Goin' Back To Cali

Yesterday we went to Disney's California Adventure. Good Times!!! I did several tweets while we were there, but none of them seemed to work. Disney phone filters???



The back story on how we came to be going to California Adventure: Disney has been doing commercials locally about Disney is giving free admission to both parks on your birthday. A brilliant ploy, it is my contention that Disney could let everyone in free and still make good money. This way, I would guess on average there are at least 2 paying guests for every birthday pass they give away. Of course, the youngest sees these commercials and says that's what he wants to do!!! I considered doing it, they are having the 2 parks deal for residents these days. I mentioned this to one of my co-workers, and she tells me that her nephew works there and can get us in gratis!!! Whoo hooo, I'm there!!!



Both the boys stated preference to go to California Adventure. I knew one of the main reasons the younger wanted to go there was to ride on the ferris wheel there, the Sun Wheel. It's pretty cool, 2 of every 3 cars are on elliptical tracks, and slide from the outside to the inside as the wheel rotates, causing it to swing wildly, and considerably increasing the excitement. Alas, it was under some sort of construction!!! All the cars are off, and it is sheathed in scaffolding. The conceptual pictures have Mickey's head in place of the sun in the center.



The lagoon has been drained, and there are a lot of barriers up, too. 512 corner was blocked off, but at least it's still there.



Took everybody to Soaring over California, a large hang glider simulator, for the first ride. The youngest had never been on this ride, and he now has a new favorite!!! From there we went to the river raft ride and got fairly soaked. We were aiming for the Sun Wheel, but stopped for the Golden Zephyr and Jumping Jellyfish rides along the way. Also, we realized that it wasn't working. The Jellyfish ride we'd never been on before.



Actually, there are several attractions there we've never been on or seen. We also rode Mulholland Madness for the first time, and saw the Aladdin stage show.



Another new addition is the Toy Story Midway Mania ride. You ride through, while wearing 3-D glasses, and shoot a ball launcher gun (simulated) at various targets. Here's a shot of the older boy's and my scores. I won the beaver!!! My wife would not allow me to have another beaver at our house. Both of our accuracy levels were fairly low, but our scores were higher. My wife and the younger both got much lower scores, but their accuracy was something like 72% and 68%!!!



We managed to ride the river raft ride again, and the big coaster (California Screaming, the second best Disney coaster in my opinion), as well as a couple spins on the Jumping Jellyfish, rode the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (didn't seem to have too many long drops on my ride) and got to see the parade. The weather was quite nice, but cooled off in the evening. Also, the park wasn't too crowded.



Our passes were good for both parks, and as California Adventure was closing, the older boy had the brilliant idea to go over to Disneyland for some bread bowl gumbo. We did just that, and then rode Pirates of the Caribbean, which is directly below that, and had almost no line. After that we proceeded to the newly refurbished Small World to check it out. They split us into two rows, and halfway through I looked around at the younger, and he had a look on his face like, "Enough with the song already!!!" I looked again a moment later, and he shrugged at me. It was pretty comical. It was near midnight when we finally left, and with the hour of lost sleep last night, we slept fairly late this morning!!!

Dreaming of a White Christmas

Dang, it's been a long time since I've made a post!!! Hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a happy new year!!!



Now, what have I been doing in the interim??? Many things. My niece had her birthday. My company had their Christmas party, which was pretty cool. We tried out the mojito bar they had there and drank nothing else all evening after that. My wife and I stayed overnight, not at the hotel that it was held at but at a nice place up the road. Less than half the price, so even with cab rides both ways it still would have been less, and they had a complementary breakfast there.



Goody day was awesome. My trifle didn't come out exactly as planned, I accidentally (well, inadvertently, I didn't read the directions well) used water instead of milk in the pudding part, and it didn't seem to gel up quite right. I mixed a second pudding and put it on top of that, but still it wasn't right. Anyway, I think people were scared of it, only a few people tried it. I'd made two, so there would be some left by the time the third shift got around to eating. That was not necessary.

Got my gravy the Friday before Christmas. Once again, right around where I'd figured it to be, and once again, the man did take his chunk, albeit temporarily.



