Beautiful flowers as always at California Adventure.

Over by the Sky Cellar ivy climbing up the side of the building.

I tried taking several different views of the Mickey Ferris Wheel. I love taking photos with water reflection in them.

More water reflection.

Nope, I don’t get tired of it.

A new Asian fast food restaurant in Pacific Wharf, California Adventure.

Loved their dragon plaque.

How Disney keeps such a big area like Cars Land under wraps is beyond me. I rode Screamin’ to get a better view. Wow.

A new chocolate store is opening in Disneyland’s California Adventure. Yum.

It’s always easy to get on Ariel’s Underwater Sea Adventure in Disney’s California Adventure. Lots to take in in such a short time.

All kinds of fish antics going on here.

Pretty cute characters though.

Have to love a King no matter where he’s at!

Finally, Ariel!

It wouldn’t be complete without Ursula, and she’s a big one!

The finale of Ariel and Prince Eric kissing.

As if you couldn’t get enough of Ariel, she appeared on Disneyland’s Main Street as I headed out of the park.

I love horses, especially Clydesdales!

Surprisingly enough the parks weren’t that busy today, as evident by all the trams lined up in the parking lot.

As always I enjoy all the work Disney’s Master Gardener’s put into keeping Disneyland and California Adventure parks full of colorful flower and foilage. With our weather being so cyclic it’s easy to see why spring has arrived early, especially at the parks. Such a delight to the senses!

Whenever I go to the parks I love to pay attention to the small things. Disney is all about attention to detail and if taken enough time I feel surrounded by just that, joy in all the little things that make the parks interesting every time I go. I’m also drawn to not only Disney merchandise that reminds me of loved ones, a small porcelain bird that I know my husband Jerry would love, a ceramic Captain for my good friend Bill Bell, maybe even a Mickey Fireman for Jeremy, Teresa Hord’s husband. For all my girlsfriends who have children, a silhouette framed and hanging in The Jolly Holiday Bakery Cafe, where there’s also a colorful stained glass window sporting a penquin waiter. Hi Steve Wilson and David Meyers! Sometimes overlooked doorways that say “Animation Department, Staff Entrance” are just waiting to be opened by one of their outstanding new Animators, Frank Pepito! And a small nod to my father, George, who when on a trip to Disneyland with our family once commented on all the wonderful, oranate ironwork all throughout the parks.

A lot of new changes are coming to both Disneyland Resort and California Adventure. During my visit today I noticed small flags above the entrance to Disneyland. Anyone have any information about these? It would be interesting to know the story behind them. The resurfacing and paint job of the Matterhorn is finally showing through the scaffold covering the outside of this large man made mountain. The Carthay Circle theater is looking quite beautiful as it rises above the outer walls of the construction area. Peaking out from behind the theater looms the Hollywood Tower Hotel. A refurbished building on the Hollywood Backlot stands tall with it’s disquinshed new colors, bearing the name of the Argyle Building. And another large screen printed cover hides the Blue Ribbon Bakery building over on Main Street in Disneyland. Definately lots of changes.

One of my favorite “extra’s” that Disney does during new construction in California Adventure, and maybe often ignored, are posters painted on the wooden walls that are put up to hide all the new creations going on in the park. Some posters proudly announcing a few of their well known rides such as Screamin’ or HTH with illustrations each with Disney’s unquie brand of enthusiasm. For me they practically jump off the wood and shout, stop and look at me. Talented artists took the time to create each and every one of these unique paintings. The posters also show illustrations of the many exciting changes undergoing construction and make me anxious to see them come to life. Such wonderful and exciting changes to look forward to.

Pluto quickly strolled off of Main Street in Disneyland leaving behind children and adults calling out his name for one last photo reminded me of one of the first photos we have of our son Matt near Cinderella’s Castle standing next to Pluto. Those photos have faded, though not the memories. I’ve never seen this character over in Bugs Land, his name is Heimlich from the Disney movie “A Bugs Life”. Seeing him munching on candy corn reminds me of a few of my friends who share my passion for sweets, right Beth and Maria Ah, the memories of eating too many Valentine hearts, or a melted box of See’s candy! haha! And who could live without the Little Green Men (also referred to as “LGMs”) in the movie Toy Story. I dare Kathleen Fuller to take a photo of her entire collection of these 3 eyed aliens and post it! Peaking out from the trees in A Bugs Land is a frazzled looking walking stick, “Slim”. He reminds me of how I feel and walk lately, well except for the slim part! haha! And can you just imagine a Disneyland without Tinkerbell. Shame. On. You. for even thinking about that. Nods to my sweet friend Pauline and daughter Valerie who both have given me many a beloved Tink Never last, never least, are 2 young girls wearing matching pink dresses walking hand in hand in the land of magic. Love you my sweet sis’s, Dee and Jill. In case other dear friends and family feel left out, never fear. I have a vast collection of Disneyland/California Adventure photos (another photo? said Jerry!) that reminds me of each and every one of you. Until next time……

Gimme head with hair
Long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming,
Streaming, flaxen, waxen

Give me down to there hair
Shoulder length or longer
Here baby, there mama
Everywhere daddy daddy

Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair
Flow it, show it
Long as God can grow it
My hair

Oh! Sorry, got caught up in that The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical! Isn’t this a clever new addition for Disneyland? Meeting a new Disneyland character always makes my day. Now to get caught up on adding these photos to my Disney scrapbook…..

