I'm going to be posting more this week about my adventures, but I'm spending the weekend with my pal Dan, exploring the Tiki wilds of Orange County. Our quest included a trip to Disneyland, which was the first time I've visited since childhood. Needless to say, we had a blast, packing a full day into about six hours. We steered clear of most of the roller coaster rides and trendy new rides and focused on The Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Enchanted Tiki Room, Pirates of the Carribean and other vintage delights (read: Mr. Toad's Wild Ride).
I was excited to visit the "Innoventions" pavilion, which is a modern-day version of Disneyland's 1957 "house of the future". This was the only real downer we ran across...after a 1/2 hour wait, we got to find out that houses of the future will contain such marvels as:
- LCD Picture Frames
- Big-ass flat panel televisions
- Microsoft Vista
- Oversized couches
- Fake Arts and Crafts era woodwork
- Bored drama students showing people around
Color me impressed. The future will also, apparently be hosted by see-through robots with the voice of Nathan Lane. The future is truly not as good as it used to be.
On the upside, Disneyland is filled with Extreme Craft. I had more fun in Toontown looking at all of the sculpted cartoon environments than almost anywhere else in the park. Disney's regime certainly squeezes plenty of creativity out of their imagineers. For those of you who are worried about the renovations to rides like Pirates of the Carribean and the Haunted Mansion, I'm happy to report that despite some gee-whiz technology, they still feel much the same as they did when I was a kid.
I'll leave you with one final image from our trip. I thought it was interesting that the garbage cans gave everybody a good old American Excuse to indulge in our National pastime. At least the Mouse isn't pretending to be something they're not!
