The Saturday Slow-Down: AIDS Walk OC 2011

by Chad

If I was a gambling man, one thing I'd be willing to bet that a lot of people don't know about me is that as a young person, I lived overseas for a fairly lengthy period of time.  Well, I consider five years to be fairly lengthy at any rate.  We moved there when my parents took a job in southern Africa in a small landlocked country called Swaziland.  Feel free to check your atlas and come back once you've checked that it is in fact a country, the name sounds so odd.  I remember once as a teenager telling a friend who was from Central Africa I was moving there and he didn't even believe it existed; he thought I was making it up.  At any rate, I spent the majority of my adolescence in Swaziland and saw many things there that I would consider life-changing.  Some of them were great things, and some of them were terrible.  Unfortunately, today's article began years ago with something terrible I saw.

Swaziland was a beautiful country and a place that I called home for many years, but it's also a third-world country and very poor.  Alongside the poverty, Swaziland also suffers mightily from and has been devastated by HIV and AIDS.  In fact, among other truly terrifying facts, Swaziland has the highest HIV prevalence in the world and one in four adults are living with HIV.  If you're in the mood to weep, feel free to check out some of the information on AIDS in regards to the country I once considered home.  Honestly, I don't see how anyone could read it and not feel the emotional weight of it all.  And this is just in Swaziland.  Nevermind the rest of the world or our own county.

When our friends at FindingMickey.com asked for volunteers to walk with them for the AIDS Walk OC 2011 at The Resort earlier this month, I was only too happy to do so.  I mean, it was a chance to do something good for the community I spend so much time in, I got to hang out with friends, and I got to go hang out at The Park some more which is something that I'm always willing to find time to do. 

But I have to be honest and admit that the path which led me to saying "yes" to them started when I was about 15 years old with a friend.  Said friend was a young man who was a great friend of mine, along with his brother, in our youth group at church.  We hung out at church, we attended the same functions with our youth group, we played soccer together.  Anyone who has ever seen "Stand By Me" might remember a quote from the end of the movie when Richard Dreyfuss' character is finishing up his novel and writes, or types rather, these words: "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?"  And although I was closer to 15 than 12, the sentiment remains the same.  Which made it that much harder on all of us when we found out that his parents were both diagnosed with AIDS.

Even as a 15 year old, I completely and clearly understood exactly what was going on and how much hurt it was causing my friend, and it hurt me because of it.  I think that for myself, one of the hardest things about it was watching he and his brother suffer.  Not only did they lose both of their parents within weeks of each other, but they also had a small brother, maybe 2 or 3 years old, maybe a bit older but not much (the years have not been kind to my memory), who passed away as well from the illness.  That one was especially hard on me personally.  I can remember playing with him and holding him in my arms, knowing that one day quite soon he likely would succumb as well.  And within weeks, that's exactly what happened.  That little boy had gone on because of something he neither asked for or wanted, and I, we, were powerless to stop it.  I can remember standing in the yard of the church watching my friend wracked with sobs as we all stood around him and did the best we could to comfort him.  What do you say to someone in a situation like that where something that no-one understands tears your family apart so quickly?  I remember just standing around him, praying for him, and doing the best we could to let him know that we loved him.  Suffice to say the experience, even after all these years, is indelibly etched in my memory and is something that I have never forgotten; nor have I forgotten what the culprit was.

So that's where it started for me, nearly 20 years ago standing in a church yard in a third world country that I would be willing to bet many of you have never even heard of.  I suppose I could simply say that the thought of AIDS Awareness and doing everything I could these many years has been at the forefront of my mind, but it wouldn't be true.  I don't know everything there is to know about it and I don't know a lot of the facts, but the truth is, I don't have to to have seen just how much damage it can cause, physically and emotionally.  And I did make up my mind a long time that whenever I had the chance to do something that might make a little difference, I would do whatever I could to make it happen.  I suppose that's why when my friends asked me to participate I did it with no hesitation.  It wasn't about hanging with friends or The Park.  The truth is I would have walked with them wherever it was.

This article was originally supposed to be about describing the Walk itself and everything we saw and how awesome it was to participate in it, and it was, but as you can see it took on a decidedly different timbre.  I truly hope that's alright with everyone.  Sometimes I just let the words flow and see where they carry me.  And this is where they carried me this time.  I did want to share a few final pictures with our readers, though, with the admonition and the urging that if there is something in your life that you care about very much, some cause that has hit you in the heart, that you do whatever you can whenever you can do it to make a difference.  It might not seem like much, but sometimes it's nice just to slow down and give back for those who can't anymore.

