Mike and Jenny Slip Us a Mickey
In November at Jenny's Birthday party, Michael and Jenny presented to us a paper which said "Let's go to Disneyland - a retirement present to you" It seemed a long way off with Jenny really ill during the first half of her pregnancy and not able to go anywhere, and we just embarking on a house-hunt, but time passed and we're in our home now and Jenny got better, so the Disneyland trip was planned for the last week in February.

Last weekend we all drove down to Southern California to stay in a couple of motel rooms just across from the park entrance. Although we drove down in the snow and rain and drove back today in another storm, we lucked-out all week with a minimum of unpleasant weather. Actually there are two parks - Disneyland and California Adventure; the latter an old-time (when I grew up as a kid) California-themed park directed at teenagers and above

Of course, going with Mike and Jenny entailed going with the grandchildren; wheeling them around the parks in a double-stroller and keeping the nearly two and four-year-old happy. We'll write that off to 'bonding with the grandchildren', which we needed to do.

Observations and recommendations: Some of the best rides were in the California Adventures park: Soarin' (a glider-like ride with fantastic views a'la Imax) and Tower of Terror (a straight up and down elevator ride in a rundown Hollywood Hotel), and the Toy Story ride (interactive where you shoot a laser gun at targets as you ride though). Also we saw a wonderful live Alladin show there - a 45-minute play of the story with super talent. California Adventures is being somewhat rethemed and there was a huge water and light show under construction. That park also has a big Ferris Wheel on a waterfront a lot like the Long Beach Pike amusement park. Interesting in that Disney was inspired by the dirty unkempt Pike park to always keep Disneyland sparkling clean.

If you look up when you are walking down Disneyland's Main Street you'll see some interesting inscriptions in some of the windows. Many of them have names attached and are tributes to those who had major roles in the creation of Disneyland - the so-called "Disney Legends". I found reference to most of them in the "Unofficial Disneyland Encyclopedia" which is a good read if you want to really descover everything about the park.

Disneyland food has never been touted as all that good, but we found a couple of pretty good places. On the way into Mickey's Toon Town is a place that features a baked potato with cheese and all that good stuff, and in California Adventures is a bakery that serves clam chowder in a hollowed-out loaf of sourdough bread. Real good. I went back a coupld of times just for a loaf of sourdough which was super good.

Disneyland is still good for many attractions including the revised "Moments with Abraham Lincoln" presentation, and of course the old favorites such as the Haunted Mansion, and Pirates of the Caribbean. The Park re-featured the Michael Jackson "Captain EO" show as we were there, so we took a look at that again. Then a dozen or so rides with the grandchildren on all those attractions which I haven't been on since I was a kid.

Settling In
Here it is the middle of February and we're still remodeling and unpacking boxes. On the remodeling side, the entire basement was repainted lighter colors and an electrician installed a lot more recessed lights. Cabinets were installed in several places to contain everything we brought with us, and we've assembled even more cabinetry that we bought at Ikea, a big Scandinavian based furniture and household goods store in Salt Lake. Finally we gathered all our artwork and are in the midst of hanging pictures on the walls all over the house. So much of it is Southwest in character, but a lot of it fits very well in this more northern home. Our oldest pictures bought when we were in Oregon fit in quite well also. So every day is still full of activity just getting the house the way we want it.

The picture is of our home from the back and side with the trees along the river in front of the house and Mt. Timpanogos in the background. The mountains are as high as those behind Santa Fe, but the valley floor is about 4,300 ft above sea level instead of 7,000 ft in Santa Fe, and the mountains are very white with snow even though we've had only half of our normal snowfall. Winter is beginning to release an icy grip on things and we're looking forward to warmer days to come.