Allan's Photoblog
Home Invasion
Last night, while Hsuan was in Las Vegas for a meeting, W was volunteering at a hospital, and I was at a Boy Scout event, J was a victim at home alone of a home invasion armed robbery.
He’s very smart, and he survived unharmed. The robbers ransacked the house until they found our safe, which they had a hell of a hard time breaking into. J called me after they robbers left, and I left for home at once, after stupidly telling him I’d call 911 when I got home when he asked if he should call 911. Soon after, I thought “What was I thinking?” and tried calling him back to tell him to call 911, but I couldn’t get through. Luckily, the reason I couldn’t get through was that he was smart enough to ignore my advice, and he was calling 911 anyway. By the time I arrived home, about half a dozen or more police vehicles surrounded our house, and SWAT team members were securing the property, weapons out and ready. J was waiting on the sidewalk, talking to the police.
I may write more later, but it may be a very long time, if ever, before I feel like writing more. Our loss of property was inconsequential. I’m just relieved J is safe.
Disney World 2018 (Magic Kingdom, 8/8)
Despite their being teenagers, the boys say that the Magic Kingdom is still their favorite park, because, as J put it, “it’s the most Disney of the parks in Disney World.” I would have thought they’d have outgrown the kiddie rides, and to some extent they have, but I sense that they still enjoy the magic and spirit of Disney that only the Magic Kingdom has. I agree with that sentiment.
Disneyland is pretty much just a different version of the Magic Kingdom. It’s smaller and much more densely crowded than the Magic Kingdom, it has all of the same iconic rides, but it is also less hot and humid in the summer. I enjoy the rides at the Magic Kingdom, but it’s mostly the sense of being “in Disney” that makes it special.
My focus on Wednesday (8/8) was to do everything that James wanted, taking advantage of the nighttime Extra Magic Hours to squeeze in everything he could want. First thing upon arrival, in Tomorrowland, we rode Buzz Lightyear on standby (when the line was short), the Tomorrowland transit Authority People Mover (outdoor and elevated, but shaded; I got GoPro video), and the Carousel of Progress (which was indoor and air conditioned). We also got a family photo on the Memory Maker. After making some minor rearrangements early in the morning, I had also scheduled FastPass+ reservations for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (the Magic Kingdom’s newest ride), Splash Mountain (always a crowd favorite in the heat and humidity), and Pirates of the Carribbean (also an air conditioned, indoor favorite in the heat and humidity) early in the morning, not only to avoid long lines but also to make room — once the initial three FastPass+’s were used — to add more FastPass+’s later in the day. We also rode the Haunted Mansion right after Seven Dwarfs, while the standby line was relatively short, and we had lunch at the Columbia Harbour House right before Splash Mountain and right after the restaurant opened.
In the afternoon, we rode the Big Thunder Mountain roller coaster using the standby line (which was about 45 minutes), watched the Country Bear Jamboree, watched the Festival of Fantasy Parade (outdoors and hot and humid! I got GoPro video), watched Philharmagic (indoors and air conditioned!), rode the Jungle Cruise (new FastPass+), watched the Enchanted Tiki Room (indoor and air conditioned), and climbed the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse to kill time before dinner. (On the way up, I heard an African American woman say “Whose idea was it to climb all these stairs?”) Before the Jungle Cruise, we tried meeting Gaston near Gaston’s tavern, but the 4 PM line was closed by the time we got there, and we didn’t have time to catch the 5 PM line between the Jungle Cruise and our dinner reservation for 5:55 PM at the Jungle Navigation Company Skipper Canteen in Adventureland. We had light snacks from Gaston’s Tavern and killed a little time in a gift shop before returning to Adventureland for the Jungle Cruise.
BTW, in the men’s room near Rapunzel’s Tower in Fantasyland, I was charmed by the Tangled theming, and I noticed that the walls at the sinks were adorned by cast iron frying pans instead of mirrors. “I have got to get me one of these!"
All in all, though, we had a pretty full afternoon at the Magic Kingdom, well on our way to filling J’s intent to do everything that he was interested in.
