Humpday Update – New Logo, New Links, New Parks!

Woo hoo! A humpday update! It’s been a long time, huh? I know you missed it. So what’s going on?!

The main reason why I wanted to put this together was to announce the following, which I didn’t want to make a specific post for, but wanted to get it out there…

I made a new logo!!

It’s been a long time coming, that’s for sure. When I made my original logo, I was in a rush when finishing up my revamp of the site and just grabbed some images that meant things to me. This was back when I didn’t think of myself as getting much public attention and just being a small blog that friends followed.

Then I saw this in person…

Seeing my logo – uninspired, lacking of information, and chock full of copyright infringements – among all the other awesome logos from the Wilton Sweet-Up, I knew I had to do something. So as soon as I was done writing my posts for my trip to Chicago and the Sweet-Up, I started working on it.

It may not be much, I’m no professional by any means, but I do love its simple and minimalist design. I ran it through some friends of mine and got their needed feedback. One buddy happens to be Mr. Matt Ulvila, who is the owner and designer at 3thought. When I got his approval I knew I was done. If you’re ever looking to create a new logo or want to rebrand your image, give them a ring at 3thoughtcreative.com and they’ll take care of you right. Tell them I sent ya and you might get a “oh, that’s nice.” Hahaha.

Another thing about blog maintenance is my new archived index. Now, if you’re not into gaming – the Nintendos and the Sony PlayStation Boxes or what have you – then you may not care about this too much. But I’m happy I took the time to do it.

On the menu underneath the header, you’ll see tabs for The Man, The Chef, and The Dad. Well under “The Man” is a new tab titled EZMU Gaming Article Index.

If you’re not familiar, I’m a gamer (hi!). And for the past 6 years or so, I’ve been part of a community – EZ-Mode Unlocked. It’s a forum, a podcast, and a blog, with a bunch of cool, down-to-earth, mature gamers who have been through a lot together. Well since 2009, I’ve been writing about games for that blog. I didn’t really realize it till I listed everything for my archive, but I’ve done a lot for them over the years. More than I thought, anyway.

So if you’re into it or just want to see what I’m up to when I’m not mumbling on about food, then go check out the archive.

What else, what else….

Oh! We’ve been traveling around lately.

A couple of weeks ago we made it out to Wilmington, NC. Closer to the coast, you may have heard of it since it has become North Carolina’s little Hollywood over the past few years. Tons of movies and shows have been and are being filmed in and around the city. There are tours and such that take you through these sites, but we haven’t taken one yet. I’m sure the wife would love to walk the same streets as they did in One Tree Hill [eye roll].

We walked up and down historic downtown and took a stroll down the boardwalk.

While the kids were admiring the retired USS North Carolina across the Cape Fear River..

I was admiring the Kilwin’s Ice Cream Shop down the street.

Or shall I say, the line for the ice cream shop. We weren’t able to go because the line was going out the door the entire time we were there. We’ve had ice cream from that place down in Florida so I know it’s worth the wait. We were looking for lunch more than ice cream though. Well, the wife was. I’m totally good with ice cream for lunch.

When we first got there the kids were hungry. And you know, in kidanese, hungry roughly translates to starving and on the brink of madness. We were hoping to hit a good seafood joint, but they weren’t going to last another minute so we stopped at a pizzeria for a slice.

It was the Slice of Life Pizzeria & Pub. And I don’t know if i wasn’t expecting it or maybe I was hungry, but it was actually pretty good!

The atmosphere was great too. I instantly regretted not ordering a whole pie, especially after we lost patience trying to find a seafood place.

Personal opinion about the area? It’s a cool place, but I don’t really dig it. There’s great sites to take in and the area is awesome, but I don’t really think it’s fit for families with younger kids.

I could squeeze into a packed seafood joint and enjoy the shrimp out of it. But if the kids are in tow I don’t care if your seafood is rated best in the state, we’re going somewhere else if I know we’ll all be uncomfortable.

Maybe the hungry kids made us impatient and we were rushing around? I dunno. But this is the second time we visited the area, and neither time truly impressed us.

