Beaverton - La Parrilla Kitchen on Hart Road

 After eating there, my sisters told me I had to try La Parrilla on Hart. I finally made it.

While I admit that a big part of what impressed them was desert, I am going to start with the entrees.

The menu is pretty broad, including a breakfast menu (the breakfast burrito looks really good) and some fairly robust seafood choices.

I got a tamale plate and was pretty happy with it. I declined beans (as is my wont). The salad was pretty bland, but that's not why you're there.

I had been tired of tamales because we were getting some really dry ones, but I was ready to try again. I did not regret it.

My sisters got burritos, as they tend to do. Their rice came with better presentation, though that is a minor detail.

I hadn't been out for Mexican lately, so it was nice to remember how good chips and salsa are. Their table salsa ran a bit hotter than I was expecting.

There are remedies if that is not hot enough.

If you need to cool down, then that probably requires a refreshing beverage.

But the most important part was the dessert, especially the churros. They also have flan and fried cheesecake.

I was surprised to find a creamy (kind of custard-like) filling. Personally, the fried doughy center is my favorite part, but it is an interesting twist.

COVID: They do have a small outdoor dining area. The restaurant is very popular, so expect a crowd, but even indoors the tables are well-spaced. That is also helpful for...

Accessibility: It looked pretty navigable to me. The entrance would probably be the hardest part the navigate. I regret now not checking out the bathroom situation, but we just ordered, ate, and left. There was a Street Fighter game if we had wanted to spend more time.

Please note: There is another La Parilla on Allen; we went to the one at 16300 SW Hart Road in Beaverton.

https://www.facebook.com/Laparrillakitchenbeaverton

https://la-parrilla-onhart-beaverton-menu.square.site/home

Northwest Carousel Trail Passport and the Carousel at Oaks Amusement Park

A few months ago we heard about a carousel passport, where you could get stamps for visiting. That sounded right up our alley.

We even visited the Jantzen Beach Carousel exhibit at the Oregon Historical Society -- which was supposed to be on the trail -- without locating one. I guess we felt shy because we could not find anything, but we should have asked.

Recently, a small blurb let us know that we could get one at Oaks Park Guest Services and ride the carousel there. Finally!

There are eleven carousels on the trail. It is not an exhaustive list of historic carousels in the Northwest. You may note a star without a number for Spokane in Washington. That surely refers to the Looff Carousel. 

I think the other stars are state capitals, but there does appear to be a carousel at the Boise Zoo, and there is definitely one in Helena. There are five carousels in Montana that aren't listed.

https://www.distinctlymontana.com/wooden-wild-horses-montanas-seven-carousels

We are not sure which ones we will make it to, or when. We have already been to the one in Albany. We nonetheless knew we could get to Oaks Park, and we did!

This is the Herschel-Spillman Noah's Ark Carousel, which may be why some of the animals have two of each, though not necessarily next to each other.

I don't think they are trying too hard to evoke the ark specifically, or there probably wouldn't be a dragon, but we liked the cats.

It's common for carousels to have benches, but this one also had these round booths that I have never seen before. We rode animals, though. Of course.

If we wanted to go back and take additional rides, we could. Riding the carousel is free, like riding the train. That did not end up being temporary.

The carousel is covered under its own pavilion, which seems like a good idea. It was raining on and off that day.

That may have been part of why it was not very crowded, but things were running and we are Oregonians.

And then -- after riding -- we went back to guest services and got our passports stamped.

They did scan one of the passports at the carousel, but they did not do the stamp there. Did they check the scan to make sure we rode? I don't think so. We picked up the passports, rode, and then returned to Guest Services for the stamp. You probably do not need to do it in that order, but obviously we were going to ride.

And we will ride more, at some point.

COVID: This was all outdoors. I did wear a mask at guest services, but even then there was probably enough air circulation that it may not have been necessary.

Accessibility: There is a ramp for mobility devices. It is not left open, so that would require the attendant.

https://www.oakspark.com/

https://oregondigital.org/concern/images/df67mj964

https://www.facebook.com/CarouselTrailNW

Disneyland: Smaller changes

The addition of two new lands and major revision of an existing one is a lot of change. There are always other changes happening, with little tweaks and improvements.

