Disney Magic

I love Disneyland. Yes, still. I want to go as many times as I can before my boys get all too grown up for it. I was really pleased that Christopher still loved it, too, and even happier that he braved many rides he's always been to scared to go on before, including the Matterhorn and Space Mountain. I only had to bribe him a little bit to go on Splash Mountain.

I would happily post photo after photo and include descriptions of each, but I find uploading multiple images to Blogger to be a royal pain, especially when it's time to organize the images with the writing. Is there a simpler way to do it?

So here's a slideshow instead. Let the Disney magic commence:

California Adventure

Have you been to California Adventure? You know, it's the park next to Disneyland where the Disneyland parking lot used to be? The first time I went there, I wasn't much impressed. But now that I've found my favorite parts and know to ignore the parts that don't interest our family, it's much more fun.

Soarin' Over California is may favorite attraction there, probably like most everyone else. Ro braved it even though he's afraid of heights, and I think he even liked it a little. It essentially simulates hang gliding over various parts of California, including the smells of orange groves and pine forests. You get to see Putty (hello, Seinfeld fans) while you wait in line, and he warns you that if you're scared of heights, you should probably skip out.

This was the point at which a 5 year-old in line next to me started crying and almost threw up. His mom looked at me and was all, "What is wrong with him?" and I was, like, "Maybe you should let him skip this one?"

King Triton's Carousel is just beautiful. All the animals are gorgeous sea creatures, and Nate just adores this ride. The park was so slow the day we went that he didn't have to dismount after each ride -- he just waited until it started up again. I think he was in heaven there, just a little bit. Ro pretended like he was seriously bored and rolled his eyes all over the place, but he went on it several times, too.

Please note the emptiness in the park behind the boys, who are enjoying the snapdragons. This brings me to Disney tip number 1: go to Disneyland in the off-season. I might mention this again, in my Disneyland post. I can't begin to describe to you how much more fun it is to go there when you don't have to stand around in line all day.

Back to the snapdragons: do you know how to make them "talk?" This was my favorite flower when I was little, but I usually picked all the blooms so I could make them talk. That's what the boys are doing in the picture, you see; not just admiring the glorious beauty of the blossoms.

Welcome to Nate's first real roller coaster ride! He's the little one in the front row next to Anthony. He was so happy to be tall enough (see the photo below), and went again immediately after this ride. Anthony got a little sick after two in a row, though, so that was the end of roller coasters for the day.

Nate wanted to go on the "up and down" ride, as he called it, which is the one that raises you straight up in the air and plummets you back to the bottom. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite tall enough for that one. Mommy was secretly relieved.

Do you see the grizzly bear at the top of the picture? This mountain is the back side of the Grizzly River Run, which was Ro's favorite ride. I went with the boys one time, but got so soaked I waited in the sun for them to go alone a second time. It's really a fun one, but you really get wet. Ponchos are for babies. Or so they tell me.

See? I was there.

Universal

Whenever our family goes on vacation to California, we always intend to go to Universal Studios. However, we usually get sucked in to Disneyland and can't seem to escape, choosing to spend several days there and being unwilling to give up any of them for a trip to Universal. However, this time we wised up: we went to Universal Studios first, and even though we just stayed there three hours, we were glad we went.

Look at this view of Los Angeles. Nice, huh? Taken from the tram on our Universal Studios tour.


Jaws is the thing I remember most about my last trip to Universal (about 20 years ago, or more, I think), and it doesn't look like he's changed much. I still screamed.


Does this set look familiar? I found it freaky to drive down Wisteria Lane.


Christopher's favorite part of the tour was the "War of the Worlds" plane crash. I did not care for it at all. I kind of hated the movie, too; it was when Tom Cruise went all crazy and stuff, wasn't it?


I am sorry to have to tell you this, but both of my boys are huge fans of "The Simpsons." We went through a phase where I allowed them to watch it freely, but became clued in pretty quickly that some episodes were not quite appropriate just yet. So when they saw the Simpsons ride, let me tell you this: they freaked out. They were so excited to go. They gladly waited in line, where we watched some kind of Simpsons show.

The ride itself is amazing, but I'm not sure I'd call it fun, exactly. Let me tell you this, my friends: if you decide to go on it when you're at Universal, hang on to your lunch, because if you don't, it's quite possible you might lose it.

Run In

There we were, happily driving along to Universal Studios, having finally beat the traffic jams, and talking about the Simpsons, when we noticed a police car behind us. And you know the feeling when you first think to yourself, "Uh-oh," and then you change lanes, and the police car changes lanes with you, and then they do it again, and you say out loud, "Ruh-roh!" and then you exit, and they follow you, and then you know you've had it. Right? You know that feeling?

Anthony was driving, but he hadn't been speeding, so I knew our pullover was related to my expired registration. My Texas plates with the expired registration, to be exact. The kind but efficient LAPD officers explained to us that what they really should do is impound our vehicle, because we were really driving an unregistered car, and prior to pulling us over, they were pretty sure we were either: a) running drugs, or b) in a stolen car.

I had to launch into a lengthy explanation of divorce, settlements, one unnamed Plaintiff, Utah residency, and so forth, and the officer then further lectured us on the importance of vehicle registration in the state of California and informed us that the CHP would not be nearly as forgiving as he.

So in the middle of this lecture, Nate sticks his head out the side window where officer #2 was standing (on the passenger side) and says, "Hey, guys! Can I take a picture with you?!" And once they issued our ticket (no, they did not offer us a warning), they obliged. I have to tell you, it's one of my favorite pictures from the trip.