Steph Part 二

Oopps...

2007-08-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I made a bad and/or Blogger did, but its most likely me. I did not put a link to the new blog due to the fact that it didn't exist when I made my last post.

Oopps...

So here it is! [VA or Bust]

I've posted every day since Mommy and I left for Virginia and we'll be at Grandmother's house tomorrow so there are a lot of good pictures of about 12 different states we've been through.

Enjoy!

Last Post

2007-08-13T06:18:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! This will officially be my last post of Steph Part 二. Today I leave for Virginia and enter a new season in my life, therefore a new blog is in order.

The new blog is VA or Bust. Time for a new place = a new blog.

Let's do this!

I have some pictures from my last day at home that aren't bad...

See you on the flip side. I am kicking this puppy in the face! (Only those who actually know me will get this. I do not actually kick puppies in the face. I am a lover of all things fuzzy and cute. Just thought I'd add a little disclaimer. Thanks.)

Summer Camp

2007-08-11T18:17:00.000-07:00

From Wednesday until today I was at High School Camp. It was good times and I am so glad I was able to go. (Thank You Lord!) There isn't too much to write so I'll just give you the pictures. And I got Movie Maker to work again so we have a video! Woot!

Tattoo(s)

2007-08-05T16:05:00.000-07:00

Drum roll please!

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...

Ta da!

And there you have it. My tattoo. I got it a week ago at Good Neighbor Tattoo. The artist was Arne Hansen and he did an excellent job. Obviously it hurt, a lot, but now I can't feel it. It gets itchy at times but that should soon pass and is a good thing since that means its healing.

Everyone has asked me why.

My simple (and really only) answer is: because I wanted to. I didn't get it to be cool (mostly) or because I was pressured or because I want to witness with it. I got it because I wanted it and its just that simple. What happens after this we'll see.

Oh, by the way, it is Philippians 3:12 in Japanese and its on my lower left side on my back. And yes, that is what it actually says. I got it out of my Japanese Bible and checked it so I'm 99% positive that it does actually say what I think it says.

"Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold for me."

Loans

2007-08-05T15:40:00.000-07:00

I thought this appropriate.

Vacation Part 3: AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!

2007-08-05T15:19:00.000-07:00

I'm going slightly mad. Now that vacation is over, I have one more week until I leave for school. I have a day and a half to pack my life into a storage container and a suitcase. I get to sort through all my stuff and decide what to lug to Virginia and what to leave to be forever lost in the sea of junk that is the attic.

This has made me slightly insane. Only on the inside of course. Right now I kind of feel like this little guy we found etched into the sidewalk at church. Whether he was intentional or not, I'm not sure. But I definitely do relate to the guy.

Vacation Part 2: The Actual Vacation Part

2007-08-04T20:56:00.000-07:00

My family and I have been going to Pine Cliff Resort in June Lake for about ten years now. It is a nice, secluded camp ground on a gorgeous lake surrounded by other lakes. All we ever do is sleep, read, play games and go fishing. An entire week of that and I can say that I am relaxed.

To give you a slight visual I took some pictures, of course. There are a lot, and I mean A LOT, of pictures of the lake. Just to warn you a head of time.

But first we have some serious awesomeness: Bunny Biscuits!

Whenever Mommy makes biscuits she uses the leftover dough to make bunny biscuits. I made one too and there it is minus an ear because Mommy got a little hungry before I was able to take a picture. She was properly reprimanded. I regret to say that my bunny looks rather angry and his/her paws are in a rather risque position as was pointed out by my sister.

Oh well. It's my bunny biscuit and I love her/him/it anyway.

Next we have what my sister and her friends did (minus one) the entire day and a half they spent with us.

Nothing.

And then there was the hike. Yes, I went on a hike. I was reading in my room when Daddy knocked on the window and told me to put some shoes o because we were going on a hike. This 'hike' ended up being around the entire lake. Which actually wasn't too bad. We went at a slow pace and there wasn't a lot of uphill business going on. It was also beautiful, I got a lot of good pictures and I was able to see the lake from a completely different side that in all our ten years of camping at Pine Cliff I had never seen.

