Tortuguero Day 2 and the Jaguar in my Bed

We were awoken at ...

Wait, let me start that again.

I was awoken at 4:30am to the most frightening sound I'd ever heard. An intensely loud, guttural growling was coming from somewhere outside our flimsy mesh-windowed cabina. At first, coming out of a deep, tropically-induced sleep, I thought someone was having a fight with a huge boar (or a rodent of unusual size). Then, I realised there was a Jaguar stalking through the hotel grounds, picking off the guests one by one, stripping Adam of his flesh right beside me ...

Oh. Right. I forgot. Howler monkeys.

My first introduction to the calling howler monkeys was a bit dunderheaded, I'll admit, but it can't have been worse than Adam, whom I shook and said "can you hear that?". It was a stupid question - no one in a kilometre radius could have managed to not hear it, but Adam gave me a "hear what?".

There was a band of trees connecting the rainforest on one side of the hotel grounds to the rainforest on the other side. While crossing the night before, the troupe had decided to stop there and sleep for the night. The band of trees was precisely behind our room.

Needless to say, we were up nice and early for our 5:30am departure to the canals, for our early early morning boat tour. Costa Rica is famous for its bird biodiversity especially, and it was definitely the right time to see them. And for us, it meant not being roasted in the noon sun and eaten for lunch by the caiman.

Gregory, el Capitan, navigating

the canals.

Our tour group.

Every few metres, another new species of bird would fly overhead or be perched on a nearby branch. At this time more than ever, Adam and I were ruing the day we forgot to buy binoculars, and ruing even more the day we decided we needed to eat more than buy a digital SLR.

A family of microbats. This species

commonly sleeps on trees overhanging

water, in groups of up to 15.

We were quickly "ticking" off many of the species we'd been expecting to miss out on in our short stay, including all three of Tortuguero's toucans. Please note: We're not actually keeping a list. That would be crossing over into previously unexplored territory of obsession.

A toucan. I swear.

Mario told us that when you find three toucans, you get a six-pack. It took me a while to figure out why everyone was groan-laughing (that special kind reserved for puns).

The previous night we had spotted a few things that were impossible to take photos of. One was a tree-full of fireflies displaying their flashing green lights in search of mates. The other was the orange eye-shine of a caiman in the dock. At this point, I had no idea what one looked like in comparison to a crocodile or what size I could be expecting. I only knew it had eyes. So, we were very excited to spot one in the daylight, and Gregory did his utmost to get the caiman to hang around for us.

Adam faces off with the caiman.

In fact, he did such a good job (splashing around in the water to get his attention) that the caiman decided to come all the way up to the boat and nose-bump it. Caimans grow to a maximum of 2.5m, but females are always much smaller. Unlike the Australian crocodiles, the Caiman is a member of the alligator family. They have a hugely varying diet as they grow, starting with insects, crustaceans and gastropods and moving onto fish and even small mammals as they get larger.

Ma! There's another 'gator in the house!

The caiman nose-fives the boat.

Basilisk lizards are common in the Tortuguero national park, but it was not often that we were treated to a displaying male. Easily the most impressive is the Emerald Basilisk (Basiliscus plumifrons), and we just happened to slide on by a male hanging over the water with all his junk out.

Dee was recently bitten by a

basilisk lizard, and Dad, worried

that it might have some goanna-like

venom, googled "Basilisk venom". He

freaked out when he got millions of

results and found that the only cure

was phoenix tears.

The Northern Jacana is an polyandrous

bird that uses its long, thin toes to walk

over water plants without falling in. Since

Central America seems to have Jesus on the

brain, this bird is also called the "Jesus-bird."

We were treated to many more bird sightings before we stumbled across the motherload. Gregory "parked" the boat near a little bank of tree roots, and we sat here for ten minutes and watched a troupe of White-faced Capuchins crossing the trees right in front of the boat. Interestingly, once one monkey finds a path, most of the subsequent monkeys follow the exact same one - so we were able to anticipate the exact place each monkey would appear.

The White-faced terrestrial monkey differs greatly

from the White-faced capuchin. (Expression:
Srsly I just saws monkeyz.)

This is my favourite one. White-faced capuchins

are very intelligent and use both tools and medicine.

They've apparently been trained to assist paraplegics.

This one sat there looking right at use for a minute

or so.

