dj snow

It's called the Circular Dining Room. It is a bit pricey, but it's good. There is a dress code (see link above). Sunday brunch is great.

The panels in the doors and windows look like they've been used before... Perhaps the park's normal winterization procedure to seal up this ride's station as depicted in the photos. Such a move would indicate the ride is closed for the season, but not necessarily forever. Of course, with a ride as needlessly complex and troublesome as Typhoon Sea Coaster, it wouldn't surprise me if they elected to rid themselves of it... Or at least modify it so that the turntables are no longer part of the experience. "Wheeee!!! THUD." (The sounds of TSC.)

Actually, if you want to get technical about it (and even if you don't ), it's more like America West bought US Airways, they now control them, and have taken on their name since "US Airways" was more well-known. That still doesn't change the fact that coasterbuzz36763 needs to get with the times! I kid, I kid.

Incorrect. There is no change fee at all, for anyone, at Southwest. Now, if you rebook to a ticket with a higher price than your original, you will pay the difference in fares. But they won't tack on an additional $25+ change fee like most other airlines, because they don't have such a thing at Southwest. Change fees are a bit of a slap in the face--almost like flushing your cash down the toilet--and it's nice not to have to worry about it.

I've flown most of the domestics, and don't really feel a huge devotion to any one of them. Whoever has the best price/routing for a firm trip is who I go with. That said, the bulk of the service out of the Phoenix airport is split between US Airways and Southwest, each of whom have hundreds of flights a day here. And all other things being equal, I'd choose Southwest, mainly because they don't charge change fees. Most other airlines will charge you a minimum of $25 to reprice a ticket (if the fare goes down after you buy) or to cancel or change flights/times. None of that with Southwest, which in my opinion is a huge advantage. So if I book a "maybe" trip, I'll almost definitely go Southwest because I'm protected a bit more with them in case I have to cancel or change my plans.

Six Flags doesn't own SFOT. The park isn't theirs to sell.

Good call. As a matter of fact, these folks were singing "People Like Us." Okay, not really.

You're just not going to the right parties, J Man. 'Tis a shame you missed out on all that furry action! That Debris Marie is quite the looker.

This coming Monday, June 12, a 12-mile-long section of the San Tan Freeway will open to traffic here in the greater Phoenix metro area. It completes a connection between US 60 and I-10, so it will serve as a fairly popular corridor. A tradition here (I'm not sure if it happens anywhere else) is to have festivals on newly completed sections of highway, before they open to traffic. Wednesday, June 7, was the day for this festival, dubbed "Sundown on the San Tan." And now, enjoy some photos from this unusual event. Finally, the evening ended with fireworks. And in just a few days, these lanes will be full of briskly-moving traffic! Where's Triumph the Insult Comic Dog when you need him? This stage setup (and its musical entertainment) was better than the other. There was also live "entertainment." Moving on, we find one of several inflatable zones. Finally, it's time for the ceremonial ribbon cutting, with yet another mascot making a cameo. The Gov' hangs out with Highway Hawk. Here's my favorite mascot, though. Her name is (are you ready?)... Debris Marie. Hey, it's Gateway Gus, the nearby airport's mascot! The governor meets some horses. No, this isn't a horrible accident scene--Arizona Highway Patrol simply had some of their fleet on display. Chipotle had a table to give out free chips & guac. Free Bomb Pops from the Blue Bunny carts! Various booths and displays were set up on the westbound lanes. Lots of people brought their bikes, skateboards, scooters and such to enjoy this rare opportunity. Cars parked on the shoulder and the median, then it was time for their occupants to walk to the good times! This section of the highway was open to traffic (but only at 20 MPH) so that we could get to the party.

