Microblog Monday – the Disney edition

Ah, Disneyland – you Americans know how to put on an amusement park! It’s the size of a small city!   (That’s my mother in law holding up Curious George- kindergarten assignment. It took me hours to send captioned pictures and write a story in a journal for Boo’s teacher.  Whew!)  We had a great time!  It was great to take a holiday break and we were all sad to leave the warm and sunny climate.  Highlights included the race through Cars Land, Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion and the Hollywood Tower of Terror.  I screamed a lot.  Seriously.  People find it hilarious.  Boo was quite impressed when he got to “drive” cars and eat his body weight in French fries.

Here’s a tip for all those who venture forth into that giant machine of happy fun.  Plan ahead – know what your kid will like, get it done and then when they’re tired or overstimulated, do the rides you want to do while they hang out and rest.  Also bring snacks, water, and a decent meal.  The food is overpriced and crappy (but it’s an amusement park so I wasn’t expecting much).  You can find fresh fruit, but anything approaching salad or sandwiches is very expensive and skimpy on protein.  You know of course, my heart sang when I found frozen margaritas in California Adventure Park.  Liquid joy.  We also brought a stroller.  We walked and stood on our feet for HOURS.  Lineups were pretty quick this time of the year and the longest wait was 50min. for Cars Land, but had we planned better, we would have done that first.  It was worth it though.  I was very impressed with all the detail and work that goes on for some of the bigger attractions.

We left Boo with grandma and went out for dinner in downtown Disney.  What I did not know is that Downtown Disney is really just a big plaza with restaurants.  We ate at the House of Blues hoping we could take in some music.  Nope, those rooms were booked with private parties and we just didn’t have it in us to hang around til a band set up at 10pm.  We’re old now.  Our idea of fun is being able to sleep in without Boo terrorizing us at 7am.   So we were back at the hotel by 9:30.  The next day we went to Target (yes, it’s better in the States and has the same wine for 50% less) and then hung out at the pool.  Lovely, relaxing for me and watched Boo and his daddy play in the water.  So nice.

It certainly made me yearn to go on vacation again and I’ve already started saving. It’s amazing how much fun you can have with your family when you’re not cooking, grocery shopping, cleaning, doing laundry, running errands, emailing, walking the dog, waking up in a cold sweat worrying about your financial future, etc.