arrowfanman

Thanks for the comments Guy and Julie! Except for Julie's comment about how she finds my face disturbing! I really must be moving on if I wish to ever get this baby done! So without further adieu… Park VII: Epcot Now Epcot—I was definitely excited to visit Epcot. Not only had a liked my little taste of the park, two nights earlier, but Epcot was one of the few memories I have from my original Florida trip, 12 years ago. Future World…not so much. But the World Showcase. Yes…all of my life I have had these memory-flashes of seeing great world icons, despite the fact that I hadn’t left the United States. It wasn’t until I became a theme park enthusiast that I had realized that what I was remembering was in fact my original trip through the World Showcase. So pulling up to the park and watching the monorail glide past above our heads, was definitely getting me excited for the day before me. Anyway, after we entered the park, we hurried over to get our Soarin’ fast passes. Now, we do have Soarin’ in California (over…to be exact ), but I happen to really enjoy the ride, so I didn’t mind doing it in Epcot either. After getting our Fastpasses, we headed over to the first ride of the day… “California Traffic Test” “California Weather Test” Test Track was a really solid attraction. Loads of fun and great reride value. The crash-test was a very sweet little novelty, as was the environmental tests. The handling tests were just good fun and the speed test was surprisingly better than I had pictured. The only thing that I don’t get, is after you have completed the handling test where you zigzag back and forth, before you reach the crash-test room, there is all of a sudden a large truck driving towards you, that you have to drive around. WTF?! Where did that come from?! Last time I let Ryan borrow the car! After Test Track, it was time to put my life on the line… I had actually prepared a Will earlier that morning. All jokes aside, I think I have to say that the Mission: Space building has the most beautiful façade of any other building that I have ever seen…in and out of theme parks. I wish I had more time to grab pictures of it! It’s just such a unique entrance. So a pat on the back and gold stars for whoever worked on that one! I was very curious as to what I would think of Mission: Space. Dead people aside, it has been getting quite a bit of negative remarks lately. At least in what I have read. The queue for the ride was pretty neat. And then…well… He’s looking right at you, Wes! A little seductively, might I add. This concerns me. …Yes…Gary. I actually thought the preshows were quite fun. Or is that because we made them fun for ourselves? Anyway, every time we rode, the whole queue was literally just waiting through the preshows! Finally, we ride… Mission: Space was a very very very fun ride! My favorite “ride” in Epcot, fo’ sho’! It is really, as I had been told, perfectly engineered! The forces are in perfect sync with the visuals, as with the movement themselves. And forces aside, the sheer, for lack of a better word, “intimacy” of a four-person cabin makes the experience so much wackier and more fun than something like Star Tours, as does the “interactivity” of the ride. I mean, who doesn’t like a good dose of insertion! I was definitely impressed and pleasantly surprised by Mission: Space! The exit gives geeks like me a chance to check out the infrastructure of the ride. This never-ending exit hallway makes me feel like I am right home at Disneyland! GO TEAM TRITON! 98 freakin percent! Up next, we made the half a mile trek over to use our Soarin’ FastPasses. Nothing says “The Land” like Soarin’ away from it! Best row in the house! Soarin’ was a great ride as usual. Same exact thing as California’s version, just the screens are still clean, so the projection looked nicer. I really like this ride back in California, because it is the one large attraction in DCA that really everybody, big and small, young and old, can do. In Epcot, I admit it felt a little bit ill-placed and being a much more developed park, it didn’t seem as grand of an attraction. And there was no denying that it felt awkward having flown 3,000 miles, only to watch a movie about my own state! After Soarin’, it was back into The Land pavilion, to take advantage of the boat ride! Again, the theme feels very “airborne” for a pavilion named “The Land” Lame, you say? Well, the wait for this was longer than the wait for Mission: Space and Test Track! The Living with the Land Boat Ride was pretty much a solid dark ride—had a good balance of stuff to look at, cheesyness, and all at a nap-inducing pace. Oh the excitement! A natural specimen compressed within a corporate vice! Oh the symbolism! …although, I cant say that I didn’t enjoy my ride. Even if everybody glanced my way when we passed the male-chicken. Bastards! Anyway, after the Boat Ride, we continued our darkride-tour by heading down to The Seas (with Nemo and Friends). This ride was “cute”, fo’ sho’. It was very well staged, in how the queue begins on a beach and you find yourself slowly transitioning to under the water. As a matter of fact, I found the queue cooler than the ride itself. But the ride was still enjoyable. Sally sell seashells on the seashore…Sally sells seashells on the seashore…Sally… I think this picture came out pretty groovy! …notice the well done transition between the scenic-borders and the screen technology. Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude…we’re totally on the E.A.C.! …and for a Californian like me, the highlight was definitely my chance to see the “dry projection technology”, which will be the staple of our “new” “Finding Nemo: Submarine Voyage” attraction at Disneyland. Very cool! Florida already 1-ups us, with the real fish! At this point of the day, the rest of the crew was really starting to get anxious to try out their precious cheddar cheese soup, but I cant say that I was feeling all that hungry yet. After all, I eat breakfast. So I allowed us to postpone the second half of the darkride-tour for after our eating around the world. I decided to go ahead, and make one and a half laps around the World Showcase lagoon, before meeting back up with the TPR group. Quite a journey! It’s a mile in diameter! I basically used this opportunity to take pictures like a good tourist. Here’s a sampling of what I was able to grab!... This picture makes me have to go, wee. Morocco was probably my favorite pavilion, for its “tucked away” feel, like in New Orleans Square back home. That Soarin’ building really screws over Canada! …oh well. An obligatory Germany shot, to try and compensate for the lack of a “Jahan with Soren” picture. I guess it was sort of pointless that by the time I actually felt like eating, I was in Mexico! Very unoriginal, I know! Duuuuude! I’m totally digging the “making little kids pick up our trash” show! Only if I get to pick my companion! It’s the drum game! Finally, I regrouped with the rest of the gang in America…well, I guess that’s true by default. Then, we finished up the edible tour of the world, and I was finally able to complete my darkride tour! Maelstrom had a massive queue, but I was rolling with the right people, yo. Maelstrom was a unique ride, no doubt. But it was sort of just like… “okie doke”. It was very much shorter than I had anticipated. And the drop was so insignificant, that I almost wondered why it was included in the first place! Or am I just looking it from the “having to watch Elissa sit out because of that stupid drop” point of view? Continuing our darkride tour (we had actually hit up the boat ride in the Mexican pavilion two nights ago, so we skipped it today), it was time to face the infamous “Journey into Imagination” ride. On the walk to the ride, Robb and Reed were kind enough to inform me as to the history of the ride, to better put it into perspective for me. Is that the Imagination? Are we in the imagination yet? I call him my Mini-Me! Journey wasn’t necessarily as bad as it could have been, according to the horror stories I have heard about it in years past. I cant say that I was familiar with the actual character of Figment before my ride on it, and I will say that Erik Idle hurts the ride as much as the ride hurts Erik Idle! Regardless of the history of the attraction, as far as the concept itself of “a journey into imagination”, I feel like the ride only tapped the surface. This is Disney! They practically own imagination! And this is the best representation of a journey into it that they could muster up? So much unfulfilled potential. Anyway, after Journey, it was time to just chill out and have some fun. Yea…this fountain could use a little TLC! Yes!!! After seeing this place in so many PTRs, it finally finds its way into mine! Soren challenges Beverly (of course) for Robb. I myself did try the infamous Beverly. It’s one of the few things in my life that have pretty much met my expectations dead on…it sucked as badly as I had thought it would! It doesn’t really hit you at first, but kicks in just as it’s far enough back to prompt the gag reflex. The closest flavor I could equate it too was liquid Nyquil! That’s what she said. Hmmm…no obnoxious preshow. Yea…Florida pretty much owns this round. But, truth be told, there was actually a reason to why we’re venturing into Innoventions… It’s getting hot in here! The “Where’s the Fire?” game in Innovations is essentially the prototype for the new “Midway Mania” ride coming to DCA, and later MGM. And you know it has to be good, because the OLC footed the developmental costs for this technology, for Tokyo’s Monster’s Inc. ride! It’s also good because our team on the right side kicked the left side’s burning asses! The game was actually very fun and very addicting. I cant wait to see a ride system applied to this technology! Although the biggest apparent downside, is that the system doesn’t work under any sort of flash photography! So that’s going to be a major no-no on the rides! Finally, after “Where’s the Fire?”, it was time for the final darkride, in this trips darkride tour—Spaceship Earth! Seimens. Heh. Heheh. Heh. The irony of Spaceship Earth, is despite its location within the sole icon and centerpiece of the park, my parents didn’t even realize that it was there when we made our trip here 12 years ago! To this day, when I told them we went on the ride, the existence of the ride completely escapes them! “You—you have balls. I like balls.” I really enjoyed Spaceship Earth! Sure, it was cheesy. But in my mind, at this point, that is sort of a requirement for a good darkride! Really, its biggest flaw, as much as I hate to say it, is its stupid Arrow ride system. The constant stops were confusing, eerie, pathetic, and completely ruins the flow of the ride. Stupid Arrow. *sigh* It’s ok…I blame Magic Mountain. This looks like a group of peeps I could easily get along with! But from a kid whose considering majoring in History, the ride had a real great story to tell! I’m pretty sure its theme was my thesis in a paper last year! I was pretty much amazed that what I was watching was in fact a theme park attraction! Heh. “Zebra bastard zebra, zebra, zebra, zebra F****R!” After a picture like that, I also want to give a big “thank you” to Robb and Elissa! They were always making sure that I would enjoy myself throughout the whole entire day! I totally appreciate that. They shed so much concern for my de-virginizing, inaugural rides on these attractions…I cant think of anyone else I would rather share “my first” with. In the end, I really enjoyed Epcot! It was definitely my favorite park of the whole Florida trip and the most beautiful park that I have ever been to! A lot of people tend to view the park as bi-thematic, but if I had to sum up the entire park under one theme, it would be "Humanity". The World Showcase exhibiting the culture, tradition, and civilizations established thus far and Future World forcasting how these cultures, traditions, and civilizations will combine with technology to pave out the future of the human race. Wow...I just wrote a thesis for "Epcot". Perhaps I deserve to kill myself! Regardless, its true. I'm still trying to figure out where "Beverly" fits into all of it, but still...its true. Heh…anyway, on that note, I want to say thank you for putting up with me, yet again! As always, I really appreciate it! Please feel free to leave your questions, comments, concerns, or as always, praise! I shall leave you with one parting picture thanks to the kind Seimens over at Spaceship Earth. See you next time! -Jahan

