday and we had a heck of an adventure coming back because we had to drive home, unexpectedly and unplanned. Southwest had cancelled a ton of flights including ours. Well, because of that we had some credits on Southwest and so when making pans for this trip we were able to use those as well as a SouthWest credit card to get our flights there and back for the whole family for under $500, total. I had to pick some pretty wacky and somewhat inconvenient flight times but we were able to do it. We landed in Orlando a bit after 10pm and were able to get to Allison’s parents’ place before the ball dropped for the New Year. Now we have about a week in somewhat warmer weather than home.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01937 I had the weekend off so that Allison and I could go to Foxwoods to see the comedian, Drew Lynch. I got tickets for Allison for her birthday. We started off the morning with Andy making us breakfast. Andy made eggs to order. In the afternoon Allison and I drove to Mystic and walked around the shopping area there. We tried to do to the older area of town but could not find a parking spot. So, instead we went to the shops which were fun. Then we went to the Shunock River Brewery. They make their own beers and also have a wood fire pizza oven. The pizza was excellent and we also enjoyed some pretzels. The comedy show was fun. There were two openers who were not that good but the main comedian was so much fun. We really enjoyed his set.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01458 On our second day of road tripping back from Florida we got up and on the road around 6am. We were going to go to Richmond and have breakfast with one of Allison’s friends but she wasn’t feeling well and wouldn’t be getting up early enough to meet us. So, we went to Richmond and turned left across the state of Virginia toward Route 81 in Pennsylvania. We did have some time in the morning for a few shenanigans with the broken pullout couch. I discovered a missing spring and nearly fell through the thing while I was putting on my shoes. Andy went fully through it because he’s Andy. We were trying to make it to another Cracker Barrel close to 81 but nature called sooner than that so we pulled off and went to an IHOP about 30 minutes from the Cracker Barrel. The kids had never been to an IHOP before and they enjoyed the various syrups that they could have on their pancakes. We went 81 to cut out route 95 in Washington and Maryland. It added more time to our tri...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01457 Because our flight was cancelled by SouthWest and our rescheduled flight would have been 5 days after the original one we decided to drive home from Florida. We were luckier than most people in our situation. We had a place to stay for free. We weren’t at the airport wondering how we would get home and we were able to get a free car to use to drive home. No rentals needed. We packed up all of our stuff and got the kids situated in the back seat with all the drinks and snacks. Eva had her giant blanket with her to cover up and Andy had plenty of entertainment on his Switch and iPad to keep him occupied. We left the house about 6am and got right on the road. We drove for a few hours and stopped to fill up the tank. We tried not to stop too often but had to stop a few times for bathroom breaks and to stretch our legs. We were trying to get to the Buc-ees for lunch. ?We had heard a lot of things about it but once we got there it was entirely too overwhelming fo...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01456 We should be getting on a flight home tonight but ours was cancelled. We had made plans with friends of Mimi and Dano’s to bring us to the airport. Our plan was to go to dinner in Celebration and then go to the airport for our flight. Well, despite not having a flight we decided to go to Celebration for dinner anyway. We went to the Columbia Restaurant and it was excellent. After dinner we caught up with my Aunt and Uncle who live in Celebration. We got ice cream from Kilwins. They have fantastic ice cream there. We enjoyed our ice cream and chatted with my relatives. Then we explored downtown celebration. there is a christmas tree in downtown Celebration and they make it snow around the tree a few times during the night. They even have ice skating and other activities. there were horse drawn carriages and even a little train that people could ride. We decided that we would drive Dano’s car back to Massachusetts rather than wait for the rescheduled flight o...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01455 We woke up this morning to the news that our flight home was cancelled. We were supposed to catch a flight home on Wednesday but Southwest has cancelled 5200 flights in the past few days. I had not been worried about our flight being cancelled because there was no significant weather happening at home. Apparently, that was not the major factor in the cancellations. I was able to rebook us on a flight on January 2nd instead. After that news I was happy that we had donuts from Donut King to enjoy today. Here are the ones that we selected. I had the lemon donut. It was delicious. We did some more playing and exploring in the Villages today. We went on nature walkover by Mimi and Dano’s house. Then we played some shuffleboard and we had lunch at the marketplace which is the closest village square near them. Inside there were a few food options and we picked up pizza, some calamari and Andy had a hot dog. The pizza was fantastic and the calamari very tasty. We e...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01454 Today we went and explored Mount Dora. This town has some interesting shops and fun stuff to see. We had lunch at the Salted Fry and found an interesting bookstore. Andy and Eva each got some books to read. Eva picked out Frankenstein and also a collection of Ray Bradbury stories. I hope that she enjoys both books. This morning we also went to the mini golf area near Mimi and Dano’s. We played 10 holes before heading out to Mount Dora. On the way home we stopped at Donut King and picked up a dozen donuts. Donut King makes the donuts for Disney. They were really good and the box was huge! I could not believe that a dozen donuts from them was under $15, either.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01453 Our first Christmas in Florida. We got up and enjoyed some cinnamon rolls and then opened our stockings. The kids got Fitzy’s letter and enjoyed reading it. Andy decorated the cinnamon rolls with gum drops because we had gum drops. We watched the Christmas Mass Eve at our church back home last night. I had forgotten to mention that in yesterday’s post. For Christmas we had a bunch of snacks out, opened gifts, enjoyed a great meal and hot chocolate and more Christmas movies. Dano and Mimi’s friend Mark came for dinner. Andy got along very well with him and enjoyed talking with him. It was a very nice day filled with some fun moments and lots of great food. The kids had a great time opening their gifts. Fitzy even snuck in one gift for Andy. When we were at Cracker Barrel Andy saw a tiny Bob Ross figure and asked if he could get it. I had already seen it and picked it up for him for Christmas so I told him no. He was unhappy with that but he didn’t make a fus...

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01452 For Christmas Eve we continued to do some baking and preparing for Christmas day. We hung out at the house for the day and in the later afternoon we started watching Christmas specials and enjoying the Mikey Mouse shaped cookies that I picked up when we were at Disney Springs. We may have run to the store again, too. Andy is having fun here and enjoying hanging out on the front porch. This was his get off my lawn pose. Later in the evening we all got into our family pajamas and took photos by the tree. We watched A Christmas Story, A Charlie Brown Christmas and I think the Elf on the Shelf Christmas movie, too. We may have watched Home Alone during the day as well. Before Bed Allison wrote out the yearly letter from Fitzy to the kids. We put out some cookies for Santa and went to bed.

  Photo-A-Day 2.0 #01451 On our first full day at Mimi and Dano’s we did a few things. Mimi, Allison and I went to the store to buy food for Christmas. Dano took the kids on a golf cart adventure and both kids got to drive the golf cart in a big parking lot. Eva enjoyed it, Andy was a bit hesitant about it. Driving a golf cart certainly takes some getting used to. Fitzy not only made the trip to Disney but he also arrived at Mimi and Dano’s to the delight of Andy. Andy is still into this Elf on the Shelf he was so happy that Fitzy came along with us. We went to one of the Villages main squares to do some shopping but also to visit Allison’s old boss from American Eagle. She works in a quirky little store in one of the villages. I forget which one we were at, however. I got some new shoes and We also got some ice cream despite there being cooler temperatures than usual in Florida. We also stopped by a Starbucks and Andy got a reindeer cake pop. We got back to the house and Allison, ...