~:: Rewind: Mouse-end ::~

After much doing of this -

and this

and this,

we found a great, smooth round stone made into a fountain.  It sat inside some sort of collar, and water was constantly running down it, a sort of skin of water – and it floated inside that collar, spinning heavily at the slightest push.  Perfect for Scooter, the engineer – it went around and around, and was full of explicable mystery.

And we went here, Hollywood Blvd., California Adventure, Disneyland.  This is a re-creation of the 1930s, the beginning of the hayday (sp on purpose) of  American movie making.  I have a story about this street.  The first time we saw it was across the country, at Disney World.  At the time, Murphy was nine – and we were being shown around the place by G’s cousin, a very smart and sweet guy who did lighting design throughout the parks.

He was especially taken with Murphy and loved to have conversations with him.  Even at nine, Murphy (with that high, squeaky little boy voice) could talk your leg off.  Greg stood with him on this street and, pointing at the far end, asked, “You know what that is?”

“That’s forced perspective,” Murphy said.  And so it was.  Everything behind those two building fronts just behind the yellow umbrella is totally forced into looking like it recedes into the distance.  Actually, it all simply ends up as a mat painting.

And then we found ourselves standing at the base of a wild mountain.  Can you see the peak?  Yep.  Bear mountain.  And look at those two – are they beginning to look a bit worn, tramping fifteen miles a day in the fierce California July temps?

Here is another story: Scoots loves Donald Duck.  Perhaps that’s because their tempers are similar.  And the Disney characters – Goofy and Mickey and Minnie and Red Riding Hood – all of them – wander the park all day long in order to delight people just like Scooter.  But for all our looking and hunting and checking schedules, we had found no Donald.  It was a great problem.

Finally, we discovered him, right there on Main Street – but with a huge line of little people in front of him, hoping to have a picture taken with him.  And as Scooter and Mom got in line, they found out that his time there was UP.

“But Donald is nearly the whole point of us being here!” Mom explained.  And so they gave her the inside information on his next appearance – at this corner, at that time.  And it was going to be a little impromptu (not really) street show.  So we all planned around that.

When we got there, a Dixieland band was playing – and Scoots (as is our family tradition) broke into dancing.  THEN THE CALIFORNIA MIRACLE HAPPENED:

Scoots was DISCOVERED.

The girls who were in charge of the street show auditioned him right then and there, and finding him CUTE as ANYTHING, hired him on the spot to be the “volunteer” kid in the show – CO-STARRING with Donald himself.  Scoots showed off the drum skills we often hear in the studio (why do children love drums so much?) and got applause and beat Donald out in the drumming contest.

High Fives all around.

Of course, Dad caught the whole thing.  If you’d like to watch the video, let me know.  It may even be up on YouTube.  (Note the poundage Chaz is dragging around on her lanyard.)

And we topped it off with even more street dancing.

This is a guilty secret.  I never do this, but I did this time – they have cameras that shoot pictures of you (supposedly unexpectedly but a good half the people who go to Disney know where the cameras are and plan on them) while you are screaming in terror as you suddenly drop fifty feet on some ride.  This was Space Mountain.  They want you to buy the photo – for more money than your last month’s car payment.  And people regularly take their own pictures of the terrible low-res image you get to see on screens as you get off the ride.   I never do that.  I did this time.  If I have to ride alone, at least I’m gonna enjoy it.

And now – I promised you exploding sky, and exploding sky you are going to get.  But only after the story.  Turns out you can go plant yourself on Main Street about forty minutes before the fireworks over the castle begin.  We’d never done it before, so we did it this time, partying in the street with other exhausted families.  And we waited forever.  Then they made us stand up.  Really?  We had to STAND UP?  Suddenly, children were lost in a sea of tall fathers.  But we did our best.

I shot first with the tiny camera.  But gave that up after a while – it looked like all the images were just blurred and terrible.  Then I whipped out the iPhone to see what it could do.  Actually, it had a faster shutter on it.  So mostly the first half are camera, and the second iPhone.  I am posting too many.  As usual.

Note the steady hand.

Yeah.  Was I just getting my sea legs, or was I doing this on purpose?

Here we go.  Now, who can guess what that yellow ribbon is at the bottom in the forefront?

Can you see now?  It’s a Disney cast member with one of those lights they use parking airplanes.  Here, they use them to keep the people who had NOT been sitting in the street for forty minutes moving along the sidewalks.

This is a portrait of Tinkerbell.  I was just telling the kids how Tinkerbell used to fly from the top of the Matterhorn right down to the castle during the fireworks when I was a kid.  THEN SHE DID IT AGAIN – right there.  Can you see her?  She’s just to the right of the tallest tower on the castle.

And in that blue puff just over that guy’s head – on the right – I think that’s actually a flying Dumbo.  Dumbo DID fly that night.  Where I caught him at it is the question.

Squiggly colors.  And Dumbo again, this time on the left of the castle, between two towers.

This is what glow sticks look like to the camera at night.

They did stars, too.

And Saturns.

And they did Mickey Mouses too.  Several of them.

Not bad for an iPhone?

And finally, the end.

Here’s Chaz, good and worn out.  Time to sleep, then get up and go home.  It was our last sheebang before the wedding.  We didn’t really want to leave.  We never do.  Maybe we should all move down there and just get jobs at the place.  I kinda like the airplane controller job.  And Chaz could sing with the band.  Maybe Scoots could fit into one of those Seven Dwarf outfits?  I mean, I’m just sayin’ . . .