It was rather impressive. The Canyons is simply massive, with peak after peak after peak to explore. And they're planning to add about 200 more acres for next season! I haven't been to any California resorts, but I can tell you that The Canyons was certainly good times. Incidentally, The Canyons is part of American Skiing Company... A company that acquired a number of resorts across the country, found the debt load too much to handle, and recently sold off some properties to raise cash and hopefully return to profitability. They also relocated their headquarters. Sound familiar? Why too bad? For most people the ski/snowboard territorialism went by the wayside years ago. Check out the parks to and you'll see skiers and riders hanging out together, for instance. It doesn't matter what's on your feet; what matters is how you well you ski or ride and how you act toward others on the mountain.

Park City itself is full of good-looking restaurants, but since we weren't staying there, we didn't have much opportunity to explore. I would like to stay in the Park City area sometime, though. And Park City Mountain Resort has the coolest setup, with a trail that leads you over a bridge and across Main Street, dropping you off at a town square right by all the town's restaurants! Then, after you're done in town, hop on the lift (also right there on the square) to get back to the resort and the snow. Maybe next time I can try that. That said, we did stop at Deer Valley to eat dinner one night. Deer Valley has been consistently voted by readers of Ski Magazine as having the "Best Food" of any North American ski area. They won't let me ride my snowboard there, but they will gladly take my money and let me eat there. So I did, and it was quite good. Photos of food from Deer Valley: "Kobe beef" sirloin steak. Pecan-crusted pork tenderloin. Crawfish bisque.

Since summer is coming up fast, how about a quick look back at winter? For three days back in March (specifically, the 24th, the 25th and 26th), a friend and I headed up to Utah to check out three of the state's fine ski areas: Snowbird, Brighton and The Canyons. We flew into Salt Lake City, rented a car, and went from there. Salt Lake is really convenient for winter sports enthusiasts: You can be at a mountain in little more than a half-hour drive from the airport... And there are tons of choices! It would take at least a few more trips back to Salt Lake for me to explore all of the resorts clustered around the city. Convenient access, plentiful snow, and oh yeah... Fry sauce! It's the ideal destination. Just in time for the last run at The Canyons, the clouds begin to break! Perfect timing, as we had a flight to catch. The trip could not have gone better, and I will definitely be back next winter! Thanks for reading. Look, it's my snowboard! And my leg and foot too. Note: This is not a rental snowboard. It is privately owned. (If you got that reference, you win kudos from me.) Note that I'm looking DOWN to the tops of these signs... Yeah, they do get a lot of snow here! My first trip to snowboard in Utah, and I get treated to a powder day at The Canyons... Couldn't have planned it better. Looks nice (and believe me, it got much better/deeper than you see here)! Finally up on the mountain, you can see that it's been snowing! Here's part of The Canyons base village. They're building a lot of rooms/condos here. Still a lot of rough edges (like the pavement), but hopefully in a few years it'll be taken care of. Day Three: The Canyons. And hey, it's snowing! The high winds delayed opening about an hour, but the snow muted all complaints. This trail brought to you by Wrangler Jeans. That said, if you went looking for it, you could find some pretty tricky stuff! (No, none of those tracks were mine.) Brighton had lots of groomed, open runs like this one. A good place to learn to ski or snowboard. There was a slopestyle competition going on this day at Brighton. This girl was not the winner. They also had cotton candy! The air was clear and the views were great at Brighton. Next day: Brighton. Brighton seemed to be more of a local, family mountain. Definitely milder terrain than Snowbird. Here's a look up from the Creekside base lodge, taken as I reflected on the day. My award-winning Snowbird Tram Photo. Like it? Send your royalty payments to dj snow. This is a "nice scenery" shot from Snowbird. As you can see, the weather was just lovely. Back to Mineral Basin yet again. Watch out for all those trees! Hooray, the tram has arrived to whisk us to the peak! (To be honest, I'd rather use a chairlift instead of a crowded tram.) Oh, did I mention? Snowbird has a tram to the top. Here's one of the groomed, named trails in Mineral Basin. It was fairly steep, I reckon. Now we're looking down into Snowbird's Mineral Basin, a big, wide-open bowl on the backside. Reverse angle, featuring even more beautiful mountain scenery. (Note: Peak in background is not part of skiable terrain. Thank you.) First stop: Snowbird. Here's a view of the mountain with their new lodge in the foreground.

