I'm feeling alot better now...and that was the shortest lived weight-loss ever. I guess Lilli's birthday cake from Saturday night didn't help, neither did the chocolate chip cookies I had last night, neither did the cake I just ate here in the office for someone else's birthday. You can see where this is going, but I bet you didn't come here to read about cake. Ah yes, California. Have a seat, we'll be here a while.
Day 1
Well, I got there on Friday around 11am and
Jen picked me up at the airport and we headed over to
Downtown Disney. Our first stop was the
Rainforest Cafe where we met up with a hairy
friend. Afterwards we walked around and looked at the pretty stores and restaurants. We went over to
Disneyland and
California Adventure so we could get a preview (we were going to go on Monday) of the
Halloweentime decorations they put up during this time of year. After that we headed back towards the car because I was kind of pooped, but not before walking into a store that had a couple of Halloween decorations in the window. "Should we browse in here? sure, why not". Well, I'm glad we decided to go in because that store contained the
mother load of all Halloween villages. If you think the Michael's spooky village display is large, you ain't seen nothing yet. Jen and I almost collapsed at the sight of it. The people around us were staring at us because we were freaking out so much and going "wow, look at this...and look at this one...oh my god, look at the little arm....and this one has dangling legs...oh there's more back here....there's a train...and a carousel....a swing!...and look at this little bench and check out the lights...." You get the point.
Day 2
The next day we headed out for some shopping at the dollar store. They have so many Halloween things at the dollar stores over there that we don't have here. I bought so much stuff it almost didn't fit in my suitcase. After that we spotted an Ecuadorian restaurant and a Salvadorean restaurant next to each other, that was funny (R is from Ecuador)... of course we picked the Salvadorean
one where I promptly ordered one of everything in sight....to go. We went back to Jen's apartment and I was amazed at the size of the pupusas from the restaurant. They were almost as big as my
hand! After my eat-fest we stayed in and rested. We would need all the energy we could get for Knott's Scary farm that evening.
After our nap (you know you're getting old when you start scheduling naps into your vacations) we were on our way to Knott's Bery Farm
Haunt, but first we made a quick stop for some aspirin for me because I had a major headache (another sign of old age) and a funny stomach (hmm...I wonder why). We went into the park and stopped at the buffet for a quick bite and something to drink and then we were on our way. Knott's had 13 haunted houses and 6 shows (plus the rides), so we had our work cut out for us because we only had about 6 hours to do everything. Fortunately Jenny had the hookup, so we got a VIP wristband that admitted us to the front of the line for (mostly) everything. We saw
all but one of the haunted houses, but we only saw one show called the Hanging. It had alot of funny pop culture stuff in it (kind of like the bill & ted show at Halloween Horror Nights) and alot of men
jumping around and
fighting in their
underwear. Who's complaining? Not me. We got on a couple of
cool roller coasters and this
thing that drops you from a height of 254 feet (excellent for those of us that don't like heights). After all the
rides, houses, underwear,
decorations and scares, we were pooped and called it a night around 2:30 am.
Day 3
On Sunday we took it easy and stayed home most of the day. We needed to recuperate from the last couple of days and we needed to save up our energies for Disneyland the next day. At night we went to the movies to see
Good Luck Chuck. I live in a cave and hadn't ever seen Dane Cook before, so I kept saying "hello...who is that?"....of course all the gratuitous naked Chuck shots in the movie had nothing to do with it. The
man has dimples on his ass...that's impressive.
Day 4
The following day we crawled out of bed, grabbed a muffin and headed to
Disneyland to enjoy the day. I snickered silently at the throngs of
parents struggling with small children, trying to navigate the
park, and I thanked my stars I wasn't one of them that day. Ha ha. Sorry Christian, you're going to have to wait till you're older, theme parks and toddlers (that don't like strollers and don't like to walk) do not mix well. Thankfully the
weather was gorgeous and the park wasn't very full, so the lines were manageable.
First we went to
Adventureland and we rode the
Indiana Jones ride, then we headed over to
New Orleans Square to ride the
Pirates of the Caribbean and the
haunted mansion (which deserves a whole post to itself) which had been completely
converted (
inside and
out) into a
Nightmare before
Christmas haunted house. After taking 999 pictures (there's always room for one more) of the haunted mansion, we headed over to the
Winnie the
Pooh ride in Critter Country. Afterwards we took a stroll through
Frontierland to go ride on
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.
