Vacation Blog Part Three!!!

8:30 AM - now that's a decent night of sleep. A good solid 8 hours with little to no wake-ups during the night. I have a severe case of sleep apnea so sleeping well is quite an achievement for me. I wouldn't go so far as to say I woke up "refreshed" this morning (let's not go nuts) but this is probably as close as I've been in a couple years.

The wife is still asleep and she can stay that way for as long as she likes. Today we have lots to accomplish again but she might as well be rested while we attack DCA.

As I'm sitting on the patio typing this, I hear the toilet flush. Vacation bear is out of hibernation and "The Process (TM)" can begin! The parks are supposed to be very quiet today so hopefully we can get all of DCA done today before we have to be back in our room around 5:30 to prepare for our Fantasy Football draft which starts at 6.

9:30 AM - we are out and on our way back to La Brea for breakfast where we both order exactly the same thing as yesterday. Given the myriad of excellent dining opportunities here you know it must be good if we are doubling up.

After breakfast we head through the front gates of DCA and right over to Soarin' to get a Fastpass before heading over to Screamin' and Toy Story. Screamin' is my favourite coaster anywhere. It's just extreme enough to be thrilling but not so crazy that it makes this old fart dizzy or nauseous. And once again I need to mention that Disney just "gets it" when it comes to wait times. The posted 30 minute wait at Screamin' was about 15 and Toy Story's 45 minute wait was maybe half that. Unlike some theme parks COUGH UNIVERSAL COUGH where a 45 minute posted wait time really means "come back tomorrow", Disney understand the principal of under promising and over delivering. Don't tell your boss or client you can have something to them by noon if you are going to struggle to get it done! Tell them they'll have it by 3 and then when they get it at 1:30 they are thrilled. Common sense.

On the way over to Screamin', we notice that the Fastpass return time for Radiator Springs Racers is already between 9 and 10 pm, which is actually perfect for us as we are having dinner tonight at 8 at the Carthay Circle. We already have Fastpasses for Soarin' though so we can't get another Fastpass until 12:15 which is a bit of a problem. When we share our conundrum with a cast member near the Fastpass area, he promptly goes and gets us two Fastpasses for the ride! Just another example of perfect service here in Disneyland.

After Tracey beats me at Toy Story (an appeal is pending) we walk down the boardwalk where I finally find my new Iphone case, featuring everyone's favourite snowman, Olaf (sorry Frosty). I came here with a broken case expecting to have no trouble finding something cool but it was tough to find a good case for the 5S. I was looking for Jack Skellington but nothing to be found, so Olaf to the rescue.

12:30 PM - on the way to use our Fastpasses for Soarin' we notice that the return time for the Grizzly Rapids inner tube ride is between 4:15 and 5:15 which is also perfect for our timing today as that is just before we would be leaving the park anyway to head back to the room, so since its past the start time for our Soarin' passes we are able to get two more passes for this ride. The first time in my Disney life that I've ever been holding three Fastpasses at once.

We enjoy this version of Soarin' for likely the last time ever as they are changing the movie in the next year to be Soaring Over The World, with better sound and graphics. I'll miss this California based movie though but we are looking forward to the new one. Maybe it will be open in Florida by March.

After a little shopping and picture taking we are hitting a wall of extreme heat. It's crazy hot again today, hotter than we were expecting, so it's time for a bit of down time.

2:30 PM - back in the room to relax for an hour or so until we go back to use our Fastpasses for Grizzly River Rapids. If anyone ever wonders why we always pay the absurd prices to stay here and why we would NEVER dream of staying off-property, this is exactly why. A crazy hot day, 5 hours in the park, we need a short break. We stop at Haagen Dazs again for lunch (as Tracey says, why fuck with perfection???) and head up to the room for a very quick rest. Try doing THAT while staying offsite. It's just not practical.

5:00 PM - back in the room after successfully navigating the Grizzly River Rapids and getting modestly soaked, but not completely drenched. Not that it matters, this is another reason why we stay here....go down to the park in my swimming trunks, sandals and tank top, and get as wet as I get and don't care. No worries about having to walk around the park in squishy shoes or drenched jeans....Tracey calls us "Disney professionals" LOL.

