I had a friend once, guy named Steve, who said to me, when we were discussing women and past relationships, that he’d “marry them all in retrospect…but only in retrospect.”
I’m still not quite sure what he meant. Continue reading “How did you decide to get married?”
July 6
We got up later than expected, and even let the baby sleep longer in order to get everything packed. We didn’t buy that much stuff so it wasn’t a difficult process (and besides, Rasa is a wiz when it comes to packing). Finally, we had to wake up Monki and headed out to have our last breakfast. I sent the girls ahead while I put the bags into the left luggage – this way we could go to the park and not have to worry about our stuff. Even though there wasn’t a lot of people in line, for some reason they figured they could get the line to go faster if they had two people taking bags, so I handed my stuff off, got a claim check for each article I left, including the suitcase, Rasa and Monki’s backpacks, and our coats. Four in total. Continue reading “When the Party’s Over (Disneyland Paris 2019-Day 5)”
July 5
Friday morning and we were back to our usual breakfast at the hotel. This time, Goofy was in our lobby instead of Pluto, but Monki skipped pictures with him because she was, as Peppa would say, “quite hungry.” Yup, complete with British accent and everything. Continue reading “Parades and Too Much Sun (Disneyland Paris 2019-Day 4)”
July 4
We had pre-booked a character breakfast buffet when we first booked the tickets, figuring our second full day would be the best time. And now it was here. Of course, it was an 8:15am reservation, which meant getting up at 7. When your kid isn’t a morning person, though, this is easier said than done. But we did it. It took some cajoling, some threats, a bit of mom and dad frustrations, but in the end, we got there and were shown to our seats. Continue reading “Characters and Princesses (Disneyland Paris 2019-Day 3)”
July 3
Despite our late night, we were up early-ish and headed to the main hotel lobby for the included buffet breakfast. Our meal plan included 4 breakfasts and 4 lunch/dinners per adult and the breakfast buffet at the Santa Fe Hotel seemed just as good as anything else.
On the way there, we pass Pluto in the lobby doing a photo op (again, advantages of being in an onsite property) so we do that first, hoping to take full advantage of the Photopass program. I like the program, since it gives you access to all the digital photos the Disney photographers take (including those on the ride shots) and since photos was one of our primary foci here, it seemed like a good deal. It’s not for everyone, but it works for us. Continue reading “King of Complaints (Disneyland Paris 2019-Day 2)”
July 2
When deciding on our summer vacation, there are a lot of options to weigh. Granted,we’re only a small family of three, but you want to make sure there’s something for everyone. Last year, we went to London and learned some lessons about what to do and what not to do with a 2-year-old. We made changes on the fly.
This year, though, we decided again on Disneyland Paris. Continue reading “It Starts (Disneyland Paris 2019-Day 1)”
Aside from the shows, though, Shanghai was a fun city, even though we didn’t really get the chance to see a lot of it. On Thursday, with one show under our belts, Zack and I headed out early in the morning to go to Disneyland Shanghai. To be perfectly honest, this was the one thing I was really looking forward to. Knowing we were going to have a heavy schedule, I was hoping to get at least a few hours to explore this version of the Happiest Place on Earth. I had already asked Zack if wanted to go with me and we invited Anton (our sound guy) to also come along, but he had “studying” to do (which is like kryptonite for teachers – can’t argue him out of it). Continue reading “Disneyland Shanghai – March 22”
Friday July 14
Friday morning we again made it to Disneyland and were all about meeting characters. Our first stop, just inside the gates, was Daisy Duck. Since it was early in the morning, Monki was asleep by the time we made it to the front of the line, but we’ll tell her she had a great time and all will be right in her world. Continue reading “And So It Ends – 2017 Summer Holiday”
Thursday July 13
Well… since yesterday was Monki’s birthday, it only follows that today was mine. The big 5-0. Half a century. Not a bad life so far.
There’s certainly something special about spending your birthday, any birthday, at Disneyland. If you let it be known it’s your birthday, everyone gives you well-wishes and makes you feel good. And for me, celebrating with my first child, it was pretty awesome. Continue reading “Happy 50th – 2017 Summer Holiday”
Wednesday July 12
Finally it was here! One year since our little Monki joined us. It was her birthday and she… well, she couldn’t care less. Pretty sure she had no idea but that didn’t stop us from getting ready to celebrate it. Continue reading “Monki’s Birthday – 2017 Summer Holiday”
Friday June 30
Friday morning was destined to be a travel day. First up was having breakfast in nearby Oceanside with an old friend, Mike Wallis. I first Mike some 25 years ago when he was my instructor at a comedy traffic school and we ended up having a discussion about Satanism…as you do. Back when I lived in LA, we were pretty tight but, as happens, we drifted away into our own things. We’d chatted a few times over the years, and even gotten together for a coffee or two when I was in town, but even then it had been several years since we’d seen each other. So he came down and we went up and we met for a nice breakfast at a place called Don’s Country Kitchen. Continue reading “Old Friends and Disneyland – 2017 Summer Holiday”
Tomorrowland channels the pop cultural idea of Walt Disney and wears its heart on its sleeve… and while that’s okay, I expected more from Brad Bird.
Opening with the “gosh, gee willikers” approach of young Frank Walker to the 1964 World’s Fair in New York (side note, someone should do a piece on the cultural impact that particular world’s fair has had on popular culture) to show off his home built jet pack to Nix (Hugh Laurie). Their dialogue basically sets up the rest of the film: Continue reading “Review: Tomorrowland”
The latest Disney offering is based on a comic book although it retains little of its initial concept. In this incarnation, the main character of Hiro Hamada is a 14 year old robotics/computer genius who is recruited by Tadashi, his older brother, also a robotics whiz, to join him in a university robotics program. All Hiro has to do is impress the program’s founder at the annual robotics show and he’s in. Needless to say, he does.
What happens after that, though, is where things start to go wrong. When a fire breaks out at the show, Tadashi runs into the blaze to save his mentor. The subsequent explosion kills them both. Continue reading “Review: Big Hero 6”
Thursday morning we had a choice. We had spent two very full days at the parks and seen most of what there was to see. The decision now was whether to forego the parks for a day in Paris or forego Paris and keep the trip Disney. We decided to at least start at Disney since we really wanted to see the Cinemagique show, which would be starting at 11:15 (and had been cancelled yesterday). Of course, since the parks opened at 10, this meant we could sneak in some other stuff before the show and then decide about heading into the City of Lights. Continue reading “Spring 2014: Day Four – The Magique of Disney”
Wednesday morning we were up bright and early… so early in fact, it made more sense to walk to the parks than wait for the free shuttle, which we did. Today was designated as a Disney Studio day so that’s where we headed, arriving at 9:30, a half hour before the park officially opened. This park is similar to the Studio park in Florida and parts of California Adventure in Anaheim, focused as it were around movie making so when we got in, walking through a Route 66 style road-stop (food and souvenir shops), we stopped at the intersection of Hollywood and Vine to decide what to do first. Continue reading “Spring 2014: Day Three – Movies, Moters and Magic Dreams”
Getting the Hang of Thursdays 