Back With the Family

Two posts in one day!  You won't know what to do with yourselves!  But I promised a catch up, so that you will get, my friends.

I slept in!  Others went to church, but I decided I needed to catch up on a little sleep, and so did Clare, although she had been up most of the night, not feeling well, so we'll give her that.  I must say, for once I really enjoy the extra sleep (you never thought I would say that, did you?). After lunch we carved pumpkins.  Now I remember seeing interesting characters created out of what looked like giant orange tomatoes at Disney but I figured they were all plastic, and that's how they came.  Boy what a mess this project was!  No wonder they did it on the back patio.  It took way longer then I would have expected, but I'll blame that on the fact that the pumpkin is way bigger than me!  By the time we finished and cleaned up, it was time for late supper and then Clare finally agreed to update my blog, which has taken the entire evening (thank you Clare). Here's my proof that I did my own carving.  Kes handed me a marker and said "use this to draw whatever," so I did! :D Whatever!

 

 

 

Good-bye Mouse

I know this is late, but I'm sure you are all just waiting with bated breath to hear about the last few days. Friday was out last day in the Disney parks, and boy did we manage to pack a lot into our time there.  No one can say that we didn't get our money's worth, that's for sure.  We got there shortly after it opened, spent a number of hours in Disneyland and then hopped (ok walked) over to California Adventure and stayed until it closed at 10:30.  We even considered going back into Disneyland until it closed at midnight, but after some discussion about sore feet, and no rides they really needed to ride still, it was agreed (by them, not me) that we were done for the night.  Still, over twelve hours and two parks is pretty good. The highlight of my day, naturally, was finally getting to meet Mickey (which they actually stood in line to do for me, I guess that kinda makes up for the selfishness of not writing my blog).  There is no doubt that he is a giant mouse, especially compared to me.  Still he was very friendly, and I'm glad I got the chance to say hi.  Oh, speaking of which, a friend tagged my two escorts in an interesting post on Facebook about this very mouse which I thought I should share.  It was a picture of the castle, and said "A trap for humans, set by a mouse". Yup, but as Clare replied, "at least it's a fun trap". 

I think the best comment of the day came from a young cast member on our very first ride of the morning (Flight of Peter Pan).  We had got used to hearing "supervise your children" when boarding almost every ride, only this time he smiled at us and said "supervise your inner children".  For some reason this set both of them into a fit of giggles.  I'm not sure if that had to do with me or what, but I'm glad they thought it was funny.  The rest of the day was spent visiting parts of the Disneyland we hadn't seen yet, and then going back to rides we loved in both parks.  We went to Toontown and saw the homes of many favourite characters including Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald Duck.  We rode a very little rollercoaster there, which is probably fun for little kids, but after Space Mountain and California Screaming, well it seemed rather short and under-whelming.  We rode a circus train, flew over Neverland, raced through the Matterhorn on a bobsled again, and went back to the Pirates of the Caribbean.

We also managed to track down two characters that my escorts wanted to meet (besides my goal to meet Mickey).  Clare found out when Merida (from Brave) would be around, and then made sure she was first in line to meet her.  I'm not sure her Scottish accent was real, and I'm fairly certain her frizzy red hair wasn't either, but Clare didn't seem to mind.  Later we went back to Pixie Hollow and KayRena just might have been the first visitor they ever had to wait a few extra minutes to meet a fairy other than Tinkerbell.  When she finally went over to meet Iridessa, she was even introduced as "one who waited to meet you instead of Tinkerbell".  I think Iridessa was thrilled to hear that (must be hard to always be second to some more famous fairy).  So all character goals all met: Mater, Merida, Mickey and a fairy other than Tinkerbell.  Yay us! At about 3:30 we switched parks and immediately went back on California Screaming and the Cars Racers ride.  Still just as fun as the first time!  Then, with aching feet, and a goal to get a good seat at the "World of Colour" show at the end of the night, we went over to Ariel's Grotto for dinner (the only time we didn't eat food we brought with us).  They tell me it was delicious food, but I wouldn't know as I didn't get any.  That might be partly due to the cost.  You know it will be expensive when there are no prices on the menu! Still, the meal included "preferred seating" to the water/light show, which meant the first two levels closest to the water.  Oh yes!

