Well, we're back... Ava and Oscar are back home and the vacation is officially over.. Just a nornal weekend before going back to the real world.

Maui was a blast. We had lunch at Mama's, spent a day with our friends Dan and Bonnie, surfed, paddle surfed, ate lots of shoyu poke and boiled peanuts, a lot of snorkeling, a lot of resting, a lot of reading, and a lot of Maui Tacos.

Hale Napili is most definitely our new Maui digs and I encourage anyone going to check the place out.

Here are the rest of our pictures...

http://ninety3.com/maui/

Aloha.

Disney Adventure

Disneyland is awesome. I would assume it is as close to utopia as you can get. Outside of it's stellar innovation of "fun-ness" I think the two things that make it so great are a) it's really expensive and b) seat belts.

It seems like the park is man's best effort at class equalization in the sense that after spending that much money to get in, no one wants to get kicked out and that most folks, after spending that kind of money, are determined to enjoy their time there.

I think the people who drafted the patriot act could learn a lot from the folks at Disney. I assume there are cameras and monitoring devices every 4 millimeters (as evidenced by a family we watched whose daughter's temper tantrum escalated to nose bleeding proportions...Within 30 seconds of blood, there was a friendly representative there to escort them to what I can only imagine was a 'bleeding room....' i later saw the family shellacked and ensconced in the Norwegian portion of It's a Small World.... I kid... A little bit.) but no one seems to really mind.

I know they say that those who are willing to give up freedom for security deserve neither, but man, throw in some cool animatronics, a beer cart (thanks California Adventure Park!) and some backgrounds designed by Mary Blair, and I may be willing to go in for the patriotic lobotomy myself.

Ava had a blast. She warmed up the first day with her standby ride, the carousel, and we continued on to Dumbo. Then I had the great idea to go on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride... Not so great... I had forgotten what a dark creepy ride it is, and Ava was not amused... Upset to be honest. So we made our way over to the Winne the Pooh ride. She was hesitant to get on, but I think she enjoyed the "wild honey trip."

Since Lorenzo and Aly were along, we were able to do a but of juggling and enjoy some adult rides as well. Pirates has been revamped to feature Johnny Depp as Keith Richards as a pirate, and that's always a good time.

Since we had flown out so early, I went back to the hotel with Ava to get her to bed so we could make the most of day two...

With an early start we made out way through most of Disneyland. Mylissa and Hamish came to meet us with Georgie and we all had an excellent time in Toon Town.

In the afternoon we went to California Adventure for our late lunch with Ariel and her princess friends... Ava was in awe.

After lunch, Lorenzo and Aly took Ava so Cortney and I could ride Soaring California... (Ava was one inch too short.) This ride was beyond incredible. I'd love to have a television that size... Sanford and Son would look amazing.

After that Cortney and I went to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Now, I hate falling worse than I hate taxes, and this ride involves falling 13 floors in an elevator. If the name Twilight Zone had not been attached, you could not pay me enough to ride it... Well actually, you probably could, but only because I really like money.

At one point in the ride the door opens and they take your picture right before plunging. Seeing my photo was beyond disturbing. It was the kind of expression reserved for tribal death masks. I thought about buying it, but as you guessed, they wanted a lot of money for that, and with a month of travel, I'm a little low on plasma.

The nightly parade was beautiful and Ava had a lot of fun dancing. I'll try to get some video up at some point.

After a full night of sleep, we woke up and scrambled over to the park for the Minnie Mouse breakfast buffet. We saw Captain Hook (who appeared to be a little too sweet to me, but whatever..), Tigger, Eeyore, Chip and Dale, and of course Minnie Mouse. Ava thought that eating pancakes in the presence of so much greatness was one of the highlights of her vacation.

We spent a few hours in the park before heading to the airport. As for falling rides, outside a few roller coasters like Space Mountain, I'm seriously done... And don't try to convince me of anything different.

If peer pressure worked on me, I'd be registered Democrat and there would be no meat in our fridge.

The rest of the pics are up at www.ninety3.com/disney

Cortney and I are off to Maui on Saturday. I hope to get some surfing in, but other than that, a whole lot of nothing, before heading back to work.

We're back! Well temporarily...

Waterton, Alberta was amazing. We saw a lot of wildlife and experienced near hurricane strength winds! The people were very friendly and it was a great way to cap off the glacier trip.

We drove north yesterday and through Fernie BC, where I payed homage to the birthplace of Alex Lifeson. We then drove south to Whitefish and caught the night train back to Portland.

Now to rest up and gear up for Disneyland!

