Wow, what an amazing and exhausting place Disneyland is! We arrived after an uneventful flight, on Thursday afternoon. We were all sort of tired, and after taking the shuttle to the Disneyland Hotel, we decided to just hang out there, play in the pool, and eat at the Rainforest in downtown Disney. It was a good choice, and none of the kids protested that we were not going to the 'land right away. We had a good dinner, went back, and the kids had fun swimming and water sliding. I swam, but Coach did not because he said it was too cold cough WUSS! cough Anyway, now the italics are stuck, so you'll have to put up with it. We crashed early, after agreeing to meet in the lobby of our tower at 8 am. We had some good coffee, then headed to Disneyland in the morning. What an overwhelmingly awesome place it is! Our monorail took us to tomorrowland, and we ate at a little counter thingie, where the breakfasts were pretty reasonably priced, surprisingly, because NOTHING. ELSE. in disneyland is reasonably priced! Nothing. Bottled water is like 3 bucks a bottle, and so is soda. Food is outrageous, and it's not uncommon to pay 30 bucks for a corndog lunch for four people. See? Anyway, it made me appreciate the food prices at home. Buzz Lightyear was not crowded, so we went on that right away, and it was SO COOL! After that, we went to Pirates of the Carribbean, and Splash Mountain. Pirates didn't have a huge line, and was really cool, of course. Splash Mountain line was about 30 minutes, which isn't so bad, I hear. We also went on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad which scared the crap outta me. I am NOT a ride person, and amazingly enough, on this trip...I loved the rides. We headed back to the hotel for some swimming and rest, then went back that night for Fantasmic. It was a really cool show with lots of special effects, near New Orleans square. We couldn't see the first show, because it was so crowded, so we waited until everyone had left, then claimed spots for the 10:30 show. We just kind of sat and visited until it started, and it was well worth staying! We then headed to the Haunted Mansion with our kids, while my brother and his family, and my mom and stepdad went to Nemo's Submarine. Haunted Mansion was cheesy and funny, and I think my favorite rides of the day were Splash Mountain and Pirates. Oh, we also did Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. We ended up taking the last monorail that night, and got back to find NO eating places open in Downtown Disney. We were starving, and there was no. thing. open, not even room service! We ended up eating trail mix in the hotel room, amidst much bitching from the kids. The next morning, we found out that the bar downstairs at the hotel still had food available to take to your room, but oh well...live and learn. We were going to set out an hour early to get in on the early admission included with our hotel, but everyone decided that it wouldn't be worth the kids only getting six hours of sleep, so we waited until 9. It turned out fine, and we did California Adventure that day. We fastpassed Soaring Over California right when we got in, which was a really good choice, because it had us come back in two hours and we had no wait. The fastpasses are an awesome idea, but they should let you hold more than one at a time. I found out if you got a triple A travel package, you can hold multiple fast passes for all of the rides. Soaring was AWESOME...it's a must see. We also LOVED the Grizzly river raft ride--one of my faves of the whole trip. We also did Toy Story Mania, which was cool, but not worth the hour wait to me. After that, the kids and Coach went on California Screamin', which I skipped because I'm just not thinking I would have held my lunch down. They loved it, and Coach and my bro ended up doing it again, since they had extra fastpasses. After that, my family headed home to the pool, and the rest stayed for Bugs Life. T really wanted to do Hollywood Tower of Terror, but we didn't have time. The next day, we packed our stuff, then went to a character breakfast at the hotel. It was really great, and the kids enjoyed the characters coming to the tables. We then hit Disneyland one more time, and the others did Small World, then Toon Town, while we did Indiana Jones which was another awesome ride. We did the Jungle Cruise, cheesy but cool, then Splash Mountain again, then it was time to head out to the airport. All in all, an amazing trip, and we want to go back! If we do, I'll take more comfortable shoes, pack bottled water in the suitcases, and try to stay more days so we can relax more! We stayed home yesterday and just vegged, because we were so exhausted. Today we went to see Monsters vs. Aliens, and I could not believe this chick in front of us. She sat her kids (maybe 4 and 2) in front of us, then said that they 'needed to sit like big boys while mommy went potty'. And she also told them to not talk to strangers, then took off to the bathroom. WTF???? I could not believe it! She was gone a LONG time too, at least 10 minutes. I mean, if a stranger was going to take off with them? He woulda had a heckuva head start! Crazy. In other news...dust off the gloves, because we get to start practices this week! I am so excited to be out there again, soaking up the ballfield atmosphere.
by the waterfall outside our hotel building
Me and T's Mickey
