This year, the band journied to Disney World to perform, and it was awesome. We played in Epcot one morning, and spent the rest of the week running around in the parks and just having a blast. Here's a condensed version of my trip to the "happiest place on earth".

The trip was an absolute joy and a lot of the really memorable moments happened outside of the park, be it on the bus on the way down, at our hotel, at the Friendly's next door, the Mercado shopping plaza, or the Golden Corral. What you'll see here are snapshots from Disney only. It's just a tiny scrap of a wonderful vacation, but it's what I've got to share. And not in any real order.

This is Andy and Lisa hunching up on a monkey carving outside the Bug's Life show in Animal Kingdom. The show was really awesome. You get stinked by a stink bug, squirted by a poisonous spider, stung by a bee, and insects crawl under your rear-end. It's great.

This is in Epcot, the day we performed. From left to right we have: Lisa, Ali, BJ, Nate, Justin, Tiffany, and Shawn, I believe (I don't really know him). Lisa, Ali, and I had just come out of the Japanese pavillion where we heard one of the songs we had performed (we did a ten song set from all these different countries and our Japanese song--aptly titled "Japanes Tune"--happened to be playing in the gift shop while we were in there. It was weird). The three of us were hanging out and the other five were too and we ran into each other (it's amazing how many people we actually managed to run into in a park that big...it's kind of cool) and I took a few pictures. BJ was running around pretending he had sun stroke and using a hillbilly accent and had all of us laughing.

Nate then took a group picture with me in it, and everyone else had exactly the same pose except for Lisa and Ali, and I was new in the pictures, so here we are.

Okay, I think just about every girl has a picture somewhere of themselves and two other girls being Charlie's Angels: here's mine. It's Kim, Sunshine, and I in the gift shop outside the Extra TERRORestrial ride in the Magic Kingdom. We played with the wigs for a good twenty minutes, and then we got Zack to snap some pictures us off posing. I would've bought the blonde wig, but the red hat that was attached to it was just too ugly to pay for.

Here's Ethan in his trademark bright green shirt. When Zack, Kim, Sunshine, and I were in line for the Big Thunder Mountain coaster we looked out the window (we heard Lisa screaming from the ride--her voice is distinctive and it carries) and suddenly we see this flash of green and we're all like, "There's Ethan!" Anyway, this particular picture was taken just outside the Magic Kingdom. Our band was trying to decide if we wanted to go back to the hotel or not (it's a fun place, but after six hours, it gets to a be a little bit much. Though Jon enjoyed it...he stayed late and rode Space Mountain four consecutive times at 10p.m.).

This is from the "safari" in Animal Kingdom. I hated it. It was so cheap, so Disney, I couldn't stand it. Instead of just driving around and showing you animals, they had to throw in some "stunts" like a "shaking bridge" and "poachers" and stupid shit like that. It made me so mad. If you go there, skip the safari. The rest of Animal Kingdom is a lot better.

Another picture from the safari, and this one's of hippos. There was one funny moment on the ride. Our driver was telling us about this bird that could grow to be five feet tall or something, and Ali suddenly exclaims, "That's taller than you, Lisa!" And the driver started laughing so hard he had to shut off his microphone.

This was sort of an accident. Once again, Lisa, Ali, and I were walking around and we ran into another group of people we knew. We started talking and Sarah got bored with it or something (she's the girl in the white tank top and red skirt) and sat down on this fake pile of ice near the Coke pavillion. This Disney employee spotted that and told us all to get up there and he'd take our picture. From left to right on the top row we have Elisabeth, Lisa, Ali, and I. On the bottom, we have Melissa, Sarah, and Ellen.

Okay, this is me looking like I'm trying to do karate or something but I was just attempting to get my camera back from Lisa. That's Kyle with photoshock in the background. The bikini top I'm wearing fluoresces under black light, and Disney is damn fond of black lights. The Enchanted Tiki Room (something Sunshine made us go into, and it's SO cool. Highly reccommended), The Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain...so I had glowing boobs all over the park. It was awful, but it was about 100 degrees out: too hot to be anything but naked. Kim and I were walking around in our swimsuits, but Sunshine wouldn't. She felt exposed, even though she had a one piece. Oh well...if she wants heat stroke, she can have it.

Jon always takes an interesting picture. He's wearing the 3D glasses for the Bug's Life ride in this one.

This is Lisa and I playing in these little fountains that come shooting out of the ground. If you'll notice, everyone else in our vacinity is under the age of eight.

