And now, the REST of the story!

Entrance into the California Adventure

After a full night's sleep and a good breakfast, we ventured forth the next morning (Thursday) anticipating the long entry into what we now considered Mickey and Friends Gargantuan Garage of Massive Acreage. It actually only took 30 minutes on Friday to make the same jaunt so we were encouraged. Our plan was to explore virgin territory aka California Adventure. Perhaps it's because we had nothing to gauge it by but our experience started out more fun than the previous day! We headed straight for the Paradise Pier to see if we thought we could stomach the huge roller coaster, California Screamin', which is the focal point of the entire park. We looked at it, were uncertain about riding, got Fast Passes (just in case) and then went to ride the huge Ferris Wheel called Mickeys Fun Wheel - and it's not your typical Ferris Wheel. We got on one of the free floating cars, not one of the stationary, non-swinging ones. What a TRIP! Great fun!! Still undecided about Screamin' so went to ride Mulholland Madness, Soarin' (which is just like the one in WDW, one of my absolute favorite rides!), and the Monster's, Inc. Sulley and Mike to the Rescure Ride. We were still undecided about Screamin' so decided to run back over to Disneyland and go on some rides we'd missed the day before. Small World was fun (and a bit different with an outside loading dock and Disney story characters throughout). You cannot leave ANY Disney park without going on the Small World ride - it's traditional! We waited over 50 minutes for the Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin - okay, but not really worth the wait in our opinion. Then we walked back over to CA for our dinner reservation at the Wine Country Tratorria. We then waited about an hour to go on Toy Story 3-D Mania and it was worth every minute of waiting - what a FUN RIDE!! We would have gone on it again if the wait hadn't been so long, and, of course, they were one of the non-FastPass rides. Sigh...

Aladdin and Jasmine in Small World

Alice in Wonderland - Small World

Mulholland Madness

We decided neither of us was brave enough to go on Screamin' so scoped out the crowd and offered our FastPasses to two unsuspecting, but VERY grateful youngsters. Well, they were probably in their late 20s, early 30s, but when you're in your 50s, anything 40 and under is "youngsters" to us. We'd been in the Parks about 10 hours by now - our feet were beginning to protest so decided to do a bit of shopping in Downtown Disney before heading "home" to the Marriott.

"Mikey Mouse"

Saturday was very laid back with sleeping in, late breakfast, leisurely coffee drinking and massaging sore feet. :) We drove to an outdoor premiere shopping center called Fashion Island in Newport Beach after enjoying a FANTASTIC In-and-Out Burger lunch. I did a little bit of shopping and we got Mike's watchband repaired and then headed back to Anaheim as we had a dinner reservation at the Napa Rose restaurant at California Adventure's Grand Californian Resort (lots of "California" bandied about this place!). We've always enjoyed the California Grill at the top of the Contemporary Hotel at WDW and wondered if this would be as good.

Paradise Pier at California Adventure in daylight

Oh. My. Word. "Good" doesn't even begin to describe how fantastic the food was at this place! The food was an experience. The service was, in Mike's words, "impeccable". The ambiance was intimate and the decor stunning with huge picture windows with Arts & Crafts style stained glass overlooking a beautiful garden. The evening was PERFECT! They even wrote "Happy Anniversary" in chocolate on our dessert plates. Those fillets were so tender, they cut like butter. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED should you ever go to Disneyland! Afterwords, we walked back to Disneyland and rode Alice in Wonderland before doing a little shopping. We wanted to ride several of the long-term rides (Toad's Wild Ride, Peter Pan, Snow White, etc.) but they were either closed for some reason or the lines were over an hour (it WAS Friday night and the parks were jammed with locals). We then positioned ourselves to watch the Celebrate Disney fireworks display which began at 9:25pm. We found a spot to wait and then Cast Members roped off the area putting us front and center of a perfect viewing area without any obstruction. I got to visiting with a family from Liverpool who were there "on holiday" and had been to both the Florida and now California Disney Parks. They were very friendly and the time passed quickly before the spectacular fireworks display. A perfect ending to a perfect day!

