Moments in My Life

We went to Disneyland this past Sunday.  It was the first day after the long summer black out dates for our annual passes.  California Adventure had opened a new ride, called Toy Story Mania during the summer.  Alan was excited about this new ride and had wanted to take off Monday 8/18 to visit.  But that plan was cancelled because I had signed up a 2 weeks daily swimming class for me and Brandon which begins on 8/18.  It was perfect for us to go on Sunday anyway since we didn’t have other plan for it.

When we arrived at California Adventure at 10:40am, the line for this ride was only a little over 60 minutes long.  How did I know how long the wait is?  Because as each check point, they have a sign that says, “From here to ride - 60 minutes wait.”  We quickly joined the line to wait.  Want to continue or not, we’d decide later. 

I knew Brandon was not going to like to wait that long and do nothing.  He didn’t even know what ride it is.  But luckily, Alan went all the way to the front to check if we were on the right line.  He found many many ceiling fans above some of the waiting/queing huts. 

So while Bradon was enjoying the ceiling fans, we walked with the line.  It moved rather quickly.  I was also feeding Brandon his lunch.  It was 11am already.  Luckily, I had brought some char-siew cheung fun which I bought from a to-go Chinese dimsum place at Cerritos. 

When he was done with his lunch, we had just reached the half point, “From here to ride - 30 minutes wait.” Brandon didn’t really give us any hard time except he demanded for us to carry him most of the way during the last 30 minutes wait in the line.

This is a 4D ride and require to wear the 3D glasses. We took our glasses from the bin when we were almost on the ride. Brandon didn’t want to wear it. When it was our turn to ride, I told him to look around to see others wearing it. He then let me helped to put it on him. I personally love the ride. Not sure if Brandon really likes it. He was sitting by himself next to me. While Alan has to sit behind us.

The ride is based on the Toy Story 2 Adventure. The objective of the ride is to shoot and get as much point with the spring-action shooter.

Each moving platform has two cars on it. Each car will take 4 persons (2 facing forward/2 facing backward).

When we are inside the ride, there are screens with different animations (such as ‘Green Army Men Shoot Camp‘ and ‘Hamm & Eggs‘)and . We have to shoot the target points by pulling the spring shooter. In the beginning, I was pulling rather slowly. Then I tried pulling it none stop and the darts continuingly coming out and it was like a ‘machine-gun‘. It kinda tired out my arm at the end of the ride. Sometimes when my dart popped a balloon, air (sometimes water) would squirt to my face. That’s 4D experience. If I remember correctly, there were 5 different animations. I was too busy attending to Brandon, using my left hand to play his shooter while my right hand on my own. We like the ride and will go back again next time if the line isn’t that long.

At the end of the ride, Brandon scored 8300 while Mommy got like 136000. May be if Brandon is not next to me, I will be able to get higher score. That’ll be next time.

One of my ex-school mates from SMDJ just called me up from the South East Coast. She has been married for a year and half. We haven’t been in touch since she got married.  That day she called me and told me a Malaysia girlfriend of hers from DC will be moving to LA and if is possible to give out my phone and email contact to her. Of course I said yes. Then she surprised me with the ‘news’. She is only 3 weeks away from her due date. And something more … her daughter will be name May Ying. She told they let her Father-in-law choose the name and he came up with two choices - May Ying or Wai Ying. They chose the first. Ahh … I was so happy for her.  Next time seeing her daughter, I will be calling her my own name.  LOL!

She will be off starting from this week till her delivery and then she will have 3 months of maternity leaves. She told me they may have to look for a bigger car, and may be an SUV. Since the baby may come anytime now, they may need to shop for the car a bit later. She told me her husband likes to check out the SUV at Bruce Cavenaugh Suzuki Wilmington NC. For now, they can browse the available cars online on the website.  Hopefully the new car will arrive when her mother comes over in October. Then after her mother leaves, her MIL will come and stay for about 4 months.