.:california girls:.
note: this post is quite long, since i’ve blogged about my whole trip to disneyland this past weekend. so feel free to skim….
raigan and i are back from disneyland! well, we got back sunday night, but i haven’t had a chance to blog about the trip till now. it was super fun! my head is full of thoughts from the weekend, but let’s start at the beginning…
we left Friday afternoon. we stopped and ate at In-N-Out, so by the time we actually got on the road, it was about 5:30pm. we made great time all the way to california, then hit a little traffic, but not much. 6 wonderful hours in the car together! we talked and laughed and sang our hearts out to A Walk To Remember, Newsies, Switchfoot… listened to a couple Adventures in Odyssey. talked more, laughed really hard. talked about everything from hopes and dreams and what God was teaching us and growing us in, to boys and ::cough:: stuff. 
eventually we made it into Burbank and found Michael’s (family’s) house. (side note – for those of you who don’t know my friend Michael, he’s an aspiring actor that i know from highschool/homeschooling, etc. very cool guy!) we arrived around 10:30pm (we gained an hour going into Cali), so Michael took us down to where we works in the Universal Studios City Walk. we walked around and saw all the lights and shops and stuff, then went into Gladstones – the restaurant where he works – and had dessert. then we drove down Sunset blvd and checked out the “night life.” very interesting. there was a ton of people down there, as well as lots of flashy cars, cars trying to be flashy, lots of clubs, and lots of people trying to get into the clubs. talk about a different lifestyle. i really couldn’t relate, but was rather fascinated by it all. and saddened, as i thought about what the people out there were doing, seeking for, grasping for, desperate for… and not finding it no matter how hard they sought. anyway, eventually we got back to michael’s house and crashed.
saturday morning we (raigan and i) woke up around 8am. or so we thought. we’d been “awake” – translate: slightly moving and mumbling to each other – for about 15 minutes when i glanced at the clock in the office we were sleeping in – 7:17am. wait a sec, i thought, why does that clock say… oh dear… i realized that i had forgotten to set my watch back an hour before we went to sleep, so we woke up on arizona time! i looked at raigan and said, “go back to bed, it’s only 7 something.” she was like, “okay” and rolled over and went right back to sleep! i was already too awake, so i went downstairs (not a creature was stirring) and had a quiet time. then went back upstairs and dozed for a few minutes. then at the *real* 8am, we got up. haha! we took our time getting ready… i chatted with michael in the hallway while raigan was in the shower… mrs. seavey made us breakfast… we finished getting ready… by the time we left for disneyland it was around 10ish. it took us a little over 30 minutes to get to disneyland.
–oh, sidebar: the freeways in california are so confusing! you have to pay super close attention! the on ramp to the 134 off of riverside looks like an alleyway! it’s ridiculous! we totally missed it the first time. you would assume that the freeway entrance to go east would be on the east side of the street, but no! it’s seriously very different. i didn’t realize how spoiled we are with our arizona freeways… okay, back to the regularly scheduled program —
the first thing we did when we got into the park was check out the map! then we strolled down mainstreet and decided that we would do our shopping down there last, kind of on our way out. we went first to frontierland and new orleans square. we found the golden horseshoe (where we planned to eat at some point) then immediately went and got fastpasses for Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Splash Mountain. then, we had to kill some time before we could go use the fastpass, so we ran around on Tom Sawyer Island, which was really fun. then it was time for the rides! oh my gosh! chris – you are SO right! why in the world doesn’t everybody use the fastpass system? it’s FABULOUS! we bypassed a TON of people on every ride and never waited more than like, 10 minutes for anything! everytime we’d walk pass the lines of people i wanted to stop and be like, “do you not know about fastpass? why in the world are you standing in line?!” we probably saved over 3+ hours of time by the end of the day using fastpass. it was amazing. Pirates of the Caribbean was super fun to go on after having seen (and loving) the movie. Haunted Mansion was okay. It was kind of fun at first, but then as the ride progressed, it started to hit me that the stuff on that ride is not all fake! i mean, from a christian perspective it was slightly disturbing knowing that there are people out there who participate in that kind of stuff! ::shudder:: Splash Mountain was really fun! i’d never been on it before, so rai insisted that i sit in the very front. woo-hoo!! after *the* drop, my face was dripping! i managed to stay relatively dry everywhere else, but the mist and water after the drop totally soaked my face! i was literally dripping. LOL we hit the Winnie the Pooh ride (very cute) and then ate lunch at the Hungry Bear. decent burgers.
