Part 3 - "Disneyland and the Flight Home"

Graduation day was a blur. Sunday was a day for fun. Ashley was the first of four in her apartment to be packed and signed out early Sunday morning. So what are we going to do? We're going to Disneyland!
Just thirty miles south Anaheim awaited. One thing you've got to get used to real fast in CA is their highway signage..... it's most frustrating! Even the exit numbers may or may not be in order!
As all of you know, Disneyland is literally "sandwiched" by all the other businesses that sprung up around it.
Disneyland's parking is at a premium... so they built up. The five story enormous parking facility is impressive in itself. A long escalator stair ride placed us right at the shuttle trams. And they are quite cool looking...

I never did manage to get a really good picture of these stylish buggies. They run on CNG (Compressed Natural Gas). They don't produce any smoke, soot or smell and are very quiet.

We found out our Disney World ID, were not in the system and Pat and I needed our Maingate Pass to enter. We were handed a "re-ad" ticket so we could pass between Disneyland and California Adventure. However, we still needed to have our hand stamped in order to re-enter the parks. Interestingly, when re-entering Disneyland, we still needed to show our IDs!

Anyway, being Sunday both parks were slammed! Pat and I didn't really care to go on many of the attractions we basically wanted to "walk-about" the parks to enjoy being in Disneyland for our first time.

For us, Disneyland was part of growing up. I followed the original Mickey Mouse Club and could only dream of ever seeing Disneyland. In fact it wasn't until 1984 that we finally got to visit the Magic Kingdom in Disney World! We didn't return until we retired in 2005. The rest is "history!"

With the lines at the Disneyland turnstiles backed up we headed to the California Adventure.

I have to admit, Disney does an outstanding job "hiding" the business growth outside its berm. Fake walls, earth and trees focus your mind on the property and allow you to enjoy "the dream."

Walking around (even both parks) you sense how compact the parks are. California Adventure is nearing the completion of a large reconstruction you see the "Disney Fence" enclosing quite a lot of the Adventure. They'll be adding "Car Land" sometime this summer.

I had visions of riding some of these fascinating rides but once I got up close and personal with them I thought otherwise.

Mickey Mouse's Fun Wheel had me intrigued. Take a good look at the ovals that each car rides. You get a Ferris wheel with a "twist!"

You guessed it! First stop, Toy Story Mania!

Ashley said the line moves quickly. It did until we got in line! It wasn't that bad, but just after we got in line,the crowd caught up with us.

Luckily, we had our FastPass for Soarin'.

Ashley connected with several of her friends and we had no problem letting her hit the rides with them. We set out to explore for ourselves.

Pat and I headed out to checkout Downtown Disney. As you can imagine, all three of these parks in Disneyland can fit into one Disney World park. Actually, that turned out to be a good thing, we didn't have to walk very much!

Finally, it was time to visit Disneyland,

The minute we entered the gate, we couldn't help but notice everything is much smaller. The train, the train station and Main Street seem to be "compressed."

And, you certainly don't expect to see this on Main Street...

Cinderella's Castle was a real surprise... it's tiny!

... a walk through was an eyeopener.

This photo is from the rear wall to the front wall in the castle tunnel.

Several of the attractions have no cover...

We reconnected with Ashley and waited in line for Pirates of the Caribbean.

Which by the way, I think, is better than Disney World's.

By this time the crowds made it almost impossible to want to stand in line for an attraction.

We walked around and waited for the show Ashley wanted us to see, "World of Color."

Here's a sampling of Disneyland...

I never did get a really good photo of the Monorail. They looked so different than those at Disney World. The photo in the center of the above photo is the Monorail.

We headed back to California Adventure for "World of Color."

We got there early on Ashley's recommendation so we would have good viewing.

While waiting, many of the attractions along the water's edge shut-down early.

While waiting we were treated to a unique light show on Mickey Mouse's Fun Wheel...

The Entire wheel is outlined in LED lights that lit up in patterns or movement and kept us entertained for the entire time we waited for the show.

Sorry to say, I knew my camera would not do the show justice. Suffice it to say, the "World of Color" was worth the entire day!

The show lasts nearly thirty minutes and the pulsing water, video and music gave us chills.

It was awesome!

Now it was time to head home.

Ashley stayed with us at the hotel Sunday night. Both our flights were Monday. Ours at 8:00am and Ashley's was noon.

We dropped Ashley and her luggage off, then the car and headed for check-in.

We had one stop over on the flight out and back. Our flights went of without a hitch. Ashley's was another story. We heard she got home many hours later than she was scheduled to be home.

Now "seasoned fliers," Pat and I even enjoyed looking out the window of the plane...

Somewhere over the Panhandle of Florida!

.... and VERY close to getting out of this thing!