Friday night, May 22, and Saturday, May 23 - Drive and DisneylandWe left on Friday to go to Disneyland; we drove this time. I mentioned not too long ago that it's not much farther than the drive to our property near Seligman, but I think I was mistaken, the drive to Anaheim took forever! At least it seemed that way. (we arrived around 2am and didn't get to bed until around 4am.) I think a plane is our way of travel the next time, yepsiree, I do.Here we are at our first stop on the trip... the gas station near our house. This was in the early evening. We had planned to leave around 3pm on Friday, but didn't get on the road until around 7pm, I believe. We're late for everything.
Heading to Disneyland on Saturday. This is the hotel we stayed at: The Tropicana Inn. It's a lot cheaper than the Grand Californian Resort we stayed at last year, but we didn't notice much difference. I would recommend this hotel since it's cheap yet nice, and it's right across the street from Disneyland; it's within walking distance.
I like to get a pic of this area before entering the park.
As usual, there was a parade going on when we entered the park; it was the same the next day as well, and even last year when we visited the park. I got a quick pic of one of the floats.
I didn't get a pic of all the rides we went on this time, but made sure to get one of the Mark Twain Riverboat(ain't it purty?), it was Caitie's first time on it; we didn't get around to riding it last year. I got this pic at a distance, before we headed over to ride it.
We ate at a Mexican restaurant located in Frontierland called Rancho del Zocalo. The food was all right. This is where I got the first stain of the trip, on my favorite white top, it was guacamole of all things; such a lovely shade of green.
After a few rides, Caitie had a hankerin' for some cotton candy. They have mighty good tastin' cotton candy, let me tell ya. I've been on a diet, but did partake on the eating of the sweet, sugary delicacy. With all the walking we did, I'm sure I burned off most of the airy, all sugar goodness.
Later that evening, we went back to the hotel to change into jeans instead of shorts, and put jackets on. It was warm during the day, but got a bit nippy in the evenings.
When we got back, the fireworks show had just started. I got a few pics of 'em.
I bet you can guess what song this was from... 'when you wish upon a star'... not really, I just thought it sounded good.
This looks like some alien thing with long legs coming after us; just had to include a shot of that.
Not much to this one, really, but wanted to show the pretty outline of the buildings being lit up by the colorful fireworks. It's kinda hard to see in this pic, but take it from me, it's pretty cool.
We're on Main Street; the fireworks show just ended. I was wishing we could do shoulder rides x 2, you know, Michael, me on his shoulders, then caitie on mine, but didn't want to end up with a hunchback for a husband, so let that thought go on its merry way.
We went on more rides. This is one of Caitie's favorite rides: Dumbo.
I was holding Caitie while on the ride, and got this pic real quick before the elephants went flyin'. Caitie did a good job of controlling the elephant, moving it up and down and then flying high; she loves being in control. I wonder where she gets that from? hmmm...
We didn't get to go on the It's a Small World ride last year due to it being down for refurbishment, just as the Haunted House was closed too, but she got to go on both rides this time around. She loves the It's a Small World ride, we went on it several times. I love how they brightened it up, as you can see in the pic below.
We went on the Carousel, of course. You know how Caitie loves carousels. We all sat on horsies, yes, even Michael(but don't tell him i told you). I tried to get all three of us in a pic using the mirror to my left. I did a good job of making us look incognito; my camera is hiding my face, Michael's head is turned, and Caitie's face is hid behind Michael's arm. It's not the typical pic you put in the family album, but it works for me.
Conked out! We were in a gift shop. We didn't leave the park until after 1am.
We decided to stop at IHOP, which isn't too far from our hotel room. It was pretty slow when we first got there, but it picked up right after we entered, I guess a lot of other late-night Disney shoppers had the same idea. We didn't get to bed that night until 3am.
Sunday, May 24 - DisneylandWe went back to Disneyland on Sunday. We rode the usual rides, and some we had missed the day before. One of my favorites that day was the Jungle Cruise; we missed that one last year. It was my first time on it. I've been to Disneyland many times, but had never been on that ride until Sunday.I took these first three pics in the hotel room that morning before heading to Disneyland(and no, she didn't wear the non matching barrette to the park, I put it in to help hold her hair back when applying sunscreen to her face). I love her expression in these pics. She's excited about heading back to Disneyland...
But then starts getting frustrated when I keep taking pics instead of heading out the door to Disneyland.
I caught Caitie trying to back out of the room with the stroller and the animals we bought her the night before; she was hoping we wouldn't notice. She was wanting to take them to the park that day.
Michael brought along his camera this time. He didn't take many pics, but did get this one on the train. The train ride is located where you first enter Disneyland, so we rode it first thing each morning. Caitie loves it.