After dinner we wandered the shops and jumped on a few more smaller rides that had very short lines, and then finally made our way down to the waterfront and found our preferred seats were as close to the water as we could get, in the "wet zone", and yes we got wet, well they did; I chose to hide out under the end of KayRena's rain poncho.  Clare didn't wear one of course.  She decided it was more important to protect her backpack and its treasures.  Besides, she's just weird that way. Our walk back to the hotel that night seemed the longest ever.  Again, I wasn't sure if it was because they were sad that it was all over, or if they really couldn't have walked faster if they'd tried (between you and me, I think it was the second one).  It was gone 11 when we finally reached the hotel, and neither hadn't the energy to write my blog for me.  Yet both seemed to have no problem talking in bed about their favourite rides, shows, moments and on and on.  Really?  What about me?  *sigh* The next morning we we're back on the road by 9am with the goal of driving the entire way in one day.  It was mostly uneventful really, just very long.  The best part of the drive came later in the day when we were all bored enough to listen to what I will now call the messed up fairy tales, which needs a bit of background info.  The day we were preparing to leave, KayRena's husband came home with a set of six CDs of princess tales he thought we would enjoy on the drive.  Problem is, the car doesn't have a CD player, just a USB port, so her husband kindly uploaded them onto a computer and then onto a USB drive.  Only iTunes didn't recognize the CDs so the tracks were all "track 1" and so on, AND all the track 1s got listed first, then all the track 2s and so on.  We had no time to fix it, so it played the way it was on the drive.  In other words, we heard part one of every story and then part two etc.  All were read by the same lady, and there was no pause between tracks.  Sometimes it was obvious within a few words that we had switched stories.  Other times it was a few sentences, which kept us on our toes and giggling. I tell all of that, to tell the best mixed up fairy tales line ever; a switch from Little Mermaid to a story we'd never heard before (and don't remember the title).  The narrator was describing Ariel watching the prince's ship sinking in quite a bit of detail, and then suddenly said "and it went on like that happily for some years."  Yup, that's what the last four hours of our drive was like: quite confusing and very entertaining. As I think I said last night, we got home to very excited children (and husband I think, although he was too cool to show it), who eagerly wanted to hear stories and get their gifts.  One even exclaimed it was better than Christmas.  Me, I was exhausted and kinda fell asleep where I landed. Whatever!

   

Short and Sweet

I know I said I would catch you all up on our last day at Disney but my scribe is exhausted and is refusing to do so (I told you she was selfish).

We did have fun yesterday but didn't get back to the hotel until after 11pm, then were up at 7am to pack up and were on the road by 9am.  Four stops, and twelve hours later, we finally pulled into the driveway back at KayRena's house, and were instantly accosted by a group of kids who missed their mom (and let's face it, were eager to get the gifts she brought them back). Before we knew it, it was 11:30 and my blog still hadn't been touched.  The nerve!

 I at least wanted you all to know we had a safe drive back, and promise I will catch you up tomorrow.

 Night friends,
Whatever!

The Original... Disneyland!

Everyone else seemed to have these ears...

 

I understand our park-hopper tickets include one "magic morning" which allows you into the park, on one of your park days, an hour earlier than the park opens, to get on some of the rides when it's not so busy.  Clare and KayRena tried for that this morning, but with  all their getting ready, making lunches and other plans for the day, we left the hotel in time to get to the park right at official opening at 9am.  So much for quiet park time. Today we went to Disneyland, the first park Walt Disney opened back in 1955 (because I know you all wanted to know that!).  Let me start by saying it was crazy busy in there today.  I have no idea if it's because Disneyland is more popular than Adventure Park, or if it's because we are closer to the weekend, but seriously guys, does nobody work or go to school in this state?  It was nuts!  On the other hand, it was pretty fun to see how well decorated it was for Halloween; very fun.

On the plus side, it was another great day exploring my third theme park of the week (and to think that a mere four days ago I didn't even know what a theme park was).  Yup, definitely sold on the idea, just not the crowds.  This park was quite different than the others, all split into themed areas, from Frontierland and Fantasyland to Tomorrowland (although I agree with one cast member who told us it might have been Tomorrowland in 1955, but it's more of a Now-land today).   We started our day in Tomorrowland, which seems kind of backwards if you ask me, but hey, I wasn't in charge.  We rode Space Mountain, an indoor rollercoaster that was almost completely in the dark except when strange ghosts pop out and come towards you (usually stars apparently but this was for Halloween).  I'm really glad my escorts eased me into this one by letting me ride other fast rides and even another rollercoaster first.  At least on those, you can see what hills are coming!

