a bug's land

Next up is the agricultural-themed "a bug's land".




The only notable attraction here is "It's Tough to be a Bug!" another 3D movie, but this one has more "extras" than the Muppet movie. The rest of the rides are geared toward really small kids, kind of like Fantasyland.

Running Update

Last week's long run was...
5 miles in 1 hour.

This week's best short run so far was...
3.93 miles is 45 minutes.

Next up...
Increase incline on the treadmill and Cypress Community College track.

Hollywood Pictures Backlot

Like Disneyland, CA Adventure is split into different "lands". I will start with the Hollywood Pictures Backlot. Here is D getting "lost":


The best ride here is the Tower of Terror:

We waited in line behind this REALLY talkative boy and his mom. He was so excited and kept trying to tell us what it was like. His mom told him that he shouldn't ruin the surprise, so then he tried to throw us off track and said it was "like a swing." Anyway, this ride wasn't here the last time we went, so I'm glad we were able to experience it.

One of the longest waits we had was for the new Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! ride. The line was actually only about 30 minutes, but still not really worth it. This ride replaced the Superstar Limo ride, which was also a bust. As one person pointed out, they just made the limos look like taxis.

Another new attraction is Turtle Talk with Crush (from Finding Nemo). There was an animated Crush on a screen and he talked interactively with the audience. This was kinda cool, but he said "Dude" even more than D! Cha!

The Muppet Vision 3D show is fun, better than Honey I shrunk the Audience. The best part is being around people that have never been and seeing/hearing their reactions.

In the afternoon we watched Disney's Aladdin--A Musical Spectacular in the Hyperion Theater. I was surprised at how nice the theater was. I suggest lining up for the Mezzanine level so you're at eye level with Aladdin and Jasmine on their "magic carpet ride". Aladdin was this Asian guy, so that was kind of weird. It was the genie that stole the show, though. He got some genuine laughs out of D & me. The whole thing lasted about an hour, so it was a good time to rest our feet.

Eating Adventures @ CA Adventure

This time D and I only spent about 12.5 on the Disney premises (mainly because CA Adventure was only open from 10-10. Of course, that was plenty of time to build up an appetite.

Lunch:

This is a Ceasar Sausage from "Award Wieners". It is an italian sausage with caesar salad on top! I think D would have rather had the normal chili dog, but this provided us with some veggies--ha.


One of the attractions is a Boudin factory. After watching a short video, you get to see the bakers go through the process. The bread looked SO good, so of course, when the tour was over, we had to head on over to the adjoining cafe.


We split this broccoli cheese soup in a bread bowl from the Pacific Wharf Cafe. This was my favorite of the day! We eyed the cream puffs, but decided to hold off.

Dinner:

Here is our Atkins-friendly dinner: a ginormous turkey leg. It was bigger than it appears in the picture and pretty much filled both of us up.

Later we took the Mission tortilla factory tour.

At the end of the tour they gave us each a freshly made tortilla. We contemplated splitting something from the Cocina Cucamonga Mexican grill, but instead opted for this:

The cream puff from the Pacific Wharf Cafe. They really piled on the whipped cream. (I still have to try Beard Papa's).

So, that's what we ate. D "had" to buy a coke in the afternoon because he had a headache and he claims that it helps him feel better. He wanted another mickey ice cream bar but he restrained himself this time.

Soarin' over California

This past weekend we went to California Adventure to use up the second half of our 2fer ticket. L & I went on our favorite Disneyland ride--Soarin' over California. It is great that your feet dangle and the screen is huge. The geography of CA is great. The places that you see are the following....
Napa
San Francisco
Monterey
Lake Tahoe
Redwood Creek
Yosemite
Malibu
Los Angeles
San Diego
Palm Springs
Anza Borrego
Camarillo
In regards, to NorCal...
I have been to Napa, Monterrey and Lake Tahoe quite a bit on family vacations. I also went to school and worked in the bay area so I saw S.F. a good amount. And I have been to Yosemite, however, I would like to visit that area a little more. However, I have never been to Redwood National Park. I am trying to persuade Lauren to visit that sometime soon. However, it is north of S.F. It is close to Eureka.

In regards, to SoCal...
I have been to Malibu, well more like Santa Monica, and hiked in Malibu hills. And I worked in L.A. I have visited San Diego, however would like to see more of it. However, I have never been to Palm Springs, but I am going in April! And I have not been to Anza Borrego. It seems interesting, but not quite as interesting as Redwood National Park. I have been to Camarillo outlets, however and am not interested in seeing Orange Groves.