Moving on! I think the following weekend we went up to Raleigh, NC for Mother’s Day. We weren’t going to do anything per the wife’s request, but she found out the North Carolina Museum of History had a cool exhibition going on – Starring North Carolina! It was showcasing different props and such from all the different movies that were filmed here in North Carolina. At first I thought it was cool, but then she said it features costumes and props from such movies as Iron Man and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Before she finished the word Turtles I was already packing the kids in the car!

We got there and it was a pretty awesome exhibit. There was a ton of stuff from a bunch of different films, some of them are favorites of mine. The Ninja Turtle stuff was right as you walked in.

You have no idea. Seeing this stuff in person, I could feel my 8 year old self high fiving the shell out of my adult self.

This movie (franchise, really) along with Ghostbusters defined my childhood. So reading up on it here and seeing it was mostly shot in Wilmington made me laugh at the irony in my life.

And then there was the pieces of armor from Iron Man 3!

I wasn’t into super heroes as a kid, but I’ll tell you what, me and Seb are making up for all those lost years! We’re craaaaazy into Marvel and all its awesomeness. So seeing this here was insanely cool.

I was really hoping to see a whole suit there, but this was still sweet. I remember when they were hiring extras for the movie too. And seeing the stuff around dedicated to the movie made me recall my feelings of regret for not living closer to Wilmington. You know, for a few months.

Other stuff that was there was a sketch for Little Monsters, remember that one?! Ahh, I loved that movie. Like the original Monsters Inc.

Even stuff from the Super Mario Bros. movie that no gamer really likes to talk about but secretly has a copy sitting on their DVD shelf.

The Hunger Games, Terminator 2, the shows Sleepy Hollow, Under the Dome, Revolution… There’s a ton of stuff that has/is going on around these parts and it’s awesome to see it all displayed here. If you’re in the area and you’re a fan of movies, then I highly recommend the $10 to check out some of this coolness. Not everyone is a nerd like me though so I’m sure you’ll know if it’s your thing or not.

After we we went to the NC Museum of History, we took a little 90 second walk to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. As much as I appreciate and dig history, this place is more my bag. We’ve been coming here since we first moved to NC and it’s a great spot to check out.

Huge fossils and great exhibits really stand out and make this an awesome visit every time. There are 4 floors full of all sorts of goodness. I need to take better pictures next time we go so I could dedicate a post to it. Totally worth it.

Lastly, we finally bit the bullet and bought season passes to Busch Gardens in a desperate attempt to have something fun to do whenever we’re bored. We made the trip to Williamsburg, VA the other day and decided to just do the passes. At 2 hours and 45 minutes away, it’s a bit of a drive, but we could get our theme park fix without driving down to Florida.

I’m looking forward to going more and taking more pictures. We got there kind of late and just walked through the park to get a feel for it.

I saw a sign as we walked in that it’s “the most beautiful theme park”. Turns out, that’s a legit title and not just a claim on a sign. They won the award for Most Beautiful Park from the National Amusement Park Historical Association. And you may think, hey, that’s cool. But this is an award they’ve won every year since 1990! Do you know how crazy that is?!

And I gotta tell you, as a fairly frequent theme park goer in my day, they’ve won that award for good reason. It really is one beautiful park. Not just talking about the flowers and landscaping, I’m talking about a natural beauty. And as someone who still loves going to Disney World even though I’ve been there more times than I could count, I can say Busch Gardens has it beat hands down in terms of beauty. How can I, a Disney lover, say such a thing? I’ll explain it to you… In another post!

Too much to talk about and describe and I’m already going long. So you’ll just have to wait till our next trip to Busch Gardens! Hopefully I’ll be able to partake and try out the different offerings at their Food & Wine Festival that just kicked off. If the menus they have listed are any indication, it’ll be an amazing trip to say the least.

Oh, and speaking of Disney.. The next post you’ll probably see from me will be after our annual Disney vacation! We set out in about 2 weeks and we’re all excited! So if you want to see the magic unfold before your very eyes, give me a follow on Twitter or Instagram.

Until then, adios!