Sunday we attended services at the Orange View church of Christ in Anaheim followed by another lunch at In-and-Out burgers. Oh I wish we had these restaurants in Texas!! Where else can you get two good old-fashioned cheeseburgers, fries, sodas and shakes for $13.98?? Then we drove up and down the coastal highway, looking at the architecture, houses, shopping, shoppers, beaches and the ocean (of course!). It really is a beautiful place from Newport Beach down to Laguna Beach. I can understand why people would want to live there from an aesthetic standpoint. Huge trees line the streets - and the streets were very clean and free from litter. I was in the mood for Mexican for dinner so we tried to get to the one in Downtown Disney but the queues for parking were enormous so we just started driving around the Anaheim area and found what looked like a chain restaurant called El Torito. It was very good! Everything was fresh, flavors were different from TexMex and the service very good. We shared a pineapple upside down cake for dessert - something I've never seen in any restaurant before let alone a Mexican one! It was light and perfect and made me want to go home and bake one.

Paradise Pier at Dusk - so very pretty and nostalgic

I'm not sure what we expected California to be like but I guess we had, in the back of our minds, a not-so-pretty picture probably based on the crime dramas we like to watch on TV. And I'm sure LA and other places are like that presupposition. But the areas we were in were gorgeous, well maintained, clean - and the people friendly. One thing that was VERY noticeable about the Disneyland Parks was the relatively modest dress compared to what is seen (or NOT seen, depending on how you, ahem, "look at it") in the Florida parks. You can get "quite an eyeful" in Florida as well as some questionable slogans/pictures on T-shirts. But other than a few low necklines, the California park attendees were relatively modest! Not to put the Europeans down, but we hypothesis that this observation might be due to the large numbers of Europeans that visit the Florida parks while the California parks had more Asian visitors - predominantly Japanese from what we could tell. Considering how "liberal" California is and all the hype with Hollywood and the "stars", we expected something different and were pleasingly surprised to find the parks more "family friendly" when it came to dressing.

Mike taking a business call

A Wife's Guide on "How to handle business calls when on vacation" - proven methods for sucess

We had a really wonderful time on our trip, getting away from "it all", getting time alone - Mike only took ONE call when he was there! No conference calls at 6am (which would have been 4am in California now that I think about it), no email syncing, only one "I need to take this call and then make one call" which was quite a feat for him! The only thing I would have changed about the vacation was our hotel - the Marriott was lovely and we had no complaints about it - it just wasn't "on property" at Disney which is something that definitely makes a difference to your stay if you're a Disneyphile like we are.

Happy Campers!

I hope to get some photos from our drive down the coastal highway this week so again, stay tuned.

So there you have it.

But I still keep hoping for a breakfast buffet to appear each morning. And the maid doesn't show up while I'm gone during the day. What's with that??

The West Coast Mouse vs. the East Coast Mouse

Thursday was our actual anniversary date. We were exhausted from the combination of a 2 hour time change and the late arrival but headed to Disneyland in our rental car early to supposedly beat the crowds. Now this is where I need to point out our long and loving history with Walt Disney World in Florida. From the first time we went, in 1980, when the only park was the Magic Kingdom, it's been love at first sight. From then on, we took the kids on a regular basis, first every 4 years, then every other year to annually when we lived in Trinidad. In May 2002 we bought into the Disney Vacation Club and thus cemented our relationship with The Mouse. Our children have honeymooned there, we've enjoyed "first visits" of grandchildren, special times all. There is just something totally thrilling to drive into the property, see the huge archways with "Welcome to Walt Disney World", drive to our resort and be welcomed by the staff as we check in. You just shed the outside world and let the magic roll over you as you drive in. And, staying "on property", that feeling just stays and with great sadness you bid it farewell when you have to finally return to the real world.