Similar to the other day, I would likely bore you to tears if I described every detail about every ride I went on.  Instead let me say that I got a few more rollercoasters under my belt, got to drive a car on a strange track that wouldn't let you go off it even if you tried, rode a monorail, went in a submarine and saw Dory, Nemo and friends, checked out a haunted mansion decorated like a movie called Nightmare before Christmas (again, a Halloween thing), checked out a jungle cruise and almost got eaten by hippos, met the pirates of the Caribbean from a boat, watched birds and flowers sing in the Tiki Room, and went on a number of rides that were like walk-throughs (or should I say ride-throughs), of fairy tales.  I'm sure there was more, but my mind is just a little overwhelmed right now.  

I was rather fascinated by the castle in the middle of the park (which I later learned is Sleeping Beauty's Castle) and when I insisted that pictures be taken of it, Clare and KayRena got sidetracked by this series of mini statues around the garden in front, and insisted that I pose with every one of them, convinced they were "Whatever sized".  Humph!  Why do they continue to believe that I am here for their amusement! Two interesting tidbits of information I feel like sharing are more about customer service than anything else.  The first came after Clare noticed that every time we went into the bathroom, someone was in there cleaning.  Finally she stopped one of these cleaners, and asked what the deal was.  She learned that every shift they are assigned one bathroom, and they are to make sure the entire thing is cleaned every 15 minutes, because apparently that's how fast they get gross.  While I appreciate the cleanliness, I have to admit that is not a job I would want to do.  Talk about a never-ending job!  Ick. The second story came after Clare lost her Fitbit (you know, those silly gadgets people seem fascinated by as they count their steps each day... the answer is LOTS if you're at Disney, just saying).  Anyways, I digress.  We happened to be near an Info booth when she discovered it, so she asked, and they gave two suggestions; go to the last ride and see if they can check the cars to see if it's there, and if not, report it to "City Hall" and if it's found around the ride after close (they actually do a complete ride sweep after close every day for exactly this reason), they will have record of whose it is.  We headed back to the last ride, half expecting a "sorry for your luck" or even a roll of the eyes, but got nothing like that.  They cast member helping to unload people checked every car as it came into the station, and after 4 or 5 cars he actually found it.  Pretty cool, and talk about dedicated to their customers.  I like this park more and more.

Before we knew it, it was 9pm and the park was closing.  I find it interesting to note that the walk to the parks in the morning seems to take half the time it takes to walk back to the hotel.  I've been trying to figure out if it is that they are more motivated to get to the park, or if it's because their feet ache so much at the end of the day.  I have no proof, but I'm guessing it's the later one. Tomorrow is our last day, and will be interesting for a number of reasons.  First, we are planning to visit both parks (making use of that "hopper" part) and see some of what we missed, but also because it is Friday and the parks are open until midnight!  I have no idea if we will actually stay that late, but I'm guessing that if we do, there will not be a blog post tomorrow night.  I guess what I'm saying is, if you don't hear from me tomorrow, don't freak out, it just means my scribe chose sleeping over me.  I think that might be a little selfish, but what do I know, I'm just a bear. Whatever! 

What is a Rest Day Anyways?

I was told today was a rest day, before we do two more Disney park days.  I wasn't sure I knew exactly what that meant, but apparently it just means we go and walk our feet off somewhere else for the day.  I don't get it.

We all slept in, slightly longer than usual, but were still out of the hotel room by 10am and on our way to Newport Beach as we just had to see the Pacific Ocean (for those who haven't seen it, it looks a lot like the Atlantic to me, only facing the other way).  Clare had it in her head that she need to be able to say she has swum in both oceans.  I don't know if you'd call what she did today swimming, but it was quite amusing to watch.  The water was very shallow, and the waves were not!  I think she got about knee deep before she had trouble staying upright.  She finally gave in and just had fun trying to jump over the waves and seeing how far they carried her.  

In the meantime KayRena had fun building a sand castle (Castle Kittenkaboodle I was told) which included a waterfall, moat, pond, river and farming area.  Mighty impressive if you ask me.  Then they both packed up and took me for a walk down the beach to collect sea shells.  I got a little wet as they sat me in a bucket for the ride, and kept dumping their shell finds on me, but on the most part it was fun watching the the waves crash over the beach.