That concluded our foray into the canals of Tortuguero. The afternoon was taken up with a walk around the hotel gardens (which were less like gardens than a forest). Mario told us about all sorts of plants, including a fruit which Ticas once used for make-up, and a hollow tree that grows ridiculously fast and sounds like a drum. We found a two-toed sloth in a tree behind our room, and also a male and female pair of supermassive grasshoppers.

The two-toed sloth is far less common than the

three-toed sloth - about a ratio of 1:4, according

to our guide.

These guys were dark with very cool

orange antennae.

At night fall, we had dinner and then it was time to GO SEE THE TURTLES!!!!!!!!!! Our tour won the "turtle raffle", which meant we got to go in the early batch (8pm), whereas the others would have to wait until 10pm.

The view from the beach at sunset. The turtles

were on the same beach - just much further down.

Adam:

We hopped on the rocket boat and flew down the river at breakneck speed. Soon we arrived at the village and met our guide Pollo (note: he was not a chicken). Pollo led us to the beach and explained the turtle spotter program. This program, a recent development, had spotters roaming the beach in order to guide the tour groups to turtles once they had settled. We waited patiently on the beach while the spotters did their thing. After a short wait the spotters took us to the turtles. The spotters had found two green sea turtles (great whopping beasts of the sea) that had settled within two metres of each other and made their nests. For perspective each turtle was about the size of a quad-bike (not quite as tall though). When we arrived the turtles had just started to lay, and went on pushing out out eggs for about 15 minutes. Apparently of all the eggs laid (around 100) only one or two will survive to adulthood, thankfully the beach is visited by thousands of turtles and a good number will make it through. After laying, the turtles began to seal the egg chamber. This involved patting the area down with their back flippers (to get down) until they were satisfied that the chamber was secure. Once this stage was complete the real fun began...

Like this but double!

Using their powerful turtle limbs our plucky pair started camouflaging their nests. The turtles thrust great amounts of sand backwards over their nests, with ease akin to how people would splash water. Caitlin and I, standing directly behind the turtles, got to enjoy the spray of turtle-sand right in our faces (we felt privileged). After many successful sand attacks the turtles were satisfied with their handiwork and they set their sites back on the ocean. At this point Caitlin and I decided to hold a friendly wager with a game of giant sea turtle racing (no we didn't ride them). Once the turtles had set off from their nests we walked behind with silent encouragement. The turtles adopted a burst and rest strategy, making great gains followed by lengthy rests. It was painstaking but fascinating, and as the water grew nearer the heat was on. It was a pitched battle but in the end Caitlin's titanic terrific turtle took the title. From the waterline we saw another turtle making its way in to make it's nest (it was like a boulder emerging from the sea) for the turtles the night had only just begun, for us though it was time to head back. Pollo led us back through the village to the rocket boat for a leisurely ride back to the resort, what a night!

Let's Just Cut to the Good Stuff and Tortuguero, Day 1

Apologies in advance: My zoom sucks. We're doing our best.

Blah blah blah, Mexico, blah blah, didn't leave the airport, blah blah, Mexico is evil.

As far into Mexico as we dared travel after

the visitor information centre gave us a map

and said "everything's closed".

Blah blah flight. Arrived in San Jose. Adam said to the customs guy in Spanish "Do I speak English?" Caitlin laughed a lot.

Blah blah. Hotel room got upgraded to executive suite for free. Didn't know until we got inside. Blah blah. Bath robes.

Adam eating his warm cookie at check-in. It

was actually warm. They warm up their cookies.

For check-in.

The 13th, of course, was Adam's birthday. We spent it chilling out at the hotel after an exhausting succession of flights, early starts and busy, busy days. The language has been a bit of an amusement to get used to; especially as we spent the whole of Mexico trying to figure out how to order vegetarian food. When we finally did it, we realised our flight was boarding and had to eat our dinner covertly out of a bag on the plane.

I totally aced the taxi and managed to ask for a receipt as well, so we were feeling a lot better about everything by Adam's birthday (however, people at the hotel mostly speak English anyway). Then, we had a 5:40am bus to catch to Tortuguero National Park.

View over the roof of the hotel. It was supposed

to look nice. I think the computer makes photos

ugly.

