Disneyland Day 6

Day 6, our last day at Disney. No breaks or naps planned for today. Just want to do as much as possible. We can sleep on the plane home tomorrow. 16 hours, how much can we do?????



Ride List

Horseless Carriage, Main Street USA
Matterhorn Bobsleds
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Pirates of the Caribbean
Haunted Mansion
Splash Mountain

Lunch

Pixie Hollow, Diane Meets Tinkerbell
Mad Tea Party
King Arthur Carrousel
Winnie the Pooh & Friends
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Storybook Land Canal Boats
Grizzly River Run
Grizzly River Run
Brother Bear play area
California Screamin
Toy Story Mania!
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Soarin' over California
Indiana Jones Adventure
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Space Mountain
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters


On the way in we ran into the Mad Hatter and Alice. The Mad Hatter was a real goofball.




The family is ready to go for the big last day.




First real ride of the day, the Matterhorn Bobsleds.




It was a cool morning and no one wanted to be in front for Splash mountain. The person in front usually gets soaked. I thought it would be fun to make a video from the front.




Here we are captured by the Disney camera as we plunge down on the same run.




After the first row plunge I was totally soaked. Because my knees were under the front of the boat I was dry from the knees down (including my shoes, Thank you). Braer Bear didn't seem to care.




Diane is a BIG fan of Tinkerbell. It was the first time we were able to meet her.




Diane was SOOOoooooo excited to finally meet tinkerbell.




Next ride was the Tea Cups. They make me too dizzy and nauseous. I'll just take the pictures thank you!




We went on the Storybook Boats and the Merry-go-round. With those two rides we had completed all of the rides currently functioning in Disneyland. WOW!




Its only early afternoon and Alex is already looking a bit tired. I hope we can make it to midnight.




Winnie the Pooh through the years. The Pooh and the spot stay the same. The Boys keep getting bigger and bigger.




It all started innocent enough. Tigger and Alex both seemed to be in a good mood.




Then for no reason that I know of Pooh punched Alex in the stomach.




Alex didn't like the cheap shot. When he turned around he backhanded Tigger, who started bouncing around. The Disney staff stepped in quickly and broke it up. Luckily we had the picture of the cheap shot by Pooh, so they didn't throw Alex out of the park.




Alex was still in a mood when we got to Grizzly River Run.




I wasn't going to let anything ruin my mood. I was looking forward to my first run on the rapids. We were protected by our ponchos and ready to go. It was a little cool so the line was short. We did two runs in a row. Didn't get too wet. What fun!




Later that night we did Indiana Jones for the last time. Alex was now in a better mood and found a skull he rubbed for luck while waiting in line.




Bart hit the wall in the line for Space Mountain. The line was moving slow and he had a chance to sit on the floor and take a breather.




The family at the fastpass entrance to the Space Mountain ride. A great coaster in the dark.




A fun shot of people getting on and off space mountain. It was a low light long exposure. By bracing the camera on a railing I was able to hold it still for the shot. Immobile objects are fairly clear while the moving people are smears.




In the end we had 6 great days at the Disneyland Resort. By the end we were limping like we had walked a hundred miles on pavement. Maybe we did walk that far. Diane's pedometer said we were taking almost 10,000 steps every day. The blisters that Diane and I had didn't help. Diane packed us up and we were in bed before 2 am. Up at 6 am we easily made the plane and got home safe and on time (with all our bags). Happy but exausted! In my mind another perfect vacation.

Mammoths and Mastodons

We went to the Annual Fund opening of Mammoths and Mastodons at the Field Museum. It a great exibit. We highly recommend it. They had lots of fossils and full size replicas. The most amazing thing was Lyuba. A 40,000 year old baby mammoth that was found preserved in the permefrost in Siberia (sorry no picture). All that and they fed us a light dinner. What fun!



Be careful Alex, I hope that Moeritherium doesn't bite.




Look out Bart, there is a saber tooth tiger behind you.




