Seaweed Forts

In August it was a beautiful day so we took a trip down to White Rock Beach with the Kilden's. The tides are never at the same time each day and we never really know how far out they will be. At times there can be at least 500 feet of sandy beach to walk on. I'm pretty sure that's what Ryan was expecting because when we got there he looked quite dejected that he wasn't able to play in the sand. I've never actually seen the tides this far in. There was not a spec of sandy beach to play on.

As it turned out however, it was a blessing in disguise. The tides had been even farther in at one point and the whole beach was covered in about 6 inches of seaweed. It had apparently all blown in when it was windier and was far enough up on the beach that it had already mostly dried. If I had a truck and it was a more secluded beach I might have considered taking some home for the garden. Instead the kids and I had other plans.

It was easy to pick up big chunks of it at a time and within about an hour Carter and Callie both had their own seaweed fort. The walls were almost 3 ft tall and two feet thick. Ryan decided he wanted to build his between two big logs so Carter and Uncle Corey helped tow one of the logs down the beach for him. We were definitely the envy of the beach. Several other kids watched for a while and then eventually joined in and took over the forts when we left. 

Disneyland Day Five - The Missing Ariel Scarf

Our final day at Disneyland didn't really have much of a plan except to try to hit all the rides that we hadn't hit and to ride the ones we like the most. For our first days at the park the focus is on getting the most rides in with the least amount of line ups. This means we get there early and try to do the big rides first, then we spend the rest of the day riding the small rides that are typically less popular. This leaves some rides that we want to go on but we never quite prioritize high enough. Our last day is meant to rectify that though it started out as our busiest day yet.

Our first ride was Buzz Light Year. It's a very efficient ride from a volume perspective because there is a line of cars picking up pairs of people every few seconds. It's also very popular because you get to interact with the ride with your laser blaster. You can move the car you are in to focus on your targets and the game keeps score so you can compete with your family. I usually do well enough when compared to the family but am nowhere close to the numbers that some people are getting. There must be a trick to get past L-3 and into the higher levels. (Probably involves many trips to the park.)

After some time in Tomorrow Land we went back to Big Thunder which is a roller coaster type ride. It's right at the max of what I like for a roller coaster. I have no problem with the sharp turns or the heights but the drops leave my stomach in my throat. This is of the reasons I left Kerry and the kids to go on Star Tours again while I checked out the Star Wars exhibit. I'm fascinated with the level of detail that has gone into models for Star Wars over the years. (Possibly fascinated enough to attempt to build an item or two. Money and time dependent.)

Our final destination for the morning was Toon Town. To be honest I think we only go there because it is a land on it's own and we feel we have to go to every land. It's not super exciting and doesn't seem to change much from year to year. It does have Minnie and Micky's house which we try to go to every visit. I like Mickey's work shop and I have to get my picture in Pluto's dog bed. We also do the Gadget coaster which as Kerry puts it, has more kick than you would expect for a kids coaster.

For the evening we went back to California Adventure. There are several areas of this park that I could probably just hang out in the whole time. I like the natural forest setting and the rides are all relatively new and well thought out. We went on Soarin Over the World again and Kerry, Corey, Callie, Carter and Kristen went on Grizzly River Run. It's my favorite ride but I'm not very interested in walking around wet in the evening. We also went on Radiator Springs Racers twice. A nice man gave us some Fast Passes that were good for any ride. He left before we even knew what he had given us.

This was the end of the day for Carter and I but Callie and Kerry wanted to close down the park so they headed back to Disneyland. They finished off with Pirates, Big Thunder Mountain, Hyperspace Mountain and a corn dog. Things went well until they were almost home and realized Callie had lost her Ariel scarf that she had bought for her birthday. It was too late to go back to get it so we had to wait till morning. No luck with lost and found and the only place to buy it was in the park and we couldn't get back in anymore. A very kind attendant at the gate was willing to go in and get one for us and surprised Kerry and Callie by simply handing it to Callie and saying Happy Birthday. It left us leaving late on our first drive day back home but was still an excellent memory for a fun vacation.

