Japanese Tea Garden Area at Children's Fairyland

Children's Fairyland has grown over the years and added many different folk tales to the park. One of my favorite is this Japanese Tea Garden with murals of various Japanese folk tales on the walls. The architecture is nice as well and creates a nice venue to have a party.

A Visit to Children's Fairyland Oakland

This past weekend I took a quick trip to the California Bay Area, visiting San Francisco and Oakland. In Oakland, I was a special guest to Children's Fairyland at Lake Merritt. The park is a fantastic experience and is a great park. The sets are fun and whimsical and much of the original park from the 1950's has been maintained and restored. I want to thank Children's Fairyland for the visit and to Randal J. Metz for the tour. If you have not purchased his book on Children's Fairyland, Creating a Fairyland you should look for a copy and buy it...one of the best books on a single park. The first picture is one of the giraffe lamp posts. Although no longer used as light poles, they still stand and add a touch of whimsy to the park.

Being a sign geek, I had to document the directional signs in place.

Outside of the wonderful Alice In Wonderland tunnels and maze is this pocket watch as left by the White Rabbit. The numbers are characters from the Lewis Carroll book.

One of the original sets is the crooked man, his crooked house and his crooked cat.

Thanks again to Children's Fairyland, my wife and I appreciated the visit.

Souvenir Friday- Walt Disney Character Parade Record

A cool souvenir from 1974 for a parade that was at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland. The parade was the Walt Disney Character Parade and featured the costumed characters parading down Main Street. A souvenir flexi disc that was meant to be mailed, a flexi postcard, was created with the music from the parade.

I tried to convert the record into digital, but my program is being a pain....

More Disneyland Characters

The Totally Minnie parade used many obscure characters. First up is Sherrif John from Robin Hood.

Next up from the same film is Prince John.

This Pinocchio walk around character is really nice.

Final image for today are two Dwarves who finished the parade.

Characters at the Park 1980s

Some nice portrait type photographs of various characters out and about at Disneyland. First up is a nice Snow White posing in front of the Main Street Gates near the American Egg House.

Next up is Tigger on Main Street.

One of the little pigs (I believe Piper Pig) marching in a parade.

Final shot is a goofy shot of Goofy.

America Sings

Late in it's run as an atraction, America Sings still makes me happy. The songs were fun, the theater moved and the AA figures are still fun as seen in Splash Mountain. These photographs all feature the singing groups. Enjoy this flash back to this spectacular Marc Davis designed attraction.

Golden Horseshoe Jamboree

These photographs are from the same mid-1980's photo album and feature the show that replaced the Golden Horseshoe Revue which is the Golden Horseshoe Jamboree. First up are a couple nice images of the can can dancers on the stage. Note that the backdrop was changed for this show.

Next up are two images of the lead Miss Lilly interacting with the audience.

Souvenir Friday- A Couple of Random Pieces

A couple of random souvenirs from the collection. First up is a nice unused train ticket for the Frontierland train. It is unusual to see a Child's unused ticket. Note that the ticket is for freight or cattle passage.

Next item to add a little color is a travel decal for the Disneyland Hotel. The graphic features the futuristic Monorail heading to the Hotel with the nice Disneyland Hotel sign.

Totally Minnie Parade- Part 2

Based upon the photographs, this was a very interesting parade. Minnie appears in her Flashdance (or Mousedance) outfit and look. She is definitely on a pedestal.

Some of the characters in the parade were ones not usually seen walking around, including this mouse from Cinderella. She must be sewing the Flashdance outfits for Minnie.

Next up a view of Chip and Dale as DeeJays spinning some wicked tunes.

Final image is of a dancing video, literally dancing videotape. I do have to say that the cans have nice legs.

Mariachi Band Casa Mexicana 1980s

The Gonzalez Trio expanded from the 1960s to a full size Mariachi band that played at Casa Mexicana. The photographer really enjoyed the band, snapping several photographs. Put on a classic Mariachi album and enjoy the photographs.

Totally Minnie Parade, Totally Cool?

The totally Minnie parade was a summer parade that lasted a couple of years. I believe these photographs are from 1987. First up are the Country Bears walk around characters dancing in their tutus.

Also marching in the parade was J. Worthington Foulfellow from Pinocchio. He looks very dandy here.

Next up is the Princess float which featured the princesses singing in a girl group like the Shirelles or the Supremes. The backing band is an interesting mix of apes from Jungle Book and the Big Bad Wolf. A concept that does not appear to have worked very well.

Santa's Village in Black and Whte

More lovely images from Santa's Village. First up is a view of Santa's sleigh pulled by reindeer coming out of the tunnel.

Next up is a view of the small castle and the Candy Kitchen in the background.

A view of a swing type ride powered by reindeer. Unfortunately the image is a little wonky (a technical term) in the composition.

Final image is of the group posing in the parking lot at the entrance. I believe the car in the background is blasting his horn to have the people move out of his way.

Disneyland in Color

Three nice images of Disneyland in color. First up an older couple poses in front of the entrance to the Disneyland Alweg Monorail station. The sign for the attraction is very nice.

Next up is a perfect view of the C.K. Holliday pulling into Main Street station.

Final image is the lovely Teacup ride.