Easter Bunny Zaira meets Easter Bunny Jelly Belly

When Zaira and I visited the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield, CA a few weeks ago we were excited to learn that they would be hosting an easter brunch today.  Of course, we immediately bought tickets being huge fans of brunch (and all things breakfast).  The fact that not only would Mr. Jelly Belly himself be attending, but so would Easter Bunnies Wendy & Wendell Bunny had absolutely nothing to do with our decision   Okay, maybe it had everything to do with our decision, but I have mentioned that 2009 is a character hunting year for us, have I not?

As the opening photo shows, Jelly Belly doesn’t fool around for the holidays, going so far as to add bunny ears to the giant (3 story plus) inflatable Mr. Jelly Belly that rests outside the Jelly Belly Visitor Center.  Zaira (who provided her own ears courtesy of a carnival midway game at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom) was egg-static.  But we were actually there for the brunch (and to meet and greet the “live” characters, of course) so we quickly headed inside.

Zaira snuggles with Wendell

Aahz Gets two thumbs up!

Brunch was excellent and the whole place was wonderfully decorated for Easter, but Zaira did feel a little out of place being the oldest “child” in the room (by about three years).  We were both very glad we attended, but also agreed that this was not our new Easter tradition.  If you’ve got children in the single digits, however, Easter at the Jelly Belly Factory is highly recommended.

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Last year we managed to collect literally hundreds of ride photos for our collection and to share with y’all via this website.  This year looks like it’s going to be more about character hunting and the “folx” we manage to meet and, of course, get photos with.

In addition to addicting my impressionable young daughter to roller coasters and ride photos I’ve also managed to get her hooked on going to the drive-in.  Last week as we pulled up to the box office we noticed a flier announcing that in honor of the opening of Steve Martin and Jean Reno’s Pink Panther 2, the Pink Panther himself would be visiting the Capital Drive-In.  Plans were instantly made.

We arrived a little late tonight, so quickly parked Rover and headed to the snack bar where we hoped to “catch” the most infamous cat burglar of all time.  Lo and behold, sitting on a bar stool, watching ESPN, was none other than the Pink Panther himself.  Although he was looking a little worse for wear (apparently he’s spent quite some time hanging out in the drive-in’s attic) he was still happy enough to pose with Zaira for a quick pic.

And thus, our new year was begun…

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Zaira and I mistakenly made our first pilgrimage down to Knott’s Merry Farm a few days after Christmas. It seems that, despite the event being advertised as running through the first week of January, the bulk of the Christmas activities actually ceased on Christmas Eve.  Live and learn.  We’ll go earlier next year.

We were still able to grab samples of their holiday digital frames, however, with my favorite being the one pictured at left. That’s our gate photo in front of the big Peanut’s Christmas display that replaced the Pony Express display near the front gate.

Zaira actually prefers the gift wrap border (pictured at right), though it still says Knott’s Berry Farm instead of Knott’s Merry Farm.  In fact, we could find almost no merchandise with the Knott’s Merry Farm name despite there still being a plethora of Knott’s Scary Farm merchandise available from as far back as six years ago.

We did manage to find Snoopy again!  Unfortunately, he had already sent his Santa outfit to the cleaners so only had this bizarre vest that Z and I assume some distant Aunt sent as a Christmas present.  We figured he was only wearing it during photo opps so he could send her “proof” of how much he loved it   Alas, although the other members of the Peanuts gang were performing in various shows and parades, none of them were available for photos in the two days we were there.

We also managed to catch sight of this holiday ornament ‘border’ while purchasing our pictures.  Although subtle I really like it and think it capures the holiday spirit very well while not overpowering the photo itself.

Zaira and I had never attended Gilroy Gardens (aka Bonfante Gardens) Holiday Lights celebration before this year, so decided to take the plunge despite their incredibly high prices for relatively little amusement value. What really put Gilroy Gardens over the top for me was the fact that the Peanuts Gang would be there for the holidays and I was looking forward to getting our pictures taken with them since we seem to have such difficulty locating them at Knott’s Berry Farm.

As you can see (above) we first came across Linus and Charlie Brown himself. It turns out that Linus is Zaira’s favorite Peanuts character (something I didn’t know) and she was not only excited to meet him, but also to have the opportunity to purchase an “official” Linus blanket during one of the shows.

Next we met up with Sally (aka Linus’ stalker) who happily informed us that Snoopy wanted to be Santa Claus. Now, Snoopy’s always been my favorite part of the Peanuts gang specifically because of his rich fantasy life, but it seemed odd that he had such a deire to be Santa.

