Tag: fun

Disneyland Tuesday

And so we begin our day at Disneyland! We were there for rope drop and right in the front of the rope, so I got to see them wind up the rope on a rope holder that perfectly centered each flag on the rope. Disneyland is so very efficient!

I was a riot of patterns today: bag, jacket, and dress.

We rode the Matterhorn first thing and I grabbed a picture of these two gentleman (and their son, who I cropped out of the picture) who were wearing the classic Mickey Mouse-style sweatshirt and original ears. I had that in the 80s, but in t-shirt version. It was rare to see the traditional ears. Most people wore headband-style ears that came in a multitude of styles.

One thing I didn’t realize until we visited is how many people would dress alike. There were so many fun shirts worn by friends and family groups.

Matt was our navigator, and here he is checking the map on his phone while we waited for the Storybook Land Canal Boats.

And here we are on said boats. I was glad we visited this ride when there was basically no wait. It’s a fun ride with a five minute wait. Maybe less so if the wait is longer.

Also the cast member’s uniforms in Fantasyland were my favorite. Such a good color of green. So Alps-inspired. The internet is not providing me with pictures, but they were great.

We visited Star Tours, which was much fun, and didn’t exist when I last visited.

From there, we headed off to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge to ride Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. (Many colons are present in Star Wars land.) My favorite part was the Stormtrooper hanger. So cold and creepy. Overall, I really did feel transported to the Star Wars world. Well done, Disney.

We took part in the earworm ride that is It’s A Small World. Such great design.

Both inside and out.

We spent a lot of time in Frontierland hanging out near the water. We took this raft to Pirate’s Lair on Tom Sawyer Island. We had ranked this island low on our things to do, but it turned out to be really fun to explore. We also canoed around the island, which was a fun and active activity.

And, of course, we rode the Mark Twain Riverboat.

We actually ended up riding this several times as it was a good time killer while we were waiting for our Lightning Lanes.

Cafe Orleans was where we had lunch. I got the famous Monte Cristo Sandwich. Matt got some pasta.

And here we are on the monorail.

We left around 7:00 p.m. and Matt was asleep before 8.

Black Grace

Friend Jessica bought season tickets to White Bird and then had to go out of town during this performance. I got the tickets, and Matt and I settled in for a grand night of dancing.

Handgame, which incorporated Samoan slap dance with child abuse themes, was my favorite. The members sat in a circle, and sang Lourde’s “Royals” acapella. The movement was in the arms and how the hands slapped the body and other bodies. It was quite powerful.

The other two programs “Kiona and the Little Bird Suite” and “Paradise Rumour” showed off the dancing talents, the very fit dancers, and a dancing style I was not familiar with.

It was a great evening!

Exit the Advent Calendar

While I enjoy the same felt advent calendar from my childhood year after year, Matt isn’t interested in partaking, even if there is chocolate involved. He floated the idea of getting the advent calendar from Exit, the in-home escape room company. And so we did.

We started the calendar after December 1, and then Matt went to Michigan for a bit, so we had a spreadsheet to catch up and keep us on track. That meant that we often did two days in one setting.

Eric was over for Saturday gaming and he did the last three nights with us. You can see how we really pulled everything apart at the end. That was because one of the rooms early on didn’t work, and Matt wanted to find the tiny emoji thing we couldn’t make appear.

One of the thing I enjoy (while also hating) about the games is that the helping clues are sometimes very blunt. There was a doozy in this one, somewhat mocking us for not getting an element that we had earlier commented MUST be something.

In the end, we found the prize: this tiny button labeling us X-MAS HERO.

It was well worth it.

Trip to Cannon Beach Day 1

I haven’t explored Cannon Beach much, and the bus goes there, so I took a short vacation. I stayed at the Hallmark Resort and Spa, which was a hop, skip, and a jump from the bus stop. I arrived on Thursday night after sunset and climbed a bunch of stairs to get to the front desk. I’m pretty sure I reserved a queen partial view room, but my room looked like this.

After I dropped my things and took this picture, I tried out their sauna and did a bit of paddling around in the pool.

A very good start to the vacation.

Portland Winter Light Festival 2024

I’ve lived in North Portland for 16 years and hadn’t yet attended the Portland Winter Light Festival at Portland International Raceway. 2023 was the year to check it out.

While most nights are reserved for cars driving through, they do provide at least one bike and one pedestrian night. They are always on weeknights, and always early in the season, which is one reason for my absence of this Portland Christmas (“Holiday”) tradition. I like to do my Christmasing in December, not November.

I chose a night for bikes, and biked the mile to the raceway, showed my ticket and headed off to the track.

There were a million lights, such as this Santa that was surfing the waves. Families and friends often had their bikes decorated and some were playing music as they rode. Early on, I glommed on to a couple with a fun selection of music and rode behind them for an entire loop, so that was festive.

While navigating bike situations with a lot of bikes and a lot of kids riding bikes can be fraught (I’m looking at you, Bridge Pedal) the racetrack is wide, and the fact that it was a weeknight in November made riding easy. I liked being on a bike more than driving a car. As a solo attendee, I would have had to do the driving and missed the nuances of the lights. I’m pretty sure you can’t just stop in the middle of the track on car nights like you can on bike nights.

The racetrack was big enough that we got visions of all the 12 days of Christmas. Here you can see that three of the six geese a-laying have been busy.

After my first round following the couple with fun music, I took another loop to take pictures and have another look. Then I rode home.

I’m glad to have experienced this fun tradition.