MX and her big O' candy floss

At Disney California Adventure, MX's wish for a big O' cotton candy came true.  I've been trying to distract her from it coz it's simply sugar overload.  But what the heck... I used to enjoy candy floss all the time as a kid, so I caved and got her some. 

While she enjoys her candy, Andrew enjoys himself on the California Screamin' far too many times... hehee...

There he goes again... and again... umpteenth times. 

Sheer happiness when MX was done with her candy.  I guess she was sick of it coz when I got her to dump it when she was half way through, she did so readily.

San Diego Zoo

The San Diego Zoo is one of my favourite places on earth.  It is huge and not as easy on the feet as the Yokohama Zoo that we visited in Japan.  My favourite part of the zoo is the petting area for kids.  When I was here a couple of years back, I remembered being totally thrilled being able to pet these fat goats and seeing a keeper walk a white Llama along the path.

This time round, I got to go to the petting area with MX and she was as thrilled as I was.  We went twice in fact.  Once when we got to the zoo and the second time before we left.

MX had been pestering Andrew for coins to make her own collector coin and finally Andrew had some coins to spare.

Look at how delighted she is!

Hey Llama, we meet again!

Isn't this donkey adorable??

This male teenage polar bear is really a snoozer.   He was sleeping when we saw him and started to rouse after awhile. 

He stood up and started to pee... the foamy white patch between his rear paws a puddle of pee.

After emptying his bear bladder, he went back to sleep... 

Snow play at Heavenly - South Lake Tahoe

The one thing on MX's mind when we started seeing snow as we drove up the mountain was - 'play play play!" 

When she finally got to mess around in the snow, she was thrilled... despite having a frozen foot coz the snowshoe she wore kept falling out every 5 minutes.  No complains about frozen hands and feet was heard till we said,  "Let's go... ".  That was when she started whining and wanted to be carried.

MX had a blast sledding with Andrew... she probably thinks I scream too much coz she didn't wanna go down the slopes with me after we did so once. 

Calico Ghost Town

On our way to Vegas, we planned for a short stopover at Calico Ghost Town.  Calico prospered during the 1880s when mining silver was lucrative.  However when silver lost its charm, the town folks packed up and moved out.  Leaving behind Calico, and turning it into a Ghost Town.

This small town has been commissioned by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to be California's Silver Rush Ghost Town.  So almost all buildings that we saw were authentic, true as it was in the 1880s. 

We had lunch at one of the cowboy bars in Calico and MX was thrilled to get her hands to smell like lemons when she got to squeeze lemon into my tea. 

She also had tons of fun shelling the big bucket of peanuts and tossing the shells on the floor. 

I asked the server if it was the norm back in the olden days to toss peanut shells onto the floor and she said that it wasn't the case back then.  The floors used to be covered by sawdust and she has no idea why sawdust became peanut shells.

 After lunch, we walked to the nearby school house.  The school was really tiny.  There was only one room in the building.  Education wasn't important back then and boys were usually pulled out from school to help with the mines while girls helped out at home.

We tried panning for gold... and got to keep what we panned in a glass bottle.

The Hubs and I have been to the states several times and visiting a Ghost Town had been on our list but we just didn't get down to stopping at one.  This time, we decided that we should visit one with MX in tow.