Loco for Coco!

I could tell yesterday would be a great day when my wife and I received a shout out on the Jason Ellis Show.  This came not from the radio program’s host himself, of course, but rather from a good friend of ours who called in from the psychedelic depths of the Kootenays’ Shambhala music festival.  Thank you, Craig!

That was only the precursor to an afternoon engagement that we had been anxiously anticipating for weeks: a live taping of Conan!  We drove to Warner Brothers Studios and shuffled into our seats on the set, giddy for a roster made up of Julian McCullough, Anthony Jeselnik and Sharon Stone.

Grown Up Kids

Mickey Mouse, we meet again!

During my initial voyage to Disneyland, I was 8 years old.  Like many children that age, I had believed whole heartedly in its marketed proclamation as “the happiest place on earth,” and to my great delight it seemed to actually live up to that promise.

18 years have now passed since that first and only visit of mine.  This week, the time came to experience it again with a two day pass for both the classic Disneyland theme park and the more modern Disney California Adventure, as part of a mobile honeymoon adventure from British Columbia down to California.

I Burnt My Face In San Francisco

The title of this entry is no jab at the cultural center of Northern California.  Rather, it is meant in a lighthearted, lyrical way, in the vein of Tony Bennett’s and The Mowgli’s respective songs about the city.  It is my own fault that my cheeks and forehead now match the colour of the Golden Gate Bridge.  In retrospect, I should have thought to apply sun block to my face before spending an entire day exploring San Francisco’s many famous attractions on foot.

Originally, my wife and I had considered booking a guided bus tour of the area, but we rejected this idea in favour of a leg-propelled approach that would allow us to play the role of tourists in our own style and at our own pace.  After filling up on a meal of crab chowder and calamari by the sea, we adjusted our shoes and began our walking adventure.