Early morning lineups for the Walk

Signs along the Tram Route told the story of AIDS in The OC since its discovery

Waiting for Mickey to give us the go-ahead

Team Finding Mickey - AIDS Walk OC 2011

"This post is part of the Disney Blog Carnival. Head over there to see more great Disney-related posts and articles."

The Saturday Slow-Down: A Fantasmic(!) Hungry Bear

Much like our "Fast Pass" segment which we began again yesterday after quite a hiatus, we realized that we hadn't done a "Saturday Slow-Down" recently, either. But just like it's important to have a good tip to share every now and then, we think it's important to take advantage of whatever opportunities you have inside The Parks to take a breather and just soak it all in. One such place to do that is at the Hungry Bear Restaurant at one very special time of day.

It never fails! Fantasmic! is such a popular show with the Park guests that on any given day, but especially the weekends, fans begin lining up (or sitting up if you prefer) as early as 4 or 5 in the afternoon to see it, when the show doesn't even begin until after 9! Now that's commitment and love! But for us, it's just a little bit too much; we like to catch the second showing anyway when you can pretty much just walk right up front scant minutes before the show starts. We definitely admire guests' tenacity, but we've discovered a way to slow down and enjoy the show from a much different perspective.

We like to watch, or experience if you will, the first showing of Fantasmic! from Critter Country. Of course, you'd be right in your assessment if you were to ask, "But how can you see or hear the show from there?" And yes, it's true that we don't get to see the show in its proper form (or hear it all for that matter) but for us, we enjoy getting to see something else even more: the behind-the-scenes magic. We absolutely love watching the goings-on on the Rivers of America from the upper level of the restaurant. We can watch the floats coming down the river after their part in the show, we can watch the Cast Members running around Tom Sawyer Island and changing as they get ready for their portion of the show, and we love watching the Columbia Sailing Ship come by after the Peter Pan segment in the show. Oh, and did we mention the neon monkeys?! From time to time we also enjoy just strolling down the river just before and during the show. Last time we did this it earned us a very special wave from Ariel herself!

The thing we love the most about "experiencing" the show from the restaurant though, is when the Mark Twain Riverboat comes by, and you can probably tell why just from the pictures: character interaction! For us, it is absolutely awesome to sit at our table, watch the boat go by, and yell and wave at all of the characters. We don't know if the characters get as much of a kick out of it as we do really, but yelling out at Goofy and watching him break into a dance when he hears you is truly something to behold! Yelling at Woody as the back end of the boat swings by and getting into a faux "fast-draw" contest with him (yes, it did happen) are things you just can't put a price-tag on, and it's something that unfortunately a lot of people will just never be able to experience for themselves because they won't know about it or think to do it.

A friend of ours recently (teasingly) told us we were cheating by watching the show from back here, and asked us if we thought that all the interaction and watching the "behind the scenes" stuff stole some of the magic away from everything. We guess we can see where some people might feel that way, but for us, it truly adds to the magic.

We've said it before, and we'll say it until the day we quit blogging about our adventures in The Park. Sometimes you just have to slow down and let the magic come to you. The truth is, the first time we saw the show from the Hungry Bear, we were all set to run back to New Orleans Square and watch the show from The Haunted Mansion. It wouldn't have been a very good view and we wouldn't have been able to see much, but that was the plan, and for whatever reason, we didn't do it. We got lazy and just decided to slow down, stop, and catch the second show instead. We mark it down as one of the best decisions we ever made, because not only did we have fantastic near front row seats for the second show, but we got something else out of the deal we never bargained for: another strong dose of Disney Magic delivered right to our table. And we think that's worth slowing down for.

The Saturday Slow-Down: Watching Toons With A Goof

"Sometimes the BEST picture you can take is with the camera that God gave you in your own head." 

If you read our post on Wednesday (well, it was mostly just pictures but you get my meaning) you'll know that we spent some time last Sunday evening in the Disneyland Hotel.  We were there primarily to eat at Steakhouse 55 but as we have spent very little time in there in the past, we spent quite a bit of time looking around at things before and after.

