disney part 2

The final day was set aside for the 'other' Disney park and any leftover Disneyland stuff we might have missed the first day.

Made it to the park entrance right at opening time 10am. (Oh well for being sure to use our one day of 'early entry'.)

Headed immediately to the only real rollercoaster of the weekend... California Screamin'. The wait time was '5' minutes, which meant the amount of time it took to walk to the front of the line and wait for the next car.


Of course, we rode it again after getting off. Because of the non-line, K said he would have probably ridden it 7 times sitting in the front until he was bored. But he made the comment after we had already moved on.

Sun Wheel... a funky ferris wheel where most of the seats rock back and forth, though it did also have some normal ferris wheel seats. JC went on one of the latter whereas K and I picked a rocky one. It's almost like sitting on one of those back-n-forth ship mini rides, except you're suspended in the air at the same time, especially during the loading and unloading phase. Kind of freaky at first, but I got used to it by the end.


Some smaller rides...
...a round-and-round-in-swings ride... but inside an orange
...a rocket you up / drop ride (I still refuse to go on any drop rides),
...a kiddie 'drop' (more like float) jellyfish-shaped ride (which K refused to go on because it was too kiddie-cute),
...a one car 'rollercoaster'... which had several bends and turns that made you feel like the car was going to come off the tracks
...and a slow and steady round-and-round-in-a-small-ship ride

J and I changed into water-ride-friendly clothes before we got in line for the water raft ride. Unfortunately they had closed the ride while we were changing and the ETO was undetermined. So we headed over to the next 'ride', Soarin' Over California... watching an IMAX film while hanging in the air with a breeze blowing towards you.

Lunch at "Taste Pilots' Grill", where we got to place our own orders on these colorful touchscreens. J's happy face potatoes were quite happy to be eaten...


Yay! Grizzly raft ride opened back up ^o^ (K skipped the ride because he didn't want to get wet.) A couple of women coming out of the ride offered us clear ponchos that C and me took up... of course, we were the only people in the ride with any 'water protection', and I still got soaked anyways. We tried to hand them back off to other people afterwards, but no one seemed to want them =(

Monsters Inc 'ride'... I loved the movie, so the ride was happy for me.

Muppets 3D/4D show. Pretty fun and entertaining if you're a Muppets fan.

KJC went on the Tower of Terror ride, which I opted to skip. While waiting, I saw Hercules and Mr. and Mrs. Incredible and took pictures with Goofy.

Final stop: A bug's land, where we watched the very crawly Bug's Life 3D show.

JC worked on a sudoku puzzle while K and I watched the 'block party' parade. I deeply regret not stripping off my introvert shell to boogy with Mr. Potato Head...


End Disney Cali Adventure Park. Return to Disneyland.

Hopped on the Disneyland railroad to make our way to Toontown (missed it entirely on Friday). Explored houses of... Chip n Dale, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy.

Went on the Roger Rabbit Cartoon Spin... the longest pre-ride trek ever (even with no waiting in line). Funfun, if you take advantage of the 'steering' wheel.

Leisurely rode on the Storybook Canal boat.

JC went on Pirates of the Caribbean while K and I sought out the Winnie the Pooh ride.

Short stopover at the World of Disney store... spent forever looking in the store and picked out a souvenir mug ^-^

C went home. J, K, and I went to a Korean restaurant to eat.

Back to J's house. J and I chatted for a bit and then watched the dance movie 'Honey'.

Sleep.

Probably just about theme-parked-out by the end, but it was a marvelously fun (and tiring) four days!

universal fun

Day 3... Finally got out a while after 9 and drove up to C's apartment. Hung out there for a bit and then drove to Universal Studios. By then it was lunch so we walked around Citywalk looking for food. JC got some pizza while K and I got some slightly overpriced Panda Express.

1pm. Walk into Universal Studios.

First stop... Van Helsing castle. I should have known that it was probably too freaky for me, but I hadn't thought much of it. The worst was the stop and go people traffic and hearing every other person ahead scream as the traffic moved... makes you wonder what it is they're screaming at... then when you reach the spot, you know to expect something but don't know what... and you still get freaked out. Reminder to self: skip all haunted house walk-throughs.

Shrek 4-D. J later said this was probably her favorite 3D of the weekend.

Studio Tour. Very cool. K's favorite part of Universal. I liked seeing the different building sets that are used over and over again in different movies... a single set posing as an apartment for New York, Chicago, and many other cities, depending on the movie. Interesting fact: the building facades are closed with corrugated metal in the back, which ensures no backlight shows through to the front.



