Why I Oughta...

One of the things that I've been chasing FOR YEARS in all three of our gardens (two of our own, one borrowed via my sister Vic/Equation Boy/Man when we lived there for two years) is a water feature.  I've longed after one in various forms.  Over the years, I've had two water features that managed to be planned, executed and maintained.  But, each of them lasted for just one season. The first one was this three-tiered acrylic fountain that I had near our garden in our first house in Elmhurst.  The birds loved it.  But, it dried out rapidly.  Then it cracked and was junk.   The second one was this small wine barrel water 'feature' that we had in the borrowed garden/patio .  It was an insert that wasn't quite the right size inside of a wine barrel planter from the hardware store.   I've talked about adding some water - for both the visuals but also the sounds - many times.  I included it on my 2022 to-do list and it was an item...

 ChatGPT:  sure thing.  How's this? I mean...come on. So let us celebrate this grand invention, The Carousel of Progress and its intention. Here, here.   

We recently rode the Jungle Cruise in Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom and being all-in on Staghorn Ferns lately, it was a lovely surprise when I spotted a couple of them attached to tree trunks near the beginning of the ride.  I've looked at a bunch of POV videos on YouTube , but can't seem to find a clear look at the ferns and I wasn't able to whip my phone out fast enough to capture them.  But, trust me...they're there.  Once you leave the dock, look to the right side on a few of the bare palm tree trunks - about six-or-so-feet high from the waterline, you'll see a couple of Staghorn Ferns.   Although there isn't a similar site for Walt Disney World, the folks at Plants of Disneyland have documented four different Staghorn Ferns in Disneyland.  You can see the listing page here - screenshot below.   Source via Plants of Disneyland I'll be sure to have my phone out the NEXT TIME that we board the cruise. 

 Back in November of 2020, McDonalds had a Happy Meal promotion with Walt Disney World that featured ride vehicle toys from the parks included in each Happy Meal.  The promotion started (I think) right before Thanksgiving , but by the end of the month they stopped selling the toys due to an error of some sort with the QR code that came in the package .   Of course, when they released these, we ran out to get a Happy Meal for the kids.  They gave us two of the same toy (Goofy) and one Mission Space toy (Mickey). The ones we have are marked "Walt Disney World" and the Goofy one is from the newly opened (at least...new to us, since we haven't been to the Parks since the pandemic hit) Runaway Railway ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios.  The Mission Space one is from the ride in Epcot below. You can see all ten of them here from WDWNT .  Wonder if they'll ever bring the toys back?   They kind of remind me of these Disney Matchbox cars that I have ...

I've now been on three different Pirates of the Caribbean rides in three different parks.  The first one I ever rode was down in Walt Disney World.  And it is great.  Has just one drop and what I thought was a really nice show.  But then, I rode the one in Disneyland.  Woah.  Totally different and ummm...better?  Like, first there's the pre-pre show.  The whole seeing the boats come around the Blue Bayou restaurant into the loading area.  Then the whole bayou scene with the guy playing the banjo and the fireflies buzzing around.  Then the drops.  There's more than one!  That was nuts to me. And now I have these (admittedly) blurry photos of the Pirates of the Carribbean at Tokyo Disneyland.  The reason they are all blurry is that there are tons of signs advising one to NOT take photos on the rides and so I wasn't sure what to do.  I was worried about the brightness being seen from my phone screen on the ride, so ...

Over the years, I've posted a few times on tilework done at Disney Parks.  It has been a source of inspiration and admiration both for us as we built our house and how we observe the world.  First, I covered the tilework in the Peter Pan queue in Fantasyland at Walt Disney World .  Then, I came across the tile in PizzaRizzo at Disney's Hollywood Studios .  Both served as inspiration for our vestibule tile work that we eventually incorporated into the house.  Today's post shows some tile that is the Ariel ride at Disney's California Adventure.  Turns out, this is, I think, called the San Felipe style of tile .  Think about the beating this tile is taking at Disney California Adventure.  Hundreds of thousands of people are walking across this every month.  And it looks great.  As we are beginning to think about our basement build-out, tile is something to think about and this struck some part of inspiration in me.  Now......