Disneyland Day Four - Birthday Day

Day four was a special day for us. Callie is turning 11 and Kristen is turning 7. We timed the trip such that we would be here for their birthday. This works out great for Callie and Kristen though I will admit Carter has now realized that we will never be able to do the same thing for his birthday. We have chosen to deal with this via the Alice in Wonderland approach of the 'Unbirthday' on the following day. So far it's working. We'll see whether Callie picks up on this trick in September when it's his birthday.

Callie has been planning this day for months and sometimes it's difficult to fully pick up on her expectations so yesterday we had her write out the complete plan. This worked out very well as we all knew what was next and Kristen got to review the plan and add her items as well. The day started last night with retrieving Birthday Pins from the front gate so that all of the ride handlers knew it was their birthday. This also entitled them to some special mimed birthday wishes from any character they met.

After that we had a few hours to spend at Disneyland. We finally managed to do the Matterhorn. Not all the kids wanted to go on it so Corey, Carmen, Callie and myself went while Kerry took the kids over to the Teacups. We definitely got the good end of the deal. Ryan insisted on going on the teacups four times in a row and the ride was empty enough to allow this to happen. Kerry likes the teacups but after four times the spinning will get to you. It didn't help that Callie then wanted to go as well. Five times on the teacups for Kerry.

Next up on the schedule was a Star Wars area that opened at 10:00. We weren't really quite sure what to expect. The Tomorrow Land theme for the year is "The Season of the Force" and they added some sort of museum area with props from the films. There was also the opportunity to get your picture taken with some of the characters. We didn't know what we were doing and just picked a lineup. Luckily it was Chewie which was the one we wanted. The area also had a lot of high end collectibles. Unfortunately I can't afford $9000 for a full size Storm Trooper.

One of the many highlights of our morning was Goofy's Kitchen. We go every time we come as it is a good opportunity to get pictures of the characters and the kids. Goofy is of course there as well as Chip, Dale, Minnie and Pluto. If you only wanted to have one meal for the entire meal this would be a good place to visit. It's buffet style and we went there for brunch so there was both breakfast and lunch food. I don't waste too much space on that food though. I'm just there for the desserts. If I had a purse I would have taken a few extra cake pops with me.

For the afternoon we headed back to the hotel for a small dinner. We had arranged with the hotel to have a cake delivered to our room but they went even further with a gift basket and balloons for each of the girls. At this point it became obvious that Carter was going to have to have a very special 'Unbirthday'. The girls were very happy.

After dinner it was back to California Adventure. Everything was going to plan and Callie had marked off most of the big items off her list. This was a good thing too because California Adventure wasn't quite ready for us. The major rides had long line ups and had already run out of Fast Passes for the day and the next two ride choices were broken down. Kerry and Corey lucked out though because we had an unused ride share ticket from the day before that didn't have a date on it. They accepted it and were able to do California Screamin again.

The day was scheduled to end with a light show and we had a bit of time to kill so we went to the Animator's Workshop where Callie, Kristen and Kerry learned to draw Pooh Bear. (Some better than others.) The rest of us went to Turtle Talk with Crush. They had already updated it for the new movie as Dory, Destiny and Hank the Septapus all had key roles. It's quite amazing how they manage to make it look like Crush is actually interacting with you. He has actions for all the key questions that kids might ask him.

Our final scheduled event was the World of Color. This is an amazing spectacle of light, water and fire. The great thing is that they update it every year so you aren't stuck with watching the same show each time you visit. This year was emceed by Micky and Neil Patrick Harris. The best part was when they were doing the part of the show with a Frozen theme. We didn't realize there were light, noise and smoke generators right in front of us. I like the fact that they turn a spray of water into a screen for projecting real images. The fire is pretty exciting too.

Disneyland Day Three - Stuck Behind a Parade

Day three started very early. When you get a five day pass there is the opportunity to go into the park 1 hour earlier then everyone else on one day. The options for this day included Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. In previous trips regular opening was 9:00a but in the summer things open at 8:00a. This mean that Magic Morning was at 7:00a. After two days of walking constantly, I can tell you that 7:00a is not very magical. Things didn't quite start the way we expected since the hotel breakfast didn't open until 7:00a so we were off to the park on an empty stomach.