Christmas weekend... A lot going on!!! Saturday we went down to my parent's house for the family get-together. I took my spare trifle, but it was forgotten until it was too late. Not that there was any shortage of food!!! My parents got my oldest son several varieties of army men, and wrapped them in an authentic looking military duffel bag.



Before we went there, I stopped in at my bank and deposited my cash profit sharing check. I also asked about a fee on one of my accounts, and decided that I needed to change my account. The girl that sets those up was busy for about half an hour,so I made an appointment for Monday.



Sunday we went to Oinkster for a celebratory feast. Good times. Monday morning I went to the bank and set up my new accounts. I got a 9 month certificate of deposit with a fairly favorable rate, and a money market account for the remainder. I also moved the youngest's money from a standard custodial account into an actual mutual fund account. Naturally, there's no telling where the rates will go with that, but it's likely going to do better than even my certificate of deposit will do. Now the youngest member of the family has the most aggressive portfolio.



After that, I took the family to the movies. Across the Universe was playing at a theatre not far from my work, but the published times were wrong. We ended up getting there about 25 minutes into the movie. I was ready to bail, but the attendant said she'd give us two passes to come back some other time and catch it all. Way to sweeten the pot!!! Of course, we spent about twice as much on snacks as on admission, so way to turn a profit!!! My older boy and I both enjoyed it quite a bit, but neither my youngest or wife liked it as much.



Christmas was great fun. The boys liked all their swag. I got the oldest, among other things, new components for his computer to give it a makeover. It wouldn't run XP for some reason before, so I got him a new motherboard with PCI-E slots and a dual core processor, as well as a 160 gig hard drive and a gig of memory, and a copy of XP. A cool thing that I found for him is a new mouse that looks like a pistol, good for use with those first person shooter games he usually plays. Both boys got new, compact keyboards (desk space is at a premium), as well as Lego sets and many Hot Wheels cars. My wife got me some cool, toasty Dr. Pepper pajamas. For my wife, I wrapped up a cigar and a $100 bill for her with instructions to light the former with the latter. She didn't. I had requested the Counting Crows' re-release of August and Everything After with bonus tracks and second live disc. My parents got me the right disc, but not the re-release. My wife was shopping without the list she had insisted I make her, and found the greatest hits "Films About Ghosts" CD instead. Ummm, I've already got every song on that disc, kind of no point to that. Ah well, it's the thought that counts. And the exchange credit.



After a morning of wrapping shredding, we headed up to Mount Baldy to frolic in the snow. The youngest has never been to the snow before. I had no idea what the conditions were going to be up there, but I figured that Christmas day might be less crowded than usual. In the crowds respect, it wasn't bad. In the snow respect, it wasn't good. The snow was patchy, and what was there had melted and re-frozen into icy surfaces. Good for sliding down, though, just watch out for those rocks!!! It didn't matter much to the boys, they had a great time. They slid a few times, and then collected icy snow chunks for a snowball fight. I took some video which I may post in the future. My favorite is of the older sliding down a slope and bowling over a little girl. Unfortunately, I turned off the camera before they both started getting up laughing. Good times!!!

Re Plan

The vacation plans I had for this year were pretty simple. I was going to use most of the money we got back from taxes to buy plane tickets and hotel lodging in Hawaii for the whole family. Take the boys to the Volcano National Park, go skin diving in Hunama bay, bake on the beaches. For a change I was thinking of going to Maui. Every time I've gone (OK, both times) I've gone to Oahu and The Big Island. Makes for a great vacation, with lots of things there that need their picture taken.

A few days after the refund checks came in the mail, my wife tells me, "Lets not go to Hawaii this year, save some of that money." Fine with me, I've still got that week scheduled off, we could do almost anything in that time for considerably less money.

During the next few days, my mind had all kinds of things we could do. Fly out to Vegas (every time I've gone there, I've driven, and that's my least favorite part), or up to the Frisco area, or over to Catalina island, or go camping, or any combination.

However, one thing I'd seen a few ads for came to mind. There have been some spots about how cheaply a family of four could vacation in the Disney resorts in Florida.



I made mention to the wife, and she immediately fixated on that idea. I checked it out, and even with airfare it looked to come out more than a thousand dollars cheaper than the Hawaii trip.

