Disney post! We brought Ellie to Disneyland yesterday, and we had a grand old time.
Emmett and "ZaZa" on the tram.
corn tortillas from the mission factory!
after lunch, first stop was the king triton carousel
and then over to Mickey's Fun Wheel, the non nausea-inducing car, of course.
If we didn't live in LA, I'm sure we could have seen our house from up there.
Then we went over to Disneyland and saw the All-American College Band, who were forced to wear these ridiculous Globetrotter-looking outfits.
Then we went on the Rocket Ships, where we saw this poor couple struggling to fit into their rocket. He gave her a kiss after they got in. Very sweet.
Then we went on Buzz Lightyear, where Emmett got a personal best
And so did Ellie.
Then we went back over to CA Adventure and were disappointed to find out that the Aladdin show is only playing Thursday through Sunday now. D'oh!
So we went back over to Disneyland to ride the carousel,
and play around at Innoventions (after balking at the Finding Nemo 45 minute wait)
Apparently, Emmett is the beginning of my future.
To kill time before the parade, we went to CA Adventure to the Animation Academy
Where Emmett was the model student.
This is our rendition of Tigger
And then we camped out for the Electrical Parade. 'Twas very nostalgic for me. The old music, some of the original floats. Good times.
Up close, Pete's Dragon is a lot bigger than I remember him.
on our way out, the fireworks were going off in Disneyland.
Everyone stopped in Downtown Disney to watch.
All in all a good trip. My feet hurt from mistakenly wearing flip flops. I still hope we can get out there to see the new Fantasmic Dragon. Rumor is that he is debuting this Monday! Anyone wanna go?
Goong Goong and Pau Pau are in town! Christina was on call (again), so the rest of us spent the afternoon at the zoo!
Emmett's preferred mode of transportation today.
Everyone looking at the sea lions. Note Pau Pau's cool new Zebra visor. "Very comfortable", she says.
The Komodo Dragons were straight up muggin' for the camera.
As my dentist used to say, "Open reeeeeeeal wide..."
The bears were out and walking around for a change.
and the tortoises were under a heat lamp when it was 83º outside... weirdos.
So... wrinkly... so... dry...
Walking with Pau Pau
Taking a break. Actually, he saw me crouching to take the picture and copied me.
I know that the posts to this blog have been few and far between, but we’ve been pretty busy what with getting ready to move and everything. I’ll get back into rhythm after we move in August.
Quick update on what’s going on:
We’re moving! (Just across town)
We’re going to Kansas City!
Christina is no longer an intern! She’s a SECOND YEAR resident (everybody with me, “ooooOOOOoooo.”)
Emmett is learning to talk! (I’ll get a video up soon.)
After a day of packing and moving some things (and a couple other things), the Poppywongs, Emmett and Daddy went to Disneyland to see if we could see the “new” Fantasmic that is part of Disneyland’s new “Nightastic” celebration for this summer. It opened this past weekend, and clearly, there are some kinks to be worked out.
First things first. When we got there, the parking garage said “Disneyland: Filled to Capacity“. Not to be turned back, we decided to go to the park to see if they would let us in. Lo and behold, people were filing into the park as per usual.
They had some Honda Insights in the entry plaza, and Dad and I took a look.
Once we got in, the parade was about to begin, so we watched it again.
waiting for the parade to begin
clapping with the music
Straight away to the carousel
He waved at me!
over to small world
Then over to Buzz Lightyear
Where I got a personal best
... and so did Emmett!
After that, we went over to the Rivers of America to wait for the 9:00 showing of Fantasmic. We had quite a lot of time to kill, and we had to turn away a lot of people who were eyeing our table. Dad even got asked if he was leaving… in TAGALOG. I guess all the sun is making us look Filipino again. At any rate, to kill time during the wait, we:
Practiced saying names with Mah Mah
Tried on a Woody Hat
A Mickey Mouse Club cowboy hat
And a Davy Crockett coon-skin cap
we finally settled on this one because they could monogram it. The back says "Emmett"
We drank some coffee for some energy boost
So, after waiting and waiting and waiting, 9:00 finally shows up and then 9:01, 9:02… after about 5 minutes, we hear them announce that there is are “technical difficulties” that are delaying the beginning of the show. At 9:20, we see the workers rolling up the ropes that mark off the seating area, and everyone was saying that the show was cancelled. They finally made the announcement shortly after that, and we decided to stay for fireworks instead of brave the angry crowds right away.