Pac 10 vs. Big Ten

Sports Analysts had the Big Ten as the best conference along with the Big East. The Big Ten had the highest RPI, and the Big East was 2nd. However the Big Ten had 0 of 6 get to the Sweet 16!. Regarding the Pac-10, the analysts had as one of the worst conferences (along with the SEC & Big 12); they had the worst RPI. However they had 2 of 4 get to the Sweet Sixteen. We'll see how far they go and if any get to the Final Four.

I rest my case counselor!

Galileo vs. K.Y.

At the summer BBQ I got good tips from Wintersburg and non-Wintersburg people. I learned that I should run about 4 days a week instead of about 6, which I was planning to do. Further, I should run only one long run a week. I am planning on running about 45 minutes 3 times a week and then 1 long run. First starting at about 1 hour and then moving to about 3 hours by September. Well that is what one guy told me a book told him to do. Further that you should run maybe a mile and then walk for about a minute. This guy, lets call him Bill, said that this author, whose name I believe is Galloway, claims that this is the way to train and run the marathon. I am not good with names, so I decided to call him Galileo. I ran 3.75 miles on the treadmill in 45 minutes. That is a 12 minute mile pace. That is a pretty good pace for me. That was pretty difficult for me, so I know my progress will be a little slower now.

I also learned that I should not do lower body resistance training. At least according to Galileo. However, there is this guy that ran 5 minute miles in college (K.Y.) and he said that he will run 20 out of the each 21 day period. And that he works out too. He said I should work out my core.

I will follow Galileo in terms of less times running. And I will probably have to walk a little bit. Maybe after every 2 or 3 miles. However, I will work out my core. That sound like a good idea, because sometimes my lower back hurts afterwards.

A Tale of Two Get Togethers

Yesterday D & I had two very different social functions to attend. The first was the Leu's First Annual Spring BBQ in Irvine. We had some good meat (chicken, beef and sausage) and D was able to get some marathon-running tips. I brought inari and chocolate peanut butter rice krispy treats (which I saw on Good Deal with Dave Lieberman). D felt kind of old there b/c a handful of the guests were still in college.

Afterward we spent a couple of hours at the Spectrum. We hung out Barnes and I eavesdropped on a table of 10-year old girls talking about how Caramel Light Frappucinos are so good and that their favorite places to shop are Abercrombie & Fitch, Bebe, Nordstrom and Forever 21...hmm...

Then, we went to Mission Viejo to have a Mexican food dinner at one of D's MBA friends' house. It seemed like everyone was a few years older and the vast majority brought their babies/toddlers (the oldest being 4). So, we went from feeling old to feeling young, never quite fitting in. As you get older, the age range of people you hang out with seems to grow. For me, all the way up to college I had few friends who were more than a year above or below me. Anyway, all in all it was a fun day.

Three Hours

That is my non-ambitious goal for the race I entered in this past Sunday. I am planning on running a half-marathon in Anaheim in September. You have to finish the race in 3.5 hours and if you don't keep that pace a truck comes and drives you to the end! That is motivation enough to finish faster than that pace. I decided 3 hours is a good round number. That is over a 13 minute pace, which seems slow, however after 5 miles I am not too sure if that will feel slow.

Being a financial analyst I created a Excel spreadsheet which shows the progress I need to make per week. In addition, it shows the treadmill level I will use in my training. I think I am going to try to maintain a 13 minute pace throughout my training and just increase my distance run. Yesterday I ran 3 miles in 36.5 minutes. Not very good, but not bad for my 3rd day of training.

I joined 24 hour fitness in July of 2005, I believe. I have been working out i.e. swimming, spin, resistance training, row, & eliptical mainly, on a regular basis. However, when I do cardio besides the cycle class and swimming I usually just do 15 minutes. That is not nearly enough to help me get ready for a half-marathon. So I know I need to train hard. I will also turn 30, 2 days after the race, so I better do it now. I am excited to have a goal to work toward.

All That Jazz

On Sat. D and I had a "date night" that consisted of dinner at Volcano Burger, jazz concert at my old high school and Starbucks. D had never been to Volcano Burger, so since it is right across from LAHS, I thought it would be a good time for him to try it. For those of you who don't know, Volcano Burger:LAHS::Peach Pit:BH 90210. Heh.

