December 30/31, 2007 Sunday/Monday Long Beach CA
We arrived at cousin Tom and Kitty’s in Long Beach. We found there place with the OnStar system, drove us to their front door. What a welcome we had, they thought to have their kids and spouse to be there to meet us; met at the door by Steve, then Cheryl and Valarie’s with Steven her husband and their twins, Grace and Adam also were there playing and having fun. We then began boring them with tid-bits of past times, well they appreciated our good relationship with mom and dad. Kitty then remembered the picture of Aunt Em and Uncle Sammy, there in the middle of the wedding picture was our mother at the age of nine as the flower girl and Aunt Vi as an attendant with another male. Back in the old days I had stayed at there house when in the Navy and had helped Cheryl take her first steps. And going way back Tom was my babysitter, that was a long way back!!
We carried on the conversations and at noon left for lunch and had been given a couple restaurants to choose from. We decided on the neat old lunch spot of Joe Jost Sandwiches, what a quaint spot. A very limited menu, Polish sandwiches, neat presentation, split down the middle with a slice of pickle and cheese in a caraway rye piece of bread. These are individually wrapped in a cellophane paper and all four were wrapped together, along with a pickled egg heavily peppered and a crusty yellow outside to the egg lay on top of a bed of pretzels. We needed salted peanuts to go with our large schooners of beer. The peanuts are roasted on sight by an old time roaster right in the back with the pool tables. The bar has many stuffed and mounted deer and elk heads, shelves lined with beer bottles and cans. Tom will try to get a Schell’s can or bottle on the shelf. Great old wooden oak booths and what a great time - recommended.
Back to there house for an afternoon of reliving old times and people. Shirleen and Kitty added much to the conversation as Kitty has retained much of the New Ulm culture and Shirleen knew many of the same people. She knew Uncle Sammy, because her dad visited her Uncle John S. whom lived close to Sammy. A couple houses down was my Aunt Margaret and Sketter, who Tom also knew and remembered. He had worked for Margaret’s husband Leo B. delivering barley pop and booze to local bars.
I then brought out the pc and showed him all of the Klink genealogy stuff I had. Stories just poured out of all four of our mouths. At about 5 or so, they asked if we would stay over, as we had missed our 2:30 leaving time. I broke down and said yes, as I could tell they really meant it. I was able to look at the Model A’s in the garage, with the 450 SL Mercedes. They had added onto the house a couple of times, one could hardly see it. All of a sudden it was 6:30 and time for dinner again, we decided on the Fish Company restaurant, on and in Los Alamitos. What food, we walked by the fresh seafood that can be purchased and brought home to prep yourself. Kitty had scallops and shrimp in a butter sauce, this was a most difficult order to convey to the waiter, it ended up that she had to order a Scampi without garlic; Shirleen had Shrimp Scampi and Tom had Calamari steak and I had to try it, it is the body of the squid, about a quarter inch thick, quickly fried in a fine breading accented with a béarnaise sauce. Oh yes, we had free flowing wine by the carafe. We were able to sit outside under some gas heaters to ward off the chill in the air – recommended.
Back to the house to see their hibernating Toni the tortoise, in the garage. Yes it is a 20 inch long tortoise in a box in the corner of the garage. It lies in state from Thanksgiving till Easter or when he starts to move around a bit in a box the size of a beer box. During the summer it is in the back yard, eating Kitty’s flowers, loves grapes and greens. What a neat pet.
More family discussions and I bored them with some of our vacation pictures. About 10:30 we left for a good night of sleep. Up in the morning and over coffee more stories.
