Head West Young Man About This Page:

[Lemap760]

So, we've been back for 4 weeks now and life has been super busy with work, soccer, start of school and other daily life altering activities. Anyway, I didn't forget about this and I'm focused on finishing it so that I can remember the trip more.

Monday August 19th
The alarm went off around 5 and I got up, showered and had some breakfast. Went to go wake up Andrew around 5:45. I was met with some grumbles until I finally just said. "Well, I'm leaving. Bye." That did the trick and he got up in no time. After teeth brushing we hopped in my Dad's car and left for the airport around 6. No problems getting down I-95 this morning as rush hour hadn't quite kicked in yet. As a side note: Dad said the drive back home wasn't bad either.
I managed to get all the packing done in one checked bag and one smaller carry on. The checked bag was only about 30 lbs. Yay for summer clothing weighing less. I went with curb side check in because there was no one there. The guy outside actually looked bored. So bag checked and $2 later we headed inside to security.
There was a fairly long line at security but it was being split into 2 lines depending on which airline you were flying. Our luck was with us when the security agent directed us to the shorter of the two lines. While standing there waiting ever so patiently for our turn a man in the other line begged a security agent to let him in the other line because his plane was about to board. Sorry buddy you should have gotten here earlier. Turns out both lines were going to the same security desk to check IDs and boarding passes. Then on to the fun of scanners and metal detectors. Andrew and I were pulled over to the side to go through the simple metal detector (with no line) because I was travelling with a minor.
After putting our shoes back on and finding our gate we headed off in search of breakfast for Andrew. We ended up checking out the bakery goods at Au Bon Pain. Andrew selected a cinamon roll that was the size of his head and a vitamin water. After chowing down we went to the gate to sit and wait. While waiting we played some cards and I read my book (which it turned out I had read before so it didn't hold my interest) and Andrew played on the Ipad.
We had a connecting flight in Chicago and the plane was one of those small commuter planes. Anyone who had one of the rolling style luggage cases had to gate check it because they wouldn't fit in the overhead bins.
Pet peeve time - when they start to call boarding classes, if you have boarding class #4 don't line up and cause a jam up when they called boarding class # 1. This wasn't Southwest. Everyone had assigned seats and most of us had to gate check our bag anyway. So there was no need to fight for that precious overhead space. It's like people who block the FP entrance to rides when their FP time is still 10 minutes away.
The flight to Chicago was uneventful and we landed on time. We had 3 hours until our flight to Santa Ana so we had a nice sit down lunch at Chili's. I had a grilled chicken sandwich and Andrew had chicken fingers. I ended up eating the leftover chicken fingers on the plane as a snack.
The next leg of the flight was also uneventful and landed on time. The gentleman sitting next to me got my carry on bag down for me. (there was room for it this time). We made our way off the plane and down to baggage claim. At this point both of us really needed a restroom. I sent Andrew off to find one while I waited for the bags. The bags came out just as he returned. After everyone had a potty break we went to the car rental counter and got that squared away. They tried to give me all the typical spiels about insurance and upgrading and gas. Blah blah blah. A lot of no thank you's later we went in search of where to get the car.
I'll just say this up front, I know I picked an economy car and you get what you pay for but Ford Fiesta's are probably one of the worst cars I have ever driven. There's probably a good reason I don't see any of them on the roads. Yick. No pick up at all. And there's a weird double mirror thing happening on the side mirrors that I never got used to all week. Plenty of room for the two of us and the little bit of luggage we had and that's why I pick economy. Enough of the car commercial.
Luggage all loaded and GPS programmed for the hotel and off we go. Oh wait, we're under a parking garage. The GPS won't work until we're out of here. After we made our way out into the open there was an immediate intersection. Quick decision - which way. I went straight. The GPS took forever to load maps or whatever it was doing. Did I mention it was now 5 pm local time? Yep. Rush hour had begun and there I am trying to navigate around not knowing where I'm going with a GPS taking it's good sweet time. I was trying desperately to find a parking lot to pull into. Eventually it was ready to give me directions and we were on our way - to sit in traffic. It wasn't too terrible in all honesty. I wasn't prepared for the traffic lights on the on ramps to the highway. That took some getting used to.
Eventually we made it to the Howard Johnson's on Harbor Blvd. We checked in and were given a room in building 2. The clerk did ask us if not having an elevator was a problem or not before he put us there. Building 2 has no elevators but only 2 floors. I didn't think this was a problem until later in the trip when I was tired. Actually it was no more stairs then we have to go up at home so it wasn't a big deal. We had a court yard view and we could see the DL fireworks every night.
The beds in the room. I thought the mirrored doors of the closet would bother me at night, but they didn't.


