On the way home, we had a Thai dinner at the home of Hal and Connie (Kanungnit) Merritt in Blackfoot, Idaho. The best Phad Thai I've ever had in the U.S. Hal was my second senior companion. We served in Khon Kaen, Thailand, in 1973.

It was an amazing experience. I now understand why people travel all over the world to witness “A Total Eclipse of the Sun”.

I love a parade. I have that gene in my genome. Nevertheless, I was not motivated to attend the most attended event of the Pioneer Day celebration, "The Day's of '47 Parade." Over the years a critical element of the parade "pacing" has been sorely lacking. What is "pacing?" it is ensuring that there is never much distance between parade entries. The greatest parades in the United States: (1) Pasadena Tournament of Roses and (2) Macy's Thanksgiving Day, always do a great job at spacing. Not so for Utah's biggest parade and that's sad. Secondarily ever since the decision to run the "TRAX Light Rail System" right up main street (where the parade used to be presented) the ability to enjoy the parade has decreased. That was a bad decision. TRAX should have gone up 200 West into the city and gone underground from 500 south onward (like the system in Atlanta works).

This year a member of the First Presidency, President Uchtdorf, returned to lead the parade. Last year Elder Ballard performed that duty, the only time I can remember where it was not a member of the First Presidency.

I watched the parade on recorded television. There were some very fine floats this year. The two best in my opinion appear below. The "Theme" was "Visions on a new Horizon". It was odd that multiple float builders decided that perhaps a recreation of the steamship "Horizon" that brought many Saints for Europe to the United State would fit that theme. Secondarily, because of the way in which "the people" chose many of the parade awards, it was beyond understanding how a float with no animation won the award for the best animation. Say what?

I can only hope the Days of '47 organization looks seriously at restoring the Pioneer Day parade to its old glory before my life is over.

New things we learned: The Hank's oldest daughter (age 4) is fearless, roller coasters are her passion. After getting off Space Mountain at Disneyland she said "That was Awesome!" While she is a picky eater, her younger sister is not! The young one eats just about anything and everything, generally leaving little left on her plate. She loves the Merry-Go-Round and cried every time it was time to get off!

Grandpa was impressed with the design of the motion base for "Soaring Around the World" (formerly Soaring over California") There are 3 bays if seats, each bay has 3 rows of about 12 people each that are hoisted in the air. Thus about 100 people are served on each trip. Each bay is connected to a motion based that generates motion felt by the riders. A dome screen provides video "with inserted simulated elements" as a dozen or so places around the globe are visited including: The Matterhorn, Paris, Wild Animals in Africa, Taj Mahal, The Great Wall of China, the South Pacific, Utah's Monument Valley, and ending at Disneyland, Anaheim California, during the nightly fireworks.

World of Color at California Adventure was also well done as was their main Roller Coaster California Screaming

Not much new at Disneyland, but the old favorites are still there.

We also love Sea world San Diego (or Orlando). The Killer Whale show is being phased out and today is simply an educational event about the Orcinus Orca. Angela achieved her dream of swimming with the Dolphins in the training pool where new Dolphins are trained. Her group included just two sisters from New York with a similar dream.

Here are some of our favorite photos: