Disneyland...Plus a 3 Hour Tour

This last weekend I was profoundly grateful to my parents for never making us drive to Disneyland. Granted, we had never gone in the winter before so thiswe probably would not have had the problems we did this last week.

So, on Wednesday last week our buddy Drew finished his last final ever (yay!) and we piled in the car to book it to Disneyland. We had every intention of driving straight through, arriving around ten at night. Oh, how very wrong we were. Over the next 36 hours we found the three deadly events of driving:

1. Fog
2. Snow
3. Idiots

In Southern Utah we found the fog. And we're talking an absolute wall here. A pain, but easily dealt with once we convinced Taylor that she just shouldn't look out the window any more. Way too stressful. Next we found the snow...in Las Vegas. Seriously. Vegas. My first thought was 'you have got to be kidding', which was quickly followed by 'we are in SO much trouble'. Sure enough, the freeway marquis were advertising the happy news that I-15 was closed at the state line. Sigh. Ok, well I had a solution for that. My brother and cousins were traveling a few hours behind us with the intent of staying at our aunt and uncle's place in Vegas, so we surprised them by doubling their body count for the evening. They were so great about it though, and even their sweet kitties adopted B and I when it was bedtime. Thanks, Pascal and Angie!


We got out of Vegas the next morning with the hope that the state line would be open by the time we got there. This brings us to item number three on that list of driving catastrophes...and we were the first ones. We seriously underestimated the ability of life to end at the sight of snow. Being from Utah we have a very high tolerance for snow--Nevada and California do not share this ability. So we were kicked off I-15 in a very sunny Primm, Nevada. After seeing more semi trucks than I ever have before and realizing that everything in the casino we were parked at was closed (explain that one...no video games, no food, no gift shops) B decided to be the superhero he is and found a highway patrolman. He informed Bri that, while they planned to open the first 'mountain pass' we needed to travel in a few hours, the second wouldn't be opened till the next day. Side note: these people have NO IDEA what an actual mountain pass is. So, we opted for the 'detour' and headed back towards Vegas. The idiots made another appearance at this point as a car driving the wrong direction on the freeway. Brilliant.

A detour in my mind is a 30 minute or hour trip out of your way. But this was the mother of all detours. Observe the map. The happy green dots going on I-15 from St. George to California are the ones we wanted...the red ones are what we ended up with.

Yes, that is an extra three hours of chasing the Arizona/California border. Ok, fine. As long as we were driving I was substantially happier. We found my brother and cousins and had them follow us back to Vegas and then down on the most depressing stretch of uninhabited highway we have ever seen. But wait, more idiots! During our oh so scenic tour of the desert we were suddenly parked along a snowy highway again. Apparently in a construction zone a couple miles ahead of us some car had decided he just HAD to cut in front of a semi. Obvious to most coherent humans this is not a good idea. So, with no exit in sight, both directions of the freeway were stopped once again. B's face there basically sums up our reaction. I found myself wondering how far his sister, Cyndee, lived from where we were. Maybe they could rescue us next.


But patience (and the fact that we were literally trapped) prevailed. 45 minutes, one snow angel, a 30 minute snowball fight across cars, one push out of the snowy median for someone who tried to escape and several snowmen later everyone was on the move again. I'm quite sure that this area has never seen quite so many snowmen, outfitted with water bottles, sticks, garbage and actual items of clothing that people saw fit to leave behind as their mark on this desolate stretch of road.

After that it was simply a matter of driving the extra distance. Oh, you say, is that all? By the time we made it to Anaheim at 8:00 pm we had been on the road for roughly 20 hours, away from home for 36. Sigh. Needless to say, we were pretty set on going into the park when we got there. We needed some stress relief.

Ta Da!

Real food and Indiana Jones did wonders for everyone. A seemingly endless day actually ended very well, proof that Disneyland can fix almost anything. The next morning we were determined to open the park and justly rewarded--we won Dream Fastpasses about two minutes after we walked in. So we waited in no lines more than 20 minutes, walked on to several rides in Fantasyland that are notorious for long waits, hugged Mickey with NO line (my trademark Disneyland karma moment) and had a fabulous day. The Christmas Parade was so fun, especially since the little guy sitting next to me decided that he wanted to keep me posted on who each character was. "Look, Mickey!" My thoughts exactly.

We finished with fireworks, awesome snow that we didn't have to drive in (aka soap bubbles) and a visit to where Brian proposed 14 months ago. Pretty fabulous day!

Saturday was equally good in Disney's California Adventure. We walked on everything, apparently everyone was in Disneyland. Ok by me! We even learned to draw Winnie the Pooh and I wasn't too bad! We also learned what characters we are most like--Ariel and Tarzan. The newest addition over there is Toy Story Mania, which we played many times. What a blast! It's like being inside a video game with one major difference: I'm good at it. We also watched the Electrical Parade, which I hadn't seen since it left Disneyland in 1996. It was pretty fun to watch something I loved so much as a kid 12 years later with Brian.

Sunday morning we hung out with Drew's family before heading out on a much less eventful drive. We were so glad to get home in one piece! Next time we are going when there is NO snow whatsoever. But we have fun pictures, lots more Christmas ornaments and my Disney craving is satisfied...for now. We also discovered that all the Christmas decorations were on sale (add Drew's cast discount to that and you get some happy people) so our tree is substantially more populated now. So it's back to real life, wrapping presents and more snow. Plus the after vacation damage control laundry and cleaning. Here comes Christmas!

Check out our pictures of the castle at the bottom of my blog page. You'll have to click to download the program, but I promise it's a good one. You can see all around the castle. It'll be like you were there!