15

"Mamma Mia" update:

15 shows in 11 different venues across 3 states - the Shubert Theatre formerly in Los Angeles, The Ahmanson in Los Angeles, Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, Orange County Performing Arts Center, the Pasadena Playhouse, the Long Beach Civic Auditorium, the Cadillac Winter Garden in New York, Orange County Performing Arts Center again, the San Diego Civic Theatre, Mandalay Bay again, the Fred Kavli Theatre at the Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks, the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, Segerstrom Center for the Arts again (formerly the Orange County Performing Arts Center) and the Pantages Theatre again.

We've exhausted all of the venues in Southern California that would host the show, so we need to start venturing to Northern California and other states to add more venues to the count.

Napa Rose - dinner review - April 6, 2012

We had reservations for the Chef's Counter for the 8:30 seating. We arrived a little bit early, but the folks who were there for the 5:30 seating had already left, so we were immediately taken to our seats. We were a little disappointed that Executive Chef Andrew Sutton wasn't working that particular Friday night, but Chef Gloria and Chef Alex were there, and Chef Francisco came out a little bit after that.

We hadn't been at Napa Rose in a while and so were interested in seeing what was on the regular menu - which was all completely derailed as soon as we saw the Vintner's Menu.






The husband and I both decided we were having the vintner's (he had the wine pairings, I had my customary Washington Apple martini). We did browse the regular menu just to see what was on it and discovered quite a few items on both the starters/salads menus as well as the entrees menu that looked intriguing. We might need to make a few more return trips to sample everything we're interested in.

We put in our order and then I endured the difficult task of being very hungry and sitting right next to the pass and watching other people's food as they were ready to be delivered. Seriously, EVERYTHING looked so good. We tried to figure out what everything was based on what the main component looked like and what the accompaniments were, and what we'd just read on the menu.

We had just noticed these cute little cones in a holder when one of the runners picked them up and brought them to us - turns out that was the amuse bouche for the night.


Amuse bouche - sesame seed cone with cilantro-citrus-cured hamachi and pesto at the bottom, topped with wasabi tobico caviar.





The first course was then brought over - veal carpaccio and asparagus. The asparagus was a lovely accompaniment to the very thin veal slices.


First course - veal carpaccio pinwheel and warm California asparagus, toasted pine nuts and sun gold tomato vinaigrette.



Next up was the lobster and spring vegetable risotto. I loved the colors of the dish, which was pretty yummy too.


Second course - lobster and spring vegetable risotto, morel mushrooms, fiddlehead ferns, applewood ham with English pea broth.



In between the courses, we had been watching the pass as various dishes came through. The swordfish, the sustainable fish of the day (I forget what it was, but it was a whitefish and looked very good), the short rib, the lamb porterhouse with braised lamb shank, the petit filet, and various salads and starters all looked amazing. But we were puzzled by one item that kept showing up. There were plates being prepared that had accompaniments and a sauce but was otherwise empty. And then on a separate plate was just a fish. And it seemed that the two were being taken away together. The kitchen was very busy this night, but we managed to ask what they were, and we were told that they'd gotten a shipment of 40 Dover sole, and they were cooking it whole and then plating it table-side. It turns out that the woman who was two seats over from the husband had ordered it, so we had the perfect view of what actually that entailed. We were a little surprised when it turned out that it was the general manager, Philippe Tosques, who was doing the preparation and plating of the sole.


General Manager Philippe Tosques preparing and plating the Dover sole while Chef Francisco and the pastry chef look on.



First, Philippe took off the top and the bottom of the fish and put them aside on the little plate for the discards. Then he filleted one side of the fish and moved it to the side. He then removed the middle boney spine, leaving the other side filet on the plate. Then he had to put the top filet back on and then transport it onto the plate with the accompaniments and sauce, which you can see in the picture. The clarified butter in the little sauce pot was then drizzled on top.

As Philippe was prepping the fish, quite a number of other chefs and servers and runners gathered around to watch. We thought it was because they wanted to see if Philippe did it properly, but it turns out that Phillipe was the one who was doing ALL of the prep and table plating when the sole was ordered, and they were all watching to learn how to do it. We were told later that at one point, 7 of the sole was ordered at about the same time, 3 at one table and 4 at another. Philippe couldn't possibly do them all himself because the food would get cold before he could get around to doing all of them, so others ended up volunteering to help out as well.

By the end of the evening, about half of the sole had been sold, so there were still some available for Saturday night.


With Act One of the show now over (we didn't know at the time that there would be an Act Two later), it was time for the main course, and the main reason we'd ordered the vintner's in the first place - rack of lamb.


Main course - Colorado rack of lamb with a roasted garlic crust, fried zucchini blossom, garden market vegetables and sangiovese essence.



Lamb, garlic and fried zucchini blossom - surely I've died and gone to heaven? How does heaven become even more wonderful? When we discovered that the menu description didn't quite include every bit of goodness contained in that dish. Inside the lovely fried zucchini blossom was braised lamb shank. Oh.my.heck. It was seriously amazing. The husband and I commented that a few of the fried zucchini blossoms with lamb shank would make a wonderful appetizer in and of themselves, and I also thought that a few on a bed of mixed greens would also make for a nice salad. Of course, the lamb itself was divine.


At various times during the course of dinner, various patrons came by the pass to greet the chefs and offer their thanks for the wonderful meal. At one point when this happened, it occurred to me that the voice sounded very familiar, so I turned around to look. It was Chef Sutton himself in regular clothes. He was actually dining at the restaurant on this evening with some guests, and when he saw us, he came through to say hello to us and the couple at the seats next to us. It seems he was having a wonderful meal himself, which was nice.


As we were just about finished with our entrees, it was time for Act Two. One of the managers (I didn't get his name, but I know I've seen him there for quite some time.) was going to attempt to filet one of the Dover soles - which would then be his dinner. He ended up doing it at the pass, with Philippe and Chef Francisco giving him pointers.


The manager prepping the Dover sole as Chef Francisco looks on.



The half-prepped Dover sole and the little plate of discards.



The Dover sole about to be de-boned. Philippe told the manager that pressing down on the spine with a spoon first would help loosen it from the meat.



Voila, the finished product. (I think this was before he put the clarified butter on it.)



We hadn't had a chance to talk to Philippe on prior visits, but with all the Dover sole prep, we got to chat with him for a bit. We had noticed earlier that instead of the usual napkin that was placed on the counter for the Chef's Counter seats, they instead had leather-bound placemats, embossed with the signature Napa Rose logo. We had been told that they were Philippe's idea, so we were able to talk to him for a bit about the placemats. They are a really nice addition to the setting and much more practical for the plates to sit on than just a napkin.


