Our New home

Part I - Impetus 

Over a year ago, Charlene was in her final quarter of RN college and was feeling so beaten and worn down that she told me, "Maybe I should drop out this quarter, get my mental strength back and start again in January".  It was a tough final quarter but I knew she could make it.  I reminded her that she was Above Ground  and there were 33 men trapped almost a half-a-mile underground in Chile and they would be there for months without the possibility of seeing the Sun until at least December.  That sort of gave her the strength to go on.  Then, the men were rescued much earlier in mid October.  That was great!  We all cheered and cried happy tears as they came to the surface one by one.  But, I lost my leverage to help her keep going.  So I switched to, "When you finish school, we'll be able to buy a house".  OK, that one took off and she struggled forward, finished college, passed her State Boards and was hired immediately as an RN.  Months later, she brought up the fact that she wanted to get our own house.  In August, I signed us up for a home buying/financing class given by a local Mortgage company.  Very informative and interesting.  At the end of the class, they offered to pre-approve us for a mortgage so Charlene filled out the forms while I was playing with the pencils on the Group W bench.  OMG! We found out that we have excellent credit scores and were approved for over 400 grand to buy a place.  Wow!  They even referred us to a real estate agent who works closely with them.  Even though I do copier and networking stuff for some of the largest real estate companies in the county and personally know most of the agents, we decided to go with "their guy".

Part II - The Quest

It's been decades since either of us has shopped for or purchased a home.  It was an easier time in those days, less scrutiny, much less paperwork and easier to find a place.  Boy, times have changed!  We had great help and direction from the mortgage lender and especially our real estate agent.  Communications seemed nearly instantaneous via text messaging and e-mail.  Much easier and faster than phone messages.  After the great sub-prime meltdown, money for mortgages became harder to get as lending institutions restricted lending, increased requirements and requested mountains of paperwork.  I do mean Mountains!  Down payment requirements went way up, 10% to 20% needed.  If we wanted to buy a house for 50 grand or less, cool, we could do that, but this is Cowlifornia and 3 bedroom houses start at 200 grand (the junky ones) and up.  Uh, that would take some years to save that much but our lender set us up on the California First Time Home Buyers program.  Way cool!  Extremely low down payment, extremely low interest rate and the State kicks in a bunch for our down payment (of course, we have to pay it all back but the down payment just 'rides along' for 30 years at an even cheaper interest rate).

We gave our requirements to the agent and within hours started receiving potential listings.  We'd read the listings, look at them from space with Google Earth and do the math to figure out what our house payments would be. California homes in the area we wanted seem too damned expensive.  We fell back, regrouped and decided to go with Condo shopping for a less expensive alternative.  With that in mind, Charlene wished for a pool and hot tube/Jacuzzi while I wished for a lower monthly payment.

The first place we put a bid in was just a little further from the High School and College that Nic and Trav attend but it was good.  Nice pool and hot tube just steps away.  Gated complex but only 2 bedrooms.  Luckily, the seller was a real dick and we dropped our offer.

The next place we saw was nice and close to the schools, 3 bedrooms, pool and hot tub just steps away.  We liked it a lot.  It was in the process of being updated with all new carpet, appliances and the like.  We put in an offer and even got to pick out the carpet.  but then, the FHA appraisal came in too low and there was no way we could make up the 20 grand difference, so that was a bust.  It was very discouraging. 

The next condo we saw was also close, pool and hot tub, 3 bedrooms.  We saw it in the afternoon and tried to put in an offer only to find that there were 2 offers ahead of us by just hours.  Ahhhhh!  In Southern Cowlifornia, places for sale are as follows:  1)  60% of the offerings are short sales that can tie up your down payment for months just to be turned down by the owning mortgage holder. While you are waiting for them to make up their mind, you could find the dream house but your down payment money is tied up.   2)  20% are sold at auction on the courthouse steps leaving, C.O.D. there and then which leaves 3)  20% of the rest at regular sale transactions.  Bummer.  We even talked to our agent and mortgage broker about mobile homes which we really didn't want and they told us of all the restrictions and 20% down payment.  Another bummer.  Just when we were about to commit home buying suicide, we got the following e-mail from our agent:
   
"Hi Charlene and Kelly,

      Not sure if this one might be too far on the East side of Ventura for you."

