Disneyland, Days 1 & 2

We left last Wednesday morning at 3:30 a.m. & drove & drove & drove. We arrived in Anaheim at our hotel about 5, I think. I had reserved a handicapped accessible room at the Ramada Maingate hotel across from the main gate of Disneyland. It was only a 5-6 minute walk.

I had also bought three 2-day park hopper passes online. We thought Mother would have to be there to redeem the tickets because I had used her credit card to buy them. With that in mind, we decided to wait until Thursday morning, Thanksgiving, to start using the passes. Thursday morning Mother wasn't feeling good, but she never feels good in the mornings. The Ramada Maingate had all these little shops in front of it. One of them was the Scooter Shop. With Mother's macular degeneration, she is legally blind & cannot operate a motorized chair. So, we rented a nice push wheelchair. Don-Mike pushed her.

We got to Disneyland & purchased 2 one-day passes for Mother & I. Mother didn't want to ride any rides. I would have liked to, but didn't want to leave Mother sitting in the wheelchair. I had been told Thanksgiving is the time to go to Disneyland because there aren't any lines, but it was busy. I wanted to ride 2 rides, the teacups & the haunted mansion. I also wanted to see the Christmas parade & the fireworks.

We didn't need any identification for the park hopper passes that I had printed out at home. I pushed Mother into the castle. The moat stunk. I know why moats were put around castles & I'm sure the moat around a real castle stunk worse than this one. It was quite a chore pushing her up the ramp into the castle. I saw the teacups. It is the Scrambler with teacups for the seats, so no, I didn't ride it.

Mother & I were tired, so we went back to the hotel & took a nap. So, glad we have texting on our phones. I texted Don, but he can't see without his glasses & he didn't take his glasses with him to the park. So, Don-Mike & I texted back & forth.

We had Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings at Tony Roma's right next to the hotel. At least, Mother, Don, Don-Mike & I had T-giving dinner. Nick had a full rack of ribs.

Then we went back to Disneyland for the evening. I wanted to see the parade & the fireworks. The parade was fabulous. Nick found a perfect place for us to see the parade. Then the guys left to ride more rides, LOL, they weren't interested in seeing the parade.

We were on our own to see the parade & it was a great place. Some Orientals walked right in front of us & stood there taking pictures. A man told them to move, we were there first. Then he & his wife stood one on either side of us & kept the view clear for Mother to see. I called them our guardian angels.

The guys came back & took us to ride the Nightmare Before Christmas. I told Don that was the only thing I wanted to ride, so they went with us. They knew how to do the Fast Pass & how to get Mother to the front of the line. This was the ride I remembered the most from the first time I went in the 1970s. Of course, then it wasn't Nightmare before Christmas, it was something else. Mother & Don-Mike had a package of wrapping paper with a lit fuse sitting in their laps. Nick & I had candy canes. He thought they were boring & would have liked the coffin in the empty car next to us. I can't remember what Don had.

We also saw Fantasma & then stayed put for the fireworks. The fireworks were awesome. The next day the guys went to California Adventure & Mother & I stayed at the hotel & rested.

Two days was a lot better than a day and a half like we had planned. It worked out a lot better