Surviving L.A. - a California Adventure!

Walt Disney World Resort just outside Orlando is an ever-expanding complex of parks, hotels, shopping areas, entertainment areas, hotels, communities, golf courses, more hotels, more shopping and some studios. It got big enough it decided to become its own incorporated town.





On the other hand (or coast), Disneyland is, well, land-locked. It does not have the neighboring swampland to drain and build on. From the monorail you can see the busy streets that border the park. But they did manage to make "Disney's California Adventure" which is not Walt Disney's wild rise to fame and power from his drawing table, but rather an attempted celebration of the state that gave him the opportunity to make a mouse larger than life.

Leave it to the minds that thought a car riding through dark rooms with pop-ups of the evil witch from Snow White would make a great kids ride to come up with a park where the process for making tortillas is an attraction. Yes, Mission Tortilla has a 'factory' in the park where you can watch how tortillas are made. It's right next to the building where you can watch sour dough bread bowls made. That, at least, is lent the humor of commedians Rosie O'Donnell and Colin Mocherie. But still, it's the history of sour dough bread. Does this justify your $70?

The concept behind the park is to highlight great things that shape and illustrate California. There is a mini Golden Gate Bridge, a pier with rides, a winery, a wild water ride through a mountain forest setting, rides through a backlot, a mini Hollywood sign, and a fake street that is ALMOST perfect. If it's supposed to be a street in L.A., they painted the sky entirely too blue. But in acknowledgment to the industries that helped build CA, there is a backlot, a hanger and an amazing simulated flight over California in a nod to the aviation industry, the two food factories, a winery (because who doesn't want a lovely cabernet before riding a roller coaster with "Screamin'" in the title?), and a simulated state park.

To be fair, the factory tours were short and mildly interesting and you did get a sample of each item. Probably the first thing Disney has ever given away for free. And they did make for a good place for us to go inbetween rides and let my occasionally-motion-sick stomach settle before the next ride.

There was part of the adventure I could have done without. The sourdough bread company has its roots in California's gold rush more than 150 years ago. A man who baked bread for miners started a bakery that become the company. For the non-bakers among us....sourdough bread has no yeast; its "rising" is enabled by a bacterial mixture in the dough. So when miners would make a batch, they would retain a small bit from each batch to 'start' the next days batch. That process of saving a bacteria-laden piece of dough daily is still done today, from the same starter dough that started the business 150 years ago. I realize it's highly unlikely, but yet technically possible that the bacteria rising bread today is a 150-year-old original. I try not to think about it.

In walking the clean, simulated streets of California, one might be intrigued by the industries they chose NOT to include in the park. While there is plenty of automation in the park, there is no outward acknowledgement of Silicon Valley. No surfing in a wave pool. No papprazzi roaming the park for tabloid smut.

No displays for Larry Flynt or Hugh Heffner and their version of smut, no acknowledgement of the porn industry. California cannot survive without these things! Just imagine THAT theme park....

Well, okay, we want to accentuate the positive, I get that. And it all makes for a rather enjoyable park, despite the presence of giant spiders in the A Bug's Life-inspired show, which is completely unnecessary.

If the park is a little taste...highlight reel, if you will....of California as a whole, Richard and I have a lot of places to go do. The park attempts to carry the variety of this big state from the lush northern forests, to the prosperous farm lands to the arid desert vistas, to exciting cities, we have a lot to explore.

In 2009, Disney parks are free for you on your birthday....we'll go with you! Because now that we know about the Adventure that is California, it's a little easier to survive L.A.

The Shadow of the Mouse

Once upon a time in a land far, far away, a young girl lived in the shadow of the mouse. When eventually, she moved from Orlando to DC, she thought perhaps she was escaping the reign of whatever evil villan had taken over the "Happiest Place on Earth" and turned it into an expensive day of standing in long lines.

But the young girl has learned to stop saying never - because the evil queen looked into whatever crystal ball and casted a spell that has our heroine living, once again, among the Disney obsessed. Just for good measure, the evil queen made sure that just outside our heroine's office door sits a Disney-obsessed co-worker. This character has 2 daughters who both have birthdates close to hers, so they have an annual Princess Birthday party. For ALL of them. I understand that at least some level of dress-up is involved.