Of course, this would be staying at one of Disney's "budget" resorts. $82.00 per night, I guess there are a lot of places that cost more, but that didn't seem like a real great price to me. Of course, it is Disney, so you know it'll be done up right. I looked at all kinds of options, travel times, dates, etc. The budget resort I liked the sound of best is Disney's Pop Century, which has icons of the 1950s, -60s, -70s, -80s and -90s made into exhibits, statuary and activity themes. Giant Foosball players, the big wheel, and a swimming pool shaped like a bowling pin. How cool is that???

An interesting (OK, not that interesting) side note: while I was getting all this straight, I was preparing an order at Amazon. They had an offer to get their Amazon Visa card and get a rebate of $30.00, almost the whole amount of the order. In addition, earn credit towards future purchases for every dollar you spend on that card. Cool, I was already going to be buying it with a card and paying it right off, if I can get a few thousand racked up as credit towards future purchases at Amazon, cool!!! I applied, but it took a REALLY long time before they got back to me. Meanwhile, its getting closer and closer to the travel time. Finally I gave up the wait and used another card. Trying to get the hotel I wanted on the Disney site, it kept telling me that there were no rooms available on the dates I was travelling. I had gone through Expedia for the flight, and since I couldn't get a room at Disney's Pop Century, I'd look through Expedia for whatever other place I could get near the parks. Well, they had rooms available at Disney's Pop Century, and it was $13 less a night!!! Guess that worked out better for me anyway, then!!!



As far as Disney park passes go, I had been thinking we didn't need to be at a park EVERY SINGLE DAY we're there, but it turns out with their package tickets if you're only going six of the eight days you'll be there, it only comes out to be something like $13 less for the whole family. A clever ploy for them to get you to spend more time (and money) in their parks.

Last time I was to the Florida Disney parks was in the impossibly antiquated year of 1983, can you stand it??? I was 14 at the time, and EPCOT center was a new park. Now they have a wild animal park, two water parks, and Disney MGM studios. The latter has an Aerosmith roller coaster that I'll be reporting back on. They also have the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride that is also at California Adventure. One of the water parks has a slide that actually has water jets that launch you up slopes in the flue. I'm interested in seeing that, too. The wave pool at the other of the water parks is one of the largest in the world, and they have surfing lessons before the park opens (for an additional cost, of course). The surfing lesson (nor the additional cost) isn't especially appealing to me, as I already know the basics, but a couple of hours in an uncrowded wave pool that makes perfectly formed waves every time could be well worth the price!!! The older boy and I may very well take them up on this offer. The parks have days when they open early or are open later for Disney resort guests, for extra, less crowded time. Cool. When we were at California Adventure last time, the younger and I went on the Sun Wheel. He was a little freaked out by it when we went on it, but since then he talks about it a lot!!! When we last went to Disneyland, he wanted to ride it, but, of course, it was in the other park. Hopefully there is something like that in one of the Florida parks for him. The older boy wants to eat gumbo every day. They have a plan where you can pay in advance and have meals paid for at the Disney parks. Seems like a great idea, since you'd likely spend more than the cost if you ate there most days, but I don't know if we'd use all the vouchers you get. Also, since I bought it through Expedia it wasn't offered through them. Probably could still get the deal. Maybe, maybe not...

Something of interest we'll probably pick up is the little stuffed Pal Mickey. Click the link if you want to read all about that (I recommend the read). Wonder if he'll work at the West side parks in the future???


Now here's something I didn't get a chance to do last time I was in Florida. Orlando isn't too terribly far from the Kennedy Space Center. I would love to just tour the place, but as it turns out, there is going to be a shuttle launch the week we're there!!! Of course we'll have to go to that!!!

I'm so looking forward to this trip. It would be cool, since we're in Orlando, to visit with a dear friend who has gone ghost on me. It's OK. I understand that everyone goes disappearing,
into the greatest grey...

Disneyland After Dark

Cuz it's after dark now
And Disneyland is closed
We've been served
Ice cold beer
And Walt is our host

It's after dark now
And Disneyland is closed...
The party is over
The night is here
Let's bring out a toast...

Well, here it is, the recap of our Disneyland trip!!! The event was on Thursday night from 9 PM to 1 AM. We left to get there early, and it was a full half hour before that we arrived. Good thing, because there was a HUGE line to get the tickets from will call. By the time we made it through that and got from the tram and through the security check it was around 9:45. There was also a bit of a line to turn in some recyclable plastic bottles to get a Mark and Brian treasure map.