Another day and another post on something we picked up at a Disney Park.  This continues the last few posts about items at Disneyland Resort.  Above is a Mickey Mouse "Honorary Aviator" sticker that they give out in the Soarin' line at Disney's California Adventure.  It is bigger than the normal "Mickey Stickers" that they hand out all over and is the size of the celebration buttons. This is a little different than the 'job role' stickers like the other WDW-related ones we've picked up including a  Honorary Custodian  or  WDW Monorail Pilot .  It is ride-related and includes Mickey, so not sure where exactly to put it. But, that doesn't matter.  Get it next time you ride Soarin' in DCA. Full list of items that are free from Disney Parks: This "Honorary Aviator" Mickey the Mouse sticker (that's the size of a button) from the Soarin' queue.   A cute set of  Lightning McQueen and Stanley Disney California Advent...

That's a shot of Nat and I on the Tower of Terror down in Orlando at Walt Disney World.  It was taken at mile 10 of the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon.  And it was the first time that I had ever been on the ride.   Under normal circumstances, I would have been able to fend off the pressure from Nat to ride on something like this, but perhaps it was the half-marathon brain fog that weakened me and dropped my defenses.  I pity the person who had to sit in my seat after we left.  I was soaked at this point from the humidity and my back was starting to seize up.  I left a pool of sweat behind, I'm sure.  You can also see the other people to Nat's right that were running the race, too.  The dude looks like he's reading his phone, though?  Total pro move, I guess?

The King of the Ball Tossers came home with this It's a small world pin from a trip earlier this year.  We have a few IASW-based pins, but they're mostly modeled on the little kids in the ride.   This is genuinely one that *he* picked out.  Without any of our help.  Which...I think was a surprise to everyone.   One of the projects I have on my list to kick off is pin boards hung up in the house.  Maybe in the basement?  Or in the kids' rooms?

I almost got to half a million.  Pretty sure that's the most points I've ever scored on the ride.  That puts me at Level 5: Ranger First Class .  But that's not the best part.  The Bird broke 10K for the first time.  She's getting better aiming and scoring points on Space Ranger Spin.   To infinity...and beyond!

This one is more badge than pin, but it is sold in the pin store down at Disney Springs, so we'll call it a pin.  But, I'll also call it something else:  awesome.   This Jungle Cruise Skipper is - as you can see - Limited Edition.   It is pretty big and it has 2 backs on it, but that didn't stop the Babe from wearing it and getting a bunch of compliments on it. The Jungle Cruise is Nat's favorite ride inside of the Magic Kingdom and the Babe really likes it too. Especially since she's been an honorary skipper and piloted a Jungle Cruise boat into the dock. Here's the video from a few years ago:

As I mentioned yesterday in a post , I spent a few days recently in Tokyo.  Part of that trip included an escape to see both Disney parks located there of course.  Yeah...I went to Tokyo.  And I went to their two Disney parks.  The first park I visited was Tokyo DisneySea.  Pretty incredible place and unlike any other Disney Park I've ever been to.  Over a bunch of posts, I'll share more of that experience including some of the things I saw and rode.  But for now?  Take a look at their Carousel.  It is back in the far corner of the park in the Arabian Coast land that features the Agrabah Marketplace and flying carpets from Aladdin. But that carousel?  First, it is two stories tall.  And then they've built this beautiful building around it.  Just magnificent. Here's the ride listing from the official Tokyo DisneySea site .  They list both the ride duration (2.5 minutes), the capacity (190 persons) and the number o...

We can add this 'Drivers License' to the list of artifacts that we've been given/earned down at Walt Disney World. There's the business card from the Mayor of Main Street USA . Then there was the official 'guest skipper' license from the crew of the Jungle Cruise . We received one of these 'born to soar' cards , but I don't seem to have posted about it. And over the years, we've collected transportation cards like these from a boat captain on our trip back to the Wilderness Lodge one afternoon. And now, the Beef has this license.  Pretty cute, isn't it?  He had to get measured up for height to make it on the ride this trip and after he 'measured up', the cast member whipped out this card to mark the occasion.  Pretty awesome. As for the ride?  Not so awesome.  Between the jerky steering wheel and the not-so-great experience, it seems that this thing is past it's due date for an overhaul.  I mean...the chuck of land it...