War of the Worlds plane crash site... they destroyed a real plane for it...


From the Grinch...


Waterworld show. Very action packed and very wet! We sat outside the 'soak zone', but we still got soaked.


Stopped for pictures with Shrek and the penguins from Madagascar.

Jurassic park ride. Random wetness during the ride and the final drop was better than Splash Mountain at Disneyland ^o^ K and I sat next to this 'big' woman and her maybe 10-year-old son. K, not realizing the woman's size kept our safety bar from going down much, made an untackful comment to the ride inspector-person, indicating the bar was messed up and didn't go down. Only later did he realize it was because of the woman ^-^''.

Backdraft fires. Hot!

Back up the escalator to the top lot and watched the rest of the Animal Actors show, the best part being the chimp (seemingly much easier to train than dogs).

Back to the Future ride... we sat with these quite noisy middle-school-age girls. Other than that, it was a cool ride.

The park closes. As we were leaving we walked by an outdoor pay-per-song karaoke machine...


Dinner at a place near C's, El Torito. K and I ordered the pretty yummy chicken and shrimp taquitos.

Sleep at a not too unreasonable hour (i.e. midnight-ish).

animals, land and sea

The plan was to meet at 9... but we were late... finally got out at 9:30-ish.

I brought 4 days worth of oatmeal and fruit cups for my breakfast and some granola bars for K. J made a stop at McDonalds to grab a breakfast burrito after meeting C.

Off to San Diego Zoo.

J had discovered sudoku recently... and K and C were both new to it... and thus, today was the start of a short addiction. With one puzzle from J's soduko book copied onto a pad, we were ready for the day.

I guess I was the only one really excited about the zoo. SD is supposed to be the coolest zoo in the U.S., but we were trying to fit both zoo and Sea World into the same day (as well as make the final 2:30 Shamu show), so our zoo trip was to be a short one.

11:45am - arrive at zoo. The guided bus tour and skyfari were both included in our tickets (yay for fun citypass tickets!). Since we wanted the quick view of the zoo, we promptly got on the guided bus tour. Most of the animals we saw in the zoo, we saw on this tour.

Polar bears staring out into the crowd...


Giraffes being fed by eager tourists...


Tired grizzly...


Automated water jets keeping a pampered rhino cool...


And of course, we rushed to the 'skyfari' after getting off the bus tour...


I don't know why, but the flamingos were quite captivating for me...


Quick stop at gift shop... I couldn't help myself and bought a cute panda shirt.

1:15-ish... leave for lunch and Sea World.

After arriving at Sea World, we discover that their website show times for the day were off. The 2:30 Shamu show we were rushing to meet was not the last show! In fact, a 2:30 show didn't even exist. The good result of it was that we got a leisurely [over-priced] lunch.

Shipwreck Cafe. Chicken tenders served in a Shamu 'box', turkey club, carrot cake, strawberries and cream. JC got some chicken with jambalaya dish, salmon, salad, cheesecake, and chocolate cake.


Rather than rushing to see this or that, we sat for a while working on... sudoku... and finished the puzzle so that there was no more sudoku to charm.


There were only really two rides at Sea World... a raft one and a roller-coastery one. Controllable water cannons were strategically placed along both rides. Pay 25c and you can soak the riders. Amusing to watch.

Sea turtle under the water...


There were flamingos here, too...


4:30 dolphin show. 3+1 dolphins and a whale.

5:00 Shamu show... it was supposed to be the highlight for me, but I ended up liking the dolphins better, tricks and humor. The Shamu one was just too mushy. However, the picture I took at the show was probably the highlight for the day...


5:30 dolphin show take 2.

Walk by some seals, sea lions, and kids feeding sardines to dolphins.

For all the shows, the first several rows was the "soak zone", which J was quite excited sit in after missing it the first show.


J and I ate funnel cake while K went to the 4-D haunted lighthouse show.

JC went off to ride the roller-coastery ride, Atlantis, while K and I went to the sea lion show... more of a comedy than anything, but fun. Oh, and those lucky enough to sit in the front center got spit on by a walrus.

Waited for JC at Atlantis. The wait for this ride was by far the longest out of any of the days. K didn't want to get wet, so we didn't go on, but he was amply prepared with quarters for the water cannon.

Drove back up and stepped into a supposedly bee infested area...