The Disney Empire is a little more spread out in L.A. compared to Orlando. Some of the main studios are in Burbank, a ways away from Disneyland's home in Anaheim, but it is as Disney as you would expect. The building has 7 pillars across the front....one of Snow White's dwarf's on each.

Will our heroine ever be able to live happily ever after, co-existing the long arm of the Mouse? Perhaps a few nights of Sing-a-long Little Mermaid at Disney's El Capitan theater in Hollywood will bring her around.

But the question remains....can she survive Disney? Let's take a look...........

Richard has long thought the Happiest Place on Earth was a farmhouse in Remsen, IA. It is located near the 'ice cream capital of the world' afterall, so it's hard to argue with that logic. But we figured we'd give this place a fair shot at changing his mind. We went to investigate the claim for ourselves, and were fortunate enough to have our friend Mark in town - an experienced Disneyland guide - who ushered us through the park and helped keep us sane. Well, only so sane....we did end up buying an annual pass to the place so we can go any time we want...we may have lost our minds.

Apparently my family came to Disneyland when I was very small. I have no memory of it and the only thing I ever really knew about it was my older brother's not-so-glorious description of the place; "Disneyland could fit in Disney World's parking lot."

After years of being dragged to Walt Disney World (WDW) because yet another friend or relative had come to Orlando to visit and having to stand in line for '90 minutes from this point ->' for a ride I'd been on 236 times and I knew was not worth more than a 5-minute wait, I was admittedly apprehensive about just how much I might like Disneyland.

For anyone who has been to Disney World I can tell you one aspect of the attraction is definitely worth the price of admission: Realizing that this was the original, conceived and built in the 1950's, and that Disney World is the 2.0 version. There is fascination in identifying the similarities and differences between the two parks and trying to determine exactly why they thought the original Space Mountain needed to be changed when they built it in Orlando, but the Mr. Toad's Wild Ride had universal appeal the way it was. Or, for that matter, why the Mr. Toad's Wild Ride translated into the new Orlando park while the other carbon copies with different story lines (Alice in Wonderland) did not.

And why (for that matter ;-) Mr. Toad's was replaced by Pooh in Orlando, while the Pooh ride in Disneyland got it's own new area in Critter Country, and Mr. Toad still offers his wild ride to all Anaheim takers. Why is Splash Mountain a 2-person-to-a-row boat ride in WDW, but a sit-behind-each-other log flume in Disneyland? Why did the Mattahorn bobsled, with its secret-yet-everyone-knows-about-it-basketball court, not make the move East? What was Walt thinking?

There are smaller similarities and differences that surprised me. There is a New Orleans-themed street in Disneyland that does not exist in WDW. The WDW Swiss Family Robinson Tree House belongs to Tarzan in Disneyland. The Space Mountain in Disneyland kicks WDW's buttocks.

What did not surprise me - the Jungle Cruise in both parks uses the same terrible jokes, and the Haunted Mansion needs upgrading in both parks. And if you favor the Orlando park, you should petition for an Indiana Jones ride. One of the best rides of the day in Disneyland.

I did learn one very important lesson for the day I'd like to share with you, if you show up in the morning and Splash Mountain is closed for repairs, just stay off the thing all day. Because if they have drained it and then refilled it before you get on, the water must be at a high level that takes a while to even out through evaporation and removal on the shirts of soaked patrons. I know this because we did more than our fair share of removing water from the ride once it was re-opened. I've been on rides like that before, Richard and Mark have too. Never have any of us been so thoroughly soaked as that day. Proof I am not exaggerating for effect? The boat we were in had so much water in the bottom of it, they had to take it out of commission to drain it after we had gotten out. Apparently that 6 inches of water in the bottom was, in fact, not normal. Who knew?

For those of you who have gotten this far and think this all sounds a little mundane for the Los Angeles Crazies.....consider this. There are not one but 2 locations in Disneyland where you can buy McDonald's fries. And no other food. No burgers, no chicken strips, no Happy Meals...just a whole food kiosk devoted to McDonald's fries. So popular, they had to open a second location. Hungry?

As for my brother's assertion about size (why are boys always obsessed with size?), Disneyland is much smaller, though they have added a sizeable (and fun!) Toon Town and Critter Country since he was there as a young boy. But the most striking size difference hits you when you enter the park. Both initial experiences are similar....enter the turnstile and pass through the train station to Main Street USA. The street might be a little smaller in Disneyland, but the thing that will immediately catch any WDW frequent visitor's eye is the castle at the other end. It was shrunk by one of the Disney villians. I'm not lying, I laughed. Apparently Sleeping Beauty ('owner' of the Disneyland homestead) is not doing as well in this economy as Cinderella, who orders servants around in WDW.