What a difference 3 years make. At least for some of us. Here is a montage comparing us with the same dinosaur bone in 2007 and 2010. Note the same sign on the wall over my left hand. 2007 pictures can be seen in blog archive September 2007 post. Click on the picture to get a better look. The boys are getting big.

Our local snow hill

We had gotten about a foot of snow making for excellent sledding and snowboarding on the local hill. We headed over on Sunday afternoon.



Alex snowboarding down the hill. Those lessons in Canada must have worked.



Bart shows off his technique.

OMG, snow in Louisiana!

A team from the lab went down to Tulane for some experiments. They closed the facility because it was supposed to snow. As you can see, it did snow. Giant flakes! 0.3 inch accumulation. A blizzard in Louisiana, a flurry in Chicago.






It was the week before Mardi Gras and there was a local parade.



We got to see the floats getting set up. Mike, Ron, Ann, Minh, and Katharina got some nice beads. It was very cold by local standards.

Snowy Yosemite

I was in San Francisco for work. Met old friends and a former lab member at Ebisu, the place where I was educated about sushi. In the late 80's, early 90's I got to know Steve the owner of Ebisu. He taught me much about sushi. It was great to see him again. The sushi was still wonderful.




Just about 5 hours away from SF is Yosemite Valley. A special place. In an interesting 80's reunion, Tom, Dan, Greg, and Dave had 50 hours of adventure. We spent 2 nights in Yosemite Valley after a big snow storm.




There was a LOT of snow. I had been the first time that snowfall had closed the park in 13 years. We got in just as the roads were opened. Had to use chains at times. As you can see here there was more than 2 ft of snow from the storm. Because of the snow many avoided coming to the Valley. It was nice and mellow, a big contrast with a crowded summer visit.




The Valley was a winter wonderland. The view from Wawona Tunnel was amazing as you can see. At this point the snow had not started to fall out of the trees. Snow falling from trees pelted us for most of the trip.




The Falls were flowing well. Last time I was here was in July 2008 and the falls were just a trickle. The clouds and snow made the scenery very dramatic.




Half Dome was beautiful covered with snow.




The Boys at Mirror lake below half dome. We hiked up to mirror lake in the snow. No one was really there. It was really sweet.




ANSEL ADAMS CONTEST. We knew we would be limited in our hiking opportunities with winter conditions in the Valley so we decided to has a photography context in honor of Ansel Adams, who is famous for his dramatic black and white photographs of Yosemite Valley. The black and white is quite dramatic as you can see below. The next image was my official entry (which won the contest). Some other black and white images (thanks photoshop) I really like follow.




The snow covered trees and shining granite make this one glow




Upper Yosemite Falls in the sun.




A interesting look at Lower Yosemite Falls. I like the area glowing in the sun above the falls and clouds.

Bandalier

This year the Keystone meeting was in January at Santa Fe, NM. Because of school, no family this time. I had to go to a meeting in San Diego first. Got some great views out the air plane window.

It really is GRAND. The Grand Canyon from the air. South Rim is on the left. See it from the ground in the July 2007 blog.



Monument Valley from the air.



Monument Valley from the ground in summer 2007 (you can see the rest of that trip in the blog archive). This vantage point is near the tip of the snow covered wedge shaped ridge at 9 o'clock in the image from the air. The narrow looking tower in the airplane image is the tower on the left.



Bandalier National Monument is about an hour drive from Santa Fe. It is an ancient indian site. It had already been long abandoned before this area was seen by early european explorers. They carved small rooms into the face of the cliffs of soft rock. You can see the multiple holes, which are the rooms in the cliff face.



In certain places there are ladders in place allowing visitors to climb up to the rooms. Some are interconnected making them rather large. Cindy, Minh, and Rowena visiting one of the bigger rooms.



The rooms cover large areas of cliffs in the region. Unfortunately, much of it was still closed because of snow and ice.



I think that the people who lived here were very short. I could only stand in one room. It was a tight fit as you can see.

Happy New Year 2010

We had a nice mellow new year celebration. The home made sushi was delicious. Bart and Alex had fun shooting party favor poppers at midnight.