Our tour guide was a hilariously enthusiastic local called Mario, and he was very knowledgeable on all things nature and spoke very good English. After picking up two Dutch guys, we started the drive to Tortuguero National Park (the area of turtles). Driving north from San Jose, we crossed the mountains and the Great Divide that splits the water drainage of the country and the seasons. The south side experiences the wet and dry seasons. The north experiences the wet and wetter seasons.

At one point, the driver madly pulled off the highway and screeched to a halt. Mario then calmly pointed out the three-toed sloth scratching itself in a tree. How either of them spotted it from a distance going that fast, I have no idea. I swear I took a photo but it seems to have gone missing.

We stopped for breakfast (desayuno) somewhere that I completely can't remember. The local dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner is rice and beans (gallo pinto if it comes mixed, casado if not). The only difference is, for desayuno you get an amazing assortment of fresh fruits that taste better than anywhere else, and I haven't yet had the same fresh fruit juice twice. Most of the time I don't even know which fruit I'm drinking.

We saw our first Costa Rican insects (and arachnids) at the butterfly house at the restaurant. There was an amazing array of butterfly species at all stages of their lifecycles. There were some big blue ones that looked like the Ulysses from Australia but also lots of other kinds we'd never seen before, caterpillars, cocoons and all!

Butterflies emerging from their cocoons

and drying their wings.

The biggest harvestman I've ever seen! It

was the size of the palm of my hand - bigger,

if it stretched its legs out. There was another

one running around on the same leaf.

After breakfast, we turned off the highway and ended up on a very rough, rocky road. Mario pointed out the pineapple plantations to us, and explained the history of the cultivation of the pineapple, and also how to choose the best ones from the shop (go for the hard, green ones, folks!). Not long after, we found ourselves driving through extensive banana plantations. The banana industry in this part of Costa Rica is huge, but they're worried that the economic situation in the US will put a dent in their exports for years to come.

A banana plantation. The blue bags are not

to protect the bananas from getting et, but

to increase their rate of growth.

Getting the bananas to the nearby open-air

packing factory is an interesting process. In

lots of about twenty, they are tied to cabling

stretching the entirety of the plantations, which

then conveys along like big blue hovering ducklings.

When they get to a road, they go straight across at eye

level, so you have to wait at the banana crossings

until they've passed.

For environmental reasons, there are no roads into the national park, so we pulled in at the dock and transferred to the boat. From this point on, it was wildlife city as we got our first taste of the biodiversity in this gem of a Central American country.

The boat we took, and Mario standing

with el Capitan, Gregory (a phenomenal

wildlife spotter, even whilst driving a boat).

We'd barely moved from the dock when we

were privy to a whole flock of Roseate spoonbills.

These birds have a widened, spoon-like end to

the bill made for catching shrimp and other

water invertebrates, giving them their pink

colouration.

One that Gregory spotted from the speeding

boat. A Howler monkey mid-nom on a leaf.

Nephila clavipes, the Golden orb-weaver. I went

nuts over this one and had the English guys we picked

up at the dock laughing at me until I realised there were

another two right next to it, and another twenty right

next to those ...

My Nephila hyperactivity occurred when we pulled up at the ranger station to buy tickets for tomorrow's rainforest tours. From there, we walked into the village. Since Tortuguero has been a national park since the 1970's, the only human residents (apart from the hotels) are in the village that existed before the change. This village originally subsisted on sea turtle hunting, but since then has made a very beautiful and inspiring story of itself that I will tell you tomorrow, when we go visit the nesting sea turtles of Tortuguero (the largest nesting site in the northern hemisphere). Consequently, you might be interested to know that Costa Rica is one of the greenest countries in the world, ranking first in the "Happy Planet Index". Go Ticos!

We arrived at the gorgeous hotel grounds and found our room to be largely made of mesh, with towels folded to look like turtles. Then it was a quick walk on the beach before dinner (cena) in an open-air restaurant, where we got our itinerary off Mario for the next few days.

That's the Caribbean you're looking at. The sand here

is black and extra clingy.

A ghost crab. My camera has the unfortunate habit

of being unable to use macro if you're zoomed more

than a millimetre, so I hope you fully appreciate how

difficult this shot was, considering how skittish crabs

are.

Aside from the canal and garden tours the next day, there were several optional tours such as a zipline canopy fly tour. We chose the sea turtle nesting tour for the following night, and the night walk around the hotel grounds with Mario's expert eyes on our side.

