Ashley, I found a link to the Mickey statue display/art installation I was talking about (the one that reminds me of the buffalo art installation on Catalina back in 2002 - 2003). Look how cute they are! I cannot believe I caught the buffalo display but missed Mickey! Here are some pictures:
http://www.allears.net/tp/mk/mick75.htm
You know, if I lived where my friend Shawn lived (she is going with me on the 21st and has been on all the last DLR trips), which is 5 minutes up the street from DLR (she hears the fireworks every night), I would be doing all of these special 'trips' to DLR that I have thought of. I would just go by myself here and there and spend a whole day Hidden Mickey-hunting. Or I would spend a whole day only looking in the shops for different details I haven't seen before. Or I would spend all day photographing the different ponds/fountains/bodies of water and all the flowers and foliage in DLR. Or I woudl spend a whole day looking for the pressed penny machines (without the help of the list that DLR offers). I would look for all those easily overlooked things - like weather vanes and topiaries, etc. I live in L.A., which is not far from Anaheim compared to living out of state, but without a car it is tough to get to DLR as often as I would like to go. My friend Shawn lives close enough to walk to DLR but she doesn't have an AP (she doesn't want one, really). I need to be living where she lives!!
I was laughing about wearing a full beekeeper suit to Catalina!! I am shocked that you didn't encounter a lot of bees over on the uncivilized side when you were camping. (Maybe their City Council paid for the bee removal that year.) I encountered the most bees at Two Harbors - I think because there are fewer people over there and there are no businesses (other than Doug's Harbor Reef). Avalon is not nearly as bee-infested. There is a lot of lovely outdoor dining right by the water (which is cool, because you can look down and see fish swimming around, and an occasional flying fish come whizzing by), and occasionally a bee will come 'visit' your table, but they leave pretty quickly. I had the bee in my face when we were tooling around in the golf cart by the golf course. Somehow I came away un-stung. Actually, we were in more danger from the golf course - JUST at the very minute we were crusing past the golf cart, and the bee had already gone, someone hit a ball that sailed all the way out of the course and just missed our cart by about 2 feet! If one of us had been whomped in the head with that thing, it would have been bad news! But I think you would enjoy Avalon a lot and I would enjoy Hamilton Island in Australia - I would love to visit Down Under one day (add that to my list along with Greece and Italy!).
Last time I used RideMax, it was somewhere around $15 - a good deal for a 3-month period or whatever the window of time is.
I can't believe how many DIS-ers encounter each other at DLR. They are alwasy spotting each other and I have not seen one! My friend Shawn has eagle eyes as far as spotting things, and I even put her on alert to look for the LGMH's and she saw none...and no one saw me, that I know of. And yet, Bumbershoot (Molly) was with her family at DLR, and they climbed in one of the Main Street vehicles (which many people ignore and never ride) and another DIS-er just happened to be in the vehicle and overhear Molly's son's name and instantly recognized it as being the name of her son, and turned around to say hello! Isn't that wild??
I am seriously behind on meeting many of my DIS-friends, as we always seem to be at the parks at different times, or the plans just don't work out that way. If I renew my AP and get another full year, I hope to try to figure out some way to get to the parks more often and meet up with people here and there. Still undecided on whether or not I am renewing the AP yet, but we will see. As much as I get out of my trips to DLR, and as much as I want to do there, I should definitely always have an AP!