The hitting my head on a tree and doing a nice little Tarzan swing into a thorny rose bush to avoid falling off the rocks into the lake was interesting. I can only imagine what my face looked like as I was swinging into that bush and I'm sure my parents won't let me forget it for a long time.

All in all it was a good hike and I'm glad I did it. It was about six miles in all and while that may seem like a cake walk to some, was a lot for me. I have been driving for too long but luckily walking is something I can do and this just proved it further. My legs do work and they can be used for something other than walking to the car or refrigerator! Hurray!

Now onto the pictures...

The Trail... Dun Dun DUN!

A hiking we will go...

Our first glimpse of the lake. (It's a lot bigger than this.)

Some spiffy clouds.

Better view.

Pine cones!

Very large tree.

Trees growing out of rocks. This was pretty cool.

This was probably around the time I hit my head on a tree...

Other side of the lake.

Chris and Daddy

Duckies!

Mommy.

Uprooted tree thats still holding on. Pretty amazing.

Pinecone bud. Apparently you don't get to see these too often because they're so high up. This tree wasn't so shy so we got to see.

Someones house. Yeah, I know...

The boat docks.

More duckies! This is while Chris and I were feeding them of course.

A little video of an inch worm inching its way up my leg. This was right after I did my Tarzan swing into the rose bush.

Mommy hiking IN the lake. We had to do a little of that. Felt good though. It was hot!
The End!

Of the hike! I had you for a second there...

The hike was great and of course there was always fishing.

Daddy casting and almost falling off the rock...

Mommy smiling away.

And then... there were crossword puzzles. Dun Dun DUN!

Here's the thing. I am not competitive at all. Nor do I love a challenge, nor am I ever sarcastic.

Knowing all that, the following story will make perfect sense.

Mommy bought a crossword puzzle book before we left. I decided to give one a try because I was bored. It was pretty challenging and it took me a while but I did it. I was pretty impressed.

Then Daddy sat down and did one in three minutes. Three minutes people! I was amazed and of course had to do as many as possible in as fast a time as possible. I'm still working on it and I think I've fried a few braincells from thinking way too hard for a three letter word that means 'A long stretch of time'. That's usually 'EON' by the way...

And so begins my new addiction to crossword puzzles.

Melissa and crew left on Monday. From left to right: Matt, Serene, Melissa and Chris.

A good Mommy face. Not exactly sure what I did to deserve it but I'm glad I did it.

Daddy accidentally left the waders at home so we went into Bishop to get some new ones. Found these at Kmart for $10. Daddy looks pretty spiffy in these.

One of the many chipmunks that graced us with its presence.
That reminds me a story...

One day Mommy and I were sitting on the porch of the trailing doing whatever we were doing, reading or my new found love, crossword puzzles. Because we were so quiet the chipmunks decided we weren't going to stop them from running into the trailer. Boy were they wrong!

But unfortunately I did miss one until it was too late. So I ran into the trailer after it and since I was blocking its only exist, it decided to run into my parents bedroom, jump onto the bed, run over Daddy's leg and back onto the floor to hide under the bed.

Daddy was taking a nap so as the chipmunk ran over his thigh he made a rather funny jerking motion that made me laugh pretty hard.

Good times.

Some stormy clouds. It rained on us a little one day which meant no fishing but more time for Monopoly!

One day we went over to Mono Lake for the free tour. It was definitely made of awesome.

Mono lake has no outlets. Therefore the only way it loses water is through evaporation. But, like the Dead Sea, its minerals and salt do not evaporate because minerals and salt don't evaporate. Leaving the lake with 80% more salinity than the ocean. Ya, pretty crazy. It also doesn't help that Los Angeles took 500 vertical feet of water from the lake by taken water from the creeks that feed the lake.

All of that been worked out now and they are working on getting the level up to where it should be seeing that 80% of all the seagulls in California go through this lake during migration along with a few other types of birds including but not limited to Osprey.

The cool thing about the high salinity is that it has created Tufas. Tufas are calcium deposits that have built up in the water and are now exposed after the decrease in water level. They are pretty cool.

My favorite part were the flies. They don't land on people and there are millions of them. Most of them are along the shore. To show is where they are our guide simply walked across the shore and a few hundred flies moved out of his way and landed a few feet behind him. I thought that was pretty awesome.

Enough talking, more pictures!

Flies! The black along the shore are the flies and the black in the water are the larvae.

Seagulls.

There was a 'small' leak in the bathroom which is how we think Mr. Frog Man here got into the bathtub.

I'm sitting at the table when I hear, "Good Lord in Heaven above" come from the bathroom. I run in to find Mommy standing over the bathtub looking in. I look in and there he is, Mr. Frog Man, just sitting there like its normal for a rather large tree frog to be sitting in a bathtub in a trailer in the woods.

I told Mommy I would catch him and of course the minute I felt that slimy skin I swuealed like a girl. I did eventually catch him and then he jumped out of my hands and I had to catch him again. Eventually he made it outside. Whether he made it back to wherever he came from alive, I had no idea. Lets just say that with all the birds out there the odds were against him.

It was still pretty cool.

And who could forget Monopoly. I totally owned at this game. We played five times and I kicked some serious buns three out of five of those times. Mommy and Daddy each won once, all of us won by a landslide. Good times.

I told you I'm not competitive...

And so ends the story of my vacation. Again, it was a fun relaxing time that left me feeling refreshed and smelling like pine.

I can now say, I'm glad to be home.

Vacation Part 1: Books

2007-08-04T20:28:00.000-07:00

Oh, where to begin?... I have been at June Lake for the past week and so many wonderful posts need to be written, but where to begin? I decided on books because I felt like it.

So here they are:

Blood Memory by Greg Iles

Recommended to me by my Daddy, this was a very interesting book that was different from most I have ever read. The author is a man but the main character was a women... (?_?)''' I know, totally weird. But it was surprisingly well done. The main character was a little crazy and unstable while dealing with some repressed memories from her childhood but Iles kept it pretty much together. It was a good mystery with some nice unexpected plot twists. A very good ending. Everyone got their just deserts which made me happy.

The Princess Bride Abridged by William Goldman

Personally I liked the movie better but it was still worth reading. I could have gone without a lot of Goldman's life story but again, it was worth the read. Probably because it was funny and almost exactly the movie (since Goldman also wrote the screen play) and rather short.

And those are it for the week. I know, not much but there was a lot of crossword puzzle doing and Monopoly winning going on which will be explained in the next post.

Doggies

2007-07-24T10:37:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of babysitting Bubba's sister, Hope. She is a little bigger than Bubba since he is the runt and she has very unusual face markings. She was pretty cute so I had to take some pictures with Daddy's camera (since I sold mine on eBay). Here they are!

Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeppppppppp..........

2007-07-20T22:46:00.000-07:00

I am really tired right now. And it feels good. But my hunger overrides the tiredness so I'm going to go eat a hot pocket and then go get some sleep. Ah, sleep...

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

2007-07-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

I went to the library with my Mommy on Tuesday and while we were walking through she saw that there was a new book out by Ray Bradbury that was a sequel to "Dandelion Wine". The only Bradbury book I had ever read was "Fahrenheit 451" and I loved it so she recommended I read "Dandelion Wine". We found a collection of his stories and after I finished "Dandelion Wine" I was very... confuddled. I know thats not a "real" word but its the best I can come up with to describe what I was thinking when I was done.
Bradbury is an exceptional author as anyone who had read anything by him knows. The incite he has into his characters no matter what age or gender or background they are is amazing and his use of language makes me wonder how anyone can come up with this stuff.
Here are a few passages from "Dandelion Wine" that made me stop and marvel at all that is Ray Bradbury:

"Douglas shut his eyes and saw two idiot suns dancing on the reverse side of the pinkly translucent lids." (pg 218).

"Doug did not ask the others. Already the trains were chanting and he saw their faces drifting off on back observation platforms, or pressed to windows. One by one they slid away. And then the empty track and the summer sky and himself on another train run in another direction." (pg 213).

To convey emotions and tiny occurrences like that is astounding. There aren't any words to describe the way Ray Bradbury uses his.

