Cameron

Great photos, and I'm so thrilled that the Kurve is back! The first shot you had of the mother and kid is totally brochure-worthy. Cameron.

Very quick report after a totally stellar day at one of my favorite parks. This will be more like news, rather than a full-on report (there are many in the archives for people who want to be sold on the park). We all know that at the end of 2007 the park was sold to evil, corporate, pigs, hell-bent on high profits; while totally disregarding the guests, the history or the atmosphere of the park! Whether you like the sale or not, the park last year was not at its best: under staffed, under capacity (one train on Lost Coaster and Hurricane all year), and just general teething problems. Many people were ready to write this place off, but not me. It's just too nice a place to give up on that easily. Well today erased almost all of the issues present last year. Everything was running, everything was staffed (even the Frog Hopper!), and all the shops were open. Cornball has received a lot of new wood over the winter, and was running super-smooth and obscenely fast; this was Cornball of old! (And remember, today was the first day!). Other great points were the Double Shot that was as insane as ever. Ditto for the Falling Star and the Pirate Ship. Nice long cycles on the Paratrooper and Yo-Yo, and a set of Flyers that are almost impossible not to snap. Not to mention the generally laid-back and super-relaxed atmosphere that you always get there (one of the reasons I like it so much). The old white train for Hurricane is back, but is now painted blue (looks nice with the red one). Steel Hawg was running pretty much the same as last year, which is good (it's a great little ride). One change is that a number of the friction brakes have been replaced with magnetic ones, which makes the ride significantly quieter (no more endless "CLANG CLANG CLANG" while waiting in line). Unfortunately capacity it still horrid, since the station operates the wrong way around. There were only a few disappointments, the most major ones being that the bumper cars seem to be driving at close to half the speed; and probably 30-40% of the targets in Den Of Lost Thieves were dead. Both of these are fixable. Other notes: Lost Coaster didn't open all day, but there were mechanics working on it until well into the afternoon. I heard murmurings that something was wrong with one of the kicker-wheel motors that push the train back up to the station; however the really good news is that there are already two trains on the track! Cornball started to have issues in the afternoon where it would get stuck returning to the station (after a ride); but after a short down-time (maybe 30 minutes) it was running happily again. Finally, and in a totally unsurprising move, seatbelts have been added to Tig'rr. The wrist-bands are now plastic, and each one has a bar-code. Before getting on any ride it is necessary to have the wrist-band scanned by this little reader. This system does away with the old tickets (you can charge up the wrist-band with $X, or X number of rides - it's all electronic). The scanners worked quite well, but the staff seemed to be having endless problems with the cash-registers and other new equipment. I gather that they will get the hang of things quickly.. Entry onto the boardwalk is now completely free. The whole arcade was on Free Play, so we spent some time on the pinballs Only a few pictures today, since the park is already so well documented. Driving through Indiana is even more boring before the corn has been planted! Train Crossing Tiger says "ROAR - Welcome back to Indiana Beach - ROAR!" The whole arcade was on Free Play (they are in the middle of upgrading everything to use swipe-cards). We enjoyed some Fast And The Furious, and of course pinball. Church Organ: The ride! This odd thing seemed completely out of place, until someone mentioned that it is left over from Halloween last year. Two trains on Lost Coaster! I'm honestly not disappointed that this wasn't running today, I will be back countless times during the season The Galaxi trains have been repainted in this awesome *cough* colour-scheme. The op gave as a peek at the train under the tarp, and it's actually significantly worse than this one.. One of the cute little cars on Tig'rr. The new seatbelts (which function very much like the ones on Whizzer at SFGAm) don't subtract from the ride at all.

^ You must be just loads of fun at parties..

I will second that! And even if it's not for your parents, you should still definitely do it. Even with all the coasters, the shows and the food, the cave was an absolute highlight for me - really enjoyable! I will also echo the comments about Powder Keg, a really wonderful ride that gets surprisingly little coverage. I am tremendously envious of your trip. I went to Silver Dollar City in 2007 and it's really one of my favorite parks. Cameron.