He took this one too; this is on the train as well. Come here... let me give ya big, fat kiss... I guess I was feeling affectionate at that moment. It doesn't happen too often, so I guess Michael wanted to capture it on film... uh... I mean on a CF card.
He took this pic too. We were in the Tarzan treehouse; Caitie really enjoyed it. Climbing up and down the stairs was a good workout for me, especially after having had biscuits and gravy at IHOP around 2am the night before. Fat and carbs, the only way to diet... uh, yeah...
This was taken at Disneyland not too long before leaving the park. It was probably around midnight. We stayed until the park closed, which closes at midnight this time of year, and then did our shopping in the gift shops, which stay open pretty late. If you'll notice, everyone in this pic looks goofy. Caitie is making some kind of weird face and Michael looks like he's doing neck stretches, or somethin', and me, well, I just look naturally goofy, and not just in this pic, but all.the.time... which is appropriate for Disneyland, I guess, they do have a dog character named Goofy, so I fit right in.
I got a quick pic of Main Street when heading to the gift shops. You have to get psyched up for the gift shops... do some stretches before heading in and some mental imaging of being in a calm, nice place, so that once you enter the shops you're all set to start dodging people, and the rudeness of others just rolls down your back and you don't give it a second thought. It helps teach you patience, and is a great way to work off a few calories before hitting IHOP again, so it's not all bad.
It's around 1am, and Caitie has decided it's time to take a rest. I snapped this pic in a Disneyland gift shop. We headed to IHOP as we did the night before, for a late-night dinner, but when we got there, the lady told us there was a 30 minute wait. There didn't seem to be that many more people there than there was the night before, so not sure what that was all about(so much for the 'dodging workout'). We ended up snacking in our hotel room.
Monday, May 25 - Memorial Day - The Beach.We had to be out of the hotel by 11am, but we didn't check-out until around 11:30am. You can't say we don't try to be late for everything; we do our best.I went ahead and put Caitie's swimsuit on underneath her shorts and t-shirt so I wouldn't have to change her at the beach. Caitie picked this swimsuit out; we got it at Target.
Wearing her new Mickey t-shirt from Disneyland. She does have shorts on, the t-shirt is covering them.
We went to Downtown Disney so I could visit the Anne Geddes shop before heading to the beach. I'm an Anne Geddes baby in an egg addict... yepsiree, I am.
Are these cute, or what?
I ended up taking a sky blue baby home with me. It will go with the pink baby I got when we visited Disneyland last year. I had to have two, I was thinking bookends... yeah, that's it.
It is now Caitie's; she loves them as much as I do. I told Michael I needed to go back to the Anne Geddes shop so I could get another one, that's when I heard a loud screech and smelled burning rubber... the next thing I knew we were speeding through the parking lot. I didn't get to go back.
Heading to the beach, which took over an hour to find a parking space. We started at the Huntington Beach area, of which all gates were closed, so we weren't able to find parking. We couldn't figure out why all the gates were closed since there were parking spaces available. It made no sense. A lot of people were getting frustrated, just as we were. We decided to try the Newport Beach area, but found it was crowded and would be a long wait for a parking space, so we headed back up to the Huntington Beach area and saw that the gates were still closed, but finally found a small area that we could enter for parking, but there were no spaces, but got lucky when a couple were leaving and offered their parking space to us, and also gave us the remaining time left on their parking ticket. There are nice people in the world after all.
Just had to get a pic of the Huntington State Beach sign.
We got Caitie ready for the beach, which included sunscreen slathered all over; she can't stand the stuff.
Playing on the beach.
We brought beach toys along this time. When she was done playing with them and we had all the pieces inside the container, Michael looped the handle around his belt loop on his jeans; this was a mistake... not too long after he did this, a big wave came in while we were wading in the water and the container fell off his jeans spilling out all the contents, which included a real pretty seashell I found. The seashell was lost in the outgoing wave, but a nice little boy helped get the last item of Caitie's beach toys out of the ocean. We again witnessed the kindness of a stranger. Huntington Beach is full of 'em, I guess. I highly recommend this beach to all beach lovers!
Gotta love seagulls.
Beach Baby.
I gave Michael my camera to get a few pics of me and Caitie playing in the water. He didn't bring his camera on to the beach, he didn't want sand and water to get in it, but I brought mine. Just call me a camera abuser. Anyway, when a big wave would come, I would pull Caitie up real quick, then drop her back down. She loves doing this. As you can see, she has her t-shirt back on; she got cold pretty quick.
Attack of the Ocean Seaweed. That felt creepy on my feet.
Not too long after this pic was taken, we headed home. We can't wait to go back.