Ended up in Blythe, Ca this evening. Now again time to eat, recommended was a Mexican place – Maria’s – and it was a down home restaurant. As we ran the strip and saw a Sizzler restaurant but couldn’t get in the driveway as a cop was standing in the way so we wouldn’t hit the ambulance that was picking up a client. Hope it wasn;t the food or worse. So off to Maria’s. it was a small cozy place eight tables. I figured the food was going to be good as the cook was well rounded, I was sure from good food. Shirleen had her enchilada and I a beef chimichanga with a couple of beers. I used the spicy dip with the fried tortillas, it had a firey edge to it and I caught a piece of a pepper that brought tears to my eyes. I would recommend this place anytime. – jerr
December 29, 2007 Saturday Disneyland Adventure Land
This was a day when we had no idea of what to expect, as we didn’t research the place. We headed left to a couple an area where there were to be a couple shows. The first of interest was Aladdin’s, the set and clothing were brilliantly colored and the play well presented. The genie was a real standout, with his green body and quick wit. The story line was the poor boy ending up with the princess. What a joy to watch. Then off to another presentation, this was an exhibit of how the cartoons are put together. There was a picture of Sleeping Beauty, this was the first movie Mark and Michelle saw. We then went into an area where there was a drawing board and on stage there was an animator who helped us draw Donald Ducks face, the trick was making circles and making small to large C’s to bring the features together. What fun. It now was time to go to a fish character, Crusher, who would interact with the attendees. It was fun to watch the fish ask to talk to certain kids in the audiences and responding by repeating there names and answering their questions. It most likely was someone viewing the audience and making the responses.
Then a 3-D presentation, we wearing our bug eyes. This was neat as the character would jump right in front of you clear and crisp. It once hosed us down and to make the feeling real they squirted us with droplets of water. 3-D has come a long way.
“it’s Tough to be a Bug” this was held under ground, we twisted through the earth as bugs and worms do. We were seated on a flat plastic seat of weird design, I think to look earthy. We were again wearing 3-D glasses. The bug introduced us to other bugs who, backfired – passing stink gas at us to smell. Again we were showered with water to accent being spit on. The most dramatic part was when they gassed the audience as we gas bugs to kill them, the lights went out the clod gas, water vapor surrounded us and it was a real strange feeling. As the event wrapped up the voice said we would exit but before us the cockroaches and worms must leave first. Then screams came up from the people sitting in the audience, in that strange chair you had a feeling as thought bugs were crawling on your behing. What great fun.
Well like everyone else we had to go to the restroom. When I came out I saw a bunch of kids, 4 to 9 year olds, gathered around a square garbage can. The kids were screaming at it and it was moving and talking back to them. What extisty they were in, here is a garbage can talking to them. It would talk to one kid that was wearing a blue coat and ask him questions, they talked to each other. But as you guessed in the background was a young man with a large bag which he operated the movement of the garbage can, it could swing around and move back and forth. We just stood there and laughed at the concept. Turn out this guy does this six times a day, so he has many routines. They played hid and seek, kids pushed the can where it said push and the name of it was, you guessed it – Push. There was a couple there who had twins around 9 and a younger 6 year old boy; these kids ask to see push every time they come to Adventure land and think it is real. What a hoot.
We dined in a sit down Italian restaurant there. A nice plate of rustic lasagna, thin pasta and soft tasting sauce with Italian sausage, of course we had some wine. Then through a tortilla manufacturing spot, where they gave recipes and tasty fresh tortilla’s. Then next door was a sourdough bakery exhibit, with a small crust of tasty sourdough bread. I noticed they used spring wheat for the dough, gives the stringiness and toughness of the crusty bread.
We watched the light show, much like Hazeldazel in the cities, but much more colorful with the large quantity of lights.
As we had no idea of what to expect, and I the doubter, we and I really enjoyed this day. jerr
December 28, 2007 Friday Disneyland
Once arrived we parked, turned out the following day we parked within 10 spots of where we parked today. The train in to the ticket areas was full of people wow. The lines at the ticket booths were even larger but one just rolls with the punch. We got the two day passes, no senior citizens discount but I tried. Into the fray we went. Today the park was loaded and some of the working people said they were understaffed because they were caught off guard by the number of people.
