Vacation Day 7: Disneyland

SUMMARY: So I'm a little behind in posting...

We spent the day Friday in Disneyland, from about 9 a.m. until 11 p.m. We got a lot of walking in--almost 8 miles today.

Here are just a few picks from my pix.

One of the cool things that you can do at Disneyland is to look for "hidden Mickeys"--those unmistakable mouse ears that we know so well.

In our hotel room, we had already slept two nights in our beds beneath  solid white comforters before my sharp-eyed friend noticed that, if you looked at them at *just* the right angle with *just* the right lighting--

We rode the Disneyland train several times to transport us from one part of the park to another, and of course on that ride we get to see dinosaurs! yay!

In Adventureland, we rode the Jungle Cruise up the Amazon and down the Nile (and if you don't believe that, you're in denial--de Nile--yeah--) and heard all the corny jokes. Rode it twice because it's neat.

In Toon Town, we wound our way through the labyrinthine halls of the Roger Rabbit ride; such great lighting and toonish decor.

My sister and her husb fit right in there.

In Critter Country, I talked myself into joining everyone on Splash Mountain, and boy, did we get wet. Although I hate hate hate going over steep drops on rides, I was determined to stick my tongue out at fate at the point where the camera takes everyone's photos, and, yep, I succeeded. Wetly.

Hard to tell from the photo, but they were sopping wet head to toe, literally. Much more than we had expected. Next time the heavy guy sits in the *back*. Thank goodness it was hot.

One of the things that my friend and I really wanted to do was to get some interesting shots after dark as the lights came up.

Main Street:

Sleeping Beauty Castle at sunset:

The Matterhorn after dark:

And that's a sampling from our day.

Getting Around the Agility Course

SUMMARY: ParAgility.

On days when I'm unhappy about my ability to get around the agility course with my dog or to train my dog to work away from me, I should come back and see what these people have accomplished with so many more challenges:

Videos from ParAgility championships 2012

From their main page, choose your language for details about the program.

Vacation Day 6: California Adventure

SUMMARY: Thursday--Exploring Disneyland's sister park.

Because Disneyland was closing early today, we decided to spend the day in California Adventure, check out the new Cars Land, and do the things that one does in C.A. (entry as seen the previous night).

Once again, here's a quick summary of the day in a few photos.

My sister and her spousal unit trying to steer the air bumper cars by leaning.

In Hollywood Land, the neon makes for some great photos as evening descends.

Hollywood Land is *so* Hollywood--see that theater marquee on the right at  the end of the row of white lamp lights? Everything beyond there is completely fake--as in painted on--including the gorgeous blue sky with clouds.

We sat in an air-conditioned theater (it was hot and muggy all day; draining) and watched the musical show Aladdin.

Then, still suffering horribly from the heat (toss head backwards, throw back of hand against forehead), we went to the Ghirardelli shop for some healthy California fare.

At the end of a day of rides and experiences and fun, we watched the much-touted World of Color light and water show--what a boondoggle and waste of time (more in some other post later), then my friend and I went searching for pretty night shots to take. And after this last view of Paradise Pier, we went back to the hotel and...eventually... to sleep. (Couldn't stop looking through all our photos for the day and then chatting chatting chatting.)

Vacation Day 5: Road Trip

SUMMARY: [singsong] We're on our way to Disneyland!

[already 2 days behind on posting. So something brief for Wednesday--]

Three of us drove down together today, Wednesday, from San Jose to Anaheim. Got on the road about 8:45 a.m., just 15 minutes later than planned, and headed south on 101. (Avoiding our usual I-5 route because of construction near the Grapevine.)

We had a great, riotous time in the car, so the 8-hour trip (including lunch and traffic) mostly flew by.

We stopped for lunch at Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo. It's a quirky hotel and quirky cafe. Everything in the public building is pretty much pink. Except for their trademark glassware, which comes in about 30 different colors.

Around Santa Barbara, we could see the Channel Islands in the distance--I don't  remember ever noticing them before, but then it's been a long time since I've been down this route instead of down Interstate 5. Also had a clear view of all the oil rigs out in the Pacific along the coast (in this photo, you can just see an oil rig as a vague tiny hulk out the the left of the one island.

THENNNNNN we cleverly managed to hit Los Angeles smack dab in the center of rush hour--and no carpool lanes on the route we traveled, which was to join up with I-5 for the rest of the trip to Anaheim. So despite the highway signs that told us how long the current travel time was to various destinations ahead, the times were off by about 50%. Hum de dum de dum.