At our last visit to the Magic Kingdom a couple of years ago, we ate for the first time at the Jungle Navigation Company LTD Skipper Canteen, a then-new table service restaurant themed on the Jungle Cruise ride with much of the same sense of humor. The food is hearty and flavorful, albeit not of the signature fine dining style (and not of that expense, either).
The only signature dining restaurant in the Magic Kingdom is Cinderella’s Royal Table, which is also character dining. We’ve never eaten there, and I couldn’t get a reservation at Be Our Guest at any time, although we weren’t really eager to eat there, having already done so in the past. However, we did enjoy our previous visit to the Jungle Navigation Co., so I had made dinner reservations here.
When we were shown to our table, our escort said, “Your server will be Frank. Good luck with that. I can’t guarantee anything.” When Frank later inquired if this was our first time, we said no, and he said, “And you survived? Welcome back!” As I said, Jungle Cruise humor.
J and I had a steak (and I had a couple of beers, Blue Moon), W had the sustainable fish, and Hsuan had the steak salad — that kind of fare.
After dinner, we went back to Tomorrowland to watch the Laugh Floor show, pausing on the way for a family photo in front of Cinderella’s Castle. Then we stopped by the Magic Kingdom Fireworks Dessert (pre-show) Party. I always enjoy the Magic Kingdom Fireworks evening show, the best fireworks show of any park in or out of Disney, but I’m always frustrated by less-than-optimal viewing locations. This time, I purchased (weeks ago) reservations for the dessert party, which is held in the Tomorrowland Terrace before the fireworks show and then allows attendees access to a special fireworks viewing area inthe Plaza Garden between the castle and the Tomorrowland Terrace. At $79/person (if I recall correctly), it wasn’t cheap and it wasn’t refundable, but given my past experience, I felt it worth the expense.
I really hate it when a really tall guy stands in front of me and then puts a little kid on his shoulders.
The Happily Ever After fireworks were scheduled for 9:15 PM, and seating began at 7:45 PM. We arrived a bit late, around 8:30 PM. The desserts at the buffet were small but plentiful. Clouds were above, and rainfall was in the area, according to Weatherbug on my iPhone. There was a little drizzle outside, and I was seriously wondering whether the fireworks show would proceed. Just after 9 PM, we put on ponchos and got an escort to the Plaza Garden viewing area, where I staked out a little place to take video. Light rainfall continued, and an announcement of a delay went out. However, at 9:26 PM, the show began, and we all got a great view (despite the light rainfall). I got video. (Oddly, iMovie shows the video starting at 7:26 PM, which isn’t the correct time for either the East Coast or the Pacific Coast. It shows the incorrect time zone for the PSP launch attempts later, too.)
The fireworks would have been a fitting end to our visit to the Magic Kingdom, but J was still on a quest to do everything he was interested in, so we went immediately to ride Buzz Lightyear again (on FastPass+, which I had reserved at dinner). I got over 300000 points, and when I tapped my Magic Band to get our photos, a young woman asked me “How did you do that? I was riding behind you, and I saw your score.” I told her to shoot the targets farther away to get a higher score.
We followed in standby lines with Peter Pan’s Flight (with its remarkable queue), It’s a Small World, and the Tomorrowland Speedway (W and J only, while H (who was in one of her bad moods) and I watched from the stands). Before W and J drove back, one of the cars started burning oil and putting out a lot of smoke, so it was removed from the line by a couple of the girls running the ride.
That was it for J, and on our way out, we stopped in front of Cinderella’s Castle for one last family photo.
Disney World 2018 (Epcot, 8/7)
Tuesday (8/7) was our day at Epcot, and it has become the traditional highlight of our Disney World vacations for me. Why? Because the World Showcase is home to restaurants highlighting cuisines from around the world, and the top restaurant, in my opinion, is Monsieur Paul in the France Pavilion. (It used to be Bistro de Paris.) Every time we go to Epcot, I make a reservation well in advance to have dinner at Monsieur Paul.