We were headed to “It’s a Small World”. We went there by horse drawn carriage. We got in line and wrapped around and waited about 15 minutes. Later in the day it was over an hours wait. We boarded the boats and sat in the back seat. Why the hurry to get to this kiddy ride??? It turns out 42 years ago or so, we were here on the opening day of this exhibit and were in the first couple of boats to go through it. It was decked out in Christmas splendor. Bright colors, Christmas music, just the reason we were here to view the glitter.
We road the 3 mast Colombia and the Mark Twain paddle boat, fun but cool. We ate once at the New Orleans restaurant, good fried chicken but way too much.
We attended the afternoon parade, we were in a sit down area. So I sat on the cold sidewalk for way to long. We were treated to the USC marching band, always highly spirited and colorful, then the Kamehameha High School band from Honolulu, beautiful Hawaiians, with that certain look of the Island. During the parade we saw the Virginia Tech band, dressed in the early army uniforms of the 1700’s, they sure had a tough year. The parade was really Christmas oriented, with reindeers and Santa showing up. After the parade, now was the time of truth, could I get up? Well thank goodness there was a stationary post to grab hold of, I made it but it weren’t easy and the cold stayed with me all the rest of the day.
Now was the formal lighting of the castle, the lights in all of Disneyland were dimmed and a spectacular lighting was to come. The castle was covered in lights and the towers were lit then the lights that looked like snow on the towers and walk ways came on. Then came the snow effect, the shimmering of the lights on the trees and towers of the castle, hard to describe but beautiful to see. Again the reason we were there was to see the Christmas decorations and this was one of the best.
We walked through other exhibits waiting for the fireworks display put on by Honda. We found a roped off area and stood there for awhile when I asked a cast member where the best viewing of the fireworks was, she said in the center toward the castle, as they go off in front of and behind the castle.
The rockets started the fireworks, streaming up alongside the castle. The many colors of red white and blue. The high fired rockets which burst into gold rays and spiraling gold color. Loud booms, and more colorful rockets and bursting color. There must have been two billion digital camera pictures taken and few developed. But a great display. Jerr what I have forgotten I wil add later, as I have been writing for 2 hours now.
We arrived at cousin Tom and Kitty’s in Long Beach. We found there place with the OnStar system, drove us to their front door. What a welcome we had, they thought to have their kids and spouse to be there to meet us; met at the door by Steve, then Cheryl and Valarie’s with Steven her husband and their twins, Grace and Adam also were there playing and having fun. We then began boring them with tid-bits of past times, well they appreciated our good relationship with mom and dad. Kitty then remembered the picture of Aunt Em and Uncle Sammy, there in the middle of the wedding picture was our mother at the age of nine as the flower girl and Aunt Vi as an attendant with another male. Back in the old days I had stayed at there house when in the Navy and had helped Cheryl take her first steps. And going way back Tom was my babysitter, that was a long way back!!
We carried on the conversations and at noon left for lunch and had been given a couple restaurants to choose from. We decided on the neat old lunch spot of Joe Jost Sandwiches, what a quaint spot. A very limited menu, Polish sandwiches, neat presentation, split down the middle with a slice of pickle and cheese in a caraway rye piece of bread. These are individually wrapped in a cellophane paper and all four were wrapped together, along with a pickled egg heavily peppered and a crusty yellow outside to the egg lay on top of a bed of pretzels. We needed salted peanuts to go with our large schooners of beer. The peanuts are roasted on sight by an old time roaster right in the back with the pool tables. The bar has many stuffed and mounted deer and elk heads, shelves lined with beer bottles and cans. Tom will try to get a Schell’s can or bottle on the shelf. Great old wooden oak booths and what a great time - recommended.
Back to there house for an afternoon of reliving old times and people. Shirleen and Kitty added much to the conversation as Kitty has retained much of the New Ulm culture and Shirleen knew many of the same people. She knew Uncle Sammy, because her dad visited her Uncle John S. whom lived close to Sammy. A couple houses down was my Aunt Margaret and Sketter, who Tom also knew and remembered. He had worked for Margaret’s husband Leo B. delivering barley pop and booze to local bars.