Dinner at Maki Maki, a chic-ish Japanese restaurant at Irvine Spectrum. A new sudoku puzzle while waiting for food. Yummy udon and crayfish roll...


Home by midnight. This was by far the most leisurely day of them all.

the happiest place on earth

10pm Thursday - finally got home, ate dinner, showered, packed
3am Friday - sleep
5am - wake up for flight
8:30am-ish - land in SNA, waited for our baggage (no fluids/gels allowed on planes), picked up by J, headed straight to Disneyland
almost 10am - after the driving and parking and figuring out what to bring with us vs what to leave in the car and the applying of sunscreen and the riding on the tram and the waiting in line, we finally make it through the Disneyland entrance.

They self-promote it as the "happiest place on Earth"... I wonder what that makes Disney World... perhaps the happiest place in the Universe?

I had borrowed a very mini guidebook from the library that I skimmed through on the plane (plus there was the map I picked up on Wednesday), so I had a more than general idea of the things we *had* to do. Our first stop was all the big rides, and then the smaller rides and exploration of the rest.

Adventureland: Indiana Jones ride (wait time = practically non-existent). We sat in the front of the car and yay for K sitting on the side and being surprised by the huge cobra that unexpectedly hissed. Poor kid in the seat behind us got really freaked out... he was crying afterwards on the way out.

New Orleans Sq: Pirates of the Caribbean ride. K kept complaining that it was too slow though both J and I really enjoyed all the scenes.

New Orleans Sq: Huanted Mansion was closed.

Grabbed some overpriced McDonalds fries as a snack before we headed to the next ride.

Critter Country: Splash Mountain. The final drop looked much longer from afar than when we actually rode it.

Critter Country: Pictures with Pooh!! Just K and me though. I felt really bad later about an incident here. The couple behind us in line were discussing who would go first to take a picture and then they would switch off etc, so I offered to take their picture for them. When K and I finally got to the start of the line, they were about to have Pooh switch off (Tigger was coming next), but I managed to rush in and look excited enough that we were the last ones to have Pooh. I was so ecstatic about being able take pictures with Pooh before the switch that I just rushed off right afterwards and forgot about the couple. And... I didn't remember it until many hours later. Eek. I hope they got their picture ok =(

Stopped to admire a petrified tree.


Frontierland: Big Thunder Mtn Railroad. Semi fast... but no real drops.

Fantasyland: Matterhorn was closed >_<

Tomorrowland: Space Mountain. Definitely the fastest ride of the morning.

1:30-ish. Done with the big rides... time for lunch. There was a pizza place in Tomorrowland, but K didn't feel like pizza, so we went back to New Orleans square and ate at the 'French Market'. J got a clam chowder bread bowl and mac n cheese. K and I shared a chicken tenders and a fried chicken with rice and beans dish.


An exciting dessert [though we didn't order it] was fried cheesecake...


Climbed up Tarzan's Treehouse... shaky in parts, but still a cool treehouse.

Went back to the entrance and took the tram back to the parking structure to meet up with C.

Pictures with Mickey inside the entrance. There was no line... and the kids are very aggressive when it came to taking pictures. They all jumped in even though I was there way before them and K got mad that I wasn't asserting myself. I finally got my picture though.

Parade of Dreams. K and I got a good spot and watched it while JC went on Space Mountain. The largest "item" in the whole parade was probably Ursula...


Returned to Critter Country for more pictures... Tigger and Eeyore were both there, but when we almost got to the front of the line, Pooh switched in. So more pictures with Pooh!! (which was my original intention anyways) The people who got to take the final pictures with Eeyore and Tigger were lucky... because they got to take it with all three of them!

The trash receptacles give conflicting messages...


Indiana Jones, again, though this time it was a 20 minute wait.

Time for Fantasyland.

Peter Pan.

Mr Toad's Wild Ride.

Rest for a bit in a tea cup [until we were kicked out by someone wanting to take a picture of their kid sitting in the tea cup].

Got a FastPass for Astro Blasters (why a line?).

1st 3D show of the weekend: Honey I Shrunk the Audience.

Astro Blasters... ah, now we understand the line. Thank goodness for FastPass allowing us to cut to almost the front. J totally creamed us... her score being greater than the sum of the rest of us.

It's a Small World. Really loooong ride and the song is forever stuck in your mind afterwards.

J bought a turkey leg for a 'dinner snack' while I bought a chimichanga.

