A Pirate's Life For Me.....

Disneyland is possibly even more fun as an adult than it was the last time I visited when I was a young boy. Many of the rides have been updated, some for the better as in the addition of Captain Jack Sparrow robots in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and some for the not so better, like the Nightmare Before Christmas presents riding in your car with you instead of the hitchhiking ghosts in the Haunted Mansion. Mostly though, Disneyland hasn't changed since I was there last and it is, I feel, continually getting closer to the magical world Walt Disney envisioned. They're even using the same funky smelling water in the rides that was there when I was a kid!

Rachel and I attacked Disneyland with gusto, fueled by over-priced bottled water and humongous M&M encrusted Rice Krispy treats. On Saturday we pulled a 16 hour shift at the park that had us limping back to our hotel with delirious Disneyland grins on our faces at almost one o' clock in the morning. We did it all, well, except for the Matterhorn, it's sinking into the ground, oh, and Small World was closed for Christmas decorating but other than that, we did it all!!! Rachel insisted that no matter what, we had to ride the Indiana Jones ride, multiple times. This ride was not there last time I visited and WOW, IT IS AWESOME!!! You ride in a funky military Jeep-hummer thing that rides very similar to my Jeep, so it instantly got huge bonus points from me, there's fire and lava and bugs and the Jeep JUMPS onto a rope bridge, then at the end you're nearly crushed to death by a large boulder!! So, so, so, so cool!!

I spent a good deal of time in the "50 years of Disneyland" museum where some of Walt Disney's conceptual drawings for the park and a scale model of Disneyland as it looked on Opening Day are on display. As a kid, I'm sure this building did not even register in my brain, but it was really exciting to me to see a little bit of Walt Disney's creative powers in a raw form.
Thank you Mr. Disney, it is truly a magical place ;)

Extravagant Halloween decorations were everywhere!

Me, facing my fear of Merry-go-Rounds, they're too fast......
or
This is my horse, there are many like it, but this one is MINE.

Splash Mountain! Zippa-dee-doo-dah!!!

Interesting fact, the Matterhorn is the tallest man-made
mountain in all of Disneyland.......

I suffered a massive protein overdose after eating this
humongous chunk of animal but it was SOOO worth it....

Awww.....cute kids....Rach became so excited a few times
that she went into uncontrollable fits of bouncing and squeaking...