!!! It does! -Jahan

Grrr......damn you! I'm so going to kill your knee now! -Jahan

I'm actually sort of proud of it!...not bad for Paint Shop Pro 4 (copyright 1998)

^ Thanks for all of the comments guys! Now onward!... Park VI: Universal Studios Orlando Halloween Horror Nights Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Orlando was sort of intimidating for me. As people had told me Illuminations was the best fireworks show ever, I had heard from many that Florida’s Halloween Horror Nights event was pretty much the best Halloween experience that you can get at a park. Quite a title to live up to. But after liking the taste of Hollywood’s event from the week prior, I was enthusiastic to see what big-brother-Florida’s event would be like. By the time we had left Islands of Adventure, the TPR gang had already begun to congregate by the Hard Rock entrance. Does anybody know why Universal has a chunk of the Berlin wall hiding back here?! I try my R.I.P. Sticker on for size. Finally when everybody had grouped together we entered the park, and headed for the little museum/showcase they had set up on history of Halloween Horror Nights. The museum was cool, even to me (…someone who hasn’t heard about any of this stuff, ever!). It was jammed with conceptual art, detailed blueprint drawings, “artifacts” from years past, so on and so forth… How many times have you seen this picture? Thar’ be gold in them hills! …like kids in a candy shop. It wasn’t long until Michael Roddy, a creative director for Halloween Horror Nights, came out to tell us about his personal experiences behind the scenes. This was an entirely unique and very cool look into the world of Halloween events. “Zombies don’t use shaker-cans—they eat people!” …when he said that, I immediately decided that I liked Halloween Horror Nights! After our waltz through the museum, we meandered across the park until we found our next stop on the tour. Perhaps the most important stop of the night…the buffet!... IOA may have amazing scenery, but this was definitely the most beautiful sight in the resort! Getting to know our tour guides. If picture is worth a thousand words, than this ones worth about four-times that many. Finally after some dinner, it was time to face Halloween Horror Nights: Sweet 16. This one didn’t taste quite as nice as that awesome homemade pumpkin cake I had the other night. This WOULD have been a nice shot of the Rat-lady…but for reasons beyond my control….I’ll just stop while I’m ahead. Or is it too late? Alright, now it was time for me to start hitting up these mazes! Unfortunately, I cant even pretend to remember what order we hit up the mazes in. As a matter of fact, I cant say that I remember the majority of their names! So just enjoy the few pictures that I did take…heh. I’ll provide my general synopsis of them near the end. I wasn’t really impressed with Universal’s ability to pitch a tent. TPR’ers, watching Mr. Chainsaw man do is job. Mr. Chainsaw man doing his job. Robb: “Jahan is so awesome, that I think I’ll let his awesomeness count for his trip deposit!” Well, after doing three or so mazes, it was time for me to finally see what some would argue as the “highlight” of the event… Excellent! Now if you are one of the select few cool people that have been following all of my Super Sweet October Trip-Trip Report thus far, you may remember that I saw the Heckles and Twitch version of Fear Factor: Live at Universal Studios Hollywood the week before. We had walked into that show being told that it would sort of stand as the Bill and Ted’s of the West. And it was a major letdown. Now, that doesn’t mean that I was by any means doubting the actual Bill and Ted’s…if anything, it made me more curious to see it! Some people can wait for the show more patiently than others. How can you go wrong with freaking amazing seats like this! Shhh!...the show is starting with a flashback to the years of the past. Beware of the Kraken! This Kraken may smell like a firecracker, but at least it doesn’t eat cell phones! There are mother f***in coaster enthusiasts in the mother f***in theatre! No Halloween pop-culture parody show would be complete without a Tom Cruise character! …no, seriously…between the 3 “pop culture parody” shows I witnessed this October, they all included Tom Cruise, and share much of the rest of the characters too. “$%$ #$%^#$%&^%$ %^$##^&&**&%$@$%^” Their Jack Sparrow character was really good! Dead men tell excellent tales! Excellent! I know a lot of Bill-and-Ted veteran-watchers, while enjoying the show, claimed that it wasn’t as good as some years past, but for my inaugural viewing, I couldn’t stop laughing! The show was real good fun! I would definitely consider it the highlight of the night and possibly the staple of the event. And the pyro didn’t even scare Jon! ....laaaaame. After Bill and Ted’s, we made our way out to see the Universal 360: Directors Cut show…Now I don’t know if it’s because I was enchanted by Illuminations the night before, or if this show is merely genuinely in-and-of-itself lame, but I was by no means impressed with the show. Sort of just waited there patiently for it to end. I forget who sugguested it, but I like the idea that they should just loop the horror clips as the night goes on, instead of making a whole boring show with them. Anyway, the highlight of the show, is when I went to go get a drink from the fountain, to pass time, some drunk chick, who couldn’t have been older than 16, came out of the women’s bathroom and grabbed my butt because “she wanted too”. …I completely understand. Yuck…that last maze smelled like Magic Mountain. All and all, I was thoroughly impressed with pretty much all of the mazes! Other than the USH “Asylum” maze, I don’t believe that I have ever encountered a maze with this much detail, staging, atmosphere, etc. As Michael Roddy pointed out, there’s definitely a difference between being startled and being scared. And the whole of these mazes were legitimately scary. And even when they did go for a startle, it was at a level beyond anything I’ve ever seen before. Not only was I not jumped at with a shaker-can. Not only was I jumped at with a knife. Not only was there a lighting effect when actor with the knife jumped out. But the knife even emitted the classic “shwing” sound, as the actor jumped out, accompanied by a lighting effect! Hehehe…I said “shwing”. The actors were for the most part great and the show effects were amazing. My personal favorite was the boy strapped to the inclined-table, screaming for mercy, when all of a sudden the torturer hacks a dremel-tool across the boys chest, squirting “blood” over all of the guests. And who can forget the toilet that flung something wet into my face. By the time that we had finished the last maze, we decided to hurry over and see if we could catch the last bit of the Robosaurus show, but when we got there, everything was silent. Hmmm…what on Earth could be going on? Why on Earth is everybody standing around? It would end up that Mr. Robosaurus accidentally had dropped a car where it shouldn’t have, while there were other street performers out and about! Nobody was hurt, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t concern! So the show was essentially canceled, mid-performance, while crew members attempted to figure out the logistics of the accident. We may not have gotten Robosaurus, but we get Street-cleaners-osauruses! Finally, to finish of the night, we decided to walk (or waddle, if you were Ryan) through some of the scare-zones that we had missed. Much cooler than “Monster Alley”! Hmmm…I think this is how I’ll kill myself when I lose the bet. *sigh*…I guess we sort of have to check out that “Arrival” thing. I didn’t really get it. Dude, its Alice! Funny thing is, I would encounter her yet again at a very different Halloween Party, the following night. In the end, I was really pleased with the Halloween Horror Nights events, in both Hollywood and Orlando. Admittedly, the Orlando event was better as it was bigger. But in a few years when the Hollywood version is beefed up a bit, these two events will be the most amazing Halloween duo. Brothers in arms, if you will. The event in Orlando was horribly crowded, but thanks to the amazing opportunities afforded to us via our amazing host and hostess, we were able to do absolutely everything and then some! So thank you again, for that! Long story short, I left very very very very very pleased with Halloween Horror Nights! And very very very very very tired. And very very very very very staged. But really, I was tired! This had the potential of being a good picture! Shame! Finally, I will leave you with one last picture. It isn’t necessarily clear, so I’ll tell you now…it’s a picture of Joe, driving, with his window down, and his head out the window, through a giant stream of water, created by a broken sprinkler near the house, on the way home. Enjoy. Well, that should do it for another installment! Thanks for putting up with me yet again! As always, questions, comments, concerns, or praise are welcome! Thanks again! -Jahan

Psyclone trains have headrests. Colossus trains do not. -Jahan

^ In 2 months, 27 days...sure, why not. -Jahan

I pretty much kill kittens. -Jahan

Its the second option... http://www.sixflags.com/parks/magicmountain/TicketInfo/seasonpasses.html

^ Makes me sad. Drives like that literally take days off of our lives. I wish there was something I could do. Does Robb like grilled cheese sandwhiches? I live 7 miles from the COC, and it takes me 25 minutes to make the commute during peak morning/evening times, which is rediculous in and of itself. If its mid-day (but not during lunch time), and I punch it the way us 17 year olds are supposed to drive, I can make it in 10. -Jahan