We Found Dory!

After about 4 hours at the beach, they decided to beat rush hour and get back to their hotel early, but apparently rush hour starts at about 3pm in Los Angeles, because we got stuck in a traffic jam.  I've been told about LA traffic jams, so in a way I think it's fitting that we got in one.  I mean can one really say they've been to LA without being in one?  Would people even believe I've been here if I wasn't in a traffic jam?  One more mission accomplished I'd say.

We got back to the room around 4pm and for some weird reasons, the girls decided to follow up their ocean swim with a pool swim.  Good thing salt and chlorine don't react with each other, or it might have been a fun experience!  I tested the water briefly, but decided I'd rather stay dry, and just sat and watched them.

Once they had showered off all the salt, sand and chlorine, we headed back out for yet another walk... back to Downtown Disney, which is basically a shopping plaza with restaurants and and entertainment, including a Lego store with huge Lego sculptures to take pictures of (or photo-bomb if you are KayRena).  I guess they figured today was the best day to go there, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me when I heard both of them complaining that their feet hurt last night and they were looking forward to their rest day?  What rest day?  Did I miss the rest part?  *sigh* Whatever!

Twelve Hours of Mouse!

Yup, I found the mouse... over and over and over again, and apparently we weren't even in the park where we expected to see the mouse that much (if at all).  So educational moment, for those of you unfamiliar with Disney California.  There are two main parks, right across a plaza from each other, the original being Disneyland and the newest being Disney California Adventure Park.  Today we explored the Adventure Park.  We were there merely 20 minutes after the park opened (a nice 10 minute walk from our hotel), and we stayed until it closed at 9pm.  Yup, 12 hours! Can I even do justice to this day?  Between my two escorts, I believe we have hundreds of photos, and even some video.  We went on almost every ride there (that wasn't restricted to actual kids) and many of the shows.  Even though it was still a park based on mostly movies, just like Universal Studios yesterday, it was a completely different experience.  I can't explain it, but I definitely preferred today.

We started out on an adventure quest, to earn badges and a final crest (kinda like Girl Guides).  I think it was really meant for little kids, but Clare and KayRena had fun trying to get me through all of the challenges and I managed to ear my Senior Wildeness Explorer sticker.  Go me!  While there we also got to learn our Spirit Animal.  Apparently mine is a skunk (curious, adventurous)   We then went on amazing ride called Soar, where we were lifted off the ground and taken on a quick tour of major parts of the world in such a way that you really felt like you were flying over them, and even lifted your feet every now and then as things went underneath us.  Very cool. i can't exactly remember the order of things after that, but I know I went on my first roller coaster sometime around then.  It was called California Screamer and now I know why.  If I had a voice box, I would have been screaming too!  What a rush though.  The best part was the beginning.  Clare says most coasters drag you up to the top of the first hill and then let gravity do the rest.  This one started with a "3, 2, 1, scream!" announcement and then we were blasted up and over that first hill.  Wild!

I was excited when we went over to Radiator Springs next (Cars movie if you don't know).  I know this movie, and was once again excited to see how exact they were in reproducing this town.  I got to meet Mater (my personal favourite), and have a ride that started out like a leisurely drive through the countryside, then into town to get my tires changed, and eventually out to race another car at high speed through the hills.  Yup, I'm really liking these rides now I've got the hang of them. I won't bore you with details of every ride we took, because well, it would take too long, so here's a quick recap of the rest.  I met Elsa, Anna and Olaf from Frozen.  I rode in a clam shell below the surface and watched as The Little Mermaid came to life (and listened to Clare and KayRena sing along to every song).  I rode a caterpillar named Heimlich from A Bugs Life.  I helped Sulley and Mike save Boo in the Monsters Inc. ride.  I rode Goofys Flight School (not one we plan to ride again, I just want to add).  I got completely soaked on the Grizzley River Run (Clare never did dry off, and her clothes and backpack and contents are now hanging around the room).  I found out the Disney character I am most like is Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas (KayRena is like Mulan and Clare is like Merida from Brave).  Oh and we got to talk to Crush from Finding Nemo (very fun even if I didn't get to ask a question).  