Of course, dinner is at the end of the day, and we had rides (and lunch) to enjoy before then. Epcot didn’t have morning Extra Magic Hours this day, so we entered with the regular crowd and made a beeline for Test Track, which is probably the most popular ride at Epcot for teens and adults. I was unable to get a FastPass+ for this ride, so it was important that we get there early in order to ride as a family. Otherwise, if we waited later in the day, we’d have to wait a long time (60+ minutes) together, or ride separately in the Single Rider line. I wanted to ride as a family.
We designed our virtual cars beforehand and enjoyed the ride, and then afterward the boys continued designing virtual cars while I checked out the Chevrolets. Then, while the boys continued enjoying the post-ride exhibits and while Hsuan got W something to eat, I went to Guest Relations to add another day to our five days in the parks. With the two additional days at Disney World due to the initial delay in the PSP launch, Hsuan, the boys, and I had discussed whether we would want to spend the extra days solely at the resort or spend some additional time at the parks. In the end, we decided that we’d spend Thursday at KSC, since W hadn’t been there since the STEREO launch, and we’d use Friday as a day to catch anything in the parks we might have missed. We wouldn’t spend the entire days at KSC or the parks on Thursday and Friday, so we could enjoy the pool at the resort as well. (Plus, I needed to rest before driving from Orlando to KSC after midnight on Friday night/Saturday morning.)
Our next ride was Mission: Space, for which we had a FastPass+. Since J is older, we decided to go on the Orange Team (more intense; spinning centrifuge) version of the ride. I was unaware of the changes that had been implemented since the last time we rode it. It looks like Gina Torres replaced Gary Sinise as capcom, and the introductory videos seem to be at higher resolution (hi-def vs. standard?). Although I really didn’t notice at the time, the Mars mission video during the ride has also been remastered at higher resolution, and I also found out later that the Green Team (less intense) now has an additional option of a mission to earth. I got some GoPro video during the ride, and I guess the in-ride video does look nice.
Our lunch reservation was at the San Angel Inn restaurant, inside the Mexico Pavilion’s pyramid. We often have Japanese for lunch at Epcot, but having recently travelled to Japan, we wanted something else. I had tried to get a reservation for lunch at the Hacienda de San Angel, but there was no availability even weeks before for lunch at that time. I’d have preferred the Hacienda, but we used to eat at San Angel before the Hacienda was built, so it was okay. I had a chili relleno dish for lunch, but I forgot what Hsuan and the boys had.
Interestingly, the lobby in the pyramid had exhibits related to the Pixar movie Coco, which was nice to see.
After lunch, we rode Spaceship Earth (FastPass+; it’s the educational history of information ride in the geodesic sphere at Epcot), and then we killed time at The Seas with Nemo and Friends, staying the cool, less-humid indoors watching the fish and dolphins in the aquariums.
We passed through Journey into the Imagination with Figment on the way back to World Showcase. That ride needs some serious updates, almost as bad as Innoventions, which is no longer open.
We took the boat across the World Showcase lagoon, and when we landed in the Morocco Pavilion, I heard the familiar sound of Taiko drumming coming from the Japan Pavilion. Those performances are always a favorite of mine, so I walked there and took a little video before our dinner at Monsieur Paul.
Dinner at Monsieur Paul is always an experience — calm, relaxed ambience, elegant service, and exquisite food beautifully presented. And, of course, it’s the most expensive meal we eat at Disney World, but overall, we find it worth the price.
Hsuan had black sea bass for her entree, and J had the roast suckling pig. However, in addition to the older Prix Fixe menu, Monsieur Paul has a new Prix Fixe tasting menu, which W and I both had. (For mine, I had the wine pairing with each course.) Our menu included:
- An amuse of beef tartare
- A grilled octopus, with bell pepper and corn fricassee, red pepper emulsion, and micro mustard greens
- Dover sole, tagliatelles, mushrooms, and creamy sabayon
- Verbena and mint sorbet
- Veal three ways, with spinach puree, carrots with mustard, and veal jus
- Selections of French cheeses
- And dessert
My dessert was a meringue with mango and coconut sorbets, vanilla Chantilly, and exotic fruit coulis, while W had caramelized apples with shortbread, vanilla cream, green apple sorbet, and caramel sauce.
