My first vies of LA
Hooray, we've arrived!
Backside of hotel
And then I went to work a couple hours later. Lucky me, the overnights at the hotel were sleeping overnights. The clients had taken an airplane, with two staff each, from Arcata to LAX, so they'd been to Disneyland already and had been tuckered out. I only had one client on the first night, as the rest stayed with their parents. The client only got up once in the night, and that only to use the restroom. I slept pretty hard, but woke up as soon as client moved. Amazing magical brain I have. Coworkers came in at 7:00 AM to relieve me, so I went to shower and food.
DAY ONE STARTS
I was on the 5th floor of the hotel. Out the bedroom window, I could see a perm-trailer park as our neighbors. I forgot to take a photo, but I figure rent there must be pretty cheap - you can hear D-land's fireworks loud as anything at night.
The hotel has a pretty darn awesome warm breakfast.
Makita and Callan are a bit ahead of me on the timeline, so we said we'd meet there. I ate with a client's parent & headed out the door. There is a shuttle from the hotel to D-land that arrived every 1/2 hour or so; Cali & Makita hadn't quite caught it, so we were all going together. We were twittery and excited and talking in high-pitched voices. SO EXCITED.
My brain was producing happy drugs like wow. Some people most likely feel this way high, but my brain was doing it all for me. We got in through the entrance and were met by a band.
Really, a band playing super happy marching music. Behind them you can see the mouse shaped garden and the train station. From this point, I kept getting the most incredible goosebumps all over me. I had a little vertigo from being over-tired also, so my brain and body were... well, they were wow. I was in super-giggle-awe.
Really, I felt like I was going to fly away walking under this.
Main Street USA. These couple photos don't do it justice. Everything was supremely clean; while I was aware of this before, it didn't take away the surprise and amazement at it. Music was playing over loudspeakers that was light and friendly. Every bloody staff member was smiling... a few of them even began conversations with us. We were in awe and just wandered through taking photos. Everything was so impressively detailed... amazing amazing amazing.
IN AWE.
It was hard to miss the statue of Walt Disney with Mickey. Cali's boyfriend Daniel was texting her "Disney was an anti-semitic". Well, anti-semitic's get to have dreams and corporations too. That's 'Merica. Believe me, it didn't make this any less amazing.
Chills. We got chills.
Walking over the bridge to the castle, I got such goosebumps that I thought my hat was going to fly right off my head. It was surreal. All of it, surreal.
Just around the right is the first ride we went on, Peter Pan's Flight Over London. These are some I took while waiting.
The whole back of the entrance was painted with scenes from the movie. I took a bunch, but here's just one. Also, we rode in little floating pirate ships! Exciting!
The ride was surprisingly incredible. We rode through painted, wood, animatronics..... One room was just filled with stars. We weren't expecting it at all and started shrieking. I took a video, because I am awesome.
Oh wow oh wow oh wow. Sorry about the yelling.
So THEN we wandered around more. We waited in line for the teacups; the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen were alternating between telling the people to spin the cups and threatening to cut off heads. Cali and I spun the cup (purple, a'course) as quickly as we could while Makita screamed and covered her eyes. Funny as hell.
More wandering! The Alice in Wonderland ride was closed, but we got some photos of the white rabbit
....ALMOST caught Peter Pan (who was adorable as all get out)....
And saw the backside of Tomorrowland while waiting in line....
...to meet Tinkerbell! We also met Fawn, an animal talent faerie. She liked my braid and petted it. I felt 5. It's a great age to feel.
Feeling 5, we decided ToonTown was the best best best next place to be. En route, what did we see? A marching band led by Mickey himself!
This is 1/4 of the first day. More coming!