This is Kim, Sunshine, and Zack. I think this was in the Magic Kingdom, but I'm not sure. The shirt Kim is wearing says "Disney Magic Music Days" and everyone in our band got one--along with a pin--right after our concert.

This is Kim and Zack on the backstage ride in MGM. Kim is going out with Brian, and Zack is going out with Jen, and Brian and Jen are brother and sister, so Kim and Zack bonded a little over this trip, comparing notes on the syblings.

This is Mandy and Kim, about two seconds earlier or later than the previous picture. That was a fun ride. They have this one part where they select two people from the audience to put on fishermen outfits and pretend they're in a war scene, and I happened to be chosen. We were all standing in line, and this Disney official asked us where we were from and why we were they, and then asked if any of us were willing to be a part of the show. Henry and I volunteered immediately. They took us out back and dressed us up. I had to be the Captain and pretend to shoot with pretend guns (I felt like an ass, but hey), and then I got to pull a lever to drench Henry (which was fun). He was the Skipper and had to stand in this little cabin boat that rocked back and forth, and then he got to push a button that fired a "torpedo" at me and subsequently drenched me. I wasn't paying attention at that point in the show anymore, and I had taken off my hood. The announcer was blathering on about something and I was staring off into space and suddenly I see Henry pushing this button, and the announcer leans over and says, "You might want to put your hood back up," and then ran away. It was so fun. I think Kim got it all on video.

This is Kyle and Lisa outside the Magic Kingdom, at about the same time I took the picture of Ethan.

This is Lisa in her sexy black dress she bought at the Mercado indoor/outdoor shopping center with Danielle and I. On a separate night, Lisa, Ali, and I all bought really cheap tropical dresses and wore them back to the hotel. Laura took a picture of the three of us in our dresses, sipping the drinks we'd bought at the little cafe thing next to the hotel pool, and Lisa has it on her mirror. Laura had it on her wall, but she moved to Wisconsin (very sad), so maybe it's on her wall there. I should borrow it from Lisa and scan it.

Another picture from that damn safari. This is a rhino, and like I said, the ride sucked. The animals were cool, but then they had to throw in an animatronic guy waving from a plane and a Disney employee that couldn't act for shit and it just ruined it.

This is not at Disney World, but at Blizzard Beach, which is sort of an extension of Disney. It's a kickass water park, but it was pretty chilly out the day we went to it. We're Vermonters, so we got wet anyway. There's this wonderful moat that runs around the whole thing and serves as a great mode of transportation from ride to ride (we swam through the 1 1/2 foot deep water most of the day on the way to and from rides), and there's a life guard just about every four feet, and one asked us how on earth we could be in there on such a cold day. We replied simply, "We're from Vermont." And we had at least three feet of snow on the ground when we left home. I reccommend this park to everyone...so cool. There's these awesome enclosed slides with purple lights inside them that you go down on little tubes or mats or something and a group of us were in line for it. Jon gets in there and you hear him, about three octaves higher than his usual voice, screaming, "Oh my Gooooooooooooddddddd!" and it drifted off. We all knew he was joking so we started laughing like crazy, but this little girl behind me that was about eight just wisely smiled, "He's a first timer." We laughed at her, too. It was such a fun place. There's this slide called Summit Plummet and it's SO scary, but you have to do it once. It's essentially a verticle drop that's about fifty feet or something and they have you cross your legs and arms for very good reasons. Before I got on it, Nate told me, "Be sure to keep your legs crossed or else you'll have an atomic wedgie like nothing you've ever felt before." Well, I tried to keep them crossed, but you're going about 90 mph, and there's water, and before you know it, your leg are open and there's a water rocket shooting up your ass. When I got to the bottom, my whole backside hurt. I had like water burn on the exterior and the entire lower half of my swimsuit was up my ass. And they're shorts! You'll not want to do it twice, but it's an experience to live to tell about. Oh yeah...the picture. In the back, we have--I think--Emily, Zack, Jessica, and Sarah. In the front, it's Kristin, Suzette, and I.

Back to Disney. This is me in Epcot wearing a sombrero. I was just trying it on, but Lisa started going into hysterics and insisted that she take a picture. I should've bought it, it was huge.

This is Kim and Sunshine, showing off their temporary tattoos.

This is the (fake) Tree of Life in Animal Kingdom. The Bug's Life ride is inside it.