Everything was beyond delicious. My French wines — none of the names of which I remember — were all delicious and perfectly paired, including the sparkling wine for dessert. The pairings also moved my meal from stupendously expensive to monstrously expensive, but I regret nothing.
Of note was our waitress, Jessica. Yes, she was very pretty — young, blonde, tall, and slender. As with all cast members in the World Showcase, she was from the country she represented. However, as pretty as she was — and Hsuan noted that all our female servers were pretty — what really caught my attention was her accent. An elegant, delicate French accent, of course. And something else.
I have something of an ear for accents, having grown up in the South, but I also took a class in the History of the English Language at Stanford, which included the topic of the variety of American and English accents. All week at Disney, I had been hearing a lot of English accents. English tourist families on holiday at Disney World. I had been hearing that lilting, somewhat melodic intonation that English mums use with their children all week. I suppose you either get used to the sound or you get tired of it, and sometime Anglophile though I may be, I was starting to get tired of the sound. I think it was the heat and humidity that made me less patient with things I’d normally accept
Anyway, I was hearing a hint of an English accent in Jessica’s voice, alternating with her French. Something like “Was eet delicious, m’sieu? Yes? Can oye get yew yer next ontray, luv?”
Okay, nowhere near that exaggerated; when I type it out, it reads Cockney, like Eliza Doolittle. Jessica's accent (both the English and the French, for that matter) was far subtler and more delicate -- maybe received pronunciation or a muted South London? My knowledge of English accents was never encyclopedic, and it’s weaker now. And of course, accents have evolved. The fact that her English accent sounded subtle to me probably places it as received pronunciation or South London, or something in between or a melding, rather than some regional accent, e.g. northern like Lancashire.
I had to know if she had at least a connection to England. So, I glanced at her name badge and asked where she was from in France. She said she was from a small town in the south of France (drat! farther away from England!) about two hours away south of Paris and two hours away from Toulouse (I think). Tourrette? Tourrettes? Tourreilles? Something with a T, on her name badge. I don’t recall, and Apple Maps shows a zillion small towns in the South of France beginning with T.
I apologized for pressing further, and I asked “Did you spend any time in England?”
She replied, “Ah, you caught that, did you? My father’s English, and my mother’s French. But I’m almost fully Americanized now. I’ve lived here almost ten years.”
I imagined that her French accent was consciously maintained and cultivated while at work. I mentioned that I had been hearing a lot of English accents in Disney World during the past few days.
I spent the rest of the evening and part of the next day feeling pretty smug about my ear for accents.
[Yes, because her mixed French/English (plus American?) accent caught my attention, I did find it attractive. However, that’s nothing compared to the strangely sexy British school-mum accent that some flight attendants used when I flew British Airways a few years ago. That was very discomfiting.]
Our final FastPass+ was the Illuminations fireworks show, a favorite of mine at Disney not only because of the show itself but also because the FastPass+ allows truly excellent viewing. I got video.
On the way out of the park, I noted that we had barely visited the pavilions in the World Showcase, so I wanted to spend Friday catching up, but J wanted to spend the extra day at the Magic Kingdom, presumably because we wouldn’t be able to see everything at the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday.
Disney World 2018 (Animal Kingdom, 8/6)
For our second day at Animal Kingdom Park, on Monday (8/6), we didn’t do the morning Extra Magic Hours, but we did make an early stop at the Kilimanjaro Safari ride to see the animals. It’s usually a far more popular ride late in the day, when people are tired and just want to sit while being driven around the animal enclaves.
Afterward, we immediately went on the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail (formerly the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail). The highlight for the crowd was watching a couple of young gorillas playing vigorously with each other, but they got tired in the heat and eventually fell asleep. I liked watching the big silverback in another section.
We then returned to Harambe for lunch in the Harambe market (using the mobile ordering feature on my My Disney Experience app), then saw the noon showing of UP! A Great Bird Adventure, and took another ride on Expedition Everest, because J really wanted to (and is no longer afraid of that particular roller coaster).
After Expedition Everest, we took a walk along the Maharajah Jungle Trek, where the highlight for me — by far — was getting some zoomed photos of a tiger keeping cool in a pool.
