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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Jelly Belly Visitor Center - Fairfield, CA

Zaira and I found ourselves on a mini road trip today wandering along the small coastal towns of Northern California. When I asked where she wanted to go next her reply was: the Jelly Belly Factory. Well, we were down near Monterey, and Jelly Belly makes its home in Fairfield, so I told her I wasn’t sure we’d make it in time to take the tour.

She was, however, undeterred and we headed North just as quick as Rover would take us.  Alas, we arrived only moments after the final tour of the day had begun.  It turns out, however, that the factory itself doesn’t operate on weekends so even if we had made the tour we still would not have been able to see any Jelly Bellies actually being made.  Instead, we cruised the gift shop (adding two balls to our slowly growing souvenir golf ball collection),

Jelly Belly Souvenir Golf Balls

tried a few free samples, grabbed a couple of pressed pennies (aka elongated coins) for Z’s collection, and found a great photo booth to take the picture above.  Unlike most photo booths at amuesement parks, tourist traps, and entertainment centers, this one actually had a digital frame that applied to the location of the booth itself.  Hence the picture that opened this post.

But that wasn’t all we found.  We also discovered that Jelly Belly hosts an annual Easter Brunch that would be attended not only by Mr. Jelly Belly himself, but also by Wendell & Wendy Bunny – better known as The Easter Bunnies! And suddenly, we had holiday plans.

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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After all of our amusement park adventures this year I’m happy to close out the year’s photo collection with several ride photos from Knott’s Berry Farm.

Timber Mountain Log Ride was completely rethemed into Elf Mountain Christmas during Knott’s Merry Farm and, as Knott’s so often does, it got a custom digital frame for the ride photo as well (pictured at left).  This is the epitome of a holiday frame as it not only reflects the season, but the re-themed ride as well and still perfectly frames the riders themselves.  Zaira decided this was her absolute favorite frame of the year.  Congratulations Knott’s!

Ghostrider wasn’t re-themed and didn’t receive a special holiday frame, but there was pretty big news… They installed on-ride video cameras supplied by CD R!de. We didn’t buy a video, of course, because we’ve seen them before and they’re absolute garbage. But we did buy this wonderful photo. It’s always great when the other folx in the pic are having a great time as well. And now it’s time to ask a favor…

If you’re a fan of amusement park ride and roller coaster photos and you see any booth like Ghostrider’s that has both video and still photos, buy the photo! In fact, even if they don’t have video, buy the photo! The video systems aren’t coming in because they’re better or more popular. They’re coming in because people aren’t buying enough photos. The videos are not only horrible, but the systems are far more expensive to install and maintain. But the odds of a park admitting its mistake and going back to photos are slim. So buy photos when they’re available and help ensure your kids will have the opportunity to buy them as well. </rant>

Despite the horrible experience Zaira and I had being the “first ever” riders on Pony Express, when we saw that they had a special holiday frame we knew we’d have to ride it again.  I actually really like the way the snow is depicted in this digital frame, and the ride wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as it was back in May.  We also rode in the very front of the ‘car’ and actually managed to feel a little bit of the roller coaster forces affect us.  The ride-ops have definitely mellowed out on squeezing the restraints as tight as possible and I have a feeling they loosened up on the brakes as well.  Still not a quality coaster, but no longer an all-together negative experience.

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!

Zaira and I headed up to downtown San Jose today to view the Leonardo: 500 Years Into The Future exhibit at The Tech museum. Leonardo DaVinci is my longest standing hero, so I was very excited about taking advantage of this opportunity to get more insight to the man. But that’s another story for another blog. Just North of The Tech, in conjunction with San Jose’s traditional Christmas In The Park celebration was a full carnival provided by Butler Amusements. While checking out the rides and games (Zaira rode the Tilt-A-Whirl which they call “Hot Wheels”, but, again, that’s another story for another blog) we found something completely unexpected! The story for thisblog has to do with the flier pictured above.

Those pictures are of the Sleigh Ride Portraits booth provided by Eye Candy FX Studio.

