Our Disneyland Trip

The boys and I arrived home from Disneyland nearly two weeks ago. We had a great time. The trip included my mom, my nephew Caleb, Ivana (a Slovakian exchange student staying the year with my parents), my two boys, and myself. The drive (yes we drove!) was uneventful. We left Vancouver at 3:30am on Sunday morning, and drove all the way to Solvang, California that day. We stayed the night there and the next day we leisurely made our way to Anaheim, stopping along the way at Santa Claus Beach outside Santa Barbara so that Ivana could see the Pacific Ocean for the very first time!

It was very fun to experience that with her. While the kids were playing in the surf we saw a small pod of dolphins swimming about 50 feet away! After that stop we detoured through Beverly Hills and Hollywood to see some of the sites, including the famous Hollywood sign before driving to our hotel in Anaheim. Tuesday morning we enjoyed breakfast with some characters at Goofy's Kitchen. The food was very good (although definitely not low fat!) and the characters visited us right at our table. There was a chance to bang a few pots and pans with Goofy, and a little magic performed by Peter Pan. It was lots of fun and worth the expense in my opinion. With our bellies full, we headed over to Disneyland, and spent the whole day there in the park. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was the favorite ride of Grandma, Caleb and Ben. I did get Cooper on it once, but only by bribing him with the prospect of picking out a souvenir after the ride. He agreed, we got in line, he tried to change his mind, but in the end he rode it. He was a bit scared, but when it was over he agreed that it was a little fun, but refused to go again!
Wednesday was spent mostly in California Adventure and the favorite ride of the day was Grizzly River Rapids. Fortunately it was sunny and about 80 degrees, because we got wet! Thursday we drove to San Diego to go to Sea World. It was a very chilly 50 degrees that day, which allowed us to have our pick of "splash zone" seats at the Shamu show. What a great show! It really amazed me how smart those killer whales are.

Sea World was neat, but it was a little difficult to enjoy after we got wet. The highlight of that day for me was feeding the dolphins. I plunked down the ten bucks for eight tiny fish just for the once in a lifetime oppurtunity to put them into the mouth of a porpoise. It was very cool. The dolphins come right up to the wall, you pat them on their nose then toss a fish right into their mouth. It is necessary to get it right into their mouth, otherwise the scavneger birds snatch them right away.
Friday we spent the day in between Disneyland and California Adventure. That afternoon Cooper and I escaped away for a bit in search of his favorite characters. He patiently waited in line for 20 minutes for the chance to snuggle Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. What a treat that was for me to see the joy in his face upon meeting his 100 Acre Woods friends. Later that afternoon, while my mom took Cooper and Caleb back to the hotel for dinner and a rest, Ben and I headed over to tackle the ominous Hollywood Tower of Terror. We had been over a few times to ride, but the line had been over 45 minutes each time with no FastPasses available. This time there was a 10 minute wait. So we psyched ourselves up and headed in (actually I psyched myself up and had to bribe Ben with the promise of hot cocoa after the ride). IT WAS SOOO SCARY! There is nothing that compares to the "out of your control" feeling that you experience while free falling with only a seatbelt holding you down. The ride ended and it took serious effort on my part to get my jello legs to work. We then proceeded to ride it two more times before heading off for overpriced Hot Cocoa.
Saturday it was time to pack it up and start the long journey home. We had a great week and were very blessed to have had the oppurtunity to go. Grandma (my mom) has made the trip so many times with her grandchildren (that was her 7th trip!) that she has become quite the expert. She buys each of the kids a fanny pack to carry a lunch into the park with them, and puts dinner in her crockpot each morning so that it is ready when we get back to the hotel in the evenings. It was so great to be able to save money by not having to buy the park food, and it made it possible to have little treats like the carmel apple that Coop and I shared while waiting in line to see Pooh, or the Hot Cocoa that was way overpriced. My boys and my nephew were so well behaved and I really enjoyed having the oppurtunity to steal a little time away with each of the boys seperately. Thanks for the great week mom!