I "Google Earth"-ed it and we saw it the next day.  Yea, further away from the college but Man-o-man was the price lower than the other places and it was huge!  1700+ square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms (Wow!  No waiting  for the bathroom like the last 11 years!).  Tennis court, pool and hot tub, yea!  Charlene and I had a discussion about the distance, realizing that this was worth it so we put in a bid.  Our agent put a lower bid than they were asking and they countered with a price slightly higher - we took it and they accepted it.

Now begins the process all over again.  Untold mountains of forms, income tax records, paystubs, etc.  Just when things looked great, Mason, our mortgage broker told us we were just over the income limit for the first time buyer program.  Crap!  But, he said, he could run it through just in Charlene's name and income.  5 years of struggling through college paid off, above ground!  So we went with it that way, it was accepted and we got it.  We got the keys 6 weeks after we first saw the place.  Throughout the entire quest, the copier that Charlene never wanted in the living room became vital to the paperwork flow.  The broker would ask for some document, we'd scan it on the copier and send it on via e-mail.  Hundreds of forms throughout the quest.  Quick and instant.  She likes the copier now and can copy, print and scan with the best of 'em.  She especially likes the automatic double side copy/print feature.  This all led to the next step......

Part III - The Move

We got the keys on Friday afternoon, November 19.  I picked up a big U-Haul truck at 5 P.M., got Trav and headed to Camarillo to buy some new double beds.  For years, they slept in the same room and used the other bedroom as their Game/Computer room but now, they wanted their own room - no more bunk beds.  We dropped the new beds off at the new place and headed home.  For the next two days, the three of us loaded and delivered all the big, heavy stuff.  I leaned to love the big appliance dolly with the strap on it. When Charlene wasn't helping load boxes, she was busy painting our most excellent Cinnabar Wall back to it's original Early Apartment White color and cleaning the old place.  We had a good Saturday moving day but Sunday it rained all day right up until we took the truck back (that's when the sun came out, naturally).  There was still big items in the old house but we were going to donate them, give them away or have them hauled to the dump.


I had taken 2 weeks vacation to do this move and Charlene had scheduled 'vacation' time, too so throughout the follow week, we each made a million trips hauling the small stuff by car.  I'll tell you, when you get old, you bruise easily and by Wednesday, I looked like a 10 day old banana.  I rented another truck for the following weekend to haul any leftovers and all our outdoor plants (about a bizillion of them).  We decided to have everything hauled away on Saturday and there was a giant mound of old, worn out furniture, tons of crap from the garage so I called the first place I could find in local little free newspaper.  He came out, gave us an estimate and hauled the stuff out the next day.  Did a wonderful job with his beat-up old truck and helpers, swept the garage and driveway and used a leaf blower to make it perfect.  I gave him a big tip.  We had filled all the nail holes in the walls, had the carpets cleaned and Charlene hired one of those Merry Maid time crews to make the place perfect before we left.  We had heard from the neighbors that previous renters never got their deposit back but we got most of ours.  Very cool, indeed.

Pictures?  You want pictures?  You're as demanding as our spoiled cat!  (She loves the new place).  O.K., here's some pictures:

Our agent supreme, Bill Marshall, gives Charlene the keys to our new condo.

Goodbye, Cinnabar Wall.....

I've never seen the garage so clean!

The porch looks so naked....... no plants, no furniture.

I was emptying the closet and discovered Charlene had more purses and shoes than Imelda Marcos.....










Now, on to the new place

I took this pic while I was aboard the space station.  I've circled our condo in blue.

                                Here's our floor plan.  The place is extreme long as you can see.  Huge family room with fireplace, nice open view kitchen that overlooks the family room, nice bar off the kitchen for informal eating and a formal dining room.  The copier, my computer and the kids computer reside there.  Attached 2 car garage makes this a really long place.

Here's a corner of our family room.  9' sliding glass doors, fireplace, 15' cathedral ceiling.  The place has shag carpeting I haven't seen since the 60's.  It also has old people wallpaper that will eventually come down. 

Here's the other end of the family room with the kitchen.  No, I haven't gained weight, that's our agent showing us the place.  Hmmm, you're only seeing most of the ceiling height so it could be taller than 15'....... That beam is in the middle of the cathedral ceiling.

Here's a small portion of the back patio.  That's our master bedroom with it's own 9' sliding glass door.  The patio is huge and I just couldn't get it all in.  To my right is the family room and it's 9' sliding glass door.