Fantasyland is literally the heart of Disneyland, central, and the most closely tied to its animation history. That central location means there is not really room to expand. Even though the Royal Theater and Picie Hollow kind of relate to Fantasyland, they are outside of it.

Still, things happen. Disney characters were added to appropriate sections of It's A Small World (like Lilo and Stitch in the South Pacific) or an Arendelle section to the Storybook Land Canal Boats. I noticed the most changes with Snow White's Scary Adventure.

Some are minor changes, like that shaft of sunlight shining on the cottage.

I loved these bird-adorned light fixtures. I can't swear to how new they are, because it had been about eight years since I had last been on the ride, but I really liked them. Of course, Disney is always good for creatures.

I don't have a great photo of it, but see that shadow in the window? Shadows reflecting the dancing inside the cottage were moving back and forth. I knew the dancing would be the first scene, but there it was while we were still waiting in line.

I think the birds and butterflies and chipmunk on the outside were new, and the barrel of tools definitely was.

Again, so much effort goes into the queue... though to be fair you could spend a lot of time there.

What was most interesting to me was that they changed the castle interior from the Evil Queen's dungeon to Snow White's garret. At first I thought maybe they were trying to make it less scary, though they had not changed the name.

The movie does show her with doves at the window, and then you get to see her closet... many visitors to Disneyland love the princess dresses.

Then I realized what they were doing is giving you the lead-in to the story: this is who she is and why she fled into the woods, thus meeting up with all the woodland creatures and the dwarfs.

It's not like we don't know the story, but it's a nice touch. 

These are minor things, but one of the joys of visiting the parks is that combination of the familiar with the novel, and they do a great job with it.

COVID: This is an indoor ride, and the line is mostly indoors. I put on the mask early.

Accessibility: This is one of the rides that has what they call "Transfer Access Vehicles", and you do have to transfer. Enter at the exit to board.

This is a great place to point out that if you look at individual rides you can bring up accessibility information. That tells us that for this ride you can also pick up a receiver for audio descriptions at Guest Services for visual disabilities, or you can pick up a handheld captioning device.

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/attractions/disneyland/snow-whites-enchanted-wish/

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/destinations/disneyland/fantasyland/

Disney California Adventure: Branding

While the addition of two new lands since I was last at Disneyland is a pretty big deal (and part of Disney's brand expansion), there was another change that had been going on for some time, and continuing.

This used to be the Sun Wheel, then Mickey's Fun Wheel, with a big Mickey Mouse face added on the side.

Now the individual cars on the Pixar Pal Around have characters from various Pixar movies on them, that match the benches down below. You can observe them as you get a really hot dog from Inside Out's Anger, or grab one of the famous Disney turkey legs from a Poultry Palace, a franchise familiar to Andy of Toy Story.

The candy store is now themed for Bing Bong, and King Triton's carousel was given over the Cowgirl Jessie.

Just like the Avengers Campus Shawarma Palace comes from an inside joke in the movie, you can get your frozen treats from the Adorable (not Abominable) Snowman.

It is part of a rebranding that went from celebrating California to Disney, which in many ways makes more sense.

This was done without a lot of changes to external architecture, and there are certainly things there that don't have obvious Disney tie-ins, like the Pacific Wharf (though there was that one scene in Superdad)
.

There is a lot of Pixar off of the pier, with Cars Land and Monsters Inc Mike & Sully to the Rescue in Hollywood Land.

It could also seem like California Adventure is for Pixar and the Magic Kingdom is for all of the non-Pixar Disney films, except for Ariel's Undersea Adventure and a focus on Oswald on Buena Vista Street. (Also, the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail that used to be just California landmarks and then focused on Russell's scouting in Up now has a sign for Raya and the Last Dragon.)

Plus there is Mickey's PhilharMagic.

What used to be posters for movies in Hollywood Land has been replaced with references to many Disney characters performing music, and you can see a 4-D performance driven by Donald Duck and the hat from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" portion of Fantasia.

I enjoyed it a lot, but it did replace Muppet Vision, another acquired Disney brand that is close to my heart.

With a new series, maybe they will show up somewhere else.

https://disneyland.disney.go.com/destinations/disney-california-adventure/