"Thunderbolts and lightning! Very very frightening!"... a trip report (FINISHED!!!)

[wingedjojo]

Greetings!

No, I haven't died.

No, I'm not exactly ready to post new things yet either.

No, I'm not just going to give another stupid excuse.

Anyway.

So I've finally finished writing and posting about my Disneyland trip which means I can get back to this one! Yay!!!

So I'll be back not soon enough to post more about whichever day we're on (Animal Kingdom?). Hopefully I haven't forgotten everything yet.

TTFN!

 

[wingedjojo]

Boy I’m quite the slacker. Is anyone still left in the audience?

[insert cricket sounds]

I seriously need to speed up my row boat and start cranking out more updates. So let’s see…where did I leave off?

~*~*~*~
Now Presenting...the DINO-DOG!!!

Like some sort of weird cosmic force drawing us to it, the first ride we always seem to gravitate towards is Dinosaur.

“What? You want to stop for a picture?! But we have to go ride it before the meteors hit!!!”

Ducks are so awesome. They’re not scared of nobody’s giant feet (real or not); they’ll swim wherever they want.

This is always a fun ride. Plus, in the morning, nobody really heads to this first so we got to ride this like twice in a row before we decided to move on.

Maybe I’m more sensitive in my old age but everything seemed louder and more intense than I remembered it being. Not a problem though because it just made it that much more fun.

Jan found the CUTEST Carnotaurus doll. Look at its itty bitty little eyes. How can that represent such a ferocious beast but still be so darn adorable?

I would totally be down to have dinosaur pets if they were that cute and small. And hopefully domesticated enough where I won’t wake up in the middle of the night missing an arm. I hope somebody somewhere, perhaps in a secret underground government lab, is working on making this happen. I’m sure it’ll be a big hit in the pet industry the day this becomes consumer-ready.



I can see the commercial now...




Allergic to dogs?

Can’t stand the common house cat?

Wish that your pet lizard will play fetch?

Well, then this is good news for YOU!!!

From the people who brought you great hybrid classics such as the Cockapoo, the pluot and Bruce Banner/the Hulk, now proudly present to you…

NEW!!!! THE DINO-DOG!!!

The hypoallergenic solution to those seeking a dog-like companion that’ll fetch, cuddle, and forever rid you of unwanted pests. The most adorable and deadly pet you’ll ever own!!! EVER!!!

THE DINO-DOG!!!

Litters available now!!!

Breeders and secret government lab not held responsible for any damaged property, missing livestock, loss of limbs or death resulting from the actions of the Dino-Dog.

CALL NOW!!!








I got a bit off topic there.

Anyway. Here’s a funny t-shirt to bring us back.

Coming out of the Dinosaur ride, we came across this dinosaur and decided to have our picture taken with it.

While I was climbing off of it, I noticed a hidden Mickey!

We also became weirdly fascinated with this squirrel that was just sitting in this plant and munching on a nut or something. We got close to 2 feet away from it and it still didn’t run away. So we took a million pictures of it but here’s just one:

Since we never got to ride Dumbo, we rode the next best thing. Instead of flying elephants, we got flying triceratops.

There wasn’t anything else in the area that caught our fancy. The whole carnival theme is kind of lame and out of place so we didn’t dwell too long there.

We posed with this sign…

…and continued on our merry way to the other parts of the park.

 

[MsPlutoNJ]

Okay. I'm here too. You are really funny. The game your sister and her boyfriend were palying through the window was hysterical. And, then the puppy, very funny. That's as far as I am right now. I look forward to the rest of your TR.

 

[zianha]

I'm still here too (when I have time). I actually only jumped on now to see if there was any updates because my son keeps trying to play the 10 hour long Nyan cat video on youtube and I automatically thought of you! Yes, you're famous.....ish.

 

[wingedjojo]

Okay. I'm here too. You are really funny. The game your sister and her boyfriend were palying through the window was hysterical. And, then the puppy, very funny. That's as far as I am right now. I look forward to the rest of your TR.

Thanks for reading along!!!

I'm still here too (when I have time). I actually only jumped on now to see if there was any updates because my son keeps trying to play the 10 hour long Nyan cat video on youtube and I automatically thought of you! Yes, you're famous.....ish.