OK, OK here's most of the rest of the back patio

Here's the view of the front patio and garage side door from Nic's room.  Hideous old people wall paper.  Eww!

This was taken from the master bedroom.  Charlene is checkin' out the 12 foot closet.  Not a walk-in but 2 -  6 foot mirrored sliding glass doors.  (editors note:  I get a corner of the closet....).

here's the kitchen with it's old people wallpaper.  Lots of storage and a big pantry door with shelves in the door and such just out of sight to the left.

This is a newer stained glass window next to the front door.  To the right is the formal living room.

here's a pic I took after we moved in.  Reading the paper at sunset time.  Hey, leaves changing color - we have seasons in California.

They purposely built this with weird geometry shapes.  That tall peak in the center is nothing but attic.  The family room rises (not in pic) to my right with it's own slope.

Here's our front patio.  Nic's room to the right, garage to the left and the formal dining room behind the 9' sliding window in the center (sort of).

Here's a pic from across the court.  Got most of the house (er, condo).

Here my young, beautiful princess taking a needed break on the front patio jungle.

This is looking east on Darling road in front of our place.  The red-ish building a block away is the Buddhist Temple.  When we finally get most of the moving stuff put away, we're going to invite them to bless our sweet little condo.  If you keep going past the temple for another 1/4 mile to get to the freeway, the follow picture is the view.

The end of our street at Wells road.  This is a view of the 'Santa Paula Ridge' mountains.  The sheer granite face in the center is called Topa Topa, sometimes covered in snow (6300 feet above sea level).  Lots of ag farm fields out here.  We're about 6 or 7 miles east of where we used to live so it's somewhat remote and quiet.

Then, there's the play area for us.  This is the pool and hot tub entrance.  The tennis court is to the left, out of the picture.  Nic and Trav and their friends play tennis a lot.  Charlene and I do the hot tub 5 or 6 times a week.

The beautiful young princess enters the hot, bubbling water.  No chlorine in this, instead they use some kind of Bromine and it's so much easier on the eyes and blonde hair.

In the hot tub, through a foggy lens.

The hot tub is much better on a cool night.

Come back from the hot tub in the evening to a lovely fire.  As an early Christmas present, I got us all a Gas Firelog Set.  OMG!  We all love it to death!  No mess, instant, big or small flames, glowing embers and all.  To quote Bill and Ted, "Totally Excellent!"

There, had enough pictures?  I close now wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas and an even better 2012.

Where's the Rhino?

Living in Southern California is so different than Ohio.  Ohio is, in my friend Andy's words, "The land of Rusty Cars".  Lots of precipitation year round, especially in the wintertime.  A bizillion tons of salt on the roads just destroys cars in a few short years.  Southern California is basically a desert using water stolen from surrounding states.  No salt is used anywhere out here so cars last and last.  Driving to LAX airport and back is like driving from Cleveland almost to Cincinnati - vast stretches of highways.  California is huge, like 4 'Ohios' stacked on top of each other.  A few years back, I used to drive from Ventura to Modesto for Copier School.  333 miles door to door, one way.  That's 5 hours driving at the speed limit.  All freeway, all non-stop.  And I didn't even cover half the length of the state.  Cars are so necessary out here.  And they seem to last forever if you take good care of them.  And there are millions of them, old and new.  I've never seen so many old cars from the 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's - all in mint condition and used regularly.  Tons of late 60's Mustangs.  There are also an ungodly amount of expensive and impractical cars on the highways out here. 

I see very expensive 4-wheel drive cars on the highways.  I've never seen anyone take their $50,000+ new vehicle "4-wheeling" through mud runs or up the mountains so why the hell did they waste all that extra money?  Image?  I guess.  Looking at the Sunday paper ads for new and used cars, I came across a 3 year old Range Rover for only $25,000.  Why the hell do freeway drivers buy Land Rovers and Range Rovers?  Starting at $36,000 to $65,000 for a 4-wheel vehicle just to drive on the Freeways?  Stupid Image to me!  I mean, buy a Jag or a Porsche or something.  Land Rovers?  Yea, if I was Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler in Wild Kingdom, then I would buy a Land Rover. 