Sunshine in a wig she actually bought.

Well, this is Zack. He, Kim, Sunshine, Mandy, and I had just had a very funny and interesting lunch and Kim had taped us doing all kinds of crazy stuff, but she kept missing the really good parts. Just when she shut off her camera, Zack ran over and straddled this pole and made the funniest expression. Anyway, when he graduated a few months ago, I made him a card and put this picture on the front of it. Jen, who didn't go on the trip, asked what it was, and he said, "That's me humping a pole." She got this really disturbed, amused look on her face and said, "I shall never know the true extent of what went on during that trip."

This is Zack and Sunshine looking at/taking pictures of the little ducklings that were down in the water below. I think this was in Magic Kingdom.

Well, there it is: our sign.

Here we are, coming on stage, and Tiffany's making a face at my parents.

We're seated and playing. I recently got the video of the performance and I think we sounded great. The only thing is occasionally you see heads pop up in front of the camera because people are leaving. Oh well...it's Disney World, you can't blame them. But we sounded damn good for a little Vermont band in pathetic "uniforms".

Here's Lisa announcing our program. Between each song, she recited Doc's intros about each of the pieces and their composers. Unfortunately, she had laryngytis while we're in Florida so she sounds a little hoarse on the video.

And our bows. Yes, there's what remains of our audience standing and applauding.

Here's our group photo that cost about $15 or something. We had to get up extremely early to be there (we went to breakfast at the Golden Corral [where we went every morning] and it wasn't even open yet), and the sun was glaring in our eyes the whole time. We're all microscopic in the picture, but sure enough, you can see the Epcot Ball and Cinderella's Castle.

And here we are strolling away from the stage. That's Doc grinning madly at the front left, and a Disney rep to his right.

That's Lisa, me, and Sunshine leaving.

This is me, Ali, and Lisa after we got a chance to change out of our concert garb.

This was taken on a ride in Animal Kingdom...Countdown to Extinction, I believe is the name. It's an awesome ride and there's this big dinosaur that jumps out at you and there's a flash and they take your picture. We went on it twice to pose the second time around. In the background, you see complete strangers. In the second row, from left, there's Jon, Lisa, and some strangers. In the front, it's Andy, Henry, me, and Ali. Jon wanted to do a see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil thing, but it never materialized. Instead, he's feigning terror, Lisa's doing moose ears, Andy and Henry look bored, I'm pondering, and Ali's waving. This one set me back about $12.

On the way back from Florida, I rode home with my parents and we stopped in Savannah and parts of Virginia. I had a great time, but I missed riding home on the bus. It sounds like hell, but it was actually really fun. Picture this: it's about three in the morning, everyone on the bus is glowing from the green lights above and there are legs and arms and blankets everywhere. And then you stop at a rest stop and amble off the bus in your pajamas and "Tequila" is playing in the lobby: it's so cool. Anyway, my adventure with my parents:

This is at South of Border in Virginia or something. It's a horrible, filthy place that leaves you feeling gross and tainted. We all posed with the gorilla.

This is the hat shop in South of the Border.

And we're still in the hat shop.

This is in Disney World, but it goes along with the hat theme.

This is Forsyth Park in Savannah. We went to Savannah because Mom and I had both read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and loved it.

This is Mercer House, where Jim Williams lived. If you haven't read the book/seen the movie (which is bad), you won't understand.

This is a statue from the fountain in Forsyth Park.

As we were walking away from Mercer House, I happened to notice this little lizard on the gate. I wish we had wild lizards up here.

This is one of the apartments Joe Odom stayed at and threw his never-ending parties in.

In the center of this picture you can see Mom in a white tank top. I just thought it looked amusing.

This is at a restaurant called Clary's...the author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil ate there and included it in the book. This is their idea of a vanilla shake: it was huge. The place was good, and that's Lin's hand moving in on my whipped cream.

We visited some friends in Florida on the way up: Seal and Bill. This is Bill on their dock out back.

This is Lin, Seal, and I, on the dock. Look at how marvelously green and lush it is...

This is Seal and the ice cream man. He went by the neighborhood a few times and the music was making us crazy, and I don't know how he stays sane. But we all got ice cream and it was fun.

This is Lin and I talking to Seal (right in orange pants) out in front of their house.

This is Mom and I in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. We like to tell people it's our living room. We were there to see the Fabrege display they had, because Lin's a big Russian history buff and loves the Romanovs and has always wanted to see an egg.