Ignore the front part of the picture - I'm including this picture because it's the best picture I have of the placemat, even though I didn't end up getting a picture of the logo, which is on the upper left corner.



OK, right, back to the food.

It was time for dessert. While the husband was thrilled with the vintner's dessert selection (he loves carrot cake), I wasn't quite as interested, so I opted to pick something from the regular dessert menu instead.


Dessert menu.



I'd seen the tiramisu as it was on the dessert pass, and it looked intriguing, so I ordered that. I also couldn't resist also ordering one scoop of the blood orange sorbet. The manager and other staff had quickly convinced me that it was perfectly reasonable to order more than one dessert at Napa Rose. They're experts - who am I to argue?


Vintner's dessert course - carrot pecan cake with rum raisin sauce and cream cheese gelato.



A new take on tiramisu - espresso mascarpone semifreddo and Bailey's pot de creme.



Blood orange sorbet.



Desserts were delicious, as expected.


A wonderful dinner and a fun and informative show. What more could you ask for?

One More Disney Day - February 29, 2012

Early in the year, Disney announced a promotion for Leap Day this year in which Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Orlando would be open for 24 hours, from 6am on February 29 through 6am on March 1. We thought it was a bit of an odd promotion and didn't give it much thought, but over the course of a couple of weeks, the husband and I and some friends decided that it would be fun to do. In the days before, Disney announced some special food offerings as well as special entertainment additions to the event that sounded intriguing.

We had decided to get a hotel room nearby so we didn't have to drive either before or after the event. We checked in on Tuesday, February 28, got a few hours sleep (while people were already lining up since Disney was allowing a line to form starting at 10pm), and then the next morning, we walked to join the line, arriving at about 5:45am, with the end of the line at the corner of Harbor Blvd. and Disney Way. By the time we made our way to and through bag check and through the front turnstiles, we got into Disneyland at about 6:30am.

As we were waiting at bag check, it amused me to see this sign with the posted park hours. Not something you normally see!





Disney had announced that they were giving away free event ears hats to the first 2,000 people who entered the park. We weren't in that group of people, but we did get the event buttons they were giving out, which was pretty cool.





They had banners hung up by the tunnels under the train tracks for the promotion.





We had planned to get a locker for the day, but everyone else seemed to have had the same idea, and the line extended to Main Street and further down, so we decided to skip that. Instead, we decided to have breakfast. We had already decided that there was going to be a lot of food involved in our 24-hour adventure.

We headed to River Belle Terrace for breakfast. On the way, we passed by the Indiana Jones Adventure, and I was amused at the posted Fastpass return time, so several of us got Fastpasses just for the heck of it.





We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at River Belle. (Meal count = 1.) It was a good thing we got there when we did, because by the time we left, the lines for both sides were extremely long and out the doors.

As we exited River Belle, we saw a section along the Rivers of America blocked off and went to investigate. Turns out the television show "Modern Family" was shooting in Disneyland in various locations that day and the next, and they had disclaimers and signs up to alert people.





We headed back to Main Street so our friends could put some stuff away in their locker. The jumbo and large lockers were already all sold out, but they still had small lockers available, so we got one of those. Even though the locker wasn't very big, we managed to stuff a couple of jackets in there that we wouldn't need until later in the evening.

It was then off to go on rides! We spent most of the 24 hours with a group of about 5 other people. One friend was with us for almost all of that time, other friends had met up with us while we were in line to get into the park, and we met up with yet other friends during the course of the day. Sometimes, we'd split up to do different things for a little while but then we'd end up getting back in touch with each other again. It seemed that many of the people who had lined up overnight and earlier in the morning than we did had come into the park, gotten their free hat, maybe purchased some of the event-specific merchandise and then left entirely or at least to go take a nap. The park wasn't terribly crowded, and we ended up going on most of the Fantasyland rides without any long waits. The longest wait was for Peter Pan, which was about a half an hour line. Usually, even that's too long a wait for us, since we're all annual passholders and so aren't inclined to wait very long for a ride because we can always do it another time. But, given that we had so much time to spend in the park on this day, we figured the wait time wasn't going to be an issue.

After going on a number of rides, we decided it was time for lunch. Some people got food from the new Jolly Holiday Cafe, some people like me got food from Refreshment Corner aka Coke Corner (they had available the mac and cheese bacon hot dog that they had debuted at the annual passholder Soundsational event last year), and some people got food from the Tomorrowland Terrace, which had a special burger, and we all ate our respective lunch at the tables there. (Meal count = 2.)

We then decided that for dessert, we would try the cherry pie being offered at the Golden Horseshoe, so we wandered over there. We discovered that the Golden Horseshoe had the pie a la mode but that the adjacent Stage Door Cafe had just the pie, and since none of us were interested in the extra ice cream at that point, we just got the pie from Stage Door and sat down at nearby tables. (Meal count = 2 + 1 dessert.)





The pie was a nice little size, and the husband and I really liked that it was fairly tart. We're not fond of overly-sweet cherry pie. I would love if they'd add that dessert onto one of Disneyland's restaurants. Oh, and notice the hidden Mickey in the whipped cream?


As I'd been thinking about the event in the days leading up to it, I was debating whether I was going to adhere to having to spend all of the 24 hours actually inside Disneyland, or whether it would count if I went into Disney California Adventure (DCA) at all. I hadn't really decided one way or the other, and I had decided that being in line by 6am counted. Many of our friends wanted to go over to DCA to see the new Carsland preview exhibit at the Blue Sky Cellar, and that was something I'd wanted to do in the course of our stay as well, so we decided that as long as we were on property and within the boundaries of bag check, it would still count.

We headed over to DCA and spent a little time inside the exhibit, looking at the drawings and models and mockups and watching the new film previewing Carsland, which is due to open this summer. I had already been impressed with the plans when we saw the models and such at the D23 Expo in 2009, so the film just solidified how much I'm looking forward to having Carsland open, and how much I'm going to enjoy just sitting in Radiator Springs on a summer evening, enjoying the sights and sounds and atmosphere.

Eventually, we headed back to Disneyland, and we figured it was going to be getting crowded at the restaurants, so we decided to have dinner at French Market around 7pm. It wasn't too bad there yet, and we enjoyed a nice dinner there. (Meal count = 3 + 1 dessert.)

After dinner, we went on a few more rides, and as we were heading back to New Orleans Square from Critter Country at about 8:30pm, we noticed that the lines for Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean had gotten significantly longer from when we'd seen them right after dinner, and there were also long lines at Harbor Galley, the Royal Street Veranda, and other food locations. I had figured that a lot of people were going to be coming after work, and it looked like they had started to arrive.

