How come Disneyland never gets old?

I cannot count the number of times I have been to Disneyland since December 7, 2007. And yet, each time I go, I find some new enjoyment in the park. Each and every Disneyland experience is distinguishable and memorable. That place will never get old.

Holly Schultz and I went to Disneyland together yesterday. Here I will document our adventures in the happy wonderland. We had fun at the end of the day recounting all the ways that God had blessed us during our D-land adventure.

When we arrived at the park, we went first to guest services so that Holly could put the value of the ticket that she was in possession of toward a renewal of her annual pass. The ticket was worth $70. As we stood in line waiting for someone to help us, she noticed that the ticket she was holding had expired on January 4, 2010. As a single college student, she was worried about the possibility of forking out an extra $70 out of her own pocket. We decided to ask Guest Services anyway if she could still use the ticket to put toward a pass. To our surprise, they said yes! We praised and thanked God that even though the ticket had expired almost two months ago, Disneyland still agreed to use the value of it toward her pass.

One of the very first things we noticed as we got off the tram in Downtown Disney was how vibrant so many of the trees were this time of year. Take a look at these beautiful shots we got of God's creation around the park.

Our first order of business was procuring a Fast Pass for Space Mountain. After it was acquired, we decided to try something new, the 3-D tribute to Captian Eo. Right now, instead of "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience," "Captain Eo" is playing in the theater in Tomorrowland. It's a space odyssey/cheesy music video featuring Michael Jackson. We had fun laughing at it and making fun of it all the way through, as well as taking pictures next to the advertising poster.

Every trip to Disneyland deserves a pic with Walt and Mickey.
We exited Disneyland at this point to go check out the excitement at California Adventure. Unfortunately, when I used my pass to get in California, the guy told me that my pass was blocked out that day. I told him that I had gotten in to Disneyland, and he replied that they shouldn't have let me in, because I was blocked out, but if I had gotten into D-land once they would probably let me in again. He could not let me in to California though.

I was a little huffed when I got out of line. I whipped out my handy-dandy iPhone to get online to the Disneyland pass blockout calendar in order to prove that guy wrong, but sure enough, it was a blockout date. My goodness, it was time to praise and thank God that He had let us into Disneyland that day, because both of us had forgotten to check whether or not I was blocked out before we drove all the way to Anaheim!

Before entering Disneyland once again, we did a little window shopping in Downtown Disney. The most fun we had was at Island Outfitters, where we saw the most darling '50s era dresses that we just HAD to try on. Here they are, so sorry about the quality of the pictures.


Aren't they adorable? I wish women still dressed that way on a regular basis. So feminine, so flattering.

When we went back inside the park we got Fast Passes for Indiana Jones. The Fast Passes scheduled us to ride it between 8 pm and 9 pm. It was only about 1 pm and I was already kinda feeling tired, so imagining staying that late just to ride Indiana was daunting, but we kept the passes just in case.

As we stood in line at a candy shop waiting to order an Apple Pie Caramel Apple, I just thought these character Caramel Apples were too cute.
I was cold, as I had been all day so far. I was wearing a long sleeve tshirt, a sweatshirt, and a windproof jacket, and I was still frozen all day. And the high was 60. I know, I'm a Californian wimp. Anyways, even though I was frozen all ready, Splash Mountain sounded too fun to pass up. Especially because I haven't been on Splash Mountain since before December 7, 2007, I don't think. My husband and his family don't like it all that much. I love it, and I was willing to risk getting drenched on a cold (for me) day because of the intensity of my love for it.

Holly and I were seated in the back of our log, and surprisingly enough, we only got a few drops of water on us throughout the entire ride. The people toward the front of the log were absolutely drenched, but Holly and I were dry. We were pleased with the outcome. Not that the people in front were drenched, but that we were dry. :) Later, as we were praying for our dinner, I thanked God that He had kept us dry on the ride, because it kinda had been brazenly foolish of me to go on it knowing the probability of getting soaked and the fact that I was freezing to begin with. He protected me even through my rash stupidity. :)

Here we are on the Casey Jr. Circus Train. This was right after Dumbo, the ride on which we spotted Justin Guarini (runner up to Kelly Clarkson in American Idol Season 1). I noticed him first and asked Holly if it was him, and she agreed that she thought it was. I whipped out my handy-dandy iPhone again to double check his picture on IMDB, and the picture confirmed that whoever the guy was that we spotted on Dumbo, he was the spitting image of Justin Guarini. The fact that we noticed a Disneyland worker escorting him and his group was another confirmation that we had, indeed, spotted a star (so to speak).

