last october break

For the kids' fall break this year we decided to go to Disneyland, mostly because the kids have been asking to go back to Disneyland ever since we ended our last trip two years ago. This is also the kids' last school "fall break" since they'll be transferring to a school next year which has a longer summer break, but no break in fall.

We went to California Adventure first and our day started out nice enough. There wasn't much of a crowd and we got into the rides and attractions quickly.


But the forecast called for rain for the next two days so I was prepared with our rain jackets but I was worried that this could really be a disaster for our trip. Soon after we arrived in the park the skies got very dark...


...and then the rain started. We headed into an indoor ride, one of Erin's favorites (I think she rode this one four times last visit)--the Tower of Terror, where you are in a Twilight Zone-themed haunted hotel elevator that malfunctions and drops repeatedly. Allison and Kate were tall enough for it and though we knew it got dark inside sometimes, everyone seemed okay with trying it. Erin loved it, no surprise there, Allison said unconvincingly that it was "pretty fun" but Kate was terrified and isn't pictured here in front of the ride because she was still calming down I think. Oops.



Luckily she pretty quickly forgot about how terrible that was because there was plenty of interesting things to distract her. The rain came intermittently. When it stopped we'd dash onto a ride or two outside (we could always practically walk onto anything), and when it started again we'd duck into a covered ride or show or something else.

During one downpour we went into an animation studio building where you can see exhibits about how animation is created and how voice-overs are added. When we entered the girls were pleasantly surprised to see Goofy and Jessie from Toy Story and the girls danced and played with them. Soon Cinderella and Pluto and Woody from Toy Story came in too and they all stayed and played with the few children there for a long time. I mentioned to an employee that I had no idea so many characters would be here, since we've never been in there before. She answered, "There usually isn't but it's raining and we don't have anywhere else to send them."


The next day the rains continued and we started off with breakfast in Goofy's Kitchen in the Disneyland Hotel. Our table was visited by more characters than I can list here and at one point several of them got some kids together and danced with them. Allison only watched, but Kate got into it.


And we headed to Disneyland and some more rides in the rain.


Again the we found the park nearly empty and we could just walk onto just about anything. Our jackets kept us dry and I was really realizing that Disneyland in the rain is far from a disaster.
But by the time we had lunch the rain stopped, the ground dried and the jackets came off.

And we didn't see any more rain for the rest of the week. The park was still relatively empty so the girls got to join in with a pirate band in the New Orleans area, and everyone gave a big thumbs up for the Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster.

Because we had no lines to wait in we had so much more time to explore things we haven't tried before, like the giant river boat ride.


That evening, now that I was confident they could be worn without getting soaked, the girls picked out some official Minnie Mouse ears.


The next day we came back to Disneyland to see a couple of the attractions that we missed the day before.


Then we went over to California Adventure because there were two big shows that we wanted to be sure to see. The rain was definitely history and we had beautiful sunny weather and a warm day, so naturally the girls were interested in spending their first dry day by running through the fountains and getting wet.




It was so warm that by the afternoon the girls wanted to cool down with some ice cream.

That evening Trish and Hugh (who live about 10 minutes away) joined us for dinner in the park and a fantastic new outdoor water and lights show in the evening called "World of Color".

The next day, our last one before heading home, we again went to Disneyland.

We had breakfast with Minnie Mouse and her friends.

Then more rides.

And a trip to what I still remember as Tom Sawyer's Island (which was closed in the rain) and which has now been renamed "Pirate Island". I like the old name better.



Trish and Hugh left work early on this friday to join us in Disneyland in the later afternoon and we hoped to ride Space Mountain again, which was all re-done in a Halloween theme. The girls and John and I already rode it earlier in the week.

By this point it hadn't rained in two days and there was a special Halloween event going on the park starting at 6pm that night, so Disneyland suddenly became very, very, very crowded. We were two hours from the time the park closed and the wait for Space Mountain was 80 minutes. Erin and Hugh and Trish and I decided to get in line while John and the twins went elsewhere. The time passed relatively easily as the obscenely long line moved along, and when we were just less than 5 minutes and about 40 feet from getting on the ride, it suddenly malfunctioned, stopped, and we were told we'd all have to exit the building and we were given special passes to return to it at the front of the line on another day, which didn't do any of us any good at all.

"This is HORRIBLE! This is just SO HORRIBLE!" Erin kept saying over and over. Well, yeah, it did really suck, mostly because I wanted Trish and Hugh to see how they changed the ride for Halloween. And it's a really fun ride in general. But of all the things we saw and did, this was really the only low point in the entire last 5 days, I reminded Erin.

The next morning we reluctantly left the Disneyland Hotel.

But we'll be back, and if we're lucky, it will be raining during our next visit.

the week of disney

Last Thanksgiving we went to Disneyworld for a week and to say we had a good time would be an understatement, yet we still found some room for improvement. This past spring John suggested we go to Disneyland during Erin's fall break and plan a few things differently to make for an even better trip.

First, a bonus, Erin's break is a very off-peak time of year for a Disney vacation. Second, we were going to stay longer. We did 4 parks in 5 days at WDW, which gave us enough time to see most of the attractions, but we never had enough time to go back to the resort/hotel and just relax or swim or hang out there. In John's world eating meat on friday is fine but going someplace with an awesome pool and not using it is a major sin. Third, we missed going on several of the big thrill rides last fall because the kids were too small to take on with us and we didn't have anyone to watch the kids to allow us to ride them alone. This year, our plan was to bring the (ex-)nanny and her fiance and provide them a hotel room in exchange for some babysitting throughout the week. Everyone involved thought it was a pretty good deal.