For the next few hours, our group was separated into smaller groups as different people wanted to do different things. After hanging out in the Opera House for a while (we didn't actually manage to go inside and see Mr. Lincoln because the timing didn't work), we then went outside to stake out a place to watch the added second showing of the Soundsational parade, which I love. We found a spot in Town Square across from the restrooms by City Hall that wasn't terrible crowded and waited. As we were people-watching while we waited, we did notice that while there were many people leaving during that time, there was an equal if not higher number of people who were arriving through the other side of Town Square. The scheduled 10pm parade didn't actually start until about 10:20, but it was still a lot of fun to watch.

When the last float went by, we waited in the same area for a while for the crowds to clear out, but it took much longer than we expected as we could see the people trying to head up Main Street but at a standstill. After waiting for quite a while, we eventually joined the crowds and eventually made our way to New Orleans Square.

The French Market had a few special menu items that were available during the day, and more menu items and a dessert that would be available starting at midnight. We were interested in the dessert - bananas foster cheesecake - and so ended up being behind a group of other people also waiting for the midnight menu changeover. The changeover was a bit disorganized (different cast members told us completely opposite things in a span of about 3 minutes) and took longer than we'd expected, so the menu items weren't actually available until about 12:20am. We got our desserts, which a cast member put in to-go containers as we'd requested, and we found an empty table by Harbour Galley to try them. (Meal count = 3 + 2 desserts.)

The cheesecake was ok but wasn't quite as "bananas foster" as we had expected. There was banana flavoring inside the cheesecake, but I would have liked if there were several thin slices of banana on top as well as a caramel drizzle over the whole thing. Granted, there was caramel on the plate somewhat underneath the cheesecake, but we didn't really get any of that since we had the desserts to-go.

Disney had announced a 1am showing of Fantasmic, which was all the more special because Fantasmic was currently not scheduled to be shown at all and wasn't due to be back on the schedule for several more days. Also, the Mark Twain, which is utilized in the show, was also not currently in operation, and when Fantasmic runs when the Twain isn't working, the normal sequence of the characters riding by on the Twain is replaced by the characters coming out on stage on Tom Sawyer Island instead.

We had planned to see Fantasmic, which was apparently full, and we found out later that announcements had been made elsewhere in the park, but since we were already in the area, we never heard the announcements. After finishing our cheesecake and with the show due to start shortly, we made our way to a spot that wasn't as crowded as others. There were several rows of people in front of us, and we had a side view where I could barely and only periodically see the stage, but we still had a great time. Fantasmic is a favorite show for many of us, and oftentimes, even just hearing the soundtrack is enough. I was able to see a couple little bits, including the magnificent dragon and the characters on the stage, and it was a wonderful show as usual.

After the show ended, we waited around in the area until the crowds cleared out, and then we headed back to Fantasyland, where friends were waiting for us.

I forget all the details of the origins now, but it has become tradition for many years now for some of us that if we're in the park when it's open very late, we have to ride Dumbo at midnight or after. I believe it originated because we noticed that the lines for Dumbo were always outrageously long, no matter what time of the day it was, and a friend came up with the phrase of "Must.Ride.Dumbo" as an explanation for why so many people were always in line for Dumbo. One of the nights that the park was open late (likely either Fourth of July or New Year's Eve), we walked by Dumbo at about 1am and noticed that the line was minimal, so we decided to ride it, and from there, the tradition of the 1am Dumbo ride was born. I believe the 1am tradition stems from the park usually being open until 2am on some holidays, so the 1am ride is easy to fit in. We've done the Dumbo ride at midnight as well on occasions when the park was only open until 1am. In this case, since we had the 1am Fantasmic to attend and things to do afterward, we had picked 2am for our traditional Dumbo ride. Usually, our late-night Dumbo ride only involves waiting through one cycle before we make it on, but there were a lot more people in line this night, so we ended up having to wait through several cycles before it was our turn to ride.

After our ride, we headed over to Frontierland as Disney had announced that Billy Hill and the Hillbillies had several early-morning shows at the Golden Horseshoe. We got there with a little bit of time before the 2:45am show, and the downstairs was already full, so we headed upstairs. All the seats were taken as well, and it was just standing room only, so we found some spots with a decent view at the back of the theatre, and a few people found the random stray chair to sit in as well. Based on what we saw and heard, it was a packed house for each of the early-morning shows, and I was pleasantly surprised that the four Billys were the ones I was used to seeing in shows. There have been rumours and discussions on a Disney-related board about Disney doing away with some of the live entertainment in the parks, so I hope Disney is paying attention that the Billys are popular enough that they can have SRO crowds at 1:45am, 2:45am and 3:45am shows. Everyone was cheering and having a great time during the show.

After the show, it was time to head back to New Orleans Square as we had a 3:30am breakfast reservation at Cafe Orleans, which does not customarily serve breakfast anymore. By that point, we were all a bit bleary-eyed, and it was getting colder out, and we were seated at a table outside (most of the seating at Cafe Orleans is outdoors). Many of us were loading up on coffee or tea for the caffeine and warmth, and there were some complications with breakfast, but I did very much enjoy my crab meat quiche. It was very delicious, even at 4 in the morning. Maybe Disney will decide to re-open Cafe Orleans for breakfast and put the quiche on the menu. (Final meal count = 4 + 2 desserts.)

We finished with breakfast at about 4:40, and we were deciding what to do for the rest of the time. Not all of the rides were open, and there was also the chilly weather to consider if we were going to do an outdoors ride. We discovered that Indiana Jones had a wait time of about 55 minutes, and with most of the queue being indoors, I figured that was perfect. Some of us got in line while others called it a day, and while the outdoor part of the queue was indeed chilly, it got better once we got inside. The wait time was actually shorter than posted, and we were done at 5:30am. We decided to get our things from our lockers and just spend the last bits of the day on Main Street. As we approached our lockers, I was amused that at 5:47am, the Cone Shop was open, and there were actually people in line to buy ice cream.

We sat on a curb on Main Street to wait for 6am to come. When it did, the Disneyland announcer came on to tell us that the day was over, and that there was only one thing left to do. That was followed by the ending song of the Mickey Mouse Club. Maybe it was just the perfectness of the choice or maybe it was because I'd been up for 25 hours at that point or maybe it was something else, but hearing that song made me tear up. The end announcement and song were met with cheers from those still on Main Street. Afterward, we made our way down Main Street and then noticed that Disney characters were standing in front of the train station in their pajama costumes, waving goodbye to guests.





When we finally left the park, it was about 6:15am and the sun was out. We went back to our hotel room to sleep for a couple of hours.