After a grand time in Fantasyland, we made our way over to one of our favorite restaurants in Disneyland, Cafe New Orleans. Holly just looked so cute in her beanie and scarf that I had to take a picture.
We ordered Pomme Frittes, French Onion Soup and Ratatouille. (I CRAVE Cafe New Orleans' ratatouille even while away from Disneyland.)


It was a heartwarmimg, energy-producing meal. Enough energy to last us the rest of our evening. Before we got up from our table we discussed whether or not we wanted to hang around for our 8 o'clock date with Indiana or if we just wanted to brave the line for it immediately since we had already pretty much done everything else we had wanted to do in the park. For some reason we decided to kill time with other attractions until 8 o'clock instead of just braving the line. I'm glad we did, because the rest of the night proved to be a blast.

We stood in line for Space Mountain again (only a forty minute wait...pretty good for the ride). I whipped out my handy-dandy iPhone again and found some two-player games to make the time go by faster as we waited for our ride, and we entertained ourselves playing air hockey and hangman, iPhone style. Hangman, oddly enough, kept us entertained and laughing for a good half hour. I love my iPhone.

We then trudged over to Thunder Mountain, a ride for which a couple had just given us Fast Passes. We were able to skip most of the line with the passes and had a wonderful time on the wild west train.

Finally, it was time to redeem our Fast Passes for Indiana Jones. It just so happened that as we were approaching the front of the line for Indiana, in walks Justin Guarini and the rest of his group. Apparently he and his group didn't have to wait in line, they were escorted to a car right away. The girl who told Holly and I what row to sit in whispered excitedly at us, "You get to sit in the car with the guy from American Idol!!!!" Poor girl looked like she wanted nothing more but to abandon her current responsibilities and go ride Indiana Jones with Justin herself. Sure enough, Holly and I were directed to sit right behind Justin and his group of friends.

As the ride was pulling to a stop, Holly and I were whispering back and forth as to whether or not asking for a picture with him would be appropriate. We concluded that it would be. As soon as we got out of the car and were walking in the direction of the exit, I approached the American Idol star and said, "Excuse me, Justin?" (Um, Hayley, since when are you on a first-name basis with a guy you've never been introduced to?)

He turned toward me and said "Yes?"

"May we please get a picture with you?"

"Oh yeah!" He glanced at the flood of people trying to exit the Indiana Jones attraction as well, and said, "Can we do it outside?"

I probably blushed with embarrassment, as I usually do around famous people (I get hopelessy starstruck, even with people like John MacArthur), and said yes, then hurried toward the exit of the attraction.

Ok, so Indiana Jones has the LOOOOOOONNNNNGEST exit hallway of all the attractions of Disneyland, so it made for a very awkward walk with Justin Guarini and his friends right at our heels. I couldn't speak. (Why? It was just Justin Guarini. I've never been anything close to a fan of his....I was just starstruck because he was kinda sorta famous.) It was quiet. And awkward for the most part. Holly was much more relaxed, and soon after we had gotten out of our car she gave him a hard time for getting us into such a mess during our ride (he was in the driver's seat of our car). He teased back and said, "Oh come on, I got us through in the end." But besides that interaction the long walk out of the attraction was awkward. And it was made even more awkward when I broke the silence to turn around and say, "If we take our picture with you will EVERYONE be asking for your picture?"

What was he supposed to say to that? Why did I think that was necessary? Haha. He just shook his head and said no. And then the awkward silence began again.

As soon as we made it out of the attraction, we got our picture as quickly as we could. I just wanted to take a picture of Holly with him, but Holly protested, saying she wanted to take a picture of me with him. After 3 seconds of nice fighting, Justin stepped in and said, "We'll just take two pictures."

So here they are. And I'm doing my typical, extra-wide, cheesy starstruck smile.

Holly and I talked and laughed about the encounter all the way to the tram, and had fun recounting all the circumstances that God had previously ordained that had made the timing possible for us to ride in the same car with Justin Guarini on Indiana Jones. It's cool to realize that even in silly, frivolous things like that, God is in control. :)

That was our day.