Spring Break - Caribbean Cruise

We took a last minute spur of the moment trip to the Caribbean over Spring Break, and ended up on the Celebrity Reflection. going to Puerto Rico, St. Maarten and St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.   We got a very reasonable price, with none of the expected school-holiday-price gouge.  Apparently because Celebrity doesn't target families as their preferred demographic, they don't charge a premium for school break holidays.  The time we took a Royal Caribbean cruise at Spring Break on the Oasis of the Seas, I think the premium was almost 100%, ie. we could have taken the same trip a week later for half the price.  The cheapness of the Celebrity pricing made me worry that it wouldn't be nice or family-friendly, but we found it to be nicer than all the other ships we have cruised on, and, surprisingly, had the best kids club programming- better than Disney even.

At Sailaway.

Obligatory towel animal shot.

 Our room was lovely, but Declan had to sleep on the least comfortable pullout on the Seven Seas.  The whole ship was only a year old, but they seemed to be using pre-War technology on the pull out.  There was sharp exposed metal that Declan had to climb over to get in and out of bed.  Poor baby looked as though he'd been mauled by a cheetah by the end of the week!  Anomalous crappy thing in an otherwise lovely ship.

Celebrity targets the spa-loving demographic, which apparently includes Declan.  

Food was very good- I would say noticeably better than the other ships we've been on, but we didn't eat in the main dining room, opting instead for the spa cuisine specialty restaurant.  

One night we had dinner at a different specialty restaurants- Qsine, which was a molecular gastronomy type establishment.  Declan loved it- especially how playfully all the food was presented, like the sushi lollipops.  This dinner had a terrible, unforeseen consequence:  now whenever Declan is asked what his favourite food is, he will say "molecular gastronomy" which is so punchworthy, I can't even.  

Breakfast on our balcony - if you look carefully you can see the beauty of the natural surroundings- Senor Frogs in the background.

There were a lot of fun adult activities onboard too- including a faux Amazing Race type game that Shane and I took way too seriously.  In the final round, I actually committed battery against a stranger in the ship's elevator.  In my defense, he kind of started it, and it clinched the silver medal for us! Super fun.  

Obligatory Bingo game

Los Angeles - Jeopardy

So our main purpose of this trip was to attend the tapings of the last three rounds of the Jeopardy Battle of the Decades tournament.  Shane was the alternate, and sequestered away in the green room for the whole first day of taping, while Declan and I were in the studio audience.  It was a marathon of being well-behaved and quiet as the audience was miked during the performances too, so any peep that Declan made would be turn up on the show's audio.  Even during the commerical breaks when they weren't taping, Declan still had to be quiet as either Alex Trebek or announcer Johnny Gilbert would come out and talk to the studio audience.  Normally, audience members must be at least 10 years old, but Declan was invited to attend specially by the contestant coordinator, so we were working overtime to keep on our very best behaviour.   Declan was particularly excited to watch Ken Jennings play as he had been reading some of the children's trivia books that Ken has published- his line of Junior Genius guides.  Declan was also very excited to see Shane get up on stage and play a warm up round during a filming break.  He yelled "That's my Daddy!" for the whole audience to hear, and followed up with "He's the alternate!" by way of explanation.  It was very sweet- he was so proud of Shane!

With Cardboard Alex inside the Studio

Each day we were there they taped 5 episodes with an hour break for lunch.  During commercial breaks in the filiming of each episode, Alex Trebek would often solicit questions from the audience and everytime Declan's hand would shoot up right away.  I can't begin to express to you how much terror that would bring in to my heart, as there was no telling what he would come up with.  Indeed, the first time Alex called on Declan to ask a question, Declan said "I have seen you try to sell me things on a commercial, Alex Trebek".  It wasn't even a question- very much an accusation.  Luckily Alex seemed to relish the opportunity to talk about his work schilling for Colonial Penn Insurance.

After the end of the first day of tapings, we were mingling outside chatting with friends who were either playing in the tournament or there to watch it.  The "quiz" community is not overly large, and we have made a lot of friends through the various quiz groups that Shane is involved with, which overlaps with the Jeopardy crowd quite a bit, so this tournament was a nice little reunion.   I brought Declan over to meet Brad Rutter, who although he is not quite the household name that Ken Jennings is, he has beaten Ken Jennings before, is overall the most winningest player in Jeopardy history, and is the only player never to have lost a game.   I introduced him to Declan saying "this is Brad Rutter, he has won more money on Jeopardy than anybody else.  He's won over 3 and a half million dollars!"  Declan looks right at Brad and says "Where's Ken?"  To his credit, Brad laughed and retold the story in his contestant interview the next day, during the finals where he played against Ken Jennings again, and won again, adding another million to his total winnings.  Ken got a kick out of the story too, and sent Declan an autographed Junior Genius Guide for his troubles!




