Disneyland

The ride down was joyously uneventful. After dropping Mama at the airport (she got to fly down for a business meeting that morning) the ensuing 7 hours was quiet partially in thanks to blacked-out windows, two laptops and a stack of DVDs. We picked up Mama in Burbank around 3pm and spent the next 2 hours travelling the 37 miles to Anaheim.

The HoJo pool was a perfect way to unwind. Jackson loved the water play area with fountains next to the kiddie pool. perfect.








Ann, the bigshot that she is now at Pixar, was able to get us into both parks (Disneyland & California Adventure) for free. Someone from Disney met us at the gate at 8:30am and gave us day passes, saving us over $200 on park fees alone! (only another year or so to milk this connection... though by then maybethere'll be a Pixarland to go to!)


As some of the first people in the park our biggest decision was which "land" to start out in while the crowds were thin. We chose Adventureland and headed into the Pirates of the Carribean to take a gentle boat ride through pirate country. This was a costly mistake and Jackie was traumatized for the rest of the morning. At least he wasn't screaming inside the ride, though his fingernails left marks in my arms, and his shaking whispers of "let me out" were equally painful. Afterward he was stricken with fear even on the gentle train ride that circles the park at 3mph, nearly strangling mama the entire way. Even the "drive drives" were only a temporary distraction (though still a very good one as he was absolutely thrilled that he could actually drive, and even got a driver's license!)

>

Jackson and Mama went back to the hotel to nap after lunch and the older boys decided to check out the other park, California Adventure, which housed Disney's latest attraction: The Tower of Terror!!!! Have you seen the commercials? the billboards? Neither Phaedrus nor I thought it would be a very good idea as the building which houses the ride is probably the tallest in all of Anaheim, built to look like an old abandoned hotel. Not surprisingly it was Parker who talked us into taking the plunge, literally, though both Phaedrus and I were noticably nervous about the whole thing. Basically the concept is that you are in the in an old abandoned hotel elevator(in the Twilight Zone). You are slowly lifted and lowered a few times as the doors open and show you a movie of the interior hallways with ghosts, etc. Then the doors close again and you immediately freefall about 200 feet and then are abrubtly shot up about 300 feet. this repeats a few times and then the doors open again and you get a real view of the entire park for about 5 seconds after which you drop for what seems like forever.

	>
the tower looms!	Mama & Phaedrus drop in...

The day ended back at the hotel in the hot tub with everyone blissfully exhausted. After a long sleep, the next day would be on to Santa Monica...