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By infmom, December 4, 2009 4:27 pm

So, next year I hit the Big Six Oh.  This year, we went to Disneyland.  

A few weeks ago I found The Disneyland Encyclopedia at the library.  It’s a fascinating compendium of everything that’s been at Disneyland from the beginning to sometime last year (a few things have changed since then).  When we figured out that yes, we could afford to go this year, I went out and bought our own copy of the book.  It was well worth the investment.

I made copies of all the maps in the front of the book, and then marked the attractions we wanted to get a better look at, and we took those pages along with us rather than toting the whole book.  Thus, we spent probably 60% of the day walking around looking at interesting stuff, 30% riding rides and 10% eating.  We’ve been to Disneyland multiple times, but there was still a lot to look at that we’d never seen before.

For some reason, we’d never really gotten around to going into the shops that are on the right hand side of Main street as you walk toward the castle.  Made up for that this time around, and then some.  We found the Disney Gallery, which is now right next to the right-hand gate and much expanded from when it was upstairs over the Pirates.  We were delighted to see that the Big Thunder BBQ had been revived, but disgusted to find out what it costs these days (ate dinner at Casa del Zocalo instead).   I was dismayed to find out that the Jack Sparrow mouse ears I’d passed up buying two years ago were discontinued.  Pfui.  I did buy a pin with Minnie (my favorite character) as Princess Leia, though.

The benches in the center of the circle right by the entrance were amazingly empty when it came time for the Christmas parade, and thus we got to see it from nice comfortable seats instead of cold, hard pavement.  This is a definite plus for an old lady like me. 

We even braved It’s A Small World for the first time since we had small children.  They’d mixed Jingle Bells in with the usual music so it didn’t turn into an earworm.  And we got out just in time for the fireworks, and right by Small World is one of the best, and least crowded, places to watch.

We were there from about 45 minutes after the park opened till about 20 minutes past closing time.  I don’t think we’ve ever stayed that long.  And, thanks to the book, we never ran out of things to do.

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By infmom, December 5, 2007 12:46 am

Both my kids completely forgot my birthday this year. I am finding it very hard not to brood about this.

However, I did get a good birthday party in the form of F’zer’s company holiday wingding. He works for an outfit that really knows how to throw a party, and we had a great time. I even went out and blew $40 on cosmetics ahead of time, for the first time in years. And was pleased to note that I hadn’t, after all, forgotten how it all worked.

I wanted to go to Disneyland on my birthday during their 50th anniversary year. My mother has always said that I watched the opening of Disneyland on TV, but I don’t remember it. (And I don’t think it was possible, because we didn’t have a TV at that point.) But it makes a good story.

Unfortunately, my father-in-law died in early November of that year, so we had other things on our minds. And last year it didn’t work out for one reason or another. But this year, we got to go. And it was just as much fun as I thought it would be.

Disneyland, when all is said and done, is not exactly for kids. The lines are too long, and some of the rides are all about stuff that kids might have known about in 1955, but not today (how many modern kids have read The Wind in the Willows or Tom Sawyer?) It’s mainly for people who wished they could go to Disneyland when they were kids. There were a lot of us in attendance on Monday, that’s for sure.

We got to see the sights and ride the rides. I liked the changes in the Pirates, not so much the changes in the Haunted Mansion (which I’ve been told are just seasonal). We found the quietest, least crowded, least expensive place to eat lunch–White Water Snacks inside one of the hotels in Downtown Disney–and when we were finished, two marvelous things happened. A calico cat appeared on the patio outside. And a small bird flew in through the open door and then couldn’t get out and smacked into a window. I was able to walk over, cup it gently in my hands, stroke its feathers lightly and then take it outside and release it.

We were on our way out from Disneyland to go to California Adventure when the daily retiring of the colors ceremony started, so we stayed to watch that. And then we got on the train for one loop around the park, and were returned to Main Street just as the parade came marching through. We had a great view of that from the area by the stairs to the train station.

In California Adventure, we took in the two best attractions (Soaring, and the Muppet show) right away, and then F’zer went and did the stuff that scares the crap out of me (the Tower and the ferris wheel) while I stayed happily on the ground and browsed through the shops and watched the Disneyland fireworks over top of the buildings.

We were pleasantly worn out by the end of the day. I was asleep less than an hour after we got home. As birthday celebration goes… it was worth the wait.

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