However, when we met Lucy she assured us that Snoopy did, in fact, want to be Santa Claus, dog germs and all! Don’t ask me why Lucy’s digital frame has wild animals on it. There are a grand total of zero animals at Gilroy Gardens. However, we were happy to add the digital frame to our collection and I do think they’re adorable in their Santa hats. It seems Snoopy isn’t the only one who worships the jolly fat man in the red suit.

Finally, we came across the wondrous beagle himself and, sure enough, he had become Santa Claus! Since we visited the park the day after Christmas Santa was on vacation and Snoopy was filling in for him at Santa’s Workshop! We also learned that at Santa’s Workshop on of the photo options was to have it in a snow globe! Since Z collects snow domes this was pretty exciting news as we’d never encountered this option before. Alas, it was not meant to be as they were all out of snowglobes But now we know to hassle other parks about it

We ended our evening (and purchased most of our photos) at the (apparently) temporary photo booth near the front gate where we were helped by Kathi. She was awesome! Not only did she provide superb customer service, but we talked with her for about 30 minutes about ride photos and amusement park photos in general. She’s also a big fan and totally understood our collecting nature! Unfortunately, I totally forgot to mention the site to her, so if you know Kathi from Gilroy Gardens could you please send her by? And pass along another thank you from Aahz and Zaira when you do!

While planning our visit to opening weekend at Discovery Kingdom’s 2nd Annual Holiday In The Park celebration we decided to focus primarily on character hunting during this visit. You see, Discovery Kingdom goes all out with holiday characters adding holiday costumes and scarfs to their Loony Tunes characters and regular mascots as well as bringing in more than a dozen holiday-only mascots.  We managed to grab photo opps with the majority of the characters available, but missed a few including three reindeer and the most crucial: Merlin the Dolphin.  We also saw but did not manage to photograph, Wile E. Coyote, Speedy Gonzalez, Tweety Bird, and Shouka.

I did manage to get a photo with “Mr. Marine World (er.. Discovery Kingdom)” himself – Captain Lee. As Discovery Kingdom’s chief explorer and park ambassador Captain Lee is the head animal guy and one of my personal heroes, so managing to grab a photo with him was quite a personal treat.  Other than that we did a pretty decent job of character hunting and managed to net photo opps with: Blitzen, Bugs Bunny, Christmas Bear, Comet, Cupid, Daffy Duck, Dancer, Foghorn Leghorn, Frosty The Snowman, Mr.Gingerbread, Mrs. Gingerbread, Mr. Christmas Mouse, Mrs. Christmas Mouse, Christmas Penguin, Prancer, Sylvester the Cat, and the Tazmanian Devil.  Here they are…

The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden held their HallZOOween celebration last month. And, even though they didn’t come up with any custom digital frames or borders for the event, that doesn’t mean gate photos weren’t being taken.  In fact, Who Dey, the Cincinnati Bengals mascot even stopped by to pose with some of the munchkins.  There was also at least one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in attendance as evidenced by the photo below.

Of course, our focus here is on the souvenir photos available, but the zoo also had a special Haunted Lighthouse film in their Special FX 4-D Theater as well as a special Halloween show, Theater of Illusion by magician/illusionist Phil Dalton. The kids weren’t the only ones celebrating Halloween, though. The animals got into the act with pumpkin hunts for the gorillas and snow monkeys, a polar bear pumpkin bob and the elephants’ pumpkin smash.

Six Flags may not be able to match Knott’s Berry Farm for overall theming of the park for Halloween, but when it comes to souvenir photos and custom digital frames/borders, they wipe the map with Cedar Fair.  The only step they missed was not having special Fright Fest photo folders like those available at the Knott’s Scary Farm Halloween Haunt.

Zaira and I visited along with her friend Hannah and managed to bring home more than half a dozen new photos for our collection.  Before I start detailing the photos, though, there have been a few changes to the way pictures are handled at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom…

First, we did not receive a My Six Flags Photos card from the gate photographer as we usually do.  Frankly, I forgot about it until we were home, so it is possible they had them available, but our gate photographer gave us the standard paper slip instead.

Second (and more importantly, IMO), Six Flags now offers $5.oo Kodak photo vouchers on their website.  If you’re a fan of theme park photos and are buying your tickets online anyway then this is a great deal!  Not only do you need to use your cash in the park as they’re prepaid, but it’s a great deal as well since these are normally a minimum of $12.99.  The only problem is that Six Flags has also instituted a $5.00 per order ‘delivery’ fee for etickets and vouchers that you print at home.  I realize they’re trying desperately to avoid bankruptcy, but this is an absolutely ridiculous fee.  Even at $5.00 it verges on gouging, particularly since we have season passes so the only reason we need to use their online ticketing system is to buy these Kodak photo vouchers.