After getting settled and unpacking we headed next door to Mimi's Cafe for dinner. We got right in and seated with no wait. Andrew had the kids corn dog nuggets and I had the blue cheese and walnut salad with grilled chicken. Mine came with a muffin. I chose the carrot and raisin muffin. After Andrew turned his nose up at the sound of it he then proceeded to eat the entire muffin top leaving me with the stump. Think of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine only eats the tops of her muffins. They also brought a bread basket to the table with slices of the same carrot/raisin recipe.


Carrot raisin muffin


Bread basket



Kids corn dog nuggets and fries


Blue cheese and walnut Salad


After dinner we were both exhausted as our body clocks told us it was past 11pm. We went to bed fairly early this evening. I woke up later to the sound of the fireworks. This was the only night that I didn't enjoy them. I wanted to sleep. It sounded like they were being set off right outside our window. They eventually stopped and I could get some sleep. Tomorrow was a busy day.

[Lemap760]

For some reason the pictures aren't working. I'll try again in the next update.

[chezp]

Ah, so it's not my Internet connection for once with the photos - that makes me feel better.

Great start! I so hear you about people lining up too early for flights, that's a pet peeve of mine as well!

[Lemap760]

Tuesday August 20

I decided the first day would be a good day to use our one Magic Morning we got with our 3 day park hopper. We were both up early without any problems. Breakfast was granola bars and cereal bars in the room. Around 6:45 we started the walk for the first time towards the Disney Land gates. It was a peaceful walk. Not too many people around and the weather was still nice and cool.


As you can see no one was on the sidewalks yet. That is until we got to the light to cross the street. The walk wasn't bad. Only about 5-10 minutes depending on our speed.
We got through bag check to be greeted with long lines at the turnstiles. The gentleman behind me stated that our magic hour was going to be more like a magic 45 minutes and he was right. It took awhile to get into the park. Plus since it was our first day they had to take our picture to match our passes.
We finally made it into the park and having a choice of either Fantasyland or Tomorrowland, we chose to start with Tomorrowland. I let Andrew pick our first ride of the trip and he chose.............Astro Orbitors. Really? This is what our first ride is? Ok then. At least we're doing it when there's no line and the sun isn't out yet to roast us. I stopped for a brief second to ask the attendent if we would both fit in one rocket ship and he assured me we would. We did, and comfortably too. Now my only concern was getting back out of this thing gracefully.
After a fun spin around the galaxy and seeing the DL scenery from high above we moved on.
We did Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear both with no waits. I'm no better at Buzz here than in DW. It doesn't matter you can move your gun around. I still can't see where my laser is pointing.

Buzz looks a little sunburnt.

Andrew then spotted the Finding Nemo Submarines and insisted on riding it. Ugh. Not something that was on the top of my list, but I had to remember that he had never been on this and it was his vacation too. So off to join what looked like a long line. The sign posted a 10 minute wait but I knew it would be longer. It was more like 20 minutes. We got on and my child became one of those people - the ones who take a seat in the middle of the row without moving all the way down. I quickly pulled him back up and told him he needed to keep moving all the way.
The most fun I had on this ride was when the fish with the light and sharp teeth (sorry I don't know what it's called) suddenly appears and scared Andrew. He jumped a few inches off his seat. Mean of me to laugh but it was funny.
After we resurfaced we went over to Autopia. Andrew was thrilled because he's finally tall enough to drive his own car without me being in there with him. So we both went solo.

He looks like he's thinking really hard about something.

There were some people in front of us who had trouble with the concept of push down on the pedal to make your car go and let go to stop. Ugh. I hate that. This isn't hard. We had a ride of mostly stopping and waiting for them to get going again. This was also making my knee hurt pretty bad. I had to tell Andrew that if he wanted to do this again he would have to alone. Result - we didn't go back.
It was clear that the park was open to the public now as the lines started to grow. The waits still weren't too bad in the morning. Nothing more than 20-25 minutes and that was for the slow loading rides like Nemo and Autopia.
We walked over to Adventureland to grab fast passes for Indiana Jones. We had about an hour to wait until we could use them. We went to Tarzan's Tree House and spent some time there.


To be continued after Photo bucket lets me save my resized pictures.

[chezp]

Great start to your first day in the park, even if you weren't too keen on the choice of the first ride.

[mojjo]

Joining in!! Great start. I know what you mean about 95. FYI, Trenton-Mercer airport has some great flights now too. You might want to check it out.

[FanOfMickey]

Great start to your first day!!