And we get back to the room to this:




Our new Mickey Mouse wine glasses with some of that lovely Oregon Pinot that we picked up at Seatac. Tracey takes her wine into the bath while I update the blog, while we wait for our 6 PM date with Fantasy Football greatness to begin. I log into the app and notice that I pick second to last, and Tracey just one spot in front of me. PFFFFT.

7:50 PM - back to DCA for our reservation at Carthay Circle restaurant. Another fabulous dining experience. We have a terrific waiter, the food is incredible and we have a world class bottle of wine to accompany it. Awesome.

After dinner off to Cars Land to use the Fastpasses we were so generously given this morning. It's a really terrific ride, maybe even better when it's dark. The scenery is breathtaking. We win the race, again. I'm not sure how many times I've been on this ride, 6 or 7, but I'm undefeated which means I'm bucking the odds quite a bit...given my assumption that the ending of the "race" is random. Not that it matters but winning is better than losing at ANYTHING :)

DCA closes at 10 PM tonight so we head across the courtyard to Disneyland to hopefully knock one or two more rides off the list, but everyone else had the same idea and it's really busy. We only manage to get on a few rides that are, well, aimed at a less mature audience. Alice in Wonderland, Mr Toad's Wild Ride (not that wild even with Tracey driving), Pinocchio's Daring Journey (not that daring) and Snow White's Scary Adventures. Scary? Well if you don't know the plot of the movie, I'd say it is. The last scene in the ride shows the witch at the top of a hill about to unleash a boulder onto the 7 dwarves. Then you go through a door and a sign says "...and they lived happily ever after". WOAH. IF I'd never seen the movie I'd be pretty sure at this point that the witch was the hero of the story and had vanquished those pesky little people by crushing them with a rock. Go witch!!


11:30 PM - back to the room as we are exhausted after another full day. Tomorrow is already the last full day of our vacation (WTF??????) so we have to make the most of it!

Vacation Blog Part Two!

7:00 AM - HELL NO I AM NOT GETTING UP AT 7 on vacation!!!!!

9:30 AM- much better. I'm actually awakened by the maid knocking as we forgot to put the "privacy" sign on the door last night. That works out pretty good though as its time to get started anyway, lots to accomplish today. I carefully and gently poke the bear with a long stick to wake her up. Despite not getting a great deal of sleep, she awakes in a terrific mood. I ask her how we can arrange that mood every morning and her answer is "move us to Disneyland"! Fair enough.

I walk down to La Brea Bakery to pick up breakfast while Tracey hops into the shower and gets ready for the day. I get a couple of croissant breakfast sandwiches which are just amazing. They are so filling I can barely finish. Outstanding.

As I'm walking to and from the bakery I pass by a bunch of runners who finished today's half marathon. Never seen so many fit people in Disneyland before. Or anywhere in this country for that matter. Many of them are dressed in traditional running gear but many of them ran in Disney costumes, which is pretty cute. Must be hot in them though, especially for the guy that ran in the full-length Winnie the Pooh costume. OK I probably made that part up.

10:50 AM - off to Disneyland where we manage to finish off just about everything we want to accomplish in Frontierland and Adventureland in a few hours. It's not that busy in the morning but starts to get crazy as the afternoon starts to pass.

Of course, we keep with tradition and make Pirates of the Caribbean our first ride. We do Big Thunder Mountain, Winnie the Pooh and Splash Mountain, get wet (but not totally soaked) and then hop onto the railroad to take us to the front gates where we exit and head back to the room to change into our bathing suits to spend a bit of time at the pool before it's time to get ready for dinner.

Oh, and I thought I'd seen everything here, but this was a first for us: a cat. Not an animatronics cat, an actual living, breathing domestic cat, hanging out in the shade under a tree in the lineup for Big Thunder Mountain. I've named him "Thunder". It's crazy hot today, about 33 Celsius, so he's pretty lethargic and not moving much, but he pops his head up a couple times as if to say "could you people please shut up? I'm trying to sleep over here!!"

On our way back we stop for lunch and when I say "lunch" I mean Haagan Dazs ice cream. No judgement dammit I'm on vacation.

2:30 PM - we get to the pool and it's crazy busy, nowhere to sit at all, so we put our stuff down on the ground and hop into the pool for a quick swim and then give up. We will come back at some point during the next couple days, when everyone goes home. The next two days are supposed to be two of the quietest days of the entire year.

