Day 3
Packed our car once again and headed north on I-5, this time not getting lost. There is a sign along the freeway near San Clemente; it's a picture of a man, woman and child dashing like mad across the road. The sign has always made me chuckle because it looks kinda funny, but I had to wonder why this was the only place I saw this sign. Is this stretch of beach famous for boats pulling up and dropping immigrants off? Looking at both sides of the road, this area is pretty desolate; I can't imagine a whole lot of places to hide and evade the authorities.
Arrived in Anaheim at 11:30am, parked our car and headed directly to Disneyland. Went to Tarzan's treehouse first, and then on to Pirates of the Caribbean. Danielle, our two-year old, didn't like Pirates very much. Lots of dark & lots of loud noises don't jive too well with her. Next was the Haunted Mansion, where my wife took both the older girls with her, and Dani and I paired up. I thought for sure she'd freak on this ride, but she was laughing and clapping her hands. Next was Splash Mountain (Olivia mildly freaking out about getting wet), and then the Winnie the Pooh ride. This sits where the Bear Country Jamboree used to be. Then we rode the Matterhorn, Small World, etc.
McDonald's has concession stands in Disney theme parks, and it costs - no joke - nearly $4.00 for an order of fries. Needless to say, we walked to the McDonald's restaurant across the road from Disneyland and had dinner there. After returning to the hotel, three large tour buses pulled up into the parking lot, and hoards of teenagers poured out. I noticed that the buses were chartered out of Salt Lake, and found out that it was the Layton High School Choir on tour for their spring break. So yes, there was much noise at night, and little sleep because of it. That only lasted for two nights.
Days 4, 5, 6 & 7
There was much bouncing back and forth between the two parks (Magic Kingdom & California Adventure), waiting in lines, buying extremely overpriced food, etc. In California Adventure, McKay and Olivia rode the Grizzly Rapids ride and the Tower of Terror. Olivia, being ever so brave in actually going on these rides, emphatically declared that she would not be joining us for any repeat performances. McKay, however, thrived on the thrill attractions. I think she had bugs splattered on her teeth from smiling so big on the high-speed California Screamer roller coaster. By Thursday morning, we had all experienced a degree of Disney burnout, and decided to leave the park, take naps, then head to the beach for the afternoon. Huntington Beach was fun for all of us, until Dani ran out into the surf on her own and did a faceplant into the sand as the water flowed back from the beach. She had sand up her nose and all over her face, and she was furious. Just to make sure she wouldn't hate the ocean evermore, I carried her in my arms while I walked in the surf. She made happy noises and was quite animated when we would find a cool seashell, or dying insect. Tangent here - I find that Huntington Beach is a bit odd like this. When we visited three years ago, it was thousands upon thousands of tiny lobsters that were washing up on the beach and dying. This time, it was thousands of recently deserted seashells (small clam-like shells still connected in the middle, so it looks like butterfly wings), and thousands of dying bees right next to them. ..?... And the bees and shells are interrelated... how? But I digress. We drove back to Anaheim, and I was struck by the wonder of how people actually afford their lifestyles here in SoCal. Houses in Huntington Beach rent for anything between $2000 to $3000 monthly, and I see this preponderance of nice flashy cars that cost well over $40k, and I wonder.... how do they afford it?
Friday we started out in Magic Kingdom for a few rides, then out to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch, then into the Disney Mega-Store to do some shopping, then into California Adventure for the afternoon, as a small rainstorm parked itself over the park. Out of nowhere, hundreds of rain ponchos suddenly appeared as if people had actually planned on it raining! It reminded me of walking down a road in downtown London near the Metropolitan Art Museum. *Another Tangent Here* The road had been bustling with people walking up and down the sidewalk on their merry way to who knows where. We stopped a few minutes later when we realized there wasn't a soul in sight; everyone had disappeared. Then the rain came. Quite unannounced, it dropped by the bucketful right on top of us. We ran to a canopy a mere thirty feet away, and upon reaching it, were thoroughly soaked. Then, as quickly as it appeared, it moved along to torment some other unsuspecting tourists. The rain in California wasn't quite as nasty, so McKay and I just rode the attractions sans umbrellas or ponchos. The point of the tangent was: When you live in a place long enough, you subconsciously connect with your environment. Most of those people probably felt the humidity in the air and said "Pack the rain poncho!", or they could have just watched the weather report.
We returned to the Magic Kingdom Friday evening after dinner, and watched "Phantasmic" with the kids. After that was over, we went back to the hotel and zonked out, getting ready for the long drive back.
Saturday
After a brief sit in the hot-tub to relax the aching leg and lower back muscles (who knew that walking through Disneyland would be such a cardiovascular & muscular task?), we piled into the car and headed home, stopping briefly here and there for heavily sugared and caffeinated drinks, as well as potty stops. On our lunch break in Barstow, we were sitting in Subway when about 50 teenagers come barreling through the door. I looked up and asked the nearest one "You're not from Layton High School, are you?" "Why YES!" "Um, ..er, right then." It had to be cosmic coincidence that they would come crashing into our little world again.
We made it home several hours later, with little incident. When we arrived, we found out that my wife's flowers - all of which were threatening to bloom just as we left, were indeed in full bloom now, and looked gorgeous. However, just a mere 20 minutes after arriving, our annual gale-force-knock-over-your-fence-and-tear-your-very-roof-off winds started howling. Luckily, the damage was minimal, and only a few of the flowers were shredded this time. Sunday was spent largely sleeping and recovering from the trip until about 5pm, when we discovered McKay had brought back a rather unintended and very undesirable souvenir: Head Lice. The next 5 hours were then spent shampooing, scrubbing, spraying, vacuuming, combing, disinfecting, etc. I need a vacation from my vacation. Feh.
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