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Our
Disneyland Trip
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On
April 21st, the family took a road trip down to Disneyland in sunny
California. We were just there for one week, but it was one heck of
a week! The ride down wasn't too bad (total 17-18 hours of driving with one
overnight stay in a motel) and the kids were very "tolerant" and
"tolerable" during the car down. We stayed in a gorgeous hotel room
with a balcony that overlooked a lovely courtyard. I think the
name of the hotel was the Grand Californian Hotel. It's just a quick
walk to the Disneyland Park, Downtown Disney and The California Adventure
Park. The staff was extremely friendly and hospitable. The
first night we were there, we decided to walk to Downtown Disney for
dinner and finish the night with half-melted ice cream cones.
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The very next morning we had breakfast in the hotel room
and then took Disneyland by storm. :) The boys were full of
energy and ready to go. It was simply a picture-perfect sunny
California day, totally gorgeous! We started out on the simple
rocket rides, the Mad Hatter's tea cups, a couple of boat rides, and we
finished off the early afternoon with lunch at Main Street, U.S.A.
After we ate, it was time to take the boys back to the hotel for an
afternoon siesta. By this time, the boys really needed it, and the
adults too! :) But by late afternoon/early evening, we were charged
and ready to go again. We continued to explore more of
Disneyland and ended the evening in the Toon Town area where we had
our dinner.
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The
following day, we continued our exploration of all the surprises that
Disneyland had to offer, along with the unexpected rain showers.
:) Among the more memorable rides were the
Matterhorn and the Jungle Cruise. We had this really comical
"tour guide" for our cruise, mostly adult humor but the kids
really got a kick out of the ride (animatronic hippos, zebras, alligators
and head-shrinking cannibalistic "natives", and pretty
waterfalls...) And fortunately for us, the rain was gone by
the latter part of the afternoon and we continued with more food, fun and
good merriment. The highlight of the evening was going on the Star
Wars Tour with Jarod. He's a brave little bugger. It was an
amazing heart-pounding virtual space trip through the galaxy of Endor!
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The very next day, we made a quick stop at Disneyland
for a free complementary breakfast at Buzz Lightyear's Cafe. Hey, who
could say no to free food! :) Another fun driving course on the
Autopia car raceway (total fave of the kids and "big" kids) and
then off to Disney's California Adventure Park! (walking distance from
D'land) This place was ok, probably more geared towards bigger kids
and adults but we had a nice time going on some little kiddie rides, such as
the Triton Merry Go' Round, Rocket Flyers and my fave, the Sunwheel Ferris
Wheel. The kids and I loved the ferris wheel but DJ couldn't
wait to get off. Hee-Hee! j/k! To end a great evening, we went to
Storyteller's Cafe for dinner. Great food and fantastic
desserts! Yummy!
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On the very last night we were in Disneyland, we were walking around looking
for the last and final ride of the evening. We just happened to walk
past Space Mountain, totally anticipating for it to be closed (due to
renovations according to D'land's website) but to our total shock and
amazement, the ride was fully operational !!! So what do we do? We
hopped into the line before it got too long, and 15 minutes later we were
zooming down SPACE MOUNTAIN! Who-Hoo! I mean, it was totally awesome,
just like I remember when I was a kid! Then we headed back to the
hotel, called it a night and CRASHED. :)
The following morning, some quick packing, some souvenir shopping, and
then we were back in the car heading for home-sweet-home. :)
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