The Happiest Place on Earth

Mom and I flew to Los Angeles, CA.  I flew on American Airlines because I had to use up a flight I didn’t use to come home from Nashville, TN last year.  Mom flew on Delta Airlines.  We got in to Los Angeles about a half an hour apart.

Mom and I picked up the rental car and drove straight to Disneyland in Anaheim, CA.  We parked the car, got the wheelchair, and rode on the shuttle to the main gate.  Mom and I picked up our tickets at the gate and entered Disneyland!  I love Disneyland!  Disneyland was decorated for Halloween.  Normally, I hate Halloween and everything associated with it, but i made an exception for Disneyland.  It was so fun seeing it all decorated with pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, the characters dressed up, etc. 

 

 

Our first stop was Tomorrowland.  (I think everyone’s first stop is Tomorrowland!)  We sat through Captain EO while we made our plan for the rest of the day.  Captain EO is freaky!  Our first ride was Space Mountain.  We rode it twice.  We loved it!  It had some aliens, black cats, and eyeballs added in for Halloween.  We rode Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters.  I won by a long shot!   

 

Then we went to Fantasyland.  We rode the Matterhorn.  I loved that ride!  We watched a parade of all the Disney princesses.  We rode Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and Snow White’s Scary Adventure.

Then we went over to California Adventure.  We rode Tower of Terror twice back-to-back.  We loved that ride!  Mom and I watched the Aladdin show but it was lame!  That was an hour of my life at the park I was never going to get back.  We rode Soarin’ Over California.  It was the longest line we waited in!  We walked through It’s A Bug’s Life but didn’t stop.  We shared clam chowder in a bread bowl from Boudin’s Bakery.  I was a hot mess and spilled a few times on myself.  Oh well, I was at the happiest place on earth!  California Screamin’ roller coaster was closed.  The line was always too long for Toy Story Mania so we never rode it.
We waited awhile in line to ride Mickey’s Fun Wheel which was the ferris wheel.  After our ride, I like to call it Mickey’s Fun Wheel of Death!  Since it was getting close to the time to close down the ride, they were putting smaller groups together in the ferris wheel baskets.  They directed Mom and me into a basket.  We quickly got in and sat down.  We were facing two large people and their two year old son.  One of those people probably weighed the equivalent of both Mom and me combined, and there were two of them!  As we went up the ferris wheel, our basket swung in.  Each time the ferris wheel stopped to let people on and off, our basket swung like crazy!  I thought if ever the basket was going to swing upside-down, this would be the time.  When our basket swung, Mom and I looked straight down at the other people’s faces!  All the while, I had a painted on smile acting like I loved it!  I was never so grateful for solid ground as I was when I got off the ferris wheel!

Mom and I saw the last show of World of Color that evening.  It was awesome!  It was kind of like Fantasmic meets the Bellagio Hotel fountains.  I really liked it.  The park was closing when World of Color ended, but I talked Mom into going on Tower of Terror one last time.  I really wanted to go on it in the dark!  Mom and I ended up being in the LAST elevator shaft of the night!  It was so awesome!  It was the best ride we went on all day!

The park had been closed for about 45 minutes by the time we got off the ride.  As we walked back to the shuttles, the music in the park was really loud because most of the people were gone.  I feel that we got our money’s worth the first day as we spent twelve hours in the park.  All in a hard day of play!

The next day, Mom and I got up about 8 AM.  We quickly got ready for the day, ate breakfast, grabbed some food for the park, and drove back to Disneyland.  We spent most of the day in Disneyland since we got most of the rides done the previous day in California Adventure.  Our first stop was Frontierland.  We went to the Haunted Mansion first because that seemed to be the ride with the longest wait throughout the day.  The workers saw my wheelchair and let us go in the back way so we didn’t have to wait very long.  The outside and inside of the Haunted Mansion was decorated for Halloween with the theme from the movie ‘Twas the Nightmare Before Christmas.  It was pretty cool to see it with different decorations.  We actually rode it twice, back-to-back.

 

Our next ride was Splash Mountain because I wanted to have plenty of time to dry before the sun went down.  (It was a little chilly at night.)  Mom and I thought we had a great spot in the log because we were on the side-by-side bench in the back and we had an extra large man in front of us.  We thought we were totally going to remain dry.  Of course, that was too good to be true.  I got the wettest because the water went up and over the side.  The large man was no water shield!  I was grateful to only be wet on the left side of my body and it actually dried pretty quickly.  We rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad twice because there wasn’t a line.  (That helped to dry my clothes too!)  Mom rode the Indian Jones ride alone because I was too short to ride it.  We rode the Jungle Cruise and went in the Tiki Room.