As we were standing around waiting for our 6:30 reservations to come to us, we wandered around a little bit in the waiting area and spent some time looking into Goofy's Kitchen, which is right next door to the steakhouse.  Amy is the only one of us who has eaten at the kitchen before, but we know enough about it to know that it's known for two things primarily:  an awesome breakfast buffet and character dining, featuring (of course) a character based on its namesake, Chef Goofy.  We stood around a little bit watching beaming parents and their kids take pictures with Chef Goofy (something to remember the special moment by, no doubt) before we were called in to eat.  

Fast forward about two and a half hours and we were leaving the steakhouse with full bellies and a desire to poke around the Hotel some more.  I had my camera out to take pictures of whatever I might come across, and was preparing to enter full-blown camera mode (picture a robot walking just taking pictures of things back and forth without much thought); I get like that sometimes.  But as I was walking out of the restaurant I glanced over to my left and saw a little room with a TV placed in its wall playing classic Disney cartoons.  I hadn't noticed the room on our way in, and was just going to continue to keep walking when I felt a little prick that told me I should go back and take a closer look.  Thank God for the little voices that tell me to slow down sometimes, because when I went back and looked in the window, I noticed Chef Goofy sitting there, by himself, watching cartoons, still as a statue.  I quickly yelled at Amy and Mark to come back and check it out, which they did, and we all just kind of stood there smiling at each other and pointing; it was so unexpected seeing him in there like that.  Funnily enough, he was sitting so still that Amy kind of yelled out all of a sudden, "Is he real?!", which drew his attention and made him move, and made Amy squeal in surprise.  He gestured at all of us to come on in, so the three of us went in, grabbed our seats next to him and proceeded to spend the next five minutes or so watching cartoons with a Goof.

It really was a surreal moment.  You hear about Disney magic all the time, and we firmly believe this was one of those moments!  Of course, most of the times when you run into a character, it's in a line where you're just moving through, person by person to have your picture taken and very little interaction takes places.  Not so in this instance however.  We talked to him and asked him questions (he would nod yes or no), laughed along with him (well, as much as we could I suppose since he didn't actually talk, but he would cover his mouth up and the meaning was well taken), and we all just sat there beaming from ear to ear.  For a few minutes in time, we just sat there and watched cartoons with Goofy.  It was awesome, there's just no other word for it.

It wasn't too long until a Cast Member arrived to let him know he had "paying customers" waiting for their photo opportunity with him and he had to go.  It was a genuine laugh, though, watching Goofy pretend to not want to leave while the Cast Member struggled to pull him out of the room, and then he waved at us and he was gone.  

I kind of glanced down at my side at that point and realized that I had set my camera down and never once picked it up while we were in the room (other than a quick picture of the TV in the wall and the carpet right when we walked in and before I sat down).  Like a weird cosmic twist, right at the moment I realized I didn't take a picture of us with Goofy, Mark yelled out, "Did you get a picture?  Why not?  That would have been awesome!"  I had gotten so caught up in the interaction that I had completely forgotten!  But that was about all that was said of the matter, and I think I know why.

As we walked out I kind of bemoaned the fact that I didn't take a picture.  After all, isn't that how we choose to remember things more often than not?  With a picture?  But the more I thought about it, the more okay with it I was (I know some people just won't get that, but it's true).  Goofy didn't have to invite us in with him (he was on a break after all, let's get real about this) and if he hadn't, we very likely might have just walked away.  But he did, and we didn't, and now we have this wonderful memory that we'll carry with us from now on.  We may not have a physical picture of the memory to carry us through, but we've already relived it so many times since that the picture of it is indelibly burned into our minds.  It's not to say that pictures are bad (Lord knows we'll continue to take them by the droves) but I think we were taught a very valuable lesson in just letting our minds form the pictures it wants us to have from time to time.  And we think that sometimes, maybe those are the best kinds of pictures; the ones where you take the time to slow down, turn around and see what's behind you that you might have missed, and let the magic come to you.

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The Saturday Slow-Down: Character Close-Up

The last time we took a Saturday Slow-Down...

...we were approaching the ends of the Disney Animation Building and the Animation Academy.  Today, we're going to wrap up our tour of the building and spend some time checking out the awesome spectacle of the Character Close-Up room.