After freezing outside in line, we watched the middle school band, LAHS Jazz I and The Gordon Goodwin Big Phat Band. I was impressed with the middle school...watch out for them in a few years. They played charts from the same composers that we used to use...Bill Liston, Tom Kubis, etc. Ah, the memories. It was good to see Mr. Wackerman teaching for his 49th year--amazing! The GGBPB was enjoyable. They all seemed to really love what they were doing. They played a nice range of music, and even poked fun at their all-white-male-ness by playing their own arrangement of "Play That Funky Music White Boy".

The concert ended at around 7:30 and the night was still young so we went to the Cypress Starbucks and shared a grande Marble Mocha Macchiato. We saw all these Asian kids studying and it made me glad to be past that stage of my life.

College Sports

Usually when people ask me what teams I follow, I respond with Cal Football & IU basketball. This is mainly due to the fact that historically IU basketball is really good (3rd most chmpionships beside UCLA & Kentucky, and 20 Big Ten champioships) and their football team is bad (all time win record is under .500). Cal on the other hand is pretty even with their football and basketball. Both in the top 5 in the Pac-10 historically but not great in either. However, I like college football better than college basketball.

However, I got interested in watching Cal basketball especially during the Pac-10 tournament. I was pleasantly surprised how well Cal did. The semi-final game against Oregon was crazy. It ended just before midnight, which is 3 hours past my bedtime. I was kicked out the the bedroom and watched it in the freezing family room. (L won't allow us to turn on the heater. Further, I don't know how.) Leon Powe did a great job. I hope they can win a game in the NCAA tournament.

As for IU basketball. They beat Wisconsin and then lost to Ohio State in the Big Ten tournament. Not too bad. The Hoosiers record were not as good as Cal, but the Big Ten is better than the Pac-10.

Just found out...
No. 7 California (20-10, 12-6 Pac-10) vs. No. 10 NC State (21-9, 10-6 Atlantic Coast Conference)
No. 6 Indiana (18-11, 9-7 Big Ten) vs. No. 11 San Diego State (24-8, 13-3 Mountain West Conference)

I think IU has an easier time getting to the 2nd round.

Post Post Oscar Wrap-up

I always seem to be behind in my updates. Just wanted to comment that I was glad that Crash won Best Picture last Sunday. It was one of the few movies that I had actually seen. My goal is to watch every movie that has won Best Picture. The only others that were nominated that I had seen were: Chronicles of Narnia, Star Wars III, March of the Penguins (I liked the guy speaking penguin) and Murderball. D and I will be watching Enron: Smartest Guys in the Room tonight. I seem to be liking documentaries recently.

Dana Point

This past Sat. D and I ventured down to Dana Point for their annual whale festival. The night before I accidentally cut my toe open, so I wasn't sure if I was up for walking around, but I managed.

First, we walked around the docks, where artists were selling their paintings/photographs.


Then we ate lunch at RJ's Cafe (50% Entertainment Book discount). I had "The Gobbler", turkey (they roast their own) sandwich with cranberry sauce. I originally fell in love with this combo at Togo's. It came with a side salad that I had ordered with blue cheese dressing (house-made) on the side. That was the best blue cheese dressing ever--creamy, and not too pungent. D ordered "The Hole in the Fence" omelette, with mushrooms and sausage. It was quite large, and he could not finish it.

Then we waited for the shuttle to the actual whale festival, as suggested to us by the Dana Point Visitor's Center. (We felt very Rachael Ray-ish stopping by there). However, after a lot of waiting, no sign of a shuttle, and people who had just returned from the festival on foot claiming that the shuttle was imaginary, we decided to hoof it up Golden Lantern to PCH. Of course, just as we got there, we saw the shuttle arriving. Hmph. I wasn't too impressed with the festival...it seemed kind of junky to me. Not to be snobby, but this is Dana Point, where we saw three Porsches, a Ferrari, and a Rolls Royce just in the short time we were in the parking lot, as well as waay too many overly-pampered dogs. I expected it to be classier, I guess.


On our way back down the hill, we joked that these condos are probably considered the "slums of Dana Point" since they are right across the street from some mansions. Of course, they are actually really nice, and look at their view!:

Misc. Disneyland Pics

OK, I've been a slacker on finishing the Disneyland posts. Besides the rides, I really enjoyed the Special 50th Anniversary firework show (we can hear it every night from our condo, but we're usually sleeping by then) and Fantasmic! Here are some more random pics from our trip:


This castle seemed smaller than I remember.


