Here is Kelly’s latest drawing: Auruna in a kimono. Auruna is a Night Elf Priest that Kelly role plays on the World of Warcraft Scarlet Crusade server.
(click for large version)
Kelly’s Night Elf Priest Auruna
March 13th, 20072007 Mercedes-Benz SLK55 AMG
January 26th, 2007
My new SLK55 AMG arrived today!! I’ve been wanting a convertible for some time now. When Mercedes-Benz redesigned the SLK I fell in love with it. Just look at that Formula 1 style nose. It’s much more of a meaty car than it ever was, and with the weather the way it is here in Seattle, the hard top convertible certainly makes it feel like a real car when mother nature doesn’t want to cooperate.
I didn’t start seriously looking for one until 2006. I went to test drive them to see if I even liked how the car felt. I started with the 350 model which has a 3.5L V6. The 350 is certainly no slouch. It has some really good pep and I would have been very happy to have one. While I was at the dealer, though, I asked to drive the AMG version. The salesman warned me, if you drive that one your going to want it. He was right.
“That’s five-thousand five-hundred cc in a car the size of a shoe!”
The AMG factory’s philosophy is “One Man, One Engine.” At AMG’s engine-building HQ in Affalterbach, Germany, a workforce of 45 master builders is responsible for constructing the big-power engines for every AMG-modified vehicle. The SLK55 AMG version comes with a 5.5L V8, lovingly hand-built by one person in the AMG factory. The engine actually has his signature on it. When that V8 roared to life, holy cow, it sent chills down my back. It made me nervous. Car & Driver had clocked a 0-60 time of 4.3 seconds. That’s pretty dang fast. The AMG is significantly more expensive, starting at $63,275, that’s nearly $20,000 more than the base 280, but after driving it, I was determined to get the exact car I wanted and I was willing to wait.
“You really have to think of this thing as a lighting jet fighter; just a HUGE engine, and a steering wheel. And that’s it.”
The SLK55 AMG has a significant number of improvements over the standard SLK. The body modifications give it a more aggressive, aerodynamic and lower appearance. Two tone leather interior, smoked tail lights and quad, chrome exhaust with AMG emblazoned on everything. Of course the real reason for getting AMG is that HUGE motor!
Here’s a great video comparing the Porsche Boxter S vs the SLK55 AMG:
In my research, I found out about the 030 Performance Package that could be added as an option to your AMG. The sexiest thing about the 030 is definitely the wheels. They are multi piece light weight wheels with the AMG stamp on them. They certainly make your car distinctive. On top of that, the 030 package includes Nurburgring tuned suspension (as if it needed more). The damping and compression weights are increased 20% (read stiffer). The standard SLK55 is restrained at 155 mph but the 030 increases that to 176mph. Even better compound brakes and rotors to bring you back to earth. Inside, the steering wheel has been wrapped with Alcantara and the wood trim has been exchanged for a very racy carbon fiber. Among most of the other options, I decided I had to have this too. This option was nearly $7,000 alone and at this rate, the chances of Carol justifying me getting this thing are getting slimmer and slimmer!
“…that engine sits in the mix like a giant anchovy on a mini pizza; it dominates everything.“
You Can Find it on eBay!
The local dealers didn’t have what I wanted and even when they did a search they told me there was nothing. I started doing my own research and lo and behold, the exact car I wanted was being sold by a Mercedes dealer in Colorado. I contacted them and two weeks later, the car arrived at my house.
The Dirty driver…ugh!
The driver finally made it today. These last couple of days of waiting have been torture! He pulls up and there is my car! Right there on the top rack! The driver gets out and let me tell you something, this guys does not bathe. No, I don’t mean a few days or even weeks of not bathing from being on the road, they guy was so dirty it was caked on. What was worse was the thought that he had been in my car! Ugh I don’t want to think about it anymore. He got my car down safely and after an inspection, I signed off on it and took it to the garage. It arrived with 63 miles on it, just as the dealer said.
After the 1300 mile trek to Seattle, it was pretty dirty so Carol and I gave it a nice bath and cleaned the interior.
As you can see, it has the ash/black two-tone leather. This was tougher to find than you would think. It’s hard to see in this picture but the door handles, emergency brake, behind the steering wheel and on the dash are all trimmed in carbon fiber. Both driver and passenger seats are heated and power adjustable of course. It also has the Air-Scarf option which is a heater vent in the head rest that wafts warm air over you when the top is down like a blanket. It adjusts itself depending on how cold it is outside. We went for a drive after washing it. It was quite cold out but the car keeps this layer of heat on the inside when the top is down. We were so comfortable we didn’t even need a coat!
I also have satellite radio (SIRIUS) and the top of the line Harmon/Kardon stereo / head unit. The stereo is so cool; it listens to the ambient noise in the cockpit and adjusts the stereo to compensate so it always sounds great, top up or down.
Hey check out this really awesome key! There are no teeth or anything! The squared end with the red “Panic” button is the part that goes in and activates the ignition.
Here you can see the retractable hard top coming out.
The car has the lighting package which is really nice. Self adjusting bi-xenon headlights with heated washers and corner illuminating fog lamps.
Kelly’s First Snowman
January 26th, 2007
This is Kelly’s very first snowman. I’ve mentioned before, we don’t get a lot of snow up here in Seattle. Before here, we lived in Phoenix, Arizona. And obviously we never got any snow there.
She made it herself and spent HOURS on making it perfect. I have to say, it was the most perfectly round little snowman I think I’ve seen. Carol and I were sitting inside wondering what she was doing. It is very unusual for Kelly to be out in the cold (and it was really cold) for that long.
She rolled and rolled and then lifted that big body up and onto the base herself. She didn’t even ask for help until it was time to get materials for the face. I helped her find some things to use like small pine cones for eyes, a stick for the nose, fern leaves for the hair.
Holly, to our surprise, was not really that interested in going out to play in the snow while Kelly was out. Holly went out the day before but didn’t make a snow man. In this picture, she was just asking me, “Dad, can I throw this snowball at you?” Ummm… no. Especially since I’m holding my camera!
2007 Wind and Snow Storm
January 26th, 2007We had the strangest winter here in the Seattle area. I haven’t lived here that long (relatively) but in the time I’ve been here I’ve been under the impression that it really doesn’t snow or get that cold here. Since 1998 the weather has pretty much agreed with that statement until this winter.
Strangely, it got very cold and first a wind storm blew through here. The wind storm was actually on December 15th, 2006. The wind speed approached 70 mph in some places. There was a lot of damage caused by trees breaking and taking down power lines.
Needless to say, we lost power for three days. Luckily we have a gas-fired fireplace and gas cooking appliances. We were able to cook and barely stay warm. The fireplace is really more for show than go and puts out very little heat.
On the second day we made a dash to the grocery store which was open and running on very limited generator power. You couldn’t buy anything refrigerated because they were trying to preserve what they had but in the end, they should have sold what they had in stock because it all went bad anyway and had to be thrown out. We stocked up on soups and other canned foods since we could warm it on our stove.
Once our power came back on we had to throw everything in the refrigerator out. It actually seemed pretty cold in the fridge but for safety we just tossed it.
We were the fortunate ones. Carol’s mother was without power for a week! We had her stay with us since her heat and stove is electric and without a refrigerator, your food choices are pretty much limited to what comes in cans and boxes.
Besides the wind storm, we had two snow and ice storms. These caused the kids to miss many days of school, which in the state of Washington, they have to make up. At this point, they will be going to school to almost the 4th of July!
My car is a rear wheel drive and doesn’t do well at all if the roads have much slush on them. On the way home from work during the first snow storm, so much slush and ice had formed on the roads, my car was barely making it up any road at all. Traffic had completely stopped everywhere because no one could get up the hills in Redmond. There was no way out. After three and a half hours trying to make it closer to home, I had to throw in the towel. My car was just not going to make it up the hill and it was becoming a very dangerous situation. Before something happened, I decided to go ahead and park it on the side of the road and walk home. I was not alone! Lots of people were in the same situation and walked with me. It was about a three mile walk in the snow, and yes, it was up hill.
Carol and I went to get the car the next day and I managed to get it home safely.
You would think I would have learned my lesson. The second snow storm hit in January and history repeated itself. Luckily I made it closer the second time (I left work earlier) and only had to walk about two miles and no hill this time.
The next day, Carol and I went to go get the car from where I had abandoned it. There is was, nice and lonely and cold by the side of the road right where I left it. This time it was different. There was much more ice and snow than the last storm and that car was not going to budge. It just slid around like it was on an ice skating ring.
We search all over town to try to find tire chains for the car but in the end, because of the low profile tires it was going to have to be a special order everywhere we went. We started to look for sand or de-icer . . . something to get my car off the ice it was stuck on. We were at Fred Meyer looking for sand when I spotted some windshield aerosol de-icer. I convinced Carol to pick up two cans, just in case. Who knows!
Well, coincidentally while we were looking for sand, we had to pass by the car again. We stopped because I wanted to see if the de-icer would melt the ice under the tires. Surprise! It actually worked! I had to do two applications to get the car far enough up the road to the dry area. From there I made it home.
I guess I better go get those tire chains now!
Microsoft JScript -vs- GameMonkey
August 2nd, 2006I’ve been working with the PopCap game development frmework. It’s pretty sweet but I would like to have some kind of scripting ability for tweaking various game parameters. JavaScript seems like the logical answer since I’m a big fan of it and have lots of experience integrating the engine into my apps.
I had heard about another scripting engine called GameMonkey. Its syntax is very close to JavaScript and seemed to be really fast based on running some of the demo scripts that come with the distribution.
I noticed that GameMonkey came with a benchmark script. Since it is so similar to JavaScript it only took me a few minutes to port the script over so that I could compare the speeds. WOW. GameMonkey is pretty fast as you’ll see by the test results below.
My good friend Neil is a serious JavaScript head. I think he has some benchmark tests I might be able to try as well. Something really string heavy I suspect 
Now, I’m not advocating GameMonkey over JScript/JavaScript. Nope. I don’t know enough about it to make any kind of judgment on its suitability for a project but based on its performance with this particular set of tests, I think I’m going to look into it a little further.
The Ackerman test tests the engine’s ability to manipulate the stack. The test is highly recursive. So much so that I had to reduce the depth a little because JScript would error out with an Out of Stack Space error. I modified it in both tests to be fair.
The Fibonacci test simply calculates the Fibonacci sequence up to 32.
The matrix test builds two 30 x 30 matricies and then multiplies each of them 300 times.
The hash test is a very simple hashtable test. It tests the speed of building up an associative array of 80000 elements, then tests all the values in the array.
The heapsort test again builds an array of 80000 but generates a random number for the value of each element. It then sorts the array via the heapsort algorithm implemented in script.
| Test | JScript | GameMonkey |
| Akerman | 1.703 sec | 0.163 sec |
| Fibonacci | 15.641 sec | 1.431 sec |
| Matrix | 19.813 sec | 1.942 sec |
| Hash | 1.843 sec | 0.198 sec |
| Heapsort | 1.313 sec | 0.698 sec |
Microsoft JScript
Microsoft JScript(CScript host):Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host Version 5.6Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation 1996-2001. All rights reserved. *** ACKERMAN ***1021time = 1703*** FIB ***3524578time = 15641*** MATRIX ***.....270165 1061760 1453695 1856025time = 19813*** HASH ***80000time = 1843*** HEAPSORT *** time = 1313
GameMonkey:
*** ACKERMAN ***1021time = 0.162935*** FIB ***3524578time = 1.43161*** MATRIX ***270165 1061760 1453695 1856025time = 1.94145*** HASH ***13880time = 0.19747*** HEAPSORT ***0.989883time = 0.697939
Kinda funny
March 29th, 2006If you have a sec, this is a pretty good blonde joke and is a quick read.
How many hours does a programmer need…
March 28th, 2006This was a response by Joe P. on the Casual Games mailing list to a query on “How many hours does a programmer need…”
Joe really hit the nail on the head with his response:
Crash course in programmer wrangling;
- Accuracy of time estimates is proportional to developer experience. Even
(especially?) highly skilled programmers with only a few years of
development work under their belts will see every problem as simpler than it
really is and wildly underestimate the time required.
- Productive time at programming (time spent adding useful code) comes in
bursts while in a state sometimes referred to as ‘flow’. From the point of
a cold start or starting again after being interrupted for a conversation or
something of only a couple minutes, time to flow is 15-45 minutes depending
upon the complexity of the problem. This means that length of blocks of
time available and environmental distractions or lack there of can have a
dramatic effect on actual productivity without actually affecting the hours
spent.
- As the number of programmers on a project goes up the amount of time spent
keeping in synch climbs logarithmically. This introduces a hard limit on
the number of programmers that can work effectively as a unit of 6-10. I
will assume though that you won’t be able to muster more than about 3, at
that count they shouldn’t be getting in each others way enough that they’d
be less efficient than 2, but even at that low number it will depend on how
well (frequency and quality) they can communicate and how experienced they
are working in a team.
- Many lesser programmers are very proprietary about their code, and when
other developers make changes or additions to it they get territorial. This
is a clear sign of a ‘B’ or ‘C’ class player but you won’t know about it til
possibly too late.
- Your best path to efficiency and knowing how much trouble you are in as
early as possible is to use the Sprint/Scrum method of scheduling and
working. I highly recommend you google on those expressions and read up on
it. In a nutshell the programmers agree on a set of functional code that
can be produced in 1 calendar month, they talk very briefly each day about
their progress the last 24 hours, what they expect to accomplish the next 24
hours, and any obstacles that are in their way. They also estimate how much
of their month goal they have completed and have remaining. It becomes
obvious quickly if people are estimating poorly, and cutting the project
into 1-month chunks allows you to change direction rapidly if conditions
warrant. This is a baseline ‘agile’ coding methodology everyone should be
aware of.
- The level of ability of programmers varies dramatically. This phenomenon
is sometimes described at the high end as 10x programmers, i.e. the most
effective programmers are 10 times as effective as everyone else.
Unfortunately this is not only generally true, but the 10x programmers are
at least 10x as rare as everyone else.
3Impact ActiveX Control
March 17th, 2006I’ve created an ActiveX control to embed the 3Impact 3D game engine into Internet Explorer. I’ve wanted to do this for a while and finally whacked it out Thursday morning at Starbucks. I used to work full time at Microsoft on the Internet Explorer team and also have quite a bit of COM/ActiveX experience so it wasn’t all that difficult.
I’ve taken the 3Impact game engine and created an ActiveX control that will allow you to play 3D games in your browser.
The plan is to not only embed the engine but to also allow you to use browser JavaScript to control the engine and create and control game entities. For simple games, you should be able to do the whole thing in JavaScript as long as your logic isn’t to heavy. The Microsoft JScript engine used by Internet Explorer is really fast, especially when you compare it to Spider Monkey used by FireFox. Not dinging FireFox mind you, just the script engine speed differences are pretty substantial.
My goal is to have all the original game engine demos running over the web.
All of the assets like 3D models, textures, sound, music and code will be streamed into the ActiveX control over the web via HTTP. The game code will be able to interact with the JavaScript engine and the browser so you can do things like keep score in the HTML document or interact with a Flash movie.
I was getting almost 70 frames per second when I shot the video but it appears Windows Media Encoder chokes when recording a DirectX window so the video looks pretty chunky. It also only seemed to capture it in 256 colors. Oh well, you get the point. In person, the demo runs buttery smooth and is gorgeous!
I’ve had a hell of a time getting this video to show up. Sometimes it works for me and I think I’ve nailed it and sometimes it doesn’t. UGH! If it doesn’t show up for you, try downloading the wmv version.
Also, I should note that if you want to make a game that will run in this control, you will have to purchase a license for 3Impact.
Disneyland 2006
March 12th, 2006A Crazy Idea
I think it was a Thursday afternoon late in February when my cell phone rang. It was Carol and she had an idea. Nothing unusual for Carol but what I typically expect is a request to go to an early dinner or perhaps a plan to head out to Port Angeles to my parent’s summer house. No this was a big idea.
“Let’s take Holly to Disneyland for her birthday” she exclaims. Short pause. This was very last minute. Her plan was to take Holly to Disneyland for her 10th birthday which was only about a week away. I didn’t have to think about it very long. I thought it would be an unforgettable birthday trip that none of us would forget. If she could pull out her magic wand and make it magically happen on such short notice I thought it was a great idea.
She called back a few minutes later with the plan. It wasn’t quite as cheap as she had hoped as Kelly is too old and doesn’t fall under the “kids fly and play free” deal that you see on TV. The ad on TV is also for an off-site hotel. I had no problem with the higher price tag since I wouldn’t even consider staying anywhere but the Grand Californian. We stayed there on our trip last year and was so impressed with the experience that it was a no-brainer. More on the hotel later.
We were scheduled to depart around 6:30 AM on the 5th of March. We didn’t want to tell the kids where we were going until the last minute to make it a surprise. Carol had an idea to tell them that my parents got a high water bill and were worried that a water line had broken or a toilet was running so we had to take a very early trip to Port Angeles to check out the house. It was a great excuse to get them up really early on Sunday so we could catch the first ferry over.
We were headed to the airport shortly after 5:00AM. The kids finally asked where we were going once we entered the airport parking lot. I think Kelly asked first, “Where are we going?” “Let’s go to Disneyland.” Carol responded. Pause. “Seriously, where are we going?” I think it was by the time we actually parked and got out of the car that it finally sunk in.
We were the last ones to get on the plane and we noticed that first class was hardly full. The kids are always asking us to fly first class so Carol asked about upgrading. We had to use 10,000 frequent flyer miles each to upgrade but since it was a such a special trip we took the opportunity to go ahead and upgrade. If there was a down side, it had to be the jabber mouth A.D.D. kid in the seat in front of us. It was not only his first trip to Disneyland but also his first plane ride. I’ll tell you what, he just could not hold still or stop talking. If he doesn’t stop talking so much he’s gonna get his tongue sunburned. He jumped from seat to seat running his mouth exclaiming about all the different things he could see and wondering what everyone was doing in coach; running back and forth between the sections.
Regardless I’m glad we upgraded because Carol and I had not gone to sleep yet. Carol was up the whole night packing and we barley got out the door in time! About 45 minutes into the flight, after eating a pretty decent breakfast of spicy sausage and egg quesadilla, Carol and I were out cold. It was nice having the extra room and it was a bit quieter up in front of the roaring engines. A couple of other benefits the kids noticed were the exclusive use of the first class restroom up front and also the fact that you get off the plane first. It was really a great start to the vacation.
We flew into John Wayne airport, which I would recommend if you are going to Disneyland. It is the closest airport to the park and you don’t waste a lot of travel time which leaves more time at the park! Carol had already pre-paid for a ride on the Super Shuttle to take us to the hotel.
Disney’s Grand Californian
The Disney Grand Californian hotel is meticulously designed in the classic California Arts and Crafts style. From the mammoth stone surrounds on the lobby fireplace to the enormous timber framing, the place really pulls off the look accurately for a commercial building. Accurate textiles, furniture and beautiful lighting throughout round out the experience. It is truly a gorgeous hotel.
To top it off, the hotel is meticulously clean. Considering the sheer number of people that must pass through that place, it is amazingly clean. You can hardly walk through the place without seeing the staff, dressed in period uniforms, cleaning, scrubbing and dusting every inch of space. It might sound silly but my biggest surprise was how clean the carpet was in the room. How many times have you been able to walk around in a very busy hotel room with only white socks on and not have them turn black on the bottom?
Our fourth floor room was very nice and overlooked the Downtown Disney area and was directly above the huge Disney store. With the balcony doors open you got a very pleasant cool breeze flowing through the room and you could hear the music from the shopping area down below. From the balcony you could also see the fireworks show they have on weekends.
There are two restaurants at the hotel: the Storyteller’s Cafe and the Napa Rose. Storyteller’s is a family style buffet with menu items available and the Napa Rose is more of a fine dining restaurant and lounge. We ate at both and they are a far better dining experience than anything you will find in the park. In summary, if you are in the park, stick to the turkey legs and churros and go to a decent restaurant back at the Grand Californian or Downtown Disney. Granted there are a couple of decent places to eat in the park they are not as good as the hotel or downtown restaurants.
Carol and I had planned on eating at the Napa Rose Monday evening. We had reservations at 8:30PM and by that time the restaurant was not too busy. The last time we had eaten there we had an excellent experience so we were both looking forward to it. We were not let down. Carol and I enjoy fine dining and the Napa Rose is surely one of our favorites. If you can swing it, you will have one of the best dining experiences. The food is absolutely delicious, highest levels of service and one of the biggest selections of California wines to choose from. To me, the Napa Rose is priced fairly considering the quality and flavor of the food and service. Our bill came to about $250 including drinks, appetizer, salads, meal and desserts.
The Storyteller’s Cafe seems to always have a buffet going as well as a regular, but short menu. I’m not much for buffets but it looks pretty good. We opted for some items off the menu though. We were there for breakfast on the morning of Holly’s birthday. The kids and I opted for the banana stuffed French Toast, orange juice and a cup of coffee. Carol ordered the Mickey shaped Belgian waffles. Everything was very tasty and well made. The bill came up to around $75 with tip.
There is also a very nice gift shop in the hotel as well. I would argue that it has the best quality items for purchase in the whole resort. We spent a lot of frustrating time looking for souvenirs and gifts for ourselves and others but there was surprisingly little that was interesting to us in the entire park. The stores in the park frankly have a bunch of crap. It must be marketed for someone else because we really didn’t find anything unique that you couldn’t buy at home. in contrast, the hotel gift shop had some truly unique items and actually reasonably priced! Be sure to check it out.
California Adventure Park
We spent our first day and last day at the California Adventure Park. This is the newest park at the Disneyland resort. It is directly connected to the Grand Californian Hotel so getting to the park is very quick. They have a private entrance for hotel guests which is one of the perks for staying there.
We arrived a bit before regular check-in time so our room was not ready. We left our bags with bell services and sat by the gorgeous fireplace for a few moments to get our stuff together. Then we headed into the park.
California Adventure is themed around everything California. They have great up beat music going all the time, all related to California that really gets you into the spirit. From the private hotel entrance you first see a water flume raft ride beautifully themed to camping and white water rafting. The backdrop is a huge waterfall over large boulders with running water everywhere. Out front is a shop and the queuing area all built out of what looks like recycled lumber which pulls off the whole cabin look.
The Disneyland parks have a Fast-Pass system where you can walk up and get a “reservation” for a ride. You simply get a ticket with a time range on it. If you come back to the ride within the time range you get to go nearly to the front of the line and avoid almost all of the waiting. You can hold only one Fast-Pass at a time. We found the best thing to do is get a Fast-Pass for a ride then go ride some other rides or eat while you are waiting. When it is within the time indicated, go grab another Fast-Pass at another attraction because you can burn up some of the time on the next Fast-Pass while riding the first one. Rinse and repeat.
Our first Fast-Pass was for Mulhulland Madness which is a smaller roller coaster with very sharp non-banked turns which is a bit unnerving for me. There is just something about whipping through a tight 90 degree turn with no bank five stories up that makes me nervous! Anyway, it is really fun and the kids love it too.
While we waited for the Fast-Pass to mature, we rode the Orange Stinger. It is a tilting swing ride that is set inside of a giant orange. Following that we took a ride on the Jumping Jelly fish and the Golden Zepher. Both are little kid rides but do a good job at killing some time.
After finally riding Mulhulland Madness we grabbed a Fast-Pass for the California Screaming roller coaster. This is the largest roller coaster at either of the two Disneyland parks and is really a blast. You get launched from straight and level by a magnetic propulsion system from 0 to 55 in 4 seconds. That’s pretty fast. From there you immediately shoot up and over a hill which is probably my favorite part of the ride. From there it continues with a nice mix of hills and banks. The climax of the ride is a loop that goes through the middle of the giant Mikey Mouse head logo. At the end there are 3 small hills and a left turn. Be ready because you’ll get your picture taken during the turn!
Afterwards we stopped at the Corn dog Castle right next door to the ride. I chuckle thinking about it now but this place serves the biggest corn dogs I’ve ever seen! They are about $3.25 and include a small bag of Lay’s potatoe chips. They had to be a full 2 inches in diameter, about like a raquet ball and a foot long. What’s funny is they put them on a standard corn dog that is pathetically small and could never support the weight of the beast. You have to peel the wrapper and eat it like a banana. Anyone who attempted to hold it by the stick soon lost it to the birds when it hit the ground. If you get one of these beasts, your best off splitting it, especially if you are going to ride any rides afterward!
After a few more rides we headed back to the hotel. As I mentioned, the Grand Californian is directly connected to California Adventure so it is incredibly convenient to pop back to the hotel. We freshened up and went to poke around Downtown Disney.
Downtown Disney
Downtown Disney is an outdoor mall area with some pretty nice stores. Several of them are ones that you would see in any large metropolitain mall but there are some unique ones there as well. We stopped at a stand called the Pearl Factory. This was pretty unique in that they have small tubs of oysters all of which have pearls inside. You can choose a piece of jewelry then go grab some tongs and pick an oyster. They basically take the pearl inside and mount it to the setting you choose. You have to be happy with whatever color pearl comes out but they are all really nice. Carol and Kelly stayed at the Pearl Factory for a while trying to choose something for Kelly and Holly and I headed over to the Lego store.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a stand-alone Lego store before. The whole store is Lego toys. They have giant models of animals, movie characters, buildings etc all made out of real Legos. Holly shopped around for a while and decided to get a fill-your-own bucket where you pay a fixed price and you can fill the bucket with whatever kind of Legos you want.
The first evening we ate over at the Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney. We had called ahead and made reservations for that evening which I would highly recommend! I would definitely recommend eating there. We were seated in the main dining room where they have live jazz music. The jazz band consisted of three guys: a drummer, bass player and a pianist named Billy Mitchel. The piano was completely covered in shiney colorful Mardi Gras beads the matched the festive environment. We had a great time and a lot of it was the great job the band did to liven up the atmosphere. When I asked Carol if she had some cash to tip the band when we left, she suggested we buy their CD as a form of tip. It’s a pretty good album although not quite what they played that evening. Regardless it makes a nice souvenier.
Carol had Angus medalions, I had a carmelized pork tenderloin, Kelly had a coconut shrimp and Holly had corn flake chicken strips and mac-n-cheese. For a very special dessert, we ordered two souffles. These required a 20 minute preperation time but it was well worth the wait.
Afterward at about 8:00PM, Carol and Kelly wanted to continue shopping for a bit and Holly really wanted to go ride California Screamin’ again. We decided to split up and I would take Holly back into the park and then meet back up in the room to watch the fireworks from the balcony.
