Discovering Another Mad Dash (Oct 14): Heading Home and Finally finishing this TR #1523 (05/03)

[Caroline NZ]

Fantastic photos of WOC PIO
I love the show (saw it twice in 2011). I got quite emotional the first time.

 

[franandaj]

Nice pics from WoC! Mine never come out that clear! I was so tired I had forgotten some of the new scenes they added and changes to the storyline.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Fantastic photos of WOC PIO
I love the show (saw it twice in 2011). I got quite emotional the first time.

Thanks Caroline. I get emotional watching any Disney show anyway so I wasn't surprised at how emotional I got with WoC.

Nice pics from WoC! Mine never come out that clear! I was so tired I had forgotten some of the new scenes they added and changes to the storyline.

I know you were tired by the time we got to WoC....I guess I never really knew how tired you were! Thanks for keeping going!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Day’s End




That moment is upon us. The moment where you wish time would stop and you can continue to live in that happy moment and that happy place forever……or at least for a little longer.


My Disneyland day was coming to a close. It was a bittersweet moment. You know that you cannot stop time as that clock over the Main Street train station well knows. But that doesn’t stop you from wishing otherwise.

Alison had some shopping to pick up in Disneyland and we headed on in there.

As I said before, on reflection, we really didn’t plan our trips across the promenade well and thankfully it is a 5 minute cross-over park to park. Not that I minded. The quick cross-over is one of the things I love most about being at the Disneyland Resort.


I took the opportunity to go get one last thing on my list. It hadn’t been a must-do; but it was close. And it took me past here.

In case anyone is wondering, I’m definitely NOT sharing! You may have noticed that we didn’t really have any food for dinner. This was it for me.

I would have liked to stay longer but we’d been away long enough from Long Beach and it was time to head on back. I did have one more stop in mind.

I always think that this shop smells so sweet. And it was all ready for the Christmas festivities.

Even with merchandise!

I was on the hunt for macadamia Mickey turtles. Sadly, they didn’t have any so I settled for some marshmallow sticks instead.

It had been a great day and by the time we made it back home, it was closer to 11 pm than anything else. I’d pretty much ticked off everything in my must-do list and whilst we lost some park time doing the about turn, I had no regrets about the day.



Thank you Alison. This day would not have been possible or half as fun as it was without you.










Folks – This concludes the Disneyland part of the trip. The rest will be at NorCal and I hope you’ll stick around for the rest of my TR. Thanks for reading along.

 

[zanzibar138]

What an amazing day! Sounds like it was well worth the extra effort to get there

Looking forward to seeing what you get up to in San Francisco

 

[dhorner233]

So sad to see your day at DLR end When is your next Disney trip? Next fall to DW?

 

[franandaj]

You're welcome. I had a great time too! I was hoping that you had taken a picture of me pathetically walking the huge box on the scooter back to the car! It was so much fun having you for a couple days, and I really enjoyed your company. Did any of the pictures of Velcro come out?

 

[rentayenta]

I'm here for the whole enchilada. I have to tell you that the boys are in SF right now loving the location of the Hyatt Embarcadero. You were spot on. Thank you, thank you!

 

[ACDSNY]

Woo hoo I'm all caught up. My goodness your pics of the Aladdin show were awesome, I've never sat that close.

 

[PrincessInOz]

What an amazing day! Sounds like it was well worth the extra effort to get there

Looking forward to seeing what you get up to in San Francisco

It most definitely was worth the effort. Disney always is.

So sad to see your day at DLR end When is your next Disney trip? Next fall to DW?

Yes. It will probably be Sept/Oct 2013.

You're welcome. I had a great time too! I was hoping that you had taken a picture of me pathetically walking the huge box on the scooter back to the car! It was so much fun having you for a couple days, and I really enjoyed your company. Did any of the pictures of Velcro come out?

I did think about it; but I'm not sure why I didn't get one in the end. It was a lot of fun, Alison. We definitely need to do it again.

Velcro? Wait and see.

I'm here for the whole enchilada. I have to tell you that the boys are in SF right now loving the location of the Hyatt Embarcadero. You were spot on. Thank you, thank you!

Excellent! Glad that the boys like the location.

Woo hoo I'm all caught up. My goodness your pics of the Aladdin show were awesome, I've never sat that close.