Did you know that Disneyland has a petting zoo? It's pretty small, though.


D playing around at Tarzan's treehouse.

Disneyland Rankings/Comments

The following rankings were compiled by D. The comments are mine.

1. Indiana Jones
I was surprised D picked this as number 1. He didn't seem too excited about it when we were done with the ride, but he says he likes the theming of the whole ride.

2. Pirates of the Caribbean
Apparently this ride will be closing soon so they can make it like the Johnny Depp version. It was nice to have one last look.

3. Thunder Mountain

This one was more fun than I remembered. It was the only ride we went on twice: once during the day and once at night.

4. Splash Mountain
Love the drop at the end.

5. Space Mountain
They redid this ride last year. I didn't really like the music playing in the headrests, but it was fun.

6. Matterhorn

I liked the coats that the workers at this ride had on--cute toggles.

7. Buzz Lightyear – Astro Blasters
You get to shoot at targets with guns that emit red lasers...D had a much higher score than me, but we were both in Level 3 (out of 10!)

8. Tom Sawyer Island

Nice place to do a little exploring.

9. Rocket Ride
We could barely fit in one rocket--D's legs were pretty cramped. We went at night, when it looks cooler because it is all lit up. I think the older version was better, though, since you had to go on an elevator to get on.

10. Star Tours
D didn't put on his seat belt and held up our take-off...hehe.

11. Small World

Oldy but goody. I just noticed there's another "50"...I'll add that one to my previous post.

12. Jungle Cruise

Our guide reminded me of one D's friends, Marko.

13. Honey I Shrunk the Kids
This was the biggest disappointment. See, I used to work at Captain EO, which was replaced by this show. It's pretty sad to say, but I think Michael Jackson was more entertaining than this one. (Although it would be entirely inappropriate now.) I didn't even feel the mice!

14. Tiki Room
Go for the Dole Whip.

15. Toon Town
We didn't go on any rides here, or in Fantasyland. Waay too many kids!

The Fast Passes really helped us cut down on our wait time.

Unhealthy Eating at Disneyland

This post will chronicle what D & I ate at Disneyland last Sat. Looking back, it seems pretty gross, but it was just one day, and we walked A LOT. (We spent a total of 15.5 hours on the Disney grounds). Anyways, our mid-morning snack was the Dole Pineapple Whip:

You can find this treat by the Tiki Room. It was $2.75 and I thought it was pretty tasty. It's pineapple soft serve! The only problem is that they swirl it all around the outside of the cup so it looks like a lot, but there was nothing in the middle! The floats looked good too...it's made with pineapple juice and the whip on top, but those were $4.50 :(

I made reservations the previous Monday for the Blue Bayou. Our reservations were for the first seating, at 11:30 a.m. and they were already booked up for the rest of the day! This is the restaurant inside of the Pirates of the Carribean, in case you didn't know. When we got there I asked the hostess if we could be seated by the water, and she assured us, "Oh, you'll get water." The boats float past the restaurant at the beginning of the ride. One rider shouted "How do you like your dinner?" It's dark inside, so it always seems like night, I guess. D also pointed out that in the South, they call lunch "dinner" and dinner "supper" so technically they were using the correct terminology. Anyways, we split an order of the vegetable gumbo and the famed Monte Cristo sandwich, which comes with a side of pasta salad. They also serve rolls, and if you order a soda, it is bottomless...the servers don't let it go past being 3/4 full! This was more than enough food for us. D rated the gumbo a "9" and the sandwich a "6".

The Monte Cristo is a turkey, ham and swiss sandwich that is dipped in batter, fried, sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with blackberry jam (more like a sauce). It was a bit heavy for my liking, but it's one of those things that I had to check off my list.

For an afternoon snack, D bought a Mickey shaped ice cream bar, which I did not approve of. I'm so mean sometimes.


For dinner we went to Bengal BBQ near the Indiana Jones ride. We ordered a chicken kebab, a bacon-wrapped asparagus kebab and tigger tail breadsticks.

The bacon-wrapped asparagus (in the middle) was the best...with a squeeze of lemon, yum! I want to try to make that at home. The chicken and breadsticks were only alright.

Post-dinner we shared a corn dog from the truck near Carnation Plaza. Oh yeah, and we also shared a cherry lemonade while waiting for the fireworks. Yay for theme park food.