Ted Makes It To NYC!

An update from your favorite stuffed turtle! Ted is in New York!

Ted's good buddy C's big bro M lives in Manhattan just south of Central Park. On his most recent visit to the west coast, C stashed our beloved turtle in M's luggage and he stowed away all the way to the Big Apple.

Here is Ted hanging out in M's apartment, catching up on some video games:

Ted's first official outing in the Big City was to the New York City ING Marathon. He scored a primo spot at the north east corner of Central Park, watching the runners fly by:

Ted will be hanging out in New York for a month and a half until he makes his first international journey to the beautiful town of Tonala in Jalisco, Mexico over the Christmas break.

Meanwhile, Tina is hanging out at home, going on small trips and holding down the fort in California. She will soon be leaving for a Thanksgiving trip to Oregon, so stay tuned!

Ted Does Disneyland (part 1)

Ted the Traveling Turtle visits Disneyland for the very first time! You will be seeing a lot of Jamie, one of Teds chaperons in these shots. She was very excited to be taking Ted on this trip.

Disneyland Main Street USA

• The entrance to Disneyland is designed to look like a red carpet and the tunnels to give the effect of walking into a different world.
• The pavement on Main Street is black, unlike any other area of the park. This is because black pavement gets hot and keeps people moving, shuffling them to the larger areas of the park.
• The gas lamps are 150 years old and were purchased as scrap from the city of Baltimore,Maryland
•  There is a whole crew just to dust the window sills on Main Street

Star Tours

• When Star Tours opened in 1987, Disneyland handed out digital watches to the first so-many people who entered the park. See one here: Star Tours Watch
• The StarSpeeder 3000 is the same type of flight simulator used by the military in training pilots
• If you look through the cockpit of the StarSpeeder (pictured with Ted) you will see that there are no seats for passengers to sit in
• The C3PO in Star Tours is plated in 24k gold, but as per the movie, the lower section of his left leg was painted silver
• The G2 droids are two stripped animatronic geese from the old "America Sings" show

Ted and Jamie grab some tea and muffins. Ted calls this "refueling"

 Indiana Jones

•  In the line for Indiana Jones there is a gas generator generating power for the lights, which flicker all the time except when the ride breaks down, at which time they burn so strong. When they start flickering again, you know the ride is back up and the line will begin to move in roughly five minutes.
• You can decode the symbols on the walls using this decoder or you can go to a cast member in the store directly to the right of the entrance/exit for the ride to get a copy of it.
• The ride cost about $100 mil to make and 7 years to build. It is inside a three story building, most of which is underground
• There are over 220,000 mechanical or sculpted snakes on the ride, and 1,995 skeletons (to honor the year the ride was built)
• The Queue passes the actual truck used in the film "Raiders of the Lost Ark" where Indy is dragged underneth the fast-moving vehicle

  
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

• The three MCs from the Bear Country Jamboree are still hanging around: on the wall past the Heffalumps and Woozles their heads are hanging above you

 The Enchanted Tiki Room

• The film "The Flavor of Hawaii" is playing right behind the juice bar
• The Tiki Room was sponsored by United Air Lines from 1964-1973 and later by Dole Pineapple from 1976-present
• The Tiki's sing "Hawaiian War Chant" inside the attraction
• The upside down masks in the Tiki Room are supposed to be that way. It is Negendei, the Earth Balancer, who stands on his head
• José the Macaw used to sit at the entrance. People would stand and watch him talk and block the entrance. It got so bad that they had to move José to keep the entrance clear
•  Originally the Tiki Room was going to be the Bird Cafe, where the tables would have speakers and microphones for guests to interact with the birds on their table. The one interactive prototype was moved to the Trophy Room in Club 33
• (edit) After realizing that I referenced a fact that I never included here in the next post, I wanted to add that fact: If you ask a cast member just before the show begins, they will let you wake up the Tiki Room

Stay tuned for more Ted in the Happiest Place On Earth!

(interesting facts via:  hiddenmickeys.org)

Hello, My Name Is Ted

This is Ted and Julie:

Ted is a Traveling Turtle. He was born in Pismo Beach, CA and is almost one year old. He lives on the dashboard of a white Mitsubishi Galant which lives mostly in Fresno, CA and he watches the world whiz by. He has been on many adventures with his owners Julie and Claudio, but sadly, they didn't think to take pictures of him on adventures until just recently.

Julie is a full-time college student and is currently maintaining two jobs to enable Ted's insatiable need for adventure. Although she brings home a decent amount of bacon, she was not able to accompany Ted on his newest adventure.

Ted is now under the supervision of Julie's mother and sister, Jenny and Jamie. As you can see, Ted's adopted family has a close personal relationship with the letter "J". Jenny and Jamie are vacationing for two weeks by driving across the country in Julie's car, and are therefore in charge of Ted The Traveling Turtle.

Over the next few weeks, and possibly on an ongoing basis, Julie will be collecting Ted's vacation photos and posting them here. Happy reading!