Tiny Towns in Back Seat Windows

A week or so ago my Mom texted out this photo to the fam, showing a tiny town displayed with boldness in a car's back window.  It's so cute!! Wish I could have seen it in person.  What a cool idea this is.

Then today, while heading to Target, a vintage red car drove by, also a little town in their back window.  It happened so fast as they sped through the turn lane, but the small glance I could glean showed a feat for the eyes and imagination.  Another little city I wish to explore.

Is this a thing with some vintage cars to build these little towns? Or maybe it's a local car club that's doing this.  Well, it's awesome.  A dash of joy in an otherwise samey day.

 

If this is a trend I hope it picks up and spreads. 

Talking about vintage cars, I don't know how they do it in other states, but in Utah a vintage car can get a special license plate with a silhouette of a vintage car.  Well, a couple months ago, while waiting in the drive through at the local Dairy Queen, there was this elderly couple ahead of us in a vintage 70's car getting ice-cream. Seriously the cutest thing ever!! Really, it was just romantic. But their 70's car had that vintage license plate... and it's just the weirdest thing to realize the 70's is now vintage. Random thought. :P 

Vintage cars are cool.... mainly cars pre-70's. :P

Sarah

Many Firsts at Disneyland

 This is my last Disneyland post chronicling my recent trip to the Magic Kingdom.  I've somehow managed to create about seven blog posts out of just that one day visit.  Can you imagine how many posts I'd create if I stayed several days, or a week at Disney World?  The possibilities!  (I've never been to Disney World; someday I'll make it).  I've been to Disneyland so many times over the years I'm well into 30-40+ visits.  I've lost track.  So doing anything new at the park is a wonder, which made this visit all the more special as I got to experience many firsts.  

Starting out my family was Mickey's "Guest of the Park," getting a special badge, free parking, and a special parking spot.  Below are some more, new aspects to Disneyland/California Adventures.

 Star Tours: The Adventure Continues opened Summer 2011 with sparkly 3-D and many ride combinations.  Taken from Wikipedia: "There are eleven random segments of the film (two opening segments, three primary destination segments, three hologram message segments, and three ending destination segments; when combined, they allow 54 different possible ride experiences.) which are presented in the ride."

The Original Star Tours, which opened in 1987 and was my first exposure to Star Wars, was getting a little boring, though I will always remember it was great fondness.  As fun as the new ride is, I miss those robots!  The father and son robot team you hear talking in the line and the ships pilot.  Well, whenever I feel nostalgic I can listen to the original via "Star Wars: An Audio Retrospect" which came with this book I got . . . "I know this is probably your first flight and it's . . . mine too."  That never got old.  Poor Rex got his memory erased after each flight! You can read the original script here.

 California Adventure, at Disneyland, opened World of Color in June 2010.  I had heard so much about this show, seeing videos and watching behind the scenes, that I couldn't wait to finally see the show 2 years after it's opening.  Long time waiting, but it really is amazing.  Tip: make sure the first thing you do when you get to the park is get a World of Color Fast Past.  Fast Past's are typically used for rides, but here they use it for seating sections.  The sooner you get your fast past, the better the section.  You can find it by heading through Condor Flats to the Grizzly area.  Unfortunately my family learned the hard way and got our ticket early afternoon.  The standing area wasn't terrible, but it wasn't fantastic.  The show itself?  Wonderful!  And worth the wait.  Now they need to do this Fast Past section thing with Fanstasmic.

 I wrote two separate blog posts on this, which shows how excited I was with visiting Radiator Springs and riding the ride.  So amazing!  The Radiator Speed Racers is currently my favorite ride, gasp, even over Star Tours . . . until they open Indiana Jones again after refurbishing and small updating.

