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| An Evening Soak at Splash Mountain |
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| A Clean, Quiet Morning on Main Street |
Magic Mornings in Disneyland are still magic, despite the
skyrocketing attendance numbers during spring break. We were in the park at 7:00 and
everything was freshly washed and cleaned. There were no churro wrappers
tumbling across the paths or piles of spilled popcorn scattered about. The park
looked fresh and new and perfect as always.
We spent some time in Fantasyland and enjoyed a long
breakfast at the Red Rose Taverne before puttering around the park for a while,
eventually making our way to California Adventure because we had fast passess
to Radiator Springs Racers. A few hours later, we walked back to our hotel against the
flow of thousands of others who were just getting to the parks. We checked out,
and drove two buildings down to our new hotel for the next 2 nights, Park Vue
Inn, a cute boutique hotel directly across the street from the parks. While I
checked in, Ashley ran back to the park for another ride on Guardians, then she
bought her favorite mac and cheese with garlic bread crumble from Garlic
Kissed, one of the Food and Wine Festival kiosks, and waited for us to meet up
with her.
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| Ashley, Walt, and Mickey |
Once we were all back together, we spent a leisurely day in
the parks. We did what we wanted when we wanted. We bought another Max Pass so
we didn’t have to wait in any lines. At one point, Radiator Springs was a
3-hour wait for stand-by. We ordered our food on the app and avoided those
lines, too. We sampled drinking chocolate from Ghirardelli Soda Fountain &
Chocolate Shop. One cup of drinking chocolate was so rich would’ve been enough
to share with 10 people.
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| Francisco and Emmett |
While walking near Grizzly Peak in California Adventure, Ashley
looked up in the trees and saw one of the Disneyland Cats. We’ve only seen a few
in all our years of coming, and it’s always a treat. This cat’s name is Francisco
and he was up a hill near some trees. We stopped to take his picture and suddenly,
Francisco stood up, walked down the hill to me, put his head near the fence so
I could stick my fingers through and scratch his neck, then he walked back up
the hill and sat down. Last night at Trader Sam’s, a black
kitty named Emmett walked up to Chad and me at our table while we were getting
up to leave, so we followed him until he sat down and let me love him for a
while.
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| Linda Cardellini |
Tonight, we had dinner reservations at Carnation Café at 5:40, but
first Chad and Ashley wanted to ride Indy again, so I sat at the Jolly Holiday Café
and alternated between watching Mickey’s Soundsational Parade and watching
people. Chad and Ashley joined me after their ride, and we sat at our table talking
for a bit. We talked about how we’ve seen several celebrities in the parks over
the years and how there’s even Twitter and Instagram accounts where people post
celebrity sightings in the parks. I pulled one up on my phone and saw that no
one had posted anything and we wondered if we’d spot any celebrities during
this visit. We stood up from our table to head to Carnation Café, but first we
stopped by the Candy Palace, and Ashley ran into Linda Cardellini who was
walking around with her family and eating ice cream. Ashley approached the tiny beautiful actress, who I would have never recognized, and said, “Hi, could I please
get my picture taken with you? My sister loves you so much and will be so excited.”
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| Ashley and Linda |
We ate a wonderful dinner at Carnation Café. Chad had Walt’s
favorite: Chicken fried chicken, I had a sourdough bacon cheese melt, and
Ashley had penne pasta with chicken and broccoli. We were full and happy and
ready to enjoy our evening as we left the restaurant. We had fast passes for Splash Mountain, so we strolled over
to Critter Country, eager to go on one of our favorite rides. When we reached
Adventureland, Ashley said, “I actually don’t want to get wet, so I’m gonna see if I can ride Indy again,” and she left us. As Chad and I got closer to
Splash Mountain, he said, “Are you ready to get wet? It’s pretty chilly
outside.” I thought about soggy clothes, and the cool wind, and the long walk to the hotel, and I wanted to say no. “Yes!” I said by mistake.
When we boarded the ride, we were in the first two seats of
the log, which are notorious for being the wettest spots. By the time we got off the
ride, the only dry spot on either of our bodies was the area between our
shoulder blades. Our clothes were sagging from the weight of the water and we
had to wring out our shirts. We waddled out of the exit, shaking water from our
hands, and there was dry Ashley with a mingled look of glee and pity on her
face. She laughed at us, but in a boy-do-I-feel-sorry-for-you-guys kind of way.
We walked out of the park and back to our hotel with a trail of water following
us the whole way. I bet Splash Mountain has about 2 gallons less water now than before we got on.
We peeled off our clothes and washed away God only knows
what kind of bacteria and viruses from our bodies, and then got ready to go
back to the park. Except no one wanted to go back. We were too snuggly, too
tired, and too sore to go back for more. Ashley fell asleep on the living room
sofa, and Chad and I sat in the bedroom while I wrote. After a while, we decided
to go to Cold Stone for ice cream. I stood up and it was exactly like the scene
in in Bambi when Bambi is learning how to walk on the ice, and Thumper has to
help him because his legs don’t work. It’s definitely a good thing that we’re
staying in tonight.
We saw zero Teslas today. Whatever.
-Rachel
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