Disneyland!

Hate to say I was forced to go to Disneyland, but in a way, that's what it was, as the expiration date was rapidly approaching on the passes that were given to me as a (very generous) going-away present from my friend, Peter Carris and his wife. Not to say that Disneyland isn't a really fun place to go, but theme parks just haven't been our cup of tea these past few years, what with the lines and the crowds and the feeling of, "I've got to go to the chiropractor now." after extracting yourself from the vehicle that just put you upside down and sideways at 50 mph. That's like escaping a car wreck with no injury. The food is expensive and you will get what they serve. Where you gonna go? McDonalds? Hmmmm, they might have one there. The sun beats down and your feet start to ache. Blood sugar goes up. Blood sugar goes down. Up. Down. Jessica said she once went on a hotdog rampage there as a kid. Ate, like, 12 of 'em.


But I used to love theme parks. Maybe a theme park story in the future sometime. Or the story about going on the Zipper at the LA County fair and wishing we hadn't.

Anyway, Jessica and I finally scheduled a day, mid-week, a Wednesday, to get our Disney on. It was a beautiful Spring day and not all the schools were out yet and we had a great time! Don't get me wrong, it was crowded. But it could have been A LOT more crowded. The snaky line thingys that you stand in were only half full and sometimes less and it was fun to go back and forth hurrying to get to the end of the line. Always the hope of just runnig and getting straight on the ride. A very rare occurrennce but not unheard of.

The short story is, Disneyland is really fun. We did both parks, California Adventure and Disneyland in one day and we didn't go on every ride in the park, but we hit most of the highlights and definitely all the new rides we thought adults would want to go on. Planning out route on the park maps, we rarely backtracked and Pirates of the Caribbean and Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage have been updated. P. o.t. C. has Jack Sparrow lurking about rather realistically (real Johnny Depp voice!) and Finding Nemo has, well, Nemo, naturally. An amazing cartoon video projected underwater (sorry, no video).
Real submarine. Real Tiki idol. Real diver. One is true.

We skipped the Haunted Mansion, but had already had our share of ghosts, I guess, with the Hollywood Tower of Terror. Creepy, fun, and scary, too, with some surprises. No spoilers here if you haven't been on it. Anyway, we didn't think the Haunted Mansion had been updated.



We bought fudge and popcorn and had a blast. People-watching is great there because, let's face it, everyone wants to go to Disneyland and they'll let anybody in that's got $100.00. Well, almost anybody dressed in clothes. No costumes over 9 years old, thank you. It's in the rulebook.



The most amazing of the Disneygoers are the addicts. Usually wearing something red or something black, or both. With, possibly, red suspenders covered in Pins from their trips to Disneyland, any of their favorite Disney characters (I won't name 'em here in case it's illegal... infringement or whatever. Why risk it with Disney? They're huge, right?) or movie paraphernalia, castles, caves, spaceships, islands, etc. I loved them, children for a day, we all were there. We were in line for an AWESOME 3D shooting game/ride and one fellow had placed a cell phone call and was updating the recipient on all of the changes that had happened in the park.. for, like, 10 minutes! Talking to another Mousketeer, no doubt.

There are a lot of these people at the park on any given day. Their hobby is Disney. Gotta love it.

Goes to show, I guess, how HUGE Disney is, all the movies, merchandising, hospitality... unbelievable. And the place runs like a Swiss watch. Everything stocked up in all bathrooms. No trash. FastPass for the rides. Everybody smiling. Except the emo kids running the Tower of Terror. They weren't smiling. But they might've been in character, who knows?

So, if you are looking for something to do on a weekday (don't go on the weekend!) while you're in Southern California, Disneyland is not a bad way to spend a few hundred dollars. Glad we didn't have to (special thanks again to Peter Carris and his wife!).

Enjoy the pictures, see you next time!