Back Next Week

A few years ago we went to a wonderful Chalk Festival in Pasedena. I’m happy to see that it’s still going on.

http://www.pasadenachalkfestival.com

There were a lot of great drawings there, from simple  . . .

uno

To the very ambitious

Angel

You can click on those pictures to see a few more that we took.

The Pasadena Chalk Festival is every June, and is a great free local event for those of us in in Southern

California. It takes place over two days (Saturday and Sunday), so if you get there one Saturday like we did, you will see a lot of unfinished, but still beautiful artwork.  If you want to see everything finished, you’ll have to go on Sunday.

Disney Hollywood studios. (Formerly Disney MGM Studios) Every park under the Disneyworld has something special to offer, Hollywood studios is no exception.

This park is home to the original Tower of Terror, a wonderful attraction not affected by Eisner’s ludicrous budget cuts. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, the Aerosmith Concert themed ride that’s very exciting and a thrill the entire time. As a huge Little Mermaid fan, the Voyage of the Little Mermaid stage show is really cute and of course the Star Wars area, home to Star Tours and a giant sized AT-AT is a treat for any Star Wars fan.

Toy Story mania, probably my favorite theme use for a line cue! There is also the Muppet’s 3-D show (same as Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim, CA) but Disneyworld has a lot more room to actually have consistent themes (Star Tours in Star Wars area, Muppets 3-D in Muppet area etc. etc.) Although there is plenty to do and see, if you are pressed for time, I suggest doing maybe a half day in Hollywood Studios.Make sure you take in the Sci-Fi dine in theatre (you eat in a ‘car’ and watch old sci-fi movies, also it has the sugary-est dessert we’re ever seen)

Sweet

Also try to hit the 50’s prime time Café’ (where waiters’ and waitress’ treat you like family… literally) Here’s us looking at the dessert menu.

Dessert Menus!

Click on any of the pics to see the gallery.

After seeing the new Star Trek movie (which was awesome by the way) it reminded me of the Star Trek exhibit my Dad and I saw when it was at the Queen Mary last year. Really geeky fun, although I hear they changed it up a little since then. Plenty of props, costumes, pictures, quizzes, prosthetics, models, and sets.

http://www.startrek.com/custom/include/community/tour/

here’s just a few of the pictures we took. (click on any of the images to go to the gallery)

The former home of the Spruce Goose

Ahh the famous red shirts, where will they die next?

One of the best Trek Episode ever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_City_on_the_Edge_of_Forever

LEGO Sea Life is the newest in amusements in Carlsbad, Ca. I for one was impressed at the overall cleanliness, and the LEGO company’s theming was great. The staff was very helpful and not once did I get an “I don’t know” or blank stare with my species specific inquiries. The movie theatre was a nice break, a small theater showing clips from some BBC specials, I only wish they showed more.

The breakdown from Ocean/fresh water fish and the information available was very helpful in determining exactly ‘where do these sharks live?’ and ‘are those Ray’s in Ca?’ I also loved the selection of Sea Horses and the Atlantis tank was very impressive. I don’t know what I loved more the LEGO ship and divers or the majestic fish.

ray

I also thought the school of fish room gave a very good feel for how large a school of fish can be, there were a few spots that seemed a bit bare but the overall effect is awesome. Also the little bubbles where you too can be part of the tank is an adorable idea and a great photo op. Again I loved it but I couldn’t help but feel I wanted more. We were completely done with the whole aquarium including the movie, photos and perusing every tank within 2 hours, but at least it’s only $20 to get in. (LEGOLAND is $70ish)

Click on any of the pics to see the full gallery

We took a quick trip to Las Vegas, just to see Ka, and eat at the Paris
Hotel breakfast buffet. We tried to pack a lot into a couple days.

Ka was amazing. (sorry we weren't allowed to take pictures) Easily one
of the best Cirque du Soleil shows I've seen.

The Paris buffet is always great. an amazing variety of food. Although
I'm happy anytime there's all you can eat bacon. Not that I want to eat
two pounds of bacon, I just like knowing I have the option.

We stayed at a Marriot Courtyard, the rooms were spacious, and the
staff is always great there.

We stopped by the Bellagio to see their garden, and it was decorated
 with a Chinese theme.



The Bellagio also had the worlds largest chocolate fountain.



More pictures of our trip here

Oh yeah, two great, off the strip, places we stopped at to eat;

Sushi Fever
7895 W Sahara

Wonderful food, and they had some great rolls
I've never seen anywhere else.

Buffalo Wild Wings
4820 Hualapai #108

Good food, and you can play trivia while you eat, and compare your
scores to other people playing worldwide

This has little to do with travel, but Valerie loves to tell the story (I can’t blame her), so here ya go . . .

February 2006 we went on a trip with our friends to Walt Disney World (the 2^nd happiest place on earth), I was so excited, being a long time Disneyland annual passholder it was a dream to be able to go. We left on Valentines Day and the first order of business I wanted to do when we checked in (besides hitting every single park) was seeing the LEGO store in their Downtown Disney. James and I had met at the LEGO store in Anaheim so I wanted to pay homage to our proverbial Mecca. Every time I wanted to head over to Downtown Disney James said there were too many other things and we would go later on in the trip. ‘Ok’, I thought, he’s the expert and from that point on the entire trip my brain checked out and I was on Disney cruise control. On Saturday morning (my birthday) all of us were ready to hit DTD (and I was so excited I can finally see the LEGO store and get a souvenir). While entering the store I saw this awesome build your own mini-fig display and started building (I LOVE Minfigs) my intention was to make a Minifig of James for my desk at work so I’m tinkering away and James says, “hey babe, you might want to look around the store then come back here.” Here’s the thing, I don’t focus well so when I am in the zone, I cannot be disturbed so I said, “babe, I am making a Minifig of you, I will look around later.” “Baaabe” said with a little more urgency now “I really think you should look around the store.” “Sweetheart, I am building a Minifig I think it can wait a few more minutes.” Then with a little more urgency and tone he says, “Just look around the store woman.” So I put my Minifig down and turned around and saw a HUGE sign made out of LEGO that read “Will You Marry Me Valerie”

I thought this was so cute and looked right to show James (when I said my brain was on cruise control I wasn’t kidding, I literally did not think it was for me) I looked over at him and he was on 1 knee…omg! NO WAY, then I remembered, oh yea he’s asking me I need to answer…”yea duh!” was my intelligent response to his inquiry. I looked at the ring he was presenting to me and made a bee line over to it and in one ninja swoop it was on my finger….then I hear all this whooping and cheering, apparently when people came into the store and saw the sign they wanted to see the proposal so a small crowd had developed and I was too concerned with my Minifig to notice. It was one of the happiest days of my life! This has been a James is Awesome production.

Plenty more pictures right here

View from the boat

Catalina makes a great day trip, I would suggest if you are coming from out of town don’t go out of your way to go but if you are a local or visit the Los Angeles area often it’s definitely worth doing once. We took the Catalina Express boat over, it was a delightfully smooth ride. When we arrived at the island the only plans we had was to see the Catalina Hoedown, a fundraising endeavor they throw annually, with some time to kill before the howdown started we headed over to the tourism bureau and were weighing out our tour and transportation options, the staff was very helpful and with our limited time we were going to go on the glass bottom boat tour but with the rodeo starting soon we decided to head over there and visit the Botanical Gardens. The Hoedown was fun, there was a great magician, a Native American dance, and my favorute part, Pistol Packin’ Paula.

Pistol Packin'

The gardens weren’t that interesting. If you are into cactus and no flowers then this is the gardens for you, I was assuming since it was a botanical garden that there would be orchids or something colorful and there was none. We headed home in the early evening so we did not dine in Catalina (aside from the BBQ at the hoedown). It was a lovely day and a great excursion for an otherwise uneventful weekend.

Our pictures and a few videos of Paula can be viewed here

A few pictures from a trip I took to Chicago for Christmas back in 2004. This was when I discovered how much I dislike the cold. I can’t even start to tell you how much awesome stuff there is to do and see (a lot of it got free) in Chicago. Even in winter, there’s so much to do that you’ll have to make some tough choices.

Choices

The museums, the food, the holiday decorations, the food, the parks, everything was great. You have to see the fountain at Millennium Park. You have to get a pizza, the list goes on and on.

The largest, most complete T-rex ever found

Outside the Hancock observatory

The rest of the pictures can be found here; http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/divaentree/Vacations/Chicago2004/

I purchased a red eye flight for our group so we could relax in the airport before our transfer to port Canaveral. The flight was comfortable, and Delta offers a lot of on the plane entertainment, including direct tv, and in service trivia (which you play with other passengers on the flight) I slept the flight to orlando but took advantage of the Trivia and the direct tv on the way back, they offer movies but it’s an additional charge and so are other games.(lame) If television is not your thing they also have the latest CD’s available to listen to in their entirety for free. You can create a custom play list and get information on the artist and song (from the same screen as the direct tv, just another option). When we arrived to Orlando airport we took the monorail to the ‘Disney wing’ a hidden transportation hub within the airport for all Disney guests, we had some downtime so I was very elated when I had free internet. The transportation to Port Canaveral was typical Disney fashion, comfortable coaches educating you on the happenings of your cruise.  The wait time to get on the ship was minimal, we checked in at the airport and that made boarding super convenient and gave us time to unwind in our room before our luggage arrived and of course EAT.

Watch Movies at the pool!

I would suggest taking a carry on bag with a quick change of clothes or necessary toiletries our luggage arrived at our stateroom at about 4:30pm, not bad but I was definitely glad I had my yoga pants and a spare pare of skivvies’. The cruise staterooms were great, we have done other cruise lines in the past and I was so happy to have a bathroom I could comfortably stand up in.The only downside of the restrooms on the ship as a whole was I felt there weren’t enough when you left your cabin. There were maybe 2 on each deck and not always close to the dining areas, not a large problem unless you have an overactive bladder. The themeing on the ship was spectacular, be sure to pay attention and have your camera’s ready when dining in the Artist’s Palate, a $400,000 restaurant on the Disney Wonder. Being an avid Little Mermaid fan I was elated that 2 of our dining evenings were at Tritan’s. Tritans’ is also beautifully decorated with a huge mosaic of Ariel on the wall.

under the sea . . .

Before dinner on the ‘formal night’ we asked a photographer if he could come back after dinner when everyone was gone and take a picture of us in front of the mosaic, explaining my ariel obsession with him he also took us to another ariel mural on the 6^th deck and took numerous shots even going up 1 deck to take a new perspective photo. What impressed me the most about the Disneycruiseline (besides the food of course) was the crew, every person went above and beyond for us, now most cruise crews are very hospitable but the Disney ones are different. You can tell they love what they are doing and that Disney treats them well, from the photographers, servers, entertainment, cruise director and the stateroom hosts everyone was soo accommodating and willing and excited to go the extra mile. Our first stop was in Nassau, we stayed in the Bahamas last year so Nassau was not somewhere I had to see again, but there was a brand new excursion for an encounter with sea lions, now I heart me some sea lions so I just had to do it and it was a ridiculously low price $35 as opposed to the dolphin encounter, a pricey $100. the sea lion encounter was awesome and all transportation was included, Disney has an awesome way of making everything idiot proof. the next day I wanted to schedule an encounter with sting rays, exclusive to castaway cay (Disney’s private island) but when I requested a copy of my excursion charges I was charged 95 dollars for the sea lions and not 35, I was told it was a misprint in flyer and the excursion is actually $95, the guest relations staff said they would call the manager and have it corrected and she would call me back when it was. Well less then an hour later I received a message on the phone saying the credit was on the account and apologized for the mistake. The following day the manager called to ensure everything was alright and apologized again. Once again, very satisfied with the service. All and all I would have to say DisneyCruise was the highlight of my trip, I was sad to leave.

Here’s pictures from the whole trip, the cruise, Castaway Cay, the Osbourne’s festival of lights, Cinderella Castle and more!

All the pictures are here; http://s84.photobucket.com/albums/k8/divaentree/Vacations/WDW-12-208/

Here are some pictures from our time in Cairns. We did the great barrier reef. Then we did the Karunda railway, which is an excellent day long trip. You take the train to the rain forest, there’s a zoo, a butterfly garden, aboriginal shows and plenty of deadly plants and animals along the way.

More pictures here
(sorry they aren’t in order, will have to figure that our before our next vacation)