Well Duh, It’s What We Do . . .

A trip to So Cal always includes what?  (easy answer if you know Paul at all!)

Paul always goes with a plan.  This time he wanted to take a photo of the entrance of each land.  I wanted to play along even though I wasn’t too concerned about the quality. . . .




I got most of the different entrances, but not all.  It’s alright, because Paul did!
We also amused ourselves by posing for the camera on the rides that snap your photo.  We weren’t nearly as creative as the others riding with us.

(I leaned the wrong way!)

How did we manage to ride so many times?  Because we picked the perfect day to go. . . .
It was NOT crowded and the weather was ideal.
This braille map cracked me up. I don’t know why.  I guess I wondered how a blind person could maneuver through the park on a typical day much less find the braille map. But at the same time, it was super cool because it’s those kinds of details that the folks at Disneyland think of.


We tried out a new restaurant and paid beaucoup bucks for a tasty torte that was smaller than my hand (and I have little hands). . .

We took notice of Club 33, a place we will never get to go.

By late afternoon we were pooped and looked for ways to rest up.  . . like watching a show . . .


going on the Jungle Boat Cruise . . .

and the monorail. 

We must be getting old because we decided that we were done. . . hours before closing time.  (shhhhhh. . . don’t tell)
We love going to Disneyland, but the adventure each time becomes a bit different.  Though we didn’t spend as many hours in the park as we have in the past, we still enjoyed our jaunt to the Happiest Place on Earth.

Empty Nest Vacation – Part 2 of Part 2

Warning – It’s been so long since our vacation, I may not remember things accurately!
Continuing where we left off.  While we did hang a bit in Newport Beach, that was not our main destination in So Cal.  For those of you that know Paul, you won’t be surprised. . .

We bought our tickets the night before and enjoyed the Halloween decorations at the front gate.
The next day we were off and running. What an adventure we had.
We entered the park with the crowds when we were approached by an employee with a clip board.  We were easy to catch because we didn’t have anxious-to-start-having-too-much-fun children with us.  We were asked a few questions before they targeted Paul.  The employee invited him to take part in a top-secret focus group and he would be PAID!
We like money so we agreed to this sacrifice.  He was told to show up at a certain spot at a certain time, neither of which is top secret but perhaps not easy to explain (the place) nor all that interesting (the time).
We had time to go on a few rides which were fun even without kids.  As the time drew near, we were reluctant to join a line.  Instead we ambled over to the meeting spot and people watched. 
We had thought with our timing, the park just might be fairly empty, but we were WRONG. Unknown to us (they never asked), Utah schools had some time off and each one of those families opted to come to Disneyland.  (We are almost sure of this.) 
In Paul’s focus group, everyone except one person had a Utah connection.  (They were all from there and we had just traveled from there.)
Meanwhile I wandered around trying to figure out how I was going to spend Paul’s windfall!  (That wasn’t really the plan.)  But I did have 90 minutes to myself.  I can no longer remember what I really did.  How sad is that?
Here is the envelope that contained $100 which was handed to Paul at end of the focus group meeting! (How many people can say they got paid to go to Disneyland?)

Once we were reunited, we went off to enjoy our adventure.  Interesting things we discovered about ourselves. 

• We had noticeably less energy to cover the park than when we had our children there to add some sort of secret spark. 
• We didn’t mind sitting for a while.  Often
• I can lose my cell phone for the second time on the Indiana Jones ride.  (first time was 6 years ago)
• We limped a lot and took turns adjusting knee braces.
• All my claims that the Astro-Orbiter make me sick are true.
• Two days is just right.
• It’s okay not to take a camera into the park.
• Old people can have a nice time, even with no children with them.

The second day was much less crowded.  In fact, we came home with unused fast passes!

But wait . . . there’s more to our empty nest adventure.  One can only hope that I am quicker with the update (before I forget where we went and what we did!)