Welcome back and thanks! Hope you're all rested up. Our DisMeet is still to come.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Saying Goodbye to franandaj




The start of Day 4 and my time in SoCal was drawing to a close. Today, I was meeting up with DH at LAX and heading toward NorCal.

But first, I had to say goodbye to franandaj.


Have you noticed that being on this 2D Ethernet world that we inhabit that emotions do not really get in the way?

Not so in the 3D world. Spending this time with franandaj had deepened the friendship; with both Alison and Fran. The tyranny of distance and that pond of a Pacific Ocean might get in the way of the face to face time but we will have our 2D world to continue the relationship through.

I look forward to seeing them again in Sept/Oct 2013.


But before that.....One thing that I haven’t mentioned yet is that Alison and Fran have furbabies! Alison was happy for me to post these here.

Olga, the beautiful Russian Blue, was my bed partner for the two nights. No one tell my DH!

Velcro.

I’ve forgotten this one’s name.

Pepper or Basil??

But this is Sonny, a very special cat.

This one was definitely saying goodbye to me!

I grabbed a couple of slices of toast for breakfast and a cup of coffee before Alison drove me out to LAX.



Saying goodbye is such a depressing thing to do in real life!





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[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)

An uneventful reunion over lunch




DH and I had an uneventful reunion at LAX. His plane arrived at least an hour later than mine had done 2 days earlier; which gave me time to case the airport for an appropriate lunch spot. DH and I have been married for longer than I care to admit; and sometimes I forget that we do spend a bit of time talking to each other. So, the two days absence had left us with quite a great deal of conversation and news to enjoy in each other’s company.

Believe it or not….he had more news to share with me than I had to share with him. As you’ve just spent the time catching up on my news through this TR, I expect that you can imagine how much more chatting DH did compared to me!

I certainly wasn’t complaining. It gave me lots of time to enjoy the calamari salad I ordered for lunch.

DH had a salad……..

…..which we finished just before we boarded our flight to SFO.

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[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)

Our home away from home




Our conversation continued all the way on the flight, in the car and all the way over to our home away from home.

I like our home away from home. Its close to where DH needs to be during the day and its very comfortable. Afterall, we've pretty much stayed here once a year for the last 10 years.

We have our own living space and kitchen.

We always like having the kitchen as it gives us the option to make cups of tea at night; and also to bring doggie-bags back for late night snacking.

The bed is very comfortable and feels just right to me.

The bathroom facilities are always clean.

Aside from providing a hot buffet breakfast, this place also has Happy Hour snacks. Our options for the week:

It promised to be a rather comfortable and tasty week!






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[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)

Chinese Dinner in NorCal




DH and I are creatures of habit. One of the things we always like to do is to have a healthy-ish meal after flying and our meal of choice is usually Chinese.

Pickles are complimentary.

As there was only just the two of us, we ordered Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce…..

….and Sweet and Sour Shrimp.

We had the dishes with rice.

And yes…..the meal may be familiar to some of you. But is has been 18 months between visits!






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[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)

Mental Shopping




When DH and I were planning our trip, we had deliberately left this day free. Afterall, we had no idea how DH would feel after the long flight and how long it would take us to check in to our room. In reality, things had gone so unremarkably smoothly and in such quick time, that we were left with quite a bit of the afternoon to do some major credit card damage.


We both voted on hitting our favourite shop first. The store is Keeble and Shuchat, a photography store in the Palo Alto area. I make it a point to visit this store every time I’ve visited NorCal. That would mean that I’ve hit that store at least once a year for the last 3 trips. It’s getting to the point that the staff recognises me.

We walked into the store and one of them spotted me. He raced on over to help and I definitely remembered him. He’s helped me twice before and I suspect that my shopping style has contributed to his long term memory of me.

This time would prove to be no different.


My shopping style at this store? Well…….

• I walk in.
• The staff ask me what I want.
• I tell them and they head on back to get the item.
• I inspect the item and ask a few questions.
• Then I hand over my credit card and sign a little slip of paper which tells me that I’ve just dropped $$$ (In reality, I am also saving $$$ compared to buying the same item in Australia. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking by it!).
• We bid each other well and I walk out.

The whole transaction usually takes about 10 minutes and I guess it is probably the easiest 10 minute sale he ever makes. This is the third time I’ve done this and that staff member definitely remembers me!