I'm still pretty weak, compared to most of you, but I did have a great year regardless!... Current coaster count: 81 # of new coasters ridden for me: 30 # of new for 2006 coasters ridden: 2 Park visits: 45(ish) Different parks visited: 14 New to me parks: 9 Park visited the most: Six Flags Magic Mountain (embarrasingly, 30+...and thats just as a guest. Probably looking at 150+ if you count the days I went to work ) Wood coaster ridden the most: Colossus at SFMM Steel coaster ridden the most: Riddler's at SFMM (Fo' Sho' 8) ) Memories... January: Excersized my attention to detail by shooting Tatsu construction updates and applied for a job at Six Flags Magic Mountain. Febrary: Start work at SFMM on Superbowl Sunday. Tatsu construction updates. March: The RideWorld West Coaster Bash, at SFMM, got to ditch school to go to Disneyland with my neices. Still shooting those damn construction updates. I get moved to operate the Riddler's Revenge at SFMM. April: I am nearly late to work, as I had staked a spot near X to catch a video of Tatsu's second test run. Pleased with the nifty one-angle video I took, I ran to work and ran home, only to find a mulit-edit TPR video already online. *shakes fist* May: Camped out with TPR to ride Tatsu during the media day! Awesome fun! I also graduated from high school. June: The day after I graduated, I got the, er...unique expirence of going to Grad Nite at Disneyland. I'm glad I did!...I guess. I get an amazing expirence, as I get to travel to Thailand with my father! I even get 3 credits there! Upon returning, I shoot my last Tatsu construction update. I put down my camera for good...ok, it was my dad's camera, I admit. July: Go with Robb, Elissa, Joey, and Mike to SFMM for the 4th of July. All I remember is the fireworks wouldn't stop and Joey was randy for Dejavu. I also re-picked up the camera...but this time it was my own! At work, I got moved to Goldrusher. Arrowfanman at an Arrow! I also was able to visit Disneyland on July 17th, 2006 (as I had the year before), where I purchased an annual pass (finally)! After that, I finally got a drivers lisence. August: I get promoted to a lead, at Gotham City in SFMM. I finally get to attend my very first Theme Park Review party and put faces to so many of your screen names! And I just realised why Elissa came to visit me at Tidal Wave... Love you. By the end of August, college had started, and I hung up my blue shirt and 'resigned' at SFMM. September: Despite stopping Tatsu updates, I continue shooting SFMM park-updates to fill the void of an unactive sex-life. An awkward class schedule gives way to weekly McDonalds trips! I also purchase air fare to Florida. October: A bet is placed. A bet I will lose out on. I plan and execute my "Super Sweet October Trip", visiting 13 parks throughout the month. It's the largest and most impressive trip I have ever done. Part of it is getting to go to Florida with Theme Park Review, which was probably the most fun thing I've ever done, ever. I also manage to visit all of the SoCal parks. November: I sit in my boxers, writing this post in the "2006 Coaster Season Stats" thread, effictively loosing 35 minutes of my life which could have been better spent otherwise. But it gives me a moment to remember how awesome the year has been. I plan on visiting the Disneyland Resort again, as well as a SFMM trip or two, and potentially a Knotts trip. Unbeknownst to me, it appears I may have to go pick up someones little Wii. December: It wouldn't be Christmas-time without an obligatory trip to Disneyland (again!) . I also plan to renew any season passes which require renewal. Begin the official "One month until Jahan turns 18" countdown. Wow! Thanks for making this awesome thread Derek. Helped put it all in perspective for me and give me something to be thankful for later this month! -Jahan

From Miceage...take what you want from it: -Jahan

Wow! Thank you for that super cool trip report Joel! I definitely have to put this on my "Things to see before I die" list. Thanks for the personal look at your town and tradition. -Jahan