Nyan nyan nyan nyan nyan~

 

[wingedjojo]

Lions, Yeti, and Birds! Oh My!: part 1

Since it was still relatively early, we figured the animals were more likely to be out and about now (for food and cooler temperatures) than later on in the day. So it was off to the Kilimanjaro Safaris!

As we were walking along, we could easily see Mt. Everest off in the horizon.

We also came across this altar. Supposedly its shape is exactly that of Mt. Everest’s peaks so if you align it perfectly, they’ll match up. I forgot where I learned this from (probably somewhere on the DIS) but here’s the result:

I wouldn’t say it’s an EXACT match but it’s pretty darn close.

Continuing on towards the safari, we saw this dude in one of the animal exhibits. Wonder what he’s going to do with those giant leaves? Giant leaves = giant fans? Maybe?

Speaking of leaves, LOOKIE!!! The Tree of Life!!!

The line for the safari wasn’t too bad. From the dark recesses of my memories I’m getting 40 minutes as the amount of time we waited but I could be wrong. Not that it really matters, right? Because in this trip report there’s a wait time of 0.0002 seconds!

No, I lied.

You’re going to have to wait however long it’ll take to go through one “waiting-in-line” picture before you can get to the cute, fuzzy animals.

Here it is!

Someone had nicely labeled it “tree” but…I’m not entirely sure if that’s correct. Looks like bamboo to me but are bamboo plants considered trees? I thought they were just shoots or something. Maybe someone had had this exact question earlier on, found the answer, and carved “tree” just to let everyone else know. Who knows?

Anyway, here are some select favorites from our safari ride:

Sad-looking giraffe looking sad.

We were SO LUCKY to get such a good look at the giant kitties! I’ve never been on this ride and seen one awake before so I was super ecstatic.

I also got some decent shots when it came to the lions. Would’ve been cooler had the male been awake too but I’m not complaining.

Near the end of the ride, we saw this weird contraption and people walking around in what looked like to be a tour.

What is this tour and how can I get there?

This is something I would totally want to do.

No; something I NEED to do.

Exiting the ride, we came across some cast members playing mancala. MANCALA! Jess, Jan and I played so much mancala when we were in elementary school. We even had our own little board and everything (but then we lost the little pieces and it became pretty useless). Good times, good times.

Earlier on, prior to getting on the safari, we had grabbed some fastpasses to Expedition Everest and it was time to cash those in.

So we started our trek from the safari to the mountain and…wait.

Wait a minute.



Did you see that?




What is that?




I’m pretty sure that group of people isn’t staring at nothing.


Is it…moving…?




OH MAI GAWD!!!

It’s DEVINE!!!

How lucky were we, honestly? First we randomly came across Push in the Magic Kingdom and then we randomly came across DeVine.

She’s so pretty and awesome. I just love the way she moves and how does she not just fall over? Too much mad skillz (yes, I wrote that with a ‘z’- I’m street like that, yo).

Love her.

 

[wingedjojo]

Lions, Yeti, and Birds! Oh My!: part 2

Anyway, back to Expedition Everest, it was everybody’s first time riding it. Except mom of course, she opted out again.

How did everyone feel?

Scared?

Apprehensive?

Wished you had gone to the bathroom prior to the ride?

What a lovely view.

Jan and Edward didn’t look too scared. In fact, they look relatively calm for first timers.

One more picture before the backwards plunge:

Everybody totally enjoyed the ride. The last time we were here, nobody would go on the ride with me even when I told them it wasn’t scary at all. If they were capable of going on the scarier rides at Islands of Adventure, then this was certainly not a problem. Well, they believed me now!

Following our quest to find the Yeti, we decided to go watch the Flights of Wonder show. It’s a cute show but not exactly something I’ll want to watch over and over again or put on a “must do” list.

Two lucky people with cameras got pulled up onto the stage for a great photo op with the birds. I didn’t get chosen but whatever; they’re just jealous of my fancy gear.

It did annoy me a little that the dude that was chosen just had his cell phone. That totally doesn’t count as a camera.

Cheater.

According to my pictures, we somehow ended up at Rafiki’s Planet Watch next. At the main building there, there’s this giant mural of all these different types of animals. That could only mean one thing: funny pictures time.

Here was me trying to mimic the “I’m not amused” owl:

Jess and I copying the lions:

We went outside to the petting zoo and watched as a cast member added what looked like powdered milk to the water for the sheep.

