Suzanne Calling

At last, the Disneyland blog! I’ve wanted to walk through those gates since I was very small. Getting to the West Coast was not to happen, and we’ve been quite happy to visit WDW on a fairly regular basis. As much as we love Da World, we still wanted to walk in the park Walt walked in. Friday was a perfectly sunny day, and we made our way down to the hotel shuttle for the four block ride. When we got through the bag check and the gates, there was a band playing in front of the train station. Walking through the tunnel, it was familiar-but different. I love the fact that DL is chockablock with mature trees, so even in the heat of summer, this park has ample shade. We hopped aboard the train and found the most hyper conductor you could ever find. Kat was her name, and boy, she was more jazzed than Stitch. It was mildly humorous to watch this person who makes me seem like I’m on tranquilizers. The train ride was different, we really traveled back in time....

The nice thing about vacationing three hours further west is that you can feel like you’re sleeping in, while in reality, you’re up at a normal time. We got up around 7 and went and got breakfast. I have to say that the free expanded continental breakfast was good. The waffles were filling. To avoid traffic, we got on the road at nine. However, this IS California, and we encountered some traffic. We got to the zoo just before 10am. The internet is our friend, we had $8.00 off coupons-seems others had $3.00 off coupons they wanted to give us. We start our day by taking the bus tour around the zoo. It was pretty comprehensive and shows us that the exhibits were built into the landscaping, rather than the other way around. The zoo is quite hilly, something we’re not used to anymore after living in Florida for a couple of years. Once we’re done with the 35 minute bus tour, we get off the bus and our first order of business is to go see the koalas! They ...

Legoland was the first stop on our west coast journey. After a nice breakfast at the hotel, we drove three miles to the park. We're so conditioned to WDW that at 10 minutes prior to park opening, we were shocked that the parking lot was nearly empty! The next shock was paying for the tickets. We lost the free tickets for the boys in the debris moved from our old office in the house to its temporary home. Ouch. I'm sure they'll be found within a day of getting back to Florida-100 bucks that won't be recovered! However, the park was quite pleasant. The boys are the perfect age for this-another two years and I think they'd have scoffed at the rides. The Lego sculptures and art were impressive. We were able to do the whole park in the 7 hours that it was open, as one section was geared towards preschoolers. After leaving the park, we continued on Cannon avenue to the Pacific. Yep, we're that close. We took a drive down PCH for about 10 miles and got some...

After several false starts, rebooking penalties from Delta and disappointed parents and kids, we finally are in California! I sit in our hotel room, by my watch its 4am and can't believe that we are here. Flight was fine-rental is even better. We'd reserved a Dodge Magnum, but ended up with a Charger instead. It's nice, rides great. It's been a very long day, but the midnight snack (well, local time anyway) was In and Out Double Doubles. OMG, these are the best chain burger ever. The fries are delish, too. Only thing that could have made the meal better was a frosty brew. Tomorrow: Legoland. Signing off from the land of fruits and nuts...

It's a go. We are FINALLY taking our trip to California. When this was first planned, I was an ASM with Disney Store and we'd get into Disneyland for free. Alas, we'll be paying A LOT to go now, but WE'RE GOING!!!! This morning's agenda is to find cheap rental car, but I think I've got that covered. Next up, figuring out how much it's going to cost to get to the airport. Our airport charges 11 bucks a day for parking, let's see if we can get four of us to the airport and back for less than 100 bucks. Three reschedules thanks in part to the DM who approved the vacation, then was beholden to the new ASM at my store who said 'he couldn't work without me'. If that hadn't happened, we would have seen the park Walt walked in 18 months ago. The car still smells like epoxy. I think I need to put an air freshener in it while we're out of town. Florida primaries yesterday. Fortunately, one of the morons running for governor was creame...