Highs and Lows

The past week has been pretty hectic. It all started when my My grandmother passed away at the age of 88. It wasn't totally unexpected, but sad nonetheless. Going down to Southern California and dealing with funeral and family matters helped me cope and catching up with family reminded me of all the good times we've had together with grandma. I also got to see cousins and aunts and uncles (and ex-aunts and ex-uncles) I hadn't seen in ages, which was great.

Another bright spot in the week came during a lull between family functions. There was nothing to do one day so I went to Disneyland for the first time since about 1995. I grew up a few miles from Disneyland, but I never tire of observing the design of experiences there. They've continued to innovate with just about the most sophisticated parking garage ever built and the fastpass system that lets you cut to the front of the line after a couple hours, instead of waiting in lines. I surprised myself by actually staying in the park from noon until almost closing 11 hours later, and I think it was the fastpass that let that happen. Normally I'd be standing for hours in lines, getting a sore back and feet, but I felt fine up until the end and I got to ride just about everything in the park with very little waiting.

I'll be metering out the photos on my other site for the next week, but I set aside two of my favorite images as desktops: Storybook land whale and the tomorrowland rockets.