Splash Mountain was next in line (with a fastpass), then we got on the Disneyland Railroad and headed to Fantasyland. We didn't ride It's a
Small World because the line was outside in the hot sun (wimps) and there was no fastpass for it, but we did go on the
Matterhorn (very short line). The
Alice in Wonderland line was long and the
teacups make me nauseous (getting old), so I just said hi to
Alice and went on my way to
Tomorrowland. The line for
Space Mountain was only 15 minutes long, so our fastpass was useless since the lines were combined into one.
Although I had been to Disneyland twice before, Space Mountain had been closed for
renovations both times. This was my first time riding it in this park. I was expecting it to be the same as the one here, but boy was I wrong. Florida needs to get with the program, the Disneyland ride is so much better! It's darker, longer, faster and plays spacey techno music (sounded like something else for a second there). After our ride through space, we went over to Sleeping Beauty's
Castle to take a jillion pictures in every pose known to man (of which I will spare you). We walked through the castle and were once again in Fantasyland where we went on the
Snow White and
Pinocchio rides (and
faked it on the teacups). We hopped back on to the Disneyland Railroad and this time we passed through these weird caves that have
animals and
dinosaurs in them. I don't remember seeing this in Florida, but I haven't gone on the little train here in a while, so perhaps we have it here too.
Our next stop was the Blue Bayou which is a nifty little restaurant in New Orleans Square. You have to make reservations (Jen made them a week in advance) and it's an indoor sit down dining experience where you really feel like you are
outdoors (except for the bugs and heat). Jen and I ate there the last time we came and we liked the ambiance so much that we wanted to come again. The last time we got a table that was in the
middle, so we were disappointed, but this time we were
happy because we got "waterside" seating which meant that the people in the Pirate's ride would pass by your
table in their little
boats and wave to you.
It was super cute:
"Hello people eating" ...
frantic waving from the boats"hello Pirate peeps"...
frantic waving back (oops I dropped my butter knife)
After you've done this throughout dinner though...it's not so cute
anymore, you just start ignoring the people in the boats and wishing the pirates would let you eat in peace.
After a very heavy and delicious dinner I ordered dessert to go because I didn't want to miss the parade. If you're paying attention you will notice that this is really my first meal of the day because I had been feeling queasy all day long; that right there, is a sign that there is something very very wrong going on in stomachland (I didn't see this area on the Disneyland map Claudia).
We didn't make it on time for the parade, so we decided to go to the Finding
Nemo submarine ride
during the parade in hopes that the line would not be an hour long as it had been earlier in the day. Unfortunately our passage from New Orleans Square to Fantasyland was blocked by said
parade, so we had to find our way around it. I stopped for a couple of
quick pictures before I expertly navigated around it (by this point, I didn't need a map anymore...what a pro). We made it to the Nemo ride, but the line was still long. We had no choice...we had to wait because neither of us had been on it. Fortunately the line went pretty fast and before we knew it it was our turn to get in the
sub. The ride was just as I remembered it (the old 20,000 leagues under the sea ride closed in 1994) with pretty
fishes except it was
souped up and it had screens with
Nemo scenes playing on them, so it seemed like he was right outside your sub. It was lovely and all, but all these days of walking were beginning to take their toll (oldness strikes again) and we were
tired. That is...until we discovered that the dude that drives the sub was standing on a platform right there
behind us...ha ha...Hey Jen...I dare you to grab his
crotch. Nothing like a little mischief to perk you right up.
The line and the ride took 45 minutes, so by the time we got out, the park was closing.
I ventured over to Fantasyland to see if perhaps we could sneak in one or two more quick rides, but nope...everything was deserted (that sure made for
nice uncrowded
pictures though). Reluctantly (it was only 8pm!), we headed down
Main Street towards the
exit and hit the
gift shops where it took me ages to decide what to buy for Cman. I ended up getting him two tshirts and a small mickey mouse. I didn't get anything for R there because he hates all things Disney and wouldn't wear whatever I got him anyway. I just realized that I didn't buy anything for myself (another sign that something must be wrong)
Day 5
My last day there I found out exactly what was wrong. I woke up with the worst nausea and I couldn't handle the smell of the bacon that Jenny was cooking. I know what ya'll are thinking and if I didn't know better I'd swear I was pregnant, but fortunately, I did know better, so no, that wasn't the case. I spent the whole morning making trips from the toilet to the couch and then I had to go and sit on an airplane for 5 hours. Good times, good times I tell you.
So that was my trip, very exhausting and very fun (I've put most of the pictures
here) and we're not even done. Jenny is coming to Miami in 12 days (on my birthday!) for part II of our Halloween Extravaganza (Halloween Horror Nights). Hopefully no one will get sick this time.
Until next time my friends...
If you're still reading this, you deserve a cookie because this was a freaking long post.
Labels: friends, halloween, health, last to find out, movies, restaurants, shopping, travel, Vacation