Emmett and Mah Mah were noting how the "Sing-Sing" were going BOOOOM!
It was a pretty cool show
We overheard that the technical difficulties had been overcome and that the scheduled 10:30 and 11:30 shows were still going to happen, but we couldn’t stay any later than we already had, so we left and resolved to send a strongly worded email to Disneyland about how our Fantasmic experience was ruined by a non-cooperative dragon. We’ll see what happens.
Yesterday, we met Auntie Julie and Avery at the Aquarium! This week’s Picture of the Week is when Emmett decided to ponder life and general existence in front of one of the exhibits.
We saw the seals/sea lions get their lunch
we saw the octopus for the first time in four visits!
The "Sea Dragons" are very cool.
A very cool looking fish that I don't remember the name to.
This week, we went to the LA Zoo with Adam, Timmy, and Micah Noritake. While we were walking around the zoo, Emmett chose Timmy as his best friend du jour. Whenever we moved from animal to animal, Emmett would look around for Timmy to hold his hand. This was great for me, because I didn’t have to worry (as much) about Emmett wandering off by himself. Wherever Timmy went, Emmett was there, too.
We’ll see if he remembers him next time we see the Noritakes.
Emmett and I observed the first call night of this rotation by going to Disneyland to see what had changed since we were there last. Quite a few changes, but there’s still a lot of construction happening.
They're redoing the rocket ships. Looks a lot more colorful than the monochrome version that was there before. Wonder if this means a re-coloring of all of Tomorrowland?
We went on Small World. They've redone a lot of the inside.
It's now "the happiest cruise that ever sailed 'round the world"
Peter Pan and Tinkerbell
Alice and the White Rabbit
Cinderella and the mice
Pinocchio
Aladdin and Jasmine (and carpet!)
Mushuu
Mulan (I think...)
Pumbaa and Simba
The Three Amigos
Ariel and Flounder
Lilo (I think...) and Stitch
Woody and Jesse
The second famous chef I've seen at Disneyland, Kerry Simon was giving a presentation at CA Adventure
Kerry Simon was on Iron Chef:
The Ferris Wheel is back up and running
Construction for the new "World of Color" water show
About two weeks ago, I received an email from Disney notifying me that there was an event to be held at Union Station in Los Angeles. There’s a movie coming out in November and they’re doing a train tour starting in LA and ending at Grand Central in New York. The kick off was this weekend, so we packed up our family and invited the Noritakes along to see the spectacle.
When we got there, we were greeted by:
A 3-4 hour line. We (the adults) collectively decided that it was in our best interests to go do something else. So we walked over to Chinatown and ate Dim Sum at the Empress Pavilion (we rate it a 7/10) and then went over to the Noritakes for BBQ. Pictures:
A group of kids who don't understand the history behind the chairs that they sit (or stand) in.
They failed to mention that the "once in a lifetime" involved a 3 hour line.
Four Noritakes...
... and a Wong
I had no idea we were so generous.
Best $.50 spent all day.
Shameless plug for a Jackie Chan movie in the middle of Chinatown
Emmett ended the evening by putting on Cherish's princess shoes. Can you blame him? They made lots of noise on the tile floor, and they were a challenge to walk in.
We’re back! (Well, back to San Francisco) We got back from a 6 day jaunt out to the Pacific Northwest to visit with family in Seattle, Vancouver, and Victoria (as well as a fair amount of sightseeing/touristing).
Day 1:
We arrived in Seattle and settled in to the rental home, which was AMAZING. Everyone got their own room and we had a full kitchen to boot!
After settling in, Gifford took us over to West Seattle to eat at Pegasus Pizza and Pasta. Parking and foot traffic were a bit much, but the food was worth it:
And then Emmett ran around on the Beach:
Rest of Day 1 pics
Day 2
Christina, Hannah, Emmett and I took Gifford to church to teach Sunday School while we played in the park:
Then we went to the 11:00 service at Faith Bible Church (where apparently some people know Joe Castillo!)