  I'm not sure if that's all of it, but you get the idea.  But by far, the greatest surprise was at the end of the day.  All we really knew was that their daily finale is a show called "World of Colour" and that it was a lights and water show.  Well let me tell you, this mouse knows how to put on a show!  Not only was there huge fountains spouting high above our heads, and coloured lights shining on them, but they used the mist as a screen to show clips from popular Disney movies, and even added fire towers, and smoke effects too.  I only hope that some of Clare's pictures do it justice!  If you are really curious, look it up, there are plenty of videos on YouTube , just try and find a 2016 one :).

Well I don't know if I've done this day justice at all, but I'm exhausted and so is my scribe, so I can't keep her up much longer, and she still needs to try and find photos to add to this :). Yeah I'm a slave driver, I know.

  Whatever!  Footnote:  I apologize for recent blogs coming as one big paragraph.  I don't know what is wrong with the app Clare is using, but she does put paragraphs in, they just don't stay.  Then she tries to go onto the website to edit further, but it won't let her scroll down, so she can only fix the first few paragraphs.  It's driving her nuts, so I thought I'd make sure you all knew it wasn't because she doesn't know what a paragraph is!

So you are the mouse I keep hearing about?

 

Where's The Mouse?

There's must have been some great excitement about where we were giong today, as I'm not even sure what time KayRena got up, but Clare and I got up at 5:45 and we were in the car and moving on by 6:30.  Not only that, but in their excitement, they put me in the backpack pocket they had assigned to me (where I get a good view) and left me there for the whole car ride into LA.  How rude!

The drive was supposed to be 3.5 hours, but it was closer to 5 by the time we got through a number of traffic jams and one re-route thanks to the GPS not being current with the way the highways split.  I mean what are you to do when the arrow is pointing you to go one way, but the highway it wants you to be on is the opposite?  We chose wrong apparently.  Oh, and I was slightly amused as we passed the "Sunny California" state line sign during a thunderstorm (thankfully it was finished  by the time we got to Hollywood).

 Thankfully "Gimmie" (our name for the GPS, as in 'gimmie a break') got us successfully through North LA and down a number of side streets and into Universal Studios.  Now let me preface the rest of this blog by saying that this little bear has never been to a theme park before, and in fact I didn't really know what one was until today.  I'm converted!  Although I don't remember seeing a giant mouse anywhere (saw jurrasic dinosaurs, weird creatures called Minions, some strange yellow sponge with a face and pants, mummies, and a whole lot of witches and wizards, but no mouse).  I think they lied to me about the mouse!

I'm on his claw!

  The first ride they dragged me on to was called Jurrassic Park: The Ride.  They gave me no indication of what might happen, nor a warning that I might get wet, although I suppose I could have figured that out when I saw some people putting rain capes on (although not everyone did, including my two escorts).  And so I sat on the safety bar, held carefully by Clare as our little boat headed off.  Soon we were looking at little and not-so-little dinosaurs in the forests around us, all looking around and watching us, and some even spraying water our way.  Then we went into something called a containment centre only to find those dinos had escaped, and next thing I knew, we were being attacked by T-Rexes!  I was terrified and Clare and KayRena seemed to be laughing at me, or perhaps they were terrified too and hiding it behind laughter.  I'll never know.  Either way, I was not ready for the final treat, when a giant T-Rex bent down to eat me, just as our boat went down a huge waterfall and we all got soaked!  I was sure I was dead!

From there we headed through Springfield and passed some place called Krusty Burger, and into a place I actually recognized from the movies we seemed to always watch when I come to Utah.  I have to say this was amazing; it looked exactly like the town of Hogsmead, and Hogwarts was, well... Hogwarts (which even had talking/moving pictures on the walls).  We had fun exploring all the little shops with all sorts of goodies from the movie.  Everything from Honeydukes candies, to wands, brooms and capes.  For the first time ever, I kind of undstood you humans need to buy trinkets.  I wanted a broom too!  Instead I got to try Butter Beer (both as a slushy and as a soda-based drink).  AND we got to eat in the Three Broomsticks!  

The highlight (I think for all three of us) has to be " Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey".  According to Clare, she has never been on a ride quite like it, and she's been on a lot of rides!  She says it was like a twist between a simulator and a rollercoaster but not exactly either.  Ya, make sense of that!  The seats took us off the ground and twisted us in every direction (including almost upside down) as we twisted our way through scenes from the books and real scenery, with the video parts being in 360 vision so that's all you saw (oh and in 3D although Clare doesn't get that part sadly).  It was fast and exciting... so much so that we went back later in the day to ride it again.