3:30 PM - back up in the room to relax for an hour or so before our dinner at the Chef's counter at Napa Rose. Very exciting. We actually wanted to do this last year when we were here celebrating our 10th wedding Anniversary but it just so happened that the restaurant was closed for upgrades that week. They have a food and wine pairing menu that they will customize for us based on our likes and dislikes, sort of a poor man's version of the incredible meal we had at Victoria & Albert's in the Grand Floridian Hotel a couple years back.

5:30 PM - We get seated promptly at the pastry portion of the Chef's counter. In other words we get to sit here and watch Chelsea, our resident pasty chef, make dessert right in front of us all night. Watching these delicious concoctions being created right in front of our eyes made us even hungrier than we already were; good thing we were about to embark on a 5-course wine and food pairing unlike anything we have ever experienced West of Florida.

Chelsea, and the view from our table.

Let me just say that the entire meal was absolutely spectacular. As our servers brought us each course they explained what was in every dish, but a couple of the servers had thick accents so we didn't get every detail. What I do know is that I ate octopus and lived to tell the tale. the wine that they served me was also fantastic. Tracey wasn't quite as lucky as her wine wasn't always to her exact tastes but it did pair well with her food. Having said that, the wine was all top-notch. A definite must-do experience for future trips!!

Here are pictures of most of the food.

My first course, a 'salad' with spicy beef underneath and tempura lobster.

Tracey's first course, heirloom tomato salad

My second course, a bunch of seafood including (somewhere in there) octopus.

Tracey's second course, pheasant and gnocchi with a jus

My third course, a perfectly seasoned rib eye

Tracey's dessert, peanut butter and chocolate cake with banana.

My dessert, chocolate cake with toasted marshmallow and ice cream

8:30 PM - three hours later we finished up and headed back to the room to change into more casual clothes. Back to Disneyland to catch the nighttime fireworks and parade. Both shows are new and exclusive to the 60th Anniversary so that is exactly what we are here to see.

Both shows are very good and quite different than what we have seen before. Again I will post pictures once we are home and can get everything uploaded. They did an excellent job at incorporating some stuff that they've never featured in their previous fireworks shows, like Winnie the Pooh and Frozen. And yes, they played THAT song. Boy that Adell Nazeem sure can sing.

11:30 PM - back in the room and about 10 seconds from collapsing from sheer exhaustion. Oh what a great day. And tomorrow will certainly be another one.

Vacation Blog, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi-toy-buying-nerds

Saturday, September 5th

9:30 AM - in the car and ready for our whirlwind 5-day trip to Disneyland to celebrate their 60th Anniversary! No hurry to get to Seatac for our 2:55 pm flight into Ontario airport but better safe than sorry, so we are giving ourselves lots of time and are planning to have a relaxing lunch. We have no idea just HOW relaxing the lunch is going to be......

On the way to Seattle I get a message saying our flight is going to be delayed, now leaving at 3:26 PM. Now we have even more time to relax.

12:15 PM - we arrive at Seatac with lots of time to spare. Little traffic on the I-5 today. We park in the best spot in the house, get through security in about 30 seconds, and head towards the gates where we are expecting to have lunch. In this day and age of Nexus and TSA pre-check travelling is really so easy for us, but it's still a relief once all the checks are over. You never know what's going to happen.

As we walk towards the restaurant area my eagle-eyed wife spots a place called "Vino Volo". A wine bar in an airport and we just happen to have a couple hours before our flight? YES PLEASE!!!!!!

For you wine lovers I will have a full tasting report in the wine blog once we get home, but it was a terrific experience. We had tastes of 7 different wines including 3 big Washington reds, 3 Oregon Pinots and a Gruner Veltliner from Washington, and all were lovely. We also enjoyed a very nice charcuterie plate, and bought a bottle of one of the Oregon Pinots ($55) and our entire bill including tip was only $140! What an absolutely fabulous way to start the trip. And we discovered that they are a chain in many airports, including YVR, so when we fly from YVR to Florida in March we have an excuse to go early!!  Well now that I think about it our flight leaves at 6AM so that might not work out so well.

2:30 PM - we get to the gate a few minutes before we start boarding. No first class seats available on this flight but we did upgrade to "preferred seating" (exit row) so we will be boarding before the general boarding call.

