CA Adventure!

Cristina and I went to Disney's California Adventure today. We prefaced the journey with a stop at Mill Creek Cattle Co. for breakfast. Then it was off to the park. We figured we'd park at Downtown Disney this time and just validate our parking, thereby acquiring free and convenient parking. When we went to Disneyland on Cristina'a birthday we paid $12 for parking, and we had to take the shuttle about ten miles from the parking structure when it just took us to Downtown Disney anyway. So we parked and we entered the park.

At first, we headed to the "Paradise Pier" area. But we got sidetracked by the "Golden State" area. We wandered into the BLUE SKY CELLAR next to the wine-tasting area, where they highlight some of the recent and current imagineering going on for the theme park. They call it the "blue sky" cellar because in the imagineering stages the sky's the limit--there are no rules. In fact, imagineering is definined roughly as the combining of creative thinking and engineering know-how. We actually got to experience one of the products of this process, which I'll tell you about in a moment.

From there we meandered toward the REDWOOD CREEK CHALLENGE TRAIL where we witnessed a felled Sequoia, climbed high on ropes from one lookout to another, bringing to mind the adventure and intrigue of Huell Howser's California's Gold, and took in a short show loosely based on Brother Bear and Native American folklore.

At that point, Cristina was thirsty. And since we had decided against satisfying that thirst by getting drenched at the GRIZZLY RIVER RUN, we proceeded to the TASTE PILOT'S GRILL where, upon entering, we noticed a bunch of friends from church (Happy Birthday Brandy!). We hung out and talked with them for a bit in the "hanger" and then went SOARIN' OVER CALIFORNIA (one of my favorites at the park) with them before parting ways again.

It was then about 4pm and we only had two hours before the place closed. So we rushed off to "Paradise Pier" and hit the MALI-BOOM-ER and then, on the way to the CALIFORNIA SCREAMIN' roller coaster were intrigued by the giant Mr. Potato Head telling bad jokes and realized it was the new carnival ride, TOY STORY MIDWAY MANIA. It was a 40 minute wait, but worth it! It's a ride reminiscent of Roger Rabbit but also a video/carnival game where you wear 3-D glasses and shoot pies/rings/paint/etceteras at various moving objects and rack up points along the way. (FYI, out of the four people in our row, I was the high score.) I definitely recommend it. We would have gone again if there was time. But we had to get to the roller coaster. And we did.

It was really fun, but we had no time to bask in the pleasure of the ride. We had to speed walk all the way to the "Hollywood Picture Backlot" area on the other side of the park in order to ride the TOWER OF TERROR before it closed. Quickly, Cristina grabbed an ice cream cookie (for energy?) and we proceeded to walk as fast as we could. We made it with just three minutes to spare. And as we were waiting at the "service elevator" we saw our friends again at the elevator across from us.

Once we had our final thrills, we perused the store toward the entrance. I kind of wanted to get the soundtrack to the theme parks. I used to have the record when I was a kid. And I wouldn't have minded buying the guide to vacationing at Walt Disney World. I've had the inclination to go lately. But we ended up empty-handed.

We said goodbye to the park and hello to Downtown (and incidently goodbye to our friends as they walked off to the tram). Of all the perusing we did, what impressed us both the most was the $200 Death Star they were selling at the LEGO STORE. It looks like you could probably reinact just about every scene from most of Episode IV-VI with that thing! Quite impressive.

We ended the evening with dinner at the JAZZ KITCHEN. Instead of being seated right away outside in the patio where the hip-hop was playing, we opted to wait until there was seating inside where the live music was happening. It paid off as we got to sit right in front of the stage where a cross between Liberaci and Elton John was playing hits from the 1920's to today on a rhinestone studded piano. Despite the outfit, he was actually quite good. We got to hear him play through about one and a half sets, including our request, "Fever." Our food was delicious. The company was impeccable. And the ambiance was perfect. Not to mention, we got our parking validated.

Of course, we failed to read the LARGE fine print. The first three hours are free. Check. The next two hours can be validated. Check. Then, the meter is running at $2 every twenty minutes. WHAT? We arrived about noon. We left about 10pm. Let's see, that comes to a grand total of $28!

On our way home, as Cristina drifted in and out of sleep, I put my happy music on the CD player, Viva la Vida by Cold Play, and all was right with the world.