2012-366 Day 253 – Disneyland III

So if you could follow my somewhat temporally confusing entry in the Weekend Wrap Up yesterday, you know that I was taking Jess to Disneyland today for the morning and afternoon (the evening was dedicated to seeing my Mom and Grandma before they head off to the Northeast tomorrow, but it was a surprise so I didn’t mention it until now, when it’s no longer a surprise since it has already happened). This was the only off Sunday between sports leagues, and our passes were good (unlike after the marathon). So we set off this morning to get there a little after the park opened (Jess let me sleep in a little bit), and arrived at the park along with hundreds of other people a little before 10 am.

The day did not start promisingly as we tried to go to the Carnation Cafe for breakfast (which they served until 11 am, that part we checked), but were told that they were only taking people with reservations for the remainder of their breakfast servings. Since I hadn’t thought to make a reservation, we were out of luck. We then headed into Adventureland looking for Mickey Waffles, but all they had were Mickey Pancakes, which obviously aren’t the same. I needed to eat something by this point, so we went back to the Jolly Holiday bakery and I got a croissant and danish, while Jess got a quiche and bit by a duck.

Oh wait, I have to explain that last bit, don’t I? An adolescent duck came squeaking over and Jess deemed it “cute”, so she started giving it pieces of my leftover danish. This was all well and good until an older duck came over and wanted some too (it got some because it asked nicely). Now having to keep track of two ducks, Jess tried to give another piece of danish to the younger duck and had it stick to her finger, which promptly got bit. Luckily ducks don’t have teeth, I suppose. After washing up, we visited the stores while heading back to the start of Main Street to inquire about the availability of the Lilly Belle (it was, of course, booked) and to acquire Jess a birthday button, since we were celebrating it belatedly.

We checked out the new castle exhibit up front and then asked about the next Voices of Liberty (an acapella group on loan from Disney World that does old time patriotic songs dressed in period style) show, and found it was about forty minutes away. We went to the New Orleans shops until it was showtime, but upon returning found out that they started with a number outside before kicking off the Lincoln show. The number outside satisfied our curiosity, and with a limited time frame, we decided to move on. We headed up to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz Lightyear (neither of us did very well), and then Jess went on Space Mountain while I wandered a bit.

We decided to switch over to California Adventure (since, you know, it’s actually worth visiting now), and on the way out were distracted by the Dapper Dans performing on Main Street. Jess paused a bit too long with her shiny birthday button, as, after they finished their song, one walked up to her and whisked her to the middle of the group. Me, being the caring husband I am, did a quick headcount and figured, “hey, there’s few enough people here she’ll be fine.” It was only a quarter of the way into the song that I realized, “oh, I should probably take a picture of this.” When one of the Dans asked her how old she was, he was quickly admonished by the other Dans for asking an inappropriate question. Properly chagrined, they asked instead how much she weighed. Musically, of course. After our little show, we headed over to the newly refurbished park.

After checking if they had any new Oswald stuff, we took in a little bit of the newsies at the end of Buena Vista before heading to the Carthay Restaurant to see if they had room for us at lunch. They told us to check back later, so we headed to Cars Land for a refreshing Pomegranate Limeade and some AC in the Curio shop. Jess wanted to ride California Screaming, so we walked to the Pier and she went on while I found a spot that I could actually upload the Dapper Dan photo to Facebook. Sadly, Sprint service sucks so bad in the park that it actually took the entire time she was gone to do it.

We went back to Carthay and they had a table for us after a short wait. As a fancy new Disney restaurant, the place lived up to most of its hype, with Jess having pasta that was the best she ever had. We got cheese, bacon, and jalapeno stuffed biscuits (that were more balls) that were amazing, and my burger was very good as well (accompanied by a personal top two all-time set of fries). We were both quite full, and, while being a little pricey, could certainly see where the money went in quality and presentation.

As we finished, it was nearing time for us to head back in case there was traffic, so we made a last minute shopping run and hit the trams back to the parking structure. A fun day with some great memories, and a fitting birthday celebration for Jess.

Weight: 227 Loss: 13 lbs – Running Yearly Mileage: 283.7 miles
Fitocracy Level: 25 ID: disciplev1