Back to the topic at hand, check out the digital frames on those two gate photos.  Not only did they make separate horizontal and vertical borders, but both are awesome!  Although the vertical is more fitting with the theme of Fright Fest, I just love the way that Gossamer the Hair Monster looms over us.
But that’s not the end of Fright Fest Photo goodness. The picture on the right was taken while I was chowing down on super worms from the Wheel of Fright. Although it’s not a very good photo, IMO, I love the Halloween cuteness of the digital frame.  This would be even better for pics of kids in costumes, perhaps with a character or two.

Speaking of characters… The only one we managed to get a photo with was Sylvester The (Cat) Vampire. but there were plenty of others out and about as well: Bugs (Bunny) Vampire, Tweety (Bird) Baseball Player, Franken-Foghorn Leghorn-stein’s Monster, and Daffy (Duck) The Pirate. We didn’t see the Tasmanian Devil, but I’m sure he was out and about somewhere.  I am considering returning next Saturday (November 1st) for the primary purpose of hunting down photo opps with Lonney Tunes characters dressed up in Halloween.

The great thing about collecting Six Flags ride photos is that they make special holiday frames for all of their on ride photos.  In fact, for their most popular roller coaster, Medusa, they not only made a special Fright Fest frame, but it’s an entirely different look then the either the standard Medusa ride photo, last year’s Fright Fest frame, or last year’s Holiday in the Park ride photo.  We actually bought three Medusaphotos on this trip-

Medusa isn’t the only coaster with a ride photo of course. Somehow we missed out on the Fright Fest frame for Cobra last year, so I have no comparison photo for y’all, but we were pleased to get our grubby mitts on this one. The ride itself is amusing, but the fogged up ride photo is top notch.

Of course, no trip to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom is complete without a ride on their wooden roller coaster, Roar. Unfortunately, the ride photo equipment was having problems and didn’t grab our picture on our first ride. We returned later in the evening, checked in at the photo booth to ensure it was operating, and headed through the exit with our flash passes to ride again. Still no photo. It literally broke down again on the ride before ours . The folks at the booth were very understanding, however. They offered me another flash pass ride, but instead I asked for (and received) a copy of someone else’s Roar ride photo. After all, not getting our photo was unfortunate, but missing this cool fright Fest frame would have been a tragedy.

Zaira and I have visited Knott’s Berry Farm four times now. And we finally managed to get our picture taken with Snoopy. But it wasn’t easy. In fact, we had to wait for the Camp Snoopy kids area to be transformed into Camp Spooky before we could finally find America’s favorite beagle.  Not only that, but we still had to hunt him down.  In fact, we found his staff photographer before Snoopy arrived and had a picture taken in front of his ‘house’ thinking that was the best we were going to to do.

Fortunately, for us, just after the picture above was taken we saw Snoopy (and his handler/escort, of course) enter the ‘on stage’ area (if that’s what Cedar Fair calls it) from a door tucked away in the corner.  Snoopy was one of the most gracious characters we’ve met on our park visits, even waving to us and encouraging us to wait just a few more minutes while his escort fixed his boots and straightened his pirate costume.  We waited patiently until he came over, gave Zaira a big beagle-y hug, and then posed along with us for the pic on the right. Snoopy wasn’t the only character haunting Camp Spooky on that lovely Sunday morning, though. WWe also found the folowing critters wandering about-

These have got to be some of the weirdest ‘monsters’ I’ve ever had the pleasure of encountering, but I guess they’re less frightening to the little kiddies when they’re this goofy. There was reportedly a Witch of some wort out and about on that day as well, but we kept missing her, so will have to wait until the 37th edition of Knott’s Scary Farm’s Halloween Haunt to immortalize her in our collection.  Of course, if you managed to grab a shot with her we’d love to post it up here.  BTW, I added the Haunt digital border myself after pulling it from the official photos we had taken yesterday.

Aside from our extended ‘Snoopy hunt’ we also kept managing to miss riding the Timber Mountain Log Ride on our previous visits. Well actually, we only missed it on the first two visits. Last night we did ride the Pyromaniax version of the ride, adding the re-themed photo to our collection.  Today, between monster hunts in Camp Spooky we also rode the ‘standard’ version of one of the oldest log flumes in America and picked up the picture to the right.  The dad behind us was teasing his two boys throughout the ride about how “spooky’ it was.  But they got the last laugh when they bought this photo’cause who’s the one who ends up looking the most nervous?

