Oh I hate to write about this day, because it means it was the end of our "Disney Bubble"..it was the end of the end, and there was no saying, "Tomorrow, we are going to go on..."
So it starts. We woke knowing we were going to close the park, and closing the park meant midnight since it was Friday.
Admittedly, we took our time in the am. We wanted to make sure we would have everything we needed to finish off the day. Everyone put on their best Mickey attire, and grabbed our Mickey ears, and off we went!
It was an odd day to start because for some reason, we couldn't get into the Disney parking garage. It was closed down. We could see cars getting into it, but all of the freeway entrances we tried were blocked. They were diverting traffic to the out-lots, lots surrounding the Disney hotels, and I think it was because they were expecting a lot of traffic. But, that also meant a lot of unnecessary walking on our parts before we even made it inside the park. The kids were complaining of the heat on the black top before we even made it inside Downtown Disney. Once inside, DD, I carried Kate most of the way there. Poor punks. It was a lot of steps for a little munchkin. This is the #1 reason that when we go back, we will pay the extra 150.00 a night to stay on property. We loved, LOVED our hotel, and how great they treated us, and spoiled us, (I haven't even blogged about how great the service was at The Embassy, it was DEVINE!) but when you are spending 1 hour each way, dealing with parking, and getting into the parks, you learn quickly how much time is money, and money is time.
Finally we get into the park, drenched with sweat, and we knew the only place we wanted to go was Splash Mountain. Some might say, "Really? How many times can you ride that, and have it be so much fun every time?" Easy. There are so many personal family jokes that were made on that ride. For instance, when Brer Fox is angry with Brer Bear for getting his feet caught up in the rope, and he is dangling upside down, Brer Fox says, "We 'aint got time for this! We gots to get out of here! Get yerself down from there!!" Every single time, Mike nudges me because of our first trip to Disney together, we laughed and laughed at that part. What fun. <3 p="">
Kate loves the "How do you do?? I really must get along, I really must be gone--song" I know those probably aren't the right words, but she could sing, and sing that song all day. Her knowing that is my favorite ride, and pointing at all of my favorite animatronics, makes me smile, thinking back at it all.
So this day, we rode this a record 6 times in a row before the lines caught up with us. We spent a lot of time getting those last minute rides in..I don't remember now if I blogged about Kate overcoming her fear with Space Mountain, but she met a little girl on the rapid ride that got a new pin on her lanyard every time she overcame her fear of a ride, and so I told Kate I would buy her Pascal the chameleon off Tangled if she overcame her fears of Space Mountain, and she rode it, and mission accomplished. Mom bought her the stuffie, and also the Tangled wig. She was excited. So much, she rode Space Mtn 3 more times, loving every moment of it. I don't know if she is cured, per say..but she was happy, and felt at ease, and felt powerful that she accomplished it.
Matthew really wanted the Mickey gloves, and settled on a Goofy hat during the day because he didn't want to get the gloves dirty. I was happy knowing all I had left was the gloves to buy. We did so great with souvenirs! We ate really expensive spaghetti this day, and it was terrible. Awful, really. LOL! But, what can you say? They sell spaghetti at the end of Space Mtn, in a spacey themed restaurant, and that is what the kids wanted, and well, 50.00 later, we had fast food spaghetti. The kids licked their plates, while the parents popped Tums. :)
We were finishing up Toad's Great Adventure, and Alice, and the teacups, and I couldn't stop talking about how much I loved Toad's Great Adventure. I hope it isn't a stereotype to my fellow Brits, I just loved all of the England themed scenes. I wanted to ride it again and again, and for some reason, I have always missed this ride. I had never rode it before, in all of our other trips, so it was cool to have this last chance at it.
So the theme of this trip was how hot it was. It was so dang hot. We live in the mildest part of the country and we are just spoiled with our mild weather. It became the time of day where we seeked water, and we found the water park at California Adventure. It is a spray park where all of the kids can get soaked, and the parents too. Next time we go, I am allowing us to change into swim suits, at least the kids..and let them run amuck. It is such an awesome attraction, and with how hot it gets, you dry fast.
I treated myself and Matthew to new T-shirts, Tower Of Terror themed, and we found a beer stand! Mike and I kept seeing people walking around CA with beers in their hands, but couldn't figure out where they were getting them. We stopped for dessert, and I finally looked up at the menu and found you could buy beer, anywhere! Well, you didn't have to tell me twice. Mike and I clinked yellow neon cups, and went on our way! WOW! This day was already fun, but it became instantly silliness from this point. We were clinking yellow plastic cups all day long. "Skumps!! Skumps!!" Man, how fun the rides became. It was hot, but we were silly faced. I think everyone should be entitled to have 3 beers to get through a Friday evening at Disney with all of the families there, and all of the strollers. 'Nuff said.
CA closes the California Screamin' coaster early to get ready for World of Color, so Mike and I decided it was do or die. Matthew wanted to ride Tower of Terror one last time in the real dark night so he could see all of Disney at night, up high, and Kate wanted to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Well, we had kids wanting to be at 2 different parks, so we said our goodbyes, and Kate and I ran off into the sunset to do all of our "One last rides.." at Disney. She has my heart, and my love of good 'ol fashioned Disneyland, and we rode Pirates 2 times in a row, Splash 2 more times, and then we saw that the Matterhorn was OPEN! YAY! They had been refurbishing it all week long, so her and I jumped in line, and called the boys. We said, "Hurry Hurry! You are going to miss Matterhorn!" They came over as soon as they could..panting and out of breath, and just like that, we all got on the ride together. It was magical.
Matthew kept reminding me that I needed to buy his Mickey gloves, and I kept telling him yes..yes..I will, promise! So we just kept going from attraction to attraction. Boy when that last one stopped letting people on, it was a deflation all around. We all let our shoulders hang, and we walked towards the entrance. We cried, listening to the music that plays as you are leaving Main St Plaza, knowing we won't be back for however long..and it was such a sad, sad feeling. You go knowing you have 5 days there, and after day one, and day two, you are like, I still have 4 days here! Then, poof! Day 5 comes, and it is so short. SOOO short.
Well, so we are walking by all of the shops, and I am thinking..don't sweat it, the World Of Disney is open, I will get the gloves there. We get closer to Downtown Disney, and what!! It looks like it isn't open! I run to the door, begging to let me in for the gloves, and they say they can't..they closed a half and hour ago. I turned to look at Matthew, and he was bawling. How could I forget, and be so dumb? Oh, I felt like a jerk. I knew I was going to have to make it right..so it was either get there in the AM, or go before our flight on Sunday. I hated leaving our amazing day there, knowing Matthew was so upset with me for not getting his gloves, he had been so amazingly great the whole time, and I knew that was the one thing he really wanted..and I just felt terrible.
We left and went back to the hotel.....walking the whole way back, and Mike carried Kate. He deserved a metal for the distance he walked with her, slumped on his shoulder.
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