2:55 PM - boarding begins.

2:55:45 PM - notsofast. The pilot calls through to stop the boarding. Turns out there is a problem with a circuit breaker and maintenance is in the cockpit. Going to be about a half hour until they have any kind of timeframe for us.

3:40 PM - electrical problem is fixed and we board. It sucks losing an hour of our vacation but we can't complain much at this point, sitting next to us is a young Army Private who is going home for the first time in 9 months and only has 36 hours to visit with his family. Due to one of his co-workers being 6 hours late to relieve him he has already missed one flight and is now delayed another hour. Poor guy is hardly going to have any time to visit.

And the news just gets worse, as right after we pull away from the gate, the pilot sees another unrelated electrical problem and brings us back to the gate. After a couple minutes of waiting we are told they have another plane for us, thank God, so we de-plane and take a long walk and shuttle ride to another part of the airport to get on a plane that actually works. We hope.

We have dinner reservations at Catal for 730, which ain't going to happen, so I call and change them to 8:30. The Army Private is less than pleased, I see him start a text with "MOTHER FU****", but he didn't use the asterisks.

The plane does take off and we have an uneventful flight. They area buying the first drink for everyone due to the inconvenience. We actually get two since we apparantly get a feed cocktail anyway for the upgraded seats. Tracey has Bailey's and I have a reasonably decent Sauvignon Blanc. Hey, for airplane wine, it's not bad at all.

7:55 PM - we finally land in Ontario and our driver is waiting for us. He was aware that the flight had been delayed but had been at the airport for hours anyway. Poor guy. Anyway we get our luggage and he escorts us to his car, a nice Mercedes. I joke that this brand new Mercedes was the best he could do? My wife rolls her eyes and pints out to me that it's actually a Cadillac. Duh. What can I say, from time to time I catch the dumb.

8:45 PM - after a very comfortable ride we arrive at the Grand Californian Hotel, perhaps our favourite place on the planet. We have a regular room this time, which is unusual for us, we always pay extra for a view of Downtown Disney. My thinking is that if you are willing to pay the absurd prices to stay here, you might as well pay absurd+$100 and get the great view too. We are here at the wrong weekend for that though, as there is a Disney Marathon going on this weekend and it is one of the busiest weekends of the year so we are actually pretty damn lucky we got a room at all. The hotel is totally sold out.

The advantage of arriving close to 9PM is that there is nobody else checking in so we are done in minutes, take our stuff to the room and head to Catal for our late dinner reservations. It's somewhat busy considering the time of night, but we get lucky and get seated at the best table in the joint, right against the railing overlooking Downtown Disney. Someone below us is performing the Beatles classic "Something". Minutes later, the fireworks start and we have a great view. This day started great and is ending great.

The food here is always excellent, in fact the last time we were here Tracey had a risotto dish that was the best we had ever tasted. In fact we ate here twice that trip and the second time we BOTH ordered the risotto....so you can imagine our disappointment when the mushroom risotto that Tracey ordered was probably the WORST risotto we have ever had! It was so bad she sent it back and we never do that. They were happy to replace it without any trouble however and her replacement dish, a carbonara pasta, was excellent, as was my prime rib. Both dishes went nicely with the bottle of wine we ordered, a 2005 Tempranillo/Graciano blend from the Rioja region of Spain. It was a good bottle but not that special.

After dinner we head to World of Disney and do a little shopping before heading up to the room to unpack and hit the sack. It's been a long day and we both went head first into a large wall right as we got up to the room. We are both asleep within minutes of getting into bed. We know this trip is going to be fun but we have a lot to cram into a few days do we are going to be hitting it HARD, especially for a couple of old people!!!!

Goodbye Hot Rod.....you will be missed.

Today the world of entertainment lost one of it's giants; not literally, of course. In fact, in the world of Professional Wrestling, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper wasn't anything resembling a "giant". He was of average height (just 6'0") and weight, not in particularly great shape, and in fact, wasn't even a very good wrestler.

But, oh, could he talk.

About six weeks ago, the world of pro wrestling lost another legend who could be compared to Piper in many ways. Sure the "American Dream" Dusty Rhodes was a couple inches taller than Piper, and a lot heavier, but nobody would ever have confused either of these men of being great "wrestlers".

