Last day

On the last day it was mostly a free day. No one had anything in particular they wanted to do, so we just picked stuff at random. Small world again, walked through toontown and took pictures, rode jungle cruise and the Indy ride again.

I could very much tell that Memorial Day holiday was here. The crowds were everwhere and moved in waves through the park.

One thing different is that I took a long ride on the three masted Columbia around the Rivers of America area. It was neat. I took tons of pictures, both above and below decks.

At lunch, as we were tired of fast food, we took the monorail to Downtown Disney. There we ate at a place called Catala. Lots of Mediterranean quisine and some more traditional American flair. A little pricey but very good.

One thing I did notice was that the rides seemed to have more 'turned on'. Maybe it was the weekend, maybe it was that they had not fully come on during the week due to the hurricane.

We left towards the evening to mail gifts home. There was not much left to see or do, we experienced most of Disneyland - some of it twice!

It will be good to he home. Like any trip, home sometimes is the good part!


-- Post From My iPhone

Another neat disney day

Thursday we tromped back to disney (yes, with the events and all, there is that much to see) to roam, ride rides and see more shows. Today was stuff like the monorail, Tom Sawyers island, and several live bands.

We went on the monorail pretty early. Neat train. Bullet shaped, it's a Mark vii monorail that circles both Disneyland, Disney California Adventures, and has a stop in Downtown Disney. We rode it all the way back into Disneyland. It was a great ride. At times when the track was tilted just a little it left me a little uneasy for a moment, mostly cause it was unexpected, but I got used to it.

Then we tried auotopia and the pirates of the carribbean ride. Autotopia was fun, kind of a relaxing ride. Then we did pirates. That was cool. Boat ride through and along waterways where they showed scenes from the pirates of the carribbean story. Two small waterfalls, a hologram of Davy Jones in fog, and tons of amazing animatronics of the pirates, Jack Sparrow, and all.

After that we split up, mostly cause Donald and I wanted to go to Tom Sawyers island. And wow was I glad we did. You get there by raft, aka Tom and Huck Finn's raft. The island has buildings and caves everywhere. Some caves have Pirates of the Carribbean things such as Davy Jones chest, Will Turners' blacksmith shop and so on. Other parts have Tom and Huck's treehouse, and yes you can actually go in it. At one point, I'm pretty sure I found Injun Joe's treasure cave. Donald took my picture, I'll post here when I get it uploaded.

We spent hours there , it was just too much fun. Then we all got back together then had silluette pictures made. That was really fascinating and looked cool when we were done.

Then Donald took off for the finding Nemo submarine ride. I chose to stay and get a good seat for the parade. Jennie stayed with me.

The parade is as much a street party as anything. During this, there was this girl , couldn't have been older than 7. There was room beside me so she squeezed in to watch. Naturally I made room. Her parents wanted to get onto her but I assured them she wasn't a bother. See, we had watched the parade the other day and I knew the dancers and characters would play with and dance with the kids. Donald picked the spot we stayed at for the parade for good pictures. I had hoped it would mean the characters would see this little girl. Wow was I right.

While I was taking more action shots than I ever have before and ever faster than before, the cool moment showed when Stitch (from Lilu and Stitch) showed up. Stitch saw her and raced over to high five the girl. Then came the Disney dancers , then Pluto , then the dancers pulled the girl out with the other kids to dance, then the conga line, then the Mad Hattter danced by , then Clarabelle the cow, then Goofy! It was this absolutely chaotic explosion of music, lights, color and dancing that just never seemed to end. Finally the little girl came back over literally bouncing and laughing. Then parade finally started to move onto to other parts of the park.

The little girl grabbed her Minnie Mouse doll, squeezed her tight and waved as Minnie went by on the float. The girl waved and waved. Then Minnie saw the girl. She pointed at her, did the Minnie giggle pose, leaned against the float railing and waved frantically at the little girl who waved and bounced back in return. The parents were crying, the little girl was laughing and bouncing. It was a good moment. We even helped her to get some Mikey shaped confetti to take home with her before we got ice cream from the Gibson Girl ice cream parlor.

Later after they had gone, the parade had gone by and dusk fell, all of the evening lights came on. I stood at the top of Disney Main St, near the train end, and looked down the street at the lights and where we had been for the parade.