Isn’t Rapunzul’s boyfriend Flynn Ryder a cute catch? Can’t wait to see this movie!

Halloween is coming into full swing at both parks, in fact Haunted Mansion and for the first time ever Space Mountain (my favorite ride at Disneyland) both were closed due to Halloween additions being added to the rides. I can’t wait to see what they will do with Space Mountain. Should be so exciting!

I headed over to California Adventure First, which was practically empty. I was going to ride Screamin’ when I saw Jessie and being a typical photo fiend and Disney fanatic I couldn’t pass up a photo op with her!

I just can’t get enough of Screamin, which when you take single rider the wait is non existent. Today there were very few people at the park though and the wait was under 7 minutes through the normal entrance line.

Next I hit Soarin’, again the wait was minimal, especially for single rider. This ride is so calming, especially with the wonderful scents that are added during the different scenes you fly over. It gives you a good time to rest if you’re tired at the park too!

The Mickey face at Disneyland is always so cleverly designed and perfectly planted. It’s fun to see what the designers have come up with and how the blossoming of the plants changes the look as the plants blooms and grows!

I’ve also learned that even though there isn’t a single rider entrance on the Matterhorn, they will allow handicap people to enter through the exit, which makes for a very quick wait and my knees and hips very happy! Thanks Disney!

I haven’t been on the Jungle Cruise in a long time and decided to do so just to see if I remembered the whole ride. Turns out I didn’t, and the boat captain was hilarious! And he was really young. I love that show of confidence!

I ended up not taking very many photos because a) I was on the wrong side of the boat, and b) the person I was sitting next to wasn’t real friendly to sharing “our” space. I’ve decided I will go back and see what photos I can get. Hmm….sounds like a return trip is definately in the works!

Using Picassa I made a collage photo for my facebook page. Pretty fun thing to do! Enjoy!

It must have been meant for me to have a good time, something I usually have at Disneyland anyway. While the crowds looked heavy from the outside and the parking looked ominious while I was I was waiting, once I got into the park the amount of people actually there was less than expected. Characters were out in abundance so I got to pick and choose with whom I would have a photo snapped with, single rider options made entering rides a snap, and cast members greeted me right and left cheerfully with “Happy Birthday Pat” which only aided in my good mood. I decided to do exactly as I desired and went on rides at random, rested as needed and basically wore myself out. A hot epsom salts bath was drawn once I arrived home, a coconut rum and coke joined me as company and I looked forward to viewing my photos once I dried my weary body off. Later that evening my sweet hubby took us out to eat at Fuddruckers where I was a birthday girl once again and ate exactly what I wanted, a fat juicy hamburger, onion rings and yes Patricia (our favorite employee at Lake Forest Fuddruckers) a vanilla shake. I may be a “plain girl” girl on the outside but on the inside I’m anything but plain. I’m 56 and bound and determined to enjoy my life!

The date finally arrived when I was no longer blocked at Disneyland and California Adventure when using my passport again so I headed up to Anaheim with 2 good girlfriends in tow, Jill and Karen. We left around 2, arrived about 3, and set out to have a great time. Despite the fact that the park was really crowded we still did just that, enjoyed ourselves immensely! Say Cheese everyone!

Jill just celebrated her birthday in July while Karen won’t be jumping for joy about hers until December, and mine, well yes once again it’s just around the corner. Another neat fact is that Jill and I are the same age basically, which is probably why she suggested once we were in California Adventure to that I get myself a birthday button. That led to Karen and Jill getting “We’re celebrating” buttons and then low and behold a suprise, I got to pick out my favorite ride in this park and the cast member gave me a fast pass for the entire party! How cool was that? way cool….though from the looks of the photo Jill might not think it’s as cool as I did! I love Hollywood Tower Hotel!

Since I love gardening it’s no stretch to understand why I love the gardens at Disneyland all created and maintained by their awesome master gardeners. I love seeing how everything changes and blooms with each season when I go to both parks. It’s always such an inspiration!

Always in character are Disneyland and California Adventure’s Disney Characters! You can try and stump them if you want with a thousand different variations on any given question and you will be guaranteed an answer that keeps them in whatever character they are dressed up for on that day! But make a pirate cross and he may chase you up, down and throughout the Tarzan Treehouse before he settles on how to behead….I mean how to behave once he catches you!

Val’s dad John flew out at the end of Val’s week here so that they could drive back home to Illinois together. While here, John needed to run a teleconference meeting. Jerry and John worked a couple hours on getting that set up, but were unsuccessful. Jerry and Patty enjoyed seeing John again, especially since he is a camera enthusiast just as Jerry and Patty are. So much so in fact, John has the same camera Jerry has, a Nikon D90!