Yes, a couple of hours. Because I'd had the bright idea previously that it would be funny to spend 24 hours at Disneyland and then be there again when Disneyland opened "the next day" aka Thursday, March 1, aka "4 hours later". The park opened at 10am, and the husband and I finally managed to get there at about 10:15. We did several rides that we'd meant to do the day before and hadn't had a chance to, and then we had lunch before heading out of the park around 2pm and back to the hotel to get some more sleep.

Before the event had started, we had joked with friends about which rides we could go on where we'd be able to catch a quick nap. Well, none of us ever actually did that. Except for a couple of times on it's a small world and one other ride which I forget which one now, where I was falling asleep for a second or two, I was awake the entire rest of the time. And yes, we sat for meals and a few other times when we were waiting for people and shows and such, but we did actually spend quite a bit of that 24 hour period standing or walking.


I've read some reports of the massive crowds that showed up late in the evening, causing Disneyland to close their gates to entrances for a time, causing massive backups in the esplanade, at the parking structure and even on surrounding freeways. Thankfully, I never encountered any of that, and I expect that it was a very different experience for those who came earlier in the day versus for those who came in the evening.


I will say, though, that I had a great time. We kept ourselves busy, and there was never a time when we sat around bored, with nothing to do. We sometimes had to figure out what to do in the amount of time we had before something else we were scheduled to do/see, but we always managed to find something to occupy ourselves with. And the best part was having friends and people around you, crazy enough and interested enough in spending 24 hours at Disneyland as well.

10 years ago

This is taken from Google's main page today.



September 11, 2001 - I woke up around 6am and got ready for work that day, like normal. I turned on the radio, to listen to Mark and Brian while I showered, like normal. They were talking about something, and I figured, oh yeah, they're doing another one of their bits, making stuff up to entertain their audience, like normal. Brian regularly talked about hoping that one day, someone would find the Titanic, and wouldn't that be cool, and when listeners would call to tell him that the Titanic had already been found, he'd "misunderstand" and say that yeah, they've thought several times they'd found it, but it didn't pan out. But someday, they were gonna find it. Mark and Brian also did a lot of prank calls, making up situations that didn't exist just to make a joke. It was all normal.

But the joke seemed to be going on too long. And there was a different tone to their voices. You could tell in the other instances that there was a smile to their voice, and if you knew to listen for it, it was obvious they were joking. But that tone was missing here. And the joke was going on too long. And the joke wasn't funny at all. Big planes crashing into very tall buildings is not funny. And then they cut to the ABC News audio feed.

And I started to realize that they weren't joking. It wasn't a "bit". Something had happened in New York. I don't remember if they'd talked about what happened at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania yet. Something major was going on, but it couldn't possibly be of the magnitude that they were talking about. That was impossible. Those kinds of things didn't happen.

When I got out of the shower, I turned the TV on to ABC. And they were showing the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, in flames. They showed and re-showed the footage of the first and then the second plane crashing into the towers. The husband and I watched, disbelieving what we were seeing. This is the stuff that disaster movies are made of. This does not happen in real life. This CANNOT happen in real life.

And the "normal" continued to be missing. Unimaginably, the first tower crumbled. I saw it as it happened on TV. And yet, I still didn't believe it. There was nothing about this that I could wrap my brain around. It's gotta be a mistake, or a dream, or something. None of this was normal. And then the second tower collapsed as well.

Sometime after that, the phone rang. When I answered it, it was someone from my work. I work in a 30+ story high-rise in the Los Angeles area. Some people were in the office early that morning, and because of the World Trade Center attacks, they were evacuating the building. They were calling to tell me not to come into work that day. I called a few of my friends who worked in the same building, to make sure they knew not to go into work as well, and I also called some other friends, to make sure they knew about what was going on in New York - some did, and some didn't.

The husband left for work shortly thereafter. He said they didn't get much work done that day, but they were all there. I sat at home all day, mostly online on a discussion board that I'm a member of, and watching and reading a lot of news reports.

I went back to work the next day. I wasn't afraid to go back to the high-rise, though we did have a number of employees who refused to go back so soon. The building is near the flight path of an airport, so small planes are normally flying by constantly. My drive home is also near a flight path to a different airport, so I always see the lights in the sky of planes approaching the airport. And for the next several days, there were no planes in the sky, no lights in the sky. It was eerie.

Eventually, life went back to "normal", at least what the new normal is after that horrific day. Thankfully, as far as I know, no one I know had a family member or other loved one who was killed that day, in either New York, Washington or Pennsylvania. But I know that a lot of people aren't that lucky. Lots of people mourn the loss of loved ones that they haven't seen in 10 years and will never see again.

The husband and I took a vacation to New York in 2006, but we didn't go to Ground Zero. I knew I couldn't take it. As we were wandering around Manhattan, we happened to walk past the fire station that had lost the largest number of firefighters on that day. And when we visited the Intrepid Museum, I was surprised to discover a 9/11 tribute section in one corner. Both of those experiences reduced me to tears fairly easily. At some point, I will probably visit the 9/11 memorial in New York, but I know it's something I'll have to prepare for.

I've noticed that for the past couple days, I've been feeling very teary. As today has approached, there are more and more stories about what happened 10 years ago, and I think it's just bringing back the memories. Lots of people take this day on a political level. I don't. I can only think about the people and what happened to them, those that survived, those that didn't, those who had family and friends who didn't survive, those who got one final phone call from someone who knew they weren't going to make it out of the towers or off the airplane.

So today, I mourn for those lost in the towers of the World Trade Center because they couldn't make it down the stairs in time, I mourn for those who ran up the stairs trying to save others, I mourn for those lost in Washington at the Pentagon and on the plane, and I mourn for those heroic passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 who brought their plane down in Pennsylvania, preventing yet another target from being hit. I send love and support to the family and friends of those who lost someone in any of those locations.

And unfortunately, I also have to think of a little girl and her family, who should have been celebrating her 10th birthday today. She was one of the stories of hope, born on September 11, 2001. But she was killed in a senseless act of violence. To her family, and all who mourn her loss, I send love and can only hope that my best wishes added to those of others can have some chance of easing the pain they must be feeling today.


I've posted this video before, but I think it bears repeating. During the Super Bowl in 2002, only months removed from 9/11, Anheuser-Busch/Budweiser had the following commercial. I join in the sentiments of that commercial, in remembrance and in honor of all the victims of September 11, 2001.

"Transformers: Dark of the Moon" - spoiler movie review

I had really enjoyed the first "Transformers" movie, but I wasn't all that fond of the sequel, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". However, since the trailer for the third film, "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" looked pretty good, I was willing to give them another try.

