If Today is Tuesday, it must be DISNEYLAND!!

Disneyland: The Happiest Place on Earth

We spent Tuesday in Disneyland with Lucas. There was more than enough to keep us busy for the day! We got to see the Celebrations parade and I made the boys go to Small World. I use Small World for humor after we get home...that darn song goes on and on and on.

Matt and I had a sighting of the OCTOMOM. She had one little girl with her and seemed to be in a hurry to find Space Mountain. I resisted the urge to chase her down, pull out my camera, and take her picture.

Matt: just in awe of it all!

Fun shot taken just before entering the Castle.

I love arches, windows, doors. This one was looking out of Sleeping Beauty's Castle.

Attention to detail was evident throughout the park. I love the topiaries around Small World. This is of some sort of sea monster. One planting at the Haunted Mansion had baby tears overflowing an urn in the graveyard. If you didn't know the name of the plant, the play on words/plants would be lost on you. Very cool. (I know that most of the detail stuff is just lost on me!)

It was a BEAUTIFUL day at Disneyland! That is a happy thing!

Lucas and Matt had already had enough of that Small World song!! Enough!!

See that sign on the boat? "The Happiest Cruise that ever Sailed"? Well, about this time, and, it was only the beginning, we had had about enough of that repetitive song! NOT the happiest cruise!

Ah yes, parents everywhere can take one look at this photo and that SONG plays in their head...this was the "new and improved" Small World--now with Product Placements--little Disney embeds in the endless smiling children!

We did it! Lucas, Matt and I set the land rotational speed record in the teacups!

Could there be such a thing as TOO MUCH HAPPY? I know it's supposed to be the Happiest Place on Earth", but Matt really doesn't look too happy here, does he? (Taken in the Star Tours ride, along the path while waiting for our personel Star Tour)

Mad Hatter and the Queen of Hearts: you never know who you will see in Disneyland! The Queen of Hearts, she doesn't look very happy.....

I really like this "junk sculpture" on top of a space ride in Tomorrowland.

We like it BIG: Matt at the foot of a giraffe made entirely of Legos!

We like it BIG: Matt at the Lego Store, Downtown Disney

A sign by the pin kiosk in Downtown Disney

Not only are there entire racks of Disneyana collectible pins, but there are entire kiosks devoted to nothing but pins. You will sometimes hear people talking about trading. They wear these webbing necklaces to which they attach their pins...and if someone has one they want, they can talk and trade.

We had some fun setting up shots

Matt, in his Fantasia hat

We like it BIG: Matt found a BIG Mickey outside of the Disneyland Hotel Convention Center. NOW we're happy!

Now, on to see Nikki and crew in Hermosa Beach!

You Really Can't go Home Again

June Gloom in Del Mar

Driving up PCH from San Diego....I found that I have no idea where the old places of Irvine, Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach...etc...have gone. I got lost numerous times--in places where I used to LIVE!

We like it BIG: Matt poses with giant spectacles at a Euro spex place in Laguna Beach.

Matt: being adventurous and digging right in to his Lunch Box at Sapphire Laguna

The "five different tastes" Lunch Box at Sapphire Laguna. Clockwise, from top left: southern fried chicken with baby greens, roast corn, dried cranberries, ranch dressing; hand cut potato chips with salt & rosemary; sesame-crusted ahi tuna with greens, enoki mushrooms, long beans, Japanese dressing; Thai lemongrass chicken lettuce wrap, green papaya-mango salad, peanut and sweet chili-lime sauce; sauteed jumbo shrimp in rosemary garlic milk with spinach-ricotta torelloni, grilled artichoke. "YUM"

"Matt's still life": I like it!

Why I need never go back to Laguna Beach again. Tens of these big resort places....you just can't go "home" again.... the glitz is on, but the charm is gone!

Patriotic floral display in Laguna Beach

The Pageant of the Masters is in Laguna Beach

Matt in front of the Festival of the Arts in LG

We finally had to stop for a treat at Scandia Bakery. I had a treat there thirty years ago....

A plaque outside a jewelry store in LG

Matt was transfixed by the huge homes and their varied designs on the bluffs overlooking the Pacific and Laguna Beach.

Tomorrow, Tuesday: Disneyland!

Sunday in the Park with Luke

Let's go to the zoo! I had NO IDEA that this Zoo was so HUGE. But wonderful. We saw tons of cool animals, plants and artwork.

We were SO LUCKY: we were there on FREE MUSTACHE DAY!! How could we turn down a deal like that?? Here, Lucas models his FREE MUSTACHE.

Matt was not into getting a FM. He said he would get one ONLY if I got one.....I'm a sucker for FREE

Panda

Matt did a school report on the Lesser Kulus. Little did he know at that time that he would be seeing them at the Zoo!

Big Gorilla

One of the thousands of gorgeous blooms at the Balboa Park Rose Garden

Luke, tired at the end of a long hot day at the Park....still sporting the FM.

This woman was spinning fleece from her farm....I bought some to bring home to spin! And I got an incredibly good deal on her handspun, hand-dyed yarns too.

I loved this cactus from the zoo. (It did not belong between the fiber shots--I guess being a blogger pro is something that takes time!)

Handspun balls of yarn!

Another great day in San Diego! Luke and his friend Kat have been wonderful hosts. I couldn't ask for any better! Now, onward to Orange County: in search of a date shake.

Coming Soon!

We spent today at the San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park. I had no idea that place was so HUGE. I'm beat.

And, out of camera battery juice.

Stay tuned while we recharge our batteries (cracking myself up AGAIN with the double entendres!) and then upload some more of our California Pacific Trip....

The Bendes, Babies, Beer

Kat and Matt listen while Ronald reads to them from a well-loved Barney flip-up book.

(.....ok mom, you have enough pictures of me already.....)

Rhoda, just up from her nap: who ARE these people?!

Rhoda wanted to climb right up on Matt's lap at Stone Brewery...she's a little love bug!

....and a good eater!

.....as is her brother!

Lori and Joost, know the routines here at the Brewery: they brought along little flasks with porcelain and wire "flip tops"--to be filled and brought back home! Yeah, baby!

Ice, baby, Ice!

ooops, I'm seeing D O U B L E (hehehe, I'm cracking myself up here...but it's all because I'm not paying attention to my (can you say slow?) downloads)

See? I told you she was a love bug!

Lori and Joost host a Tent City on their front yard....

They make room for all the travelers, anyone who might be passing through....

All are welcome at Bendeville. Ni Night, Luke!

(Of course, all hell broke loose when the sprinklers came on and soaked little Rhoda and Kat, who was horizontal in a tube at that point, and Luke got it too in the tent! Rhoda had to be peeled, slowly and carefully, off Joost's leg so that he could turn off the water!)

Is that ET? Matt? Who is that white boy, underneath all those toys??

Bedtime stories at the Bende's.....

What I missed: shots of the food and the beers and the stones at the brewery. The YUMMO chocolate martini that Joost made with raspberry vodka. O. M. G. Two sips were all it took to hook me. That, and I was driving! Thanks for having us over, L&J...and R&R! Keep up the good work!