More awesome pictures, Dan! At the MSI did they have the locomotive on display from the Chicago Tunnel Company? Supposedly they have one, although I think it might still be in storage. I also hear that they have a locomotive from the old North-Shore line, something else I'd love to see. Man, it's been probably 10 years since I've been to the MSI! The old water tower is interesting: Aside from being one of the only downtown buildings to survive the fire, it was actually the inspiration for the White Castle logo and buildings (seriously!). Also the CNA Plaza building (the red one in this photo) has just been repainted, and it really looks great.. Cameron.

Great photos!! I especially liked your comment for the Skyway photo - most people don't remember the Brothers driving through there (even though the footage of them driving on the bridge was shot in Milwaukee!). I hate Illinois Nazis. As for Hancock vs Sears tower; the Hancock was actually built first, and then the Sears Tower. Both were designed by the same architecture company (I think even the same guy) which is why they look so similar. Can't wait for the rest of the pictures Cameron.

Ok here we go with the second batch of photos - which is everything that happened after freaking awesome Button won the race! (Sorry for the delay, I've been super busy (in a good way)). PS: The third batch of photos are the ones I took when I got to walk down pit lane a few days before the race. Unfortunately I will not be able to upload those until some time next week (flying back to Chicago tomorrow!). All of this was brought to you by.... And what does one do after watching the Grand Prix?! View of Albert Park Lark (around which the track runs) from the Eureka Tower - which is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, and the tallest residential building in the world. (Note Port Phillip Bay in the background - it's beautiful) Diagram of the circuit. We were sitting in the Fangio Stand, which is the bottom/center of the map. My brother and I walked to the left/center of the map to the exit leading to the street where I was staying. The event was so well run, and went so smoothly, that until I saw this sign I'd actually forgotten how dangerous the whole thing can be. (This sign refers to press photographers during the race, not people like me - I was quite safe when I took this ). You can actually see the black swirlies from the wheels. The wall against which the race ending crash happened. Crazy to see that the track is already starting to be dismantled (remember, it ended about 30 minutes ago!). These guys are removing one of the tire walls. Skid - crunch! Wanker, artistic photo. Actually it was neat to see these too - remember this road is open to normal traffic the rest of the year. Interesting to walk up (and over) the giant corporate logos. I put Shell gas in my car! (AAww, I miss my car..). It was really cool to see all the tire marks and such on the track while we were walking. The camera is facing the direction of travel. Walking back to where I was staying, my brother and I walked back along the track. Part of the excitement of being there for me, was seeing some of the infrastructure involved in an event like this. Normally a very quiet lake and park, it's really transformed for the race. Imagine being the cameraman up there?! A Grand Prix tradition - they really were having a great time. Time for some Champagne! Jensen Button drove fantastically well, and really deserved that award. More insane cheering when he held that up. And there they are! A massive cheer when these three walked up. In about 3 minutes, the start/finish line area was *packed*. It was quite a spectacular site. The area with the blue/white background is where the awards will take place. Climbing the fence really became the Hot New Thing to do. The police tried to stop them, but were largely ineffective. It's an Australian tradition to "run on" when a major event ends, whether it's football, cricket or in this case a car race!