 I love the Little Mermaid and always wished she had her own ride, and now she has one!  The movie is one of my favorites.  Disney's Golden Age of animation started in 1928, but this film launched the Disney Renaissance in 1989 which lasted till 2000.  I'll never forget going to the theater to see The Little Mermaid.  My family was visiting my grandparents and we went to a nice theater in Riverside CA.  The place was covered in Little Mermaid decorations, and they gave out prizes before our showing.  It was a big deal!!  And the movie changed my life.

 Talking about 1928, California Adventure got a face lift to reflect this golden age of Hollywood.  It was in 1928 when Disney came to Hollywood, and the front of the park was made to reflect that.  I love old California architecture, and I love art deco, so the change is nice.

 Grizzly River Run opened when California Adventure did, but somehow I've never managed to ride it.  That might have something to do with Magic Mountain.  Back in middle-school I went on their rafting ride, first thing, and spent the entire day soaked.  Not fun, but the Grizzly ride was fun, and I didn't get too wet, which is really quite lucky.

 Soarin' Over California is one of my favorites, but my brother Steven hadn't been, so this was his first time.  I would buy potpourri of that pine and orange scent they mist during the ride.  It smells like California. Growing up in Central California . . . it's lucky they didn't do cow smell . . . (Talure County CA reference, which is the County I lived in . . . I heard once there were more cows then people.)

 First time I tried this cake!  There's this amazing, crunchy hazelnut thing going on at the bottom.  Plaza Inn, 'nuff said.

 I was waiting in line for It's a Small World when everything got really dark, all lights going out dark, and suddenly Nutcracker music started playing as colored projections shined on the ride's facade, giving us a little show. So unexpected and cool.

 And it's the first time I've seen Sleeping Beauty's castle look like this.  Enchanting.

Merry Christmas!!

Radiator Springs at Christmas: California Adventure

Lightning McQueen: "Where am I?"

Tow Mater: "Where are you?  Shoot! You're in Radiator Springs.  The cutest little town in Carburetor County." 

~ From Pixar's Cars, 2006

 Cars is one of my most favorite Pixar movies; it juggles for the top spot with Brave and Up, Monsters Inc. and Ratatouille falling close behind.  It's also one of the most bashed Pixar films as well with only a 75% rating from rotten tomatoes.

Cozy Cone Motel at Radiator springs

This expansion of California Adventure Disneyland opened last June, and I was biting at the bit to go!  I first learned about Radiator Springs being brought to life in the D23 Summer 2009 issue and was ecstatic.  The whole idea of it was so incredibly cool. 

 Sarge's Surplus Hut

 Fillmore's Taste Inn

 Ramone's House of Body Art

 Flo's V8 Cafe

 Luigis Casa Della Tires

 It was a lot of fun walking through Radiator Springs, seeing it all decked out for the Christmas season.  Pure awesome, and it got me in an early Christmas spirit.

Mater! And the Dreadful Fate of unwanted Christmas trees

Christmas is only a few days away! It feels insane, really, because time just shouldn't be moving this fast.

I found Mater, the tow truck from the Pixar movie Cars, at a local tree lot next to Target. I'm a huge fan of the first movie, and if you haven't seen Tokyo Mater, the animated short, you're missing out. It's simply brilliant. So when I first saw Mater in the flesh, so to speak, I about died and ran home for a camera.

On the way to the "dollar" theater with my Dad and brother to see Puss in Boots, we were on the conversation of what happens to trees that remain unpicked after Christmas, and Steven googled it on his new fancy phone. He found this:

"They spend a very dark and forlorn Christmas eve, already

suffering from the rejection of not having been chosen to help someone

celebrate, even more depressed by knowing that the value on their tag

has been marked down. It is a horrible fate for a big or little tree

that has some growth defect that made it unattractive through no fault

of its own. And Christmas Day is no better, nor the second day of

Christmas: no more lights in the lot, feeling its wounded stump

drying out as it imagines how wonderful it would have been to be in a

family home with real candles and hearing the family joyously singing:
"O Tannenbaum" (even if it were a blue spruce or a Douglas fir)."

Merry Christmas!
Sarah