Best childhood ever!

Revisited August 2011

(yup, it’s been 40 years)

Frontier and Adventure Lands are still my favorites. Behind me is the line for Splash Mountain, at that time with a 75-minute wait. But when Kari and I got there first thing in the morning, we were on in less than five minutes! We also fit in Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones well before 10:00. The lines went downhill after that.

We chose Rancho del Zocalo (the Mexican joint, naturally) for lunch (surprise).

This was taken in FantasyLand while we were waiting to get on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride or Peter Pan... dunno what these flowers are, and I haven’t seen any like them before. The Matterhorn was closed (boo), and after going on Space Mountain, we both decided we’d had enough of the fast rides.

Day 1: We're goin' to DisneyLand!

While waiting in line for one of the rides, I texted Steve that we were at DisneyLand yadda-yadda, who at the time was in Laramie, Wyoming on his cross-country trip back from Pennsylvania with Heather, who requested a picture of Winnie the Pooh if we saw him. One disappointment this go-round was the lack of characters roaming the Park, but the Pooh gang had their own set-up for picture taking next to Splash Mountain. Kari and I patiently waited like all the other kids for our turn. :)

Tee-hee, Tigger was a total ham and quite the ladies' man!

This actually turned into one of my favorite parts of the day, and certainly the cutest... the shade didn’t hurt, either.

I misremember the name of the parade, and the tree was in the way (but again, good shade ;)) and we were pretty far away. It looked good in person, though, and afterward I had an urge to watch 101 Dalmatians.

And Steve, The Donald is for you!

This is Asimo, a robot made by Honda that was being demonstrated at the Innovations exhibit in TomorrowLand. It moves very smoothly, including running and climbing stairs, which is apparently a large feat for a robot, and operates by voice command. Basically it's designed to do various chores, and may eventually be used for things such as hazardous clean-ups, like the nuclear power plant disaster in Japan.

Day 2:

Yay, Visits!

(Part 1)

Bob and June have been in this house in San Dimas for 16 years, and they have gorgeous

views of the valley and downtown Los Angeles. Bob had a 1000-same-shape-piece

jigsaw puzzle going. June made us yummy wet burritos and fresh peaches for lunch.

Bob is now 84 and June is 88, and wow, are they looking and doing good!

Day 2:

Yay, Visits!

(Part 2)

Kari and I met Bobby, his

wife Chris, and Martha (a

legend in my family's

memories) for dinner at El

Cholo, where I had sweet

green corn tamales for the

first time... gotta love

Mexican food twice in

one day! Martha gave me

a lovely photo book of

Payne/Sykes memories.

<3

Bobby and Chris. Bobby teaches PE and

Science at Imperial MS. Chris also teaches,

and they have two boys: Chad who's almost

18, and Kevin, 14.

Day 3: Huntington Beach, baby!

We had originally planned to go to Corona del Mar, but when Kari found out the Snack Shack there was closed, we decided to go to Huntington Beach instead. It's where I remember going as a kid, and we got to have Strips, our favorite, for lunnnch... Also bought an order of them to give to Mike. Btw, he loved them!

Okay, the surf was seriously perfect... wild enough to be fun and a thrill for me, but not too rough like it can sometimes get.

Hours in the water with my iPhonewas soooomuch fun!

Photo by Kari :)

Payne (now blue :p) Sykes (now green :p)

Davis

Kelly(they stilllive there!)

Haha, the house on the hill that used to be behind all the trees, that we kids thought was soooo big and scary! :D

Buena

Vista

And our final stop down Memory Lane, the end to three days of perfection...