I couldn't help but think ... Y'know ... I feel like Walt would've been proud.

-- Post From My iPhone

Knott bad!

Pretty much the park can be divided into two parts, ghost town and rides. We walked through the rides but nothing was appealing. Though the ghost town! Now that was fun. We walked through that and a bunch of shops. Lots of old west clothing, leatherworkers, a blacksmith and lots of animitronic sites. I liked it.

After we got something to drink and rested a bit, I had to take the stagecoach ride around the park. That was awsome! And amazingly comfortable. Though sitting there days on end probably would not have been so great.

Then we went into a place called the mystery lodge. That was a Native American storytelling place with totems styled like northwestern American tribes. It was a massively cool magic show with holograms. In the end, the narrator actually does vanish! No hologram, he really does the vanishing act except for his cane! Unfortunately they didn't allow photos.

After we bought some jams and preserves (it is knott's berry farm after all) we got to the car and rushed over to the Pirate Adventure dinner show. That was awsome. It's like Medieval Times only with pirates and a lot more interaction with the audience. Some help the pirates raise their pirate's flag, some help the pirate compete to become first mate, others get pulled up on stage to have the audience sworn in as pirates!





The whole thing was amazingly done. The meal was great and the show was one part theater and one part acrobatic display. Just out of this world!

-- Post From My iPhone

Mid week!

Spent 2 days at Disney and now to Knott's berry farm. I've never been there but always heard a lot about it. Looks really interesting as we show up. Lots of rides, roller coasters, and stuff in general.




So well see. I'm fascinated by the train and Camp Snoopy!


-- Post From My iPhone

Did the earth move for you?

Well, day 2 at Disney has been ok. I decided to go in my usual clothes. For those that don't know, that means knee high boots, long brown pants, white shirt and old gas mask shoulder bag. With the hat I was told I look like Indiana Jones. I don't see it.

We made a pass through adventureland which caused some stir , a few rides then boom. All rides shut down. Everyone is confused. But then come to find out, we just had two earthquakes back to back!

I completely missed them! Probably because I was on a train at the time. But how bout that. Maybe if I ride the boat to adventure island we'll get a tsunami!!


-- Post From My iPhone

Burnt and beat

Ending day 1 of Disneyland. We managed to make it to tomorrowland. Star Tours was slick but so very very short! But it was worth the few minutes to whiz through it.

After that we went to see the innovations exhibit. Now that was awsome. A home of the future but what it was really was a gone setup with full touch screen controls for everything. Lights, you name it. The best was this table that used a touch screen ebook reader. Of course I was drawn there immediately. I hung out and played with that for a long long time.

We made our way back to the New Orleans section then. Jennie got a parasol with some customized stuff on it. While she was doing that, I hung out and listened to the Marti Gras show:





Great performance. Fun to listen to. I took lots of pictures of them while they sang and cut up.

The one thing I think I've figured out is that most of the staff have some sort of performance. Even the cleaning crew had a song and dance number. Kinda like a musical performance all the time.

We also made the adventureland safari cruise. That was the last of the day. That is where you ride on an African queen boat along the Nile. Tons of animotronic creatures from piranah to hippos and so on. Excellent work and honestly after a long day it was a great ride since I was sitting down through the whole thing!

Now beat and burnt from the sun , we shuffled off for dinner. I had some hopes of writing more Brass Griffin episodes but I may be too worn out!

Definately advice on disney.... Be ready! You're gonna walk a LOT!

-- Post From My iPhone

And I was made to buy a hat

Spent a day here and yes, it's a small city. Mostly rides for the kids. The wandering shows are what is hard to see.

I forgot to bring a hat for the heat - my bad -sooooo while in adventureland I got talked into buying a hat. It cotton/poly and pleather I think but it keeps the heat off and I'm told looks good on me.

Each section of Disney is a massive chunk of someplace. Done very well I might add. Plenty of stores, places to eat and so on.





The steam boat was nice. I'd never travelled by one but I could very much get into that. I think I'll look into the riverboat cruises.

Tried some of the rides but mostly spent the day getting the lay of the land.

Oh! We did catch a Mary Poppins show! The performers had the voices down well and the dance moves! I got several pictures.

Well time for the rest break to be over.