I've learned this in the past but Magic Morning is not really the 'line free' time that you would expect. There are a few items to consider.
1) Not all rides are open.
2) The rides that are open aren't running at full capacity.
3) There are a thousand other park goers vying for the same 'typically long lineup' rides that you are.
4) Fast Pass isn't available until the park fully opens at 8:00a.

Long story short, we got in Star Tours and Finding Nemo and suddenly it was 8:00a. It is good that we got two of the rides with longer line ups out of the way though we still had to wait about 20 minutes for each. The true payoff was when we walked over to Fantasy land right at 8:00a. The line ups from Magic Morning had cleared and we managed to get Mr Toad, Snow White and Pinocchio all out of the way. It was now time to head back to main street for a quick breakfast since we were all very hungry by this time.

Breakfast was at the 'secret' Starbucks on Main Street. It's not really a secret but it definitely doesn't look like your typical Starbucks from the outside. It's dressed as an early 1900's cafe and only once you get inside do you find the regular Starbucks fare. On the way we made an attempt to pet one of the horses that drags the street cars around. Callie was quite disappointed that there was a 'no touching the horses' policy in place. Too bad because they look like really nice animals.

After breakfast we tried out the new Space Mountain, now called Hyper Space Mountain. Space Mountain has gone through quite a few image changes in the past decade with musical themes and upgrades. This latest change was definitely the best so far. The roller coast portion stayed the same and there are still lights that look like stars throughout but now they've added in battle scenes from Star Wars. The way they've done it, you almost feel like you are actually in the battle. Very cool. I can't wait until the new Star Wars Land opens in a couple years.

We had a bit more time before lunch so we went down to the Pooh Bear Ride area to see if the characters were there. Callie has had her picture with Pooh Bear every time we've visited and each time brings her Pooh Bear which is now over 11 years old and starting to show his age. The fun part is always when Pooh Bear hugs himself and tries to feed him some honey. The kids enjoyed getting their picture taken with Pooh Bear, Tigger and Eeyore.

We went back to the hotel for an afternoon nap and some time by the pool and then the two families went in different directions. The Kildens had booked a surprise birthday dinner for Kristen at Arial's Grotto and we went to California Adventure for dinner on the pier. Kerry had gone to Fast Pass the Tower of Terror while I did the same for Grizzly River and the plan was to meet back at the bridge near the food. Unfortunately we both got stuck on the wrong side of the Toy Story Parade. It wasn't very long though and we got to watch a parade we weren't planning on seeing.

It was still warm after dinner which was good since our plan was to go on Grizzly River Run which remains my favorite ride. You are strapped onto a giant tube and it takes you to the top of the mountain for a roller coaster like ride down the river. There isn't really a 'dry' option for this ride. Even if you wear a rain coat, you can still get soaked from the bottom up. I think this is why by 8:00p it's pretty easy to get on. Carter and I went and managed to remain somewhat dry. We finished the evening off with a trip to the Tower of Terror. This will be the last chance for us to ride this one because the plan is to turn it into a Gaurdians of the Galaxy theme. There are quite a few rocket scenes in that movie so the elevator equipment should make for a good ride. I hate big drops but will have to try the new ride at least once.

Disneyland Day Two - Some Weird Rabbit

On day two of our trip we decided we would spend the morning in California Adventure which is the park right across from Disneyland. Disneyland, California Adventure and Downtown Disney are all effectively the same place but they have different entrances off the same square and Downtown Disney doesn't require a ticket. Each year we go the security gets a bit tougher and this year they have added metal detectors. They aren't super sensitive since I don't have to take my belt off but they do slow things down a bit.

The fun part of going first thing in the morning is that there is often a character waiting for you right at the entrance for pictures. California Adventure always seems to get the 'less popular' characters and today it was some odd looking rabbit. Callie knew his name was Oswald and I recognized him as that character that was created around the same time as Mickey. Poor guy. In a different world maybe they sing songs of Oswald instead of M-I-C-K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E.

