The Happiest Place on Earth

My cousin Ali's birthday was January 8, and she wanted to celebrate with a day at Disneyland on the Saturday after her birthday. Her brother and his girlfriend were going to fly down from Santa Clara, and Ali asked me if I wanted to join them. Obviously, I said yes, and Sam and offered to let them stay with us for the weekend vacation rather than get a hotel.

I hadn't been to Disneyland in several years - I think my last visit was in December 2011 with my friend Michelle who was here from Texas. Consequently, several rides had undergone renovations since I'd been on them, and I can honestly say they were all better than before.

Big Thunder Mountain railroad is my all-time favorite ride. It's followed very closely by Space Mountain, the Matterhorn, Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion. Within the last year, Big Thunder Mountain has undergone a complete refresh including replaced track, added visual and audio components and overall a higher degree of sensory overload. I don't think there was much of the structure of the ride that was actually changed, but there were significantly (in my opinion) more animatronic decorative aspects to view. In fact, in watching the video below, I realized there were a few things I missed or didn't fully appreciate during the ride.

Space Mountain is always great. The ride broke down briefly just before our Fast Pass time, but we waited for about ten minutes and it opened right up. I would say our total wait time in line was probably less than ten minutes, and most of that was us walking through the ropes to get to the actual line.

The Matterhorn was out of operation this weekend, which was a bit of a bummer. Although, with the wet, drizzly weather, it's unlikely that we'd have enjoyed sitting on damp seats and getting our butts cold and wet.

Pirates of the Caribbean was different from the last time I was on it in that they had toned down much of the movie's influence on the ride. For a while, Davy Jones was projected onto a smoke screen at the very beginning prior to the first drop. I'm very happy to report it's gone and guests are again greeted by the skull and crossbones giving its original message. Bravo to Disney for changing the ride back (mostly) to its original glory.

Ali, Brock and his girlfriend, Gabi, had never seen the Haunted Mansion when it's decorated for The Nightmare Before Christmas. They were really into the attention to detail and the great care taken by the imagineers to completely overhaul the ride. I told them we're lucky they could see it because the decorations go up in September and come down in January, taking the ride offline for several weeks each time.

One ride I was really impressed by was Radiator Springs Racers. Talk about some really talented design and engineering. Apparently the wait time for the ride can exceed four hours, but when we arrived it was just over 60 minutes and we opted to go in the Single Rider line which was less than a ten minute wait. Score! For those of you, like me, who haven't been on it yet, enjoy this awesome video:

The ride I disliked the most was California Screamin' and let me tell you, we rode it enough times for me to be sure. The first time, it was raining and the water was literally pelting me in the face. Ugh. The second time, the forces against my body caused my head to hurt and my stomach to become unsettled. The third time, I opted out and let the kids go instead. I have no interest in riding that again, certainly not when I'm feeling headache coming on from the outset.

We also rode the Tower of Terror, which I enjoyed more than I did the last time I was on it. Now, that's not really saying much because last time I refused to ride it more than once. This time, I was a little more prepared for the general plan, but still, it wasn't my cup of tea. I don't like being so disoriented with the pitch black and the falling, rising and quickly falling again. It really unsettles my stomach.

All in all, it was a great weekend trip to The Happiest Place on Earth, especially given that the weather was a little less than ideal and that kept the lines shorter than they could have been. We definitely enjoyed ourselves and Ali said it was a great way to spend her birthday.

Papa Santi Turns 80

Yesterday my grandpa threw himself an 80th birthday part at my parent's house.  Sam, my sister and I flew in from our respective places of residence, Ali and her boyfriend came up from Santa Barbara and Mark, Lori and Brock came over from Hawaii.  It was quite an event.  Papa invited 60 people and we think we had about 55 attend.  

He hired a team to cook (in GIANT propane powered pots) lobster, veggies, potatoes, and garlic.  It was our own private lobsterfest.  They rolled parchment paper out on these long tables and then dumped the food out on the middle of the tables and everyone pretty much sat down and ate with their hands.  It was pretty fun- except of course that some of us don't eat lobster so much.  Which was a real treat for those of us who DO eat lobster.  :-)  Sam ate my tail and one of my claws while I stuck to the corn and shrimp.  He also was a HUGE help manning the bar with Carina.  They were fantastic!

I took a TON of photos with Papa's camera- hopefully they will turn out well.  Hopefully Nonna and Papa will remember to have a disk made for me when they have the photos printed.

It was good to see Ali and Brock- I loved catching up with them!  Mark and Lori were fun too, and I al so glad they all came over around 2:30 so that we could spend some time with just the family before the guests arrived.  We broke in the bar and had a couple beers to take the edge off while playing some friendly family ping-pong matches.  Ali's boyfriend, Peter, ripped his jeans open at the crotch which was HILARIOUS and he ended up borrowing a pair of Dad's shorts so that he was decent for the party.

Once the party was in full-swing there were SO many people I didn't have as much time to hang out with them.  C'est la vie.  I hope that we're going to be able to hang out with them soon.  I'm sure we'll see Peter and Ali since they only live 2 1/2 hours from us by car and should be able to come down and visit one weekend before Peter graduates in December. 

One of my favorite photos of the afternoon was the one of Sam, Carina and I in our bibs (provided by the lobster company) to try to keep our clothes clean.  They reminded me of the "I <3 Pasta" bibs Nonna used to have for us at the holidays.  

Along with the family, it was wonderful to see so many old friends.  I really enjoyed spending time with the Cantys, Geoghegans and Williams- Maria and Pat especially.  They are such amazing people and have always treated me like a part of their family.  Gosh they are just the best.  

Like Carina said last night after everyone had gone home and it was just us five, we are incredibly lucky to have been dealt the hand we were given.  We have a great family and great friends. 

Happy Birthday Justin!!!

Sam's brother received a Fulbright Scholarship in his final year at UCSB and he elected to teach English in Malaysia.  Today is his birthday (in the US) so Sam and I tried to Skype him so we could sing to him but unfortunately he was in the lunch room at work and had to keep us muted.

It was actually an interesting video chat because we literally typed back and forth and were able to use the video component at the same time.  I think that's the first time I've ever done that!

Anyway, since we couldn't sing on Skype, Sam and I decided to do a video post on Facebook.

Here it is: