Image from ElecTRONica

Raindrops on Tulips

 

The centerpiece garden at Disneyland in the rain on Friday afternoon.

Disneyland in the rain

It had been an almost unprecedented 20 days since I last visited Disneyland, so on Friday I went.

Although it was quite wet, the threatened storm never happened; there was only enough rain to make rainbows.

Of Herons and Popcorn

I learned today what keeps the herons coming back to Disneyland: Popcorn.

Oh, they don't eat it, but the ducks and the fish do.

And when people throw pocorn (or bread) into the water for the ducks, the fish come up to help themselves--and then the herons can scoop them up like, well, popcorn.

King Triton's Carousel Again

Ok, so it didn't take me too long to fall for it.

Even if it is alllll the waaaay on the other side of That Other Park.

King Triton's Carousel

I am a carousel lover, so almost the first thing I did after getting my annual pass was go looking for King Triton's Carousel.

To my dismay, it was closed!

I asked when it would be opened, made a note of the date and waited, pretty much not going into California Adventure in the meantime (it is one LOUD park).

This Friday was the first day, and my sister, who was meeting me at Disneyland for the fireworks (I love that show!) very kindly went with me on the enormous detour to the very back of California Adventure so that I could ride it.

The carousel itself is a jewel--brightly lit, beautiful, and full of colorful animals and enough glitter and gleam to delight me. I really could fall head over heels in love.

Except--it is at the very back of the California Adventure, which, as I believe I have mentioned before, is an extremely noisy park. More, the carousel itself is tucked in under the giant roller coaster, which means more noise, enough so that it's hard to hear the carousel music--which, oddly enough, does not appear to include any songs from The Little Mermaid.

Will I go back? Oh yes. Of course. If nothing else, I have got to get a good picture of the bejeweled purple whale I rode that night.

But will I go every time I visit Disneyland? Probably not.

My Favorite Sign

I love this sign.

Cars by Pixar

So... does this movie ever get any good?

As part of falling in love with Disney all over again, I put a bunch of DVD's I either missed or haven't seen for a while on hold at the library, and last Thursday I made waffles & settled down with the family to watch it.

The waffles were good, if I do say so myself.

The movie seemed largely to consist of cars going "Vroooom, vroooom" and some really neat animated sunsets. About halfway in, we gave up and put in an episode of Foyle's War instead ("War Games," from season 2).

So--is it worth going back to Cars to find out what happens next? Or should I just shrug and give Tarzan a try instead?

Odd

So I've been reading Disneyland's map. It's a very thorough map and even has all the spots with defibrillators marked on it with cute little symbols.

They've go ta symbol for "This ride might scare kids," an big black exclamation mark inside of a bright yellow circle--hard to miss, even if you're skimming the map.

But--it's only on the map once, next to Honey I Shrunk the Audience. That's right, the movie is scary. The Haunted Mansion, Snow White's Scary Ride, Space Mountain, and Pirates of the Caribbean are just fine1.


1.Well, probably fine. There's also a big, red triangle that indicates some possible danger from heart attacks, and that is scattered around fairly liberally.