California Adventure scores points over Disneyland

Back on December 7 my wife and I went to Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure—which, for those of you keeping score at home, was our third visit in 2012 (but prior to that we hadn't been since March of 2010, so it's not like we frequent the parks with such regularity). In the past I would have referred to it as merely a trip to "Disneyland" without specifying the other park, but this time we spent more time over on the latter so it seems unfair not to mention it as well. This was, in fact, the first time we've ever selected C.A. as our initial point of entry (rather than going to the Disneyland side first), and the only ride we rode multiple times was over there.

There has been something of a changing of the guard.

Post-birthday Disneyland report

As I mentioned in the birthday post last Friday we went to Disneyland. Who wants to hear about that? Okay, who's willing to pretend to want to hear about that now that I've gotten around to writing about it?

Yep, I'm wearing a stormtrooper  shirt.

When we got to the park it was not crowded, but given it was a weekday in January that was not surprising. We got "park-hopper" passes that allowed for going both the Magic Kingdom and to California Adventure in the same day, and allowed us to come back another day (and go to both) anytime before June. And of course I got a "Happy Birthday" button on which the ticket agent wrote my name.

That essentially obligated all park employees to wish me an appropriate greeting as we passed. While that seemed nice at first, after a while it turned into a modest burden to have to thank them for each "Happy birthday" they utter. They are trained to say it so cheerfully; one cannot be rude, especially in the so-called happiest place on earth, but after a few hours one does get tempted to take off the button.

When I didn't meet Weird Al Yankovic

On the Late Show with Stephen Colbert the other night, the actor Thomas Lennon told the story of how he met "Weird Al" Yankovic (in an office supply store), which, along the news of a biopic of Mr. Yankovic starring Danielle Radcliffe being in production, reminded me of this:

A custom Lego mini-fig my wife
got for me a few years ago,
not from the event chronicled here.

Back on November 9, 2018, my wife and I took our then-pre-school-aged child to Disneyland. It was not the first visit for any of us, but this was the first time any of us went there on the first day of the park having its Christmas decorations up (or, at least, having the big tree on Main Street; there were parts of the park where the decorations were still in-process). 

Unsurprisingly, it was a warm autumn day in Anaheim, so it didn't really feel like the holidays but such is often the case in Southern California. Being a Thursday the park wasn't super crowded, which was nice, but being Disneyland there still were thousands of folks there with us.

At one point in the middle of the day I noticed that one of those people also at the park was "Weird Al" Yankovic. Yes, the Weird Al. Or just "Al" as I'll refer to him for the rest of this post; even though we aren't friends I feel like he wouldn't mind.

Camera-less at the Magic Kingdom

In the last post I talked about a recent trip to Disneyland. Something of extremely modest note about that: I took my trusty Canon S3 camera, but did not even take it out of the case in which I carry it. That didn't go to waste, per se; with that strapped over my shoulder, it provided something on which I could hang my jacket during the warm afternoon.

I did snap a few shots with my phone's camera, and even used that for the photo the waiter took of us in the Blue Bayou (which was slightly out of focus, but oh well).

Walking around Disneyland I was not inspired to want to pull out a regular camera. It was either the convenience of this device I had in my pocket, or it wasn't worth bothering. After so many trips to the Magic Kingdom, most everything falls into the already-took-pictures-of-it-before category.

Tomorrowland-ish

Much as this looks like it will be a ride at Disneyland, this structure will actually become LAUSD Central High School #9.

To see more, see this post on the photo site.

Go look at pictures for a change

Over at the photo site (which for months I have woefully failed to highlight over on this site) I have posted pictures from last July's trip to Zion National Park...

...as well as some shots from Disneyland...

So go click your way on over and have a look.

Birthday rumination

Today I commence my 45th year out of the womb. It's my 44th birthday, but that means yesterday I completed 44 rides around the sun.

I'm not sure why I'm so inclined to think in terms of what I'm starting rather than what I'm finishing, but I like to consider it vaguely admirable. That's not suggesting I'm necessarily optimistic about this 45th year, but I do have to believe it's got as good a chance as any that it will improve over how much of the 44th has gone.

Ducklings and Disney and Butterflies... oh my!

What's been going on over at the photo site since last I exhorted suggested you go have a look? Photos from some some recent outings have been readied and posted. (I know, I'm amazed it didn't take me six months to get around to it, myself.)

At the Magic Kingdom (in Anaheim--the original) we saw... baby ducks!

Oh, and of course there's the rest of Disneyland, but not necessarily the scenes you're used to seeing.

And then there's many shots of butterflies from the Butterfly Jungle exhibit at San Diego Wild Animal Park.

CLICK HERE TO GO THERE NOW.

Lombardi

In the wake of a very exciting Super Bowl, what else is there to do but post pictures of flowers on the photo site?

Oh yeah! This ranunculus is going to Disneyland!

A very merry unbirthday to you

In case you ever wondered what it would look like if one attempted to take a picture while riding in the spinning teacups of the Mad Tea Party ride at Disneyland (at night, with all the overhead lanterns alight), it would be something like this.

I understand if you need to run to the restroom...