I then brought out the pc and showed him all of the Klink genealogy stuff I had. Stories just poured out of all four of our mouths. At about 5 or so, they asked if we would stay over, as we had missed our 2:30 leaving time. I broke down and said yes, as I could tell they really meant it. I was able to look at the Model A’s in the garage, with the 450 SL Mercedes. They had added onto the house a couple of times, one could hardly see it. All of a sudden it was 6:30 and time for dinner again, we decided on the Fish Company restaurant, on and in Los Alamitos. What food, we walked by the fresh seafood that can be purchased and brought home to prep yourself. Kitty had scallops and shrimp in a butter sauce, this was a most difficult order to convey to the waiter, it ended up that she had to order a Scampi without garlic; Shirleen had Shrimp Scampi and Tom had Calamari steak and I had to try it, it is the body of the squid, about a quarter inch thick, quickly fried in a fine breading accented with a béarnaise sauce. Oh yes, we had free flowing wine by the carafe. We were able to sit outside under some gas heaters to ward off the chill in the air – recommended.
Back to the house to see their hibernating Toni the tortoise, in the garage. Yes it is a 20 inch long tortoise in a box in the corner of the garage. It lies in state from Thanksgiving till Easter or when he starts to move around a bit in a box the size of a beer box. During the summer it is in the back yard, eating Kitty’s flowers, loves grapes and greens. What a neat pet.
More family discussions and I bored them with some of our vacation pictures. About 10:30 we left for a good night of sleep. Up in the morning and over coffee more stories.
Ended up in Blythe, Ca this evening. Now again time to eat, recommended was a Mexican place – Maria’s – and it was a down home restaurant. As we ran the strip and saw a Sizzler restaurant but couldn’t get in the driveway as a cop was standing in the way so we wouldn’t hit the ambulance that was picking up a client. Hope it wasn;t the food or worse. So off to Maria’s. it was a small cozy place eight tables. I figured the food was going to be good as the cook was well rounded, I was sure from good food. Shirleen had her enchilada and I a beef chimichanga with a couple of beers. I used the spicy dip with the fried tortillas, it had a firey edge to it and I caught a piece of a pepper that brought tears to my eyes. I would recommend this place anytime. – jerr
December 29, 2007 Saturday Disneyland Adventure Land
This was a day when we had no idea of what to expect, as we didn’t research the place. We headed left to a couple an area where there were to be a couple shows. The first of interest was Aladdin’s, the set and clothing were brilliantly colored and the play well presented. The genie was a real standout, with his green body and quick wit. The story line was the poor boy ending up with the princess. What a joy to watch. Then off to another presentation, this was an exhibit of how the cartoons are put together. There was a picture of Sleeping Beauty, this was the first movie Mark and Michelle saw. We then went into an area where there was a drawing board and on stage there was an animator who helped us draw Donald Ducks face, the trick was making circles and making small to large C’s to bring the features together. What fun. It now was time to go to a fish character, Crusher, who would interact with the attendees. It was fun to watch the fish ask to talk to certain kids in the audiences and responding by repeating there names and answering their questions. It most likely was someone viewing the audience and making the responses.
Then a 3-D presentation, we wearing our bug eyes. This was neat as the character would jump right in front of you clear and crisp. It once hosed us down and to make the feeling real they squirted us with droplets of water. 3-D has come a long way.
“it’s Tough to be a Bug” this was held under ground, we twisted through the earth as bugs and worms do. We were seated on a flat plastic seat of weird design, I think to look earthy. We were again wearing 3-D glasses. The bug introduced us to other bugs who, backfired – passing stink gas at us to smell. Again we were showered with water to accent being spit on. The most dramatic part was when they gassed the audience as we gas bugs to kill them, the lights went out the clod gas, water vapor surrounded us and it was a real strange feeling. As the event wrapped up the voice said we would exit but before us the cockroaches and worms must leave first. Then screams came up from the people sitting in the audience, in that strange chair you had a feeling as thought bugs were crawling on your behing. What great fun.
