The long awaited Disneyland recap has arrved. Although really, there's not much to be shared other than s bunch of photos, but I'll still post em for ya.
My family actually used to live in Mission Viego when we were kids, so Disneyland was a huge part of our childhood. Going back to visit was like reliving the past for my brother and me, while dragging along two significant others who had never been simply provided some comic relief. To be honest I didn't really know what to expect with not having been there in so long - from what I could remember: I cried everytime I had gone on Splash Mountain, could easily stomach eight churros, and the castle was really, really small (it's Sleepy Beauty's, not Cinderella's at Disneyland).

So, we started out the day by making it to Anaheim in ample time only to discover that once you get off the highway, you apparently have to go through a maze full of u-turns to even end up in the same area where the parking garage might exist. This must be a plot to deter those who only 'kind of' want to visit Disney. Nothing was going to stand in the way of Megan and I getting a churro so off we went.
After purchasing our tickets ($72/person? Are they nuts!!!), we immediately headed to what we remember as being the absolute BEST ride - Pirates of Carribbean - and walked right on. Adam, who was still baffled over the cost of the ticket, took one look around the ride and said, 'oh, I get it now'. It's absolutely amazing the amount of detail that they put into these rides...although really, those ticket prices are getting a bit ridiculous, no?
Pirates was phenomenal - especially now that they've added in all the Jack Sparrow parts! Between the music and a Johnny Depp lookalike popping up everywhere, Megan and I were in heaven. Seriously, look how life-like he is:

We then headed to the Haunted House and Splash Mountain. No, I didn't cry on Splash Mountain, although my knees were shaking in line from the memory and I refused to sit in the front. I wish I had our photo from their camera, it was hysterical. Chris is grinning ear-to-ear, Megan looks like she's in labor, I'm catching some bugs in my mouth and Adam looks like he's just floating along on a lazy river.

We spent the rest of the morning going on the 'big kid' rides that I've never been on, like Space Mountain, Star Tours and Thundermountain.


And since we were experiencing Disney as adults, we skipped the hotdogs and headed back to Pirates and ate at the restaurant that is actually a part of the ride! The food was amazing, New Orlean's style Jimbalaya, chicken, cous-cous, etc. I've never gotten to eat in one of the 'theme' restaurants before - I'd highly recommend it! It definitely was worth the extra $10 and was one of my favorite parts of the day. (sorry, bad photo taken from the Pirates ride).

After our delicious meal we headed to Fantasyland and rode the Snow White ride (kill me, it was awful) and Mr. Toad Wild's ride. The boys had a cute moment in the teacup:

And Megan & I played princesses outside of Princess Aurora's castle:

Since it was Adam/Megan's first time to Disneyland, we had to make them ride 'It's a Small World.' To quote Adam, 'when we get off, can we get as far away from this ride as possible'?

Apparently that ride didn't sit well with him, other than getting to see a ridicuously obsese person almost capsize one of the boats!
And of course, no Disney vacation is complete without a Mickey ice cream!

Walking around was neat, I had never realized all the details that Disney puts into their parks. The mini-Mickeys carved everywhere, the bushes shaped like animals, the flowers, oh my goodness the flowers.
I still say Pirates was the best ride of the day, but I think everyone else would vote that the new Indiana Jones ride was without a doubt, awesome. You're in a Jeep car and being taken through the movie scenes, it's not really a roller-coaster ride like I thought, you're only going maybe 25 mph, but you're bouncing aound in the Jeep and dodging darts and giant rolling balls. It was awesome.
Of course, we had to go on the Winnie-the-Pooh ride too for Adam (Pooh Bear is his favorite!):

All in all, the Disney trip was worth it, even being four 20-somethings let loose in the park. It's definitely a different experience then when you go as a kid or with kids.

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