...In the Warm California Sun

The first part of our trip took place in northern California.  We flew in to LAX on Saturday morning and immediately began heading north to the San Jose area.  We were on a mission to get to Fentons (see previous post for details) and it did not disappoint.  We spent Sunday in San Francisco at the Walt Disney Family Museum.  We had no idea just how amazing this museum would be.  We planned on spending about two hours there, but ended up being there for over four hours – and we would have stayed longer had it not been closing time!  The special exhibit was about the art of Tyrus Wong, who did much of the scenery for the film Bambi.  While that would be enough for most people, he later designed absolutely incredible kites and at age 102 goes to the Santa Monica Pier once a month to fly them.  His life story was so inspiring.  The rest of the museum was equally fantastic:

Tyrus Wong's kites

Dachshund by Tyrus Wong

Disney Artists' Paint Jars

Model of Sleeping Beauty Castle

Model of Disneyland

Monday was spent driving down what is seriously one of my favorite roads in the country – the Pacific Coast Highway.  It is some of the most gorgeous scenery ever and it is difficult to conceive of a better way to spend a day.  On Tuesday as our drive down the coast continued, we stopped at the Santa Monica Pier, which was something we’d never done before.  We wandered around the pier, walked along the beach, and observed a huge flock of pelicans swooping around – there had to be at least twenty of them flying together.  What a beautiful sight!  One thing I love about the ocean is watching young children experience the waves rushing up to swallow their feet or their sand creations – the squeals of delight are unmatched anywhere else.  It is so life-affirming to witness that kind of unbridled joy.  After the pier, we drove to Griffith Park in Los Angeles and headed to the observatory.  I had not been there in thirty years, and C had never been there, so it was definitely a place we were really looking forward to visiting.  Plus, we are definitely space junkies, so it really appealed to our nerd side!

View from PCH

The Pacific Ocean - beautiful!

Santa Monica Pier

LK <3 CK

Griffith Observatory

Monument to Great Astronomers

View from the roof

Albert Einstein

Sundial

Observatory

Telescope

After the observatory, we made a beeline for Anaheim.  We spent Tuesday night at the Doubletree because we weren’t sure how late we would get to Anaheim and we had no interest in paying the Disney hotel rate when we didn’t know if we would even arrive in Anaheim at a decent hour.  However, we arrived in time to check in, head over to Downtown Disney for dinner at Naples, a restaurant that makes an amazing margherita pizza, and then go to Disneyland in time for the fireworks (“Magical”).  Those of you who know me are well aware of the fact that I could watch the Magic Kingdom fireworks (“Wishes”) in WDW a million times and never tire of them.  I’ve seen them dozens and dozens of times, and I cry every single time.  I have the soundtrack and I listen to it quite often, and even if we don’t go MK on a given day, we will often go there at night just for the fireworks.  I love them.  That being said, I had not seen the DL fireworks in several years because there is a water and light show (“World of Color”) at California Adventure that is one of my most favorite Disney things ever and so we go there in the evenings when we are in California because it is such a spectacular show.  This has resulted in us not seeing the DL fireworks in the park in a really long time (we watched them from our room at the Disneyland Hotel last year because we had a view of the park and they played the audio track on the TV).  So I was not prepared for just how much I enjoyed them!  While the fireworks were great, it was the lighting of the castle that really impressed me – Sleeping Beauty Castle is much, much smaller than Cinderella Castle and does not have the presence or grandeur that Cinderella Castle has.  But that did not matter during the show because the colored lighting of the castle (you know how I love colors!) was just spectacular.  I was amazed and I was silently kicking myself for not knowing what we had been missing!

The next morning, we checked into the Grand Californian Hotel, which is reminiscent of Wilderness Lodge in Florida, and spent the next four days in Disney bliss.  Although DL is relatively tiny when compared to WDW, there is a lot to do there, including many things that aren’t found at WDW.  We really love Cars Land at California Adventure, which is a perfect replica of Radiator Springs, the town depicted in the film – it is uncanny.  We were fortunate enough to see it last summer when it opened and it was at the top of our list for this trip as well.  Disneyland was fun as always, and being former band geeks, we love the musical performers around the park.  The Dapper Dans is the signature barbershop quartet and the Disneyland Band was awesome, too.  The ceremony we witnessed for the first time was the flag retreat at Town Square.  The Dapper Dans and the Disneyland Band performed, current and former members of the military were invited to step forward and be recognized, and the crowd sang along to the Star-Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful.  It was so moving and just about the perfect note on which to conclude our trip.  Even so, Saturday evening came far too quickly for our liking and there are still a ton of things we need to experience!  This fact certainly gives us a reason to go back (not that we needed one!).