As soon as we got in we Fast Passed Radiator Springs Racers and then went to Soarin, previously known as Soarin Over California. They've made it more worldly now and have simplified the name so they can switch out the scenes more often. I think they took some of the footage from Flyin Over Canada and you could tell they had higher quality footage with the new show. The only thing I missed was the smells that they had with the old version. When you flew over an orange orchid it smelt like oranges. I don't think that there were any smells now. (Except the feet of the people above you.)

We spent the next couple hours hitting rides on the Paradise Pier. This included Arial, the Rockets, Jumpin Jellyfish and Goofy's Fly School. Each of us took turns avoiding rides we weren't very interested in. I avoided the Jumpin Jelly fish since it doesn't really do anything and Callie made a good effort of trying out Goofy's Fly school but as soon as we got close and she saw the roller coaster esque hill at the start she jumped off pretty quickly.

Our fast past for Radiator Springs Racers was ready so we walked over to Cars Land. This has to be one of the most elaborate rides in the entire world. The ride itself has scenes from the movie and ends with a high speed race where you are banking at a very high degree. The ride itself is surrounded by manufactured mountains which includes my favourite scene which is a waterfall with a bridge. Not quite full scale but the way they do the perspective it looks amazing.

After the ride we headed back to Paradise Pier where we had Fast Passed California Screamin. This is a very fast paced roller coaster that includes a section where it goes upside down and Carter and Kerry had been talking about it for months. He will now be talking about it for years. Things didn't go well with his first attempt as he chickened out and decided not to go on. As we decided who would go next he got up the nerve and tried again. Success!!! Of course he screamed the whole way and took two hours to fully calm down. Never again.

As we left Callie got in line to see Jesse who was a character that in previous years has absolutely terrified her. Now they are good friends. Jesse left early but still walked down the line and gave everyone a hug. Carter also picked up a new stuffed animal to hug. This time it's a bear from the Grizzly River Run area that he has named brownie. Kerry and the kids then took one more ride on Soarin while I scoped out my next sweet purchase.

In the evening we decided to skip Disneyland and do California Adventure again. We had an early day planned the next day and felt a quick tour of Bugs Land would be a good way to finish off the day. We did Flick's Flyers, the angry lady bugs, bumper bugs, and Heimlich's Chew Chew train and finished off with Mater's Junkyard Jamboree. We thought about going on the new Luigi's Tire ride. The old one was some giant floating tire bumper cars but was very slow and not very exciting. Unfortunately they replaced it with yet another tea cup style ride. I think they could have done better.

Tomorrow will be an early day as we have our Magic Morning opportunity which has us start at 7:00a.

Disneyland Day One - A Very Long Day

Our first full day at Disneyland started early. We were up at 6:30a and went for breakfast at our hotel around 7:00a. We've gotten smart about the hotels we pick now. Free breakfast is important. It saves us $30 or $40 and saves us time too since we just have to walk from our room. This hotel has the best one so far with eggs, bacon, fresh fruit, hash browns and more.

The park opens at 8:00a throughout the summer and the most important rule at Disneyland is to get there early. The lines are surprisingly long getting in but once everyone spreads out in the park the lines are very short. We headed to Adventure Land to start which includes Splash Mountain. Kerry did this to me one my first trip with Indiana Jones. They take the new guys to one of the biggest scariest rides because the line is short. Ryan did not like his first ride and I don't think Kristen plans on going on it again either. They were both great the rest of the day though and kept trying new ones.

Ride number two was my nemesis. The Pooh Bear ride. Callie always has us go on it at least a half dozen times. At least the line is always short. Kristen and Ryan enjoyed it as well so I know we'll be back.

Ride three was the Haunted Mansion. I wasn't really expecting Kristen to want to go but she seemed to enjoy the challenge and found it more fun then scary.

We had Fast Passed Indian Jones earlier and went back at our assigned time. This is one of the few rides that Ryan is too short to go on so Corey waited while the rest of us took our turn. It's a very elaborate jeep ride which lot's of sharp turns and well done scenes from the movie. Once we were done Corey went on with Carmen and the rest of us wandered about. Callie and Kristen were lucky enough to find Aladdin, Jasmine and the Genie. A great photo opportunity. I don't think we've had pictures with them before.