Turning Angel by Greg Iles

2007-07-19T11:25:00.000-07:00

Another great writer that can keep the suspense going in a 500 page book. I had no idea "who done it?" until about 1:00am when I finished the book. This story has everything a good murder mystery needs: a few dead people, drugs, scandal, small towns and a wealthy, handsome hero thats not so much a hero as you think he is...

I give it an A.

Ouchies...

2007-07-13T15:48:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the doctors office and got my Meningococcal Meningitis and my first of three Gadasil (to prevent cervical cancer) vaccines. Wednesday I went in for a physical for UR and found that I needed some shots. I was a little apprehensive about them because I haven't had a shot in a long time but they weren't too bad. There was some definite stinging and my arms felt really heavy for a little while but I'm all better now. You can't even see where they pricked me.

I didn't get a lollipop though which makes me a little miffed...

Kids Say the Darndest Things

2007-07-10T14:56:00.000-07:00

Flip Flops by Antique Mommy

This story first of all, made me laugh. Which then made my mom come in the room wondering what I was laughing about while she was slaving away with the vacuum cleaner. As I relayed the reason for my laughter my mom told me a story about my uncle, her younger brother, who had a few words of his own. Just to name a few: whatsupdoc for carrots thanks to Bugs, gasfew for the tricycle that didn't actually use any gas and helliwopper for helicopter. We had another good laugh at that one.

I had some good ones when I was little as well. My Daddy's favorite is mazageen for magazine. And of course there was yeyo for yellow and pasketi for spaghetti.

Ha! Crazy little kids.

Radar

2007-07-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

"Nuditidity makes me breath funny."

Radar O'Reilly M*A*S*H

Registration Blues

2007-07-09T14:16:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day I was suppose to be able to register for my classes at the University of Richmond for Fall 2007 starting at 9am. I woke up around 10am and realized that so I started on my computer. I entered in the correct numbers I had prepared almost two weeks ago to make sure I wouldn't waste any time and clicked "SUBMIT". Only to find out that four out of the six classes were full or needed a prerequisite.

Needless to say I was pretty bummed and almost slightly freaking out. So I tried to register for other courses that were alternatives and most of those were also closed. That was about the time I realized that when they said 9am they meant 9am Virginia time which is 3 hours ahead of California meaning everyone else had had almost four hours to register by the time I was on the computer.

There wasn't much else I could do but write an e-mail to the Academic Advising Center saying that I had no idea what to do next. A little while later, after I had eaten about two big cookies and paced my room a few times, a very nice and totally awesome lady from Academic Advising called me to see what we could do to get me registered. I was so great full and she was very helpful. I eventually registered for a few classes and ended up speaking with a gentleman who is helping me to figure out the rest.

Right now I am registered for:

Greek 101
Journalism 200
Classics 302- Roman Art and Archeology
History 100- Technology in American History
English 103 (soon to be 297 if everything works out tomorrow)

And that is that. I want to take a different history class but I an still waiting to hear back from the history department because the class is full and I want to try to get in anyway. The English class will work out as far as I know but not until tomorrow. So not exactly my original plan but working out well anyway.
Hey, I still get to take Greek!

The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger

2007-07-09T14:07:00.000-07:00

Just finished it last night, staying up until 11:30pm to finish it only to be slightly disappointed. Rarely do I think a movie is better than the book but I guess that's because I always read the book first and that was not the case in this instance.
Don't get me wrong, it was a well written, witty and engrossing story that was actually very similar to the book. I simply prefer the more innocent and better behaved characters portrayed in the movie as opposed to the novel.
I would still recommend it. A girly novel with a good moral was a nice break from all the blood and killing of historical fiction.

Ishbosheth

2007-07-07T14:11:00.000-07:00

Steve (teaching on Sunday): And Saul had a son named Ishbosheth.

Me (to Alicia): Who the heck names their kid Ishbosheth?

Alicia: He must not have been the favorite.