What makes the Character Close-Up work so well is the Zoetrope.  Awesome to watch, awesomely difficult for us to pronounce.

The closest that we can come to describing it is that it is old, classic animation technique brought into the new century; if that's even correct.  We've probably all seen animators display "moving" characters using the flip technique; drawing characters on the corner of pieces of paper in different stages of movement and then "flipping" the corners of the paper to bring about the illusion of the drawings "moving".

The Zoetrope is the same principle in theory.  This might help explain it a little better:

So, that's how it works.  You can see in the top picture all the little Toy Story characters in different "motions".  Then the box begins spinning around at blazing speeds, begins a fast seizure-inducing strobe effect, and it looks like all the Toy Story character begin hopping, see-sawing, ball-rolling, lassoing and riding like the wind on Bullseye all over the place.  It's really neat to watch, not so easy to photograph (all you get is a white light like in Poltergeist which we should all stay away from at all costs).

Whee!

If you've ever been interested in animation at all, or how it works, then this is the room for you.  Even for people like us who have no real ties to drawing (and as shown in our Animation Academy article a few weeks back, we're not terribly good at it), it's a pretty cool place just to stand and watch, and the kids love it!  There's always someone hanging around watching it all go off.  Definitely worth seeing.

We usually spend about 10 minutes or so watching the Zoetrope do its thing, and if you're still with us at this point, you've almost hit the two hour mark in the building so far; all fun, mostly interactive, shaded and air-conditioned, and some of the best animation in the world.  How great was that?

We hope you've enjoyed our little soiree in the Animation Building.  As we said way back in the beginning, it's one of our favorite places to hang out in The Park.  They are currently reworking the clips and music shown in the lobby (so right now if you go in you're going to be treated to multi-colored panels and not much else, save a message saying they're being worked on), but that aside it's still one of our favorite places to be.  We hope that by showing you a little bit of each, if you have the chance, you'll give it a look and it will become one of your favorite places, too.

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The Saturday Slow-Down: Animation Academy

Last time on the Saturday Slow-Down...

...we continued our wanderings in the Disney Animation Building in the Hollywood Backlot and spent some time in the Sorcerer's Workshop.  Today, we're going to continue our tour through the building and spend some time in another seriously cool room, the Animation Academy.

At the core of Disney is its animation.  For those who have even the tiniest bit of knowledge about the company's history, Disney began with animation, and there's no reason to believe it will ever play anything but a major role in everything that happens at The Parks, hand-drawn cells or computer-generated.

As such, the Animation Academy offers an excellent opportunity for you, the Park guest, to try your own hand at drawing some of The Park's most famous characters.  

After waiting outside the Academy in a little foyer (which provides an excellent location for watching more of those fantastic lobby movie clips we talked about a few weeks ago) you're ushered into a fairly large room (tons of cushioned seating available) where you pick up your artist's tablet, pencil and paper (waiting in your seat for you), and await your Cast Member's instructions.  

A Cast Member explains the process of the Animation Academy

It really is a simple process.  Your Cast Member (they rotate in and out every "show") "teaches" you how to draw whatever character is in rotation at that point.  The characters typically vary show by show.  We ourselves have done Chip, Tigger, Dopey, Pluto and Goofy just to name a few.  We've heard that they also from time to time do Jack Skellington and Roger Rabbit which we've just not been lucky enough to get yet.  And of course, they do all of the regulars such as Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy et al.

It, of course, works much like you would expect it to.  Your duly appointed Cast Member draws your character up on stage, step by step (it is projected up on a great big screen) and your goal is to follow them as closely as you can, hoping to garner something that even remotely resembles the work of stunning perfection that they've just drawn.  Needless to say, it doesn't always work out that way.

If you can tell who your drawing is supposed to be, then you've been successful

But, the show is all about fun.  If you're willing to go into it with a light-hearted attitude and just have fun with it, we can almost guarantee that you'll have a great time!  And it's pretty darn awesome that you get your own free piece of Disney artwork, all of your own making, that you get to take home with you.

Like the Sorcerer's Workshop, the Animation Academy is something that we typically ignored.  But since we started going in, it's something that we've typically tried to do on a regular basis, if for no other reason than to see what character we might wind up with this time. 

It usually takes about a half hour to do the Animation Academy (between waiting and the actual "show).  So at this point, if you're still following us around and haven't dropped off, you've spent about an hour and 40 minutes in the building so far.  Are we having fun yet?