Afterward, in quick succession, we had a return viewing of Festival of the Lion King (2:30 PM arrival with FastPass+), another great ride on Flight of Passage in Pandora (using our FastPass+), and a wet ride on the Kali River Rapids (FastPass+). I got some nice footage with my new GoPro Hero on that one.
Dinner was at Tiffins, the new signature/fine-dining restaurant at Animal Kingdom, and first of its kind in the park. I had made reservations weeks before. I even passed by a restroom to dry off from the Kali River Rapids and change into a fresh shirt.
The meal, as is becoming usual at Disney World fine dining, was exquisite. We got the meal package that gave us special seating at the Rivers of Light show later in the evening. Our waiter, Giancarlo, gave us some excellent recommendations, which we took. The dining is very eclectic, worldwide, and the theming and decor mirror the Animal Kingdom park itself. For appetizer, Hsuan and I had the asparagus-leek soup with lump crab, W had charred octopus, and J had the Tiffin Signature Bread service (which we shared). For the main course, W had the whole fried sustainable fish, J had the beef tenderloin, and Hsuan and I had the surf and turf (lobster and beef tenderloin). I had an Argentinean Malbec that didn’t seem to show up on the bill, now that I look at it. For dessert, Hsuan had some sort of dessert sampler, J and I had the chocolate ganache, and W had the whipped cheesecake.
After another stellar dinner, we returned to Pandora. Why? In the movie, the plant life starts to glow after nightfall, and Pandora in Animal Kingdom didn’t disappoint. Almost everything either glowed or had tiny points of light come on after sunset. It was clear that many, many people in Pandora were there precisely for the light show.
Speaking of lights, the Rivers of Light show afterward was nice but otherwise not memorable. I’d rather see World of Color at California Adventure (from which Rivers of Light took some lighting effects).
Disney World 2018 (Hollywood Studios, 8/5)
At Hollywood Studios the next day, we again took advantage of morning Extra Magic Hours to arrive early at the park and get in line for Slinky Dog again, to experience the ride during the day. Just as fun. And you could see Star Wars land shaping up over some construction walls.
After the ride, while the boys did Toy Story Mania together, I went to Guest Relations at the entrance to the park. I had reserved Memory Maker weeks in advance. It’s a photo service that allows the purchaser to download all family photos taken on rides or by professional Disney photographers scattered throughout the parks. While I had had photos taken at Animal Kingdom the day before, and while I understood it could take a day or more for the photos to arrive on my iPhone app or my online account, I had become accustomed at Disneyland for photos to arrive within the hour, so I was concerned since Saturday that maybe Memory Maker hadn’t been activated properly for my Magic Band (the RFID/NFC bands we wear on our wrists at Disney World in lieu of park tickets, room keys, and even credit cards).
So I checked in with Justin at Guest Relations, who brought me to CK at the Photo office. After they both reassured me that it’s normal for photos to take a while, they also showed me my account online, showing the photos that had been taken before and linked to my Magic Band. Thus reassured that my photos were on their way, I went back to the rides. (I also wrote some nice feedback online to Disney, complimenting Justin and CK.)
For the rest of the day, we rode Star Tours (FastPass+, and the same experience as at Disneyland), the Alien Swirling Saucers in Toy Story Land (FastPass+; essentially the same ride mechanism as Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree in Cars Land at CA Adventure), Tower of Terror (FastPass+; the original ride; in CA Adventure, it has been rethemed to Guardians of the Galaxy), and saw the Indiana Jones and Beauty and the Beast shows. Dinner was at Mama Melrose’s Italian restaurant, which was the dinner package that included special seating at Fantasmic later that evening.
At the Star Wars Launch Bay, we saw a sickening video that concentrated on Star Wars appeal solely to girls, completely ignoring the influence Star Wars has on young boys. I made a comment out loud to that effect. But later, we got to do character meetings with Chewbacca (who chided J for having an R2-D2 and C-3PO pin but no Chewbacca pin), Kylo Ren (who asked “Will you learn the ways of the Dark Side of the Force with me?” to which W replied “Yes!”), and BB-8.
