Day 44: Keith's Plan

One of Keith's artsy projects this week is to start filling in this plan for a tile mosaic of Diamond Head in Hawaii for the floor of my parents' home elevator. He found a photo online that he's using as a guide, making changes along the way to create a very cool image that will be reminiscent of the view from my parents' condo in Waikiki.

He'll be installing it while they're in Hawaii this spring as my mom uses the elevator far too much to be without it, even for a day. I'll keep you posted on his progress--I love taking photos of Keith at work. :)

Day 71: Downtown Disney Shops

B and Wall-E


Darth and the Boyz

Day 70: Trying on Hats in the Mad Hatter

Grumpy E


My "Goofy" Mom


B in Stitches


My Grumpy Dad


Magical Me

Day 69: More Disneyland....

Day 68: Disneyland Day 2

It's a Small World ... from the boat

Day 67: California Adventure

My first ride on the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror -- so cool!!!!!!!!!!

The family at California Adventure -- my mom, my dad, my brothers' kids M & T, my brother Tom, and my kids J, E, T, and B

Day 66: Disneyland Day 1

The family on Thunder Mountain Railroad

Saturday: Discovery Science Center

We have always driven past the "black cube" in recent years on our trips north into Orange County, and we've always mentioned wanting to check it out sometime. As we debated as to the best way to spend our third day before going on home, we decided to forego Universal Studios (at $50 each for admission -- with discounts, mind you -- we decided it was too expensive with not enough for the smaller kids to do) and check out the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. With admission for all ten of us for under $100, we were much happier and had so much to do! The kids played a laser harp, climbed rock walls, made their own animated films, created small and large bubbles, climbed on cement reproductions of dinosaur fossils, experienced the magnificent tiger in a huge exhibit, and learned many other scientific principles via hands-on experiments. We stayed there for over four hours and then drove on home with a quick detour to drive past the San Juan Capistrano mission (I will get out and explore it some day!).



Cousin M blows bubbles at one of the bubble centers in the Science Center.



Cousin M also creates the largest bubble of all the kids. It's huge!



B is surprised by a fog curtain as we entered the special tiger exhibit.

For a few extra photos of our trip, click here.

So now we're home from our rather exhausting but extremely enjoyable three days ... ready for Holy Week and all of the experiences ahead of us.

Saturday: "Independence Hall"

Across the street from Knott's Berry Farm, Walter Knott built an exact replica of Independence Hall which includes a life-sized replica of the Liberty Bell as well as a replica of the room in which the Declaration was written and finally signed.



The six cousins pose in front of "Independence Hall."



A long shot of the front of "Independence Hall," with my mom on the left and my dad with the kids in the doorway. My brother was backing up with me to take the same shot with his camera.

After this last excursion in Buena Park, we drove south to Santa Ana to check out the Discovery Science Center.

Friday: Second Day at Knott's

J, Cousin T, and B ride for a second day in a row (and twice in a row today) on La Revolucion in the Spanish Village part of Knott's. This huge swing also twists in circles as it swings higher and higher. I was postive that B would blow his lunch the first time he rode this yesterday, but he came off laughing and begging for another go. In fact, our little guy proved himself a real daredevil, riding every coaster for which he was tall enough multiple times. And somehow he never even turned the slightest shade of green until he tried the black licorice offered by his grandfather. The least said about that incident, the better....



Getting ready to go, shoes removed and strapped tightly in....



Watched by my parents and brother as the swing twists in circles faster the higher it goes....



Higher, anyone? (Ugh, I couldn't even watch it without feeling my breakfast readjust in my stomach.)

Thursday: Knott's Berry Farm

In celebration of several birthdays, each spring my parents treat the whole family (myself, Keith, our four kids; my brother, his wife, their two kids; my sister, her husband, their two kids) to 2-3 days at either Disneyland or Knott's Berry Farm which is just a few miles north of D'land on Interstate 5. For several reasons, this spring a much smaller group than our usual 16 was at Knott's, the oldest amusement park in the west. Started as a berry stand (Knott bred the first Boysenberry, named for his best friend), Walter Knott all kinds of California assets such as a train, a log ride, a mine tour, panning for gold, a stagecoach ride, and during the Depression, his wife started serving chicken dinners on her wedding china; a restaurant just outside the park gates still fries chicken according to Mrs. Knott's recipe. Then roller coasters were added in the 1970's and since, some of which definitely can make one lose that chicken dinner in a very embarrassing way. Following are photos from our first day at Knott's Berry Farm:



All six kids "pan for gold" and come away with gold dust floating in little vials of water.



Just outside the Ghost Town area, my dad and B pose where they apparently shouldn't.(They're covering up the rest of the sign.)



Near the back of the park one can see many of the roller coaster tracks seemingly intertwine....

NOTE:

I'll be away from Thursday morning to late Saturday night. The kids and I are trekking up north for some fun times with my parents and my brother and his family. Keith will be holding down the fort here, taking care of Dash and Ronnie and the fish (that's singular, as in ONE fish).

See ya in a few days with some new photos!

My year of photo blogging is nearly up, and I'll post about my 365 journey in a week or so....

Sunday: Late Afternoon Freeway

The boys and I headed back down the mountain in the late afternoon for Lake Murray's semi-annual church potluck and business meeting. With kielbasa and rice in my best blue serving bowl riding shotgun, I reached over and snapped this one-handed, trying to capture the golden sun hitting the mountains. Not quite successful, this was the best of the shots....

Sunday: On the Road Again

With a 35-40 minute drive into church each week (much less the other reasons we drive into San Diego), we see a lot of clear, cold mornings like this one on the highway, the mountain rocks set off against the deep blue of the morning sunlight.



Unfortunately, driving down into town as often as we do requires many stops at this fine establishment where prices are edging close to and over $3 a gallon.

Interstate 8 Through Alpine

This is the halfway point between our small town and the big city: the town of Alpine with Interstate 8 wending through its center. Keith drives this route nearly every day, and I drive it two-three times each week.

You don't want to see the mileage on our vehicles. Trust me.

Friday: Foggy Freeway

We mountain-dwellers often have to deal with fog on the freeway leading down into San Diego in the winter months. However, it's highly unusual to see fog creeping across the freeway in September; it's a sight reserved mostly for November-April. I tend to slow down with fog; however, Keith has no fear and continues down the mountain at his normal speed, one which I won't reveal but is at fifteen-twenty miles per hour above the posted speed limit of 70.

Monday ... Leaving Topsail

I snapped this through Carrie's windshield. My oldest son always begs me to play Jan and Dean's "Surf City" on my iPod, so I thought he's enjoy this last glimpse of our amazing beach retreat.

I will post more retreat photos on my 365 extras blog in the next day or two; it's now after 11 PM (2 AM in NC time) and definitely time for bed after a very looong and tiring flight home.

Sunday at Topsail....

Sunset at the end of the island -- we all drove in Carrie's and 7's vehicles out to the end of Topsail and arrived just in time for some great sunset photo opportunities. So, here's the sunset and the photographers....

Saturday at Topsail....

Katrina and I photographed some shells on the beach; these were my favorites.



On Saturday evening we ate dinner at a local hangout called the Green Turtle. Outside the restaurant were several sights worthy of photography, and Carol, Dali, 7, and myself took full advantage of the late light and many sights.

Friday at Topsail Island...

After enjoying the gorgeous beach weather from the back deck, we go inside to do a fun personality survey from 1927 called I've Got Your Number. Paula read us the questions, and 7 here read us the personality results. We all learned a little about ourselves and enjoyed the directness of the observations.