Lekta
04-16-2005, 06:29 PM
DAY 1, April 8th
The serenity of my day dream is broken with excited knocking at my front door. The couple that we are carpooling to Disneyland with had finally arrived, and the building enthusiasm nearly crept out in a giddy scream. Regaining my composure and assuring myself with a manly strut, I answered the door. I could see that the enthusiasm that I had brewed was mirrored in their faces. They had not seen the magical land in 10 years, give or take. In a sense I guess I envied that. It would nearly be like going for the first time, had I not seen the area in such a long time. At any rate, I thoroughly looked forward to showing them all the secret nuances that I clearly hold dear to heart in this land that I always seem to end up in when vacation time rolls along.
TIME: 10:30pm
PLACE: Portland, Oregon
DESTINATION: Anaheim
It started out innocently enough, but the pounding rain began to take it's toll on the clearly unwashed windshield. The outside world a blurry dark portal, I began to nervously stare at the winding road in front of us. I began to think of it as an obstacle placed in front of me, attempting to halt my mission, and, upon completion, I would be rewarded with 5 great days in the Magic Land.
After about 30 minutes of the wipers running we were finally able to see out of the windshield without pressing our faces up to the windshield (which in turn fogged it up =). Our next obstacle, they forgot to mention that they had no high beams. Now, if anyone has driven south down I-5 at night, they know that high beams are necessary.. period. There are many many instances where it is pitch black outside and the road is exceptionally hard to see. At any rate, the going was slow at such points. Again, obstacle surpassed. Yet another obstacle, a heavy blanket of fog settled in on the Siskiyou Summit, further delaying our already slow procession. On top of the fog, there was fairly heavy snow falling on the summit that we had completely not expected. An already long story short, we battled nature and our own weariness to arrive at the Castle Inn on Saturday evening 6:00pm.
DAY 2, April 9th
The tension that lifted off of the group was nearly visible in the air as we pulled up on Harbor and saw the Matterhorn looming in the distance. Check in was no problem and we quickly settled into our room. Not a horrible room at all. It fit our needs excellently and appeared to be clean. After the ladies got freshened up, we quickly headed out to the park. Deciding that we were best served to eat dinner on the way, we stopped at the IHOP on Harbor. MISTAKE. Perhaps that should be in bold letters. I repeat MISTAKE. The most awful meal/service/experience dining that I have had in a long time. All four dinners were; cold, undercooked, incorrect, overpriced, and served after a tediously long wait. I could perhaps accept a few of those as mistakes made during a busy time, however, there was very few people in the restaurant, so, as far as I'm concerned, unacceptable. Unless you are extremely hard up for food, I would not recommend eating here. Heck, I wouldn't recommend stopping too long in front of the restaurant.
Anyways, back to our walk to the park. Those cones, those magical cones. It is the first sure sign that I'm going to be in Disneyland soon. If you've been there from the Harbor entrance, you know the cones too. We decided to go to DCA first as the couple we came with had never seen it. I believe that our first ride was California Screamin, as that is one of our favorites. I was slightly concerned that they wouldn't like the ride. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they loved it! Our next destination was ToT, as we had already picked up Fastpasses for it, we only waiting a few minutes to board. Again, they loved it! We walked around a bit more in DCA and saw the tail end of the electrical parade (love that tune) before proceeding over to DL.
As is custom with my wife and I, we made a beeline for the Blue Ribbon Bakery for our Disneyland mocha! I would literally pay $10 for one of those (don't let them know that, as they are already quickly approaching that price). Another custom of ours is to enjoy our mocha on Pirates, as it seems to be the only ride that they will let you take your drinks on.
At this point it was getting fairly late and the park was closing down for the night. We wearily headed back to the hotel and collapsed on the beds, eager to start off the next day in the parks..........
If anyone is reading this, firstly, let me apologize for the length. Sometimes my mind wanders :D Secondly, I will post some more later.
The serenity of my day dream is broken with excited knocking at my front door. The couple that we are carpooling to Disneyland with had finally arrived, and the building enthusiasm nearly crept out in a giddy scream. Regaining my composure and assuring myself with a manly strut, I answered the door. I could see that the enthusiasm that I had brewed was mirrored in their faces. They had not seen the magical land in 10 years, give or take. In a sense I guess I envied that. It would nearly be like going for the first time, had I not seen the area in such a long time. At any rate, I thoroughly looked forward to showing them all the secret nuances that I clearly hold dear to heart in this land that I always seem to end up in when vacation time rolls along.
TIME: 10:30pm
PLACE: Portland, Oregon
DESTINATION: Anaheim
It started out innocently enough, but the pounding rain began to take it's toll on the clearly unwashed windshield. The outside world a blurry dark portal, I began to nervously stare at the winding road in front of us. I began to think of it as an obstacle placed in front of me, attempting to halt my mission, and, upon completion, I would be rewarded with 5 great days in the Magic Land.
After about 30 minutes of the wipers running we were finally able to see out of the windshield without pressing our faces up to the windshield (which in turn fogged it up =). Our next obstacle, they forgot to mention that they had no high beams. Now, if anyone has driven south down I-5 at night, they know that high beams are necessary.. period. There are many many instances where it is pitch black outside and the road is exceptionally hard to see. At any rate, the going was slow at such points. Again, obstacle surpassed. Yet another obstacle, a heavy blanket of fog settled in on the Siskiyou Summit, further delaying our already slow procession. On top of the fog, there was fairly heavy snow falling on the summit that we had completely not expected. An already long story short, we battled nature and our own weariness to arrive at the Castle Inn on Saturday evening 6:00pm.
DAY 2, April 9th
The tension that lifted off of the group was nearly visible in the air as we pulled up on Harbor and saw the Matterhorn looming in the distance. Check in was no problem and we quickly settled into our room. Not a horrible room at all. It fit our needs excellently and appeared to be clean. After the ladies got freshened up, we quickly headed out to the park. Deciding that we were best served to eat dinner on the way, we stopped at the IHOP on Harbor. MISTAKE. Perhaps that should be in bold letters. I repeat MISTAKE. The most awful meal/service/experience dining that I have had in a long time. All four dinners were; cold, undercooked, incorrect, overpriced, and served after a tediously long wait. I could perhaps accept a few of those as mistakes made during a busy time, however, there was very few people in the restaurant, so, as far as I'm concerned, unacceptable. Unless you are extremely hard up for food, I would not recommend eating here. Heck, I wouldn't recommend stopping too long in front of the restaurant.
Anyways, back to our walk to the park. Those cones, those magical cones. It is the first sure sign that I'm going to be in Disneyland soon. If you've been there from the Harbor entrance, you know the cones too. We decided to go to DCA first as the couple we came with had never seen it. I believe that our first ride was California Screamin, as that is one of our favorites. I was slightly concerned that they wouldn't like the ride. I was pleasantly surprised to find that they loved it! Our next destination was ToT, as we had already picked up Fastpasses for it, we only waiting a few minutes to board. Again, they loved it! We walked around a bit more in DCA and saw the tail end of the electrical parade (love that tune) before proceeding over to DL.
As is custom with my wife and I, we made a beeline for the Blue Ribbon Bakery for our Disneyland mocha! I would literally pay $10 for one of those (don't let them know that, as they are already quickly approaching that price). Another custom of ours is to enjoy our mocha on Pirates, as it seems to be the only ride that they will let you take your drinks on.
At this point it was getting fairly late and the park was closing down for the night. We wearily headed back to the hotel and collapsed on the beds, eager to start off the next day in the parks..........
If anyone is reading this, firstly, let me apologize for the length. Sometimes my mind wanders :D Secondly, I will post some more later.