Upon arriving in the park, there was a touch of the surreal. Disneyland after dark is usually somewhat strange anyway. I remember one time when I was probably around ten or so, we went to the theatre in Fantasyland to see a play while the park was closed. Very strange. This was also strange, we got into the park, and walking up Main Street USA, they have the broadcast of KLOS playing. Tying into the Stones reference once again, the song playing upon our entrance was "Paint it Black".

Our first area that we wanted to visit was the New Orleans Square area, because last time we were there the Pirates of the Caribbean ride was closed, as they were re-tooling it to add in Jack Sparrow. On the way we passed by the Indiana Jones ride, and I asked the firstborn if he wanted to go on that. He did, so I left him and momma in the line and set off with the younger to find something to do in the meantime. On our way through, we came across the first of the treasures that we had to find on the treasure map. Five different lands were specified to have a treasure hidden in them, and we needed to write down the color for each. This one was a projected image on the ground right outside of the Golden Horseshoe Revue. Cool.

The Sailing Ship Colombia is one of those attractions that I have seen for years, but have never been on. It was docked a bit from there, and he wanted to go on it. The attendant invited us aboard, but informed us that it wasn't sailing that night. It was very cool, anyway, great detail, and the boy enjoyed playing pirate for quite a while, until I got the call that they had gotten off the Indiana Jones ride. Met up with them, and they had spotted another treasure projected over a shop opposite the ride.



After that we went to the Pirates ride. I have to say, they did a great job of adding in Jack Sparrow while retaining the original feel. The cannon ball shots are much better than they used to be, and they added in a really awesome Davey Jones effect.

We had figured that going on Splash Mountain would probably be a very short line, because who wants to get wet at night??? That was our next destination, but it was closed when we got there!!! Bummer. OK, what next??? Space Mountain, pretty much on the opposite side of the park. OK, we'll catch the train from there to the other side. Got to the train station, and it's closed, too!!! Fine, we'll walk that way, and ride the Matterhorn Bobsleds on the way. Guess what, those are closed down too!!! Looked like they were working on it, though. Onward to Tomorrowland, and surprise of surprises, Space Mountain is actually open!!! While standing in line, we saw the third of the treasures projected on a wall. I was a bit surprised that the younger wanted to ride it. On the last part of the ride, I looked around to see how he was doing, and he's shaking his head "NO". Guess he didn't like it so much.

We headed back towards Fantasyland, and the Matterhorn is up and running again. Once again, the oldest and momma get in line while the younger and I head off to see what else was of interest. He wanted to go back to the pirate ship (not the Pirates ride, but the Sailing Ship Colombia) but on the way there I spotted the Jungle Cruise (with a very short line), and he was up for that. I'd never been on that after dark, either, and it was cool, with a whole new set of their famous corny jokes.

As we were getting off that, I got the call that the other half had finished up their ride (actually got to go twice) so I told them to make their way to Sleeping Beauty's Castle (which has gotten a whole new pink and purple lighting scheme, looks pretty nice) and we'd meet up there. Wandering through the castle, I spotted the final treasure projected on one of the back walls of the castle.

There was a bit of a line to turn in the completed map for the prize, but took care of that, too. The prize was a VERY cool Mark and Brian pirate flag. I now have a new most valued possession.

The boy was getting hungry and momma was thirsty. None of the pretzel or churro stands were open, so we ended up going to the Royal Street Veranda for some of their AWESOME clam chowder and gumbo in sourdough ball bowls. That was the only part of the evening that cost us a thing, even parking was free for this night.

By the time we were done eating, it was a few minutes until closing. We weren't too far from Thunder Mountain Railroad, so we headed that way. We made it in time for the last run of the night, and got to choose our seat and everything. The younger boy was a bit unsure about it, and wasn't going to go until he saw that it was a train. Afterwards, he wasn't so sure about that ride, either!!!

So, we only got onto a few rides and were out until well after 2 AM. Still, last time I went to Disneyland I was out $228 by the time we got into the park, so this was still very cool. And I got a new centerpiece for my Mark and Brian shrine!!!