Home At Last!

This morning we returned from our eight day adventure to Southern California. We are exhausted and I have quite the sun rash on my arms, but I even got James to admit he had fun today. The next several posts are the highlights of each of our stops along the way.

We started out our trip, flying to Orange County on Saturday, October 11. We arrived at about 9:30 in the morning and headed straight for Disneyland. We will never do that again. Combine the stress of last week (more about that in a future post) with the stress of packing and the stress of getting up early and getting to the airport and we were all too tired to really enjoy our day.

We spent most of Saturday at California Adventure riding the various rides there. We LOVE Soarin' over California! It is the best ride ever. I was sitting next to some ladies that had never been on it before. That's the best because they really started ooing and awing over everything. A.J. really wanted to catch the golf ball, but didn't. (Of course, it's just a movie so there is no golf ball.) We also decided to stand in line for Toy Story Mania. It's also a great ride. It's kind of like Astroblasters where you are shooting things, but the games change everytime you move. And it's 3D. Worth the wait for sure! We did make it over to Disneyland and went on the Jungle Cruise and Pirates. But we were too tired to do anything else and went back to the hotel. We heard the fireworks going off, but were too tired to even go look and see if we could see anything.

Sunday we had early entry and took full advantage. Because we stayed at the Disneyland Hotel, we even got to ride the Monorail. A.J. discovered his favorite ride at Disneyland is the Matterhorn. We spent the day getting on all the rides we could before the lines got too long. By that evening, the crowds were so big and we were so tired that we sat on a bench near the castle and waited two hours for the firework show. We also bought A.J. a Mickey Mouse Light Saber that he just loves. He played with it for those two hours while we waited for the fireworks and kept the family next to us pretty entertained. This is my fourth time at Disneyland with the same firework show, but it is AMAZING so it's well worth it.


Monday was so windy. The Santa Ana's were blowing hard and shut down a bunch of rides at both parks. When the park opened, we rushed over to ride Finding Nemo. If you've been to the park in the last year, you know that this ride routinely has a 60 minute wait even just a few minutes after the park opens. We were in the first group that got on submarines and it was still 30 minutes before we got on the subs and went for the ride. I'll never wait for it again, but it is a cute ride.

It was really fun to be there in October when the park was all decked out for Halloween. The Haunted Mansion is transformed into the Nightmare before Christmas this time of year and it is very cleverly done. I am glad we rented it and let A.J. watch it a few times so he understood what was going on. They also have Woody's Halloween Roundup going. Over all, it was a great time to go. Although maybe not on the weekend because of the crowds and the weather could have been a bit better.

But I got my churro and my Dole whip so all is good. That is why I go to Disneyland ya know.

It was also our first time staying on property. The Disenyland Hotel was conveinent but you are really paying for the location, not the rooms. They were just fine, but nothing too spectacular. But it was really cool when Chip was standing over by the elevator one morning.I also forgot to mention that we finally saw the prize patrol, not once but twice. This is my fourth trip to the park since they started the prize patrol thing and I've never seen them before. This time we saw them twice. Once when we were leaving the hotel the first day and again the last day in Downtown Disney. We got a "Year of a Million Dreams" lanyard and pins and also a "Year of a Million Dreams" mouse ears. Not too shabby.

Read on to hear about the rest of our vacation. I'll post more about our other big news tomorrow.