Some observations about our trip:
It seems like our two days at the beach were every bit as fun as our three days in the park. It was hot and much more crowded than we thought it would be for a Tues-Wed-Thurs pass.
The new ticket confirmation system involves the employee at the gate taking your picture with an iPhone the first day, and then s/he scans your ticket and compares the photo with you on subsequent days. This took a looooooooong time to get through the lines. I ran into a woman in one of the lines who was more than a little bit nervous about the privacy issues regarding Disneyland Corp/ABC keeping photos of all guests in the park. I told her not to worry - the mouse is pretty much a subsidiary of the NSA anyway. Mickey can even tell what you think. (Sometimes I think I'm way funnier than I really am.)
The drive seemed longer this time. It wasn't longer (unless California is slowly slipping into the ocean) but it seemed longer. I found that I had a great amount of sympathy for people who drive in the Los Angeles area every day. I was incredulous at the times of day they are subjected to stop-and-go traffic. The SLC spaghetti bowl - what I consider the pinnacle of UDOT traffic engineering-ness - repeats itself over and over and over in Southern California. Sorry guys - your traffic stinks.
I dragged the SLR camera around a lot. It wasn't bad. No really. I had a relatively small camera bag, and it worked really well even on the rough rides. The workers never gave me any static although one of the cast members on Star Tours repeated the "stow bags and cameras under your seat" speech very slowly. It was really hard to pretend I didn't hear her (twice.)
I brought the fancy gorillapod tripod Mary gave me with mixed results. It was nice to have; I didn't use it much. Partly a trust issue - not sure I want to leave my camera suspended on a fence railing unattended - and partly it was just so crowded that getting a good shot seemed tricky. I was able to shoot Mary and I at the picnic area (and nearly catch Mimi tipping the stroller over) and long exposure shots of the pretend waterfall and the Mickey Ferris Wheel.
What was awesome was the fancy 10-22mm ultra wide angle lens. This was really, really nice to shoot. It meant that I could be closer to the backdrops than the other photographers giving us the better backdrop. We even got a shot of the whole Dixon clan with almost no interference from other guests. Note the picture below - it was very, very busy when we took that shot. California Adventure had closed early (to accommodate a company renting the entire park for the evening) which sent guests scurrying to the Disneyland side. I carried that one and the 24-105 general purpose lens. I also brought my smaller flash the last day at the park. The smaller flash was really nice to fill in shadows with the sun. (We didn't see a cloud any of our three days at the park.) I was very pleased with my picture of the Thompsons on the back side of the train depot.
And here we go - three days of park - two days of beach in no particular order. A few bits of commentary interspersed.
Don't hang on the bar - Don't hang on the bar - Don't hang on the bar - Don't hang on the bar - Don't hang on the bar - Don't hang on the bar - Don't hang on the bar - Don't hang on the bar - Don't hang on the bar - Don't hang on the bar
Yes - this is Tommy wearing a Tommy tshirt posing as the Hulk in front of Lego Hulk.
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Some people wave - I snap pictures.
Ellie even got an autograph
Radiator Springs was absolutely beautiful.
Long exposures using the gorillapod sitting on top of some trash cans
You have to look over here for the picture. Good job Ellie!
Long exposures of the mouse and the fake waterfall
The Jungle Cruise is always funny. They update the jokes, right?
Indiana Jones - always awesome.
Mimi fell in love with the Tea Cups.
A little bit of a story.
Mary may have taken a handful of gorgeous pictures of a tide pool at Corona del Mar with our slightly out of focus family obscuring some of the water. Wanting to make it up to me, she offered to take a picture of Tommy and I on Splash Mountain. Wanting to make sure Mary knew which was was us, I shouted, stood up a little bit, and waved my hat as we emerged from the tunnel into the plunge. I may (may, mind you) have successfully blocked all four members of a family seated behind us. This may (may, mind you) have resulted in some sad faces when they went to see themselves in the picture afterwards.
Sorry :(
Yes - I am THAT guy.
The family looked much better in Mary's picture. Unfortunately we don't know who they are to send it to them.
Thank you 10mm!
Really happy with the fill flash - what a handsome family!
You can't tell this area was a teaming madhouse of crazed vacationers. It looks like we nearly had the park to ourselves.
Theme tshirts are ALWAYS cool if you pick a superhero theme. (not as cool with My Little Pony.)
Heather caught this photo of a giant seagull attacking us.
Stroller tips in 3. . . 2. . .
