[Day 2 - Part 1: First Impression of Disneyland]

[Day 2 - Part 1: First Impression of Disneyland]

   11:16 PM       Laura

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For an account of Day 1, see HERE

So, we woke up late.  And at this point it makes me laugh, but when it was happening I was freaking out.  It was 10:20 and 11 was the checkout, and we both needed to shower.   After being in the car for 12 hours, showering would be nice.  The only way this would work is if we both somehow could utilize the bathroom at the same time. I told Chris to go first. When I hopped in, I forgot my shampoo, and Chris told me to use his.  (This would be the start of a wonderful hair day), so, completely conscious of the fact that around the corner out of view, Chris was brushing his teeth, I took a shower...  (I don't think I've EVER talked to anyone while I was in the shower, but it was a favorite moment... )I hopped out and blowdried and straightened my hair in record time.  Did most of my make up, and we were out of the hotel room at 11:05.  Not bad.

Chris's mom wasn't here yet, and in fact still hadn't left Burbank, an hour away.  So we went and camped out in the lobby, and I took my makeup into the guest bathroom and completed it there.  We waited an hour and a half for his mom. She arrived, we shoved our stuff in her car, and we were on the way.  I asked Chris how much she knew about me, and he said that he'd told her that I was a very good and close friend.  We reached Anaheim, and I remember looking EVERYwhere for the giant Disney Castle.  What I had screwed up in my mind, was that I was imagining the Disney WORLD castle, not the Disneyland castle.  Disneyland is actually surrounded by trees, and its hard to see anything from the outside.  I didn't even know we were AT Disneyland until we pulled into the parking structure.

We ended up parking on the top of the parking structure.  Grabbed Jackets and walked to a giant escalator down to where little train things would pull us to the park.  We stopped at what they called Downtown Disney and walked to a security check.  So far... This was not anything I expected.  I had grown up with this mental image of Disneyland in my head.  I had assumed it was in the middle of nowhere, with no walls around it.  It was kind of a mix between Disneyworld, and Disneyland being on a coast or something.  I had this big mental picture of it that I was completely confused when I walked into this giant area with a huge CALIFORNIA .

I grew up on this video:



It was my duty to find everything in it.  I made it my goal. To find the things in this video. The places I knew by sight so well, and from child memories.

We found the person who was going to let us into the park, got our stamps, and talked a bit with them before they took off and had to go do other things.  We got lockers, and proceed to go to California Adventures first.  We went straight to Soaring over California. It was a LONG line  They were done giving out fast passes for the day, and the line said 70 minutes.  So... we waited in line for 70 minutes.
Christopher started taking pictures of me, to which he'd show me, and I'd exclaim... "I'm so hot... what's wrong with me?!"  Everything looked great, my makeup was wonderful, my body looked proportional...  my hair.  my hair was wonderful..  I don't think I've had that good of a hair day EVER!  Shortly after we made it around the first bend, Goofy came out.  Which started my next goal... to get pictures with as many of the Disney Characters as possible.

While we were in line, I had an iPhone lightsaber fight with a 4 year old behind us...  Apparently, this lightsaber app is also for macs, and Chris and Danny loaded it up on their computer one day and swung their laptops around so it would make noises.. (Macs have accellerometers)





The line winded around and we moved under the canopy, and were in shade again.  Chris started freaking out.. because 2 years before, this picture was taken:
Which is about where we were.











Probably my favorite picture taken this day was this:

Ok. Back to the story.  We made it down into the tunnels.  And finally made it into the ride.  It consisted of a giant Imax screen and chairs that hung from the ceiling.  Pretty much they would lift the chairs  so they were in the center of the IMAX screen, blow air on you and move you back and forth so you felt like you were really in this movie that was playing in front of you... kind of like.. Star Tours.. but better.

Christopher decided that he was going to get his joy from the day, from seeing mine. He recorded my face through out the ENTIRE show. ..... and then sat and watched and laughed at it after it was over.  We then proceeded to make our way towards the Hollywood Backdrop.

After visiting Muppets 3d:

and Monsters Inc 3d: 

We then proceeded to go to the food and wine festival, and get these really really good quesadillas. We started walking down past the backdrop, and we had to get the classic pictures there.  

And this concludes part 1.