High School Musical. 2.

Kate had "Late night" at a friends house (they and we don't do sleepovers, so they got to stay until 10pm).  She's telling Suzy about it now, and I quote:
Suzy, "How was the Late Night?"
Kate, "It was amazing"
Suzy, "What made it so amazing"
Kate, "I love, like really love High School Musical 2!!"
Suzy, "Oh, you finally got to watch it"
Kate (a bit breathlessly), "Oh yes, it was wonderful!"

I've never seen High School Musical 2. I did see parts of one, which I've tried to scrub out of my memory.  However, I do remember the basketball scenes, where they try to make it seem like actors who don't play basketball are basketball stars. They do have really good dance moves using the basketballs though, very well choreographed.

Suzy, facetiously said, "Yeah, dad thought they were really good at basketball."
Kate (not facetiously), "They were amazing! They are really good"

When I tried to explain that they really weren't, and that you could tell by the awkward attempts at dribbling the ball, she let me know that probably they just got better since the first movie, because they were so good at everything, and she was sure there were professional players in the movie as well.

New Zealand Some more, part deux

Imagine Dragons, Auckland 2015. I realized a few things. I've only ever heard recordings of concerts and always been unimpressed.  Now I know why people attend, the sound is incredible, and the atmosphere quite powerful.  The visual effects were pretty cool as well.  It was quite fun, much more so than I expected.  

Here's an example of a recording that doesn't do justice to the actuality of being there, but is still somewhat cool. 

1 Video of the Maori Dances -

Here is one of the warrior dances

Here they are coming in on their war canoe

Here's Suzy about to fall backwards off a plank into 45+ feet of oblivion

Here is Suzy going for a 15 Meter drop, falling backwards after Zip lining to this platform. Yes, she's pretty much a ninja.

Here's a view of the top of the zipline, as it disappears off into the mist.  

Here's us getting ready to ride the Zip line. It was AWESOME.  I had to close my eyes as it was raining and after building up speed they were about to be cut to ribbons. 

Here was the start of the Luge.  It was also AWESOME! and long and you got to go pretty darn fast

Here's me going down the luge. Suzy was nice enough to stop and record.

 Gotta lean into those turns

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Here was a view from the top of the Luge area

We are super extreme 

 

This was made from Jellie Bellies

We took a walk through the redwood "grove" (it's only 100 years old or so, they don't term it a forest)

Even through they were only 100 years old, it was still amazing

We went a degustation experience.  It was quite fun, my food choices were good. 

Degustation is a culinary term meaning a careful, appreciative tasting of various foods and focusing on the gustatory system, the senses, high culinary art and good company. Dégustation is more likely to involve sampling small portions of all of a chef's signature dishes in one sitting.

This was venison in curry sauce. 

I can't remember what Suzy ordered. This probably had mushrooms in it. 

So, Suzy finally tried Abalone (a type of Mollusk). It's super expensive. It also wasn't that great. It was okay once it was ground up with some kind of sauce and put on a yummy toast.  The straight up Abalone was rubbery and not that tasty. Especially not for $90 for a 3oz can.

This was super tasty in Bangkok - a Coconut milk shake in a Coconut. 

New Zealand Trip part 1

We just got back from a trip to New Zealand, it was pretty awesome. We started off in Auckland for 2 nights, we got in fairly late, about 10pm. The Car rental was interesting. We used a low cost budget local company called Jucy.  The car smelled like cigarette smoke and was out of alignment (it had about 160,0000 km on it).  Other than the car it was pretty awesome.

This a statue of one of the famous Mayors of Auckland (Mayor Robinson)

In the Maori (native Polynesian tribes) tradition, they often have carved gateways. This was a representation of one in Auckland.

Here is a local Theatre where CATs was going to be playing soon. 

I just thought Suzy looked cute in this picture. This was the nighttime glowworm walk we went on during the Maori experience.

This was the Maori war party who was coming to take our Women.  There Canoe has a special name I can't remember right now, but I'm sure you can google it. 

Luckily, I activated stealth mode and they paddled right by. My Woman was safe for at least one more night.

A traditional Maori war dance. I have video evidence. 

The river was amazingly clear. Its mountain fed, and cold year round (About 52 degrees). It takes about 80 years for the water to make it's way through the mountain (porous volcanic rock) and up through the spring at the headwaters. 

More to come