I met up with my friend Matt at the Princess Fantasy Faire.  (Matt worked at Disneyland.)  He was just finishing up a coronation ceremony with the Disney princesses and all the spoiled brats who thought they were princesses.  Matt told one of the princess’s stories, and then he had a lunch break.  We just sat in the amphitheater where the Princess Fantasy Faire was held and talked.  It was so good to see him!  He told me funny stories while he ate his lunch.  I loved chatting with him.  He had to get back to work and spread more magic so Mom and I continued on our day of experiencing the magic!

Forgot to take picture with Matt at Disney so enjoy from 2009!

 We went to Toontown even though I was convinced that was a waste of time.  There were WAY too many kids there for my liking.  We rode Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin and Gadget’s Go Coaster.  We timed Gadget’s Go Coaster and it was 30 seconds long.  Woo hoo!  We went to Innoventions which was boring.  Then we rode Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters again.  Mom won this time!  We decided whoever sits on the left wins.  We rode Space Mountain two more times.   

 

We decided to head back to California Adventure for a few hours.  We rode Tower of Terror again.  We rode Ariel’s Undersea Adventure.  We waited in line for a half an hour for Soarin’ Over California but then gave up because the line was NOT MOVING!
We went back to Disneyland and ate dinner at Pizza Port.  We were starving!  We watched Fantasmic.  I loved Fantasmic!  I think I have the whole thing memorized.  Mom and I watched the fireworks above Sleeping Beauty’s castle.  They were awesome!  We rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad twice.
We shut down the park in Fantasyland.  We were hoping most of the families with small children (that mostly make up Fantasyland) would have left after Fantasmic and the fireworks.  A lot did!  We rode Peter Pan’s Flight, Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Pinocchio’s Daring Journey, and ended with King Arthur’s Carousel.  We left the park at midnight.  We had a great time at Disneyland!

 

 

 

 

Mom and I slept in.  We ate breakfast at the hotel.  We attended church in Anaheim.  We drove to the temple in Newport Beach.  We walked around the temple grounds.  It was a beautiful temple!  I wished we had more time to go inside on a different day.   

 

We drove to the beach in Newport Beach.  We drove to the South Coast Plaza Shopping Center in Costa Mesa, CA where we met up with my friend Eric.  (I met Eric fourteen years earlier on the Alaskan Cruise I took after I graduated from high school.  He worked on the cruise ship and we became fast friends.  I found him on Facebook about a year and a half ago.)  It was so good to see him after all these years!  In my mind, we look the same as we did back then.  (See pictures below for reality.)  Mom, Eric, and I ate dinner at The Corner Bakery.  We caught each other up on the last fourteen years of our lives.  He was married to a beautiful woman and they have two daughters.  He worked a desk job and was just loving life.  It was SO GOOD to see him after all these years!  We had a great visit!   

2011

1997 Time hasn't changed us!

Mom and I walked across the street and saw Shrek the Musical at the Orange County Performing Arts Center.  It was different (on a smaller scale) than what we had seen on Broadway.  It was still cute!
The next day, I was going to get together with my friend Lina but she had to film a commercial that day.  I was sad I didn’t get to see her.  Mom and I decided to use our free time before we flew home to do some retail therapy!  We went to some factory outlet stores between LA and Anaheim.  We didn’t buy much but we enjoyed the sunshine.  The freeway to the rental car agency was blocked so we had to find a different route.  It set us back A LOT of time!  Who knew it would take an hour and a half to go less than twenty miles?!  Only in LA!  We quickly took the shuttle from the rental car agency to the airport.  I got off the shuttle first at the American Airlines Terminal while Mom got off at the Delta Airlines Terminal.  Mom’s flight left about a half an hour earlier than mine.  She kept saying on the shuttle that she was going to miss her flight.  I told her to stop being a Debby-downer and that she would make her flight.  She got through security quickly, grabbed her shoes and her stuff and ran to her gate.  She totally made her flight!  I knew she would!  Once she got on the plane, she put her shoes on.  Mom and I met up in Salt Lake City.  I had a great weekend at the Happiest Place on Earth and visiting with friends.  I looked forward to returning soon.