Driving to Disneyland - a wee bit different! First of all, Disneyland was built back in 1955 (hmm, so was Mike!) in city limits of Anaheim (not Mike - that would have had to be Sacramento). Then the addition of the California Adventure (taking over the original Disneyland parking lot) maximized the park size. Further additions to both parks puts the boundaries right to the surrounding city streets. So as you drive there, you literally see the BACK of the park and it's attractions - and that's just plain weird. And, now that the original lot is gone, where do all those park attendees, well, park?? In a HUGE 6 story garage (SO not-magical!) that is as big or bigger than a football field. It took 10 minutes to drive down Harbor Blvd to Ball Street following the signs to the "Mickey and Friends" garage. It took 30-40 minutes to ENTER the garage and park and another 15 minutes to walk to the escalators to the trams and be driven get to the parks. That's an hour folks. One. Solid. Hour. I wasn't feeling the magic...







Once you get to the unloading area, you are at a center point where "all roads lead to Rome" - Disneyland is on your left, California Adventure on your right, and Downtown Disney behind you. We opted for Disneyland for Day One. It was a little surreal to be there after so much history with Disney World - it was so similar to WDW but yet different. So mentally, the auto-pilots kept trying to kick in but the reality kept us checked. Little things like getting off of a ride that is also at WDW and wanting to go on another one that IS in WDW but NOT at Disneyland. So that was disorienting. The Haunted Mansion is about the same as far as the ride goes but the house exterior in Disneyland is a Creole Southern Plantation vs. the Gothic Mansion in WDW . Don't get me wrong, we had a really enjoyable time but coming off of the short night and the whole "it's the same but different" thing, we felt a bit off balance that first day.



After getting our bearings, we rode a lot of the rides including Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (where I beat Mike by over 100,000 points, I might add), Finding Nemo, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Autopia, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Storybook Land Canal Boats. We ate a wonderful evening meal at the Blue Bayou restaurant which is actually IN the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.


Mike at the Blue Bayou Restaurant - he's holding up the menu but I like looking at HIM more!

Oh, and Sleeping Beauty's castle is tee-nine-ie compared to Cinderella's Castle at WDW. But given the historical price of real estate in California, I'd wager Sleeping Beauty's California Castle costs tons more than Cinderella's - not that zillow.com is going to divulge THAT information! I'm just sayin'...although with the recent decline in housing prices overall in California, I do wonder! Location, location, location.



After our dinner, we opted to return to the hotel via Downtown Disney as our feet were killing us. We wandered about and enjoyed all the street musicians there - almost bought some CDs, they were so good. We walked all the way to the Grand Californian Resort and the other Disney "on property" hotels and, as mentioned before, the feet were trash talking about us at this point. So we got the "brilliant" idea to just walk to the garage since we could see it from where we were. Bad idea. We should have just turned around and walked back to the tram area and ridden back. But no, we decided to hoof it - after all, we could SEE the garage (but then so could anyone within miles since it's so tall and huge and all). Twenty minutes later we got to the garage and, rather than walking to the escalator that take you to your floor (there are three that service two floors each), I decide the stairs would be better (even though we were parked on the fourth floor and, oh, did I mention our feet were killing us??). Stupid me, I was wearing those FitFlop sandals (which have open toes). On the first flight of stairs, I get my footing wrong and ram my left foot onto the next step and cut it on the metal edging of the step. I just thought I'd bruised it but when I got to the hotel I saw it was bleeding and evidently I'd sliced it. OUCH! Lots of soap and water and Neosporin later, I was all fixed up and decided to heed the safety advice I've always given everyone else and wear closed toe shoes from then on.

Sorry for sounding like a "Debbie Downer" at times - the first day just caught us off guard. I think it was just like when we moved to London the first time - we thought it had to be like America since we spoke the same language, right? WRONG! So Disneyland had to be like Disney World because, shoot, they're both Disney, right? Wrong AGAIN! So our expectation was flawed due to our familiarity with the East Coast Mouse and incorrect assumptions. And not staying "on property" as we do in Florida impacted our experience as well. The West Coast Mouse is just fine - he's just, well, WEST!

The next day was MUCH better and I'll report all to you in due course! Stay tuned.

Oh, and my toe is healing nicely, thank you for asking.


Our "room with a view" - we could see the Disneyland fireworks from here.