Hey guys! I don’t know why this IOA trip report was so hard to actually write, but I finally just belched it out! I know it isn’t as descriptive as some of my other reports, but please, try your best to enjoy! Thank you!… Park V: Universal’s Islands of Adventure Universal’s Islands of Adventure probably had to be my most anticipated park of the Florida trip. I didn’t know much about it, other than it simply looked freaking sweet. Now, before we get to the park, I have good news…no, I didn’t save money on my car insurance. However, I did save a bit of cash by switching from a room/bed to an air mattress in the living room of the TPR house, with Ryan, Joe, and Carlos. Now, I’m not complaining, whatsoever, however….our ability to fall asleep relied entirely on when the party animal’s (*points finger*…you know who you are!) decided to crash. Which means that despite all of our exhaustion, we really had to wait for the house to settle down before we could get some quality sleep…unless you’re talking about Carlos, who could probably sleep under any conditions. Anyway, I had only gotten about 4 and a half hours of sleep the night before Universal, but I was luckily able to put my tiredness on my “Sleep Charge Card”, and just sleep it back off when I got home. Onwards…. Anyway, we got to Universal Studios early enough. As always, we were forced to park at the very end of a row! I blame Magic Mountain. Now, I have always known that Universal Hollywood is rockin the escalator/moving walkway gig, but WOW! Universal Orlando!...now THAT’S a maze of moving walkways! It took about 30 minutes to find the damn park! And it was pretty tricky of them to force us to walk through City Walk. It took us about 10 minutes to figure out the ticketing situation, as Universal had their only their bestest main gate employees today. Finally, we entered the park. …after a word from our sponsers. Now, please forgive me for not having pictures from the first 30 minutes of the park. You see, promptly after entering the park, I had fallen ill! My stomach was basically flipping out for a bit. I guess I inhaled too much wookie-hair on the flight or something ( …love you!). Long story short, it had prevented me from getting to ride Hulk with the gang. I basically chilled out with Elissa while we waited impatiently for the sluggish Hulk-crew to pick up their one-train-operation! Finally, the gang had gotten off of Hulk (I knew I would head back for it at a later time), and we hit up Spiderman. I was definitely feeling better at this point, but not quite “take lots of photos” better, so I’m still not taking pictures, at this point. Spiderman was loads of fun! I was definitely impressed with how they integrated the screen-technology into the ride! I thought it would be lame, but I actually ended up thoroughly enjoying the ride. I will say, however, that I prefer Indiana Jones—the fully real environment still tops whatever the screen-technology can do. But that scene where your rising up between the sky-scrapers is just amazing! At this time, Elissa was getting, er…determined to make sure that we made it onto Dueling Dragons, and got to fully enjoy the experience. Anyway…Dueling Dragons… *cues more dramatic background music!* Dueling Dragons was probably my favorite roller coaster expirence of the trip. The novelty of dueling simply never got old for me! I know this sounds very basic, but the ride(s) are simply so well engineered! I loved it. Omg…its just so beautiful, that I cant manufacture a humorous caption! …or is it that I’m just not funny. I love to play footsies! …Yea…I’m pretty much just not funny. But Flying Unicorn is! It was opened immediately after we exited Dragons, and we got that credit. Not bad, but in reality got so many of the “roller skater” credits this trip, it isn’t even funny. …like me! Onwards, we headed into the Jurassic Park section of the park. Here, we now lift the curtain of time… A rather weak level of wetness, compared to some of IOA’s other attractions. What is there really to say Jurassic Park: River Adventure? It’s similar to Universal Studios Hollywood’s version…but it wasn’t in the dark! I didn’t really feel like one ride was better than the other…even remotely. Although, simply due to each park’s line-up of attractions, Jurassic feels like a major, solid attraction at Hollywood, but feels somewhat less amazing in Islands of Adventure—perhaps as it serves as more of a “filler” attraction than as the second-most major ride. Heh. Onwards, to a real gem in IOA…. Be cautioned, there is a chance you may get wet. Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls! I really really liked Ripsaw Falls! The scenery wasn’t anything to write home about, but as far as a standalone log flume, it has probably got to be my favorite! And compared to some wet-experiences I would get later in my journey, this ride had a pretty reasonable/acceptable level of wetness! Fun and a half. After powering through so many attractions in so little time, I think we were all ready for a break! Good timing too, as our reservation for lunch was nearing, at Mythos. Looks like a biker throwing up after consuming too much alcohol! On a serious note, it was probably the most beautiful restaurant we ate at the whole trip. I actually really liked Mythos. I know a lot of people were saying that it isn’t what it used to be, but hey…our waiter was nice, the environment was real spiffy, I got a freaking awesome pepperoni pizza, the cost didn’t end up being too bad (although I still owe Guy $0.33!). So I liked it. The group assembling after food for a quick fart-trailing contest. After Mythos, we had soon found our way into Seuss Landing. This land had a nice selection of rides and attractions, for sure. Cat in the Hat was a very nice dark ride, and One Fish, Two Fish… was a blast! Although Robb kept piloting our fish into the jets! Grrr… as far as the Sky Trolley is concerned, that ride wouldn’t have been fun, unless it was with a group like TPR! They helped make it fun! The ride was just confusing…but so is TPR, so the forces just canceled out. It was at this point that we had officially made the weirdest circle around the park, and we were finished. We decided to hope over to Universal Studios Orlando for a quick credit run, before returning to IOA. …With great poundage comes great responsibility… With a façade like that, its pretty much already better than Hollywood’s version! …Rectuuuuuuum! Yea…this is pretty much illegal on several levels. Robb is fabulously addressing the troops after WoodieWoodpecker’s whatever. We shall return to USF tonight. Oh yes we shall. So yea, the group sort of split at Universal Studios after about 45 minutes, and I headed back for Islands of Adventure with several others. Essentially, we were just doubling back over the park, and hitting up whatever we missed the first time. Either I’m excited to finally get my Hulk credit, or I just won with my late entry into that fart-trailing contest! Hulk was another pretty solid ride—it had its signature move, yet maintained fairly nice pacing throughout the rest of the ride. But I favor that first zero-g, most! More exciting than my left-nipple hair. Slowly but surely, we made our way into the Marvel land, first hitting up Doctor Doom’s Fearfall, which surprisingly had as much themeing and a more involving story than the Hulk did! The best air in all of Florida! …or at least the parts I visited! Up next we went to reride Spiderman, but about 3/4 the way through the ride, we stopped! I don’t know what was up, or if they just accidentally let the blocking slip up or something, but we stopped! I blame Magic Mountain. It was cool too. We broke down in the room where the Green Goblin guy throws a pumpkin bomb at the bridge, and a giant fireball shoots out! So we saw that fireball a good 4-5 times before the effect cut out! We *heart* breakdowns! It didn't take long to slowly but surely make our way through the rest of the attraction, with the effects ill-timed to our irregular pacing. But they did let us immediately ride again, so I have to say the expirence was rather positive! Again, we continued around the park. Next, we decided to reride Dudley Do Rights Ripsaw Falls. This time on the ride itself, I had actually gotten less wet than my previous ride! The thing is, the very last turn of the ride, after the drop, they have about 6 or 8 of those little cannons set up, where you can purchase a chance to fire them at your friends or what not. Well some punk-ass family had purchased all of them up, and fired them in synchronous as our log passed by! We didn’t even know them! Long story short, the cannons soaked all of us beyond belief! Totally not fun! Between my newfound peanut-butter harassments and some of my recent water rides, I’ve really begun to feel sympathetic for Dan! I am going to kill that family! We continued around the park even more, soaked, and thought we wouldn’t mind drying off on the spin cycle, at Dragons again. After all, I needed to ride Fire in the back, or else someone was going to kill me! Love you! Anyway, at this point I cant say that I entirely remember what happened! If somebody can enlighten me, please, feel free to do so. Actually, if I remember correctly, Guy and myself had decided to run off and grab some footage/photos. Yea, I think that’s what went down. …and it wasn’t long until we hi-tailed it out of there. …for just $45.95 with today’s admission! Yup…that was pretty much it…yup! Islands of Adventure was a really great park. Very beautiful, a solid lineup of rides, etc. The only things were, it’s operations was a bit disappointing, and there wasn’t much to do other than the “marketed” attractions. Definitely more than AK or MGM, but I still felt like the park needed a few more filler attractions. Perhaps I feel this way because of the fact that the park was scarily-empty, enabling us to finish it in a few hours! Anyway, thank you guys so much for sticking around with me for yet another segment! So sorry that this one was a bit weak, but I just had to force myself to write it, or else I would never get to finish these PTRs! I’m pretty sure that the next one will be better. As always, questions, comments, concerns, or praise is welcome! -Jahan