The last hour was spent, you guessed it, shopping for souvineers!  While I may have a better idea of the need to buy things when you get to visit some place, I'm still not sure I get the need to buy things for people who weren't even there.   *shrugs*. I don't think I'll ever understand you humans. Sunset came, and so did the close of the park.  We decided we still had time to find the "Hollywood" Sign that was about 15 minutes from where we were.  Ok, I can't blame our friend Gimmie for what happened next, but I can say that Clare and KayRena had very different opinions of it.  Shortly after we were directed off the highway, we could see the famous sign up on the mountain side up in front of us.  KayRena quickly snapped a few pictures while Clare paid attention to the directions.  As we began to climb up the mountain the roads became narrower and narrower, and very windy and twisty, as well as quite steep at times.  Houses were right up to the edge of the road, and it was barely wide enough for two cars, and yet people still parked on the edges.  Clare kept giggling with delight as she exclaimed about how much it was like driving in Lyme Regis (England), while KayRena kept squealing in fear and expressing how much she did not like it.  Sadliy the road we needed to get to the top was closed, and while Gimmie kept trying to recalculate a new route, when we came full circle, Clare finally had to give in and admit defeat.  Oh well, at least we can say we saw it!

    Finally we headed through the centre of LA towards our hotel near Disneyland (where I'm told there really is a giant mouse).  I'll believe that when I see it.  It only took a couple of detours, including one to a hotel of the same chain as ours, but two blocks away.  We even drove right passed our actual hotel as well, and had to go around the block before finally checking in around 8pm.  I think we were all very relieved to be parked! Thus ends the first day of our theme park trip.  Maybe tomorrow I'll meet this mysterious mouse. Whatever! 

Three States and One Time Zone Later

When I learned we had a 6-7 hour drive today I prepared myself for a very long nap, but it turns out it wasn't too bad a day after all.  The scenery wasn't very interesting for the first half of the drive, but as we got further south we drove through a fascinating canyon with diagonally striped rocks that were so high I couldn't see the sky.  Kinda freaky and cool at the same time.

 KayRena amused herself by finding weird things on the sides of the road (no we didn't stop to pick them up, just made mental note of them).  While there was plenty of tire bits which could have something to do with a speed limit of 80mph (that's just about 130 km/h for my metric friends), there was also shoes, an entire set of clothes (that looked new), a big 5 gallon bucket, but the best one has to be the half gallon of milk.  Seriously, there was a gallon jug sitting half full on the side of the highway.  

 We also got to see dirt devils, something I've never seen before (whirling dry dirt in a field that looks like mini tornadoes).  Oh and since I'm now into nature stuff, I learned all about Joshua trees.  They started showing up when we hit southern Utah, and are small cactus looking trees that grow straight up, and then when bugs get inside, they grow a limb where the bugs have made camp.  So basically we're saying if you get creeped out by bugs, stay away from the Joshua trees with lots of green limbs on them!

Strangely, I think the highlight of my day was actually a traffic jam just as we entered the outskirts of Las Vegas (we could see our destination just passed the guard rail)!  I'm pretty sure I can say that I have never been in a traffic jam where Clare actually put the car in park.  In fact KayRena got out and walked around the car just because she could, and then she kindly took me out for a better view too.  Thankfully we were only parked about 20 minutes or so, and then it all cleared and we were up to the speed limit again.

A few minutes later we turned off the highway and attempted to find "the strip" a place I have wanted to see ever since I heard Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls compared to it years ago.  It took a few attempts to find where we needed to be, and then parked at a casino, because hey, free parking!  My two escorts first goal was a bathroom (I guess I should be grateful that I don't have to worry about that) and then we walked through the casino (Treasure Island) to find the main strip that so many people talk about.

I must say I have mixed feelings about what I saw.  Yes it was very ummm... well decorated, but I didn't find it as gaudy as Clifton Hill.  I thought the buildings looked amazing, even if they were over the top theme based.  Now the characters on the street walking around for photo-ops, that's a whole different story!  We saw Power Rangers, some weird robot things, Freddy Kruger, show girls with the big feather hats and umm barely anything else on... and a Pickachu! I decided I had to get a picture with him for Clare's nephew Haydon.  "Sure" he says, and holds me while both Clare and KayRena take pictures, and then asks for a tip.  Clare gave him some change and we walked away.  I decided I didn't need any more character pictures thank you very much.

