So I never did get a chance to play chess in the park this weekend like I had planned. It was too hot outside – around 104 in the valley.
We ended up going down to the Disneyland Resort on Saturday later in the day (into the belly of crowds and tourists). Our afternoon felt a little ruined when we were rushing to see the last Playhouse Disney show of the day (at 4:15?) we were running with our daughter and her gear, like refugees, across the park and showed up at the door at like 4:18. They wouldn’t let us in because, we were told, JoJo or Bear would go postal at our tardiness or because the show was packed, I don’t quite remember. Our day was redeemed though because Disney’s California Adventure is never crowded, even on Labor Day weekend. The longest line is 5 minutes and everybody sort of walks around the park looking for something to do. I’ve got a secret about that park; in reality there really isn’t much to do.
When we got bored we went across to Disneyland. We really like Disneyland, and so do millions of other people who were there on Saturday, because the place was packed. We ended up giving in and took our daughter onto “It’s A Small World” (yeah, I know “why?”…Babies and toddlers love that ride. It’s like baby-crack) and then later watched the fireworks. While watching all I could think about was how much I would hate to live near Disneyland. Those fireworks are much louder than our neighbors dog.
Sunday we did something very cultural, we went to Dim Sum in Chinatown with friends. I like Dim Sum, you never address the women pushing the food carts as “Excuse me, madam, what kind of entrée might you have there?” it’s more like “Hey!! You!! #43 with deep fried Chicken feet!!” (They have nametags with only numbers) It’s so demeaning. The only other place that’s worse is Medieval Times; you get to address the waitresses simply as 'wenches'.
Later in the day we did a neighborhood block party potluck. This is something very rare here in L.A., we actually get along with the majority our neighbors and do stuff like this every few months. There are 7 houses on our street and only 2 of them are occupied with those “weird” people. So of course the topic of conversation sometimes skews at them.
So the last weekend of the summer is going pretty well and then I hear about the Crocodile Hunter’s tragic death. It’s really depressing. My wife and I love watching his show on occasion. I even remember watching the episode of where he drags his cameraman along with him for the birth of his daughter –that was very moving – here’s this guy who’s been bitten by crazy mutants and never sheds a tear and then practically bawls when he holds his daughter for the first time. I just can’t even imagine what his wife and kids are going through. And now that they’re in the world news dumb reporters are going be asking them really stupid questions like "Are you sad about this really rare tragic death?". I hate reporters questions on the obvious.
Being the world-travelers that we are (or imagined) we’ve always planned on one day going to visit Australia and going to the Zoo he started. I think we still might.