Long time no type everyone! Sorry for being away for so long. Life has been pretty busy and hectic as of late. It is moving season in Davis and everybody is scrambling around looking for boxes, packing, and cleaning out apartments like crazy (we want as much of that security deposit back as possible!).
Not to mention, Ive had my hands full at work, trying to learn how to drive a bus and all. I can parallel park a 40 foot bus now. No big deal. Do it all the time.
In other news, Jess left last Sunday for Korea and will be studying abroad there for a year. Lets just hope she doesnt get lost and has a good experience. Jan is also getting ready to move on down to San Diego to begin her college career. So many new changes! Mom is about to have a completely empty nest soon. Maybe with us gone, she will get desperate enough for company (or at least noise) in the house and get a puppy. I want a puppy.
Anyway, on with the show!
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The LIGHT in LIGHTning: part 1
Last we left off, with rumblies in our tumblies, we were in search of food. We thought it would be a neat idea to eat while overlooking the boats in the Its a Small World ride so we headed towards Pinocchio Village Haus. It was super crowded but since they were doing the do not save tables rule and only let you sit down once you had your food, it wasnt too hard to find a table. Sadly, we werent able to snag a table where we could watch the boats but thats okay.
There werent many choices on the menu but we managed to find something to satisfy everyone. Both Jan and Edward got the meatball sub sandwich which came with a little packet of apple slices.
They liked it but I dont think either of them was entirely full (especially a growing boy, like Edward).
Jess and Ma got the Caesar salad with chicken.
They liked it enough. It wasnt spectacular and was pretty standard as far as salads go.
I opted for the Mediterranean salad because it had olives and balls of mozzarella cheese and I love cheese.
One thing I liked about both the salads was that the chicken on them were wonderful. It wasnt dry at all and the flavoring was perfect. Dont you just hate it when a piece of chicken looks good and promises deliciousness but then you take a bite and it tastes like cardboard? Yeah, thats gross.
Overall, it wasnt a spectacular, must do again type of lunch but it did its purpose and got us fed. We were refueled and ready to wander the park once again!
Our next stop was the Haunted Mansion to explore the new interactive features in the line.
Apparently, the new interactive part was optional and prior to entering the building, the path splits between a shorter route and a more scenic (and interactive!) route. We chose the newer path because we were all curious as to what they had added.
It wasnt much; just a couple of statues/tombstones with special effects. For example, at the Captain tombstone, you can hear the Captain talking and now and then it will blow bubbles.
There was also a lineup of statues that didnt have any interactive parts but it was fun to pose with them.
Jess was the closest at accurately portraying one of the statues.
Some creepy pre-boarding pictures:
At one point, the ride came to a standstill for about 2-3 minutes. The particular doom buggy I was in was stopped in front of the hallway scene where theres a floating candle. We werent really going anywhere so I tried to see if I could get any shots of it.
Before anyone gets huffy with me, I am a strong opponent of flash photography within rides. Its actually one of the bigger pet peeves I have concerning amusement park etiquette. Its so annoying when youre riding something, trying to immerse yourself in the magic/atmosphere and suddenly its like BLINDING LIGHT, OBNOXIOUS FLASH, BLINDING LIGHT; then you get dots in your eyes and you can no longer tell if thats Peter Pan or Captain Hook.
The dangers of flash photography, kids. Just say no.
It was honestly way too dark to really tell if I was focused through my camera or not so I just kind of winged it. Of maybe the 20 or so shots I attempted, 2 came out so-so.
Once we got out of Haunted Mansion, we noticed that the ground was pretty wet; looks like we had just barely missed getting caught in the rain. What good luck!
At some point Jan and I were accused of and punished for a crime we forgot we committed.
Its okay though, where theres a well paid lawyer, there is a free man (or in this case: free women).
To celebrate our victory and the ways of the justice system, we decided to do another family first: go watch the Hall of Presidents.
Thank goodness we werent that far away from the show area because the sky suddenly decided it wasnt done crying and it started to rain again. It was only a light drizzle but it was coming down consistently so we were getting pretty wet.
I guess a lot of other people had the same idea to wait out the rain by going to watch presidents speak because there were quite a number of people in the waiting area. The show wasnt going to start for another 15 or so minutes so we found a nice corner spot and sat.
When we were still walking to the show building, I guess Jess was using the park map as a makeshift umbrella. The color had bled through and left a pretty noticeable black spot on her forehead and she hadnt noticed. At first we all thought she had somehow bumped her head and gotten a bruise but once we realized what it really was, everybody just started making fun of her.
Now commencing pictures from the show:
It was a nice show. If you enjoy history then Im sure youll get a pretty big kick of it but to us it was just a nice time to rest and recharge batteries. One thing we all agreed on though: the Obama robot was BUFF! Oh my god was he muscular looking.
When exiting the show, you go through these Hall of Fame areas where it showcases great contributors to the American way of life (at least Im pretty sure thats where we saw this). There were pictures of political figures, movement leaders, iconic movie stars, and then suddenly
Miley Cyrus. No offense to those who enjoy the things she does but I wouldnt peg her as a great American figure.
Me: Miley Cyrus?! What did she do thats so great?
Jess: She partied in the USA.
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Love that!!