Sounds to me like Parque de Attraciones is more or less a reflection of Spanish culture in some of the ways they do things. It helps in Spain to have a bit more of a relaxed view of time, appointments, etc... Sort of take things a bit more slowly and "go with the flow." Some illustrations of this would be the siesta hour (or two) that a lot of businesses take in the middle of the day, as well as the fact that almost nothing is open on Sundays. And don't forget that the dinner hour is pushing 9pm... or beyond! Anyway, like anything there are exceptions, and it sounds like Movie World runs things a bit more tightly. But that doesn't mean that Parque de Attraciones's way of doing things is wrong; it's just kinda how things are done. (And also, as zanix noted, Parque de Attraciones is open year-round, so they do have those operational issues to work around as well.) By the way, don't leave Spain without having some of the ham!

Good pics of the desert baseball and traffic action! One question, though: Was this the view from your seats? If so, too bad. That railing/barrier would have been annoying. Obstructed views notwithstanding, I hope you enjoyed your trip.

Let me just say that when I saw the subject "A Day on the Town," I was expecting unparalleled glitz and glamour--and boy, did you deliver! The library! The supermarket! The interior of a sensible sedan! If I didn't know any better, I could have sworn I was watching a special on E!

Southwest, JetBlueand AirTranare the big three. For the route you're considering, JetBlue is probably the best choice (they fly to both JFK and Newark airports in the NYC area). AirTran serves LaGuardia in NYC, but it isn't nonstop service to/from Florida. Southwest doesn't really serve NYC--the closest they get is Islip in Long Island. All three are fine carriers, so you shouldn't worry about quality of service on any of them. And the good news is that they tend to set the price for everyone--so you'll often find matching fares on other carriers. There's lots of competition in the Northeast-to-Florida routes, so you can usually find a reasonable deal.

Good look at downtown. Positively bustling, eh?

Thank you for posting these pics. Opryland was a very nice park, full of trees, high-quality shows, and Southern hospitality. I think it's awful what became of it. I think a lot of people in Nashville still hold a grudge against Gaylord Entertainment for making the decision to close the park. I can't say I blame them.

As seen in an earlier post of mine, a few weeks ago I took a trip over to visit Sea World in San Diego. Luckily, I built in some time to see more than just that park and was able to see more of the city itself. I'm so glad I did, because San Diego is fantastic. I know that what I saw just scratches the surface, but nevertheless I hope you enjoy these photos. Finally, one last look at Giant Dipper, along with its neighbor the Beach Blaster (KMG Afterburner). For some reason I found this "I'm Drowning!" icon to be humorous. Up at the Wave House, riders were putting on quite a show for the crowd. Instead of riding rides, then, let's visit the Pacific Ocean. People were swimming today, and it was not very warm! Looks like Giant Dipper won't be giving any rides today! Now it was time to head down to Mission Beach. Look, it's a roller coaster! At The Prado, you can enjoy lovely meals such as this one. This is the back of the House of Hospitality. The umbrellas you see are part of the outdoor dining area at The Prado. This is the Spreckels Organ Pavilion. The massive pipe organ inside was built in 1915 and can be heard from miles away. Looking at the Tower from across Palm Canyon. The Palm Canyon trail takes you down to the bottom of a ravine that is filled with very tall palm trees. Very cool! Light, shadow, architecture, lamps! It's the California Tower! Classic gardens dot Balboa Park. This garden reminded me of the area around the Hotel Hershey. I had to stand out in the middle of a street to get this shot. I did it for you, the reader! The Botanical Building houses thousands of tropical plants and flowers inside. This interesting structure is the Botanical Building. Along with its many cultural attractions, Balboa Park has plenty of natural beauty. This tree, for instance, has a 145-foot-wide canopy. (That's big!) From the hotel I headed out to Balboa Park. Balboa Park is home to many interesting buildings like this one. Most house museums. The hotel I stayed at thoughtfully provided these helpful instructions on the soap packaging.

