Just Do It!

I plan alot. Probably way too much it seems to create some excitement and help make whatever I am planning come around just a bit faster. As soon as I have something penciled in, a vacation or show or whatever, I make a countdown clock and start my planning.

I read in Outside magazine the other day this little bit of wisdom.

"If you wait until you have everything ready, every detail dialed, every piece of worst-case-scenario gear squared away, you'll never leave. Instead, learn to master the elusive art that makes adventure possible: the ill-planned, under-financed departure..."

It caused me to recall the early days of our marriage and dating when we would just jump in the old VW and off we would go. Disneyland on a shoestring, no problem. Even if the tires were flat on the car because they were so bald the day after a trip, we still went out and did and had a ball doing it.

Lord help me to be spontaneous and willing to try new things at a moments notice. To not become as those that have become set in their ways with no room for adventure. Amen...

Peace to you and Love,

Don

A Hike ....

I needed some time to un-wind and just be. So on Thursday July 13th I took a walk. I journeyed to the Mount Rose Wilderness at @ 9000' to collect my thoughts and get a little fresh air.

It is always amazing how good you feel after you take a walk in all the beauty that nature has to offer. It makes you happy to see the critters and get away from the pavement and work and, well the list could go on. If you want to get away from the World for a few minutes, check out our pictures from the hike or just get up, get out and take a walk yourself. If you live in Northern Nevada you probably could use a few minutes away from the cars and sprawl to catch your breath. Our pictures from the hike are on our Flickr page here.

More Later...

Don

Our Disneyuland Rose

When we returned to the little house in the valley, we were happy to find that our Disneyland Rose had bloomed. Of course we were also happy that the rabbitts had not devoured it yet too!

Here it is in all it's glory for to ooh and aah over...

Have a wonderful day!

Don & Brenda

Finally, Our Disneyland Video!

I finally got around to editing some video from our vacation to Disneyland to share. We had an amazing time and wish we could have taken all of you with us ...... um ..... strike that, back up. We had an amazing time.



Our Disneyland Adventure 2006 on Vimeo

The Adventure Ends .. The Ride Home

Well here we are at home again. Back in Reno at Casa Tucker un-winding and I think all of us are playing movies of this trip from our memory over and over in our heads.

I learned a lot and hopefully did not ruffle too many feathers. I have never had much experience working with young people and I learned from them more than they know during this little one week adventure.

The ride home was as expected longer than the trip down even though the time and distance was the same. Have you ever noticed that it seems to take forever coming home from a trip and going takes no time at all? It also seems that it is easier getting your body in gear when planning and leaving for a trip/adventure. When coming home we all struggled to get going.

So we all said goodbye to Disneyland for a while, maybe we will be able to return next year ... maybe it will be a while. You never know how those things are going to go. The trip home was smooth and we made good time arriving at about 9:00 pm full of stories to share with Bonnie and Severin and ready for nice nights sleep in our own bed.

Looking back it seems that we are so caught up in the daily grind that we neglect times and adventures like these for the grown up things and daily responsibilities of this world. Then before you know it ... you are old and the wonders of this life we are given are gone, and we are left to grow old quietly. I have learned from this trip to enjoy the company of others (even those that I don't know) and to enjoy each day like it is your last... because you never know when your last day is.

I thank those that shared this amazing adventure and am looking forward to the next great Tucker Family (and friends) Adventure.

As always there are plenty of pictures to share with you on the Flickr Page. Just look for the box on the side of this page. Talk to you all real soon!

Love From,

Don, Brenda, Rusty, PeeWee, Will & Terra oh yes ... and Ashley!

Our Disneyland Adventure Day 3

I can't believe we have one more day to enjoy Disneyland!

We are having so much fun on this adventure, but it seems we are running out of gas (not just the older folks, but the kids as well). Today takes us back to Disneyland for all the things we missed and to go again on the rides we loved.

Again we took the puppies to the Casa Puppy at Disneyland Kennels and got them situated. I guess they are okay with it. Sometimes I wish I could read thier minds so I could know if they are happy of if they think we treat them awfully. Heck most of the time I wish I had that ability to check out what humans are thinking about me.

Into the park early and we jumped right in with both feet hitting everything we wanted to do before lunch. Our food adventure today was off to The Rainforest Cafe for another celebration in honor of Ashley. It was a bunch of fun and the food was good, but we are thinking this might be the last time we go there. Everyone seemed rushed and not as polite as we remembered, so maybe next trip we will find somewhere else to explore and experience.

Next we were going to go right back into Disneyland for some ride cramming but realized we were running low on energy so we returned for our mid afternoon ciesta at the Hotel. zzzzzzzzzz!!

Back at Disneyland we shopped a bit and walked alot and rode some more rides before getting great seats for the Fantasmic show. It was amazing as expected and we totally enjoyed just resting and hanging out before the show. The kids got a bit restless waiting so they ventured off and took in The Haunted Mansion again.

After Fantasmic we wanted to take in one more ride that would stay with us in our memories as the perfect cap to a wonderful trip. We decided on It's a Small World! It was a great end to a perfect night and amazing adventure.

Shopping until the stores closed and then pick up the puppies and back to the Hotel.

Can it be that this adventure is just about over? Now to get a few hours of sleep before heading back to Reno and all that awaits us in the normal world.

G' Night!

