Disney’s Animal Kingdom ABCs

This list was inspired a recent episode of WDW Today podcast. I love the show but their website’s comment systems sucks something awful (everytime I try to post something with a carriage return I get website errors… and yes, I tried on Mac and PC).

The concept is that if Disney brought back the old ticket books, what would the attractions of today’s park rate. The best attractions were “E” tickets while the most basic ones were only an “A” ticket.

My opinion is that the ticket should be based on the time it takes to experience the attraction. So, the two animal viewing trail attractions are definitely C tickets. I’m almost tempted to bump Maharaja to a D because I think the theming is so great (see the photo…).

This list includes the actual attractions as Disney has broken them out. I think there’s a good “spread” of free and ticketed attractions (remember: Main St. Vehicles were an “A”)

Where are the Tigers?
Where are the Tigers?

No tickets
Oasis Exhibits
Cretaceous Trail
Dino-Sue
Habitat Habit

A tickets:
The Tree of Life
Conservation Station
Affection Section
The Boneyard

B tickets:
TriceraTop Spin
Wildlife Express Train

C tickets:
Pagani Forest Trail
Maharaja Jungle Trek
Kali River Rapids
Flights of Wonder

D tickets:
It’s Tough to be a Bug
Festival of the Lion King
Primeval Whirl
Finding Nemo the Musical

E tickets:
Kilmanajaro Safaris
Dinosaur
Expedition Everest

Quinn is Flying

Here’s an example of how creative my son Quinn is. We were exploring the Oakland Museum of California yesterday when we ran across a wall with this light display to set a mood for the history of the 1960’s.  But Quinn thought the wall could be used in a different way… to fly. A little creative camera work with my iPhone and ten minutes later it was posted to YouTube.

Soccer Season is Here

Quinn is playing Soccer for the first time this season, and today was his first game. FC-Fremont does this (IMHO) incredibly stupid thing where both teams wear white and blue – but one is in a blue shirt and the other is in a white shirt. I think this is a bad idea – makes it hard to spot the kids across the field or even when watching the game. Glad I’m not a ref.

In any case, “Barcelona” won the game 9-0. The game was sort of a California variant of the “Pass it to the Italians” bit from Will Ferrell’s Kicking & Screaming. Nonetheless, Quinn seemed to have fun and definitely go more comfortable with the “herd” mentality as the game went along.

The 8:00 am starting time was a killer, but all the other games are later. We also got our “snack duty” out of the way today.

Here are some shots of Quinn today.

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Vacation Scavenger Hunt Photos

The Mercury News announced the winners of their Scavenger Hunt photo contest and we were not winners. We lost on some bad luck and a tighter than expected judging criteria. However, Riley’s photo with Church Bells did make it into the list of honorable mentions in their bonus slideshow (photo #14).

Here are our entries…

1. Covered bridge

Calgary AB

covered-bridge

2. Church with visible bell

Edmonton AB

church-bells

3. Sign that is intentionally or unintentionally funny

Jackpot NV

funny-jackpot-forest

4. Black bear (not from the wild)

Fernley NV

black-bear-diner

5. Lemonade stand

Yellowstone National Park (on July 4th!)

lemonade2

6. Water tower with writing on it

Drumheller AB

water-tower-drumheller

7. Festival celebrating food, vegetable or fruit

Potato Expo Blackfoot ID

festival

8. House that doesn’t have four sides

Bozeman MT

house-teepee

9. Mime

Fail!

10. Someone feeding pigeons

Great Falls MT (where they have very big pigeons)

feeding-geese

11. Ice cream truck

Drumheller Royal Terrell Museum

ice-cream-truck

12. Motel named for two people (i.e. Norma Dan Motel, Tenn.)

Fail!

13. Obscure historical marker

Emigrant Gulch, highway 89 Montana. It doesn’t get more obscure than this.

obscure-marker

14. Parked car with more than 10 bumper stickers? (Must be parked!)

Yellowstone National Park (believe it or not this family has six kids)

bumper-stickers

15. Building painted purple

Car Wash in Great Falls

Calgary store

purple-carwash

purple-building

16. Blank billboard

I80 Nevada

blank-billboard2

17. Closed store with “We’ve moved” sign

Calgary McLoud Trail

moving

18. Ferris wheel

Galaxyland Amusement Park in the West Edmonton Mall

ferris-wheel

19. Rainbow

General Paint store Calgary

West Edmonton Mall

Great Falls umbrella

rainbow-sign

rainbow

rainbow-umbrella

20. Something unusual not on the list

West Yellowstone MT, diner/bus

unusual-place

Traveling overseas? (You can sub out these for any three above; substitutions must be from a location outside of the United States or U.S. territories.)

1. Sign that includes foreign words and name of U.S. state

Chinese Cultural Center in Calgary (mentions Hawaii)

sign-foreign-language

2. Windmill

Alberta, Highway 2

windmill

3. Outdoor market selling food indigenous to that area

Calgary donuts

native-food