I did like this movie much more than the second movie, but I think it fell far short of the first film. The story and the film itself was very uneven, and there were a couple story points that I really didn't enjoy. I really liked Megan Fox in the first film, but not in the second film, but I did not much care for the new girl. Yeah, she's a hot model, ok, but she just didn't do anything for me. The only time I liked her was when she made Megatron jealous that Sentinel was going to take over the Decepticons. But I wasn't interested in her story or the story of her and Sam. Let's save the romance story for a different film.

Oh, but I thought it was pretty cool when it turned out that the fancy car her boss had given her was actually a Decepticon.

I also really didn't like the scenes with Sam's parents. OK, they weren't quite as bad as in the second film, but really, could they have gotten worse? It seemed like they were meant as comic relief, but instead, they were still just really annoying and useless. If I could have fastforwarded through their scenes, I would have.

Oh, and ok, the Decepticons want to transport their home world RIGHT NEXT TO Earth. Ummm, ok, is no one else thinking about the detrimental effect that would have on Earth's gravity and orbital path around the sun? I had this same question when the aliens in "The Event" wanted to do the exact same thing. I mean, I know that the rest of the story itself is completely fantastical, but if you're going to take as granted that talking transforming robots from another planet can exist, that's fine, but you can't ignore normal regular things on Earth like gravity and planetary pull and orbits and such.

They had several awesome action sequences, as you'd expect. That corkscrew Decepticon 'bot was just evil - it's got no purpose other than to just destroy on a huge scale. That whole sequence when it took down the skyscraper was pretty cool, but I found myself thinking about what the crew had to go through to shoot those sequences, especially with all the furniture and office supplies and such going everywhere as the building was getting destroyed and falling.

I was actually quite proud of myself for figuring out two plot points before they explained it, which is fairly unusual for me. When they were loading up all the Autobots onto the shuttle to leave Earth, it occurred to me that it was the perfect time for the Decepticons to destroy them - they were all in the same place at the same time! So I wasn't surprised when the Decepticons blew up the shuttle. I will say, though, that I found that scene kind of disturbing because it reminded me a lot of the explosion of the Challenger. I don't think the vapor trails were the same, but just the images of the shuttle exploding, how far above the Earth it exploded, and then the look on Sam's face when he saw it explode so suddenly and unexpectedly - it just all brought back memories of when the Challenger exploded shortly after liftoff. And to me, it's never going to be ok for a fiction movie to remind me of that real-life tragic event.

However, I did know that even though the shuttle blew up, that the Autobots were not dead. They did something to trick the Decepticons and they were fine. I had thought they'd somehow managed to fake getting on the shuttle, so it was fun to find out that they'd hid themselves all in the rocket booster that broke off and therefore was not destroyed.

The fight between the titans - Optimus Prime and Sentinel - was pretty cool to watch. But while the fight between Optimus Prime and Megatron was good too, it didn't have the same effect. OK, so Megatron was killed, again. He'd already been killed in the first film. Granted, it was a much more graphic ending this time, given that Optimus yanked his spine out instead of just killing his battery/spark/whatever and dropping him in the ocean intact. But hey, who knows, maybe he can still be revived or put back together. Which would make his death (sorry, his SECOND death) even that more unimportant. But if Megatron really is dead, that doesn't work for the story either. Whether or not they plan to make another film is irrelevant - even if they don't make another film, the STORY of the Autobots and the Decepticons isn't supposed to be over, but if the Decepticons have actually lost their leader, then it's not much of a fight, is it? Before the fight, Megatron asks Optimus what he would be without Megatron there, and Megatron is right. The victor is only as good as the opponent he defeats. If the opponent is weak, if there's no great villain to fight, then the "hero" is much diminished. All the great superheroes and "good guy" characters are such because they have a worthy and formidable nemesis.

Shia LaBeouf was fine in this film. He did what needed to be done for an action film. Josh Duhamel was quite good, and I'm glad he had more to do in this film.

I've always loved the voice casting for Optimus Prime - Peter Cullen. He has an amazing voice quality, and I'm amused that he's also voiced the character of Eeyore in several Winnie the Pooh projects.

In the trailers that I'd seen of the film, there was no mention of the character of Sentinel, and it only took a few seconds of hearing him speak for me to realize that he was voiced by Leonard Nimoy, who I had not known was in the film. I actually found it a little distracting to try to separate him personally and his well-known character of Spock from the "Star Trek" universe from the part he was playing in this film. But that then made it all the more shocking when it was revealed that Sentinel, the Autobot elder, revered for having supposedly died in trying to help the Autobots win the war, had actually been defecting and had made a deal to work with the Decepticons. The turn was especially devastating for Optimus, who had been used by the Decepticons to resurrect Sentinel, since Optimus was the only one who could.

However, there is one line in the film, which, as a "Star Trek" fan, really pissed me off. At one point towards the end of the film, Sentinel is sort of justifying his actions and the deal that he made with the Decepticons. And Sentinel says that sometimes, the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many. The line "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" is a pivotal line in the "Star Trek" universe as it explained Spock's sacrifice of his own life to save his shipmates in "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan", and that point is played in future sequels in the series as well. It really pissed me off that they took that line and used it in this situation, made worse by the fact that it was voiced by Leonard Nimoy. Frankly, I'm shocked and really disappointed that he agreed to actually say that line, knowing the place the original line holds in "Star Trek" history and lore.

Overall, I wouldn't necessarily dissuade people from seeing this film, which I would have done regarding the second film, but it's not really one I can recommend too highly either.

"Mamma Mia" - 14

As a followup to this blog post, we saw our fourteenth show last Saturday night (June 25) at OCPAC. OK, it's now called Segerstrom Center for the Arts, whatever. We've seen the show there before, so our "different venue" count is still at eleven. I don't think that number is going to change anytime soon since we've pretty much exhausted all the venues in the Southern California area, so adding a new venue would involve some kind of significant overnight travel.

I enjoyed this production of the show, though the mixing of the sound levels was a bit off. There were times I had a really hard time hearing Donna because her mic didn't seem to be turned up enough.

Overall, I thought the company was pretty good. The actress playing Donna seemed a bit more reserved in the first act (the song "Mamma Mia" didn't quite pop as much as I'm used to), but she really got into it in the second act. She killed both "Slipping Through My Fingers" (yep, made me cry again) and "The Winner Takes It All". I wasn't completely happy with the actress who played Sophie. She made choices in both her acting and singing that didn't work for me. She was more shrill than I would have liked. The stand-out performance though, was from Alison Ewing, who played Tanya. She was awesome.

In overhearing bits and pieces of conversations from other people, there were some who were seeing the show for the first time, after having seen the movie, so I'm glad the movie is bringing out more people to see the show.