Valerie’s packing of her car turned into something of a Nintendo’s Tetris session, but she did make it all fit. Yeah! You can see Val here in the guest room closet going through her things. Here’s to Val and Roni getting a place that has a huge walk in closet when they move out to OC!

At the last minute Patty and Valerie decided to take a trip to Disneyland today, Tuesday March 24th. The weather was spectacular even if the park was full. We got a late start but still had a fun day. Val lucked out and found Pluto just as we entered the park, so we waited in line to get her photo taken for her sweetheart, Roni. And was it worth it! Such an adorable photo! Of course it’s not hard when you start out with such an adorable girl!

We also got lucky and got if not a somewhat obnoxious cast member at least one who had a great suggestion, and that was to get our photo taken with Tink, in front of the castle! Yeah Tink! I always love to play with Tink. All in all, a great day.

I’m late posting photos, but as the saying goes, better late than never.

I had just gotten home after taking our houseguest Valerie to the airport (she went home to Illinois for the holidays) when I saw Jerry’s car in the driveway. I was so excited to see him home for lunch! I was sure he had come home to see me so I rushed in the front door to say “hi sweetie”. When he walked out of his study and I saw the look on his face I knew there was a different reason for him being home in the middle of the day. You know the rest of the story, another job lay off with the holidays right around the corner. This short story line leads up the photo of me with a very special person in my arms, baby Jack L. Hord. Carol’s daughter Teresa, husband Jeremy, and daugher Emily welcomed Jack into the world a few days after Thanksgiving this year. Jerry had gone back to work after telling me about the job lay off news, and I was on the phone with my girlfriend Pauline boo-hooing about it. I was in no mood to break away from my conversation with Pauline, despite Carol’s persistance. She called my cell several times, then the home phone. I finally gave in and took her call. She didn’t tell me that Teresa and Jack were with her, she didn’t know about Jerry’s recent job status. She just knew how much I loved her girls and T’s kids. I hung up with Pauline and waited for Carol to come over like she said she was going to do. When I answered the door I was so tickled. I also knew that I needed a baby’s love at that very moment to lift my heart. Thank you baby Jack, Teresa and Carol.

We started our festivities by having good friends Terry and Karen over to enjoy the Christmas vibe. Karen brought over hot chocolate and we enjoyed that while we opened our gifts.
It was Jerry’s year for all things Coke related. Maybe next year we’ll put up a small tree in his study to show off his Coke ornaments.It was the year of the fairy for me. I was blessed to receive Tink in many different forms this year and loved it. This was a Mary Cicely Barker calendar, another favorite artist of mine who illustrates exquisite fairies.

Terry’s gifts came in the form of Disney. Not too big of a surprise because that’s his mantra, his main thing, what makes his heart go thumpedy-thump. Karen and I went to an estate sale this last year that had a awesome amount of Disney items for sale. We found out as we were purchasing our items that the estate sale was due to a foreclosure which made it very sad. But in the end Terry got this shirt and a cool Disney blanket, so I was thankful for those gifts.

Next on our holiday festivities was spending Christmas eve with good friends the Bennets. Jill made everyone a wonderful mexican feast with delicious margarita’s, and Matt joined us for dinner that evening which was nice. In a festive mood Jill placed celebratory New Years eve crackers on each table setting which was a lot of fun.
Inside each cracker were crowns, a joke, and a prize. Each end of the cracker was tied up with twisty gold ball ties. Those ended up being the most entertaining, something akin to the box, not the contents. Patrick made “knuckle-cracking-beaters” out of his. Steve proudly shows off the paper crown. It seems to fit him just right, don’t you think? Jill bravely shows there is more than just 1 thing you can do with the New Years cracker ties thank you, while Matt tries not to notice that mom did not have her focus set right!

We had a nice treat this year with having both boys home for Christmas. Jason and his good friend Christina, better known as Chuck, made the long trek down from Arcata, Ca in his dependable blue Honda. Since it is about a 14 hour drive one way, they decided to stop over in San Fransico on their way down. It had been almost 2 years since we’d seen Jason last, so we were all very excited. Christmas morning was nice. We slept in a bit, and Matt drove down from Newport Beach to open gifts with us. Matt appreciated his gifts as did Jason, of course, yet the best part for Jerry and I was the fact that we had both the boys home for the holidays at the same time.
As part of our family tradition, we traveled down to San Diego for Christmas day dinner at Patty’s cousin’s house. Greg and Doreen make the best prime rib known to mankind and are the most gracious of hosts. Getting to see Greg’s parents, and Patty’s closest aunt Lou and uncle Jim who live a stone’s throw away, is another part of the wonderful tradition, as is seeing a whole host of other family members. It is time spent with great food and spirits, lots of wonderful stories around a long table, and best of all simply the best family a girl could ever wish for.