I was extremely fortunate to be able to attend the 2009 Australian Grand Prix, what an amazing event! The qualifying on Saturday afternoon was amazingly exciting, with the Brawn team getting the top two places on the grid. This team has been very cool to watch, since they basically did not exist until last month, and didn't even have a sponsor until just a few days ago! My brother and I went to see the qualifying on Saturday, which was exceptionally great. The most interesting thing about this was that you never know where the cars stand until after they cross the line, and then there are other cars behind them that may still get faster times. Cars come and go at random during the qualifying laps, and they are scattered all over the track so that someone is always crossing the start/finish line and the ranks are constantly changing. Each time Brawn got the top two spots, everyone cheered wildly. The race itself kicked serious butt. The weather could not have been better, and the energy and excitement in the stand was fantastic. Seeing Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello take first and second place for Brawn was quite incredible, even though old favorites like Ferrari weren't so hot. Button held a significant lead throughout the whole race, and really deserved to win. Barrichello drove well too, but ended up in 2nd place mostly due to crash near the end of the race. We had fabulous seats which gave us a prime view of all the important developments, from qualifying all the way through to the champagne at the end. There are a lot of photos, so I'll stagger them out a little bit to reduce bandwith. This first batch takes us right through to the checkered flag on race-day. And there's the checkered flag, and Jenson Button wins the 2009 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix!!! (I was about a tenth of a second too early on the camera - which is why the car is missing from the photo!) A crash near the end of the race brought out the yellow flag and the safety car. This was a bit of an anticlimactic way to end.. With only about 10-15 laps remaining, the Champagne is ready and waiting! Fortunately we had a really nice, large monitor right near our seat. As awesome as it was to be there, it was actually a little more difficult to keep track of what was going on than when you watch on TV! Check-out the cool, video-game-esque display there Go Go Brawn!! The Ferrari crew swarms around a car that has come in for a pitstop. Our seats were near the end of the pit-lane, so it was great to see a car enter the pits on the video screen, and then see the actual car scream out of the pits several seconds later. And they're off! Barrichello had a disappointing start, but Button was pretty much untouchable throughout the whole race. Reluctantly crouched at the starting line, engines thumping and pumping in time.. Button and Barrichello are poised on the grid, in first and second spot. The atmosphere right now was electric! The cars do one "warm-up" lap before the race begins, this gives the throngs of people a chance to run off the grid and get out of the way. Only about 2 minutes now until race time, and the tire warmers are being removed. Button is all strapped in, and ready to roll. Note the umbrella shading him from the sun, this was a twilight race and the setting sun was a bit of a problem. It's so cute - Don't you just want to hug it?! I wonder if this will be the 747 that will fly me back to the US next week?! That, my friends, is a Boeing 747 jumbo jet. I love these things! It was weird how quiet this was (and it flew very low). But even more amazing was how slow it was going - taking about 5 minutes to get from one end of the straight to the other. One of the major sponsors is Qantas, so they sent this little guy out to play.. The grid is very crowded now, with the teams, press and of course the cars (they are down there - trust me!). The maneuvers he pulled were quite spectacular, but what I really loved was his exit. He would fly straight up, higher, higher, higher until you could not even see him any more. I have no idea how high he went, but it was monumentally cool to see. Meanwhile a military jet did a fly-over, which was amazing. This thing is *loud*! They announced what model plane it is, but I don't recall - anyone? I imagine that Australia only has a small number of these, so it was great to see it out and about. Everyone seemed to be rooting for Button and Barrichello with Brawn, so there was much cheering when they left the pits to head around to the grid. The cars leave the pits, do the complete circuit, and end up in their final places on the grid. Teams and equipment are wheeled out to the grid. I was amazed by how much was going on there before the race began. I'm sure the drivers were just itching to get going. At 30 minutes before the race, the grid starts to prepare for the cars and teams to come out. This photo was taken from our seat in the Fangio stand. The Roulettes are a fun air-acrobatic team, and they showed up many times over the weekend to wow and delight the crowd! While attendance was down slightly from last year, there were still a lot of people there (roughly 105,000). The weather was amazing, and everyone was just loving it. Welcome, race fans!! It was very exciting to be here, as I had arranged my whole vacation around it.

Nearly all of the entertainment is standard Qantas, and is actually available on many of their 747s .. Obviously not the TailCam or seat-seat chat, but certainly all the movies and TV shows. I'll be flying back to the US next weekend on a 747, so I'll be able to compare what they have to offer. The entertainment is so rich that I don't even bring books anymore (too heavy to schlep). As cool as the A380 was, the 747s are still my favorite! Cameron.