You remember those guys, doing the Wild Animal thing in Africa.  Marlin Perkins, safely up a tree or in an animal-proof blind while he sends Jim to get strangled by the 26 foot Python or to fight off the Mama Lion protecting her cubs.  While Marlin was safely filming from a helicopter above, Jim was getting his Land Rover rammed by a charging Rhino.  And Jim always escaped in the Land Rover.  Yea!  That's what those vehicles are for, not driving your date to a concert at the Staple Center.  California car buyers, Get Real!

Goodbye, Dear Friend

I remember following Walter Cronkite and The CBS Evening News for several decades until he retired.  There was no one who could replace him.  He was called "The most Trusted Man in the world" by most.  Yea, he was like an honest and good Grandfather. 

One of the continuing stories the CBS Evening News would feature was "On the Road with Charles Kuralt".  God how I loved that man.  Such a down to earth guy and so lovable. So smart. His stories would make you laugh, cry, think.  He once said about America, "A country so rich that it can send people to the moon still has hundreds of thousands of its citizens who can't read. That's terribly troubling to me".  He was the original host of "Sunday Morning" which Charlene and I love.  We always watch the ending "Nature Scene" of the week.  He retired and soon after passed away.  What a great loss.  

And now, my favorite Curmudgeon, Andy Rooney.  He was the reason I always watched "60 Minutes" on Sunday night.  I had heard it was coming and then, several weeks ago, Charlene and I watched his final show.  I will miss his whiny voice starting his complaint of the week with "Did you ever notice how.......".  One of my favorites was him complaining about all the Subscription Cards that are in magazines nowadays.  He took a new magazine, held it upside down, shook it and it was snowing cards all over his desk.  From that point on, whenever I get a new magazine, I flip through the entire thing, pulling out the cards and anything else that is some thick-card stock ad that forces the magazine to stop flipping.  I throw that stuff out without looking at it in honor of Mr. Rooney.

Now, he's 92 and retired, gone from my Sunday Evenings.  It's like CBS removing the closing "Nature Scenes" on Sunday Morning.  Good bye, Dear Friend, I'll miss you. 

Finally!

For the past 20 years or so, I've always wanted to see B.B King at a live concert.  He's a great blues player, a great icon.  He's probably an action figure by now!  I remember years ago, when son Dan was waiting tables next door to the Newport Music Hall in Cowlumbus.  B.B. King had just given a concert and at the end came into that restaurant.  Dan waited on him and was thrilled to do so.  Said he was a great customer and very friendly.  B.B. King gave him a 'Lucille' lapel pin.  Dan gave it to me 'cause he knew how much I like his music.  I was so jealous.  For an instant, I wanted to be there waiting on him.  Years later, my good friend Andy showed me a video of U2's "Rattle and Hum" when B.B. King played with them.  In it, B.B. King says, "I'm horrible with chords, I don't play chords".  U2's Bono said, "We'll get 'The Edge' to play chords".  I never thought of B.B. King not playing chords, just never entered my mind but, yes, he don't do chords.  Anyway, a few years back, he was playing at the Ventura County Fair but it was one of those 'first come, first seated' kind of deals and I would have to have been sitting all day, keeping my seat in order to see him.  Not!  So, more years go by and then I realized that one of us, him or me, were gonna die before I see him if I don't do something soon.

Yesterday, I got two tickets for Charlene and Me to see him in Santa Barbara at the end of November.  Finally!

Paper, Plastic and Boxes

I've shared photos in the past of Cat laying on various papers, from copier paper to Christmas wrap.  She loves plastic equally well, especially grocery bags.  She loves to nuzzle her way inside them, curl up and go to sleep.  Then, wake up, do some things around the house and return to the bag, curl up on top of it and re-sleep.  Paper or plastic?  Hard choice for her.  Big paper bags, the kind with handles on it are a perfect trap for her.  We lay one down, she crawls in, curls up and we pick up the bag and carry her around - she doesn't care, it paper.  Ditto with the plastic grocery bags.  Again, she doesn't care if we pick it up by the handles with her inside and carry it around - it's plastic.  Paper or Plastic.

And then, there's boxes.  Cardboard boxes, large or small.  Carry one in and her eyes widen, fixed on the box.  Lay it down and she's inside in a flash.  Mmmmmm, boxes.....

