Back Home Again

And by that I mean back in Cholula Red.

What an amazing five days . . .

The first night, we attended an incredible Mary Blair event. If you've never heard of her, well, you should, and you can read a bit about her here. I'm also including a link that talks about the event here. To see a sampling of her artwork, click here.

It was the perfect venue to see so many old friends who I've greatly missed over the last six years. One special note, I had the honor of being introduced to Tyrus Wong, whose work I've greatly admired for most of my life. Rightly inducted as a Disney Legend in 2001, his artwork is beyond compare. If you're a fan of those amazing forest scenes in Bambi, you have Tyrus Wong to thank. As a special note, this last Monday, October 25, was his 101st birthday. I had the pleasure of shaking his hand, a special honor for me and an occasion I wanted to remember here.

The next day, we went to Disneyland, where we had lunch at Club 33. Then we got to watch the new parade, Soundsationsal. Our friends Kevin and Jody are the designers of the parade, and Jody came to visit us at the park and show us all the extra touches they included. That was a real treat. Then we spent the rest of the day in the park, and I was too tired at the end of the day.

The next day we were completely wrung out, so we lounged a bit, ate lunch at Damon's, a Glendale favorite, then visited the original Apple Store. That evening was spent visiting with Howard and Annie, our hosts for this little jaunt (Paula had previous plans, but we did get some time with her).

Sunday we had plans to go and see Kevin and Jody's new home in Anaheim. Just as we arrived, we got a phone call, and they were still at the Muzeo in downtown Anaheim, attending the opening of the Queen's Gallery, a Steampunk exhibition. Knowing my penchant for photography, they thought we should come down before visiting the house, and were we ever glad we did! It was a delight and I will be posting some of those shots in the coming days.

After that, all of us headed out to lunch (ever had a 50/50 milkshake? YUM!). Next was a short tour of historic Anaheim, including a visit to the tree that was the inspiration for the Swiss Family Robinson tree house in Disneyland. What a trip to see the same beautiful roots, actually connected to the earth. A strange sort of deja vu, quite special.

Then we headed to the new house. Actually a beautiful 1800s Victorian, completely restored. We spent the rest of the afternoon catching up, and making plans to never again let such a long time pass between visits.

Then it was back to Glendale, and early Monday morning we were off on our way home. We drove up 101, including stops at Andersen's Split Pea Soup, and another at the Madonna Inn. Then it was home at 5:00pm.

I have literally thousands of pictures from both the Canon and the new iPhone 4s, but most of them will need a bit of work, or at least resizing. Hopefully they'll be up in a day or ten.

A note about all the links on this post. They all lead to a variety of really interesting web sites, so you might want to make sure to click each one.

It's good to be back. I had a great time, but I sure missed Terry. And now I have a bit of room, so we can get rid of even more more.

And sooner or later,
we'll get back on the road.