I would sugguest Florida. Do I get any candy for saying that? -Jahan

Shall we continue then?... Park IV: Disney-MGM Studios So…we had left Animal Kingdom, to find a bus full of cool new peeps! It was at that point that we drove over to the next park for the day—Disney-MGM Studios. Grrr. With the our luck at hand, we were forced to park at the end of a row! We meet again, good Tower! Yes. For those who don’t know, I have faced this Tower of Terror once before in my life…when I was 5 years old. I don’t know how I was conned into it, but I was. I don’t remember the ride itself. I just remember waiting in the queue and staring up at this twisted building through the trees. That’s right…through the trees! Here goes nothing! While half of the group went to go deal with their ticketing situation, us others entered the park. We waited around for a few minutes and finally were able to go… “It just looks so….so….so much better than ours!” That’s right…it was time to finally face the good Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror, twelve years after my initial confrontation. *Cues background music* Ahhah! Ladies and gentlemen…THIS is the view I remembered from 12 years ago. Phew. Good to know that thus far, its on par with the California attraction. …but it wouldn’t stay that way. The preshow room is nearly identical to that of the California attraction. The differences start on the other side of that sliding door. We entered the boiler room. Now, I was totally digging the more “realistic” lighting in this room, although I can agree that it could be a little darker. And the bellhops simply weren’t as in character today, at least compared to what I’m used too. But once we were wished a nice stay, and the elevator door shut, the ride experience was entirely different, and entirely better. The first scene is similar to the hallway scene in the California attraction, but somewhat different. I liked this one better, as the show effects seemed more seamless, despite their age. But it was the next level that would blow me away. We get to the next level, and something strange happened…the doors opened, and we actually began to move out of the shaft, forwards! Ok, I’ll stop playing stupid(er), as I knew this was what would happen. But I cant say that I ever got over the novelty of doing so! It just added a whole new dimension too the attraction (literally), absent on the west coast. Not to mention, it included what I might consider to be my favorite show effect ever! As you make your way through the 4d room, the stars in the distance slowly group together into a small, bright spot before you, which then shoots out into a vertical beam, and then parts as an elevator door would. Between my growing tiredness and sheer awe at the effect, my mouth was wide open at the sight, and I didn’t even realize it! We then proceed into the darkness, when you can feel yourself lock into the shaft, as you feel the heat of the ride (that’s what she said!). After some totally awesome, random drop sequences, and a final small show scene, we exited. I was frustrated. I really didn’t want to like it as much as I did. Between lower standards set on this coast, and the stand-alone-awesomeness of this tower, I was in love. As a matter of fact, I might be as bold as to say it was my favorite attraction of the trip. Maybe. Anyway, onwards!... Yes! Another new ride for me! I really liked Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster. Other than the poorly themed outdoor extended queue and the obnoxious preshow (which I learned, can be made better with some dialogue), the ride was real awesome. Although, as with Mulholland Madness, I cant say that I am totally buying the concept of “a ride through LA’s fast-paced and exciting freeway system!”. This was one of those times that Robb really stuck his head out to make sure that I had a great ride on this thing (and stuck his head out to avoid headbashing, I presume). So a big thanks to him for that. All of us TPR’ers were able to fit in the back half of the “Super stretch limo” (what’s up with annoying preshows and the word “super”?!). The ride itself was cool. It may have had the good ‘ole Disney “cardboard cutouts” that we were whizzing past, but at least it was in the dark, so you couldn’t just see the signs bolted to the supports, as you can with Mulholland Madness. And no, I’m not comparing it to Mulholland Madness, so get off my back! Anyway, I liked the ride…happy? Although, I have to admit that I find the guitar to be the most uniquely “cool” thing about the whole ride! It was at this point that Robb and Elissa had to go check into the house that we would be staying at, so our group was on our own. Although, the gruesome twosome did sugguest we go see the Lights, Motors, Action: Extreme Stunt Show, because Cameron (who is a guy, by the way!) likes cars. So off we were, on a dramatic rat race across Disney-MGM Studios, in search of the Lights, Motors, Action show… Found it! Now mind you, I havn’t had anything to drink for a good while now and the heat/humidity has been laying on hard ever since we left air-conditioned Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster, not to mention that I havn’t slept for since the morning before, CA time. Sitting tightly packed in those uncomfortable bleachers, waiting for the damn show to start, was not a fun thing! I think most in our group can attest to that! The heat, seat, and my fatigue was making me a bit irritable. And the show was a bit late at starting…so long story short, I didn’t go into this thing in the best of spirits. I didn’t know it got this hot in France! Uhoh…I think the heat is really getting to Guy! Or is it Kim?! OMG…it’s the Action part! More Action! This is what happens when you load a car the way you load a spinning wild mouse! At this point of the show, I was pretty much feeling like the guy on the left. OMG! So much orgasmic Action, my head is going to explode! The truth of the matter was, Lights, Motors, Action, had way more Lights and Motors, than it had Action. Now I understand that the gravity of the major stunts involve require a lengthy set up, to ensure proper safety…but I just wasn’t thinking rationally when I was watching that show. So sorry, as I know that a lot of people really like the show! But as for me, the “quickie” bursts of excitement, followed by lengthy set up periods which they tried to mask by going to some audience members I don’t give a crap about, just wasn’t enough…in the end, I didn’t care for the show. At least as much as I had hoped I would (as I really wanted to like this thing). At this point, I really began to feel like stopping for a bit, but the team wanted to press onward, toward the Studio Tram…I figured it was a place to sit down, and the tram movement might breeze me off, so I allowed myself to go with them. Onward to Michael Bay: the ride! The queue of the “Studio Tram” was littered with random pictures and props from Michael Bay films, and he even dropped in on the Preshow! And if you dare tell people about his “Harbor Attack” preshow, I swear to God he’ll kill you! Sweet! I’m totally going to get to see how they made the Ernest films! At least they attempted to “update” the ride, by including the bone cages, from Pirates of the Carribean 2. A question for the Universal peeps…am I allowed to use “old and stupid” for a Disney caption? Probably the coolest thing on the tour...Walt’s plane. Jon fell asleep! He was the first one from the red-eye flight to pass out! So basically, after the Studio tour, we were all wiped out. We need to just sit, eat, rest, replenish, renourish, and wake the hell up. We headed over to the ABC Commissary to grab a seat, some grub, and some air conditioning, and it wasn’t long before I was feeling A LOT better. Guy said he wanted to go check out the Indiana Jones show, and I decided to go with, as did Ryan, and Joe. Indy of the East! So yea, Indiana Jones (Raiders) is pretty much my second favorite movie of all time. Nothing beats Forrest Gump, ever, but Raiders comes in a close second. So it comes to no surprise that I personally really liked this show, despite its age! The shade was better than at Lights, Motors, Action, the set up between sequences was shorter, and Indiana Jones is just cool! Guy was a little frustrated that the hostess never picked him to volunteer, despite his…er…enthusiastic attempts to get her attention. Do it. Do it. Do it. Any show with Nazis, mechanics getting eaten by a propeller, and FIRE is a good show to me! It was at this point that we got the call from Robb and Elissa that they were done with their errands, and that it was time to leave. I know your all saying "But Jahan! What about Great Movie Ride?!"...well, we had reservations for food at Epcot, and had to get over there. But dont worry, I'll be back for Dinosaur and Great Movie Ride later. All and all, this first impression of Disney-MGM Studios was a good one. I recognize that a lot of my "not-so-impressed" moments are a result of me being fatigued, hungry, and hot. One complaint that I will mention, is that the park felt very lopsided. I didn't realise until I got to the park, that Tower of Terror and Rock 'N' Roller Coaster are RIGHT next to each other. I think that the other side of the park could REALLY use the same caliber of an attraction, to help diversify and better distribute the parks attractions. Now off to Epcot...lets get it on!... Uh…once again….I’ll be back in a sec. *grabs Vaseline* Now I’m NOT going to include my official Epcot trip report right now. So sorry to tease you! But, we did eat in the Japanese pavilion, which was definitely my favorite of all of the dining experiences for the whole trip! Volcano: The Blast Dinner The dinner was VERY entertaining, and the food was VERY flavorful. I would definitely recommend this experience to anybody. Lastly, we headed out to get an absolutely AMAZING spot to watch Illuminations (a big thank you to Stacy! Love you so much for that!). Now Illuminations is a show that I have always been told by everybody that it’s the most amazing fireworks show that they have ever seen. Sort of high expectations to live up to, going into this thing. As a matter of fact, I was sort of worried that I wouldn’t like it for that very reason. …but I loved it. I loved it so much. I don’t know what it was about the show, but I just melted watching it. Afterwards, I was speechless. Trust me, Elissa shoved a camera in my face, asking what I thought, and all I think I could say was “thank you”. And if its not what I said, then right now…Robb and Elissa—thank you. Forgive me for this dramatic lapse of seriousness, but….I think its because its so easy to recognize that human beings are stupid. Its so common to see that we’re going to blow ourselves up one day, and that the human race pretty much sucks. Its for this reason, that when I was enchanted by the choreographed threads of fireworks and raging globules of fire, I somehow felt hope. I cant even describe it. It was probably only for a second, but I felt hope for human beings. Don’t ask me how a silly fireworks show can make you feel that way, but it did. Trust me. If you noticed, I didn’t speak until we made it back to the van, it struck that deep a chord with me. …totally emo of me, but what can I say! You don’t know how hard it was to get a decent shot where the globe didn’t say “Seimens” on it! Illuminations concluded my first day in Florida. I was totally exhausted, and a daunting four days stood before me! But it started on a good foot. A really good foot. Like, a foot that’s been soaking in the Alvey’s chemical bucket, good. And with that, this another portion of the trip report comes to a close. Thanks for putting up with Jahan, yet again! Questions, comments, concerns, or praise is welcome, as always… -Jahan