We paid for it, so it is getting posted!

  We only spent about half an hour there in total, but that was quite enough for me.  It was wall to wall people, cars honking up and down the street, and basically lots of lights and sounds in every direction.  Yup, I can check Las Vegas off my list of places to see now.  No need to go back. Back in the car, we managed to find the highway after only one U-turn in what we weren't sure was a parking lot or a street.  Clare's main goal was to NOT drive down that strip.  Goal achieved!   About half an hour down the road, we arrived in our home for the night, Primm NV.  Oh and if you're wondering why the title mentions three states, that's because we briefly drove through Arizona before getting to Nevada.  I could have said four states as we are right on the boarder of California, but technically we don't cross into it until we leave in the morning.

See me?

Tonight's home-away-from-home is Buffalo Bills Casino Resort.  I'm not sure how much of a resort it is, but it is rather cool.  There are amusement rides and a bunch of fast food places all that look like outdoor buildings but are inside the casino, and a roller coaster that starts inside and runs around the building.  We were technically here before the coaster closes at 7:30 but, if you can believe this, it's raining in the dessert so they closed it early!  For my Ontario friends who know Canadas Wonderland, the slight sprinkling that was happening would never have been enough to close a coaster.  Oh well, probably for the best as Clare and KayRena didn't really look up to it, and I can't exactly ride it alone. Who knew you could write so much about a day that was mostly spent in a car! until tomorrow... Whatever! 

When in Nevada...

   

Really Boring Prep Day

What do you do when you write an entire blog entry and then the app crashes, and when you reopen it, you get a blank screen?  It WAS saved!  Where did it go?  *sighs heavily and tries to convince his scribe (aka Clare) to type it all again*  

 So, starting over, I woke up to the smell of bacon cooking.  Mmmm... Sadly nobody offered me any.  Bad humans!   I still don't get this Halloween thing, but I gather certain younger members of this household decided that I must have a costume as well, and so the first part of my morning was spent being dressed in small doll clothes until "oh that's perfect" was agreed upon by all (except me!).  I will spare you the details, since I'm guessing that you will get to see pictures at some future part of this trip, whether I want you to or not.

 Clare also spent this time trying to get hold of someone at the car rental place in SLC (after being given their number from the 1-800 people).  By 9:30 we were in the car again heading back to Salt Lake to discuss it in person (ie nobody ever answered the phone).  Sadly it was a wasted trip.  The guy who "helped" us treated Clare and KayRena like "dumb girls" and retried what they already did.  When one light setting turned the lights on, he said "Don't touch that dial and you'll be fine."  Somewhat annoyed, we drove away, but instantly found the dash was so dim that Clare had to turn the dial back to the regular setting order to see how fast she was going.  Final decision; not go back and feel stupid, but just switch between what we will now call night and day settings in the car.  Not ideal, but it works, and maybe Clare can work her magic when we return it, and earn us a discount on our upgrade.  

 The rest of the afternoon was pretty boring as we drove from store to store getting groceries for the trip, and the family staying behind.  The highlight of the entire journey was some very weird type of drive-thru banking system, that Clare refused to do and ended up pulling forward so KayRena's husband (who had joined us between two of the grocery trips) could do it from the back seat. Let's say it involved canisters and some pressurized tube system to send the cheque into the bank so someone could deposit it for you.  I asked why they didn't just go inside to do it, but apparently the bank was closed for that kind of stuff.  Very strange!
 

  Once back at home, I sat on the bed and watched Clare pack... again!  What is it with you guys and packing?  I'm good to go pretty much at a moments notice (although I will point out that Clare left MY raincoat at home).  She pulled everything out of her suitcase to make two piles, and then pack one bag to go on our trip tomorrow, and the rest to stay behind.  *yawns and takes a nap*  

 The last errand of the day was after dinner, to a friend of KayRena's who kindly made both of them personalized backpacks specifically for this trip.  She had also serged the edges of a few hand towels with rainbow thread so that Tristen (her son) could make towel animals for them to take (something about him reading that Disney hotels make folded towel animals in all of their hotel rooms and didn't want us to miss out on such things).  Not sure I get it, but I have to admit the towel bears are rather cute (just not as cute as me of course).  

