BenSpark Family Adventures

Photo-A-Day #02778 Today we took a trip around Rhode Island to see the Trolls that were created by artist Thomas Dambo. There are 5 of them in Rhode Island and we've seen 2 of them before on a previous adventure, but today we decided that as one of the last big family adventures before College and High School we'd take this trip. You can get to each of the trolls pretty easily and see them all in one day. There are 4 stops because two trolls are at one of the stops.  We decided to drive out to the Troll that was furthest from us. That would be Young Boulder. The map we had said to put the actual GPS coordinates into your map program and that saved us from a very long walk to find this guy.  Andy decided that they would be getting as close as possible to each troll for a photo. Not climbing on it or anything, very respectful, just getting close to each one. At each stop Eva took out their sketchbook and did a quick sketch of each troll. Then took a reference photo to finish the...

  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...