~:: Yet More Mouse ::~

Here is what I love – even the smallest detail is an opportunity for imagineering.  This is the popcorn machine in Tomorrowland.  Which is kind of an anachronism – intergalactic faster than light travel and a popcorn machine.  But oh well.  The guy you see in these shots is turning the popcorn popping chamber.  I guess the fact that the word “chamber” is involved here brings popcorn into the realm of tech, eh?

Out of order, but not out of mind: our Denny’s waiter, Pedro, who made us feel like Significant Folk the first morning and remembered our “usual” every day after.

 When I was a kid, I yearned to ride Autopia.  It didn’t get any better than Autopia.  Now, the ride is MUCH more space age and sophisticated, and you even go off road – and Scooter actually drove his own car – for about the first forty seconds, until he demonstrated a deep and gleeful death wish and almost jerked Cam’s head off his shoulders.  After that, it was a family affair.

At the end.  G had to ride by himself, because Lorri and I were stationed on this bridge thing, waiting for this shot, which was not supposed to be blurry.

California Adventure.  Now, Donna and Jen – I’m not sure either of you guys has been to the park since they made California Adventure.  Here they have a carousel of a different stripe: no horses, only sea creatures.  And the color?  AHHH, the color!

Chaz in her New Orleans beads, riding – I’m not sure what.  A dolphin, I think.

Murphy is SO DANG CHEESY.  But how could I not put this up here – look at that little girl behind him.  I LOVE these little girls who end up behind him.  Did you see that one in the last post?  With her head thrown back and her hair flying and her eyes closed?

Two seals, singing.

The sea horses are my favorite.

But the otters are so joyful.  This saddle is silly, though – if you saddled an otter, you’d put the sitting part on his back – and then he’d slide down the mud, plowing happily into the water with you up there riding high.  THEN he’d turn on his back, and you’d be riding along upside down under water gulping down water plants and small fresh water creatures.

This is how G is most happy riding carousels – see him way back there in the yellow shirt?  He’s walking Andy while the rest of us go in circles.

The King of the Sea seems pleased with the pin-trading Chaz.

Eating ice cream on the hoof, headed for the wharf.

Perfect strangers were willing to stand on the bridge and take pictures of us stuck in this mass of fish.

This one is for you, Donna.  Are you laughing yet?  Another lunch with texting.

On one corner in the Hollywood section of the park, all of the lower outside walls of the shop there are covered in this marvelous mosaic of broken bits of pots and tile and silverware and dishes and bowls and old toys – yards and yards of it.  I want to do this in my house, too.

 Here are the awfullest pictures of all.  M and I, having ridden the screamer, caught up with the NON-screamer part of the fam in the Bug’s World section of the park.  If you haven’t seen this place, I’ll tell you, it’s really something.  They’ve done this whole section so that you, yourself, are suddenly bug-scale, and everything around you is huge – and interesting.  The bugs who live there are clever, and the lights and the decorations, and the very rides themselves are made out of found materials – straws and popcorn boxes and matches – all gigantic building materials.

This is the bumper bug ride – where I had my cross moments on this trip.  The line took FOREVER to move, and the light for shooting was awful (teeny lens time).  And when Chaz was trying to maneuver their bug over so I could take their picture, people kept ramming into them and then stalling out.  Short ride.  Lots of blockage.  As you see:

Well, you get the point, right?

Scooter and bug.  At the end of this part of the story.  Only one part to go – in which Scooter meets his idol and becomes a famous street musician and the sky explodes.  Stay tuned!