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

2007-07-07T14:02:00.000-07:00

Speaking about Robert E. Lee:

"When Virginia left the Union she bore his home away as surely as if she were a ship setting out to sea, and what was left behind on the shore was not his any more. So it was no cause and no country he fought for, no ideal and no justice. He fought for his people, for the children and the kin, and not even the land, because not even the land was worth the war, but the people were, as wrong as they were, insane even as many of them were, they were his own, he belonged with his own. And so he took up arms wilfully, knowingly, in perhaps the wrong cause against his own sacred oath and stood now upon alien ground he had once sworn to defend, sworn in honor, and he had arrived there really in the hands of God, without any choice at all; there had never been an alternative except to run away, and he could not do that. But Longstreet was right, of course: he had broken the vow. And he would pay. He knew that and accepted it. He had already paid. He closed his eyes. Dear God, let it end soon."

I thought I'd let the book speak for itself.

Disneyland Day 2

2007-07-03T22:36:00.000-07:00

Finally! Day 2 of Disneyland is here!

So...

Step 1: California Adventure

Seeing that we spent most of Day 1 at Disneyland we decided to do all the cool stuff at CA Adventure.

Step 2: Flick's Fair

They made a cool "little" place that is literally little, or rather everything else is bigger. It is from A Bug's Life so everything is made bigger to make you feel smaller. It was pretty cool seeing giant four leaf clovers and life size lightning bugs.

Step 3: It's Tough to Be A Bug

A 3D movie about how tough it is to be a bug because apparently we humans don't understand what its like to be a bug. It was a lot of fun and kind of scary at times. BUt yet still fun. I love 3D.

Step 4: Signature from Stitch

The second Meagan saw Stitch she freaked out and we got in line. This little booger tried to steal my pen and then attempted to stick it up my nose. Ya, that was weird...

Step 5: Monster's Inc. Ride

This was a cool ride. A little mix of Toon Town and Winnie the Pooh.

Step 6: Screamin' on the Tower of Terror

The only Tower of Terror I had ever been on was the one at Tokyo Disney so this was both Meagan's and my first time. It was awesome. The Twilight Zone theme wasn't that scary but the ride was totally awesome. One of those stomach in your throat things. Awesomeness!

Step 7: Soarin' Over California

This is a cool ride. It's like watching a movie on California with Smell-O vision. Made me remember how beautiful California is.

Step 8: Back to Disneyland!

By this time it was very, very hot. Probably about 90 degrees or hotter. So we walked around and found some shade.

Step 9: Winnie the Pooh

So we went on the Winnie the Pooh ride where the line was shaded and the ride was air conditioned. And I just love those little hephalumps and woozels.

Step 10: California Screamin'

Back to California Adventure. The craziest part of the trip because this was the first roller coaster Meagan had ever been on. I know! I was just as shocked so we had to go on it. And of course she loved it and wanted to go on it again.

Step 11: Muppet's 3D

If you think that the Muppet's are cool regularly then you will love them in 3D! This movie was really well done and very entertaining.

Step 12: Golden Vine Winery

Lunch! I'm not exactly sure when we had lunch but this was where the picture was in the set so this is where its going. This restaurant was amazing! It was about $50 all together for the two of us and we each had a salad, lasagna, dessert and coffee. The food was great and the atmosphere was relaxing. A good break from the heat and very vacation-ish and gourmet. Who doesn't love a cheap gourmet meal at the happiest place on earth?

Step 13: The Bee's

What I call the Yo-Yo. Another good chance to relax because we were extremely tired and still had about 5 hours to go.

Step 14: Lights Show and Fireworks

Very, very well done. I loved the show. They went through every ride at the park using lights and music and all timed with fireworks. Leave it up to Disney to make such a spectacular display.

Step 15: Find an open ride thats working
After fighting the insane crowds and finding out that Big Thunder Mountain that we had Fast Passes for was closed we went to Pirates. We waited less than fifteen minutes and the ride was enjoyable. A good last ride.

Step 16: Goodbye Disneyland
Now that we've done and seen everything its time to finish up our shopping and go home.

Goodbye Disneyland!

D Part 2

2007-07-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

Pardon my lack of Day 2 at Disneyland. I've been a little busy hating money.