They seemed to like it a lot.

One of the sheep even had a Mickey head shaved onto its butt!

Rafiki’s Planet Watch wasn’t all that exciting so we decided to take the train back to the main park and find something to eat.

Of course, it was up to me and my extensive knowledge of Disney food options to choose our location for lunch.

Would I choose wisely?

 

[jelloarms]

Just letting you know I am still here! I've been dead for quite some time on here too. No good excuse. Just haven't been feeling very Disney as of late. But I am back!

Squirrels fascinate me too. We don't have them where I live.

 

[RachelNinja]

I stayed up last night and tonight reading your TR and catching up on every single update! You rock with the updates!

I loved all the Harry Potter stuff because I'm finally reading the books now. I just started Goblet of Fire. I liked actually knowing the book and movie references. I got excited about the Ton-Tongue Toffee! I don't think I'll see the park fro myself ever or at least not for AGES. I don't do all the crazy rides, so there'd be no point.

Haha, I love all the ways that you guys are being frugal (we've done ramen in a percolator before)! I wouldn't say cheap; yes, some Asians are cheap. Most of us are frugal though; I think that just sounds better. Why spend money on unnecessary things when you can spend it on more important things? BTW, that tour with the bridge over the safari costs a ton. I saw it on another TR (the family did the tour; they're clipped to lines and such to get close-up looks at the animals) and looked it up as a possibility. Um, no, that won't happen for me either! I'll at least do Keys to the Kingdom first!

Okie dokie, looking forward to all of your other updates!

 

[wingedjojo]

Just letting you know I am still here! I've been dead for quite some time on here too. No good excuse. Just haven't been feeling very Disney as of late. But I am back!

Squirrels fascinate me too. We don't have them where I live.

NO SQUIRRELS???? You should come to Davis some time. There's squirrels EVERYWHERE. And they're kind of mean too. I swear they try and aim for your head when they drop their acorns (or whatever they're eating). But they are cute, though.

I stayed up last night and tonight reading your TR and catching up on every single update! You rock with the updates!

I loved all the Harry Potter stuff because I'm finally reading the books now. I just started Goblet of Fire. I liked actually knowing the book and movie references. I got excited about the Ton-Tongue Toffee! I don't think I'll see the park fro myself ever or at least not for AGES. I don't do all the crazy rides, so there'd be no point.

Haha, I love all the ways that you guys are being frugal (we've done ramen in a percolator before)! I wouldn't say cheap; yes, some Asians are cheap. Most of us are frugal though; I think that just sounds better. Why spend money on unnecessary things when you can spend it on more important things? BTW, that tour with the bridge over the safari costs a ton. I saw it on another TR (the family did the tour; they're clipped to lines and such to get close-up looks at the animals) and looked it up as a possibility. Um, no, that won't happen for me either! I'll at least do Keys to the Kingdom first!

Okie dokie, looking forward to all of your other updates!

HEY!!! Welcome!!!

Goblet of Fire is definitely one of my more favorite books so I just started rewatching the movies recently because part 2 of Deathly Hallows just came out on DVD. I'm determined to reread the books too but they're back at San Francisco and I only have Sorcerer's Stone with me. Oh well.

I guess frugal does sound better than cheap. Hey, it's all semantics; as long as we save money in the long run. Course, doesn't really truly matter because any money I saved ended up getting spent on souvenirs. Whoops.

How much does that tour in AK cost? A million gazillion dollars? It would still be really cool to do though.

BTW, need to catch up on your TR too!

 

[wingedjojo]

Yakking with Yetis

All our stomachs were grumbling and it time for lunch. In terms of dining, there wasn’t much at Animal Kingdom that really caught our fancy.

We didn’t want to go to Rainforest Café because we did that on our last Disney World trip; not to mention that we went to T-Rex earlier on in the week and how does the rainforest really compare to dinosaurs, am I right?

We (and by “we” I mean “me” because I’m mean and didn’t bother to consider other people) didn’t want to eat the ordinary fare of burgers and fries. So that narrows it down pretty well. I also didn’t make any dining reservations for this day so that took out a couple of options as well since we didn’t feel like waiting a long time for food.

So where did we end up eating?

The counter service at Yak and Yeti!

My genius idea was that we would get our food and eat it while waiting in line for the Finding Nemo show. I’m pretty sure we were aiming for the 3pm show and there was at least an hour before that started. So that we did.

