Making the Edges Ragged, (Pt. 3 of 3)...

On the Saturday morning after Christmas, we drove to Anaheim (about an 8 hr drive, depending on how many stops you have to make to utilize the filthy road bathrooms). When we got to town, we had a bit of an adventure trying to find our hotel, but eventually we found it and checked in. After quickly throwing our stuff in the room, Denise treated us all to dinner at Medieval Times. (It was a surprise for the boys, and my first time). We got seated in the front row of the Green knight's section—Leon, as it turns out, is the enemy of the court. The food was not bad, the fighting was top notch, and it was super exciting to root for the bad guy for a change. I was really into it, and shouted more than was prudent, probably.

We went to the park the following day, right after they lowered the ropes to let people in. The weather was pretty chilly, around the high 40’s, so there weren’t a lot of people there. We covered half the park by 1:00 in the afternoon—no mean feat. But if you know how to work the system (yay Fast Pass!), you can cover a lot more ground. (We also pack our own food for all but one meal—saves us TONS of money. Let me know if you want more tips.) We saw all of Adventureland, Frontierland, and New Orleans Square. The Haunted Mansion is all decked out with the characters from “Nightmare Before Christmas”, so that was a lot of fun. We had lunch on some outdoor picnic tables at the edge of the Rivers of America, and then covered the majority of Fantasyland and some of Tomorrowland. As the sun set, the holiday decorations glittered with tons of Christmas lights—and Cinderella’s castle was ASTOUNDINGLY beautiful, with icicles and lights just dripping off it.

After debating whether or not to pop over to California Adventure for the resurrected Electric Light Parade or see the Holiday Fireworks show, we opted to stay. By the time we grabbed some seats on Main Street for the fireworks, I knew I was in trouble—the show, the Christmas holiday, the drive, the yelling at dinner, the park—combined with being surrounded by sick folks—were all taking their toll. I could feel the tickle in my throat growing worse, and the exhaustion I felt as I tried to get hot chocolate for everyone for the fireworks was quickly transitioning into fever hot flashes.

I gutted it out, though, and I’m so glad I did. We watched the fireworks and headed back to the room. The following day we let ourselves get a later start. Denise was now starting to come down with something, too, but she was being a trooper about it. We went to California Adventure and Denise and Thing 2 went to A Bug’s Land while Thing 1 and I went to the Tower of Terror. We met up and saw the most fantastic 3-D experience ever before going to a huge play space type area dedicated to the Brother Bear movie. We sat and ate our lunch before hitting California Soarin’ and making our way back to Disneyland.

Denise and I traded kids, and Thing 2 and I rode the Nemo ride while they hit Thunder Mountain (again) and the Matterhorn (again again). We met up and covered a few last rides before sitting down to dinner. We were dragging, all of us, and the two adults were getting sicker by the minute, but we didn’t want to leave. We grabbed some seats at the Rivers of America for the Fantasmic! show, and then drug our weary selves back to the hotel. On the way out, we were extremely glad we saw the fireworks the previous night, as the weather at high altitude was keeping them from happening. In true Disney fashion, however, they had a backup plan—a light show that involved all the holiday lights on Main Street (including the hundreds of them on the giant tree in the middle of town) all synched up to a holiday song.

The following day, we got up and hit the road, taking the long trip back to NorCal. We picked up the dog from Camp Bow Wow (wonderful place, I highly recommend it if you have a pup and need to board it somewhere). Then we stumbled home. A wonderful trip.