Busiest Place on Earth??

This past Saturday (2/28) was a beautiful, sunny day in Tokyo. We decided that we would take the train up to Tokyo Disneyland for the evening and see the special "Frozen Fantasy" stuff they have going on throughout the park. 

And that's as far as we got. 

Seriously.

The park was at absolute capacity by 3:00pm. We ended up getting an early dinner at Ikispara - their Downtown Disney equivalent and we were home by 7:00pm. On the plus side, Ikispara was not crowded at all! 

We had friends at the park that day and they told us that ride lines were 3+ hours, food lines were 1+ hour(s) and the bathroom was at least a 30 min. wait. Bummer!

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Celebrating Tim's Birthday!

As most of you know, Tim's birthday is in November, so I'm posting a bit behind schedule. I did want to share some pictures though, because we had a great time and his entire family was able to come down and celebrate with us.

We picked Tim's parents up from the airport on Friday morning in Anaheim and headed straight to the Happiest Place on Earth. Our first stop was Space Mountain (Tim's birthday - Tim's choice!). This was the weekend that Wreck-It Ralph was opening, so the big guy was holding court in Tomorrow Land.

We had a lot of rides to go on and thankfully the park was relatively empty this weekend. Big Thunder is a family favorite and since it has closed (as of this past weekend) for nine months of repairs, we thought it best to go on it as many times as possible. :-)

 In California Adventure, the line for the new Radiator Springs Racer ride was only 60ish minutes, but after waits of under 20 minutes...well, that 60 minutes felt like an eternity!

Saturday was the "official day of birthday celebration," so everyone wore the shirts I had made for the occasion. We met Tim's parents and headed straight to California Adventure to wait for Tim's sister and fiancé. By 'wait', you know that I mean 'go on more rides', right?

 Finally we were all together and the party could begin!

 (Don't you love those shirts?! We got tons of compliments from other park goers and the Disney cast members. Oh, you want to see the back...ok, if you insist!)

The weekend was pretty special for Disneyland - they were filming the Christmas Day Parade. We ended up missing most of it, but got over to Main Street to see them filming the end. Unfortunately, when we went to watch the parade on Christmas Day, they never included this section! I know that I would have been pretty upset if I were these kids - they were working really hard to get their lines and moves perfect for the cameras.

No Disney trip is complete without a castle picture!

For Tim's birthday dinner, he chose the Blue Bayou, which is in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It was a delicious and FILLING meal for everyone. 

Tim's family all had to leave on Sunday, so after we took his parents to the airport, we got ready to use one of Tim's presents. I had purchased tickets to Book of Mormon in LA! We had an excellent dinner beforehand and really enjoyed the show. Plus, the theater (The Pantages) was beautiful.

Finally it was Tim's actual birthday (Monday) and since we didn't have to checkout until noon, we went to Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast. It just happened to be at the Disneyland Hotel, where we had stayed for the weekend. I will say, that after staying at a Disney Resort Hotel...well, it's going to be hard to stay anywhere else again. It was such a wonderful experience and Tim (whether he'll ever admit it or not) had a great time getting a little extra spoiled by the staff.

Unfortunately it was back to San Diego for us. Tim actually had to work graveyard that night, so as soon as we got back to our condo he went to bed for a few hours before his shift started at 10pm.

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Ma - I'm a STAR! (Part 1)

I FINALLY got to go to Hollywood and I'm sold. It's awesome. By now, you should now that we went to a taping of The Price is Right, but in preparation for my TV debut, we decided to live it up - Hollywood style. 

I 'Hotwire'd a sweet hotel - The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel - that was smack dab in the center of Hollywood. Literally across the street from the Hollywood and Highland Center.

Our room was great! A nice mix of modern and vintage. 

We settled in and then headed out to find some stars! On the way, we took some pictures of the famous 'Hollywood' sign.

 And then we were off on a search - our destination: Lucille Ball. I was a little disappointed that her star was in front of a shop for ::questionable:: ladies, but since those shops make up 90% of Hollywood Blvd, I shouldn't have been too surprised.

 Of course, I HAD to get a picture in front of the Dolby Theater, aka The Home of the Oscars. If you know me, you know I'm obsessed with the Oscars, so this was a big deal.

 That night we opted to see Frankenweenie at the famous El Capitan Theater, which has been the location for several movie premieres and offered a rather unique experience. Prior to the start of the show, they hold an organ concert with an original Wurlitzer organ and then before the movie, they had a laser show. It was a very cool!

We ended the night at the Disney Soda Fountain with an amazing hot fudge (and marshmallow cream) sundae! Did I forget to mention that the El Capitan Theater is owned by Disney? Next door, which you can kind of see on the right (above), is the home of Jimmy Kimmel Live - also owned by Disney. 