There was a woman sitting on the other side of the husband from me, and I was amused when I heard her gasp when Sophie told Sky she didn't want to get married. She was one of those who'd seen the movie and was seeing the show for the first time, so it shouldn't have been a surprise to her that Sophie and Sky didn't actually get married, but even if it was a newbie to the whole thing, I didn't think that particular development would actually elicit a gasp from anyone.

I can't believe that it was our first time seeing the show in two years - no wonder I was going through withdrawal! Our fifteenth show is expected to be in late March/early April of next year, when the touring company is coming back to the Pantages.

Orlando trip - February 17, 2011 - Magic Kingdom and thoughts on Beach Club

Yeah, I know, it ended up taking a while to finish up the last day of this trip report. Other things needed my attention more. But, let's continue on.


For our last day at WDW, we went to Magic Kingdom, which had extra magic hours this morning, from 8am to 9am. (As a side note, I don't usually care about morning EMH because it's only an extra hour. I *love* evening EMH because it's an extra THREE hours. And we're usually up pretty late when we're at WDW anyway, and we then usually get up for park opening - whatever park we're going to - the next day, so getting up even earlier for just one extra hour isn't worth it to us.)



A cast member had a friend with her on Main Street to greet arriving guests.



As we walked past Dumbo, we noticed there was already a line. Seriously, Dumbo just has this pull on people. Must.ride.Dumbo.

We didn't go to the Magic Kingdom for morning EMH to go on rides. It so happened that we had gotten breakfast reservations for Cinderella's Royal Table for that morning. And it wasn't like we'd gotten up at some unreasonable hour of the morning right when reservations became available to get them. We made the reservation about 3 months beforehand, while we were making all of our other ADRs. I know that it's really hard to get a reservation for Cinderella's Royal Table for breakfast. I think we were able to get a reservation so easily because it was during morning EMH. Maybe it's because EMH can be announced later than the 180 days when ADRs can begin to be made, or maybe people don't think about making ADRs during morning or evening EMH and just usually use the regular operating hours to make their dining plans. Of course, dining during EMH only works if you're staying at one of the resort hotels, so that also eliminates those staying off property. Getting ADRs during evening EMH also worked for us on this trip, so we'll definitely keep that in mind when planning in the future.

We made a slight detour to Space Mountain to pick up Fastpasses in case we felt like using them later. Then we headed over for our 8:30 reservation.







We checked in and were invited inside the castle. Cinderella was in the lobby, and there was a line to have a meet-and-greet and picture session with her. Once we got to her, we said hello, exchanged a few more pleasantries, had our picture taken with her, and then we went upstairs to the dining room, where we were then taken to a table.

Our server came by and started pouring orange juice for us. The husband didn't partake of orange juice for health reasons so declined when the server was about to pour his. The husband asked for water instead. For whatever reason, that seemed to not sit well with the server. He really looked visibly perturbed ("offended" might be an exaggeration, but if so, only by a little) at my husband declining the orange juice. The husband had to ask a second time a little later for water, and it was some time after that before the server actually brought him water. It was also problematic to get the server's attention when the husband wanted to have his water glass refilled. I don't remember if any other beverages were available, but I know we weren't offered anything. It would be nice if they offered tomato juice, for those who might not be able to have orange juice, but I understand that with the limited space inside the castle, even that extra choice might be too much for them to do. But I would certainly expect that they'd have water readily available for anyone who asked for it and for it not to be an ordeal just to get a glass of water.

For breakfast, there was a choice of three different entrees, which the server told us about. I wish they had some kind of written menu as I tend to do better with reading it myself rather than trying to catch everything the server is saying. There was a regular breakfast platter, some kind of French toast platter, and a third choice which I honestly cannot remember now, but might have been yogurt and granola or fruit or something like that. All I remember is that the breakfast platter was the only option that contained any kind of significant protein. As much as I love carbs, I have learned that I do need protein in the morning to get me going, and that having just carbs for breakfast leads to a crash a bit later. The husband and I both chose the breakfast platter.

They also brought out a little plate of danishes and croissants and a small fruit cup, which were good, and which I had some of, but again, heavy on the carbs. The husband's dietary restriction meant that he could have very little of the starters brought to us. They might have been better able to accommodate him if we'd told them about the dietary restriction ahead of time, but we hadn't known what to expect, and he generally doesn't have a problem with breakfast items. But, it was our mistake to not make sure by telling them ahead of time, so for anyone with dietary concerns/restrictions, I would definitely recommend letting them know about it before your arrival.


The breakfast platter was standard fare and was fine.



This is a horrible picture because my phone doesn't do well taking pictures in low light (they were doing refurb on the outside of the castle, so the windows were actually covered), but I'm using it anyway because you can at least get an idea of what the breakfast platter looks like.



During this time, various princesses were making their way around the room to visit with the guests. As you can imagine, many of the guests included children, especially little girls dressed in princess costumes, who seemed to have a really good time getting such close, dedicated interaction with the princesses. They were fun to watch.

Snow White was the first one to make it to our table. We chatted with her for a moment, and then she said "Shall we take a picture together?" to me. Well, we don't generally do pictures with characters, so I was caught off-guard a bit so just agreed. The husband and I took turns taking each other's picture with Snow White, and then she thanked us and moved on to the next table. Also in attendance at breakfast were Aurora, Belle and Ariel. We don't often go to character meals at Disneyland, but we have on occasion with friends, and it's usually without any children in attendance. The characters haven't seemed to have a problem with it, and oftentimes, they actually seemed to enjoy the change of pace of interacting with adults rather than with little children, as the "conversation" (even with non-speaking characters) can differ a bit. Most of the princesses seemed not to know what to do with two adults in attendance at the breakfast. When the other princesses came by, they would stop to say hi, we'd chat for a second, and then they'd ask if we wanted a picture. We'd say no, thank you, we really just wanted to come by and say hi, and they would then thank us for coming and would make their way to the next table.

The best conversation we had ended up being with Ariel. When she came to our table, we talked for a bit, and I mentioned that Snow White and Belle and Aurora all lived nearby, so it was easier for them to get to Cinderella's home to greet everyone for breakfast, but Ariel lived so much farther away, seeing as how they were in the middle of building her a home in Anaheim. She said that yes, she did live far away, but that they'd all had a sleep-over the night before and had a wonderful time and were then all ready to see everyone for breakfast this morning. I managed from voicing what popped in my head, which was to ask if they'd had a pillow fight last night. Those who know me will either be proud or astonished at my ability to stifle the question. We did tell her that we were looking forward to seeing her new home, and she said she was definitely swimming home to be there for that.

At some point during the breakfast, a cast member came over to ask us if a particular princess (I can't remember which) had stopped by our table yet. We said yes, and he said, good, he just wanted to make sure. That's when we noticed that he was actually keeping track on a clipboard, noting when each princess visited a particular table, to make sure that each table was actually visited by each princess.