After the final taping we were all invited over to a Jeopardy 30th anniversary party over on the Wheel of Fortune set.   It was pretty tony, featuring signature blue cocktails, a french fry bar, and a candy table to end all candy tables.  For once we put no limits on Declan letting him fill up a whole punnet box with whatever candies he fancied.  He then proceeded to dance jigs for the producers and the contestant coordinators and anyone else who wanted to watch.

Partying with Alex

Los Angeles - Channel Islands

For our last day of our LA holiday, we took a daytrip out to the Channel Islands National Park.  It was the perfect complement to the busy crowded theme park days.  It was so lovely and quiet.  Because it is hard to get to, it is one of the least visited national parks in the US.  We went by boat- it was about an hour-and-a-half each way.   Declan was confused to see what appeared to be the exact same buoy with the exact same sealions on it that we saw in Alaska last summer.

Confused face

There are no services on the island at all, so we had to pack our own lunch.  We ordered a lunch to go the strangely luxurious Hilton room service and it did not disappoint- a mammoth wicker basket with all kinds of punnet boxes full of delectables and table linens.  On the very top was one marked "chocolate covered strawberries" which made us the target of much taunting from the other park-bound passengers on the boat over.  They were all hard core hikers packing only dehydrated foodstuffs.   We enjoyed the heck out of our picnic though.

After lunch we went for a hike around the island. It was gorgeous and no other people around.  Lovely day.

Declan earning his Junior Ranger Badge on the boat trip back.

Los Angeles - Universal Studios

Friday was Declan's actual birthday so we started off the day with opening presents in pajamas.  Since we were travelling I only brought the presents he was receiving from us, and left the ones from extended family at home.  I took video as he opened the gifts and post it here because it perfectly represents his developmental stage where he is so sweetly appreciative of the small inexpensive gifts we were giving him, yet at the same time, was quite disappointed when the well ran dry.  Takes after his mama!  All of his presents from us had a "National Park" theme to them, as we have really been enjoying visiting the US national parks in the past couple of years, and Declan is crazy about the awesome Junior Ranger program.  He has become a Junior Ranger at 8 different parks so far, and he takes his responsibilities very seriously.  Said responsibilities mostly manifest in picking up other people's litter while visiting the parks, but hey.   Ecological awareness must start somewhere!

Lest you think all is too sweet and wholesome with our family, after present opening,  Shane and I left Declan at the hotel with a babysitter while we went and did a callback audition with The Chase game show.   Now we have left him with hotel babysitters many times, but this one really pushed the envelope.  Her name was Mary, and she was 85 if she was a day and was so frail that she became quite winded walking from the elevator to our room (about 30 feet).   I wasn't worried about Declan but the whole time we were at the audition I kept envisioning the ways in which Mary might shuffle off this mortal coil in our absence.  When we returned, she was surprisingly as alive as when we left, but Shane had to help her out of the chair as she could not get to her feet on her own.   So that was a new low for us in outsourcing childcare.  Happy Birthday, Honey!

The rest of the day we walked over to Universal Studios next door, and had a grand time.  It was actually a lot more fun than I was expecting for some reason.  Highlights for Declan were the pet show, the Jurassic Park water ride that we went on 4x, and the Studio tour, which was as delightfully cheesy as ever.

Los Angeles - California Adventure

Our second day of the LA trip we had planned to go to California Adventure.  Because we were only staying in Anaheim one night before moving to our free Jeopardy hotel, we opted to stay at the Disney property in the Grand Californian Hotel.  The hotel itself was kind of meh- a three star hotel at five star prices, but it gives an important perk of being allowed access to the theme parks one hour before they are open.  The bad news meant we had to be up to line up at the gate at 6.30 am, but in that first hour of limited admission, we were able to get in a whole day's worth of rides.  The most popular ride there right now is Radiator Springs Racers, a Cars themed roller coaster, and during the day the lineups were between 90 and 120 minutes long, but we were able to ride it 3 times before the park opened.  As painful as it was to get that early start, it was well worth it in terms of being able to cram as many rides in as possible.

California Adventure- as the first ones in.

Moments later, the theme park crush resumes.

Declan was never really a huge Cars fan, but he sure enjoyed Radiator Springs, the Disney version.  They've done a really good job with it and it feels like an old dusty town. 

It was fun to see the life-size versions of the Cars characters driving around.  Mater even stopped by to wish Declan a happy birthday, which blew his mind.

Luigi's Tires Selfie

We packed it in and headed off to the airport to pick up Shane, and move into our Jeopardy Hotel which was the Hilton Universal Studios. Weird aside about the Hilton Universal Studios, it is a 3 star hotel with 5 star room service.  I've had worse room service in all kinds of luxury hotels than they are inexplicably dishing up the Universal Hilton.  On the down side, or the not-down side I should say, hotel elevators would not pick up at our floor- the 8th.  We would have to walk up one floor to catch an elevator.  But hey, it was free.