Thanks for all of your kind comments/Animal Kingdom pathway and food commentary! I would expect another addition of the report up tonight! -Jahan

Hey guys! Well, its been a while since I’ve updated you guys on my progress, so I thought I would add another section to the trip report! Enjoy! I might as well start with a little prelude to destruction… As most of you know, Theme Park Review recently made a trip out to the state of Florida, and I was supremely honored to be able to join them. I had been to Florida one other time in my life…when I was 5. And I cant say I remember very much, if anything. So in essence, I was going out there a Floridian virgin, among other things. I might as well give my little disclaimer now, too…I am quite the prided Californian, so I am by default looking at Floridian attractions, often based upon my experiences with Californian counterparts or similar attractions. I will try my best to review the attractions with fairness, as I know it irritates Robb and Elissa when I look at this stuff with an analytic eye, but this is sort of Theme Park Review, so where appropriate, I will review….. Anyway, half way through Tuesday, I cut out to go meet up with Elissa and Mr. Ryan King, where we all drove down to pick up Robb at his work. We were all in for a surprise. Surprise! It wasn’t the fact that I finally got to see Robb’s place of work, or that I was pacing among the corridors of video game history, as well as of video game future . Hell, I havn’t played video games since the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time…I find it doesn’t get better than that or Goldeneye. It was the fact that I finally was able to meet a celebrity… It’s shark! That’s right folks! I got to meet the shark part of sharktums! Anyway, after Activision, we hit up an El Torrito (I was kind to my fellow flyers, and skipped the beans!), and after that we drove down to LAX. LAX was very “LAXish”, as usual, although I cant say that it took that long before we were through security and waiting at our gate. We met up with Guy and Jon, and before you know it, we were on the plane! We took off, and out of the whole 4 hour flight, I only got about 45 minutes of sleep! My view the whole 4 hour flight…Guy’s head. Will this count as technically having slept with a woman? Or does the Robb part cancel that out? Once we landed, we did obligatory travel stuff, that was boring (except for WaffleHouse/crazy parking Florida bitch), and finally we were on the short bus, headed for our first destination! Very spacious….before 12 adults crammed into this thing! I wasn’t really feeling the whole “I’m in Florida, and I’m all giddy” feeling, until we passed this sign…. *drools* And without further adieu, the actual photo trip report… Park III: Disney’s Animal Kingdom For the first time in 5 years, I would step through the gates of a new Disney park. *cues background music* We entered around park opening, and headed back to the staging area of the parks preshow. The show was rather “meh”… …but it serves its purpose…giving Dad’s something to take pictures of. Mickey, searching for the little bastards who posted the Disney Paris videos of him. Once the show was over, we chased the characters away, and headed over to grab some FastPasses for Kilomanjaro Safaris, and then made a giant cut over to the first ride of the trip… *cues more background music* Expedition Everest. I admit….I had seen every picture, watched every pov, and sat through all of the Discovery programming on this baby. I knew more random facts and figures on this thing, than I do about my baby, the Matterhorn Bobsleds. And I was ready. No more waiting….its time to face Harold’s cousin. The line was absolutely gorgeous….even if it sucked up half of the rides budget! Ryan, having a random spasm of excitement, or fear, or probably just pent up sexual frustration. For my cherry-popping inaugural run, I decided it would be best to request the front, which was very doable. Despite being in the front row of the first attraction of the trip, a brand new million dollar e-Ticket attraction…I’m still technically on Californian time, so I look a bit tired. I had my first taste of Bird-on-a-stick! My second taste would be later this week, at Ohanas! Contrary to what it seems, I’m not yawning. As a matter of fact, that Yeti woke me up! Long story short, Everest was fun. It wasn’t more, it wasn’t less. It was just fun. It offered a fun coaster section, with fun show scenes, and an awesome Yeti animatronic that you see for two seconds. All I suppose I could have asked for, without sounding like Elissa ordering food. After Everest, I was awake, and finally able to enjoy the park itself. Disney’s Animal Kingdom is definitely a beautiful park. It is artistically designed to imitate a lush forest atmosphere. Since I havn’t yet included a picture of the TPR van, I thought I would throw one in. Between the humidity and the temple ruins, it sort of felt like Thailand, which I just visited earlier this year. Yea, I’m pretty sure I’m related to that guy. Onwards to Africa. They really got that whole “3rd world failed attempt at modernization after the weak imperialistic European infrastructure fails to support a healthy country” feeling down very well! Kudos to the Imagineers! It was at this time that we met up with Soren, who was a really great dude! It was also time to use our FastPasses for Kilomanjaro Safaris… Here we go… All and all, this ride was “ok”. It didn’t really measure up as a great theme park attraction or a great educational experience, but I suppose it was a good attempt at trying to mesh the two together. The ride was very well staged, and it was very cool to see how close you seemingly get to these animals. It was rare that you would pick up on a boundary or enclosed animal area. However, I will say that the ride was irritably bumpy, as the bench-seats weren’t necessarily the