Adam faces off with a male basilisk, also

called "Jesus Christ lizards" due to

their ability to run across water. He was

seriously afraid it was going to claw his eyes out.

A cricket hanging about, doin' its thang.

Even the hotel grounds were alive with wildlife (though less inverts than I was hoping for!). It got to the point where it was "Oh, another basilisk". We spotted the eyeshine of a caiman in the water, and turned off our torches for a real firefly light spectacular. Mario identified a group of monkeys in the trees behind our rooms to be spider monkeys, but by 4:30am there were no doubts that they were Howlers. I woke up thinking someone was fighting a boar, then I thought there was a Jaguar in my room, then it clicked ...

The Garden orb-weavers are large an impressive. I found

this lady weaving/fixing her web for the night. She gave me

a quick "gracias" for the insects landing in it because

of my torch beam.

Rana sp? Can a frog person help?

And I guess this is a Litoria sp.

This chica was a lot more orange when I took

this, I swear.

One of the highlights of the walk was when I walked past a tree to find a baby bird sitting in front of me. I called Adam and Mario, and at first he was arguing that it was an adult until he saw the fluffy feathers, at which point he nearly wet his pants with excitement. When you get a guide of 24 years excited about something, you know it must be uncommon!

If Mario is to be believed, this is a young

Rufous-tailed hummingbird, which is another

great catch!

I also spotted a lizard in a bush which I thought was an emerald basilisk until I realised the crest was upside down (my way of saying he has a saggy chin bit - ie dewlap). We had seen a Green iguana from a distance that morning, but this was the first encounter! Green iguanas grow to quite an impressive size, so this one was only young and Mario felt quite happy to yoink it out of its comfy bush to let some annoying tourists hold it. Yay :)

Adam being all brave.

He was being a wigglepot so I had to let him

snuggle into my hand, which made for a bad

photo. Still, iguana!

To top off the night, we got back to our room to find a mudcrab nestled in our pile of floor clothes. Though hilarious, it was a merciful reminder that we should maybe not leave things on the floor, as wandering spiders are Costa Rica's answer to huntsmen, and if they bite, apparently you'll be begging the hospital staff to amputate the limb out of pain. Or you'll be dead. Sort of a toss-up. I've remembered to tap out my boots ever since.

Floor clothes crab!

This is floor clothes crab up close. He popped

in to say "Hola amigos! Aren't you glad I'm not

a wandering spider? You should probably

remember that next time you floor clothes."

And then we made him say adios and scuttle out

the door.

That's all for now, chicos! I'll be getting day two up as soon as I can, consisting of the canal tour (toucans and caiman a plenty!) and a detailed description of the sea turtles nesting, maybe with diagrams! (No cameras allowed! A bittersweet rule!) Also meet our first two-toed sloth on Tortuguero, episode two.

Blagging out!

Disneyland and the Fat Guy with the Turkey Leg

Caitlin:

This morning I tried American coffee. I've come to the conclusion that they have a big lake of it that floats above the ocean, right next to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or maybe even on top of it. It behaves like oil. Then they suck this through rusting pipes with holes for the rats to get in and drown through, all the way to the Coffee Treatment Plant under New York City. They pump the coffee up to a tower at the top of the Empire State Building and whatever other tall buildings are around, and whenever it hasn't rained for a while, they spray it down. It then is collected off the streets with whatever other rubbish it picked up along the way and pumped to collection tanks in all the other cities, where it stews for three summers in full sun.

Then, it is served.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is that it

didn't taste very good.

We eventually found the shuttle from the airport to “Disneyland Resort”. Although the driver assured us in a heavy foreign accent that it went to the park, we were a bit apprehensive anyway. No one seemed to know how much it would cost. Finally, we arrived in a complex of hotels and carparks with funny road names such as “Magic Drive”, and we knew we were in the right place – but where was the park?

The driver announced the stop at Disneyland Hotel, and a burly guy with no hair got on and made us pay heinous amounts of money for the bus we had already taken. We almost didn't get off, then, to be cautious we asked where the park was and the driver told us to get off because it was JUST ROUND THE CORNER. Run run run. Run run.

Like giddy schoolchildren, we bolted for the park and

Adam:(KEY CHANGE!) and went past a million very fancy and/or very Disney looking shops. We were beginning to lose hope, suspecting that the hype of Disney land in reality amounted to a handful of nice, though disappointing, shops. Like a bunch of lost little electrons we followed the path of least resistance and found our way by mixing with the crowd. The entrance to the park was very low key (not very Odin at all), and after a quick bag check we were in.

The entrance to Disneyland really doesn't

give a hint of what's to come.

The attendant at the gate briefly explained the 'fast pass' system, we nodded politely not understanding a word. Turns out this was fairly important... Once inside we were awe-stuck – the park was everything we had imagined, only more so. Rows of fancy Disney shops greeted us with promises of ice-cream, clothing, and animatronic Lincoln. We spent the first few moments in a daze, and the next feverishly pouring over our map to determine our first port of call in magical Disneyland.

Adam:

Settling on 'Fantasy Land' we headed off. On the way we walked down 'Main Street USA' and past carts selling Churros, Balloons, and Candy Fluff (or Cotton Candy). In the main square we watched a horse drawn tram (crazy Americans clearly a little confused about how trams work) make the rounds. It was at this point that we were struck by the sheer size of the place, we later discover a convenient train that runs around the park, at this point however, we walk. Fantasy land here we come!

The entrance to Fantasyland is across a moat

and through a castle. It's just one example of

the kind of detail in every aspect of Disneyland.

Caitlin:

The park is divided into several different 'lands'. Fantasyland is the bit that really feels like Disney. It's got the most references to all the movies we grew up loving, and the first thing I saw was the huge Monstro head from Pinocchio. I was so excited and we immediately lined up for the Storybook ride associated. It turned out to be a boat ride through miniaturised versions of places from many of the Disney films - mostly villages or cities, but we went right through Monstro (who apparently sneezed so hard his tail blew off. I was horrified). My favourite part was the Aladdin section, where we went through the Cave of Wonders to Agrabah and the palace.

The Palace from Aladdin, all miniaturised.

Naturally, I was most excited about Adventureland and knew there was something of an Indiana Jones ride there (but didn't know what it was). On the way, we stopped by Tomorrowland where Adam waylaid us trying out the Fastpass system which we were really confused about.

Adam:

We notice the new and insanely popular 'Star Tours' ride, and the lengthy line spiraling out of it. We also spy our very first 'fast pass' station and resolve to save ourselves a wait. Now, the 'fast pass' system as it turns out is a way for guests to book a ride in advance so that instead of waiting you simply go the 'fast pass' entry and present your ticket, getting on the ride almost straight away. The catch being that you have to first request a pass from the station, and cannot hold more than two passes at once. Being fairly early in the day we figure that the 'fast pass' ticket will allow us to skip the moderately long line, so we print ours out...

Fast Pass Valid

Please return between:

7:45pm – 8:45pm

As it turns out the 'Star Tours' ride is so popular that we won't be getting in until the end of the day. “No problem” we figure, there's plenty to see until then.

Caitlin:

So, we continued on to Adventureland, which was even a joy to simply walk through. Everything looked like a jungle village lifted straight from a film, which was in some ways the coolest thing ever. You got the feeling of being in one without all the uncomfortable truths. In the markets, they sold fruit from wooden boxes filled with ice, right next to bottled water. It was a strange mix of fact and fiction. Looking for the Indiana Jones ride, we spied a jungle safari boat and I dragged Adam to the line.

Even this absurd ride was amazing. We spent the whole time grinning and commenting on how the same thing in Australia would be awful. We were on your regular river tour boat, with your regular tour guide - but the animals were ANIMATRONIC. Yes. Animatronic. But not the crappy animatronic you might imagine ...

Yes. An entire herd of life-sized, convincing elephants,

stamping, blowing water out of their noses and

generally looking like elephants.

There were hippos under the water that rose up and opened their mouths when you went by, a pride of lions "cuddling a zebra", another "striped orange sharp toothed zebra", and piranhas that jumped out of the water beside the boat, to name a few.

Next, we spent half an hour in the queue for Indiana Jones (we found out the hard way you could only get one fastpass every few hours). Half an hour felt like five minutes as we wove our way through the inside of an ancient temple filled with bamboo scaffolding and "ancient" religious carvings. The ride itself was even more impressive. It had more detail and unexpected turns than one would ever imagine. My face was like this the whole time: :O

Indi fans, be jealous. Be very, very jealous. Film references abounded.