From there, we went to Pike’s Place Market, where there was a cheese festival going on (who knew?):
For dinner, we bought a Copper River Sockeye Salmon:
and put it on the grill:
And it was gooooooood:
(By the way, the secret to not losing the skin is to season your bbq grate as you would a cast iron pan. Worked like a charm.)
Rest of the Day 2 Pics
As you will note in the above pictures (and the rest of them if you look at the slideshows), Emmett has been becoming increasingly attached to his Yee Pau. There are plenty of stories to illustrate this, but see if you can’t notice it throughout the rest of this narrative.
Day 3:
We took off (as early as we could get 9 people and a baby out the door) for the Canadian border on Monday Morning.
‘Tis a strange place, Canada. Everything measured in metric:
A&W’s are still plentiful:
And the money is not monochromatic:
$20 Canadian! That’s like…. $20 American!
We went to go visit with Goong Goong’s older sister and her family (six daughters, one son). We had lunch with some of them:
See the family resemblance?
Then we checked into the Hampton Inn in Downtown Vancouver, where we had an awesome view of the B.C. Place Stadium, home of the BC Lions of the CFL. Apparently, it is the largest air supported stadium in the world (but will be changing to retractable roof/open air in 2011).
We stopped at a Whole Foods to get some food for Emmett, and the metric madness continued:
Also, I believe that I spotted this actress:
in the parking garage. I looked it up, she lives close by, so it’s possible!
After WF, we went to go meet up with family for dinner:
Rest of Day 3
Day 4
After dropping off Goong Goong and Pau Pau to spend the day with family, the rest of our travelling troupe headed off to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal and headed out to Victoria.
First stop, Butchart Gardens:
This is Emmett’s Pau Pau trying to take a picture with him. Emmett, however, would not take the picture without Yee Pau.
Butchart Gardens Pictures
After the gardens, we went to Downtown Victoria to look around for a bit:
Then we got back on the Ferry and headed back to Vancouver. While on the Ferry, Emmett found the kid’s play area, then proceeded to locate his Yee Pau (over 15 rows in) and drag her over to the play area, where they played for the rest of the voyage.
Rest of Day 4
Day 5:
We started the day by visiting the REI flagship store:
And then went to go see the Chittenden Locks:
And then we spent a few hours at the Experience Music Project and looked at the Space Needle from the bottom:
Rest of Day 5
Day 6
Our last day in Seattle, so we decided to only do a couple things before heading to SEA-TAC for our flight back.
Gasworks park, where Emmett LOVED rolling down the hills (videos and pics of this later)
The Bridge Troll (just a drive by picture)
Lunch at Salumi, owned by the father of Mario Batali:
And then we visited the Panama Hotel, where many Japanese Americans stored their possessions prior to being moved to internment camps, never to pick them up again. There were also a lot of neat photographs of the Japanese community in Seattle prior to WWII.
A glass section of the floor, where you can catch a glimpse of what was left in the basement of the Panama. Detail:
And our last stop was the Seattle Central Library. From the outside, it looks like this:
Crazy. All the elevators and escalators are neon green:
And there is one floor of meeting rooms that has all red walls:
And the book stacks are organized in a four floor spiral that was designed so as to not break up the progression of the Dewey Decimal System. Technically, you could walk from 000 to 999 without going up any stairs or getting on an elevator.
We love free Wednesdays! This past wednesday, the three of us (Nate, Christina and Emmett) and Emmett’s Mah Mah went to the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Given that it was the first Wednesday in the month, it was FREE (the best price ever)!
Everyone had a grand old time pressing buttons and making sound and looking at all the flashing lights. And another thing:
UNDERWEAR! (or Dai-Fu!) Being that we’re all on vacation, we decided to try a little experiment in terror. So far, we’ve only had one instance of standing in a puddle of pee. We’ve been having a lot of fun up here spending time with family and seeing some old friends. Stay tuned for more updates!
EDIT: Almost forgot about this gem from earlier in the week:
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