Later, we saw Fantasmic and were, in fact, the first people to arrive at our reserved seating location. We got our best seats ever.
Before leaving the park, we passed by for one last ride on Toy Story Mania as a family. W finally beat my score. My arms were sore.
Disney World 2018 (Animal Kingdom, 8/4)
From Friday night, 8/3, through Saturday morning, 8/11, we were at Disney World for our family summer vacation, with a day trip to Kennedy Space Center (for W) on Thursday (8/9) and for the first Parker Solar Probe launch attempt on Saturday morning.
We’ve been to Disney World several times (and Disneyland many times more) since the boys were born, so I’ll try to focus on the highlights. As I said before, I spent quite a lot of time and effort before the vacation making lunch and dinner reservations as well as making FastPass+ reservations for rides and shows, to avoid or reduce the amount of time spent waiting in lines. However, while we all still enjoy the rides, our biggest expenses were on the meals. I splurged on some really nice dinners.
Saturday (8/4) was our first day at Animal Kingdom. We arrived early (during Extra Magic Hours between 8 AM and 9 AM) to get in the early-morning line for Flight of Passage in Pandora, which is the land modeled after the movie Avatar. Despite signing up for FastPass+’s weeks in advance, I wasn’t able to snag a FastPass+ for Flight of Passage until Monday, which would be our second visit, so it was really important to me for us to try to get an early, non-FastPass+ ride, in case we liked it. I expected to like it, as it is one of the newest rides and very popular, based on the difficulty of getting the FastPass+.
And boy, did we enjoy the ride! First off, Pandora in Animal Kingdom is completely immersive, a step above the already-excellent Harry Potter areas at Universal Orlando, and the queue for Flight of Passage is yet another step above Pandora itself. The attention to detail in the Avatar lab is matched by the build-quality of the items, such that it feels like what a lab from the movie might feel like if it existed in the real world. (See the photos above.)
And then the ride itself uses the same kind of immersive front-view experience to simulate riding on the back of a banshee, but it’s a hundred times better than the “broom stick” ride of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Universal and maybe a thousand times better than Soarin’ at Disney (Epcot, or CA Adventure). For one thing, the Harry Potter ride depends much, too much on heaving the riders about to make them queasy. While there’s a ton of swooping, soaring, diving, etc. on Flight of Passage, it’s more consistent with the idea of a ride on a flying beast and less heaving around simply for the sake of challenging the riders not to throw up. I can ride regular roller coasters for that kind of crap. On the good side, it’s more cinematic, like Soarin, but with 3D glasses thrown in for extra immersion.
I was really glad we took the near-hour in line for this ride; we looked forward to doing it again with FastPass+ on Monday.
Afterward, we rode the Navi River ride in Pandora as well. It, too, is new with Pandora. The line was huge, but we had a FastPass+ for this one. It’s a nice, indoor river ride simulating a nighttime ride on a river in the world of Pandora.
We followed up the morning in Pandora with a the Festival of the Lion King, a ride on Expedition Everest (FastPass+), lunch at Yak and Yeti (reservation), the Finding Nemo show (FastPass+), and a ride on Dinosaur. We also spent a considerable amount of time in a shop, sheltering from the Orlando heat and humidity. We left Animal Kingdom late afternoon in order to return to the Boardwalk to wash up and rest before our dinner at Jiko at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.
When the boys were younger, we’d occasionally stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge when on vacation at Disney World. It’s a strong favorite of mine, because you can get a room with a view of the central savanna and watch the African animals roam around in the mornings or throughout the day. Or you can go down to the overwatch and get a closer view and perhaps talk to some African guides. The only downside to Animal Kingdom Lodge is that it isn’t in walking distance to any park (e.g. you can walk from Boardwalk to Epcot and even to Hollywood Studios, or take a boat), nor is it on the monorail, so you have to take buses and depend on them being on a regular schedule.