Next week, we'll move into the last room in the building, the Character Close-Up.  Only one week to go, and we hope you'll be here to wrap up our little tour with us!

Hidden Mickey(s)!

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The Saturday Slow-Down: The Sorcerer's Workshop

Last time on the Saturday Slow-Down...

... we continued our meanderings in the Disney Animation Building in the Hollywood Backlot and spent some time talking to a sea turtle in The E.A.C.  Today, we're going to continue our tour through the building and spend some time in one of our favorite areas in the building, the Sorcerer's Workshop.

The Sorcerer's Workshop is actually broken up into three separate rooms, each with its own speciality:  The Magic Mirror Realm, Beast's Library, and Ursula's Grotto.

Inside the "Magic Mirror Realm", guests are treated to a whole host of animated type gadgetry on display.  Drawing tables are set aside for people to explore their own drawing and animating doodles, and the room is full of all sorts of devices made for exploring frame by frame animation from many of the most popular Disney animated classics.

Should you grow weary of all that doodling, a trip into "Beast's Library" might be in order; a room designed just like, you guessed it, Beast's library from Beauty and the Beast.

This is probably our favorite room in all of the workshop.  The room is filled with electronic "books" (you can see people "reading" them all around) designed to tell you which Disney character you are most like.  By answering a simple selection of questions about your personality, your book will magically tell you which character (male or female) you are most like.  The fun doesn't stop there, however.  If you've answered the questions honestly to begin with, you've likely found out which "good" character you are like.  We urge you pay attention to the last question, however, and answer it a little bit differently on subsequent readings.  You just might find out what "bad" character you are most like.  Then of course, answering differently as to whether you are a boy or girl opens up a whole new realm of possibilities.  We've spent many an hour just playing around with different combinations.  Plus, there is a camera attached to your little reading table that takes your picture as part of the whole process, which the kids seem to love almost as much as finding out what character they are for some reason.  

Oh, and every so often a storm rolls through, the room gets dark, and the picture of the prince is torn to shreds like we see it in the movie.  It's pretty cool stuff.

Lastly, once done with the library, a quick stroll through a dark hall will bring you into "Ursula's Grotto", a sound recording studio of sorts.

"Ursula's Grotto" is peppered all around with little alcoves people can go into, have their voices "stolen" from them (much like Ursula does to Ariel in The Little Mermaid), and used in different scenes from a few select Disney classics.  Ever wanted to be Scar or Simba from The Lion King?  Now's your chance.  Dreamed of singing along with the Seven Dwarfs?  Ursula will be only too happy to grant that wish for you.  There are a few others, but we don't want to spoil the whole thing.  It's easy to spend quite a bit of time in here just acting out all of the different options.  There are about three different singing ones, and three different talking ones if memory serves right.  And again, the kids love this one.  Just don't take it too seriously and let it ruin the fun.  We've learned since we began going in the Grotto that we sound nothing like Jeremy Irons or Jonathan Taylor Thomas, but we've accepted it and moved on.

The Sorcerer's Workshop is something that we actually missed out on for the longest time.  We knew it was there, but whenever we'd wander into the Animation Building we would kind of just ignore it.  But since the first time we went in, it's been a mainstay ever since.  We never go into the Animation Building without going in anymore, and we always have a lot of fun when we do, no matter how many times we've seen it all.  It comes highly recommended if you haven't already done it.

We usually spend a good half hour or so in the Workshop, so if you've followed our pattern up to this point, you've spent about an hour and 10 minutes in the building so far.  Not bad!  And the best part?  You've been in a nice, shady, cool building and gotten to see and interact with a lot of really cool stuff!  

Next week, we'll move on into the Animation Academy and do some artwork of our own.  We can't promise it'll be any good, but we'll do our best.

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The Saturday Slow-Down: Turtle Talk With Crush

The entrance to "Turtle Talk Theater"

Last time on the Saturday Slow-Down...

...we strolled into the Disney Animation Building in the Hollywood Backlot for some down-time in The Parks.  Today we're going to look at one of the many interactive options within one of our favorite buildings; Turtle Talk With Crush.

Turtle Talk With Crush is one of the very first rooms we went into the first time we went into the Animation Building with our kids many years ago, and so holds some pretty special memories for us (more on that in a future post, so stay tuned). 

