San Diego Trip Report: Part 4

San Diego: Day 7: Thursday

This was the day that I was most excited about. This was the day that we were finally able to go to Disneyland...

My plan going in to Disneyland was to start by riding the Buzz Lightyear ride. When we got in and I saw how crowded it was already… I made the fateful decision to go to Fantasyland to start the day. My logic: Fantasyland rides are slower to load and the lines get longer much quicker. So, we rode the first ride we came to with a short line: Snow White. Bad decision. Bad, bad decision.

They should rename the ride to: The Evil Queen (plus one cut-out of Snow White). The first few scenes were nice and warm and fuzzy. Emily was looking around and loving it. Then we get to a dark room with lightning and thunder and the Evil Queen. The cutout turns as we pass and the Evil Queen turns in the ugly old lady with the apple. Emily started bawling. She cried throughout the rest of the ride. She buried her head in Melissa’s chest. I had a bad feeling about the rest of the day.

We decide we need to settle Emily down… so we rode the Carousel. She picks out a big horse to ride on and has a delightful time. She was smiling and laughing and waving. I began to have a good feeling again.

So, we decide to risk it and go on another dark ride: Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. That doesn’t sound too scary does it? Bad decision. Bad, bad decision. Emily was already freaked out…but then we get to a scene when it’s completely dark except for a pair of headlights coming right at you and the sound system pumping out ear shattering noises of a car honking, screeching, and crashing... It scared the living manure out of her. She cried throughout the rest of the ride. I had a bad feeling about the rest of the day.

From then on, we tried to target non-dark rides. Emily liked the Jungle Cruise. She liked the Train. She liked the Dumbo ride. She liked the Tea-Cups. She liked most of the Tiki-room. At the end of the day, we tried our luck on Pirates of the Caribbean. She did much better on that one.

Keeping with tradition of my past Disney trip reports: Top 3 Attractions that I actually got to ride at Disneyland: Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Buzz Lightyear. Least favorite rides: Snow White and Storybook Canal. I have to say right here that I think the Indiana Jones ride is in my top five rides all time. It’s not scary… but it’s just so creative… and it takes elements from the movies and incorporates them into the ride. So, if you are a big fan of the movies… you’ll be a big fan of the ride.

I had a quick comment about Disneyland’s firework show. It was spectacular. They had the traditional fireworks over the castle, but also shot them off from different places around main street. They had walls of flame down by the castle… and the whole thing was choreographed with music. They used the Indiana Jones main theme, they used the Star Wars main theme… along with a few other famous Disney tunes… it was really, really, really good. I loved it! Very memorable!

San Diego: Day 8: Friday

Friday was our last day in San Diego. But before I get into the details of this particular day. Allow me to share a few stories that didn’t really fit anywhere else.

I can’t remember which day it was… but all of us went down to the beach to hang out and watch Emily play. We plopped down next to a family that looked like they had been there all day. We could tell because they had successfully dug a four to five foot hole in the sand. About ten minutes after we got there… they put a girl who was probably ten or eleven down in the hole and buried her up to her neck. It was very funny. What was even funnier was when they tried to get her out. It took ten minutes of digging and pulling to finally get her out.

Towards late afternoon, it was fun to go down to the beach as see all the sand castles that had been built during the day. There was one that looked like a stinkin’ palace. It must have taken them all day to build. It was massive. There was another that was much smaller… but they had built about three moats trying to protect it from the waves. It was fun to watch.

The beach itself was interesting. For how beautiful it was… it was also kind of disgusting. The waves brought in a bunch of seaweed that would sit out on the sand and rot. It would attract flies and insects… swarms of them. It was kind of gross. I couldn’t figure out why the city couldn’t just have a truck come by every now and then to collect it. Maybe they do and we went at the wrong time. Who knows?

Our condo was located very close to Sea World. Every night Sea World would do a fireworks show. A few times, a few of us would go up there to watch the show from our balcony. We could see the entire display without any problem. It was neat… we could see a fireworks display every night if we wanted to.

Another quick fact about California driving. You are allowed to U-turn on any left turn arrow at any stoplight unless indicated differently. It took some getting used to, but it came in handy several times!

Jeff brought his Playstation 2 for the trip. Emily loved watching Jeff play a game called Kingdom Hearts. It’s a game with Disney characters… so she would watch specifically for Goofy or Donald or whoever she would recognize. She also played a game called Contra. She hasn’t really learned how to push multiple buttons at once. Either she walks forward, or she jumps in place, or she shoots in place… but never all three at once. Needless to say, she died a lot in that game. My favorite game of the week was playing MVP 2005. It’s a great baseball game. I intentionally threw at Cub batters. It was great!

Well, we needed to be at the airport around 2:00PM if I remember right. So, we just hung out at the condo in the morning. We went down to the beach one last time. We packed up our stuff. We went looking for a fast food place. We didn’t find one. So my family dropped the three of us off at the airport and we ate there. The flight was uneventful and good. We got a nice snack-pack on the flight again. It was a great trip… I would go back to San Diego anytime! What a beautiful city! We are grateful to my parents for the invite and for footing the majority of the bill. We had a great time!