And then, not too late in the afternoon, we arrived! Of course I'm doing the short version of all this, but we're staying in the Disneyland Hotel! Where everything is a little different--

Even the palm trees look a while lot different from just about anywhere else.

We then wandered out into Downtown Disney (a fantasy-filled shopping, dining, and entertainment area, where we had dinner, took a lot of photos, listened to some music, and browsed the shops.


And then, to bed. At the Disneyland Hotel. Where the headboards have twinkling fireworks!

Vacation Day 4: Carpets! And Stuff!

SUMMARY: A mish-mash around having wet carpeting in most of the house.

Got up bright and early, went to work doing the final moving of things off the carpet in the various rooms that I hadn't wanted to do the night before, and moving some more fragile items out of the way, just in case.

Carpet leaners showed up promptly at 9:00 and went right to work. I love watching how the steamer moistens and sucks, moistens and sucks, and takes away the soil! Took a bit over an hour to do everything, and parts of the carpet definitely look better now, but the really heavily trafficked carpet in my office/den is due for replacement, I'm afraid--the glowing golden tan of the places that have had objects on them for the last 10 years is in stark contrast to the heavily traveled areas. The wear is evident.

Still, when I told the guy that I think it's been 7 years since they were last cleaned, his eyes popped--"With 2 dogs," he said, "your carpets are in amazing condition for that much time." Well, in part, that's because they stay out of the dining/living area most of the time, aren't usually dirty when we go up to bed, and I try to stay on top of soil in the office/den ASAP with vacuuming or my trusty Bissel hand-held spot remover sucker thingie.

I needed things to do while the carpets dried, so I paid some bills, did some cleaning up of various things out in the yard that I'd been putting off, played with the dogs and trimmed their nails, and fit in a medical appointment and a trip to the bank for lots of cash because tomorrow I'm leaving for--

Disneyland! Yayyyyy!

We're driving down leisurely on Wednesday, spending 3 days between Disneyland and California Adventure, then driving leisurely back on Sunday. I haven't been in nearly 3 years and it's time for my Dland fix! Flashing back 3 years--although I'm sure it'll look exactly the same--

If things go well, I'll be able to post a little bit each evening about our day. See y'all online!

Vacation Day 3: Housework and, Yes, Irrigation

SUMMARY: Carpet cleaners are coming!

I promised myself at the beginning of the summer that this year for sure I'd have all the carpets cleaned--it's been years, and they're not terrible, but you could tell if you paid attention that they need work. And most of my carpets are very light colored, so spots and soil show up.

I spent the day clearing away all the small and medium-sized stuff from the office/den, living room, dining room, master bedroom and closet, and guest bedroom, then vacuuming very thoroughly. It took me hours to get it all done and it was the largest amount of a physical workout that I've had in a long time.

Usually when I vacuum, it's one room at a time, not all the rooms in one day. Man, that...is...work!

I also spent more time processing photos--jeez, I take a lot!--and a bit of time on the irrigation system, namely:

• Staring for 10 minutes at the danged broken pipe joint in the rose bed trying to figure out if there's any easy way to fix it to avoid having to dig up several feet of pipe and redo the whole complicated joint. Put it off again.
• Removed the 17 caps and replaced the 17 sprinkler heads from the circuit in the Back 40 that has already been repaired. This turned out not to be trivial. Also filled in the pit around the feeder line where the repair had been made.

(That's mostly for my own notes, since I haven't said any of the background for this. Someday. Really.)

Phew! A good day's work done.

Vacation Day 2: Gold PDCH, Family, and Irrigation

SUMMARY: Not a lot to tell. Happy.

So, then, Sunday was Day 2. My club has been hosting USDAA Labor Day trials, then Regionals, every year since at least 1995. It's our big event of the year. And I decided to skip all four days of it...

Oh, except then I decided to enter just one Snooker on Sunday...oh, and since that was the 2nd class of the day, I might as well enter the first class, Jumpers, because Boost maybe someday will get another Jumpers Q and Tika usually Qs in Jumpers.

I already mentioned the result of Tika's Snooker run (the Gold level Performance Championship).

The earlier part of the day went like this:

* Tika, smooth but not super-fast Jumpers course and a Q. Turns out it was apparently a hard course to Qualify in, so we ended up placing 3rd of 17 dogs! Good old Tika. (We were 7th fastest, but 5 of those had faults.)