This time…..he tells me that he looks forward to seeing me NEXT time!



DH? Well….as he has now inherited his dSLR camera back from me, he’s more than happy to meander through the shop and do some mental shopping of his own. By the time we’d walked out, I might have been the one to drop the physical cash…but DH was up to $1500 mental shopping in that store.


Our mental shopping did not end there. We headed to one of the malls in the area and spent a happy couple of hours checking out the state of fashion and respective prices. As we were going to be in the area for 6 nights, we had agreed to just check things out today first.


DH and I did compare notes in the car on the way back. He had mentally spent about $1000 in the mall. He was streaks ahead of me…..I only got up to $700! I'd decided that there was a suit and some tops I wanted to get in Banana Republic.


Changeover day from SoCal to NorCal had ended with me outshopping DH in the credit card reality stakes.

But it was on the unhappy thought of being mentally out-shopped by my DH that I fell asleep with. Afterall, tomorrow was another day!

 

[Caroline NZ]

Awwww, I love the little Russiann Blue kitty. We had a Russian Blue boy called Smokey, but unfortunately he was run over 4 yrs ago.


Way to go on the shopping. I hope you still managed to get another full days worth in.

 

[franandaj]

Thank you for all your kind words. I am definitely looking forward to seeing you again in September! Hopefully Fran will be feeling better by then.

I’ve forgotten this one’s name.

This one is Alto, I'm surprised that you actually got a picture of her, she and her sister Soprano are so skittish that no one ever sees them until they have visited the house a few times. Our cat sitters only recently saw both of them at one time to actually know that there are two all white cats!

Pepper or Basil??

Basil, although we like to call him Bagle as it seems more fitting.

But this is Sonny, a very special cat.

You actually got a picture of her without revealing all her dirty paws and stuff. She has Cerebelar Hypoplasia which means that the receptors from her brain that control her motor skills don't fire properly. She falls down alot and especially when she is eating falls into her food. That's why she gets so dirty. Now she is getting old and lazy about cleaning herself. She's still my baby. I can't say she's not a happy girl because tonight when we had chicken for dinner and we tossed a 1/4 of cut up chicken down for the livestock, she was right there to clean up most of the leftovers.

This one was definitely saying goodbye to me!

That's Molly, one of the cats we got from Arline, she is a sweetie!

I grabbed a couple of slices of toast for breakfast and a cup of coffee before Alison drove me out to LAX.

Saying goodbye is such a depressing thing to do in real life!

I'm so glad you were able to get yourself something in the morning. Real life came on so fast and there were so many people between the contractor's rep, and Darcy and Jim that I didn't get to see if you were able to take care of some breakfast. I try to be a better host, but sometimes other things just come up and I am tugged in a million different directions.

Glad you and DH got all settled in and made your metnal purchase lists!

 

[ACDSNY]

Aw sweet kitty pics!

PIO don't feel bad about out shopping DH, you're not alone, I usually do that too.

 

[mvf-m11c]

Very nice pictures of the cats.

The home away from home looks very nice. It was a great room to stay while you were up in NorCal.

The food looks good.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Awwww, I love the little Russiann Blue kitty. We had a Russian Blue boy called Smokey, but unfortunately he was run over 4 yrs ago.


Way to go on the shopping. I hope you still managed to get another full days worth in.

Wait and see!


Sorry about Smokey. Did you get another cat?

Thank you for all your kind words. I am definitely looking forward to seeing you again in September! Hopefully Fran will be feeling better by then.

I'm so glad you were able to get yourself something in the morning. Real life came on so fast and there were so many people between the contractor's rep, and Darcy and Jim that I didn't get to see if you were able to take care of some breakfast. I try to be a better host, but sometimes other things just come up and I am tugged in a million different directions.

Glad you and DH got all settled in and made your metnal purchase lists!

Real life did creep up on us quickly, didn't it?

Aw sweet kitty pics!

PIO don't feel bad about out shopping DH, you're not alone, I usually do that too.

Angela - I don't feel bad about out-shopping DH.

I felt bad because DH mentally out-shopped ME at the Mall!!

Very nice pictures of the cats.

The home away from home looks very nice. It was a great room to stay while you were up in NorCal.

The food looks good.

Thanks Bret. Yup. It is a great place to stay when we are in NorCal.