Grand Canyon...on a whim

So the other day Felicia and I were in St. George Ut. on a family reunion.  And when I say "the other day," what I really mean in this case is two weeks ago.  My mother's side goes down there every year to see the shows at the Tuacahn outdoor theater.  It's an outdoor theater...which as it turns out I already said...set in a canyon about 30 minutes north of St George.  It's an incredible location and they often put on great shows. This year they put on Disney's Aladdin...I mean broadway's Aladdin...and Hairspray.  I withhold my own judgement of these shows and just say that if you happen to be down that way and see them, I hope you enjoy.

In any case, on our way home on Saturday we wanted to stop by Zion National Park. On our way there, we saw a sign that said the Grand Canyon was only 160 miles away.  That sounded more fun than Zion so that's where we went.

However, instead of going to the 160-mile-away north rim, we decided to go to the 250-mile-away west rim.  We wanted to go to the skywalk, which we didn't end up doing because it's too expensive.  What we didn't know before, but know now, is that side is run by an American Indian tribe and they are trying to make as much money out of the skywalk as possible.  It's on their reservation, and to get into their reservation you need to pay around $60.00.  And then to get on the skywalk, it's an additional $29.99.  This is the per-person charge. It was crazy.  I could write an entire blog how ridiculous that pricing model is.  But I won't.

 In any case, we left there and decided to drive to the 400-mile-away south rim.  And it was awesome.  Pictures don't do the Grand Canyon any justice whatsoever, so obviously I'm going to show you some anyway.

Here Come the Pictures

As promised here are a few pictures of the Disneyland trip. Not many, just a couple of my favorites.

Star Tours is one of my all time favorite rides at any theme park. Ever. And the new changes they made to it are awesome. When we were in Orlando, Felicia and I probably rode on this thing six times. The outside of the one in Disney World is probably a bit more cool, but I had to have my picture next to this one because I was actually the rebel spy the one time we rode it here. If you don't know what that means exactly, do yourself a favor and go to Disneyland to ride this.

Fun Fact: observant people will notice Felicia's reflection in the window taking the picture.

This is one of my other favorite rides. We didn't get to go on it when we were in Florida due to a consistently long line and no fast pass. This one had no fast pass either, but Felicia knew I really wanted to get on it so she agreed to stand in line to ride it. I have the best wife.

This one is of the ferris wheel in California Adventure. No we didn't go on it. Honestly the thing scares me to death. Just snapped this photo as we were waiting for the World of Color.



Last time I was in Disneyland, part of the California Adventure park was closed for renovation. They were making what is now called the World of Color. Put simply, the World of Color is the most amazing water show ever devised by man.

It makes the water show at the Bellagio in Las Vegas look like the type of small water fountain you might find in a mall. In addition to shooting huge jets of water into the air set to music, at times during the show they will actually project movies up onto the water.

On Sunday we were planning on going to visit Disney Studios. Since Felicia's brother Jared works for disney, he can get people in there from time to time. Unfortunately, this was not one of those times. We made it to the lot and were told that since it was a holiday weekend, the studio was on blackout. So we went to Los Angeles instead. I had never been there, so walking Hollywood Blvd. and then seeing the Hollywood Sign was all pretty cool. And being able to fist bump Shrek was icing on the cake.

Ok so maybe this isn't the best picture of the Hollywood Sign. Whatever.