I Hate Money

2007-07-03T19:50:00.000-07:00

Today I had the pleasure of stressing out over how I'm going to pay the $18,505 it is going to cost me to go to school next semester. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Not.

But it wasn't too hard to do and I'm getting started on time so I'm okay. I filled out my FAFSA and looked up loans and scholarships and all that jazz. I also was approved for a Student Visa card. Heck yes. My first real credit card. Too bad I can't spend any money because I owe the University of Richmond $18,505!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What about all those cute tops and that totally awesome belt we just got in at Hollister or the new shoes I want or all of my free time?!!!!! *crawls into the corner and cries*

Okay I'm done now. I much prefer being able to have the excellent education and options I will receive from UR than all that material stuff. I mean come on, I get to take freakin' Greek! Who would want to miss out on that? I am not being sarcastic I am really excited about taking Greek. Yes I am a nerd/geek whatever you chose to call me.

I'm done with my little rant now. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and beg the government for money.

I'm Goin' Ta Disneyland!

2007-06-30T19:21:00.001-07:00

Okay, so I already went to Disneyland but thats not the point.

Anyway, Disneyland was awesome! Meagan, my totally awesome friend with a totally awesome Mommy, and I had a great and relaxing time and now you have the chance to enjoy it a little with us. How you ask? Close your eyes (well mentally, not physically because then you wouldn't be able to read nor see the pretty pictures) and pretend you are there with us in beautiful Anaheim, California at the Happiest Place on Earth where dreams come true.

Step 1: Starbucks

How anyone starts a day at 5:30am and doesn't have a little coffee in the morning is beyond me. If thats you, you are my hero.

Step 2: Drive

With Queen and Disney blasting the trip went by quickly.

Step 3: Find your hotel/hostel

Finding our hostel wasn't so quick. When we did finally find we parked and went into the lobby. The minute we stepped in we knew we were in trouble. The smell let little to be desired and the fact that the "clerk" didn't ask for ID was disconcerting but we shrugged it off and put our stuff in the room, making sure to take our valuables with us. Hey, it was cheap.

Step 4: Get to Disneyland, park and take the tram

All of which was fairly simple and didn't take too long.

Step 5: Buy your tickets

God loves us. We were planning on the tickets for two 2 Day Hopper tickets to cost us about $240. Turns out Meagan could upgrade her Annual Pass that was blacked out that day to one that was not for only $30. So our tickets ended up being only $150! We were excited because that meant we could buy more stuff. Haha!

Step 6: Enter the park

The Happiest Place on Earth!

Step 7: Get a Fast Pass for Splash Mountain
Because I am not waiting 60 minutes for a ride if I can avoid it and I certainly can.

Step 8: Ride Indiana Jones

What a great ride. Go Harrison Ford! This is also where we analyzed cooking shows and discovered some Southern CA slang like ta for to. Example: Going ta the beach dude. Instead of, Well friend, I am going to the beach. Gotta (see it there too?) love line conversation.

Step 9: Jungle Cruise

These guys are always funny with their inevitable puns about fake nature. Only at Disneyland.

Step 10: Take the Fast Pass to Splash Mountain only to have the ride have a "Log Jam" and be closed for an "indefinite period of time"

A risk you take with every ride. We Disneyland Veterans have learned these things. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

Step 11: The Haunted Mansion

Another awesome classic ride that has been redone a little since the last time I rode. My favorite part is still the dancing ghosts.

Step 12: Star Tours

One of my favorite rides only because it is such a classic. The gift shop afterwards is pretty awesome as well. Mr. Potato Head makes a pretty good Darth Vader.

Step 13: Go to the Mad Hatter and try on all the crazy hats
This is one of my favorite parts of Disneyland. We did it at Tokyo Disney and had a blast so Meagan and I decided to do it again. The results were just as fun.

Look familiar?

Step 14: Big Thunder Mountain

More classic Disney-ness. A Roller Coaster Type Ride in a "mountain" that whips you around a few times and then, ends. Good times.

Step 15: Pirates of the Caribbean

The redone ride is a lot more fun the older version. There are a few more dips and a nice scene where you actually get a little wet. It also helps that Johnny Depp is in it. As hard core Pirate fans Meagan and I felt obligated to ride. It was a tough job but we figured someone had to do it.