The premise behind Turtle Talk is pretty simple.  Audiences gather in a "theater" where they interact, real-time, with Crush from "Finding Nemo".  A Cast Member is on hand to help move the show, which usually lasts between 10 and 15 minutes, along.  The children in the audience typically sit down front with a parent to get a better view of our favorite sea turtle, and so they can be in prime "turtle talking" distance.

Crush makes his appearance much to the delight of children and big children (a.k.a. "adults")

After explaining the process to the guests a computer generated Crush comes on screen to talk to the audience, as well as taking and answering questions from the kiddies.  We won't spoil the entire show by explaining exactly how it's done (you can probably guess much of it for yourself), but it's always great fun sitting in the audience and listening to the different types of questions both the kids and the adults in the audience throw in Crush's direction.  One of my personal favorites was hearing a little boy in front asking Crush if he enjoyed eating fish.  The look on Crush's face was priceless.  And one of our own kid's best was asking Crush where Nemo was to which he replied, "Is that little dude lost again?!"  The kids absolutely love their giant turtle friend, and a lot of times we'll go in for the show even when we don't have our own children with us.

Crush seems to be pondering the meaning of life. Either that, or he's rolling his eyes at some adult's inane question.

So, the next time you're in Disney California Adventure, give Turtle Talk With Crush a look-see.  Just be prepared with a question to ask the big guy should you be called upon.  You don't want to be one of "those people" who stumble, and generally cause a lot of laughter (and not the good kind), when given the opportunity to shine. 

Looking back we've probably spent about 40 minutes in the Animation Building at this point (if not more), but we'll say we've spent 20 minutes in the lobby watching movie clips and listening to music, and 20 minutes in Turtle Talk. 

Next week, we'll move on into the Sorcerer's Workshop and see what that interactive room has in store for us.  Can't wait!

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The Saturday Slow-Down: Disney Animation Building

If you spend time in The Parks on any kind of a regular basis you will undoubtedly find a "groove" at some point.  You begin to have your own favorite spots to eat (and favorite items to order there), your favorite attractions, favorite restrooms, and even a bunch of favorite "secrets" that you like to keep to yourself.  Along with that "groove" I spoke of earlier will also come favorite spots to hang out.   

That said, we thought it would be fun to take a few Saturdays in the future and slow it down a notch (hence the article's title) and look at some of our favorite spots in The Parks where we just like to take it easy and hang out.  One such spot for us is the "Disney Animation Building" in the Hollywood Backlot in Disney California Adventure.

Artwork and Disney quotes adorn many of the walls leading into the lobby

It's a place that we can go when we need a breather and just want to relax, and it is absolutely awesome!  And as you can well imagine, it's all about its namesake, Disney Animation.

There are actually five different areas in the building (six if you count "Off The Page", a store where you can shop for your own animation merchandise), all of them dedicated to the wonderful art of Disney that we all know and love so much.

The four "interactive" areas of the Animation Building:  
Sorcerer's Workshop, Character Close-Up, Animation Academy and Turtle Talk With Crush

Over the next few Saturdays, we'll take a more in-depth look at each one individually, but today's post will take aim at the first room you see when you enter the building, the Lobby; or, as our friend Ashley from Twitter likes to call it, "The Lobby of Awesome Disney Clips".  

'Fantasia' flits by

The lobby itself is much as it sounds like it would be; it's a lobby, after all.  There's lots of space for sitting and milling around, and it's huge!  But what makes this one so unique, and so darn cool, is the never-ending cycle of Disney artwork, concept drawings, and music from many of your favorite Disney flicks which continue to pour forth from every screen and speaker.

It's not exaggeration in the slightest to say that we could spend hours in here, with our backs pressed up against the wall, just listening and watching.  And, in point of fact, at any given moment in the lobby if you stop and look around, you'll see many other people doing just that.  It is, without a doubt, one of our favorite places to hang out.  It's a fantastic place to watch the world and the animation go by, and hum (or sing if we get especially brave) along with our favorite soundtracks.

We're pretty sure she's singing about playing in the sun right now

Next week, we'll take a look at Turtle Talk With Crush.  In the meantime, are there any favorite places to hang out while you're in The Parks?  Give us a comment!  We'd love to post on some of yours in the future.

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