Fantasmic!  Quite the controversy over that show.  Would we wait for 4-5 hours to get the best spot, ride some rides and then dash in about an hour before the show statrted or ignore the whole thing and pretend we’d never heard of the show at all.  Such was the controversy in our family for much of the afternoon and evening.  We ended up ducking in a half hour before and saw the whole thing and the fireworks that followed.  It was definitely worth taking the time for. 

We took our time for most of the day.  Pirates again.  The Hollywood backlot in California.  Character Autographs. James and I did Indy (I love that ride!  It was payback fair and square for James’ beloved ferris wheel ride yesterday.)  The four kids went on Splash Mountain by themselves! if you can believe it.  Talk about brave kiddos.  The three youngest bought themselves some cool new mouse-ears too. 

We had a slower pace, but it was a really great day.

...and dozing on the riverboat.

These Mousekeeters are utterly and completely ready for bed!

I might as well be honest about yesterday.  A ride finally brought me to tears!  For real!  The Swinging Gondolas on the giant Mickey Ferris Wheel put me over the edge.  Stephen put us up to all going on it and I agreed.  I hate ferris Wheels to begin with.  We were walking down the ramp towards the stationary gondolas that don’t swing and I took one look at James’ face and knew he wanted to do the swinging one.  You know the look.  So, I turned us all around and we waited and waited and finally got on one.  Yes – it is as bad as it sounds. You swing on rails and tip forward and back so you can see the ground way down below or worse yet, the water.  I think I have  created a whole new fear in my daughters.  sigh

Going up! This ride was off to a poor start. I was happy to see the ground!

Watching the princesses come in. Her whispered comment to me: She really talks!

Ariel is a favourite with the girls.

Jumpin' Jellyfish! No fear.

Now that I’ve been so honest about my least favourite endless eternity moment of the day, my highlight was riding the tube ride in California park.  James and I were on each side of the doorway to the tube.  We got soaked and then we got drenched as we were all chuckling about how wet we were.  Too funny!  I could tell the two young ladies who shared our tube didn’t know what to make of us at first, but by the end we were all howling!

 Quick Edit to add:

Garnet told me after a ride, “That one was fine Mom. I wasn’t scared.  My body was a little bit scared though!”

Grace let me know that she was, “Almost scared after Pirates.”

Starting off this morning – the bottom photo is one of the bridges (not the Golden Gate as we passed it on account of fog and took a shorter route) heading into the Bay area.  I took a bunch of scenery photos from the van today (mostly through a dirty window!).  We drove for about 7 hours and aside from some freeway accidents, thankfully the GPS and the good old road map kept us on track.  Such a variety of scenery in one day – even some dust devils.  The photos are posting in revese order (backwards) so if you want to see them in order, start at the bottom and work up.

Steve would like me to note for posteritythat:  He got fingered twice by the same guy in Oregon for being too slow and got spoken to by a CHiP officer here in CA for driving too fast (5 miles over!).  Actually both times gave us a good laugh.  The guy in OR sped past us only to exit on the slow scenic route (huh?!)  and the guy from CHiPs spoke to us by speeding up alongside on his motorcycle and using his loudspeaker to inform us of our speed.  We all nearly jumped out of our skin! They make for good stories though.  🙂

 Alright.  It wasn’t your typical camping trip.  We were camped across a field from a freeway (albeit we hardly heard it) and the campsite was like a mini city.  It had a jump pillow (cool trampoline), a large pool, outdoor movies at night, fun banana bikes, ice cream, a challenging playground, climbing wall and petting farm.  We all had a hoot, got quite sunburned and slept really well at night!  Grace had her first swim with us, first s’more and first sleep in our “tent-house” as she and Garnet called it.  What a fun weekend!

We toured the Jelly Belly factory.  It covered everyone’s checklists of favourites: processing tours, silly hats and candy samples.  🙂 

James’ favourite part:

Trying out the “Bean Boozled” jelly belly beans.  Head’s up!  They aren’t at all what they appear to be.  I’ll leave the rest for him to explain in person, Grandma H.  lol

We woke to the mid to end phase of the coastal storm and decided to push on south. 

Welcome to Trees of Mystery and the (In)Famous Baul Bunyan Statue!

As we were going in to this tourist trap site, James told me: I don’t like the look of that statue. As we left, the “speaker voice” coming from the statue told us: You all travel safely!  Faith turned to it all flustered and yelled:  You’re the crazy one!  We’re not sure exactly what it was that she thought she heard, but  James suddenly noticed that the statue was winking at us.  We all left shortly after in a pile of nervous laughter.  I think the rain is getting to us. 

Lovebirds under the cathedral trees.

7 minute sky gondola ride up above the tree tops many feet in the air.

The view straight down...

Not much of a view, but at least we finally got a family photo!

More wild ocean waves.

As we entered the Somoa Cookhouse, we noticed this warning on the outside of the building...

We ate at a Logging Camp Cookhouse which was established in 1893.  Delicious, bountiful family style meals.  Lots of antiques and great photos.  Opportunity to tell the kids some stories and history from my side of the family.  Built on stilts over the ocean.  Bathrooms that reminded me of a plywood ferry bathroom.  Fun experience and great memories.

Avenue of the Giants

Mailing postcards at a tiny post office in the Redwood Forest.

We DROVE through this tree with our van and trailer!

I have the video to prove it!  We had to pull in our mirrors and inch through millimeter by millimeter (Can I use two systems of measurment in the same sentence?), but we made it!  $5.00 US well spent for the hysterics it brought on. 

Linked to her brother by ipod, the kids are doing well.

 Tomorrow we head further south.  We caught sight of a hint of blue skies as we drove into this town tonight.  It looks nicer as we get farther south.  Looking forward to drying out!

Hint of clear skies ahead.

Yesterday was incredibly stormy.  As I wrote to my Mom this morning, we did a lot of pulling into view points, rolling down the window and taking a quick photo and driving on.  The funnier stops were when Stephen would jump out, take a quick photo, just about get blown over, run back to the van and on we would drive, laughing like carzy people.  The high wind lights were flashing on the signs and the Tsunami warning signs should have been changed to Hurricane warnings.  😉

James, playing with his Salt Water Taffy.

Yes, I can leave the hotel without doing my hair for once in my almost 15 years of wedded bkiss. 😉

Saying thank you for our pizza supper. Dad has them all in line.

See...wild and windy!

Bandon

The Phoenix Grill

Attitudes were a tougher thing yesterday, but being away from everything allowed us to work it through much more immediately and easily.  Off to see what the day holds today!