 Oh, and we saw a deer in the headlights on the way there.  I didn't know that was a real thing!  

Thus ends the prep day for a trip that seems like a much bigger deal that it should be, but what do I know, I'm just a bear.  

 Whatever    

Finally! A Real Adventure!

Waves to all my new friends following along on this adventure, especially the girls known as Pathfinders and Rangers (Girl Guides) who seem to be most interested in the idea of a little teddy bear making fun of their leader, Clare.  I hope I don't disappoint.  

 So it is that I set off on my first adventure in over three years, well unless you count my mini two-day trip back in May.  Anyways, this journey brings me back to Utah for the fourth time, so you might be wondering why I'm even excited, since we all know that I don't much like repeat performances.  However, I have been assured that we are adding a trip to the trip!  There are rumours about driving down to some big park run by a weird looking giant mouse.  I can't say that sounds exciting to me, but Clare assures me it is.  Whatever ;)  

 So the adventure began last night with an almost-alnighter pulled by Clare as she attempted to finish a Halloween costume and THEN pack for this trip.  I have no idea what this Halloween thing is, nor why she needs a costume, but I guess I'll find out.  As for the packing, well I still don't understand why you humans need so much stuff!  

The airport was a treat, as usual.  Who knew five years could bring so many changes to terminal three.  What used to be a simple walk up to a kiosk, talk to a nice person and hand them your baggage, and get pointed in the direction of your gate (oh and security and customs line-ups of course), now is at least four steps of automated self-serve kiosks that seemed to ask the same questions over and over... and all before reaching security!  Then there was even more self-serve kiosks on the other side of security to deal with customs.  Wow!  Still, very grateful for Clare's NEXUS card which got us through much quicker.

 At the gate, we found more changes; table after table with iPads at every seat for complimentary use (or connect your own devices to the outlets or USB ports and type away.  Very strange, but hey, effective for writing a blog.    

 Flight was slightly delayed, but mostly uneventful.  Clare was excited to discover "Finding Dory" on the seat-back screen thing (whoever came up with that idea was briliant!). The best "story" came from our flight attendant, when the woman in the seat next to us asked about her connecting flight (as we were late).  I believe the attendant meant to say that if she didn't get back to her before we landed, she'd come give her info after.  However, what came out of her mouth was "If we land, I'll come back then". The woman and I just stared at each other, and she whispered to me "IF we land?  Those are comforting words!"  Yeah!    

 Good news.  We landed!  

Bad news.  Clare's sneaker fell apart.  Try walking when your shoe is doing this with every step.  I was quite amused even if she wasn't.  

 After a fun tour of the Salt Lake City airport, we picked up checked luggage and eventually found the location of the shuttle bus to get to our rental car.  The attendant in the rental place had a thing for Canadians and gave us a free upgrade - yay!  Clare was so excited to get behind the wheel of this nice little car with touch start buttons, navigation, and more bells and whistles than she knew what to do with.  A few minutes later she had to pull into a Wendy's parking lot to figure out how to turn the radio off, how to change the mirrors and a number of other things that have always seemed fairly simple before.    

 Sadly, we may not get to keep said fancy car :(.  The journey from SLC to Orem (where KayRena and family live) is approximately 45 min, and Clare and I could not figure out why people were flashing their lights at us.  Finally, when we pulled off the highway, someone pulled up beside us and informed Clare she had no tail lights.  NONE.  It was dark.  Sheesh no wonder people were upset.  Clare has tried to call the company, but has to wait until tomorrow to find out what to do about it.  I'm afraid we are going to lose our really nice upgrade too.  *sigh*  

 Arrival at the Hogan house was exciting as usual.  I was met by very excited children in the driveway and was quickly whisked away for fun adventures such as being tied up to look like I'm rock climbing up the bedpost.  I'd rather forgotten their enthusiasm.  What I wasn't prepared for was how much these little humans had grown in three years.  Clare and Rissa don't seem to have changed much at all in the 11 years I've been with them.  Apparently little humans don't stay little!  Strange.

 Well I know it hasn't been the most exciting entry ever, but at least you all know I got here safely.  Oh and Clare did too.  

 Whatever.