But another highlight of Animal Kingdom Lodge is its two restaurants, both African or African inspired. Boma is the all-you-can-eat buffet, but Jiko is the fine dining restaurant that mixes African, Mediterranean, and Indian cuisine. For me, African food isn’t just an unusual cuisine I don’t get very often. I find it delicious, like warm comfort food, and at Jiko, it’s elevated to fine dining. I got us a reservation at Jiko for Saturday evening, and it was as excellent as I had remembered it. In addition to appetizers, I had lamb (along with, I think, a South African red wine), W had elk, J had beef short ribs, and Hsuan had a seafood curry. After, we went down to the savanna overwatch for a while to watch the animals in the night.
The quickest route back to the Boardwalk from the Animal Kingdom Lodge involved taking a bus from AKL to Hollywood Studios, and then taking a boat (or walking — more on that later) to the Boardwalk. However, since we were arriving before 10 PM, I thought we might as well enter Hollywood Studios (taking advantage, one time, of our Park Hopper option on our tickets) to see the Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular show, which was basically a projection of scenes from the movies on to some buildings along with some fireworks and other lighting effects.
But, I had one more thing up my sleeve: The show ended around 10:15 PM, while the park closes at 10:30 PM. We walked to the new Toy Story Land which had just opened a few weeks earlier. The new land is a Toy Story themed area that includes not only the Toy Story Mania ride (like the Midway Mania ride in CA Adventure) but also the new Slinky Dog roller coaster and the Alien Swirling Saucers. I was completely unable to get a FastPass+ for Slinky Dog in the weeks before our vacation, despite my signing up at the earliest possible date. Those FastPasses must have disappeared in minutes.
But, I knew that if we got in line before park closing, we would be allowed to stay in line until we got on the ride. So we did, and we finally rode the ride in the dark hours. The roller coaster isn’t challenging in terms of speed or strong drops, climbs, or turns, but it swoops around a very large area of Toy Story Land, providing a very enjoyable experience.
Toy Story Land itself, by the way, is very well done, like immersing yourself at green army man level in Andy’s bedroom with toys strewn everywhere.
After the ride, we tried walking back to the Boardwalk, which should have been a 19 minute walk, but the MyDisneyExperience app that I was using for navigation times didn’t account for construction in the way, and it took almost 40 minutes for us to get back.
Camping; Florida 2018 (7/29-8/3)
The week after COSPAR, J went on our Boy Scout troop’s annual campout at Camp Cherry Valley on Catalina Island. This was his third year, and he served as a patrol leader, helping the new scouts get early sign-offs and rank advancements, in addition to earning his own merit badges.
Meanwhile, W, Hsuan, and I stayed home. I had let our scoutmaster know that, if he needed another adult leader, I could go on the campout with a week’s notice. Fortunately, he never called me, and it seemed that they had enough adult leaders after our troop’s Philmont trek for the summer was also cancelled. Unfortunately, Geoff, on of my fellow assistant scoutmasters, who was scheduled to go on the campout, had his back problem flare up, and he cancelled the Thursday before the Sunday departure. He’s had back problems before, and I think that surgery can no longer help. His cancellation came too late for me to take his place, so they were short-staffed.
It was fortunate for me that I didn’t go, because I had another conference — SHINE 2018 — in Cocoa Beach the week after J got back from CCV. I had never attended SHINE before, but this particular SHINE was scheduled for the week of the Parker Solar Probe launch. Since I have worked on PSP, I got an invitation to attend the launch along with four additional guests (my family, plus one student who had worked for us at Caltech). By attending SHINE, I could get my part of our family’s travel paid for by work, as business travel, and then after SHINE, we could go on a family vacation at Disney World in Orlando. I submitted an abstract for a poster on SEP charge states.
The PSP launch was then postponed from 7/31 (during the SHINE conference) to 8/4 (right when our Disney vacation was supposed to start) and then to 8/11, well after we had been scheduled to leave (8/9). With the delays, and given that this rocket launch was a once in a lifetime opportunity, we extended our vacation to 8/13. (Kennedy Space Center would host guests for the launch for only two launch attempts. If 8/11 was scrubbed, another attempt would be 8/12, and that was all that we could see at KSC. Besides, the boys had to return home soon for school.) For the extension, we added two more days at Disney (including one more day, later, at the parks) and two days at Universal Orlando (one day in the parks).