But, oh, could HE talk.

Rhodes' death hit me hard. Way harder than I would have expected, given that I was never much of a fan of his. I was late to the "pro wrestling" party. I didn't watch wrestling when it was hitting it's peak in the early 1980's, and when I did start watching, it was WWF only. Rhodes was a longtime NWA/WCW guy, and I had never, until very recently, seen any of his classic matches against the likes of "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, Tully Blanchard or Harley Race. When he did finally come to the WWF, he was given a ridiculous gimmick of a buffoon in polka dots. He even made that work.

He was a classic "good guy". Fans loved him but I never got it; I don't think I ever cheered for him once. He was always in a feud with one of my favorite "heels"...whether it be The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase, Mr. Perfect, or Randy "Macho Man" Savage, I was always cheering against Rhodes. So why did his death hit me so hard?

I felt the grief; not my own grief, but the grief of everyone who ever knew him. This man was loved and revered by all. Social media absolutely blew up with condolences and sadness when word of his passing leaked out. Everyone who ever came into contact with him, even years ago, had nice words to say about him. The WWE, with whom he was still working as a trainer at their NXT facilities (where the stars of tomorrow are honing their craft), put on hours of tribute programming for him. It was SO upsetting, not because of my own personal experiences with the Dream, but because my heart ached for those who knew and loved him - including all the current wrestlers in WWE and NXT - and especially for two of those performers, his two sons Cody Rhodes (Stardust) and Dustin Runnels (Goldust). I never met the man born Virgil Riley Runnels Jr, and I never cheered for him, but I'll miss him forever.

And here we stand, just six weeks later, and we are about to experience it all again. Roddy Piper was another one of those universally loved legends. Check out Twitter today; every WWE Superstar, past and present, saying about the same thing: Roddy Piper was a legend in the ring, but more importantly, a great human being and family man out of it. The grief is palpable. Because Piper crossed over into a couple of mostly-forgettable mainstream films (although "They Live" is considered a cult classic by many), even the world of Hollywood is offering their condolences. Piper transcended wrestling. He was an entertainer.

Piper wasn't working with WWE much these days. Outside of a few random appearances, he had pretty much faded into the background....but I would imagine we are going to be able to watch quite a tribute on Monday Night RAW. And every other WWE programming this week, and the WWE network, and everywhere else.

Nobody could cut promos like these gentlemen.

They brought us in, made us love or hate them, and most importantly, made us watch. Every week, every Pay-Per-View, every time we knew they were performing. It wasn't about title matches: although Rhodes was a three-time NWA Heavyweight Champion, that was many years before I knew him. He never got near a title in the WWF. Piper was never World Heavyweight Champion, settling for only one short run with the WWF Intercontinental Championship around his waist. No, it wasn't about titles, it was just about entertainment, and few did it any better than these gentlemen.

Roddy Piper, born Roderick George Tooms, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, passed away last night in his sleep of an apparent heart attack. He was only 61.

Just when you think you know the answers, he changes the question.

Rest in peace, Hot Rod. Tell the Dream we said "hello".

Stanley Cup Finals!!!

When the playoffs began, I predicted the Tampa Bay Lightning to win the Stanley Cup in a 7-game series over the Chicago Blackhawks. After getting 12/14 series correct, and correctly predicting the Stanley Cup Finals participants, I'd say I've had a fairly good spring so far.

Obviously, I have no reason to change my prediction now. Lightning in 7.

Should be a great series, I just wish it started before Wednesday....and game 2 not until Saturday? Good grief, the schedule for this series sucks.

Achtung, Baby!! The World's Greatest Rock Band Is In The House.....

U2. The second show of their Innocence and Experience World Tour.

After a nice dinner we arrive at our seats and are thrilled to find that there is nobody sitting behind us.

We are NOT so thrilled that the reason nobody is sitting behind us is because there are no seats behind us. We are in the last freaking row!!! Wow.

I'm up so high I keep looking around for a stewardess.

My buddy, who is sitting in really good seats, is merciless with his taunting when he finds out where we are sitting.

"I'll send a Sherpa up to find you"

"I can't believe you get cell reception up there"

"I've never had any poor friends before"

I can't even give him grief, because if the situations were reversed I'd be saying exactly the same things.

