pitterpat

11-1-2007-Disneyland Adventure

Jerry and I went with our good friend Terry today to Disneyland. We lucked out and got Disneyland’s Year Of A Million Dreams Fast Passes! Disneyland started this celebration a year ago in 2006, and have since decided to extend it for all of 2008 also. A couple of weeks ago I came with just Terry and we won these Year Of A Million Dreams Mickey Hats. Awww, look at that!At the front end of Main Street there was a new band playing; the Fire Engine Band. They were very energetic and started grabbing folks out of the audience to encourage the band members as they played for the audience. We took a quick listen and left there immediately!We’ve started going on the teacups, something I remember the kids loving to do. Jerry likes to spin it around as fast as he can and see if he can make me dizzy! I’ve found that looking down makes me too dizzy, yet looking up while he is spinning me is great fun! Terry on the other hand already has an inner ear problem so he needs to find something to look at or he’ll feel like throwing up for a while!In New Orleans at Disneyland they’ve started putting up the Christmas decorations already! Disneyland just kind of skips Thanksgiving, and moves from Halloween straight through to Christmas. There were 2 new decorations up today, the big angel and the feather garland which is pretty.Disneyland always has gorgeous flowers year round and they bring me such joy. The Master Gardeners who work for Disney usually plant in masses of colors, making for a gorgeous display.

We hopped on the train and took it through the Grand Canyon and around to Main Street on our way out of the park. We were happy to see a pleasant young engineer on the train this time instead of the grumpy Vern Terry and I saw a few weeks back. Vern almost caught me eating on the train and seemed bent on catching me or finding someone else breaking some of the laws errr I mean rules of riding HIS train. This is the first time I have tried to take a few photos in the Grand Canyon portion of the ride, as flash photography is not allowed. These blurry photos remind me that Disneyland needs to revamp parts of the Train ride big time.

Over in California Adventure Goofy was walking down the Hollywood Backlot so Terry and I made a bee line over to him to get our photos taken. On our way out one of the Cast Members was holding new Halloween balloons and he asked if we wanted to hold them to make for a better picture! Kind of looks like Terry works at California Adventure doesn’t it? Look at the balloons on the left and you’ll see the one of Sleeping Beauty in front of the Castle. This new balloon says Happy Halloween.Terry was kind enough to ask the Hollywood Tower Of Terror lobby-man if we could stay on the lower level so that I wouldn’t have to climb the stairs inside. That turned out to be a blessing in several ways, one of them was having Ian as our bellboy. He was very much in character this trip and had everybody laughing. He came and stood beside me as we waited for the elevator. He asked how I was and I replied fine. I asked him if he had had very many ghosts for Halloween yesterday and he said it was still Halloween at least until midnight. He asked if I was going upstairs to the party, so I played along and said yes, then I inquired if he thought I was dressed accordingly. He frowned deeply then sarcastically said, “well……”. When he opened the door to the elevator he acted very serious, rolling his eyes upward as he looked down and guided us in. When cast members get into and stay in character it makes the whole ride so much fun!Terry and I have been trying to snap a photo of the newly painted Monorail as it whisks by, but we’re always a day late and a dollar short. Here’s what the tail end of the Monorail looks like painted for the Million Dreams Celebration.

For the first time I rode California Screamin, my 2nd favorite ride (Space Mountain is my 1st) without hanging on and snapping pictures throughout the whole ride. Scary! I had my camera strap around my neck and held the camera in both hands most of the time while I was held snug in my seat by the overhead bar. It really made me feel sick and I only got a few good photos because half the time my arms were going everywhere.. You can see in the car ahead of us in first photo as we enter the home stretch at the end of the ride. The second and third photos are pretty clear views of California Adventure and Hollywood Tower Of Terror. For the last picture we had come to a stop at the end of the ride and I lifted my camera over the seat and pointed it backward to get a photo of Terry, you guessed it…..Screamin!! Perfect.

It’s always nice to be pointed in the direction of these most essential places.