Astro Blasters again, and a much higher score this time around.

Tried to find a spot in New Orleans square for the Fantasmic show.

JC was too dead for it, but K and I watched it, standing, of course [while I ate my chimichanga]. Awesome show. Water used as a projection screen, water set on fire, varied cast of characters and villians, lasers, pyrotechnics... just *too* cool. Even my dead feet and lower back pain couldn't take away from it.


Shuffle to Main Street for the fireworks.

Pretty fireworks synced to Disney music.


Shuffle down Main Street. Stop in front of candy shop. Sit on window ledge watching people shuffle out of the park.

JC comes to meet us. Ice cream at Main Street shop.

K and I walk around downtown Disney for a bit looking for not-too-overpriced food that he can have for dinner. Failed in doing so... drove back to J's.

Sleep 1:30am-ish.

pre-disney

It was good I finally booked our tickets for Disneyland.
1) Southwest had really cheap tickets... less than $100 (including taxes) for each of us to fly.
2) Between Labor Day and the 2nd week of October is supposedly the least crowded time of the year.
3) We discovered after our arrival there that the 50th anniversary celebrations were ending at the end of the month (tho that last bit could have just been self-promotion from one of the Disneyland peeps?).

My trip semi-began a little bit earlier than I had planned. Our flight down was for Friday morning. A last minute bit at work ended up having me fly down for a conference at Disneyland hotel on Wednesday. I attempted to change K's ticket to a day earlier so that I could just stay down there after the conference, but the change to a one person ticket ended up being more expensive! So I decided not do that. A long Wednesday ended with me flying back up and then going to work on Thursday (which was a good thing considering all the stuff I had piled). I planned on leaving work early on Thursday... of course, I didn't get home until 10-ish.

Though for work and tiring, the Wednesday was a good pre-disney trip...
...got to drive to and from the airport and Disneyland hotel
...picked up a Disneyland park map at the hotel before I left
...got to eat lunch on tableware lined with raised Mickey faces
...used spacious bathrooms playing Disney music like "Be Our Guest"

techy superman

It's the seventh sense... I had an inkling of wanting to go watch Superman at the Tech Museum. K took it to heart and looks it up as we munch on lunch. Turns out there's a September special: $8 for combined IMAX film and Tech Museum admission. That's less $$ than watching the film in a regular theater!

(Actually, I think I might have read about the special in one of Bernie's weekly newsletters but just pushed it to the back of my mind... the only thing I semi-remembered was 'go watch Superman on IMAX'. But it doesn't mean I lack a seventh sense.)

Tech Museum is more techy but it lacks the charms of the Exploratorium for me. I don't know why. I think it still beats the Science Center in Boston though.

I loved the double helix made out of actual cookbooks...


Watching something like 'Superman Returns' on an IMAX screen is just... wow.

art

Mountain View Art and Wine Festival... lots of art of varying sorts. Since we missed last year's, I kept an eye out for this year's occurrence.

Each booth pretty much fits in one category for me:
eek (i.e. totally out of my taste realm),
almost eek (i.e. not original and not quite my taste),
original but not my taste,
I like... but not original,
original and I like.

Usually there's only one or two booths that I immediately stick in the 'original and I like' category, for example, the flowers made from leaves in 2004.

My absolute favorite this time around was the clay 'paintings'...



Too cute!

Too bad the artwork is generally above our very small price range.

small U.S.

An email I got at work today...

Hello,

Sorry for this random email, but I happened to see your name on the email below. I don't suppose you are the same "M" that I knew in high school in New Jersey? If not, please disregard.

M

... from a friend of a friend I met at the end of junior year [of high school]. We became "pen pals" over the summer while I was at Hopkins and he at Cornell (and for a while after), but lost touch during freshman year of college.

And now, almost eight years later, we're both on the other side of the country, at the same company, in the same building, two floors apart.

(In a non-but-somewhat-related note, the email he referred to was an announcement for the next 'JA in a Day'... it would be my 6th one... but I'm going to have to miss it because I'm flying out that morning for J's wedding >_<)

E.B snatch up season?

As IL says...

a phenomenon in observation: E. B. snatch-up season

once upon a time, there was a land brimming with eligible bachelor (EB) friends. and i would fret about the shortage of lovely girls to come claim all these EBs. but the winds have since changed...

...and so it seems that we have arrived full blast into... elegible bachelor snatch-up season.

How very oddly true it is... it is a joyous time, indeed ^o^