Day Twenty-Three: Back to Oregon

Heya!

Sorry I didn't post last night or the night before. As Tim told you I was really exhausted from exploring Disneyland, and last night we didn't get into Kirk and Linda's until almost 9 pm! We had a great time this past couple days! But let me tell you a little about Disneyland!
It turns out the Disneyland park is about the same size as the Magic Kingdom in Disney World... but the Castle is quite a bit smaller. We think it is supposed to be Snow White's Castle, while the one in Disney World is Cinderella's. The whole park is made up of seven areas: Main Street, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Fronterland, Fansasyland, Micky's Toontown, and New Orleans Square.

Tim and I started our adventure in Tommorowland, where we went on Space Tours and looked around inside a house of the Future. We then went on the "It's a Small World" ride. It was much bigger than the one in Disneyworld! One really neat thing that I don't remember seeing in Disney World was the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. We got on a fully functional submarine and took a spin around a large lake, completely underwater. For the most part it was very realistic, and they showed clips of Finding Nemo on underwater screens, slightly altered to create an extension of the original story. After that, we hopped onto the train that circles around the entire park which took us across the park to New Orleans super quick! On the ride there was a model of "The Grand Canyon" which wasn't quite as good after seeing the real thing... but the section that took us "back in time" to see the dinosaurs was pretty cool. The rest of the day was spent enjoying the many rides and attractions that Disneyland had to offer... most of which we recognized from Disney World. Classics such as the Haunted Mansion, The Tower of Terror, and "It's a Small World: The happiest cruise that ever sailed". It was easy for us to forget that these were around well before we ever experienced them across the country in Florida. There were four major mountains in the park: Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, and the Matterhorn Mountain. Disney World sports the first three, but the last one was unique to Disneyland as far as we could remember. Like the other Mountains, this one included a ride, which was in this case a roller-coaster-like bobsled. Tim sat behind me with his legs stretched out around me, while I sat with my back pressed against him as we twisted our way through the hills and turns of the Matterhorn. There were even some parts where we were sledding though complete darkness! We didn't get to ride Space Mountain, or Splash Mountain because the wait times were really long, and we wanted to make sure we got to do the attractions that we couldn't do in Disney World. There weren't many of them, so of course we ended up flying over London with Peter pan, and joining Snow White on her scary adventure. All of the rides were excellent, and met the requirements for a Disney themed adventure but, as usual, we found that what Disneyland really excels in are it's shows!

Tonight's features: A fireworks display aptly named "Magical", and an amazing spectacle known as Fantasmic where we got to enter into Micky's imagination for a while! After the fireworks (which were set to music, and were outstanding) Micky appeared on Tom Sawyer's Island in his sorcerers outfit, and worked his magic on the surrounding water. Snow White, Cinderella and Belle came out on floating platforms, dancing gracefully with their respective prince-partners. Peter Pan heroically defeated Captain Hook on his pirate ship, leaving the Captain to be chased by the ticking crocodile as he flailed on a rope behind the ship. Then, just when you thought everyone was going to live happily ever after in Micky's imagination... A huge dragon appeared, breathing flames out over the water! Luckily, Micky imagined he had a magical sword, which he used to blast the dragon into retreat! With the Dragon defeated, Micky sailed everyone out on his steamboat, where they danced and celebrated the victory! Everyone was invited, including Snow White, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, and all of the princes. Even Woody and his pals, and Winnie the Pooh and his friends were there! It was absolutely wonderful!

Sadly, that was our last night in this magical place, but we enjoyed every minute! We are now safely relaxing here at Uncle Kirk and Aunt Linda's after a quick plane ride from LAX. We are still undecided on what we are going to do today, but whatever it is I'm sure it will be tons of fun!

Love from Wood Village, OR!