Disneyland Adventure!

Wednesday - July 31 -- Disneyland

The Lord blessed us with wonderful weather and a timely commute to Anaheim to see Disneyland. Dave took way too many photos... AGAIN. (about 350)

This is me, Mom, and Joyce off on a horse-drawn trolley ride.

Cassie-this photo is for you...

We did see some other famous people along the way...

Joshua - do you recognize this guy?

Highlights included a trip to the Magic Kingdom

 A couple train rides...

A trip aboard the Mark Twain steamboat

Another favorite was the "It's a Small World" ride...

And the "Beauty and the Beast" Show...

And the Soundsational Parade (of which I have an abundance of colorful photos)...

Joyce booked us at a hotel that is just across from the entrance of Disneyland. So that worked out really great. It's name is the Park-Vue...

We checked into our room about 8:30.  Mom and Joyce were too tired to head back for the fireworks, but I headed back about 8:50 here to see the 9:30 show.  The rumor going around the crowd was that Disney spends about $45,000 each week on fireworks.  Don't know about that, but those fireworks were amazing - took more photos, but few turned out....here are a couple.

The photos don't come close to doing the show justice.  Also loved seeing Tinkerbell and Dumbo flying over the castle. Amazing!

Finished the night with a ride on the monorail ...

 and the Peter Pan "boat show,"

Got back to the room about 11 pm - everyone was sleeping...

Good night!

Tuesday - July 30 -- LA - Day 3

Thrift Shop & Errands were on the agenda in the morning this day.  A visit to the bank - to AAA - to Goodwill and more.

Lenora drove us around again.  Dan met us for lunch at the Souplantation.  Great place...

Took some photos of Dan & Lenora's beautiful house...

Enjoyed the opportunity to say hi to Keith and his wife and their two little ones - Abigail and Tommy.

 We played some Crazy 8's and Old Maid with Abigail -- Alf puppets and Doctor with Tommy. Fun kids. Tommy has quite an imagination and Abigail is always thinking of questions to ask.  Ask Joyce what Tommy saw in her ears while he was playing doctor...

Also had the difficult task of saying good-bye the California Paynes -- it was so nice to see and stay with them. It was sad it was only four days. We will miss Dan, Lenora, and Sapphire...

 

Now it is on to Disneyland...

Love to all!

D

Monday - July 29 -- LA @ The Huntington Library

Today we spent the day at the Huntington Library in Pasadena.  Lenora drove - traffic not so crazy - even seemed do-able for us if not at rush hour.

Huntington is huge - we only had 4 hours or so - Dan was able to join us after a meeting.

Got to see our first orange trees. (No pics)

Amazing museum of European and American art - two separate buildings out of the many beautiful buildings on the grounds.

I especially liked the gallery of Madonnas.

 Above is the famous painting of Dr. Samuel Johnson by Sir Joshua Reynolds

This photo is for Joyce -- see the rooster announcing Dawn

Sadly the library with all the old manuscripts - Chaucer, Shakespeare, Blake, Dickens, etc was closed until November!

 Saw the Shakespeare Garden.

 

This garden with its beautiful flowers was a magnet for hummingbirds.

Lots of statuary - mostly mythological figures.

Huge rose garden

We close today with classic Andy Warhol and one of my favorite soups...