During the course of breakfast, various CMs were going to different tables with their pictures from the session downstairs. Included with the meal was a picture package which included one 6x8 and four 4x6 pictures with Cinderella and an 6x8 of Cinderella Castle. More pictures could be purchased for an additional charge. It all came in a really pretty folder. I was a little disappointed that there was no additional sleeve or envelope to protect the pretty folder, so after we left, I stopped at a nearby store to try to get a bag. They seemed very used to this request and made a little protector out of a flat box. I think it would be really nice if the folder did come with its own sleeve, even a plain white one, to protect the outside.



Front of picture folder.



Inside left of picture folder, with a picture of Cinderella Castle.



Inside right of picture folder, where your 6x8 picture with Cinderella goes.



Back of picture folder.



Our server was rarely available during our meal. After we were done, he finally came by to check on us. I had remembered reading that the breakfast was all-you-care-to-eat, but I wasn't sure how that was going to work given that it was pre-plated. He asked us if we "would like another breakfast". Well, no, not exactly. We might have liked a little more bacon and sausage, but at this point, we were pretty much done with the whole experience, and it would have been nice if he'd come by in the middle of our meal to ask if we needed anything. Also, we didn't want "another breakfast" - can you tell I didn't like him wording it that way? - but we weren't sure if we could have just asked for more of one item or another. But with how he'd been during the entire meal, we just really didn't want to deal with him anymore, so we told him no thanks, we were done.

By the time we were getting ready to leave, they had already started the next seating of breakfast guests, and the princesses were back out to greet the new guests.

We had wanted to have breakfast there just to see what the experience was like, and overall, despite the problems, we had a good time. I think the only thing that really marred the experience was the server. We haven't had that sort of treatment in a Disney restaurant in quite some time, so it was disappointing, especially in a place like Cinderella Castle. We won't likely be returning there for breakfast unless we're with others who want to go, but if that happens, I hope we get someone who more readily embodies the Disney spirit.


After breakfast, we decided to wander around a bit, to let our meal settle. We walked past Splash Mountain and noticed that it wasn't running, and there wasn't even any water coming down the final drop.











We eventually made our way back to Tomorrowland. We are not fans of Space Mountain at the Magic Kingdom (we love the Disneyland version) so generally just skip it. When we had gotten the Fastpass earlier in the morning, it was really just as a "just in case" as opposed to having any actual intent. But, we were in the area, we'd had time to digest our breakfast, and we were even still in our return window for the Fastpass, so we decided to go on it.

And a funny thing happened. I've mentioned previously that in our last two trips, 3 of the 4 times we've ridden the PeopleMover, Space Mountain has been down. Well, after we were in the ride vehicle but before we were on our way, the husband turned and said he saw a PeopleMover car stopped on the track inside Space Mountain. I didn't see it myself, and by the time we were done with the ride and made it back outside (that long exit ramp is something I hate), the PeopleMover was running fine. So, I can't positively say that our going on Space Mountain ended up breaking down the PeopleMover, but the husband is adamant that it happened and that he saw the PeopleMover car just sitting there.

The next time we're at WDW and are contemplating going on either the PeopleMover (very likely to happen, a couple times even) or Space Mountain (less likely to happen), I'll definitely send out a warning ahead of time.


After Space Mountain, we were just walking around Tomorrowland, and we happened upon PUSH, the talking trash can. We watched for a while, and then PUSH ended up coming up to me. He asked if I had any trash, and I said I was sorry that I didn't. He said that he liked my hat (I was wearing a baseball cap style hat with Haunted Mansion on the front.), so I took it off and put it on him to try it. And he said thanks for the hat and rolled away. And kept going. And he was telling people to look at his cool new hat. And he wasn't coming back. The husband and I were laughing, but when I realized he really wasn't coming back, I headed off after him. At one point, he was showing off his hat to someone and saying how cool it was, but he was willing to sell it to the person. Ummm, PUSH, stop trying to sell my hat! I kind of snuck up on him and removed the hat from him. He then spun around and was saying that there was a thief who had stolen his hat. I put it back on him, and he happily started rolling away again. I took it again and said that I was sorry, but that I needed to go because we had to catch a flight, so I needed my hat. I can't remember what he said, but he did soon thereafter continue on his way.

I love PUSH. It was actually one of the best character interactions I had on the whole trip.


We really did need to leave. We had already checked out of our hotel that morning, and we knew what time we needed to leave the Magic Kingdom to drive to the airport for our flight home. We stopped for a minute in Town Square so that I could take a picture of Roy and Minnie.







It was a beautiful day out, and while it was cold and even a little rainy at times during the beginning of our trip, it had steadily gotten warmer over the last few days, so that it was in the low 80s by the time we were leaving. The Main Street Train Station looked beautiful with the puffy clouds behind it, so I took a picture. Except that for some reason, my phone did weird things with the picture, which was taken maybe 2 minutes after I took the Roy and Minnie picture.



My phone's weird rendition of the Main Street Train Station.



We made it to the airport and our flight and arrived home fine. For the most part, this is the end of my trip report. I still have a photo essay of Illuminations that might be forthcoming as well as a trip report for our Wild Africa Trek tour that might or might not be forthcoming, depending on if I ever figure out how to properly talk about it. Suffice it to say that it was an amazing tour, and we had a great time and we highly recommend it, and even though we paid a much lower price for the tour because it was during the introductory period, we would definitely do the tour again at its current price.


I did want to talk about the Beach Club a bit. This was our fourth trip to WDW and our third time staying on property. Our first time was at Caribbean Beach Resort because at that time, we had decided we only wanted to go with a Moderate resort. We loved staying there, and it did kind of get us accustomed to staying on property. For our August 2010 trip, we had stayed at the Boardwalk Resort. We had discovered by then that we loved Epcot, so we really wanted to stay walking distance to Epcot. In trying to decide between the three Epcot resorts, we had sort of randomly picked the Boardwalk, and staying at a Deluxe resort for the first time was made easier because it was during a period when they were giving 40% discounts on room rates for APs. We'd loved the Boardwalk, but for this trip, we decided to try out the Beach Club, since it was a tiny bit closer to the Epcot entrance. (For that reason, we don't figure on ever trying the Yacht Club since it's technically further away from Epcot.)

We did enjoy the Beach Club, and our room was located near an elevator that was near a side entrance, by one of the pools, which meant it was an even shorter walk to and from Epcot. We didn't do any of the pool activities or any of the other perqs offered at the Beach Club - we had thought about doing one of the movie nights, when they show a Disney animated film outside on a big screen, but we never had time in our schedule to do that. I did like that there was almost a regular store in the resort, so we could readily buy supplies, and we really liked that they had a hot food counter, so we could grab a quick breakfast in the morning that actually included decent protein, and I liked the nice bright cheery room we sat in to enjoy our breakfast.