We had a little tiny Easter Egg hunt in our room, as it was Easter Monday.  It is really easy to hide tiny eggs very, very well, and it took a good hour of "warmer colder" hints before he found all the eggs again. The real challenge was for me to remember where I had hid them.   I think there is one still in that hotel room.

PA Pioneer Days

For Pioneer Day at Pulaski Academy the kids are invited to dress up old timey style.  I have no idea what went on at Pioneer Day as it was at school and parents weren't invited.   But how cute is this picture on his way in to school?

Los Angeles- Disneyland

After his heartbreaking bad luck in the first round of the Jeopardy Decades tournament, Shane was pickedv to be the alternate for the next round of the tournament. Should any of the lovely friends and competitors who had made it through to the next round be unable to play, Shane would be on hand to take their place. The chances of this happening were very slim, and since the show's producers had 

specially invited Declan to attend, we decided to make a family trip out of it, and celebrate Declan's sixth birthday on the road.  Great idea, but I accidentally booked Declan and I on flights a day too early, before we had our Jeopardy-sponsored hotel room and a day before Shane was to arrive.  We decided that this would be a good time for Declan and I to go to Disneyland, as we could stay out in Anaheim for the night and save the price of admission 

for Shane's ticket.  At $100/day per adult, that's not nothing.  We flew out to LA at 6 am and went straight from the airport to Disneyland.  

Since it was his birthday week, the staff gave Declan a birthday button, which meant that every Disney employee, er. cast member was contractually obligated to stop whatever work they were doing to wish Declan a happy birthday as we walked by.   First on our agenda was to hit Space Mountain. At our first Disneyworld trip in the fall of 2012, Declan wasn't tall enough to go on Space Mountain.  We had been milking this as a reason to eat veg for the last year and a half, and finally now he was tall enough to make the cut.  

Before Space Mountain - so excited!

During Space Mountain- so terrified! 

After Space Mountain- just glad to be alive.

He hated it. That's the first roller coaster he hasn't wanted to do over.   All those vegetables for nothing.  Star Tours was a big hit though, and in keeping with his newly discovered love of Star Wars, a big portion of the day at Disney was spent at the Jedi Training Academy.   This is a live action audience participation show that young would-be padewans can participate in. The hard part is getting chosen from the audience to join the Academy. We had read up a little online on how to get picked, and had donned some Star Wars gear in hopes of being chosen.  This part was stressful!  It was heartbreaking to see kids get passed over by the Jedi Master.  Declan was one of the last chosen, and it was a relief.  He was issued a Jedi Robe and a light saber, and received some instruction in hand-to-hand combat.  

Padewan learner.

After learning some light saber basics, Declan got to go up on stage and confront Darth Vader mano a mano. 

He also opte to go back and battle Darth Maul.  I thought this very brave, as Darth Maul looked scary as all get out, and they generally only had the big kids go up against him.

The Jedi Training was definitely Declan's highlight of the day.  His favourite ride was the Matterhorn.  We ended up packing it in a bit early as our day had started with a 2 AM PST trip to the airport, so we were both ready to turn in at dinner time.  But we enjoyed every minute while we were there.

Toad Suck Pet Show

We kicked off summer with a visit to the annual Toad Suck festival.  Loyal readers will recollect that this is  the very first festival Declan ever attended. His life has basically been one festival after another ever since.   For the first time, Declan entered the Toad Suck Pet Show competition, with his bff Phoebe, who was suitably attired as a hamburger.  It was a tough competition- all the boys and girls who had entered were quite a bit older, and had dogs that did actual tricks.  Phoebe will only listen to Declan if he is holding a treat, otherwise she files him under disregard.  I had forgotten to bring some training treats, but got a granola bar out of my purse and broke it into pieces so Declan could use that to bribe Phoebe with compliance.



 The Emcee asked Declan what kind of dog Phoebe was, and he replied "Spaniel crossed with Burger".   Declan is coming into his own comedy-wise, and he had the audience laughing pretty heartily.  He ran through Phoebe's trick repetoire pretty quickly, ("Sit" and "Lie Down"), the Emcee asked if Declan could do some tricks to help catch Phoebe up to the other dogs in the show.  Declan said he could sit as well, promptly sank to the grass, then popped up again and tossed one of the "training treats" from his pocket into his mouth.  Not realizing, the treats were actually chunks of granola bar, the audience was aghast, but the judges were won over by Declan's commitment to his role.

 We had a real Toddlers & Tiaras moment when the judges announced the winners from the "Large Dog" category and Phoebe was not among them; Declan was completely downtrodden not realizing he had pulled for a higher title.   When Declan and Phoebe were called up as winners of BEST IN SHOW and awarded a ginormous trophy, Declan could not stop making this face for quite some time.  This is his surprised face.

 Still his surprised face.

What a team!

Celebratory Jig.  Trophy now has pride of place on Declan's night stand.

Vocabulary

Declan's vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds.  On this day, he used the word "parkour", which I wouldn't have thought he would know, so I asked him what he thought it meant, and this was his demonstration.  Makes me laugh, everytime.