It was 85 degrees here in lovely Phoenix. Normally around this time of year it's closer to 70. I'm not complaining, it was nice!

Cool pics, I haven't been to visit any of the mountains around here yet. Looks like I'll have to put that on my list of things to do. Didn't look very crowded... Were there any other people?

A few weeks ago I decided to make a quick trip over to Sea World San Diego. I found it to be a great park, perhaps my favorite of the three Sea Worlds in the U.S. Lots of fun, humorous shows, interesting exhibits and great food. It's not heavy on the rides, but it doesn't have to be. Its atmosphere and fantastic spirit (for lack of a better word) make it a great stop. I spent time at the park over the course of two days, and here are the photos. Please enjoy. Finally on board the plane back to Phoenix, you can see that I scored the "Money Seat" on this aircraft! In case you were wondering: Yes, I did have enough legroom. But just barely. Hope you enjoyed the pics! Proudly posted at the airport was this reminder that Kenny Rogers is The Gambler. Never, EVER forget this. Kenny would not approve. Time to head back to the airport. The San Diego airport is shoehorned into the city, leading to alarmingly low approaches like this. The end of the runway is just across the street from this gas station. Don't worry--the pilots have done this before. Here's another delicious meal I ate: Freshly-carved beef sandwich with potato salad and chocolate cake. (I accidentally smeared some frosting on the trash can when throwing it out. Sorry cleaning lady, please forgive me!) Another Busch parks requirement is anything in a waffle cone. They have the best waffle cones! Here we see the Gorton's fisherman enjoying some quality time with the penguins. Oh, time for lunch! When visiting a Busch park, the barbecue beef brisket is always a good choice. This friendly dolphin also sends its best wishes. "Click-click-click-squeeek!" A couple of our friends from the sea wanted to say hello. First, it's this seal. "Bark-bark-bark!" The river rapids ride had this very odd spray gag: A dangling piano which would blast out water when its lid opened. At the Shamu show, the people you see here will get wet. Sadly for them, it was only about 60 degrees on this day. Enjoy Shamu's slap in the face, folks! The park is built on the water, giving it an unbeatable location, given its theme. The extra-fee gondola ride even goes into the bay. I found the Clyde and Seymour show much more entertaining in San Diego than in Orlando. Here's the finale of the dolphin show... Six simultaneous flips! Sea-mammal chaos! The dogs from Pets Rule were out for some exercise. Boy, were they energetic! In Wild Arctic, they have this cool wall of ice which has various hand and animal prints in it. (Cool wall... ice... get it?) The Commerson's dolphins always draw a crowd! At the exit of the ride, they have this great Commerson's dolphin tank. They are amazing to watch. Unlike Orlando's ride, this one has an open-air station. The finale splashdown has some exciting curves! Pretty, pretty rainbow from Atlantis. Journey to Atlantis awaits! Hey, they named a Clydesdale after me! I arrived at Sea World around 9:15 a.m., plenty of time to head to the Hospitality Center for a great Bacon Skillet breakfast: Eggs, bacon, muffin, home fries and fresh fruit with fresh-squeezed OJ. My chariot for the weekend. It was actually a really great car! The morning started with a quick flight from Phoenix to San Diego. Here's the view of the descent. (By the way, I flew Southwest, in case you couldn't tell.)

Thank you for this trip report. If you decide to take a different route sometime, be sure to do a new report for us! Why is it that every neighborhood around here looks the same? It's odd, I tell ya.

Is that an inclinometer stuck to the rail?

Yes, and Six Flags Over Mid America is what they used to call Six Flags St. Louis. They are the same park.