Cass Costello knows nothing.

Cool.

20090328-_DSC0388

Originally uploaded by casscostello

Caught my eye.
Full set: on flickr. on picasa.

We’ve been busy…

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Hearst Castle

Winchester Mystery House

left sf 10:40 last night, spotty sleep on plane
arrive char 6:30, 3 hour layover, feel hungover
find earlier flight to ORL, wheels up 8:15
Magical Express rocks, we’re both starting to really groove on the vaca
checkin around noon (Ranger Stan @door!), room 5067 ready! (near lobby, corner of wing)
lodge tour, lunch @ raging fork (very funny), nap
swimming (great slide); “beach” party by lifeguards - hula hoops, name that song, YMCA
shower then lovely boat to CR (new construction), shopping for watches, Ben likes monorail through lobby
mono around 7SL (tour for Ben, discuss future plans), then boat from CR to FW for buffet dinner (Ben’s idea)
only 20 min wait, good cheap food
boat back to WL, water pageant at 9:35
contemplate swimming, but slide closed
bedtime, plan to rise early tomorrow for MK

He giggled.

My younger sister, Cortney, is getting married this winter. She (along with most of my family) lives in central Florida, and she and her husband-to-be are both Disney fanatics. Believe it or not, a sizable portion of the whole family, incuding the newlyweds, is heading to Disney World the week after the wedding.

I grew up going to Disney World regularly and I still love the place. Nearly every year, up until my 12th, Mom would throw us kids in the back of the station wagon and we’d make the trek from Chicago to Walt’s dream come true in central FL. We’d typically stay for a few days at the park, then spend a couple more with my grandparents (who lived a couple hours away), and then finally make the return journey back up I-75. I have very fond memories of those trips - all of us do. And after the family finally migrated south and settled among the Floridian orange groves (when I was 12), we made several trips each year to the park. By the time I graduated from high school, my family had probably been to WDW between 30 and 40 times.

Today I live in the San Francisco area and my son and I visit our family in FL once or twice each year, but we’ve only been to WDW once since he was born. I think he was 4 years old then. Now, at 7, he’s at a near-pefect age for WDW, where the Magic Kingdom can still be magical, Epcot (esp. Future World) is downright cool, the studios excite (think: Star Tours and the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular), and he’s tall enough to ride anything he’s brave enough to try. WDW has changed so much since I was his age that I can’t begin to imagine how he’ll respond to it all, but I bet he’ll have a ton of Good, Clean Fun.

We’re planning a 5-night stay, which may sound like hell on earth to those who picture Disney World as one long queue after another. It can be, but we’ve learned a few tricks over the years. I’m at least as excited about the trip as Ben is.

This weekend, I spent both Saturday and Sunday walking through Muir Woods, a primordial National Forest of Coastal Redwoods, Douglas Firs, maples, oaks, nutmeg, ferns and Banana Slugs that neatly divides the Mt. Tamalpias and Golden Gate recreation areas of Marin County. It is home to some of the tallest trees in the world, and was miraculously spared the whirlwind of 19th and 20th century logging that reduced most of the surrounding hillsides to grass-covered ridges and knolls.

The forest is quite small, depressingly so, and is easily traversed in a couple hours or less. But what it lacks in area it more than makes up for in sheer, unadulterated majesty. Following a valley cut by the Bootjack watershed, the forest is a cathedral of natural spires, pristine streams, moss-covered flying buttresses of fallen trees and a dense undergrowth of large clover and fawn-hiding ferns. (more…)

I’ve recently crossed paths with an old, dear friend who passed along the following definition for “bhava”…

Feeling-charged ecstacy, or the ultimate mind-melting love-devotion experienced in union with the Devine

Wikipedia, for all it’s glory, can be so boring. My son is my inspiration, and my friends, old and new, are my heroes.

This evening on the ride home from school, Ben asked, “How many dollar bills would fit in a mile?” Thanks to Wikipedia , we now know…

• Lined up end-to-end, approximately 10,319 singles would stretch one mile.
• Aranged top-to-bottom, approximately 24,276 singles would stretch one mile.
• Bills larger than $100 have been out of print since the Nixon era.
• In 1990, it cost 2.6 cents to print a dollar.
• The $2 bill first appeared in 1862 and was last printed in 1997.
• In mid 2004, over $700 billion in hard currency was in circulation, with over 2/3 held overseas.
• Bills were once red and other colors.

And on we learn…