* Boost, Jumpers--one bar, one runout, and a big spin in two different places where she didn't read a cross correctly. No Q.

* Boost, Snooker--spot-on opening of 8 obstacles, then a refusal on a tight wrappy front cross to #2 in the closing. Lately I've been trying to pick courses that I think that we can get through instead of trying to get high scores, and hoping that at some point we'll do it and it will be enough for a SuperQ anyway. But on this one, even if we had finished, our total score would've been too low for a SuperQ. No Q.

I was done competing before noon! And I felt barely a tingle of regret for not having signed up for the rest of the weekend--wasn't sure how I'd feel, but at that point, it was SO NICE to have accomplished the major goal, to be done for the weekend and not have to get up early again, to avoid the evening traffic, and to still have weekend ahead of me.

One of my sisters drove all the way down to see us run--she jumps on her horse, so the games we play (Snooker and Gamblers are the ones we watched some of) are different from what they do, but she gets the idea of the competition. We were then able to stop and have a nice lunch at the Black Bear Diner (well--we both had breakfast, but it was lunchtime). That was sweet--I hardly ever get a chance to talk to this sister.

Then I went home, started sorted and processing photos from the day before and that morning, took a nap, and worked on the dang irrigation.

Sometime I'll post something about that, really I will.

Went to bed feeling decently happy.

Vacation Day 1: San Francisco, Stairs, and Irrigation

SUMMARY: Having a good time.

Yes, I'm doing things I want to do! I used to futz with broken & malfunctioning irrigation a lot, but then I stopped getting around to it, and now there are many issues. I'm liking getting my hands dirty and figuring things out!

But mainly what I did on Day 1, Saturday, was to go up to San Francisco for the day with my parents and a good friend who's been in my life for a very long time indeed.

We looked at some cheap camper vans for possible future rental, then bipped over to Pier 39. This is, indeed, a tourist spot, but it's a nicely done one. Lots of interesting shops, plenty of good restaurants (mostly specializing in fresh fish), and always gorgeous displays of flowers.

Looking out to the Pier 39 harbor in the bay.

Looking away from the bay towards land, you can see Coit Tower atop Telegraph Hill nearby and the top of the famous triangle of the Transamerica building.

I bought a ton of fudge but managed to stay away from the ice cream shop. At the Italian/seafood restaurant we chose for lunch, this was the view from our table: San Francisco Bay, Tiburon, Alcatraz in the upper right, and plenty of sea lions on their own private docks (beyond the boat) with a railing where the tourists can enjoy them:

Pier 39 has quite a bit of entertainment, too: a farmer's market with fresh fruits and vegetables, a carousel, a little stage for performers, and other things.

For example, The Aquarium Of The Bay, which a small but nicely done touristy aquarium, with plenty of messages about saving our oceans, our water, and the water's inhabitants. Some gorgeous displays.

Several displays had jellyfish swooping their way around their tanks, with sometimes amazing lighting and colors.

The aquarium included two long tunnels through a giant tank in which fish swam above and around you.

Mom and Dad with a shark over their heads.

Sea stars (old fashioned name: "starfish") come in an amazing variety of shapes, textures, and colors, and there's a tank where you can touch them.

The back side of some sea stars.

And the back side of an abalone!

After that, we went in search of stairs.  First up, my dad wanted to find the bottom of the stairs up to Coit Tower. He's been up to the tower itself, but never up or down the stairs.  You can see only the first maybe 60 or 70 steps from the city streets, tucked back in alleyways redolent of stale trash bins.

The two sets of stairs have 378 and 397 steps. My friend and I walked up the first 100 steps and already got a bit of a view, but my legs weren't up to doing the whole thing, especially with mom and dad down in the car with nothing to do.

After that, we zigzagged across the city, up occasional steep hills and down the other side like a roller coaster drop-off, along lengthy boulevards sometimes with no traffic, me driving and my dad navigating via paper map (they've always done a lot of exploring and he knew quite a bit about the city streets).  That included a trip through the Robert Levy Tunnel (that's my dad's name, although --full disclosure--the tunnel has a different middle initial than his).

While we were stopped at a traffic light, my friend suddenly pointed out that City Lights Bookstore was right across from us! I was able to snap a shot before the light turned green.

We took a random detour along Broadway, across the top of a hill looking out over the city and the sea with the most amazing mansions that I had no idea were there.  As with many mansions around the world, this one had a giant 10-foot-tall robot overlooking the street.  Upon closer examination of the photo, I am able to determine that it appears to be a male robot. I wonder what their neighbor mansions think of that?