-- Post From My iPhone

The long drive and California

Well, we set out at late afternoon and drove for California. A good 7 or so hours across the Arizona desert and into California.

The desert was lovely. Something about it I truly enjoyed. I think it it was the isolation and silence. I could really think clearly and consistently. Normally there's just the background noise of just human beings in general. But there, it was nothing. I loved it.

I did get some nice sunset photos (some not do good) as the sun hit the mountains.

After the sun went down, we got back on the road and headed across the mountains for California. It was a long drive. Some places to stop here and there but mostly road and lots of it.

On entering California, I'd heard of the inspections for fruit and whatever. I never expected a no joke border patrol gate. I could not believe it. Only in California.

We rolled in late, got some sleep, then got up to totally not 95-100 degree desert weather. Right now it's 70 degrees, 77 % humidity , light wind blowing. Feels like where I grew up a little. Add some salt in the air and it'd be the gulf coast!

Here's a sample of the day:





Our hotel is right outside Disneyland. Literally across the street. We can see the monorail humming by and tons of 'disney things'.

Well on to a meal (there goes the money!) and to disneyland.


-- Post From My iPhone

A funny thing on the way to the hotel

... We ran into a family of wild boars behind the restaurant!

The male was huge, easily 250lbs and real unhappy to be there. Begins him was a couple of females with the babies. Roughly seven or more total. We tried to get closer so I could get a photo but no dice. By the time we could slip up on them, nurses, security and interns came out of the hopital behind Joe's Crab shack (let the jokes commence) to corral the boars.

The boars , quite naturally, had felt this was too many humans and raced off onto the night.

And that is definately how to end an evening!



-- Post From My iPhone

A long, yet interesting day

Well, the best laid plans of mice, men and anyone caught between oft go astray as it's said. We got here to celebrate Jennie's sister's graduation from Law School ... But ... Her husband was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia a couple of nights before!!

Fortunately he's on the mend (and very soundly teased that he planned the whole thing). We took charge of 'the nieces' as they are collectively called and helped keep them occupied. This wasn't hard. Though ... They had eaten donuts ... With sprinkles ... Oh the humanity!

Seriously, it was quite fun all the way around. We managed a picnic and then went to tge hospital to celebrate graduation with David (he is on the recovery) and Heather, the girls and all.

Besides the fun, I did get to see some of the desert terrain and it's 95 degree temps. Quite hot!

I must admit there is a start beauty to the place. No grass of course, and all yards are gravel with scrub trees and cactus in them. On the horizon all around, the desert mountains rose up against a sapphire blue sky. I took some photos of the mountains and the local buildings. The architecture, which is appropriate for the environment, is usually adobe, stucco and clay tile rooftops. The 'spanish hacienda' look.

After the trio of nieces were delivered to home for bedtime, we ended our day at Joe's Cran shack.





A day well spent all in all.

If travelling through Tucson, my advice is to keep sunscreen handy - besides the sun, they have Mosquitos here and West Nile troubles - it shields your skin from bugs and sun. Oh, and drink plenty of water. It's 10% humidity at best so water just soaks into the air out of everything.

So , with that goodnight and onto tomorrow!

-- Post From My iPhone

Interesting view

Mostly the flight to and from is not that interesting (save the one trans-atlantic where there was an illness outbreak) but in flight to Tucson there was some things to see. Not sure how high up we were but the sky was amazingly clear. Clouds floated just beneath us, like small islands.





Beyond that , most naturally, was the ground. In this area farming is done in circles. Done due to the environment and efficiency of land vs water irrigation I suppose. I'll have to look that up later. But from above, it's an interesting sight.



Quite fascinating to look at drifting by below (if drifting is the right word for zipping along at hundreds of miles per hour or more).

The flight is only an hour and some few minutes today. Which is good. Long flights can wear a bit on the nerves.

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On the way to Tuscon

Started the trip off fairly well. Amazed I was more organized than normal. Hit the airport by 10 and left on time at 12.

Made a stop over at Dallas to change planes. Kinds cool. They've a new monorail that we'll take to cross the terminal.

The airport is huge with the usual stuff, and the not so normal!




That's a ice castle or something. Looked more like the Fortress of Solitude from Superman to me.

Anyway , on to the monorail!

-- Post From My iPhone