So we set off by car on sunday October 5, which, as the Disneyland Hotel informed me no fewer than three times during the preceding month (by email, mailed letter, and a phone call) was to be a private sweet 16 birthday party for that spoiled rotten useless chick that plays Hannah Montana on TV, and therefore Disneyland would be closing at 5pm that day. Just. For. Her. Oh good grief...whatever. I think it's really only a matter of time before she enters a 24-hour marriage, shaves her head, and speeds down the freeway in a luxury convertible, fleeing "baby daddy" with a toddler on her lap. Call me cynical, but once you get Disneyland, all of Disneyland, for a private birthday party as a teenager I'm guessing the only place left to go in life is down. And we didn't plan on going into the parks that first night anyway (insert loud raspberry here).

We all arrived at the hotel in the late afternoon and after settling in a little bit we went to nearby downtown Disney to look around and have some dinner. Downtown Disney is all of 30 yards from the Disneyland Hotel, yet almost instantly John and Jacob and even Danielle were convinced by small people to become sherpas.

We enjoyed the lego store, and the giant giraffe that I tried but couldn't manage to fit into a photo. We went into a Disney store and Allison thought she found the perfect "little" souvenir. Think again.

The next morning the fergyfive had an early reservation for breakfast in Goofy's Kitchen, featuring many of the classic characters:

The girls love these meals since the characters make the rounds to all of the tables and everyone has a chance to visit with them and take pictures. At WDW last fall the park was so crowded that all of the characters inside the parks had lines an hour long to meet with them, so our only real encounter with characters was at these special meals.

After eating we went to the California Adventure park first, which was so empty that we had many rides all to ourselves.

The girls loved playing in the "It's a Bugs World" area (from the movie) where everything is designed to make you see things from a bug's perspective.

And that afternoon we made good on the "thou must enjoy the unique swimming pools" commandment and took a good long swimming break back at the hotel. The pool area had waterslides and a jacuzzi and this pirate ship in the middle, and was overall, just cool, and huge.

So that was monday. The following day got a little more, ah, interesting. To back up, Allison came down with a cold about a week and a half before this trip. She missed a day of preschool, it spread to me, then to the other kids and finally, when Allison and Erin were back to normal and Kate only had some residual sniffles, John got it about three days before we left. That first day in the park and swimming all the kids seemed fine. John still had some sinus congestion but was managing okay. On tuesday by mid-morning Allison was obviously sick again and at times seemed a little wheezy. She rode in the stroller rather than walked, but still wanted to go on some rides.

We went back to the hotel in the afternoon, the other kids swam with Danielle and Jacob and John and I put Allison to bed. When she woke up she looked horrible, was soaking wet with sweat, and wheezing tremendously. Conveniently, Kaiser Permanente has a hospital in Anaheim and so I took her to the ER there.

That evening we had planned on Danielle and Jacob babysitting all the kids while we went out to a very nice dinner with good friends Trish and Hugh, who live in Irvine, but obviously those plans got scrapped.

A couple of x-rays and a consult later, Allison didn't have pneumonia, which is what I initially suspected. She "just" had croup. So the hotel provided us with a humidifier for the room and we put her to bed and the next morning she was already a good deal better, and we just made sure she always rode in the stroller and again in the afternoon we brought her back to nap, and a couple of long steams in the shower helped out too. The rest of the week went alright after all.

On wednesday was the planned belated birthday surprise. Near main street in Disneyland you can make a reservation to celebrate a birthday with Pat E. Cake, a crazy disney chef guy who sings and brings all the birthday kids cakes for them to decorate. Then he and the kids have a little parade over to Mickey and Minnie, who make an appearance to greet all the birthday kids. The girls had a really good time with all of this. I have much more video than photos of this event, but I'm not going to be able to upload that in the near future, I think.

That evening we had a really, really good Japanese dinner, and the hostess gave the kids training chopsticks to try. Erin made a good attempt with them but went to her fork after several minutes. It's hard enough to convince Allison to use utensils, so new utensils didn't go over well. Kate on the other hand, was a natural, even with her rice.

After dinner we went back to Disneyland to catch the evening parade:

On thursday we had the very important "meet the princesses" lunch scheduled. The girls had been looking forward to this all week.

Though Erin was willing to socialize with other characters too. Unlike WDW last year, the parks really weren't crowded and the girls got many opportunities to visit with the characters in the parks as well as at special meals.

John and I went on Star Tours, and he was happy to see some of the large LCD panels that he designed way back when for the rides' entrance area were still there and in operation:

Last day in the parks, last chance to ride those favorites one more time, which for Erin meant her THIRD ride on Space Mountain, a second ride on the Tower of Terror, Matterhorn, Star Tours, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (another fast coaster)...basically, Erin is a six year-old adrenaline junkie. The bigger and faster the ride the more she liked it. She's tall enough now to ride on all of Disneyland's attractions except for one (Indiana Jones). She LOVES them. When we spent what she considered too much time catering to her sisters' ideas of excitement, on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride or Dumbo or the Winnie the Pooh adventure ride or whatever else, she'd say, "Can we go on something FAST now? We haven't gone on a FAST ride in a loooooooooooong time! This is a BABY ride!"

Our last ride of our last night was on Splash Mountain, which even the twins were tall enough to ride. None of us had managed to get on this one throughout the week and it's one of John's favorites, so we had to be sure and make it on. Most of the ride is pretty tame, but there is one big drop near the end with the anticipated big splash at the bottom. The ride has one of those cameras that take every boat's picture as it starts to make that drop and here is a picture I took of that picture as it appeared on the monitor at the end of the ride. This was not Allison and Kate's favorite attraction:

"Don't take me on Splash Mountain again, mama!" Yes, dear. Aaaaaaarrrrrr.