Disneyland

I feel like the story of how I ended up going to Disneyland unexpectedly needs to be told in full to do it justice, but that might actually use up the Internet, so I'll try to abbreviate it. It was so epically awesome, though, that I don't know if I'll manage. Oh, and I warn you: the following is not particularly well-written or edited, and I use a lot of smiley faces. I apologize.

Do you know that certain group of people who are Disneyland Fanatics? They speak of Disneyland as though it is a man-created Eden, the Promised Land, The, yes--The Happiest Place on Earth. I always looked at them a bit askance. I had never been to Disneyland before, but now that I have, I understand.

First off, going to Disneyland was a bit of a last-minute thing for me, though I still had more of a head's up than  Ashley. ;) Ashley was flying down to help her sister (Mary) out for a few days, she thought, but Mary planned a surprise Disneyland trip for the two of them and Mary's nursling, Wilder. When Mary found out that Anya was weaned the evening before she left, she ordered me to go home and ask my husband if I could go. Let's just say that I had nothing to do with everything falling into place for me to go. As silly as it may sound, it was all Providential.

So we picked up Ashley at the airport, told her what we were doing (that was really fun), and headed south. Thanks to Ashley's awesome driving skillz, we made it to Downtown Disney for a delicious supper (what's up with crazy traffic on a Saturday night, Southern California?). We were able to meet some friends of Ashley's there (they go on date nights to Downtown Disney--don't you feel sorry for them?), and they told us about Griffith Observatory, which we decided to add into our stops for the day after Disneyland.

(The cottage of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)

Supper, hotel, up early. Beignets for breakfast (yummmm). Disneyland.

(It's a Small World)

The opening speech. The castle. Snow White's ride. The Teacups. Pirates of the Caribbean--I'm not mentioning everything we did. Pirates of the Caribbean is legendary, of course, and I loved it. I didn't know there was an Indiana Jones ride, which broke down when Ashley and I went on it (she found out later someone had dropped their sweatshirt on the track), so I didn't get the full effect until Mary and I went on it. Oh, yes. I went on all of the rides twice. I was completely and utterly spoiled. There's this marvelous thing, a pass for parents who have children too small to go on certain rides, that enables the person waiting with the child(ren) to skip to the front of the line when the first person has come back, and since we had Wilder with us, we were able to get that pass. The pass is good for two people, and Mary and Ashley being awesome, they insisted that 'since it was my first time', I go twice. I should have protested more, but I don't think it would have done any good.

(Jungle Cruise. The guide (?) we got was great.)

We met Ariel and saw a Princess show and Mary Poppins. All of the little girls there in princess dresses were so, so cute.

Mary with Wilder, Me, Ariel, Ashley
(In other words, I'm the only one without red hair) :)

We also went to California Adventure. Screamin', The Tower of Terror, Soarin'...oh, man, was it fun! We barely sat down the entire day (except on the rides), and I'm not quite sure what we sustained ourselves on (corn dogs and cookies), but we kept on. Back over to Disneyland for one more ride before the fireworks.

(Ashley is the redhead third from the left in the front, and I'm the dork next to her trying to take a picture of the view.)

The wait for Space Mountain was 58 minutes. Ashley insisted that Mary (who hasn't been able to go on it for a few years due to pregnancy :) ) and I wait for Space Mountain while she took the baby and secured spots for us for the fireworks show. At that point, I was dog-tired and thought, "I really hope this ride is worth the standing-up wait."  As the picture below shows, it was. We kind of staggered out of there.

Then, the fireworks. It's not just fireworks, it's a show, with music and narration and the theme of it IS the theme of the park--it goes through it all. Oooh, pretty! Ahhh, pretty! Oh, there's Tinkerbell ohmygoodness that's a real person flying around up there! They have a real person on a line from the Matterhorn to the Castle and she goes around and the fireworks are exploding. It was crazy.

See that little speck there to the right of the castle? Tinkerbell.

Click on this one to make it bigger--Tinkerbell is right by the top of the castle.

After the fireworks, we went on Pirates of the Caribbean one more time and walked right up to the ride, no wait. :) We actually got great seats on the rides all day, and with using the various passes, the lines didn't seem bad at all. After Pirates, we did our souvenir shopping and then limped back toward the hotel. Ashley remarked that she felt like she needed some eggs, to which Mary and I as-heartily-as-our-aching-legs-would-let-us agreed. We walked to Mimi's--which was inexplicably closed. So we had to backtrack to Milly's, where we ate eggs and had amusing conversation that I cannot remember. It probably would not have been so amusing had we not been on the edge of delirium. :)

It was ridiculously fun.

View to the west from Griffith Observatory.

The next day, we headed for Griffith Observatory. That was such a great stop. I'm so glad Ashley's friends told us about it! The views were breathtaking--though, I should probably mention that the weather was lovely and the air, we were told, had been remarkably clear. I had The Keeper of the Bees in the back of my mind the whole time and those wistful thoughts I sometimes have of how amazing Southern California must have been in the Twenties--before everyone littered and made the sides of the roads look like garbage cans (what on earth? all that trash really surprised me).

The view to the east. 

"I wonder if we'll be able to see the Hollywood sign?" we said on our way up. Yes.

Then we headed to Grauman's Chinese Theater where I did not rest until I found the Marx Brothers. 

My foot is bigger than Chico's.

We headed to Santa Monica then and passed Sunset Blvd, Beverly Hills, and Rodeo Drive. We discovered PinkBerry (our new love) and saw the Pier. I dipped my enormous feet in the ocean, and then we headed home, more or less. ;)

We arrived home around 2 am. And then at 2 pm that same day we headed to San Francisco to meet the Pioneer Woman. I've never driven to San Francisco before (I've always been a passenger), and I'm afraid I scared Mary and Ashley with my aggressive driving. I didn't even know I had it in me. We ate at Don Pisto's, which was deeeelicious and the only real, sit-down food we had the whole four days. :)

I don't think I've ever had so much pure, constant fun as I did on this trip. It was wonderful. ;)