Don, Brenda, Rusty, PeeWee, Will, Terra and Ashley

Our Disneyland Adventure Day 2

Our second day at Disneyland was going to be a jam packed one. It started just as the other days would, up early and off to get a jump on the others visiting on this day.

We checked Rusty & PeeWee in to the Doggy Hotel and got them settled in. The service at the Disneyland Kennel is outstanding and the accomodations are nice so we did not feel too bad leaving them for a few hours.

Because Disney's California Adventure did not open until 10:00 am we decided to check back into Disneyland for a couple of hours of rides there before going to the sister park. Again the park seemed pretty quiet so we were able to get on most rides without much wait time.

At 10:30 am we were off to Goofy's Kitchen for a Birthday celebration in honor of Ashley. We dined with Goofy, The Mad Hatter and Pricess Jasmine and had a wonderful Birthday cake at out table. Good food and good friends at Disneyland, what more could you ask for?

Filled up and re-charged, we were now off to Disney's California Adventure (DCA) for a full day of fun there. First off it was Grizzly River Rapids and a good soaking there. We all really enjoyed this ride and had wanted to get on it again but never got to it. Off next to California Screamin' a great roller coaster and a wild ride. Again the wait time was not bad at all and in just minutes we were screamin' with the rest of the riders. Brenda is not really fond of the coasters and tends to get a little turned around on them, so she filmed us taking off and laughed at us a bunch.

We all watched and loved the Alladin show at DCA's Hyperion Theatre and then off for our mid-day rest at the hotel. I think we all managed to catch some zzz's and catch our breath before heading back over.

This afternoon, Will, Terra and I checked out The Tower of Terror and really loved it. Ash and Brenda were not so excited to try it and stayed in the shade to wait for us. Short lines again so we were back as a group and off to stake our claim to a choice sopt on the Parade route next. The Electrical Parade was great and then the younguns' wanted to try screamin' one more time before we retired. As they did that Brenda and I took a minute for ourselves and walked and talked a bit. We even managed to catch a bit of the fireworks from Disneyland.

Now we are beat once again and all are looking forward to climbing onto the bed to crash for the night. I say onto the bed because we may not have the strength to get under the covers. Boy are we getting old...

Tomorrow, back to Disneyland and our final day of this adventure. But for now must get some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ........

Us (and the puppies too!)

Our Disneyland Adventure Day 1

We're going to Disneyland!

Well actually we were just across the street but it seemed like the thing to say. We wre up early today @ 5 AM ready to get the puppies checked into Disneylands version of the Disneland Hotel for Dogs and Cats. Today was our early admission day, and we were waiting at the gate when they opened the turnstyles. It was great to see how the park had changed and how beautiful it was. Just as we imagined I guess, but even better I than I remembered.

This was a day that we had been warned about for months. Traveling to Disneyland on the 4th of July was just not recommended. But our travel plans and days off had been requested and we wre looking forward to this and the 4th of July was when we would be at Disneyland. Now we were here and .... well .... where were all the people? This was one of the slowest morings we could remember at the park. In the first hour we rode on maybe 6 rides and on one, Space Mountain,' we rode twice without leaving the ride vehicle. In the first two hours we rode more rides than we expected to ride during the whole day. It was hot and humid and maybe that was going to keep folks away but we still were going from ride to ride without any crush or people at all.

Each day we have planned a food adventure and today we were going to the Blue Bayou restaurant to enjoy one of my favorites, the Monte Cristo. Our reservations were for 11:30 am making us part of the first group of diners to get in. It looked just as I remembered it and the food was wonderful.

We took a break during the hottest part of the day, going back to our Hotel room for a little nap and to plan our afternoon.

Returning, we rode some more rides and then found a spot to watch the 50th anniversary parade and then the fireworks. Being the 4th of July we knew there would be moe fireworks than just the normal amazing fireworks show. What a wonderful day!

Now everybody is just beat and just about to fall over ... so it's off to sleep and get a bit of rest before we hit it again tomorrow.

Later...

The Group (and puppies too!)

Our Disneyland Adventure Begins!

These are days that you look forward to for months, the first day of a new vacation adventure. A chance to forget about all the things that bother you at home and at work and an opportunity to relax and enjoy life. To step back and think about the future and most of all to have fun.

It was mostly with fun in mind that we have started our vacation adventure to Disneyland today. Ashley joined us with two of her frinds Will and Terra so this was going to be a different type of adventure. Brenda and I have almost always shared our vacations as a pair, then we added Ashley when she wanted to join us, now with 3 young people it would be something new again. This morning we started rising at 3:15am for the journey. You know it is funny just how early you can get moving when you have something you are looking forward to just ahead of you. Anyway, we hit the road about 4:30am and pointed the Pilot in the direction of the Disneyland. Even writing that sounds fun.

Our route took us along 395 south from Reno through Bishop, California and taking us through Adalonto, Beach Cities and other cool places along highway 15 and 91.
It was a great ride with one stop along the route to get some fresh sweets at Erik Schat's Bakkery (that's how they spell it) and then pressing on to our final destination.... The Anahiem Plaza Hotel next to Disneyland.

Now we are relaxing in some really comfy rooms and will probably get some pizza to get us through the afternoon. The excitement is so thick you can cut it with a knife as we can see just outside our windows is what we have all been looking forward to for months.

Tomorrow.... off to Disneyland and our adventure kicks into high gear.

Later....

Don, Brenda, Ashley, Rusty, PeeWee and Will & Terra