Boy, am I tired...

Well, yesterday my family and I have gone to Disneyland for a whole day, leaving at 9:00 am and came home at 3:00 am. Supposedly, very early morning today. Now this is what's happening.

Last night, the night before we left, I couldn't sleep well, so I slept in the car for the whole trip. But I was awake when we got to the gates. Us and many cars nearly blocking a traffic light to get there. However, there's this big sign in neon lights that change saying "Disneyland is CLOSED. Disney Ca. Adv. is OPEN."

Now we saw this at the gate at the driveway to the parking garage. They could have been decent enough to leave that sign, what, further along the highway to say to those who are going to Disneyland and not California Adventure to notify us (my family and I), and that's what my mom was complaining about, but what could we do.

So it ends up that we have to go to California Adventure rather than go to Disneyland because we can't get out. Oh well.

So we went to California Adventure! Whoopee!

And to be sure it IS fun. Things changed a lot since we last went to Disneyland five years ago. And each time it changes my perspective a little, so I wish to come by a lot.

Well anyway, what I didn't remember was this thing called "Downtown Disney" that talks about this big shopping center that revolves around Disney products before the ticket booths. Looks really cool and interesting, so I hope to go there sometime in the future. And that there's this bag checking that we show our backpacks and purses and the like to people and unzip or unbutton them to show our contents. I've never done that before when I have my bag with me, so it feels kind of weird. Kind of like "Hey, I'm the kind of person to show my bag to someone like I'm a potentially dangerous person with dangerous items" kind of feeling. Like an important feeling, so I'm not annoyed by it.

And then after that (after purchasing tickets) there's this big space of a plaza that stands between Disneyland and California Adventure. Makes me feel like "Which road will you choose, young one? For the choice is yours. Choose wisely." Like I'm in an RPG game. Of course, our tickets (and the sign outside of the parking garage) says that CA. Adv.'s open, so what choice do we have? Through the C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A signs we go.

And now I'm going to say what I think of each individual park land by order of where we went:

Golden State: We tried out Condor Flats, but the line's just waaaaaayyyyy too long (wait time: 95 min.) so I volunteered for Redwood Creek Challenge Trail, which I didn't know that it's a kiddy obstacle course thing, so that kind of punctured my spirit. Read my book the whole time we were there while my little brother's off to have a blast on this age-appropriate play thing while I just read my book (Long Patrol by Brian Jacques. Ahh, the glories of youth. 15 is such an old age. And then we went off to...

Paradise Pier: It's like a big carnival thing there. Because my little brother, Frank, was freaking out about rides for no apparent reason other than "I don't wanna feel scared" (chicken-wuss) we went on this rather slow ride called the "Golden Zephyr" that we "rocket around in spinning spaceships" says the map. The spaceships aren't spinning, we just go around in the air. But it's ok. Then my older brother, my dad, and I went to this thing called the "Orange Stinger" that's like these swings that fly around and around in the air. Now that was fun, as there's some tilting and higher than before heights that I haven't reached before in those State Carnival's ones, so that's cool. I never liked the way my legs feel afterward when hanging in the air so long, so I declined to my dad's offer of riding the "Malboomer" where the riders launch straight up 180 feet into the air. No way. I saved a similar ride for something later. So we went to a ferris wheel and then on a carousel, because those are the rides that Frank would want to go. Actually, in the beginning, he said no to the ferris wheel. Jeez, I have an unmanly little brother.

But the best ride I had ridden so far was the "california SCREAMIN'" which is this really fast roller coaster that was like "OMG, GEE GOLLY, WTF, AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!" kind of thing. That was also the first time I went upside down on a loop, so that was great. My face and my dad's (the only ones to ever ride anything) were so weird when the picture was taken on the Roller Coaster on the tv screen, that I regret that we didn't get a picture of it. After this, we saw...

"THE BLOCK PARTY PARADE": A street parade all about the Pixar movie characters. Pretty nice, I loved it. Great acrobatics while the people bounce around to "YMCA" or "Ceeeeelebration night, come on!" songs and so forth. It was really bouncy and upbeat, which was pretty cool. Toy story, Bug's Life, and Monster's Inc. char. were there. No Incredibles, sadly, but it was great all the same.

After that...

Dinner at the "Pizza Oom Mow Mow" which is a surfin' style pizza shack. Because I was hungry, I had to eat. I don't recommend it, tho.' The pizza crust has this burnt taste, so it's not really good pizza.

"A Bug's Land": a park that entirely "A Bug's Life" that we drop my mom, Frank, and my older brother Phil to because I wanted to go to Hollywood Tower of Terror with my dad. So no real feedback on this. However there's this really nice pin shop there which I bought a cool "Nightmare Before Christmas" pin for my friend. "Nightmare Before Christmas" seems like a really popular fashion statement among my contemporaries, so I guess it's normal to see a lot of that in gift shops. Parents refused to buy them for me...

Hollywood Pictures Backlot: All we ever did there was go to Tower of Terror with my dad. Which was a really great ride. Terror Tower had this Twilight Zone thing going on, where we see a Twilight Zone movie before the ride and then before the actual drop and rise, we see Twilight zone effects and stuff. And let me tell you, the effects are really good. I don't want to go into detail because it might spoil some stuff, but Whoa boy, it's just so awesome. Better than that "Malboomer" in Paradise Pier there, that's for sure.

And then after doing that a couple of times, we saw the Electric parade, which was really cool, as it's old and classic and having never seen it but heard of it, I saw it as a treat. And then, after wasting more time, we went to Disneyland, because our ticket says that those in CA. ADV. can go to Disneyland at 10 PM (since the CA. ADV. park closes at that time).

And let me tell you: Disneyland rides are the best at really late at night. Why? SHORT LINES. Especially when everybody's watching "Fantasmic" at Frontierland (me included). The last time I saw Fantasmic was five years ago, and I know that this one was different. IT'S GREAT. Words cannot describe it.

And...yeah. I'll tell what went on on the car ride home later. Too much info. now.

Zen