Adam in the line. At this point, we were

weaving through the bamboo scaffolding inside

the depths of a cave.

Since we got to the park so late, we stopped at Frontierland for lunch. The only thing in the park that we could find to eat was something called "Vegetarian Chili", and though sounding quite scary, was as hilarious as it was yummy. It was a bean taco mix in a bread bowl. A bread bowl. AN EDIBLE BOWL. Sadness abounded as the Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted House rides were both closed, though we DID see a functioning imitation-tall ship (and we took a photo for you, Jeremy).

Yes.

We picked up a fastpass for Splash Mountain before mistaking the train around the park for the Thunder Mountain railroad. We realised our mistake quickly after reading the map properly and hopped off in Toontown - quite literally a cartoon town. My face was like this: :D

It was cartoon! Come on!

There were even flat cardboard mountains in the distance. Disneyland spared no expense. We found a rollercoaster made of acorns and hopped aboard (that's a lie. It was a huge wait for quite a short but otherwise ok ride). Toontown was mostly shops, but it was enough for us to walk around the outside and laugh at the buildings.

Someone build this village so I can live here.

Then, it was on to "It's a small world".

Adam:

Thanks to the passing parade; the line was non-existent and we hopped right on to "It's a small world". The name is a bit of misnomer as the ride itself is huge, and lasts about 10 minutes. The boat ride was pleasant, though the music became a bit grating... for a version you can try at home sing this for 10 minutes "It's a small world after-all" [repeat].

Now it was time for "Splash Mountain". On our way we heard the screams of terror/joy from the people crashing down the mountain. We almost felt bad as we used our fastpass to skip the epic line of people waiting for the ride, excepting that we totally got to skip the line so it was awesome. We were disheartened slightly as we saw the drenched people stepping out of the ride, clearly water was to be involved (who'd have thought?). The ride itself was awesome lots of swooshing through caverns and off of cliffs (Caitlin sat up front, shielding me from most of the wet :D)

Not pictured: Imminent wetness.

Caitlin:

So, after a 90 degree vertical drop, we crabwalked out of the ride with really wet pants and managed to find Thunder Mountain. It was a rollercoaster of epic length - it spiralled all the way down a man-made mountain and never seemed to end. The dinosaur skeleton coming out of the "eroded soil" was a highlight. A foreign couple behind us squealed like small children. Or that could have been Adam.

I think this is Thunder Mountain ... :\ It was

one of them.

We got another fastpass for Autopia, where we drove cars around a track but were stuck on a track in the middle of the road anyway so there didn't seem to be much point. We were trying to kill time until our 7:45pm Star Tours session, which became unavailable after about 1pm, but it was starting to get dark and we didn't know how to get to the hotel. We had to get a pass-out to go get information about the shuttle back to the airport (we didn't want to accidentally have to sleep on Splash Mountain. They stamped our hands, but when we looked, there was nothing there.

My hypothesis was confirmed when we saw

the UV torches at the re-entry points.

The last shuttle left at 9pm, so we went back in and had Pizza Planet pasta for dinner. It wasn't really Pizza Planet, but it was close enough. Afterwards, we explored the Innovation Centre, which was supposed to be a bit like Scienceworks but lacked any real science. It was all very American and sensationalist and largely irrelevant to real life, but we did get a chance to see Adam as an old man (oh no, what have I got myself in for?)

He's going to be very saggy and unhappy.

Perhaps I turn into a nag?

Tired and nervous about getting home, we decided to take the 8pm bus home instead, which means we'd miss Star Tours. All that hype for nothing, huh? We took one last walk through Adventureland in the dark, though. It was beautiful, even if it was all fake. We walked through the treeline on a Tarzan themed boardwalk and got a great view of the Disneyland skyline.

The whole place was lit up with hanging lanterns.

Adam on the Tarzan boardwalk.

Our night ended on a high, though. Adam scouted for a couple to give our fastpasses to so they didn't go to waste. At the entrance, he caught a young couple and handed them the passes. The guy was almost too enthusiastic ("Dude! You're awesome! This is so great!") until I saw his Blue Sun t-shirt as he walked away. We gave the Star Wars ride passes to sci-fi geeks ....

Disneyland: Wow.

Oh, Dad - we saw the fat guy with the turkey leg. You know, the one you saw 67 times at Disneyworld. Wow, he's quick.