Hotel Sign

Fireplace in Lobby

Fireplace in Lobby

View of Lobby from Third Floor

Sleeping Beauty Castle

Nighttime View of Sleeping Beauty Castle

Dapper Dans

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

Teacup Chairs

Our Ride Vehicle for Toy Story Midway Mania - perfect!

Welcome Sign for Cars Land

Sign for Flo's V8 Cafe

Flo's V8 Cafe

Sign for the Cozy Cone Motel

World of Color

World of Color

World of Color

World of Color

We took the red-eye home on Saturday night, which would normally not be worth mentioning, but I had an exciting encounter at LAX.  As we were waiting at the gate, I recognized Dustin Brown who was sitting about fifty feet away.  For those of you who don’t know who he is, shame on you!  ;-)  He is the captain of the L. A. Kings, and I was wearing my L. A. Kings sweatshirt at the time!  I didn’t really know how to approach him, so I first walked past him and pretended to have to go to the bathroom in order to assess whether it really was him.  On my way back, I just summoned up the courage to go over and talk to him, and he could not have been more gracious.  I am not ashamed to admit that I was babbling in a rather incoherent manner…I told him how much I love the team and how great it was to meet him.  He kindly let me take his picture and stood up to shake my hand…such nice manners!  I finally wandered back to my chair nodding at C like a maniac with a huge grin on my face.  A few minutes later when we boarded the plane, I passed him and told him I had forgotten to mention what an amazing Stanley Cup run they had in 2012, and then I saw him again the next morning near baggage claim and I told him to have a great season.  I am sure he wanted me to stop talking to him.  :-)

All in all, it was a fantastic trip and a great way to wrap up the summer.  The very best part was when we got home and the girls were thrilled to see us.  Five wagging tails...priceless.

Happy Tails to you!

Fentons

It is no secret:  I love the movie Up.  That doesn’t quite capture the enormity my feelings, but I cannot think of a better way to describe the emotional connection I have with the film.

The tagline is “Adventure is out there!”  And I'm not implying that I should get credit or anything, but I’ve been calling things, both big and small, “adventures” for years. Groceryshopping?  Adventure.  Moving to a city where we know absolutely no one?  Adventure.  Adopting five rescue dogs?  Adventure.

So I love the idea that adventure is out there.  Because long before the movie made it a great catch phrase, we were living the idea every day.

That said, there is another quote in the movie that I find more poignant, courtesy of Russell:

“And afterwards we’d go get ice cream at Fentons.

I always get chocolate and he gets butter brickle.

Then we sit on this one curb right outside

and I’ll count all the blue cars and he counts all the red ones.  And whoever gets the most wins.

 I like that curb.

It might sound boring, but I think the boring stuff is the stuff I remember the most.”

If anyone reading this thinks animated movies are unsophisticated or simple or just made for kids, clearly they could not be more wrong.  What an amazing statement about life!  The really big things are cloaked in the mundane minutiae of day-to-day events and happiness can be found in recognizing how important these each of these little moments is in the storyline of one's life. 

The movie’s adventure ends with Russell, Carl, and Dug sitting on the curb outside Fentons eating ice cream and counting blue and red cars.  You know, boring stuff.

Cue tears.  Cinematic perfection.

So, after landing at LAX yesterday, C and I drove five hours north and went to Fentons.

A lot of people might think it is crazy to drive that far for ice cream.

We don’t listen to those people, because to us, it wasn’t just ice cream.

It was another one of our adventures.

Black and Tan Sundae - almond and vanilla ice cream with caramel and hot fudge

Chip & Cookie Sundae - vanilla and chocolate ice cream, with a cookie, hot fudge, and chocolate chips

Dug - decked out in Fentons gear

A master at work

The kitchen area where the ice cream is made

We loved it so much, we went back the next day...

Chocolate peanut butter crunch ice cream with hot fudge

Peppermint ice cream with hot fudge

We agree...adventure is out there!!!  You just need to recognize it, because it might be disguised as boring stuff.

Happy Tails to you!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

As many of you know, we love to make travel to-do lists for ourselves and we have traveled extensively in our quest to check places off of said lists.

Our completed lists have included visiting all fifty states, staying at every Disney World and Disneyland resort hotel, seeing a game in all 30 NHL arenas, and seeing a game in all 30 MLB stadiums.

We finished the baseball stadiums list back in 2005, with a San Francisco Giants game being the 30th team.

Technically, though, it was our 31st stadium, because we saw a game in both the old and new stadiums in Milwaukee when we were living in Illinois.

There was no rhyme or reason to the fact that our 30th team was San Francisco, unlike when we visited all of the the hockey arenas and purposely saved Toronto (hosting Montreal, no less!) for our #30.  For those of you wondering, our beloved Maple Leafs won (apologies to my Canadiens-loving brother)!  We did the NHL arenas from 2008-2010, in only two-and-a-half seasons.  One thing is certain:  tickets to baseball games are much more affordable than tickets to hockey games!

It’s now 2013, and the baseball team closest to us is the Washington Nationals.  Notice I didn’t write "home team," because our home team is the Toronto Blue Jays.  Nonetheless, both the Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles are close enough that going to games is relatively easy.

So why is it that it took until August 14, 2013 for us to see a game in the new Nationals stadium that opened at the beginning of the 2008 baseball season?!?

Maybe it’s because we are devoted fans of the American League.  Maybe it’s because we love Camden Yards so much that we don’t want another stadium in the area competing for our affection.  Maybe we’ve just been really busy (see previous comment about 30 hockey areas in two-and-a-half seasons!).  All three are distinct possibilities.

Regardless, we finally made it to Nationals Park.  And it was fantastic.

However, before I discuss the game, I have to mention where we went for dinner because I cannot say enough good things about it:  Gordon Biersch.  There are two locations in DC, as well as many around the country.  It is a brewery and a restaurant, and they make the best thing I have ever eaten.  No joke. EVER.  It is called the Artisanal Grilled Cheese sandwich and it is Gruyere cheese and avocado mayo on sourdough bread.  (The menu description also includes bacon, but being a vegetarian, I obviously order it without the bacon.)  It comes with the restaurant's signature garlic fries, and I am telling you:  it is the best meal I have ever had.  It is the only thing I order whenever we go there - lunch, dinner, whenever!  I can't speak to anything else on the menu - although everyone I know who has eaten there has enjoyed their meal immensely - but if you are at all a fan of grilled cheese sandwiches, you must try this one.  You will not be disappointed!

That's enough about the food...now on to the game!

The stadium is just beautiful, and having visited all the MLB cities, that is saying something because we have certainly seen our share of updated and impressive structures, as well as old, run-down parks (although I won't mention any names).  The fans were also great - another area where I feel a small sense of expertise because between all of the baseball and hockey games across the country, we have dealt with a lot of fans - sometimes when we were cheering for the home team and sometimes when we were cheering for the visiting team - and believe me, we have our opinions about rude fan behavior in certain venues.

The fans at the Nationals game really were outstanding - very respectful during the national anthem, which should be expected, but is not the case at all sporting events.  Yelling and talking during the anthem are HUGE pet peeves of mine because of our backgrounds, with this amazing country welcoming us as its citizens; any type of disrespect during the anthem is absolutely inexcusable in my opinion.  The reverence paid by the fans in the stadium during the singing of the anthem was just wonderful.

As you can see from this photo, our seats were fabulous and the game itself was pretty exciting, with the Nationals beating the Giants 6-5.  The weather was also unbelievable:  sunny and 79 degrees with a slight breeze.  Heaven!  And so unusual for this area in mid-August!  I wish the entire summer had weather like this!

Perhaps the thing we were most looking forward to was the seventh inning stretch, because some of the stadiums around the league have awesome, unique traditions and we love being part of them - Toronto ("OK, Blue Jays"), Houston ("Deep in the Heart of Texas"), and St. Louis ("Meet Me in St. Louis") immediately come to mind.  After "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," the a-ha song "Take on Me" was played and everyone in the stadium sang along.  I am not sure if this was a one-time deal or if this is something they do at every home game, but it was really entertaining.

So even though it took us so long to get to our first game there, we will definitely be back to Nationals Park!  The stadium, the fans, and the team all made it an experience we won't soon forget.

Eight more new stadiums to go!

Happy Tails to you!