Vacation...Had to Get Away

Had to get away...to Disneyland!  The happiest place on earth! You can call me the cheesiest person on earth but I actually believe that.  I am not a cynical, every-thing-here-costs-too-much attender of Disney, I am a full-fledged, I-believe-in-magic, roller-coaster riding, character-seeing Disney enthusiast!!  The place really is magic.  The magic that you see in your child's eyes as she sees Tinkerbell face to face or as she is asking us to look at every single dancing doll on "It's a Small World".  My a-ha moment is this:  Caroline squeals in delight when she meets Ariel or when she is getting soaked on Splash Mountain. Woody and I then make eye contact over the top of her head, and without saying a word we know exactly what the other one is thinking, "This is why we came here, this is why you use your hard-earned cash to buy tickets, souvenirs, another stuffed animal (yes, another one!).  At that moment, we feel like good parents.  And we can't wait until Cooper gets old enough to go himself, it's a Christmas morning feeling that I feel when I see her eyes sparkle at fireworks or dance in a character parade.  So there it is, we hit DisneyLand in Anaheim, California with enough zeal to start our on fireworks show, now let me give you some details.

Caroline, me, Angie, and Olivia riding teacups.  Woody doesn't do Teacups!

We rent a Suburban and drive from San Diego to Anaheim when the conference is over.  There are six of us, 4 adults and 2 little girls.  I am a bit skeptical that all of our luggage is going to fit in this vehicle, and am thinking we maybe should have just rented a U-Haul, but miraculously it does and we are settled in comfortably for our short 80 mile trip up the freeway.  The ride is uneventful and we check into our hotel in Anaheim about 2 miles from the entrance of Disneyland.  It is already afternoon at this point and we, of course, use our spare time to check out the swimming pool. It is a bit warmer here and Woody and Caroline get in the big pool. Still a bit too cold for me to swim, so I happily sit, watch, and relax, knowing what a high impact day we have planned on the morrow.  Eat, swim, bathe, and get ready for bed, and eagerly anticipate our arrival at Disney early in the morning.  Caroline falls asleep pretty quickly, after a little TV time, Woody and I turn off the light to go to sleep around 10:00.  At 10:30, my head pops up with a start.  Someone is drilling into our bathroom.  Or at least that is what it sounds like.  As I clear my head and really listen, I realized that the maintenance man is snaking out the drain on the tub of the room next door to ours.  In the middle of the night.  (You can't make this stuff up)  I hear him drill, then run water to test, then drill again.  This goes on for about 10 minutes because any minute we think that he is going to stop, and the slow or stopped up drain will be successfully unclogged.  No, he is persistent.  Woody finally calls the front desk and asks them politely if they could possibly perform plumbing maintenance during the day. Soon after, he stops.  I am fully awake now, and do not fall asleep until after midnight.

However nothing can quell our excitement the next morning as we enter: Disneyland!!!  We ride as much as we can, see as much as we can, and eat as much as we can for the next 13 straight hours!!  You heard me, 13 hours.  We do sit down the last hour and simply wait for the fireworks show.  Everyone's feet and legs were screaming protest enough at this point for us to heed what they were saying. Before this plop down, we rode every fast pass ride in the Magic Kingdom, met Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, Ariel, Tiana, Jasmine, and a host of others, and pretty much did anything else the girls wanted to do.  (One time you may have caught the parents catching a seat in the shade inside Donald's boat!) 

Woody and Caroline catching a breather outside Roger Rabbit in Toontown.

The next day we were at it again. We went back to the Magic Kingdom to ride Space Mountain and meet Tinkerbell and a few of her buddies.  Then we headed over to California Adventures.  This is the other park at Disneyland and it is all about California.  When you walk in the gate, you are greeted with songs pertaining the Golden State (California Girls, Do You Know the way to San Jose? Wasn't surprised by the Beach Boys, wouldn't have predicted Dionne Warwick)  We rode a few rides, ate...again.  And headed over to the part they call Paradise Pier.  The top photo is the scene from afar.  It is set up like a circa 1900 California amusement park/boardwalk and it is neat.  We waited in line a loooong time to ride Toy Story over there, but it was worth it!!

Our vacation is now drawing to a close, but it was lots of fun. I missed Cooper terribly and I loved hearing his sweet voice on the phone.  I don't think that he missed us much at all!!  He had a blast playing with PawPaw and Pug's and  had fun the last weekend at Danna and Pop's.  He probably enjoyed having all the attention and not having to split it with Sissy! Here's a picture of Cooper having so much fun at his birthday, so he will be included in the post.

Of course, it wouldn't be us if the last night in California just went off free and easy.  We get back to hotel and see lots of young teenage boys in baseball uniforms.  Our hotel is hosting all the teams in the 13 year old Pony League World Series.  Four teams from the USA and one team each from Mexico and the Bahamas.  Let me tell you something about 13 year old boys, they are loud at the pool.  Here I am again, 10:30 at night (we have to get up the next morning at 4:30 a.m sharp)  listening to "MARCO" , and the response, "POLO".  I dreamed about it AFTER I went to sleep around midnight.  That's OK.  Tomorrow I was leaving on a jet plane to sweet home Alabama and my sweet, jolly Cooper!

So that's it.  That's our summer adventure, 2010.  The kind of vacation that you need a vacation from...oh wait, that's true with all of them, isn't it?