I liked the Beach Club a lot, and it pretty much cemented our feeling that we'd be staying at an Epcot resort for any future visits, barring some other pressing reason to stay elsewhere. But I'm torn on whether to stay at the Boardwalk or the Beach Club again. Beach Club does have the nice store and the hot-food counter, but Boardwalk has my favorite restaurant (Flying Fish Cafe) and a wonderful bar/lounge (Belle Vue Lounge - they make great Bloody Marys there), and it's nice to have the short walk back to the room from either/both if we're staying at Boardwalk. But, our room at Beach Club was closer to Epcot than our room at Boardwalk. Then again, I think I liked the theming of the Boardwalk room better, and there are other things along the boardwalk to enjoy.

I'm really not sure whether I'd pick Beach Club or Boardwalk for our next visit, because I really did enjoy both. I guess I won't have to actually decide that until we're planning another trip.

Orlando trip - February 16, 2011 - Animal Kingdom and dinner at Boma

This was our full day at Animal Kingdom. We'd been there the day before for a few hours as part of the Wild Africa Trek tour, but other than riding Expedition Everest, we didn't do anything else.

We had considered going to the Festival of the Lion King show because one of the performers in a group that I like had been in the show the previous day, but unfortunately, I didn't find out until too late that he was in the early shows that day as well, so I missed it. I've seen the show before, and I like it ok, but it's not the same as the Lion King Celebration parade that Disneyland had, even though some of the floats from that parade are used in this show.


We went to the Pangani Forest to see the gorillas for a little while. The baby was out and about with his mother, so they were fun to watch. After that, it was time to go in search of breakfast. At first, we thought it might be a futile effort like it had been at Disney's Hollywood Studios, but then we saw a sign in front of Pizzafari indicating they had breakfast items, so we went inside to have a look. And we were pleased to find that they did indeed have a nice breakfast platter, so we had breakfast there.



Breakfast platter from Pizzafari.



After breakfast, we wandered around and spent some time looking at various animals and then made our way to the back of the Asia section. On our visit in 2007, I had picked up the roundie yeti, which I loved, and I was happy to see a new yeti plush that I liked. It's actually part of a collection that I can neither spell nor pronounce, but I like to refer to him as Flat Yeti.



Flat Yeti - the only one in the series I like. Yep, he came home with me.



We then got in the stand-by line for Expedition Everest because we wanted to go on the ride again, but we also wanted to see the queue again, with all its details. I love this ride!

Afterward, we looked at the other animals in the Asia section, and we spent some time with the tigers. There was one tiger in particular walking in front of the windows that we watched for a while.















Another tiger in the same enclosure came by, and there were other tigers in an enclosure on the opposite side as well. We stayed and watched them for a while, and it was also interesting to watch one of the tigers watching the tigers in the other enclosure, including trying to look around us to see the other tigers because we were inadvertently blocking his line-of-sight.


After a morning of communing with the animals, it was time for lunch. On our first visit to Animal Kingdom, in 2007, friends had introduced us to Flame Tree BBQ, which we had loved. They were unfortunately closed for refurbishment during our August 2010 trip, so we were happy that they were open this time. The food is really good, and if you walk all the way down to the bottom section of the seating area, you get a great view of Everest across the water.



Lunch at Flame Tree BBQ - half a BBQ chicken. Yummy, tender & juicy.



The husband had the half slab of St. Louis ribs.



Our view at lunch at Flame Tree BBQ seating - majestic Everest.



After lunch, we wandered around the Africa section to look at some more of the animals there and took a train to Conservation Station for a little while before making our way to the Kilimanjaro Safari to use a Fastpass we had gotten earlier. We usually do a late morning safari but we decided to try a late afternoon one this time to see if there was a difference in the animals there were to see. And we discovered that there was a difference - in the late afternoon, you don't see too many animals. Our tour was within the last hour or so before normal park closing time, and the animals have been conditioned to return indoors for the evening. It seems that they can tell from the location of the sun when it's about time to go inside, so they actually wait outside the gates to the back sections - which is why they're not roaming around the savanna for safari guests to see.

Our safari driver was funny, though. We were sitting on the right side in the very front, so it was easy to hear him, even when he wasn't speaking too loudly or wasn't speaking on mic. He pointed out all the "exotic" squirrels we saw - I don't know if he normally does that as a joke or if it was because there weren't many other animals around, but it was still funny. He was also good at spotting the few animals that were out but perhaps difficult to make out. We did see a whole group of them gathered at a gate to go backstage for the night. Disney's Animal Kingdom - the only Disney park were even the ANIMALS line up!

The best part of our safari was seeing father and son white rhinos fighting each other while mom came to intervene. Then a fourth white rhino considered charging our truck but decided against it when he realized we weren't in fact another rhino. And all of this happened while a cheetah was watching with great interest. Beautiful cat, so sleek and graceful.

After our safari, we went to look at the remainder of the animals who were still out in various locations, waiting to be taken in for the night.



Painted stork.



The park had extra magic hours that evening from 6pm to 9pm, and we just wanted to be there long enough to be able to ride Expedition Everest again at night. That's the tradition - we go on Everest twice, once in the daytime and once at night. When you're going up the long hill, you get a beautiful view of the surroundings (provided it's not cloudy, of course), and the view is different between the daytime and the nighttime. We browsed inside some stores to kill more time, then did our ride and went back to our car.

We had a dinner reservation at Boma, but we ended up at the wrong Animal Kingdom Lodge building at first, so we backtracked to get to the right building. We were a little early for our reservation, so the husband sat in the hotel lobby while I was on my cel, talking a co-worker through a work emergency. That done, we headed to dinner. I thought the experience was just ok, but both the husband and I found that the flavors of the buffet offerings weren't entirely to our liking. They weren't bad, and it's hard to describe what exactly didn't work for us. I also was a little annoyed that there were no signs above the buffet to say what things were. I like that normally anyway, but for food that's a bit more ethnic and not exactly run-of-the-mill, I would think signage would be more important. The CMs said it was fine to just ask the chefs, which I did for a couple of the items (even the soups weren't labeled), but they were busy, and I didn't think it was cool to take up their time to go through each thing on the buffet with me. Usually, we don't have any trouble finding at least a few things on a buffet to satisfy us, but this time, it was a bit more difficult. The service was also a bit spotty and the dining room wasn't as clean as I'm used to with Disney standards. I can't say that I envision ever returning to Boma.