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Disney for FREE.

Every other week, I get together with the other wives (and their kids) for a park day on Coronado.A friend of ours was down here with her husband for only a few weeks, but in that time they had gone to Disneyland with friends. They ended up getting three-day passes, but only used two of the days. Instead of having them go to waste, she gave me the tickets! With two extra passes to Disneyland and only a week to use them, I asked my friend C if she wanted to join me. She had a guest visiting, E, so it worked out perfectly!

We started out touring the new Cars Land. I thought that we got there early enough for FastPasses to the Radiator Springs Racers, but they were closing up right as we got there. Bummer.

We followed that up with some roller coasters and the swinging ferris wheel.

It turns out I didn't explain the rides very well and we were all gripping the side of our seats on the ferris wheel. Me, because I don't like them and I don't like heights; Them, because the swinging is pretty unexpected.

After that we went on the swings, which was actually the very first time I had ever been on this type of ride.

Disneyland is currently decked out in Halloween splendor. It's awesome.

 We went over to the classic Big Thunder Railroad, where C screamed "I just don't know about this!" from the last car the entire time. :-)

 And then we hit up the Tea Cups and went to wait in line for the Matterhorn. When we went to get into the final waiting area for the Matterhorn, I realized I was missing my Minnie Mouse card holder. Why is this a big deal? Well, it was holding my annual pass, an almost empty gift card, and our FastPasses. But honestly, I wasn't that concerned about those things - I was more upset about the card holder! Tim and I had gotten those at Tokyo Disney and have a matching pair.

So I got out of line and started searching the ground. I asked people in line. I asked the ride operator. C and E had also gotten out of line by this point, so we searched the ground between the Matterhorn and the Tea Cups and then asked the T.C. operators. No one had seen it. Ugh.

At this point, I'm trying to keep a good attitude, because I'm basically hosting for my friends and don't want to be a big stick-in-the-mud, but I was pretty bummed. The operators all suggested we go down to City Hall and ask at the Lost & Found. Knowing that I had just lost it, I figured the best I could do would be to report it missing and hope someone would find it and turn it in.

We walked down the L&F and I gave a description of the holder and what was in it. The lady was so nice and said they don't usually worry about lost Annual Passes, because they can be replaced (it is linked to my picture and my fingerprint), but if it's with something, they'll call the owner. This meant my Minnie Mouse card holder, which made me feel better. And then - and this is why Disney ROCKS - the lady asked me "Is there anything else I can do to make your day better?" I said, "Well, yeah, I lost two sets of FastPasses too." So she filled out two "Skip to the Front" passes for us. Amazing.

After all this turmoil, I needed to blow off some steam, so we walked across the park to Splash Mountain and used our first "Skip to the Front" pass.

Somehow I convinced my two guests to go in the front...

They got a bit wet. 

Then it was back to the Matterhorn to actually ride it and ask the operators AGAIN if they had anyone turn in my card holder. And...

SOMEONE DID! 

The operator was so nice about it and even commented that she always loves the souvenirs people bring and then she finds out they're from one of the International Disney parks and not available here in the US. We were all jumping up and down with excitement. It was awesome. 

Our day ended back at California Adventure, where we took in Tower of Terror. E even took out a chunk of C's leg on one of the descents. Guess I didn't explain this one very well either...

And we stuck around for the World of Color show - which we spent singing along to the songs and dancing.

In all, it was probably one of my most memorable days at the parks. It's a good thing we have annual passes, because I have definitely made mine worth it!

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August Visitors! Part 3

Laurie's visit wasn't over yet! On her 5th day, we headed north to Anaheim to visit the Happiest Place on Earth.

We were lucky enough to meet up with Laurie and Tim's cousin, Christina and her boyfriend.

I had to get back to San Diego for an event that evening, so we sweet-talked the ride operator at Splash Mountain to allow all of us to go together. (We had different FastPass times.)

It all worked out wonderfully, because Laurie got to spend the rest of the day and the next morning with her cousin and then they all drove back down to San Diego for a visit.

We ended up going on the SEAL tour, a San Diego version of the "Duck" tour. While waiting our turn to get in the water, this giant bird was hanging out on the boat next to us. I don't think he ever left his perch.

 Group shot!

 They should really call it a Sea Lion tour, because we saw a ton of them!

 And I couldn't pass up an opportunity to wave to Tim at work. :-)

Simon and Christina stayed through dinner (so they could see Tim) and then headed back North. The next day was Laurie's last with us, but she had an evening flight, so the two of us took a tour of Balboa park...

It has a lot more hills than we expected!

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1 down - 6 to go

Hola!