For some strange reason, Jess decided to get a salad. Both Ma and her got the Mandarin Chicken Salad.

I think they liked it well enough; if I’m remembering correctly, they both finished it so that must mean they liked it, right? The concept of fruit in my salad has always thrown me off. I'm okay with like raisins or dried cranberries in my salads but never like large pieces of fruit. Don't know why.

Jan and Edward also got the same thing as one another: Asian Chicken Sandwich. Don't know what made it Asian but there you go.

Jan ate a LOT of chicken sandwiches this trip; don’t know why. Each sandwich came with a bag of chips so that was cool.

I got some sort of chicken. Looking at the menu on AllEars, I either got the Honey Chicken or the Sweet and Sour Chicken. It kind of looks like Honey Chicken, so I’ll go with that.

Here’s a better picture of the box it came in:

Oh hey! It shows the sticker that clearly states "Honey Chicken" so now I'm definitely sure that's what I got.

The chicken was actually really good. Not too dry or overly sauced. The portion itself was ginormous and I couldn’t finish it. No worries; I think I saved it so Edward could devour it later on. The chicken sits on a bed of rice and I think there were some sort of mixed veggies between the rice and chicken. Regardless of whether or not there were veggies, it was a very satisfying lunch and I would not hesitate to go eat there again.

We also got some sodas to share among us. I find it interesting that they didn’t offer lids or straws for our cups. It doesn’t really bother me that much because it honestly doesn’t matter but it does make it harder to navigate through crowds without spilling.

Eventually we finished our food and eventually the doors started to open into the theater. Since we lined up like super early, we got amazing seats. We were basically in the front section, perhaps 5 or 6 rows from the stage and we were right next to the part of the stage that juts out from the middle. Awesome seats.

Prior to the show, one can occasionally catch glimpses of Nemo swimming between the bubbles that outline the stage. I was trying SO HARD to get a picture of it. I’ll be focusing on one bubble and then he’ll appear in another. I’ll move to focus on another bubble and there he’ll be, passing through the bubble I was JUST on. I would stay on a bubble for a long time too and he’ll never come my way. It was very frustrating. I finally caught a very blurry image of him and decided that was good enough.

The last time we watched this show, we all really enjoyed it and this time was no different. It’s a very well done show.

BUBBLES!!!

While we were getting up to leave after the show, I had a dumb moment and ran into the edge of one of the benches and I could literally see the bruise form. It’s pretty funny though because on our Islands of Adventure day, I had run into something with my left leg and it bruised and now I bruised my right thigh so now it matched! I’m such a klutz.

Following the show, we had some time to kill before the next showing of the Festival of the Lion King (saving the best for last). We thought we would go explore the Tree of Life a little and along the way, ran into Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade.

We spent quite a while just wandering around the tree and looking at it up close. For the longest time, I thought the tree was alive and I would wonder: how do they keep the animal carvings so crisp? Do they have to redo the carvings periodically? Then I realized it wasn’t real.

We found some bunnies!

There wasn’t much else we could do nearby so off to line up for the Festival of the Lion King we go! We were all looking forward to this show and couldn’t wait to go see it!

 

[wingedjojo]

AHHH…IN KENYAAA!!!

It was getting particularly hot; almost unbearably hot. For most of the day we had been outside and at the mercy of the sun so we were basically at our melting point.

You know what that means, right?

Time for some frozen goodies.

Jess had what looked like those vanilla ice cream bars covered with chocolate and nuts. Jan had your classic Mickey ice cream bar (why I never got one this trip is beyond me). Is it a little creepy that so many people eat his head each day? I wasn’t feeling too ice cream-y and wanted a popsicle instead so I got a strawberry one. Edward got the same thing too. Not pictured is mom eating her pineapple popsicle.

Edward really wanted his picture taken with his popsicle wrapper. I guess his friends call him Edy and he spells it that way (instead of Eddy or Eddie) so he thought it was neat that the popsicle was labeled specifically for him. What a dork.

It was so hot out that our popsicles/ice creams were literally melting the moment it left the wrappers. We basically had to inhale our treats to prevent from getting it all over ourselves. Good thing nobody got brain freeze.

Eventually we made our way into the theater for the Festival of the Lion King. Once again we got there pretty early so we got to sit in the second row. Score!