Travis has been saving for months for a very special, very expensive skateboard and it finally came today, in a box.  After he opened it and removed the skateboard, he set the box on the living room floor and took his skateboard out to play.  The cat was inside the box instantly.  She nestled under the packing material and went to sleep, curled up.  Later, she's up, eating, pooping, running, cleaning and then back to the box, this time at the other end and on top of the packing material.  I've taken two photos.  The first is me calling out to her, she swivels her head towards me as she finished a yawn, tongue half out.  Click on the picture for the larger version, then use your 'back' button to return here.

The last picture is of the other end of the box where she first slept.  Notice the 'formed covered nest'.

Cat, lover of paper, plastic and cardboard boxes.  Oh, and food, drawing blood from my hands when we play rough, bouncing off walls and doors, waking us at 5 in the morning to see if we're ready to feed her, sleeping 42 hours a day, etc......

Where were you on.........?

Sitting here this Sunday morning, reading the Sunday paper and listening to practically every broadcast TV channel remembering 911.  Both newspaper and TV recounts the lives of most Americans and what they were doing when they first heard the news of the terrorist attacks.  In my lifetime, this is the third "Where were you when....." .

The first was in 1958 when Father John, our church Pastor retrieved me from 6th grade class at Cranbrook Elementary School on May 20th.  Under the pretense that my Mom was sick and needed me to help out, he took me home.  I remember riding in his 57 Chevy, blue and white in color and just doing small talk during the ride.  Upon arriving at home, Aunt Betty and Uncle Dean were there.  Aunt Betty was in the kitchen doing something and Uncle Dean was vacuuming the living room floor.  Mom appeared and took me into her bedroom and closed the door.  I was confused and inquisitive at the time, not expecting what was to come next. She hugged me and told me that Dad had been killed in a plane crash.  I remember most of the rest of that day.  Some parts I blanked out but Sister Pat filled me in on that.  Yea, over 53 years later I still remember where I was and what I was doing on that day.

The second time I experienced "Do you remember where you were when....?" was a little over 5 years later.  I was a senior at Whetstone High School.  The year was 1963 and it was early afternoon, November 22, and this particular class period I was in Audio Visual, being one of those guys that brings the film/slide projector or TV to a class and runs whatever the teacher wants to do.  There were two of us that period and we had no assignment so we were just watching TV, some soap opera when Walter Cronkite broke in with the news that the President of the United States had been shot and taken to the hospital in Dallas.  A few minutes later, he confirmed that the President had died.  I remember running at full speed to the school office and told the principal what had happened.  He followed me back to the AV room and the three of us watched in horror.  School let out early that afternoon, the mood extremely quiet and somber.  And I remember the next painful week in our history.  Joe Arthur, history teacher at the school (and soon to be my brother-in-law), said it was a horrible thing but if it had to happen, he was glad it happened in our lifetime so we could experience it.  Strange statement but I can appreciate it.  Yea, I still remember where I was and what I was doing over 48 years ago.

10 years ago today, being an early riser and a news junky, I was up early getting ready for work and turned on the TV.  There it was, the burning North Tower of the World Trade Center.  Shortly thereafter, the South Tower was hit by the 2nd plane.  Before I left for work, the South Tower had fallen before my eyes.  Terrorism had finally arrived inside our country on a massive scale.  Things would never again be the same.  Yea, I still remember where I was and what I was doing 10 years ago.

There is No Escape

About 15 years ago, I started receiving junk mail from AARP.  I don't know why as I had just turned 50.  I just threw it in the trash.  Next month, same thing, same action.  This continued for years, the only difference being the junk mail from AARP began coming sooner than every 30 days.  Special envelopes, colored envelopes, special offers, discounts, free gifts if I just replied.  I probably could have died and they'd still send the damned things (c/o the graveyard?). 

When I moved to California, it didn't take long for them to find me.  Faster than BMG and Capitol Records found their flaky paying customers in the 90's!  The monthly letters started coming again, only to my place in Ventura.  So I threw them away, just like in Ohio.  I haven't replied to them, contacted them or returned any of their return envelopes.  You know when you get junk e-mail and you click on the 'unsubscribe' at the bottom of the e-mail, hoping to stop them?  We all know that's a mistake ....  you have just validated your e-mail address.  Sure, they unsubscribe you but then turn around and sell it to dozens of other junk e-mailers to use.  That's always been my thought on notifying AARP to leave me alone.  They'd find a way and double or triple their attempts to lure me into their gingerbread house of seniors. 