I can't believe we've already been here a month! TIME IS FLYING! Work is picking up for Tim, so I'll be spending my first weekend solo in SD. This is likely to be the first of many for the next few months.

In other news, life has been pretty typical around here. For us, "typical" means 10 hour work days and quiet nights at home. We managed to get out on Wednesday for a movie (Magic Mike - do NOT recommend) and a happy hour on Tuesday (always recommend).

On Sunday we used our annual passes for the first time in California! We spent the day galavanting around the Disneyland parks with my in-laws-once-removed (does that make sense?) and Tim's cousin. The weather was gorgeous and the parks, while busy, were totally manageable.

Of course, no trip to Disneyland is complete without a spin on the Tea Cups. (Three years ago, that was not the case, but I've since been converted.) With three adults in the itty-bitty little cup, including two ::determined-to-go-as-fast-as-possible:: spinners, I was more than a little wobbly getting off the ride. Our observers told us we were definitely the fastest ones out there.

In addition to a complete overhaul of CA Adventure, the Matterhorn has been upgraded. As a bonus, they've brought back the climbers, who come out a few times a day and scale the mountain. Can you spot him? (Click on the picture to enlarge it.)

 Riding California Screaming right after dinner is not a good plan...

We're already looking forward to our next trip up there to experience more of the new Cars Land. Most of the rides throughout both parks had lines under 60 minutes, but that was because the rides in Cars Land had waits of 75 to 180+ minutes. Um, yeah...we have time, we'll wait for the next trip.

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More bread...STAT!

For our last day of summer, I wanted to surprise Tim with a day on the Oly peninsula. A few months ago he found a brochure for the Olympic Game Farm on the ferry and has literally been asking to go on every free weekend. So we headed NW towards Sequim with a loaf of bread and no idea what we were getting ourselves into...

The farm was used exclusively by Walt Disney Studios for many of their nature-themed movies, including Grizzly Adams and The Bear (a movie that scared Tim so much as a child that he had to leave the theater)! In the 70's, the owners finally started opening it up to the public to meet the animal actors and see the grounds. You can click on the next picture for some more history...

STAY IN THE CAR! 

 The animals hang out in the middle of the road...to make sure you stop and feed them.  They are very crafty like that.

 Tim was hesitant at first...

But the people in front of us were more than happy to let the llamas into their car for a meal...

 There were some animals in pens that you couldn't feed, but just admire from the comfort of your vehicle.

 And then more animals would stand in your way to get food...

 They expect you to feed them and will follow the car for several feet until you do.

 And then we got to the bears...

 (See I was there!)

 This was a massive Kodiak bear that came right to the fence to see us. I swear he knew I was taking pictures (I have quite a few) and was ready and willing to pose. I love animal actors. :-)

 This guy was hanging out in the shade...

 And this one was cooling off in the pond...

 We rolled up the windows to avoid getting wet...

 And then we headed into the predator area, which was the home of all the big cats and wolves...

 Once we made it through those, it was back into the plains...this is what a Bison Kiss looks like:

 The deer were pretty cute...

 And this raccoon was so funny...he saw me taking pictures and got into this little pose for a good minute while I snapped away! Animal Actors = Best Poses Ever.

 After our driving tour was over, we headed into the mini-walking tour area and saw the petting zoo...

 and more raccoons.  Um, I want a raccoon.

 These little guys were brought to the game farm after being abandoned by their mother. The man who was playing with them had raised them from 2 weeks old, so they were going crazy playing around. These little guys were about 6 months old and will likely live at the game farm forever, because in WA state, it is illegal to return animals raised in captivity to the wild.

 And then it was time for a tour of the studio barn.  This is the imprint of one of their most famous Kodiak bears...it was used to create the wall in the petting area (see above), by leading the bear on a walk through this plaster with a twinkie attached to a fishing pole. 

 There were some small sets in the barn and a lot of little props from the different things they had done there.

 They also had these skulls...can you guess what happened?

 These two animals had died when they locked their horns together during a fight and couldn't get untangled. They still can't get them untangled!

Like I said before, 95% of the Grizzly Adams movie & series was filmed at the game farm. He even pointed out where Grizzly's cabin had been located (right outside the barn).

 And I have to include the movie poster for Tim's favorite childhood memory... :-)

 And when we walked out of the barn, they had brought out one the little raccoons to meet the kids. It was, seriously, on the cutest things ever. (Warning: Do not try this at home!)

I later asked if they still train these animals for a life in the movies and I guess they recently hired out their bear and wolf team for a recent movie (we don't remember which) and Nissan hired one of their bears for a commercial not too long ago. He said that the use of CGI technology has greatly decreased the need for live animals.

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