did Peter Pan. one of my favorites, if only for sentimental reasons. i’ve always loved that story! oh Chris – yep, i check out the blocks! totally fun! while we were standing in line for Peter Pan, we saw a movie star! um, we don’t know exactly who it was, but rai and i both recognized the man from somewhere! 
oh, i should probably mention that it was a bit rainy all day. most of the day it was just a light sprinkling. only enough to make it slightly inconvenient, but not nearly enough to dampen our spirits! we both had waterproof jackets with hoods, so we were great! from about 3:15 to 5ish it rained harder (like, actually rained), but we were inside the golden horseshoe at that point watching the Hillbilly Show (which was quite entertaining, btw). actually, at that point, i hit a low and was feeling really tired, so while we waited for the show to start, i just rested my head on the railing (we were on the 2nd level) and dozed for about 20 minutes. it was perfect. i felt great afterwards, despite the railing imprint that was left on the side of my forehead! haha!
after that we visited Toontown and did Star Tours. did splash mountain again and the Roger Rabbit ride. oh, and i absolutely HAD to buy a churro. i love those things, and i don’t think i’ve had one since the last time i was at disneyland – like, 12 years ago! i didn’t care if they were $2.75 each, we both got one. then we did some shopping. raigan bought a pink hat with disney princesses on it, a princess wallet, and a pink winnie the pooh mug. i bought a light blue t-shirt that says disneyland on it in navy, outlined in white. and a classic pooh mug that looks very fall-ish in coloring, with leaves… we both bought those big pancake-like suckers for our brothers too. we didn’t get ice cream on mainstreet, chris. we were totally planning on it, but by the time we were there, we just weren’t in the mood. ::shrug:: next time.
since it was raining, they didn’t have a parade really. a bunch of the disney characters rode by on a bus, but that was it. one of the employees called it “the consolation parade.” raigan and i went back to the golden horseshoe and saw the Jumpin’ Jivin’ Swing Band and watched the dancers for a half hour or so. that was super cool! i think more so b/c i used to do that and could relate to the music, the moves, the feel, the fun, etc.
oh, one other vent – why in the world do people bring toddlers and babies to disneyland??? for the love! if they aren’t big enough to walk around the whole day, and actually understand where they are and what’s going on, why bring them? it’s an added strain on the parents (that seemed, based on our observations, to bring out the worst in them), and just didn’t seem worth it. repeatedly, raigan and i looked at each other and said, “no way.” there is no way i’m taking my little kids to disneyland. if you have to use a stroller, forget it. use the money and pay a babysitter and take the older kids. seriously.
we left disneyland around 9:30, quite happy with our day. stars in our eyes and smiles on our faces. we had a great time! we called michael to see what was up with him and he was just getting off work, so we hooked up with him at a theatre near his house and saw Miracle. michael really likes hockey and he hadn’t seen miracle yet, so…
by the time we got home and were getting ready for bed, it was 1:30am or so. raigan flopped into bed right away and i went downstairs to get a drink. michael was down there looking for a snack and we ended up talking until 3am! i don’t know what i was thinking, but it was seriously very fun!
sunday morning we slept in a bit, packed up and then decided to try our chances of going to the beach and hope for decent weather. we were not disappointed! there were blue skies with huge white fluffy clouds, a cool breeze, and fresh sea air. michael took us to the original Gladstones restaurant right on the malibu beach for breakfast! it was gorgeous! we ate and talked and laughed and planned our next weekend trip out there! then we walked up and down the beach barefoot for 20 minutes or so before we had to hit the road. it was very sad to have to go home.
we got on the I-10 around 1:30pm and somehow ended up on the I-5 without realizing it, so we had to get off and turn around. good thing we had a map, or we could have been in trouble. it started raining pretty hard on the stretch from San Bernadino to Blythe. like, really hard. visibility was so low that we actually considered stopping in Blythe until the rain died down. but by the time we got gas in Blythe the rain had let up and we decided to keep going. from there all the way to phoenix it wasn’t bad. raigan drove all the way home. i dozed for the first hour or so. my head and throat felt yucky from a wierd head cold that i developed friday night and that i’m sure wasn’t helped at all my our outdoor activities on saturday. then we listened to more music and talked. we arrived safely back home around 9pm (arizona time). my bed had never felt so good.
all in all it was a wonderful trip! totally worth all the time, money, planning, weather, and tiredness that came with it. can’t wait till next time!
special thanks to chris for all the tips and hints and advice – that was great!! and of course, special thanks to michael and family for letting us stay with them and showing us around and taking care of us!
Zach & Andrea 