As much as I feel like I’ve become a shill for all things Disney lately, the amount of photos available at Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure is truly staggering.  Last week I promised to post up both our personal photos (with their Disney PhotoPass enhancements) and the official PhotoPass pictures that we received.  So now I’m finally doing both.

The first picture you see up there is one of my favorites. One of the little “surprise” photos the PhotoPass photographers will pose you for is simply pointing at a spot on the ground. Then, when the post the photos to the Disney PhotoPass website they have already edited in Stitch breaking through the pavement. We simply zoomed in on Stitch and then added the “1st Visit” banner to indicate that Stitch broke into DCA without buying a ticket

Since 4×6 photos of official PhotoPass photographer pics cost roughly $6.50 per print, we didn’t purchase prints directly from Disney, opting to get the Photo CD and have them printed ourselves.  I’ve still uploaded them, though and have included them below.  First, however, here’s our collection of personal photos with digital frames, character pop-ins, and other enhancements created through PhotoPass-

These are my snapshots from the Princess Celebration lunch at Ariel’s Grotto in Disney’s California Adventure. Not only did they not have PhotoPass photographers in the dining room for when you get to meet the Princesses, but even the entry photos with Ariel are not on PhotoPass, but rather a separate purchase (which we didn’t make)-

 

Now for the Disney PhotoPass pictures. I will filter out the ones that I’ve already posted, but we managed to go from around 30 actual photos taken to 106 different images with digital frames and photo enhancements-

For those who think that $60 is too much to spend on your vacation photos on CD, consider this – we got all 100 of our Photo Pass pictures printed for less than $10.  Added to the cost of the CD that makes $70 for more than 100 professional photos with nifty digital enhancements.

That should conclude my Disney photo-rama until next month when I’m sure to have more photos from when we attend Miley Cyrus’ Sweet 16 Party at Disneyland!  Between now and then I’ll be sure to post more pics from other parks we’ve visited.

More Disney Souvenirs-

VINTAGE 1977 WALT DISNEY WORLD A PICTORIAL SOUVENIR BOOK

US $5.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Sunday Feb-12-2012 20:29:43 PST Bid now | Add to watch list

DISNEY ON BROADWAY, LITTLE MERMAID, SOUVENIR CUP, NEW IN PLASTIC

US $0.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Sunday Feb-12-2012 20:14:10 PST Bid now | Add to watch list

1960's vtg rare Disneyland Walt Disney envelope, stamp Old Disney souvenir 1968

US $9.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Sunday Feb-12-2012 19:55:13 PST Buy It Now for only: US $17.00 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list

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Several days ago I posted about the Disneyland Disney PhotoPass Frame Options. Well, today it’s the Disney’s California Adventure Park’s turn. Unfortunately, there’s only a single different enhancement for DCA, so instead of simply showing only that one picture I’ve decided to share all of the enhancements and digital frames again, but this time using a vertical photo.

Once again, I’ve posted the original, unmodified photo above so y’all can see what effect the frames have. This time Zaira joins me on the bridge from Paradise Pier to the Pacific Wharf area, with Maliboomer, California Screamin’ and the Sun Wheel in the background-

Early next week I’ll show you the digital frames and enhancements you can add to your personal pictures after you upload them to the Disney PhotoPass website. Our PhotoCD is scheduled to arrive Wednesday, so either late in the week or the following week I should have osme of those photos to share with you as well.

More from Disney’s California Adventure-

★Disneyland Ticket or Disney California Adventure Ticket 1-Day 1-Park FastPass★

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★California Disneyland or California Disney Adventure 1-Day 1-Park Ticket. New★

US $72.00 End Date: Monday Feb-13-2012 14:37:13 PST Buy It Now for only: US $72.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list

★Disneyland Ticket or Disney California Adventure Ticket 1-Day 1-Park FastPass★

US $73.99 End Date: Sunday Feb-12-2012 21:38:36 PST Buy It Now for only: US $73.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list

Disney California Adventure LE 2001 numbered

US $2.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Sunday Feb-12-2012 20:23:31 PST Buy It Now for only: US $5.99 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list

★California Disneyland or Disney Adventure 1-Day 1-Park Ticket. With Fast Pass★

US $72.00 End Date: Sunday Feb-12-2012 9:31:40 PST Buy It Now for only: US $72.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list

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