Here We Are!

Yesterday, I posted a blog, but somehow the internet didn't work, and so I tried to post it from Word, but it didn't work either.  There wasn't much to say, because all we did yesterday was DRIVE.  GPS Jill got us miserably lost in Alameda and then tried to send us into the Pacific Ocean in Los Angeles, and I agree with Esther that she needs to be scuttled.  All she does is make me doubt myself when I figure out where we're going on the good old paper map.  Suffice it to say, Los Angeles is huge and I can't imagine how people here cope with the traffic!  I thought my commute was bad.

We arrived at our hotel in Anaheim at about 9 p.m. yesterday and it is right across from Disneyland which is great.  Right now, William and Anthony are frolicking in the pool as we take a break from the park.  After we arrived and checked in we took a walk along "Hotel Row" and watched the fireworks.  William was wild with excitement and couldn't wait for this morning.  He suggested we get up at 6 so we could be at the gates of Disneyland at 7:30 for its eventual opening at 8.  We all blearily agreed, since we were in a weakened condition after all that driving.

Six o'clock came pretty early, but we did get up and had breakfast and headed over to Disneyland as William suggested.  It was a good idea, because for the first couple of hours it wasn't that crowded and we got to go on all the rides we had decided were "must do's" back in Port Moody when we were studying the guide books:  Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain (with a five story drop which absolutely terrified me, but thrilled the lads who chose to have a second ride), the Jungle Cruise, the Haunted Mansion, the raft to Tom Sawyer's Island, Davy Crockett's Canoes and lots of other stuff.  I liked Tom Sawyer's Island the best, William liked Splash Mountain, Anthony Indiana Jones and Mike said he just liked all of us being there.  I am not a big Disney fan, but it is beautifully organized and I'm so impressed by the attention to detail in all the rides.  The Indiana Jones ride (and I've never seen the movies, believe it or not!) really does make you feel like you're an archeologist trekking into a strange and fascinating new world with all sorts of artifacts to look at and glimpses of strange things that make you think, "what was that?"  We've talked about what rides we would add if we could.  Right now, we're reading Inkheart together and we thought that would make a cool experience, when you read a book and everything comes alive!  I don't know how you'd accomplish it though.  I guess that's what Walt Disney himself envisioned when he thought of Disneyland -- what stories he liked when he was a kid and how you could experience them in a kind of virtual reality.  I can never think of Walt Disney without thinking of him "naming names" to the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, but I do understand the desire to recreate these stories like Tom Sawyer that he loved so that you could almost feel like you were part of the story.

 We had reserved a table at the Blue Bayou Restaurant in the New Orleans part of the park for lunch and it was delicious (and expensive!) -- we all had a nice spicy gumbo to start and then the men ate huge plates of meat and I had the vegetarian coucous.  The Pirates of the Caribbean ride goes right past the restaurant and it felt like we were part of the atmosphere of the ride.  I really like the New Orleans recreation -- of course, they have a Dixieland Jazz band playing and it's very evocative of what I imagine New Orleans to be, but not as cool as the real thing, of course.  I like a little grit in my atmosphere!

We saw a fun play at the Golden Horseshoe -- the actors were great.  Of course, I always think of them having to say "oh, I'm playing Cletus in Disneyland's Golden Horseshoe this summer" after they've spent years studying Shakespeare and Brecht and Checkov, but at least they're working.

We will return tonight to have more rides and explore more of the park.  This morning we focused on Adventureland and Frontierland, so this evening we plan to visit Tomorrowland and Fantasyland!  What "Land" would you like if you could add one to Disneyland?