2/20/09 – Friday
Breakfast – Steakhouse 55, Disneyland Hotel
Lunch – Coke Corner, Disneyland Park
Dinner – Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen (Emily & Patrick), Downtown Disney
Friday morning we woke up to tears in our kettle corn because it was our last full day at Disneyland. Grandma and Poppop, bless their hearts, offered to watch Hunter and let Emily and I enjoy a last quiet breakfast at Steakhouse 55. Since our experience there was so great on Sunday our mouths were watering to enjoy the breakfast once again. We ended up both ordering the same meal as before but the best part of the experience was our quirky server Karen. She was just a riot and she entertained us with her witty banter. She was kind enough to pose for a picture with me which you can see below. She even gave us some free danishes “in case you get fired and have to get food stamps.”
After breakfast Emily and I decided to go explore because we had seen a Disney “Celebrate” sign somewhere on the road during our travels, and she HAD to have a picture of it. The story will be told differently from Emily’s point of view, but I knew exactly where this sign was, it was just down the road. Ok, so maybe my memory isn’t as good as it used to be, but it just must be a little further down the road. Two miles later Emily decided listening to me probably wasn’t in her best interest anymore. We ended up arriving at the Anaheim Garden Walk (which we passed in the car the night before and decided was WAYYYYYYYYYYY to far to walk to), so we decided to walk through it and start the journey back to Disneyland. Lucky for me we ended up finding the sign we were looking for (although I had no idea it would be where it was) and took some fun pictures. All of this for a page in the Shutterfly book! It was a fun adventure, so I would do it again in a heartbeat!
After we returned to the hotel Grandma called the police and told them to call off the search parties, as we had returned safely. Since we had not fully explored Disney’s California Adventure, and it will never look like it does today again after they refurbish it, we decided to enjoy the park. We rode Monsters, Inc. and walked around the park taking goofy (not the character) photos and having a great time. We split up for lunch and ended up both eating hot dogs in different parks. Sounds like something that I planned!
After lunch we returned to Disney’s California Adventure to complete the park tour. Emily, Hunter, and I split off again for a bit so that Emily and Hunter could ride one of Emily’s favorites, the Golden Zephyr attraction, which they both enjoyed immensely. The highlight of Hunter’s trip however was discovered while on this attraction. They are currently doing construction on the lake in the back of the park. Construction of course means, you guessed it, diggers and bulldozers! Hunter could not take his eyes off these amazing vehicles. We spent a good 20 minutes after the ride pointing out and identifying the different machines.
As the sun was setting we realized we had not yet spent a night at the Disneyland Park to see the beauty of the lights. Tonight we did, and enjoyed it very much. Emily was picture happy which was great because we ended up with some beautiful photographs which you can see below. Our only disappointment was that we saved riding Small World until the end and the line was an hour long. Maybe next time! Everyone had a blast as we made our way to the front of the park to head back to the hotel room. We of course had to stop on the way back to stock up on kettle corn for the rest of our travels. (We knew PopPa Don would love it as much as we did!)
Since we hadn’t eaten yet Emily and I stopped and got some Creole food to fill the stomach void. For some reason Grandma and Poppop don’t need to eat as much as Emily and I. For those of you who know us that should come as no surprise. Drew and Fran still make fun of us for stopping once to get McDonalds French fries on our way to dinner. What can we say, we love food.
We ended up back in the room and quickly ate our dinner so we could all lay in bed and watch the video that we had taken of our trip. We had a great time at Disneyland and could not have been in better company. We love this place!