We were in the lion section. Thank goodness because I cannot make an elephant noise.

If anybody is wondering about the title of this particular entry, there’s a story behind it. When I first watched the Lion King way back when, I wasn’t aware that the opening credits were in Swahili (I’m pretty sure that’s the language they’re singing in; correct me if I’m wrong).

I just googled it; apparently it’s Zulu.

Anyway. So for the longest time, I wasn’t aware that the chanting in the beginning wasn’t English. For like forever I believed that they were saying “Ahhhh...In Kenya…” followed by some random sounds. Forgive my ignorance, I was young and nobody told me otherwise.

Well, like we were all expecting, the show was great. Love the music, the dancing, the acrobatics, the animatronics, just everything is wonderful. There cannot be a soul out there who doesn’t love this show.

Following the show, there wasn’t much else that we wanted to do. So we decided to go on a ride that basically had no line and was guaranteed fun for all.

DINOSAURS!

This time around, without letting each other know, we all sort of posed for the camera.

We got such a big kick out of it that we tried to do a group pose. Jess and I were supposed to make a heart and Jan and Edward were supposed to do dinosaur poses to frame us. Too bad Edward’s head got cut off though.

I love the expressions on the brothers that were sitting in front of us. Made it THAT much more epic of a picture.

We all just love this ride so much. I think we went on it a total of 3 times before we finally got sick of it and decided to go back to the hotel.

Before we left, I took one last shot from within the park.

I guess Ma felt that we didn’t take a proper enough picture in front the Animal Kingdom entrance earlier that morning so she made us stop and take more pictures.

I still don’t think they qualify as “proper pictures.” Oh well.

In no time at all we got back to our hotel. I think everyone took a nap and just chilled for the rest of the night. The constant go-go-go we had been enduring was finally catching up to us and it was nice just to take it easy for an evening.

We did eventually make dinner.

We ate a lot of hot pockets this trip.

 

[RachelNinja]

I'm loving Goblet of Fire, but I'm loving every single book that I've read so far! I'll be sad when I'm done with them all. Now I get all excited to see all the updates about the WWOHP though, which I really don't want to feel because I don't want to pay to see it anytime soon! Haha, frugal me ...

The Wild Africa Trek (the AK tour through the safari with being clipped to harnesses and all that) is 3 hours for $189 per person (and park admission is also required!). I was like, WHOA! I do want to do it one day though; I think it'd be so cool, but at the same time, that's almost $400 for just 3 hours when it costs $500+ for an annual pass! The Keys to the Kingdom tour is $78 per person. And my fiance and I thought THAT was expensive already!

Yum, the food from Yak & Yeti looks really good! Even having a salad might be a good idea when I go in May because it'll be much warmer at that time compared to my February trip.

Ooo, the interesting thing about straws at AK is that the plastic can hurt the animals. They have paper straws instead, which I've never experienced, but I want to even though people say they get soggy.

HAHA, your second Dinosaur pic is fantastic with the heart!

 

[zianha]

Great updates! I really enjoy reading your TR!

On my trip this past May/June, me, my 2 kids and my 2 nieces and nephew had drinks with the paper straws.....they never got soggy while we were drinking, but with no lids, we only drank about half before we ditched all the cups! 5 kids between 6 and 13yrs old with no lids.....it was getting too messy!

I've never seen the Nemo or Lion King shows! I have to make sure we see them both next trip!!

 

[wingedjojo]

I'm loving Goblet of Fire, but I'm loving every single book that I've read so far! I'll be sad when I'm done with them all. Now I get all excited to see all the updates about the WWOHP though, which I really don't want to feel because I don't want to pay to see it anytime soon! Haha, frugal me ...

The Wild Africa Trek (the AK tour through the safari with being clipped to harnesses and all that) is 3 hours for $189 per person (and park admission is also required!). I was like, WHOA! I do want to do it one day though; I think it'd be so cool, but at the same time, that's almost $400 for just 3 hours when it costs $500+ for an annual pass! The Keys to the Kingdom tour is $78 per person. And my fiance and I thought THAT was expensive already!

Yum, the food from Yak & Yeti looks really good! Even having a salad might be a good idea when I go in May because it'll be much warmer at that time compared to my February trip.