Well like everyone else we had to go to the restroom. When I came out I saw a bunch of kids, 4 to 9 year olds, gathered around a square garbage can. The kids were screaming at it and it was moving and talking back to them. What extisty they were in, here is a garbage can talking to them. It would talk to one kid that was wearing a blue coat and ask him questions, they talked to each other. But as you guessed in the background was a young man with a large bag which he operated the movement of the garbage can, it could swing around and move back and forth. We just stood there and laughed at the concept. Turn out this guy does this six times a day, so he has many routines. They played hid and seek, kids pushed the can where it said push and the name of it was, you guessed it – Push. There was a couple there who had twins around 9 and a younger 6 year old boy; these kids ask to see push every time they come to Adventure land and think it is real. What a hoot.
We dined in a sit down Italian restaurant there. A nice plate of rustic lasagna, thin pasta and soft tasting sauce with Italian sausage, of course we had some wine. Then through a tortilla manufacturing spot, where they gave recipes and tasty fresh tortilla’s. Then next door was a sourdough bakery exhibit, with a small crust of tasty sourdough bread. I noticed they used spring wheat for the dough, gives the stringiness and toughness of the crusty bread.
We watched the light show, much like Hazeldazel in the cities, but much more colorful with the large quantity of lights.
As we had no idea of what to expect, and I the doubter, we and I really enjoyed this day. jerr
December 28, 2007 Friday Disneyland
Once arrived we parked, turned out the following day we parked within 10 spots of where we parked today. The train in to the ticket areas was full of people wow. The lines at the ticket booths were even larger but one just rolls with the punch. We got the two day passes, no senior citizens discount but I tried. Into the fray we went. Today the park was loaded and some of the working people said they were understaffed because they were caught off guard by the number of people.
We were headed to “It’s a Small World”. We went there by horse drawn carriage. We got in line and wrapped around and waited about 15 minutes. Later in the day it was over an hours wait. We boarded the boats and sat in the back seat. Why the hurry to get to this kiddy ride??? It turns out 42 years ago or so, we were here on the opening day of this exhibit and were in the first couple of boats to go through it. It was decked out in Christmas splendor. Bright colors, Christmas music, just the reason we were here to view the glitter.
We road the 3 mast Colombia and the Mark Twain paddle boat, fun but cool. We ate once at the New Orleans restaurant, good fried chicken but way too much.
We attended the afternoon parade, we were in a sit down area. So I sat on the cold sidewalk for way to long. We were treated to the USC marching band, always highly spirited and colorful, then the Kamehameha High School band from Honolulu, beautiful Hawaiians, with that certain look of the Island. During the parade we saw the Virginia Tech band, dressed in the early army uniforms of the 1700’s, they sure had a tough year. The parade was really Christmas oriented, with reindeers and Santa showing up. After the parade, now was the time of truth, could I get up? Well thank goodness there was a stationary post to grab hold of, I made it but it weren’t easy and the cold stayed with me all the rest of the day.
Now was the formal lighting of the castle, the lights in all of Disneyland were dimmed and a spectacular lighting was to come. The castle was covered in lights and the towers were lit then the lights that looked like snow on the towers and walk ways came on. Then came the snow effect, the shimmering of the lights on the trees and towers of the castle, hard to describe but beautiful to see. Again the reason we were there was to see the Christmas decorations and this was one of the best.
We walked through other exhibits waiting for the fireworks display put on by Honda. We found a roped off area and stood there for awhile when I asked a cast member where the best viewing of the fireworks was, she said in the center toward the castle, as they go off in front of and behind the castle.
The rockets started the fireworks, streaming up alongside the castle. The many colors of red white and blue. The high fired rockets which burst into gold rays and spiraling gold color. Loud booms, and more colorful rockets and bursting color. There must have been two billion digital camera pictures taken and few developed. But a great display. Jerr what I have forgotten I wil add later, as I have been writing for 2 hours now.
1 comment:
Oh, how I wish you could have taped your conversations with Tom and Kitty! All those memories....I'd love to hear them.
Love,Mary
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