Family Vacation: Day 2- The Happiest Place on Earth

If you don't know where the happiest place on earth is, then you have definitely never been to

Disneyland!!!

I was hoping to be able to break out my shorts and blind everyone around me with my snow white legs, so when I woke up that morning and saw the gloominess, I almost cried. But my sadness didn't last too long. Afterall, who can stay sad at the happiest place on earth?

No, this is not an attempt to suffocate Jack (at least not this time :P)

As it turns out, the stories my mom always told me growing up about the way the clouds magically part over Disneyland and how it never rains are NOT TRUE!.  OK, I am not dellusional enough to believe the dry sky fairtales but I was optomistic enough to not bring any rain gear for anyone. Thus we were all forced to make due with the plastic poncho approach.

My family has a great legacy of all things Disney.  My parents both grew up in Southern California, in the epicenter of the whole Disney experience.  Of course they've been multiple times throughout their lives and Kole I have been a couple times in our younger years but this was the first time my kids have been to Disneyland.  They were so in awe of it and of course watching them was like experiencing it for the first time myself.  There was a whole sense of newness and nostalgia going on at the same time.  Brought tears to my eyes.  *sniff* sniff*  My mom has recounted her childhood memories of being at Disneyland on the Grand Opening Day for all Disney employees way back in 1955!  How cool is that?!?  My Great Grandad was in the film industry and he worked on the original Mickey Mouse Club (Do people even know what that is anymore?)- hence the special invite to the big day.  Back in 1972 my parents got to go to Senior's Night where the park stays open all night long and all the So Cal kids graduating from high school get to play until the dawn--- a tradition continuing now days.  There was a Senior's Night on our last day there and there were lines of buses full of high school seniors making their way into the park as we were leaving.  I don't even remember our senior trip but I'm sure I would have if it was to Disneyland. 

Things have definitely changed over the years.  Gone are the days when you could see it all and ride every ride in only a day.  This time around we had a 3 day park hopper pass (Between Disneyland and California Adventure) and we still didn't get to everything.  They just keep building and improving all over.  I'm sure that by the next time we go we will need a week long pass to see everything. 

Since it was our first day and everything seemed overwhelming, we decided to make our way around the whole park and get a feel for the layout and see what rides and attractions we simply could not leave without doing.   We rode a few rides all over but we figured that we could always come back to the things we wanted to do most or again.

We started with
Tomorrow Land

Our first ride at Disneyland:

The Astro Orbitor

Gotta love the open cockpit so the rain can pelt you directly in the face.

_{The Buzz Lightbeer  astro blasters}

(As Jack calls him)

While still in Tomorrow Land we got to go on some other rides including

The Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage,

Innoventions,

 and

Space Mountain

We discovered that Eve LOVES rollercoaters.  She's an adrenaline junkie.

Finally the sun decided to make an appearance.

On to some outside rides and attractions...

Ah,

Autopia

... I admit, I don't understand the appeal of this ride.  Why are adults waiting 45 minutes to drive a car? I mean, if you have a kid with you, that's one thing. It just seems kind of sad when you're by yourself.

I remember 

Sleeping Beauty’s Castle

 being so much bigger when I was a kid.

We took a short trip through

Fantasyland

but decided to make a real go of it another day.

Catchy tune first 100 times it goes through your head... not so much the next 10,000.

Porter went on this ride with me.  Your should have seen the look on his little face.  It totally said "What in the world did you put in my milk?"  Kid, I was totally thinking the same thing.

Off to

Adventureland

The Jungle Cruise

The kids loved this ride.  They wanted to go on it over and over.

Next we headed to

New Orleans Square

Yo Ho, Yo Ho.  Waiting in line for

Pirates of the Caribbean

I guess even at the happiest place on earth you can't do whatever you want.

Ooooooooo. 

The Haunted Mansion

Kole was disappointed that even the kids were not scared.  Ha ha. 

I don't think that would make it a very family-friendly ride.

We were all pretty tired by 7 that evening.  We missed a lot of stuff but decided to call it a day and come back well rested for two more days of fun.