Ooo, the interesting thing about straws at AK is that the plastic can hurt the animals. They have paper straws instead, which I've never experienced, but I want to even though people say they get soggy.

HAHA, your second Dinosaur pic is fantastic with the heart!

I totally want to go back to WWoHP. I feel like I didn't spend enough time there just looking at all the details. I was trying to do everything that I neglected to just stop and smell the roses. Sometimes I forget that I need to slow down to enjoy things.

Holy grass-fed cow that is an expensive excursion. As cool as that is, I think I need to wait until I'm filthy stinking rich to consider doing that. Hahaha.

Speaking of food, I remember your recommendation to Columbia Harbor House and if it wasn't for you, I never would have had that DELICIOUS clam chowder so thank you.

Great updates! I really enjoy reading your TR!

On my trip this past May/June, me, my 2 kids and my 2 nieces and nephew had drinks with the paper straws.....they never got soggy while we were drinking, but with no lids, we only drank about half before we ditched all the cups! 5 kids between 6 and 13yrs old with no lids.....it was getting too messy!

I've never seen the Nemo or Lion King shows! I have to make sure we see them both next trip!!

That's interesting about the straws. I would imagine if they were made of paper, it'll go all mushy and lose shape. Good thing they didn't.

OMG!!! You need to go see those shows!!! I'm a sucker for a good musical so I absolutely loved them but the whole production is so well done I'm sure everyone will find something they like about it.

 

[wingedjojo]

Operation Toy Story Mania

Friday, June 17

Like the day before, 7am was our wake up time but today was especially special.

Today was a day to celebrate because our mommy turned ##!!! Some may say she’s an old fart for turning ## but I say she’s still young at heart and sometimes act younger than me (plus she doesn’t even look a day over 20).

So where would we visit to celebrate her day of birth?

Disney’s Hollywood Studios!!!

Funnily enough, I didn't choose this park for this day because it's Ma's favorite. Her favorite is Epcot. I chose according to crowd predictions plus I wanted to save Epcot for last considering it's the favorite park for majority of the group. And you always save the best for last!

I still remember when it used to be called MGM studios. It took me forever to make that transition from MGM to Hollywood but I somehow managed it.

Like I had been doing every day, I took a picture of the section that we parked in. Just in case we completely forget, we don’t want to wander around aimlessly trying to find it.

We got to the front entrance with plenty of time to spare. It was pretty crowded already but maybe it was because everybody was basically squished into one area.

Like a good DIS-er, I knew that there was only one main objective once the rope dropped.

It was operation: Toy Story Mania.

We were going to split into two groups, both with their unique assignment.

Team Alpha, consisting of yours truly and Jess were the Fastpass runners. Team Beta was to seek out the stand-by line and wait in place. That way, we were guaranteed at least 2 rides.

Well, as fast as speed-walking could take us we were still WAAYYYY back there for the Fastpass distribution.

I don’t know if you can tell from the picture but we were lined up past One Man’s Dream. It was pretty far. At least it moved quickly.

While waiting in line, I decided to document the bug bite that Jess had unfortunately received on her leg.

I guess it would only be polite to warn people who don’t like looking at other’s bug bites. So…





!!!WARNING!!!

PICTURE OF A BUG BITE COMING AHEAD!!!

BEWARE!!!!

BEE-WARE!!!





See what I did there? Bee?

Well, it’s actually not that clever. For starters, bees don’t bite; they sting and Jess didn’t get stung by a bee. Also, a bee isn’t exactly a bug, is it? It’s an insect?

Anyway, it’s actually not that graphic either so I’m building all this hype up for nothing. It actually just looks like Jess scratched a bit too much but she said it was pretty painful.

Anyhoo. Here is it:

See? Not that bad.

Back to Toy Story Mania.

LOVEEEEE this ride so much. SO SO much.

I especially love the theming of the line. There’s so much to look at and everything is interesting. Our wait took about an hour (super long considering the park JUST opened; so crazy).

Look at this! I swear the three of us used to have this nightlight at one point. It’s so cool that they made everything so big so it’s like WE’RE toys. Ingenious.

Gotta love cows. Having spent the last 4 years of my life in Davis, you grow to obsess over these animals.

Poor timing with Mr.Potato Head. Looks like he’s sleeping.

When we got into our vehicles, Jan and I were facing Mom and Jess so we took pictures of one another.