When I turned 65, they doubled their efforts with twice as much junk mail.   Now I get pre-printed membership cards for myself and Charlene, gift offers (oh, a free flashlight - be still my beating heart...).  I opened the latest junk mail yesterday.  Another pre-printed membership card, offer of a free travel bag.  Travel bag, yea, right!  A cheap canvas bag with giant AARP letters on it.  I've always wanted to be the laughing stock of the senior set.  No thanks! 

I cannot imagine the number of trees they've killed trying to get me to join.  As I was starting to pitch the mail in the trash, I held back.  Let's see here, $16 a year, no more junk mail, dozens of trees saved.  Hmmmm.  What if....... Yes?  No?  What should I do?  Crap, I feel like I'm trapped between a Rock and a Woody Allen Movie.......

Fair time again...

Yesterday, Charlene and I went to the Ventura County Fair.  Charlene had read about a new event this year called "Mutton Bustin" and it sounded cute and interesting.  Of course, we intended to see all and experience all, as usual.  So, at 11 am, we were parked and through the gates.  Remember, click on the photos to see the large version, then click your browser's 'Back' button to return here and continue.

Why does she always get the adult ticket and I have to use a child's ticket?

First up, just the visual experience of the Sunday crowd on the midway past the gates.

Walking toward the Mutton Bustin' we passed a sideshow that reminded me of work....

We had some time to kill so I played with a cow....

 

We finally arrived at Mutton Bustin'.  They've done this at other fairs and will even do it at the Ohio State Fair.  Mutton Bustin' is a sheep riding contest.  Kids, ages 3-6 dress up in protective padding and helmet and ride a sheep bareback, trying to stay on for 6 seconds.  It's not really dangerous and we were assured that no child had ever been hurt.

Lots of Country music before it started.  Lordy!  Just before the official start, the mascot entered the ring to entertain us.  He was pretty cute.  Here's a short video of him taunting me as I was filming him.

Now, it was time for the 'Ride'.  There were about half a dozen kids vying for the Gold Medal and a chance to continue at the California State Fair and gobs of dollars. Some were grinning and ready, others acted reserved.

It was time.  First rider mounted and the gate opened.

So cute.  No bucking, just a scared sheep running to the other end of the arena with a scared kid holding on for dear life.  When the fall off, they only have a foot or two to fall and the dirt is raked up nice and soft.  Here's a short video that says it all:

At the end of the show, we were off again on the midway.  We checked out all the exhibits.  Special note to John in Florida, the animal pens were filled with ONLY sheep.  The fair is too small to house all the different animals at once so they rotate.  Today was sheep only.  Cows tomorrow.  Damn!  But there was one unusual sheep.  I think from the deep South.  I can't be sure but it looked like it was a member of the  Ku Klux Sheep Klan......

Then it was off to the other exhibits.  The Ag building with all it's decorative displays of flora and fauna.  Some beautiful exhibits.

Of course the Carny Barkers, games and a ton of crap for sale.  Especially T-shirts.

There was one exhibit I was really interested in:

the true letdown was the fair food.  We had read about the latest junk, deep fried Kool-Aid.  Couldn't find it.  Where's Pizza-in-a-cup when you need it?  There was the usual crap on a stick.  Stuff like hot dogs on a stick, corn dogs on a stick, spiral-cut potato chips on a stick.  Even......

Ug.  We were hungry and looking.  Luckily, our noses led us to the ultimate non-fair food.  Ooooo!  Smells sooo good.  Then we spotted smoke.

Yea, Baby!  No junk today.  Totally excellent BBQ along with a serving of Buckaroo beans.  So good instead of the usual stomach cramping deep fried stuff.  And a couple of Margaritas in a plastic cup.

Of course, we did serving of candied pecans, my favorite nut....

Now that our stomachs were full, it was off to the rides to see if we could keep it down.  My favorite, since I have a fear of heights is always the Ferris Wheel.  As long as Nathan is not in the same 'car' as me, I can get used to it.  Usually.......

We did the swings thing next.

The one that really tempted the 'losing your cookies' was the pirate ship that swings back and forth.  Fun but it plays with your stomach at the height of the arc.  Here's us giggling and screaming.....

After that, we decided we needed some fresh air so it was off to the Oxygen Bar for some flavored Oxygen.

We checked out the Gem and Mineral exhibit on the way out.  Geodes are always our favorite.  All-in-all, a good time.  Just wish we had found the deep fried Kool-Aid.  Maybe next year.