When Holly and I arrived back at the coaster, we were pleasantly surprised to see that there was practically no line for the ride! Coasters leave every 30 seconds or so and that’s about the longest we had to wait. Holly wanted to ride again and again. Since we were there for her birthday I agreed. Round and round we went. Again and again… piture after picture. We ended up riding seven times in a row, all the way up until the last second before the fireworks were going to start. We were on our last ride and we got a pretty good view of the show from the tops of this hills on the ride. When the ride was over we ran all the way back to the room. The fireworks show was over by the time we got there but we were able to see most of it from the ride and on the paths back to the room.
Disneyland Park
On Monday, we decided to sleep in since we were still behind. We slept until about 10:30! We ordered room service for breakfast and took our time getting ready. We finally headed out to the park around 1:00PM!
We decided to spend the day over in the Disneyland park and what a day it was. The weather was overcast and cool but nice. Particularly pleasant was the fact that there were literally no lines or very short ones on any ride! The park was ours!
We started on the left side over in Adventure Land. Carol had never ridden the Indianna Jones ride and there was only a 15 minute wait so that’s where we started. It felt like it took 15 minutes just to run through the queuing system! We pretty much got right onto the ride.
We followed that with adventures on Spash Mountain and then the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride. Splash Mountain is always a favorite. Holly sat up front as usual and whhheeeeeeee! She got particularly wet this time! Walking around the park we kept telling her she was walking like she went to the bathroom in her pants. I guess being that wet it probably felt like it!
We were very disappointed to find out that both Pirates of the Carabbean AND the Haunted Mansion were CLOSED!! Two of Carol’s favories were closed. UGH! Disneyland doesn’t feel complete without Pirates of the Carabbean or Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Well, lets head on over to Frontier Land and ride Big Thunder.
Big Thunder Railroad was closed the last time we came so this was new for Kelly and Holly. They loved it of course and Holly proclaimed that it was her second favorite ride next to California Screamin’.
Next door at Fantasy Land we rode some of the usual suspects: Snow White’s Scary Adventures, Pinocchio’s Daring Journey and the King Arthur’s Carousel. One of my very favorite rides in this area is Peter Pan’s Flight. What makes this one different is rather than driving around in an electric cart with painted plywood swinging around you climb into a flying pirate’s ship suspended from above and fly over moonlit London while getting a first-hand look at Peter Pan’s adventure. I just found on the Disneyland website that the Peter Pan’s Flight ride is one of the original rides from 1955. Be sure to try this one out. Of course a visit to Fantasy Land isn’t complete without a ride on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride but unfortunately it had closed temporarily for some reason. They said it would be open later today so we decided to keep going and head over to the Matterhorn Bobsleds.
Just past the Matterhorn is where the old 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride used to be. It was open the first time we came before Holly was born but it is closed for good. Apparantly it’s going to become a Finding Nemo ride of some kind. In the back of the Autopia shop is a hole in the tarp I was able to peek my head through. It is definitely under a lot of construction. I’m sure it will be fun but the nostalgia of the old sub ride will truly be missed.
Be sure to grab a Fast-Pass for Autopia if you plan to ride. Even with a Fast-Pass you will have to wait in line for 15 minutes. I think Disney needs to rethink that one. Since we were in the area we did a tour of Tomorrow Land.
Space Mountain was getting reworked last time we came but was open this time. Wow! What a great ride that is! It’s a coaster that runs through the dark with the exception of lots of lights being projected on all the walls and beams of the ride. It gives you a pretty nice space experience. All of the cars have built in speakers and the play some cool space-themed rock music while your riding.
Any of the new rides or newly retro-fitted rides will most likely take your picture. Disney gets a real benefit of increasing your burn rate but you get a great souvenier.
The Blue Bayou is not bad but fairly pricy for the quality of the food. At least you can get a view of the Pirates of the Carabbean ride. The turkey legs and churros are actually quite good and you can eat them on the go.
>>> Fast Forward >>> I’ve had this post in my Drafts folder for months. I had a lot more I wanted to post but I don’t think I’m going to finish it so I’m posting it as-is.