He was also at last night's opening show and he does say that the show itself is so huge it fills up the entire arena. It better. I warn him that the sound may take so long to get up here that we may be a couple of songs behind, so please, no spoilers.

The show, scheduled for 7:30, doesn't start until around 8:45. The restless crowd starts doing "the wave". Yes, the wave.

BTW I posted that statement on Facebook at the time, and I'm sure glad I did. More on that later.

The show starts off with a bang and the band's biggest hit off their new album, The Miracle (of Joey Ramone). The crowd is electric, and so is their huge screen. If you look at the picture above, rather than one of those screens behind the band that everyone uses, they have a screen that runs horizontally the entire length of the arena. It is right above the walkway that they use to go back and forth between the main stage and the circular auxiliary stage at the right end of the picture. The show really is huge, and the sound is also excellent, even in row 845. By the time the second set starts with Invisible, I've almost forgotten how far away I am.

Seriously, the last time I was sitting in front of a wall was the early 80's, at the Pacific Coliseum, having coke thrown at my head as the Flames kicked the extra point to go up 7-0 on the hapless Canucks.

The last concert I was at where I was up this high was November 12, 1987, at BC Place. The band, coincidentally, was U2. Man how far technology has come; although that was a good show, the acoustics of BC Place were so bad you couldn't hear anything, couldn't see anything, it was almost like being at home on my couch listening to scratched records.

Kids, ask your parents what "records" are.

It is at this point in our story where the dark clouds part (and being up this high, we have no trouble seeing dark clouds), as my wonderful, awesome brother-in-law (I'm forgiving his supporting of the Canucks and Seahawks for one month) sees my Facebook text and invites us down from the Heavens into his suite!! Woo-hoo! Oh man, what an upgrade.

Now that we've arrived in the suite, we can confirm that it actually IS U2 playing, not some band of impostors. I need to sit down for a minute, as a trek from that altitude can mess with your head.

Now we have great seats, a little bit of wine, and shrimp. Coconut shrimp.

So. Much. Coconut. Shrimp.

I'm delighted that they launch into "Angel of Harlem", one of my favorites, and one that they did not play last night. And it got even better right after that, as Bono paid tribute to the one and only legendary B.B. King, who passed away earlier today, in the only way a rock and roll band knows how to pay tribute: through song.

When Love Comes to Town, the duet that the band had done with King on their 1988 Rattle and Hum album and documentary. The first live performance of this song by the band since 1993. Just awesome.

The show continued with hit after hit, finally finishing up the encore with perhaps their biggest hit ever, "One". Interestingly enough, they didn't play "One" at last night's show, which was the first full concert since 1990 that they had skipped it.

You could make a Hall of Fame level album with the amazing songs they did NOT play last night, but when you go to see a band that has been dominating the charts since around 1980, you have to expect that.

Oh, and when we got to the suite, there were three young girls in the row directly in front of us, dancing around like lunatics, singing along with every lyric. I'd say they were around 11, maybe 12 years old. I mention this because it's nice to see that in this day and age of horrible boy bands (One Direction), talentless assclowns (Pitbull, Chris Brown) and horrible hip-hop artists (basically all of them), some young people can still appreciate what great music really is.

What a show.

Here is a link to the entire set list.

NHL Playoffs, Round 3

Well I'm having a pretty good year in the predictions department, going 3/4 in the second round. Of course, since the one I missed was my beloved Flames, it really doesn't feel as good as it could.

10/12 in the first two rounds so far. Here we go:

Eastern Conference Finals

Tampa Bay over NY Rangers in 6

Gotta stick with my pre-playoffs pick to win it all, and Tampa Bay looked much better in beating Montreal than they did in the first round, so it seems like they are trending in the right direction. The Rangers will live and die with Henrik Lundqvist, and he's a pretty good guy to hang your hat on. I'm expecting a long series and the Lightning to prevail at home in Game 6.

Western Conference Finals

Chicago over Anaheim in 5

Honestly the Ducks don't impress me the way they do some; certainly Getlaf and Perry are top notch players but after that, their depth can't even come close to the Blackhawks. You can stop Kane and Toews? How about Hossa? Saad? Sharp? Etc etc etc.

If they can sweep the Wild, they can sweep this team too, but I'll give the Ducks a shot at one win.