All glacier pictures are up at http://ninety3.com/glacier/

Day 5

one of the most interesting things about traveling after labor day is the number of old people who are vacationing. old people are very interesting, I've discovered.

since my daughter is the cutest kid on the planet (totally impartial), she's an interesting gauge to use to see that some old people love kids (and life in general) while others despise children (and life in general it seems.)

also interesting is that according to our first night at many glaciers hotel and it's thin walls, they only need about 2 hrs of sleep, but that 2 hrs is filled with the most violent snoring and sinus activity known in the universe.

at 5 am our two elderly neighbors decided they had enough sleep and decided to begin talking loudly about whatever crossed their minds. i wanted to walk next door and let them know that after listening to the snoring, the last thing i needed was their commentary on season 5 of matlock, but instead, i simply knocked hard on the wall.

now, i was not aware that local contractors in the 30's used ground eggshell and the softer bits of clouds when making these walls and upon waking up that morning, i found this:

is it a felony to damage a national landmark?

we spent the day in and around many glaciers, where ava had another horseback ride, a boat ride, and a few hikes. we saw mountain goats and a grizzly on the hill high above.

neat stuff.

day 6

we decided to head south to east glacier and two medicine (cortney is reading a book based in this area.) we travelled south through the Blackfeet reservation. much has been written about these reservation areas, so i'll simply say, it's kind of depressing, and leave it at that.

we walked through east glacier lodge, which was beautiful and then entered the park to travel up to two medicine. there was some construction work taking place and we had to stop and wait. i asked how long. "10 minutes" the man croaked... 20 minutes later i went back up..."how long" i asked "10 minutes" he croaked. well, i know this game, so we turned around to drive back and hit one of the few mex restaraunts in the area.... closed... this is not our day.

so we drive back to many glaciers and ava is in rare form. i might mention with the laptop failures, we purchased a portable dvd player. it broke the second day... yup, the fates are laughing at us.

for dinner we went to the cattle baron supper club for steaks. i ordered the ribeye. it was 28 ounces. i finished 20 of them. dustin howell will laugh at me for a long time to come.

Day 6

this morning we woke up and packed and drove north to make out way to canda. along the way, i had the only espresso i have ever tasted that was brewed from yuban. truly amazing.

the scenery along the way was amazing. no problems crossing the border and on our way in to waterton, we saw a black bear and her cub. ava was very excited as she has spent the last few days with a toy version, and he has been her inseparable buddy though these dvd-free days.

this is the hotel we will be staying at for the next two nights.

since we're in canda, i will be heading to a bar tonight, for some whiskey and a cuban cigar.

i will post more pics after we get home on friday... take care!

note: this is the week where "stuff" is breaking. both laptops were down, so I am writing this from an internet cafe.... well, not so much a cafe as an internet truck stop.

Day 1

First things first, traveling with a 3 year old and a cold/flu by train, for lack of a better term, sucks... With every head pounding jar of the train, the age old adage "are we there yet" is replaced by "is this Montana?" No honey, this is North Portland.

Sleeping in the train was an experience in sleep deprivation. At midnight, and in the middle of nowhere, the train stopped and the electricity shut off, stopping power to my hyperbolic sleep chamber and stopping the air from, well, conditioning... "Good heavens man... What's happened? Have hostile natives attacked the train? Are they overtaking first class???"

After an hour of Cortney and I sleeping, Ava awoke to what she convinced us was the best sleep ever. Ready to go, we spent the day in Whitefish, which is an awesome town. Ava painted her own piggy bank at an Art shop and we meandered through town. At one point, Cortney browsed an upscale clothing boutique where price tags allowed her to shop only with her mind. While we waited, Ava showed me the finer points of a game called "hipscotch" where apparently the object is to dance like Ben Verene on psilocybin over the cracks in the sidewalk. A good time was had by all.





By this point, between the sleep dep and the cold medicine everyone looked to me like a CIA agent. We decided that bed is the best course of action.

Day 2

After 12 hrs of sleep, we're ready to roll. We drive through West Glacier and through the North Fork of the Flathead river to Polebridge. This is a gravel road that takes you through towns with no electricity. I don't feel so bad about the laptops now... We ate the greatest sandwich and bear claw ever.... Anywhere.

We drove to Lake McDonald lodge and took the boat tour of the lake. Truly beautiful views of bright blue glacial water. After a great dinner of bison steak, we were all ready for bed.





Day 3

We started the next day by hiking up to the stables and letting Ava take a horse ride around the corral. The most amazing thing was the loud strains of Led Zeppelin emitting from the stables. Apparently the only natural predator of the Grizzly Bear is Jimmy Page.

Ava rode a quarter horse named Winny and this was the highlight of her week. Cortney went out on a scenic ride and Ava and I returned to the lodge where she continued to remind me of "the one time she rode a horse named Winnie." I nodded and sipped my Moose Drool (my favorite Amber micro-brew from Montana.)



After lunch a big thunder storm came on with a lot of rain. Something had to be done, and a nap was the thing. After a good long nap, we spent some time hanging around the lodge and again after a good dinner, we crashed out.

Day 4

We got up early and made a long day of it. We headed up the Going to the Sun road and wow, how amazing of a road... We got out at Logan's Pass and hiked about a mile up the Hidden Lake trail... This was about all I was comfortable with, knowing I'd be carrying Ava back.



Made out way to Many Glaciers Hotel, and again, this is the a truly amazing spot.


We'll be here in the East side of the park for 3 days, then to Waterton in Alberta, Canada.

I'll try and catch up in Waterton on Tuesday or Wed.... It may be after we get home and before Disneyland...

Take care!

So the big vacation begins next Tuesday when Cortney, Ava and I will be taking the train to Whitefish, Montana to begin our Glacier trip.

We will be staying in Whitefish, Lake McDonald Lodge, Many Glaciers Hotel, and the Prince of Wales Hotel.

As internet access allows I will try and update this with photos and Ava'isms.

Cheers!