Just up the road from Giant Robot, we found this set of serene landscaped steps off Broadway leading down to who knows where.

But what a great view out over the lowland homes of the proletariat to the sailboats in the bay. (No sign of the America's Cup World Cup racers, just signs everywhere along the Embarcadero about it.)

Taking another random zigzag towards our real goal (coming up in a moment), we chanced upon this gorgeous church, Saint Ignatius, glowing with a golden tint in the late afternoon light.

Say what you will about religions, they sure have contributed some art and architecture that touches one's aesthetic heart. We pulled into a convenient parking spot, got out, and took a zillion photos. Here's one close-up

Directly across the street is the more subtle Carmelite Chapel and Monastery of Cristo Rey, but it had its own treasures:

(My experiment in black and white photography for the day:)

Then, finally, we arrived at our main destination: The Moraga Steps. It's a mere 163 steps straight down the hill to 16th Street. Looks pretty ordinary from here.

But here's why were were looking for these steps:

If you like this, I've posted another dozen photos showing details of the steps.

Then it was home and back to work on the irrigation!

Vacation Day 0: Irrigation and Family

SUMMARY: Taking a couple of weeks off!

Friday was not technically vacation, since I worked. But it did feel a bit like vacation in some ways.

Spent a bunch of time fixing irrigation problems. (Maybe I'll post more about that sometime. Not today.)

But as soon as my last work obligation was finished, I jumped into the car and drove to the family's favorite restaurant to use for birthdays and other celebrations--House of Genji in downtown San Jose--for my oldest niece's 20th birthday. How is it *possible* that I could have a niece older than about, say, 3? Anyway, the chef cooks right at the table. There were enough of us that we needed two tables.

This was my attempt to get an artsy photo of my niece's mother (my sister) surrounded by virgin strawberry daquiris. She's in the middle of the frame, but the camera focused on the drinks. I should just be really artsy fartsy and claim that I did that deliberately and title it "The Ambiguous Angst of the Soul" or  something along those lines.

The Ambiguous Angst of the Soul, with Daquiris

Another one of my beautiful sisters (I'm sure I got all the brains and the rest of them got all the beauty. Except how come they're all smart, too?) plus a nephew's hair and two fun, smart, beautiful nieces.

 This is apparently how my 20-year-old niece wants to be remembered by posterity. I can hardly wait until she brings a boyfriend home. I sure have a lot of educational photos to show him.

Instead of taking my DSLR, I took my pocket camera and tried very hard to get decent photos without using the flash. It failed. That camera does not do well if anything is moving even the slightest bit unless the flash is on, and the flash makes everything close look like it's at the edge of an atomic blast and everything far too dark.

As a result, almost every photo was too blurry to even pretend it was OK and I deleted most of them. I should know better; I think I've tried this before. Next time I should just ignore everyone complaining about the flash and use it anyway.

I took several photos of my sister and this is the only one that came out not blurry, of course. I wonder whether I'm blurry in her photo?

Of all the photos I took, this is the only one that came out crystal clear: The Japanese broth. Because it wasn't moving while I was trying to take its photo.

And here we all are at the end of the meal. My parents, four of us sisters, three spouses, and four nieces and nephews.

And that was a great way to get me feeling in a vacation mood!  Thanks to my blurry sister for taking us all to dinner.

Gold!

SUMMARY: We did it!

We entered only two classes today, and Tika Qualified nicely on a challenging Jumpers course, then Qualified pretty smoothly (given the handling) on her Snooker course, making it 3 snookers in a row and completing out Performance Dog Agility Champion (PDCH)- Gold!

That's the equivalent of earning the PDCH (or ADCH) 7 times over--35 each of Performance Standard, Jumpers, Gamblers, Snooker, Pairs Relay, and the Tournaments (Grand Prix, Steeplechase, and DAM Team).

The only thing she didn't do (didn't need to) was to earn 7 times over the number of SuperQs in Snooker--you need only to get three for the first championship, then never have to get any again. But 18 of her 35 Performance Snooker Qs have been Super-Qs, so she was pretty close to doing that 7 times over, too.

Yeah! No more pressure!

[Tika: It's hot. Where are my treats? I'm bored. Can we go now?]

I have NO idea where we came up with this fancy Western Regional doodad for taking photos behind. Pretty cool, though. At least *I* liked it, Tika!