Disneyland - Plaza Pavilion, Christmas Decorations, Wild Fire

Old news, but the Plaza Pavilion is done with its rehab enough so that they took down the construction wall and guests can sit on the front porch again. The kitchen construction in the back continues and nears completion. Great to see the "gingerbread" woodwork and the luxurious new coat of thick paint. Bravo!

Christmas officially arrived at Disneyland recently as well, with the big tree now up in Town Square and decorations everywhere else. The official parades and fireworks are scheduled to kick off on November 21, 2008, as I recall.

The Christmas music on Main Street is cool and does help set the scene, though I must admit it was a surreal scene during last weekend's fires in nearby Corona/Yorba Linda/Anaheim Hills/Brea. A huge plume of black smoke and ash covered Disneyland last Saturday, literally blocking out the sun for most of the day. As I stood on Main Street I listened to Christmas music while baking in a hot Santa Ana (Santana) Wind and watching ashes rain down. There's a Southern California holiday scene for you.

Over on the Jungle Cruise, as our boat came round the bend into the Elephant Pool, I felt like we were in Apocalypse Now. The sky was orange-grey, ash was falling like we'd been napalmed and dense smoke surrounded us. I half expected to stumble upon Marlon Brando sitting in the tent with the gorillas and the overturned Jeep.

What made it most interesting, 101 fans, was that I was skippering the boat.

Not kidding.

More on that later.

Love,

Mike