Thanks to their “Hollywood Green Screen Technology” we were able to successfully steal Santa’s sleigh right out from under Rudolph’s red nose! That’s us doing so in the picture at the right. Look at how mad Santa is! It’s not like we weren’t planning on bringing it back. Well, at first we were, but then…

We passed this friendly snowman who not only cheered us on, but also pointed out that Santa was chasing us in his very own Santa-copter! That’s when things got really scary as we went completely out of control! Luckily, Zaira figured out how to steer the rogue reindeer (somewhat) and we eventually managed to find our way back to San Jose.

That final pic is us over downtown San Jose’s skyline coming in for a bit of a rough landing.

The photographer at Sleigh Ride Portraits was great and although th eprice may seem a bit steep at first ($20 for a single picture, $30 for three) it’s not really out of line considering what you get, all of the technology involved, and the multiple options in backgrounds you have available. There does seem to be a little bit of confusion over how long they’re going to be in that spot, however. The flier and website say through January 1st while a sign on the booth says Christmas Day. But if you’re anywhere near downtown San Jose while Christmas In The Park is running this holiday season I recommend you get one of these photos taken. They quickly entered the ranks of our favorites.

Cobra, Medusa and Roar all have their own special holiday borders this year at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and I’m as happy as a snowman in a blizzard. The only thing I like more than a roller coaster picture is a limited frame on a roller coaster photo.

Believe it or not, the Medusa sleigh on the left is only my second favorite holiday ride photo.  If the presents across the top were actually in focus it might have actually become my number one photo.  The rest of the frame is focused just fine, so it’s neither a printing nor an image problem.  Whoever designed this frame (Six Flags?  Kodak?  Discovery Kingdom?) chose for the presents to be out of focus, though for the life of me I couldn’t tell you why.

The Cobra digital border (pictured right) is actually my favorite holiday ride photo. It looks like the Yeti is actually launching the bobsled. This particular shot is even cooler, IMHO, because that’s Bumbles the Abominable Snowman (from the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer cartoon) hanging out next to Zaira. We won him on the midway. Unfortunately, the photo both attendant claimed she couldn’t make any adjustments to the photo to get both Zaira and I into the frame, but more on that later. On the other hand, this digital border is all the more rare because she damn near refused to sell it to us despite our numerous assurances that we still wanted it the way it is.

In hindsight I don’t think this frame was ever intended for Medusa photos, but one of our regular photo clerks was working the booth and she had no problem selling us both digital frames.  Zaira loves this solo picture because of the goofy face made by the kid in the row behind her (top right corner).

Serious kudos must go out to the designer of Roar’s holiday frame.  Last year Roar was closed for the Holiday In The Park event, so this is the first in what will hopefully be a long line of holiday frames for Northern California’s most popular wooden roller coaster.  The snow and ice effects are superbly done and they even made the ice on the front of the coaster appear to be organic by having it streak back away fro mthe front edge.  I also think the (relatively) subtle addition of “Roar” around the edges of the photo is a quality touch that I hope to see emulated on the 2009 Roar digital border.

Discovery Kingdom transformed from Sea, Land and Air to Sea, Land and Snow for the holidays.  Although the transformation wasn’t impressive overall, Zaira did have a blast sliding down their little snow “hill” and Discovery Kingdom got this one right, having professional photographers taking pictures of every run.  We had to kind of nudge the photo clerk at the front gate photo booth to add the snow flurry digital border to this photo although it seemed like a natural match to us.

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…

I came across this picture on the web and just couldn’t resist adding it. Although the digital frame is a bit dull, it does somewhat evoke the ride’s theming of being trapped in a (DOS based) computer virus. It sure doesn’t look like “the world’s only backwards roller coaster in the dark” had the intended effect on these riders however

As much as I’d love to experience this ride for myself the odds of me geting to England before it’s removed are slim.  The rides already twelve years old, much of the theming has been removed, and its target audience (teenagers) never really seemed to be fans anyway.