The ride we knew that Ryan was going to like was the Jungle Cruise and we weren't disappointed. It was just a short wait and his favorite part was the snakes in the trees. I think this was one of the first years that Callie and Carter have realized that the zebra surrounded by the lions was not actually 'just sleeping'. We tried to leave Adventure Land and go to Fantasy Land around the back which is my favourite short cut because it's so quiet, but it's closed for the new Star Wars area construction. That should be a great place to visit when complete..

We finished the afternoon in Fantasy Land with rides on the Carousel and the Tea Cups. It was incredibly hot by mid afternoon and we'd already been there for six hours so I was happy to head back to the hotel for a swim and a nap. Disneyland in the summer time is an incredibly busy place by the afternoon. Everywhere you look there are at least 100 people in your direct line of site. Too many people.

Before we did head back to the hotel though we stopped off at Downtown Disney. As mentioned in my last post, Carter wanted to spend all his money on the first night and this included a stop at Ride Makers. (Though this one was on us since we owed him something from being a trooper during his recent surgery.) Ride Makers was exactly the kind of money trap that I thought it was going to be. I knew remote control was going to be more money but I didn't realize that batteries were not included. In this case a $29 rechargeable battery pack. We did not let Carter pimp things up. We are a stock car family.

At every restaurant we've stopped at for the past week they've asked us if there was any special occasions. Each time we've mentioned that Callie and Kristen have their birthday coming up on the 7th and this time it worked. We were at the Rain Forest Cafe and we got a couple of cupcakes delivered to the table. This was on top of the 'Volcano' that we had already ordered. (A giant brownie and ice cream dessert.) It's a good thing we only really have two meals on these trips. A breakfast, snacks around lunch and then dinner. It's very easy to over eat.

We finished off the evening in Tomorrow Land with Cory's family checking out Hyperspace Mountain while we did a bit of shopping. We followed that up with Buzz Light Year and then "It's a Small World" just before the fireworks started. We got off just as they were starting and the exit to the ride is front row for the show. Some people of course try to stop on the bridge of the exit to watch but the usher you off pretty quickly. Their favourite phrase was "We can see you!".

A very long first day.

Disneyland Bound

On Monday we left on a three day journey to Disneyland.  I will admit that if we were to assign value to our time, it probably isn't worth it but we do save some money and if you consider the hotel time as part of your holiday it can still be a lot of fun. This year we were travelling with Kerry's brother Corey and his family. Our first destination was Medford. It's about an 11 hour drive and it means we've got about half the trip out of the way on the first day. We left at 4:30a and arrived in the mid afternoon. The hotel was nice and the best part was the Country Bear restaurant right in the parking lot. Made for an easy dinner and very well priced.

We're driving down in two cars and we left at different times but somehow, when we were about an hour out of Medford I looked over and saw the Kilden family coming onto the freeway from an off ramp. Almost 1,000 km and somehow we ended up at the same location at the same time and we noticed each other. Our day two destination was Stockton California. Like most places with a 'reputation' there are different views of what the city looks like. Our hotel was in an area with shopping and didn't look too bad but we did see some rougher areas on our way in. The hotel looked nice but for some reason the service was lacking. Our room only had two hand towels and no bath towels.

Day two consisted of about 6 hours of driving and day three was scheduled to be about the same but Los Angeles had something different to say about that. Travel was great for the first four hours but the last hour took closer to three. Just when we thought traffic was clearing up we'd end up stopped for construction or an accident. For the most part the other cars behaved but we had a few texting close calls. How people feel they can text and drive on a six lane highway is beyond me. We made it to the hotel around 2:30p which was too early to check in so we headed to the Garden Walk which is a strip mall near the park and had dinner at Bubba Gumps.

We checked into our hotel after dinner and the kids decided where everyone was going to sleep. We are staying in the Residence Inn near the park and our place has room to sleep 8 and a full kitchen. This will save us some money on food and the kids enjoy being with their cousins. (For now. We'll check in on day 5.) We've stayed here a few times before because the hotel also takes dogs. That adventure was a few years ago. We finished the day off with a quick trip to downtown Disney where Carter was ready to spend all his money at once. I managed to make him think about it for the night. We'll be back.