Awesome photos, Erik! It was so great to hang out with you at WCB on Sunday, and I'm bummed I couldn't join you guys at Disney later in the week. Looks like you had a terrific time! Those DCA fountains look amazing, I have a secret desire to program those things. One of the things I liked the most working in pinball was doing all the lamp effects; those fountains would be amazingly fun to play with. Cameron.

Really? That's a bit mental. Anyway the seats do recline by also pushing the seat-pad forward a little. The Qantas staff are amazing on this flight, certainly light-years better than stupid United. All through the flight they were offering us snacks like cookies and apples, and more water than even I could drink .. They even had hot chocolate (with marshmellows!) during the main meals. All for free! The seats didn't feel any more or less comfortable than the 747s .. although the interior as a whole seemed to have a lot more hard plastic (like the interior of a cheap car). I don't know if this is how all A380s are setup, or whether Qantas simply outfitted the plane like this. Cameron.

^^^^ Sadly I didn't get any photos of the cabin. The thing is that the cabin looks pretty similar to a 747, so I didn't think it was worth the photo (plus with all the people around, I felt a little odd snapping really general pictures). Although now I realize that most people wouldn't have been in a 747 anyway, so the cabin picture would have been pretty cool. Sorry! It was cool to be in one, but the 747 is still my favorite! The fact that the 747 is still around and still so relevant and important after almost 40 years, shows how far ahead of the times Boeing was (and what an incredible accomplishment the design and engineering was). Cameron.

Hey Guys, I know that a trip in a plane doesn't typically warrant a photo trip report, but this particular trip was in one of the new Airbus A380 planes; of which there are only 13 currently flying. The flight from LA to Melbourne is pretty impressive on Qantas even on a "normal" 747, but add the A380 in the mix and it gets really special. Now before I go any further I should point out that I am a bit of a Boeing fan-boy, especially the good-ole 747. However I went in to the A380 not only open minded, but actively excited. Still though it really seems more of a Vekoma, compared to the B&M that is Boeing. I mean by the end of the flight, several bathrooms were out of order due to broken door locks, or clogged sinks. The inside of the plane (at least as far as "cattle-class" goes) seems in some ways even worse than the 747s, the biggest example being the solid plastic armrests. Still it is an incredible machine, and I'm thrilled I got the chance to fly in one (my return flight has a 747 scheduled). I manged to get actual sleep for about 5 hours, and snooze on and off for probably another 5. For the rest I ate (food, drinks, snacks (including all the red apples you can eat) are all free on Qantas), and watched some of the ample entertainment. On with the pictures! And a very mediocre view of beautiful downtown Melbourne from the Bolte Bridge. At the gate now, and I watched the (duel) Jetways move into position. It was super-cool. The plane is now taxiing to the gate. The other planes all look so tiny (this is mostly due to the fish-eye on the TailCam). And we're down! Brakes are applied, and the plane rapidly slows down. About 2 seconds before touch-down. Note all the black skid-marks on the runway! Probably about 10 seconds before touchdown - I could actually see the flaps on the wings extend. (Remember, this is displayed as live video on screen - it was amazing to watch). TailCam shows the end of the runway just in front of the nose - we're only a few hundred feet in the air at this point. Tray tables are locked, and seat-backs are up. Turning to begin the final approach to landing. Almost there - The last hour is always such a relief! The best part about the A380 is the TailCam, which you can watch live on your screen. This camera is mounted in the (8 story tall) tail, facing forward. When you press the "flush" button to flush the toilet, a pretty blue ring lights up like this (it always takes several seconds to actually flush after you pess the button). Half way done! The sink in the bathroom is cool. The faucet turns on automatically with an IR beam, but you use the red and blue buttons to adjust the temperature - which is then indicated with the coloured lights. Some of the "Premiere" movies - note that there are 18 movies available (I didn't watch any). I watched this docco about the A380 engineering, which was narrated by Richard Hammond! One channel shows a real-time map of the flight path. I took this photo about 90 minutes after we took off. There's a long way to go! (This also shows off one of my biggest programming gripes: 1 minuteS .. argh!). There is a seat-to-seat chat system available (the other seat has to be setup to receive messages from your seat). There's also a system to send SMS messages to any cell phone (for like $1 a message), or make phone calls. No actual internet access .. yet. Game categories include "3D", "Action", "Arcade", "Gaming", etc. I was actually too "busy" to play any of these! Six of the nine "encore" movies which are available. I was absolutely floored to see both seasons of Fawlty Towers in here. DON'T MENTION THE WAR! (Most of my non-sleeping time was spent watching this, and also "IT Crowd" which I had on my phone). Each seat is fitted with a touch-screen, which is the source of all entertainment and information during the flight. This gives each passenger their own video-on-demand system, which allows them to choose tv shows, movies, radio, audio books, etc. The nice thing is that it's all under passenger control, including pause and fast winding etc. On the back is a full QWERTY keyboard, and a game-pad. Flip open the top of the armrest, and there's this little (wired) remote control inside. The topside of the controller features typical seat controls that are found on a 747. This is a 15 hour flight. This means that when I sit down and look at my watch, I have to come to terms with the fact that the LITTLE hand has to go alllll the way around (and then some!). These planes are *big*. Looking out the window you just see a whole wall of plane. Note that there are actually two Jetways present, one for the upper deck and one for the lower. I rocked up to the gate several hours early. It had been 4 years since I was last in Melbourne, so I was super excited.

