Disneyland at Christmas

I love the Disney parks.  They at once appeal to the small child in me, and to the Operation Research trained adult in me--so many people moved efficiently through so many queues--it brings a tear to my eye.

This was the first year that I hit Disneyland at Christmas (Disney World I'd been to before).  The park is transformed by wonderful lights, but even better, the Haunted Mansion now becomes The Nightmare Before Christmas (go Tim Burton!) for a month.  As one of my all time favorite movies, I'd been looking forward to seeing that for a long time, and it did not disappoint.  Everything about the ride is transformed, from the opening line to the final entreaty to return.  The detail and number of things to watch for is amazing.

Decked out to the nines in giant icicle lights, Cinderella's Castle doesn't look half bad, either!

Yosemite in winter

This was the second time that I've been to Yosemite in winter and it was equally gorgeous this time around.  I was there four nights altogether with my folks and the weather was scary for a while but in the end cooperative.

It rained the first day out, but by the second day that had turned to a lovely snow that blanketed everything.  The morning hike to the Lower Yosemite Falls was about as far as you would want to go with that much snow falling.  By the next morning, the sun was shining on all that snow, and made every glade and meadow into a beautiful tableau.  First we took an early morning tour with a photographer from the Ansel Adams Gallery, then headed off to Mirror Lake.

That night we saw the Bracebridge Dinner--a combination seven course meal and medieval Christmas pageant.  It was wonderful, great performances and amazing food.  This took place in the main dining hall at the Ahwahnee Hotel, a grand fixture of Yosemite Valley.

The next day the sun was again out, and we headed up to the overlook for Vernal Falls.  That proved to be significantly steeper a hike than to Mirror Lake (although roughly the same distance) and so by the end of the day we were happy just to stay put for an hour and try to get some sunset pictures from the middle of the valley.  By this time, though, the clouds had rolled in, and fog enshrouded all the major sights.

So the next day we took to the higher elevations, leaving the valley and heading to Tuolumne Grove, where some of the Giant Sequoias stand tall.  These trees can live to be thousands of years old and are very impressive up close.  The clouds continued to linger throughout the day, although the sun peeked through more at sunset this time.

Our final morning in the valley the skies cleared and the sun shone full force on the Upper Yosemite Falls, giving a wonderful rainbow across the water.  El Capitan and the tunnel overlook were also clear as a bell, and made for a great final few hours in Yosemite.

A nice day

It is a gorgeous day outside.

It sometimes surprises me how good that can make me feel.  And of course, having a nice sunny day means all sorts of other things are happening.  Where I live is next door to one of Claremont McKenna's practice fields, and today the track and field people are practicing the hammer throw.

That is just fun to watch!  For those who haven't seen it, the hammer is the event with the 16 pound ball attached to a chain.  Watching the throwers spin around and around and just heave that sucker as far as they can reminds you of when you were a kid and just threw things to see how far you could (see also: skipping rocks.)

It doesn't hurt that I know one of the throwers.  He's been in my probability, statistics, and Monte Carlo methods courses and is an all around good guy.  I wish him luck on the field as the season begins!

Thanksgiving

Nothing beats a Thanksgiving with friends!  

This Thanksgiving, Asuman, a professor in my department had myself and two other families over to her house for a great turkey dinner.  With eleven people involved, this is more like a day long party than anything else.  After polishing off a variety of tasty dishes and desserts, we went up to Mt. Baldy for a hike afterwards.  Then those with the skills hit the Backgammon boards, while the more stuffed people like myself just chatted away the afternoon and evening.  I know what I'm thankful for:  wonderful friends that make life that much sweeter.

Here comes the rain again

This past week was a beautiful:  the sun was shining, the temperature was in the mid 70's, and all seemed right with the world.  This morning, it's raining.

Yes it does rain in California.

And when it does rain, it tends not to mess around.  The forecast shows rain this morning, this afternoon, this evening, and tomorrow.  There's even a flash flood alert on top of that for areas of L.A. County that have been recently burned.

I do love watching the rain though.  Maybe it goes back to childhood memories of Corvallis where it seemed like it rained every day, or maybe it's just the randomness of the drops, the way it throws light in all directions.  Especially on a Saturday, where I don't have anywhere to go and can just relax and watch the water pouring down through my window.

Halloween, Rifftrax style

In honor of Halloween and my abiding love of making fun of movies, I headed out to the Rifftrax live event this last Thursday.  The movie they riffed was the classic Vincent Price "House on Haunted Hill" a delightful product of its times movie that was perfect for Kevin Murphy, Mike Nelson, and Bill Corbett to go after.

This is the second Rifftrax Live! presentation that I've gone to (the other being their Christmas special last year).  The last one was fun, but this one was amazing.  Part of the fun is being in a semi-crowded theater.  Southern California has enough former MST 3K fans like myself to fill a theater for these types of events, and the fun of seeing them do their shtick live really adds to the laughs.

Dala

Last Friday, I headed up to Scripps for their once-a-semester free concert on their big lawn.  This is part of a series of concerts organized by a Scripps Alum, Elizabeth Levitt Hersch '74.  Part giving back to Scipps, part advertisement for the Levitt Pavillions, this is always a well-organized nice event.  Performing this time were Dala, an acoustic folk duo from Canada.  

They were awesome!  I have to admit, my consumption of folk has dropped dramatically since leaving North Carolina, so it was nice to get a booster.  Lovely harmonies and an easy back-and-forth between two friends made for a wonderful concert.  The concert setting itself was also very nice--by setting the time from 5:30-7:00, there was a pretty transition from day to night while they played.  And they even gave chairs and/or blankets to everyone.  A great way to start the weekend!