Chasing the 2017 Eclipse

Monday, August 14th, 11pm.
T minus 6 days, 12 hours before the eclipse

Theresa - "We should go see the eclipse!"
Joe - "Sounds like fun!"

What followed next was a mad scramble to get flights booked, a rental car reserved, lodging figured out, plus whatever else we'd need for the trip. But whenever you give T a goal, you know she'll be amazing at figuring out how to make it all work.

First stop was the NASA Interactive Eclipse Tracker. What an awesome resource for helping us pick the best spot for viewing. So the path of totality (where the sun is completely covered by the moon) is going from east to west inside those two blue lines. The closer you get to the red line, the longer the total eclipse will last. The longest duration this time is 2 minutes and 40.2 seconds. Let's see how we are in Los Angeles!

Ian turns 40

Forty inches that is. That's a big milestone for Disneyland! At 40" a whole new world of rides opens up!

Stand up straight. You're there!

2017 Belmont Shore Stroll and Savor - June

It's the start of summer, which means once again it's time for the Belmont Shore Stroll and Savor. I don't know how she times it so well, but Rita always happens to be out here for it. Let's go eat!

2017 Pasadena Chalk Festival - Silent Auction

Entry into the Pasadena Chalk Festival is free after your first year. The only thing the organizers request is a 12"x12" painting that can be auctioned off. All the proceeds go to the Light Bringer Project which brings art to the children of Pasadena and the greater Los Angeles area.

Since it was my year to choose the mural, it was also my year to provide the painting. Obviously we're doing a rectangular poster for our mural. I wanted the painting to match our mural, so I had to figure out a way to make the rectangular poster fit on a square canvas. In the end, I moved Adventureland to the side and tried to made it more wood tones.
There's one other change I made to the poster. The classic poster calls it the Jungle River. I've changed it to what's it's more commonly known as, Jungle Cruise.

2017 Pasadena Chalk Festival - Day 2

Happy Fathers Day!
The reason for all the hard work on the mural yesterday was so that today we could all go up to the festival together. I didn't need to drive up early to put in hours and hours of work.

2017 Pasadena Chalk Festival - Jungle Cruise time-lapse

I set up my Go-Pro to take a photo every 10 seconds. 5 batteries and 11 hours later, I was able to put together a time-lapse of our creation of the Jungle Cruise poster.

2017 Pasadena Chalk Festival - Day 1

Welcome to the 2017 Pasadena Chalk Festival! It's the 25th anniversary of the festival and it's the 3rd year for Ruston and I to participate. The first year we made a Ducktales mural. The second year was The Iron Giant. What to do this year though... It's can't be too detailed. We both like Disney. How about a retro Disneyland poster? There were a few good options, but when I told Ruston we could dress like Jungle Cruise skippers and tell corny jokes, I think that sealed the deal. Jungle Cruise it is!
After a practice session in my driveway a few weeks before, the day was finally here to do it for real!