In the months before SHINE, I had spent considerable time planning our travel: Extensive lunch and dinner reservations at Disney World, plus FastPass+ reservations for rides or shows. A big consideration was for lodging in Cocoa Beach for SHINE. My original plan was for the four of us to stay in a very nice vacation condo rental at Discovery Beach Resort, not very far from the hotels (Hilton Cocoa Beach, Courtyard by Marriott) where SHINE was being held. For less than the cost of two hotel rooms at SHINE rates, we got a two bedroom condo with two bathrooms, a kitchen, and laundry, facing the beach outside our balcony. Free wifi and cable, including televisions in both bedrooms and the living room. Pool, game room, on the beach. It was a sweet set-up.
Unfortunately, W decided he’d spend a week with his cross country team at some gathering in Mammoth and then fly out to join us on Friday. That left J with the two bed bedroom to himself (with a television and wifi). He had convinced Hsuan to bring along a full wireless keyboard, so he used her computer to hole up in his room and play games while watching television.
I spent most of my week at the conference, listening to plenary talks, attending working group sessions, and putting up my poster. (I learned that there are at least two printers in the Pasadena area who will print fabric posters for scientific conferences at a reasonable price, so I did mine a few days before leaving.)
I usually left the conference for lunch and/or dinner with Hsuan and J.
Unfortunately, the conference fell short in a number of ways for me. Although the session to which I submitted my poster included in its description questions about what we can learn from ionic charge states as applied to magnetic field configurations in CMEs and ICMEs, it seemed most of the attendees to the session were interested in magnetic flux rope calculations and not at all interested in charge states, so I got no visitors to my poster (when I bothered to go), and I didn’t really feel like I could contribute to the actual working group session. So far, nobody has bothered to e-mail me. (Contrast this to COSPAR, where at least I got a couple of questions after my talk.)
I should have submitted my abstract and poster to the solar energetic particles working group(s).
Another major way that the conference fell short is that it has apparently grown too big to be an actual workshop, which is what it is billed as. In a workshop, I expect smaller working groups to gather and at least get a start on analyzing data to work on specific questions. With so many people giving talks, the sessions were mainly presentation sessions rather than working groups. I didn’t see how anything could get done, or even started.
Wednesday (8/1) afternoon was free time from the conference, but after attending the morning plenary session, I decided to skip the rest of the day and go to Kennedy Space Center with Hsuan and J. Nicky Fox had made arrangements for SHINE attendees to get a free pass to KSC, but that hadn’t come through, so we paid for admission on Wednesday.
Highlights of our visit were, first and foremost, the Apollo/Saturn V center with its actual Saturn V rocket on display, followed next by the Atlantis shuttle and the Space Shuttle Simulator ride.
Thursday night, we found out that W’s flight out of Mammoth had been canceled by the FAA, so he had no way of getting to us. He wouldn’t be able to fly the redeye to reach us on Friday morning. Hsuan spent some time on the phone making alternative arrangements for him, which ultimately involved him taking a bus from Mammoth to Mojave, where he’d be picked up at the bus stop by Hsuan’s sister and brother-in-law, who would drive him to LAX to catch a flight to Orlando. He wouldn’t arrive in time to join us for dinner Friday evening.
Meanwhile, the free tickets to KSC finally came through, so on Friday (8/3), after checking out of the condo (and my making one final stop by SHINE), we returned to KSC to try to catch things we hadn’t seen at the Visitor Complex. The main thing was the Heroes and Legends exhibit, including the Astronaut Hall of Fame. I found the plaque for John Grunsfeld, with whom I had worked during my first year as a grad student at Caltech, so that was a big highlight for me. We also saw Jim Lovell’s Boy Scout sash as well as the new crew capsules — Starliner, Orion, and Dragon.
Once done with KSC, we drove to Disney world and checked into our room at the Boardwalk Resort, and then we went to Disney Springs to have our dinner at Morimoto Asia. I had a lot of sushi, Hsuan had Japanese/Korean bibimbap, and J had the best short ribs ever.
Hsuan dropped off our rental car back at the airport later that night. She met W at the airport, and together they took the Magical Express back to our resort.