Good evening, I posted this in the West Coast Bash thread, but as someone just pointed out to me most of the people reading that thread are going to be attending the event. So for all others I have created a twitter feed on which I will post news and a lot of pictures taken throughout the day - in mostly real-time. The Twitter feed is: TPRWCB09 One does not need to have signed up to Twitter in order to follow along, just point your favorite browser to this page (you will have to manually refresh the page to see updates). Please remember that these will be cell-phone photos (and the crappy iPhone camera no less) so they won't be amazing .. but should hopefully get more people in on what will likely be a fabulous day! See you all tomorrow! Cameron.

I have set up a Twitter feed for live updates and photos of the event, which will be updated in real-time .. AS THE FUN HAPPENS! Those of you with twitter accounts should be sure to follow TPRWCB09. Those without twitter accounts can follow the fun here. Cameron.

Just got the following in a fortune cookie after lunch: Just 10 days to go Cameron.

Any thread that features Dave, Ice Bat and of course Sushi, is a winner! I love reading about great places to eat, so I'll be watching this thread closely. Cameron.

One of those bath soap things? (You know those squishy balls full of soap).. Cameron.

OK, so somehow I forgot to mention "The I.T. Crowd", which sometimes has me laughing so much and so hard that it actually hurts .. I have had to re-watch some scenes several times. Unbelievably funny... Cameron.

"Life On Mars" (UK version) and "Ashes To Ashes" sucked up a lot of my time .. and I suppose I should come clean and admit to the new "Doctor Who" as well. Locally I'm in-love with "Arrested Development", and enjoy it no matter how often I watch it (and it's been watched a lot!). I am also currently really enjoying "Flight Of The Conchords", although I have yet to see the Australian episode (really looking forward to it - hopefully tonight). Cameron.

Some of the best times in my life have started out with "well we were all sitting around, with nothing to do.." Cameron.

Great report Dan, with some excellent photos. It's also a really fun way to spend a birthday - I don't even remember what I did on my 18th (not because of alcohol, but because it was nothing exciting). It's amazing how one can go to the Disney parks over and over again and just not get tired of them. Thanks, Cameron.

Well it looks like Tyler will never be able to run for President now!

Great photos, thanks! I adore Sesame Street (well, except for Elmo) so I actively want to check this out in person some day. Taking a ride with Grover would be seriously awesome! Cameron. PS: Lack of Cookie Monster is a bit surprising, especially considering stupid Elmo got TWO attractions!

^ Probably a DJ from a morning radio show.