most comfortable things in the world….at least by the end of the 30 minute attraction. Exclusive POV shot! Elephant cock, elephant cock, elephant cock… Again, it was cool to see the animals like this, out of a cage and all. Yay! Lets all of a sudden pretend in the last 30 seconds, that this is in fact a theme park ride! …I suppose it could have been worse. It was a “cute” ending, I guess. I can relate to this buddy here…I’m hairy, yet people love to stare at me all day. Oh just the thought of a water ride is making me wet! Kali River Rapids was admittedly a fun attraction. The queue felt sort of like a Halloween attraction, as you can faintly hear chainsaws in the background! It was shorter than Grizzly River Rapids, at California Adventure, and probably could have used an extra scene or something. The story is sort of rushed, but compared to Grizzly, I commend it for at least having a story! The drop is awesome, as all drops are, but I personally prefer to be spun, where as this drop is a “if your one of the two people facing the landing, your guaranteed to be screwed” drop. Long story short, any ride with chainsaws and fire is a good ride to me! Grrr…I had to get wet! At this point, we decided to hit up the Everest single-rider line, on the way to the other side of the park. The ride is definitely well placed, and looks beautiful! Ok, I admit, this time I was yawning. Mind you, I am running into 8 am PST, on 45 minutes of sleep. Whoops! Didn’t mean to throw in one of the ultrasound pics! Oh my God that’s just soo……… *grabs Vaseline* ….er, I’ll be back in a bit. It was at this point that we continued walking around the park, to the other side. As you walk through the a dense forest in Southeast Asia, you all of a sudden emerge upon a hidden gem buried in the depths of all of the lush scenery… ….wtf? “I don’t think we’re in Asia anymore!” It was at this point that we had entered Dinoland U.S.A.! Oh wow…what a change in scenery. …literally. I mean, this land was probably one of the weakest Disney-themed land I have ever been in. I mean, technically Scream is better themed, as at least its parking spaces are authentic! Either way, Dinoland offered us yet another credit…Primevil Whirl. Another “first” for me on this trip, as it was my first spinning wild-mouse credit, ever. Oh God, I feel sorry for Jon! ….geeks. …after calling them geeks, I promptly set up a similar shot for myself. At this point, we got the call that Elissa was out front with a bus-full of new people to meet! So we left. On the way out, we passed to one attraction that I would be forced to come back to Animal Kingdom to get, as I was informed that, “we will wait for Dave before riding that.” All and all, I thought Animal Kingdom was a "nice" park. Not really a great one, but a nice one. The park was very beautiful. Everywhere you look, you feel like you are staring into a painting of a remote jungle pathway. The only problem is, they tried so hard to establish the "secluded" and "wild" feel, that the pathway system is, generously put, horrible! It's as if they took the "hub" system, chewed it up, swallowed, digested, and then threw it back up again. There is no easy way to get between attractions, as the few attractions are strung together with a confusing network of windy pathways. But except for Dinoland U.S.A., I was throughouly impressed with the level of detail and themeing each attraction seemed to display. Everest was great fun and had great reride value. And the Safari and Kali River Rapids had good stories and offered fun expirences. In the end, Animal Kingdom wasn't as bad as I had heard it would be. I found it very enjoyable. Although I do think it could use some filler attractions to occupy some of that vast space between major rides. Perhaps some air-conditioned dark rides would be nice. What do you think Dave? Alright folks! That should do it for now, but trust me, the photo trip report is still getting started! I hope you enjoyed this installment! I realize it’s a lot more of a “review” than of just “us goofing off” pictures, but I just need to get this crap out of my system, and then I’ll be ready too goof off. So thanks for putting up with me, yet again! Questions, comments, concerns, and praise, welcome as always! -Jahan

^ Its spelled reckless. "Reck", meaning "to have care, concern, or regard", and the "less" there by removing the "care, concern, or regard". Now that we had our fun, the matter at hand is that Florida was an orgasmic expirence. No jokes, please. -Jahan

Yo Erik! Thanks for the great trip report, as always! I feel honored to actually be in an Erik Johnson PTR! It was real nice meeting you, and I hope too see you soon one day! -Jahan

Cool. Thanks for the photo trip report. And yes, I'm jealous. -Jahan

X is still closed and it will be for quite some time. I wouldn't say X is dead... ...just in a deep vegitative state. -Jahan

^ They already tried! It was the first "Miracle of Life" lecture that I have ever heard start with "Ok, first we need to talk about foreplay." -Jahan

I would be happy for you guys, but you announced it with a "Yup...". Grrrrr. On a serious note: -Congrats to you three! (Robb, Elissa, and Kidtums...because I think "getting born" is worth a congrats!) -Elissa, your seriously awesome. Pretty much. -To think I found out in a McDonalds...now I'm nervous every time they take me to McDonalds......which is quite often! -Uncle Jahan is here to partake in the usual Uncle duties of humoring the kid with the telling horribly outdated jokes. Love* you two... -Jahan *In an entirely heterosexual, non-fanboyish way.

Basically, this trip was the singlemost fun thing I have done in quite some time! Between meeting some seriously awesome people, finally visiting the parks I've been drooling over for the past 17 years, and the Carousel of Progress, I can pretty much die happy. Now all I need to do is win a bet... -Jahan