For a couple of fabulous side-by-side pictures of similar attractions in each site, visit http://www.disneygeek.com/dland_vs_wdw/.

Our conlcusion is that it lacks the happiness found on the Iowa farm....but, it will do for an occasional day out for us. Unlike the 47-square miles of all the WDW theme parks in Orlando, the only other thing here in L.A. is the California Adventure. We have not been yet, but we have annual passes now...so darn it, we're going! And I can tell you without reservation - California is an adventure. And we're surviving it!!

'Fall'-ing for traditions

Sure, L.A. has its own traditions and we are trying to learn them. But we are not abandoning our traditions of old. It is fall, afterall, and fall means cooler weather (well, not here) and changing leaves (um...not so much) and football!!

There are challenges to living 3 hours behind our friends and family on the East Coast (2 behind the Iowa contingent), but there is the occasional silver lining. Such as being able to watch all of a Monday Night Football games without needing to stay up to ridiculous hours. It may be a challenge to have to find places to have brunch with the early Giants and Redskins games at 9 a.m. PST (and just what tailgating drink goes with scrambled eggs and hashbrowns?), we'll take that as a trade-off to not having to fall asleep at half-time of a Sunday night game and wake up to find that the Jets pulled off a Farve comeback and we really should have stayed up.

But if you are in L.A., what better way to kick-off a new football season than in the Grandaddy of Bowl Game stadiums...the Rose Bowl. Whether or not you are in love with college football, I highly recommend the Rose Bowl experience. Afterall, who doesn't want yams as a half-time treat? (Yup, yams....as well as tri-tip and churros. Isn't that what you cook at a tailgate?) I do not, however, recommend sitting in a large sea of the Orange of the Tenessee Volunteers when the Bruins pull off the upset of opening weekend football. ;-) Okay, it's not the yams that are the attraction. The stadium is steeped in history and lore, and there are lots of great seats.

The first Tournament of Roses was staged in 1890by members of Pasadena's Valley Hunt Club, former residents of the East and Midwest eager to showcase their new home's mild winter weather."In New York, people are buried in snow," announced Professor Charles F. Holder at a Club meeting. "Here our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear. Let's hold a festival to tell the world about our paradise." (Good thing I was not on that committee!)During the next few years, the festival expanded to include marching bands and motorized floats. The games on the town lot included ostrich races, bronco busting demonstrations and a race between a camel and an elephant (the elephant won, unlike in the 2008 elections!). Reviewing stands were built along the Parade route, and Eastern newspapers began to take notice of the event. In 1895, the Tournament of Roses Association was formed to take charge of the festival, which had grown too large for the Valley Hunt Club to handle.In 1902, the Tournament of Roses decided to enhance the day's festivities by adding a football game – the first post season college football game ever held. Stanford University accepted the invitation to take on the powerhouse University of Michigan, but the West Coast team was flattened 49-0 and gave up in the third quarter. The lopsided score prompted the Tournament to give up football in favor of Roman-style chariot races. In 1916, football returned to stay and the crowds soon outgrew the stands in Tournament Park. William L. Leishman, the Tournament's 1920 President, envisioned a stadium similar to the Yale Bowl, the first great modern football stadium, to be built in Pasadena's Arroyo Seco area. In 1922, the Pennsylvania team of Washington and Jefferson was enough of a East Coast powerhouse to be invited to the Bowl Game to play California. The lengthy preview article extolled the vitrues of the California team and ended with the sentence: "The only thing I know about Washington and Jefferson is that they are both dead." Admittedly, Washington and Jefferson lost that game miserably, but we stood in the stadium where it happened and we are better (entertained) for it. But the game garnered enough money for a new playspace to be built.

The new stadium hosted its first New Year's football game in 1923 and soon earned the nickname "The Rose Bowl." Never mind your high-tech new fangled stadiums...classic does just fine. It seems weird to tailgate on a golf course, but when in L.A..........well, we have to do what we can in the absence of any NFL games to go to here. (We're not quite ready to be Chargers fans ;-)