Poor Edward had to ride with his backpack again. I always feel bad when we go on rides as an odd number of people. It sucks that somebody always got left out.

Here are mine and Jan’s scores. I won (woo-hoo!)

Here are Jess and Ma’s scores. I’m pretty sure Jess won.

That was a pretty good start to our morning. Nothing quite like a friendly competition to wake us all up.

 

[jelloarms]

I think pretty much every kid had that night light at some point. I know I sure did! I used it till I was about 11. So shame!

 

[wingedjojo]

I think pretty much every kid had that night light at some point. I know I sure did! I used it till I was about 11. So shame!

Night lights are hella useful. If I didn't have so much other stuff plugged in all the time, I would have a light in every room. That way, I don't need to be scared of the dark and I wouldn't walk into things.

 

[wingedjojo]

Thanksgiving: part 1

HAPPY BELATED THANKSGIVING!!!

I hope everyone had a good meal with family and that nobody died during Black Friday. I just wanted to take a moment to break from our WDW trip and share our thanksgiving!

This year, we didn’t really have any of the traditional festivities. Jess is still in Korea and airfare was too expensive to fly Jan to/from home. So instead, Ma and I went on a little road trip down to San Diego to visit with Jan for the break.

Speaking of Jess and Jan, I miss having them around. We always have so much fun together and it’s a shame that we’re all so far apart. Once we’re reunited again, we’re going to have so many shenanigans. So. Many.

Anyway. We didn’t really have much planned in terms of things to do for when we got down to San Diego. The only thing we really knew we were going to do was to get some Chinese food and visit the San Diego Safari Park. Apparently Jan has been deprived of good Chinese food while she has been down there and this weekend was intended to satisfy her cravings. We ate Chinese food at least once a day while we were there so hopefully that’ll be enough until she comes home for the winter break.

San Diego Safari Park. We knew it was like a zoo going into it and weren’t expecting too much in terms of rides or thrills. All in all, it was a nice family outing and was a pleasant time for all. I don’t want to bore you all with too many details (since it’s not Disney related) so I’m just going to put in some highlights.

Here’s the entrance to the Safari Park:

Oh, before I get into the highlights, here’s something I need to share. There was quite a line of people waiting to buy their tickets from the Guest Services window and it was moving slow. Then I noticed off at the opposite end of the entrance was a self-service kiosk that was being completely ignored. Granted, it was inconspicuous so maybe people just didn’t notice it. We saved SO MUCH TIME not having to wait in that line and just getting our tickets from there. So for anybody who’s going to use their credit card to buy tickets for the Safari Park, you can skip the line and use the machine instead.

For some reason, when we used the self-service kiosk, our 3 tickets got printed and spread out among 6 individual tickets. So it’ll be like: ticket, half a ticket, other half of ticket, blank, blank, then ticket. Extra bang for our buck?

They provide a handy-dandy map for ease of travel.

And now, some animals.

I swear this duck was washing its face. It just kept sticking its head into the water again and again.

I’m pretty sure this gorilla was pregnant.

The exotic pigeon.

So the Safari Park has this area where, for the extra low price of $3 each, you can buy a little cup of nectar to feed to the lorikeets and if you’re lucky, they’ll eat it while standing on you.

It didn’t seem worth it to us so we just went into the area to look at the birds. I guess mom’s the bird whisperer or something because birds just landed on her the moment we got in there. They stayed even though she didn’t have food. It so wasn’t fair. Why couldn’t I be the chosen one?

Look at that bird just chilling on my mom’s shoulder.

 

[wingedjojo]

Thanksgiving: part 2

Back to highlights.

Silliness interlude.

There was some petting of goats involved at one point.

I’m going to end this highlights reel with my favorite animal picture. It’s a Dik Dik (if I’m remembering correctly) and it’s THE CUTEST THING IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD!!!

I just want to take it, stuff it into my shirt, and run away as fast as I can. Then, when I get it home, I’m going to feed it and feed it and feed it until it’s fat (but still SO CUTE) so it can’t run away and it’ll be my pet forever and ever. I’m not crazy. It’s just so freaking adorable.

Thus ends the highlights of our Safari Park day. Not much else was done for the remainder of the trip other than picking up some essentials for Jan. We were not crazy enough to go Black Friday shopping. It’s so not worth it to get up early and battle crazy people for a $2 toaster.