I am here...

Hello from New York! Or rather Brooklyn Heights. I am sitting at Pia's apaartment right now. She is gettting ready and we will soon head out the door to start my first day of sightseeing.

My flight was uneventful other than an hour delay at Salt Lake. I saw Pia right away by the baggage claim area and we rode the Subway for awhile back to her apartment. I off loaded my baggage and we went down to a local resturant and had dinner. Then we took a walk down to the prominade and I saw the Manhattan Skyline.

We spent the rest of the night talking, laughing and planning our day. We will first head to time square and pick up Pia's city pass and then we will do as many things as we can down in that area. We are planning to start with the Empire State Building, Madame Tussaud's, Carnegie Hall Etc.

Best be going...

Sunday Safari

On Sunday we went up to Wildlife Safari. I won a year membership at a silent auction at work. A dang good deal I might add. We had lots of fun! For the longest time Kyler was more pleased with the fact that I let him sit up in the front with me than all the animals. But hey its a whole new view from up there. We went around the driving loop, had a Rhea get a little fresh with us. Kyler and I didn't not approve of his freshness and made Dan drive away. The giraffe's were friendly but didn't not try to make it past 1st base so they were Kyler's favorite from the day. After the driving loop we stopped off at the picnic area laid out a blanket and ate some lunch. We did this to be cheap but I must say it was really nice to hang out and eat our PB and J's there. Then we took a walk on one of the hiking trails Kyler starting patting 30 seconds into the walk so we only did a small loop. Then we went to the Safari Village (the free part) and checked out the animals there, watched half of a show and went on our way home.

How I sent my weekend... Part 2

From Klamath Falls we drove to the Lava Beds in Tule Lake, Ca. We spent one night at Indian Well campground. The campground was pretty cramped but we managed to find a good spot away from most everyone. It was Kyler's first night ever camping and he loved the sleeping in a tent thing. This him hanging out at our campsite. That night we went to a ranger talk by Amy about the Wonders of the night sky. I thought she did a great job and kept it very interesting. The skies there have much better visibility because they have little light pollution from towns. I didn't however get to check out the telescope she had set up because Kyler was tired.

The Next Morning we checked out the easy caves that the park has listed. There are an esitmated 400 caves there. We went Mushpot, Inidan Well, Sentinel, Valenitne, Heppe, and Skull Cave. Dan went to Golden Dome Cave without us. Kyler really wasn't into the caves. He was scared by how dark they were. But he was a trooper and got through all the ones I listed.

Here are Kyler and Dan in Valentine Cave.

On the recommendation of this FAQ We bought these hats at the visitor center. They made a fun souvenir but for me it probably saved my head from a serious bump and headache.

Kyler and I sitting on the stairs leading to Skull Cave.

The very first picture and this one were taken at Petroglyph Point with in the park. These carvings were made by the ancient Modoc people when this are was a island in the middle of Tule Lake. They estimate them to be about 5,000 years old.

We had a blast! I was pretty apprehensive but I really enjoyed myself and it was a great little family trip.

How I sent my weekend... Part 1

Saturday we took a drive over to Klamath Falls and went to an Air Show at Kingsley Field. The Thunderbirds were there! This was thier only appearance in Oregon this year so it was a wee bit crowded. They were worth it though. Kyler enjoyed checking out all of the Air Planes on the ground. Here he is in the a Helicopter.

This was called the Heritage flight. Both Dan and thought it was really cool. Its a F-15 Eagle and P-51C Mustang flying together representing the past Air Force and present.

Kyler didn't enjoy the noise from the F-15 Eagle

More Thunderbird Pictures, they were my favorite.

Then we headed over and down to the Lava Beds National Monument in California to camp for the night. I'll have to post these later though because a small child is requesting that I go to bed and I need to bathe before I do.

Day 5 Finishing up the Magic Kingdom

We got a lot of rides out of the way at the Mickey Party. We started the day off in Frontier Land. Going on Splash Mountain and Big Thunder we went over and Watched the Country bears show. I know its a classic but the songs were shocking. Not PC at all. Next we went over to Adventure Land, rode the Pirates of the Caribbean ride with Jack Sparrow. I was disappointed that some of the other cast members of the movie weren't included. Oh well. Then we went over to the Tiki room. I really liked this one. Kyler had just had a mini meltdown before about the steering wheels so he did not enjoy this one. After this we went to the steering wheels where Kyler was happy again. While waiting on the Jungle Cruise Ride we walked up the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. We finally made it on the Jungle Cruise. After this we made it over the Haunted Mansion(is this room actually stretching?) which Kyler surprisingly did pretty well on. We rode the Liberty Bell around Tom Sawyers Island, then headed on to Fantasy Land. We watched Mickey's PhilharMagic which I Mountain Railroad. I have pictures of Dan riding both rides but Dan wasn't able to get shots of me. thought was the best of all the 3-D shows/rides.

Animal Kingdom Day 4

On the 2nd day to Animal Kingdom. We started our day with a character breakfast at Tusker house with Donald, Daisy, Mickey and Goofy. Then we headed out on the Animal Safari. I must saw that this was truly the way to have a zoo. The animals were all just out there. there were no barriers between us. Then on our way to Rafiki's Planet Watch Kyler had a little melt down. I took his picture during this melt down. At Rafiki's we went into the petting zoo this seemed to improve Kyler's mood. lastly, we ended the day with the Lion King Festival of the King. A great show similar to the Nemo show but not as good in my opinion.

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

We bought special tickets to go to this event. The park is decorated beautifully for the holiday season. This is what Cinderella's castle looked like. I couldn't really capture the how pretty it looked. We also saw a parade that is exclusive to this event and Mickey's version of Twas the Night Before Christmas. We went on lots of rides because the lines we low and met some characters.

Blizzard Beach

We went to Blizzard Beach today, one of the Disney water parks. We had SO much fun! There we no crowds at all. I think this is a wonderful time to come to Disney. It was literally more crowded at the Redding water slides when we went this summer. The weather is warm but not HOT.

Dan went on every ride I think. Kyler and I went on quite a few too. Kyler's favorite ride was the Cool Runners (mini water slides but bigger than the kiddie ones) in the preteen area he also really enjoyed hanging out in the Tikes Peak kid pool. My favorite ride was the Teamboat springs. This is a family ride where you all go down in a raft. Not sure what Dan liked most but he went on the Toboggan racers three times.

The park decorations were way cute! I really liked the whole Ski park melting away theme. the played Christmas music all day and had lots of Christmas decorations up.