Step 16: Lunch!

Next to the Pirates ride there is a litte cafe called Cafe Orleans. It is massively overpriced and not very fancy but the Monte Cristo Sandwich they sell is amazing and rather famous at Disneyland. We bit the bullet and paid the $16 each for a sandwich and enjoyed as much as we could eat.

Step 17: Signature from Winnie the Pooh

Signatures are a very important part of the Disney experience. And Pooh is just totally awesome.

Step 18: Signature from Remy of Ratatouille

He was there and we figured "What the heck". Little booger tried to steal my pen.

Step 19: Jedi Training Academy

I'm not the bigger Star Wars fan but I do like the movies and Meagan is a hard core Star Wars fan so we watched the Jedi Training Academy. It was totally awesome. It was an interactive show. A few Jedi's came out and the main Jedi Master did a little karate style sword form that was very well done. Then they picked some young padawons to come on stage, about 20 or so. Then the kids were given a robe and a "training light saber" and taught a little drill. Then the fun began. Darth Vader and some Star Troopers came out followed by Darth Maul. Each kid then got to use their newly learned drill to fight either Darth Vader or Darth Maul. I was highly impressed at how well the kids did and that they behaved the entire time.
Its pretty amazing how little kids will listen to a guy with a microphone pretending to be a Jedi when they don't even listen to their own parents. Maybe parents should dress up in brown robes and carry around light sabers.

Step 20: Space Mountain

After waiting in line for about 45 minutes behind a very hyper group of Jr. Highers we made onto Space Mountain. I loved it! I hadn't been on any version of the ride for almost five years and I was surprised at how well done the ride was. It is entirely black with a few stars the entire ride, its fast and just loads of fun. I was so excited about it. Ya, excited.

Step 21: Watch the Parade

As we were walking towards the exit of Disneyland to go into California Adventure the parade started so we stopped to watch. The parades are always fun. There's just something cool seeing your childhood life size.

Step 22: The Animation Building in California Adventure

This is a very fun building. Inside they have giant screens all around the room showing scenes from classic Disney movies with the music and everything. There are several rooms inside the building. The first one we went into was the Turtle Talk With Crush from Finding Nemo. Another wonderful technological advance in entertainment. Everyone sits in a theater and has a conversation with an animated Crush on a screen a the front of the room. Crush asks questions and answers questions from the audience. It was pretty amazing. I'm assuming there was someone behind the small windows next to the screen that was operating the Crush and speaking for him. Must have been even coller for the little kids. They definitely enjoyed it.

Step 23: Dinner
At the Award Wiener in CA Adventure. Those Chili Dogs were seriously awesome.

Step 24: Eating Dinner while watching the Electrical Parade
We ended up sitting down to watch the parade while we finished up dinner and bought a little dessert from the candy shop. Chocolate covered pretzels shaped like Mickey Mouse. Heck yes.

Step 25: Ride the tram back to the parking garage to get Meagan's sweater

More fun times on the tram.

Step 26: Ride the tram back to the park

Step 27: Stay on the tram back to the parking garage because Meagan left her ticket in her other shorts...

Step 28: Back to the park for good this time!

Step 29: Wait in line at the Mad Hatter for Meagan to get her name stitched in her new Pirate Mickey Ears hat.
I love how they will stitch your name in your hat for free. A very good deal and great souvenir.

Step 30: The Matterhorn

Another classic ride that never fails to be worth the wait. We only waited about twenty minutes and it was worth it. Fun times with the Abominable Snowman.

Step 31: One more tram ride back to the parking garage

Step 32: Drive to the hostel

Step 33: Sleep.

And that's Day One!

Thanks Bill from Arkansas

2007-06-30T19:18:00.001-07:00

I sold my camera on eBay! My only other experience with selling something on eBay didn't turn out so well so this time I was a little worried but I guess when you're selling a digital camera in its original box for only $50 someone out there will buy it. This time it was Bill from Arkansas.

Thank you Bill. You're camera should be arriving shortly.