Day 5 on vacation: We were tired, sore, sunburned, and
having the time of our lives.
We decided to check out Disney’s California Adventure, and
if I was stunned by the beauty of Disneyland this place floored me. Being both
a movie nut and a fan of any time before I was born, the old Hollywood look of
the place just melted my heart. The streets looked just as I imagined they did
when Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe walked down them, maybe without Goofy, but
still pretty amazing.
We hit the animation studios department and I got a drawing
lesson by a real Disney artist! I’ve drawn the Cheshire Cat before, but it was
still cool. We also got to watch an animated Crush from Finding Nemo answer
kids questions in a display of animation I’d never thought possible. After that
the day was peppered with more rides, character encounters, and shopping (This was
my souvenir day). Katie and I caught a stage performance of Aladdin, which was
pretty spectacular, especially when the glowing camels came out and started
eating audience members. 
Once again we kept running into fantastic street
performances that we just loved, including a 40’s song and dance show featuring
Minnie Mouse. I hope people appreciate these things as much as I do, I’d hate
to think of Disneyland turning into all rides just because people need digital
media just to survive.
It was a magical day. Katie and I got lost along the
boardwalk searching for Cars Land and ran into Donald Duck who was a big fan of
my tee shirt. We rode a Little Mermaid ride, ate churros, and made our way to
the land of talking cars, which was pretty impressive since it made us feel
like we had stepped into the movie! Bugs Life land was the same way, but I didn’t
like Bugs Life that much so it was cool but a lot of the effect was kind of
wasted on me. We fast passed ourselves onto a ride that “flew” us over
California in an amazing display of projection and 4D entertainment. We flew
over orange groves and smelled oranges, and over the ocean and smelled a dead
whale- or that was the kid next to me. Either way it was magical.
That night we got to see the parade again, only this time
without breakdowns, as well as an extremely convincing Snow White. My backpack
was full of Disneyland trinkets by this time, and we were all ready to drop
where we stood, but we wanted one last show before we were done, so we made our
way to the World of Color in California Adventures. It was a display of color
and water like I’ve never seen, where they were able to build a sheet of water
and project Disney films onto it, which once again brought tears to my eyes.
During the Pirates of the Carribean scene they shot fireballs over the crowd,
and I swear I lost an eyebrow in the process.
On the way back, we stopped by Disney’s rave club called the
House of Cards and listened to a band cover pop songs. I liked it because I’m a
huge Alice in Wonderland fan and the DJ was a white rabbit with LED ears. The
place felt like Wonderland after dropping acid.
The next day we had the sad task of saying goodbye to the
Magic Kingdom and heading home, back to blizzards, work and school. It was a
bittersweet moment, softened only by my wonderful fiancé’s whisper into my ear
the night before:
“Let’s come back in October.”
-JOE
P.S. Here are some pics that didn’t make it in the blog. J
ORCAS!!!! :D
ReplyDelete