Back at it...

What a fabulous holiday week.

I'm older. (Turned 36 last Thursday. Shhh. I don't need to talk about it.)
I'm fatter. (Ate aforementioned six pounds of meat, combined with so much starch my insides are stuck together.)
I made it through Disneyland without ever once hearing the song, It's a Small World, after all. (Apologies to those who just got that stuck in their heads. Here-- let me help remove it: Merry Christmas, from Payless...)
Dinseyland was a superior holiday vacation, flat out. I'm an old-school Disneyland fan, which is to say, I still think Pirates of the Carribean and the Haunted Mansion rock the house. (I'm also incredibly susceptible to nausea, so that pretty much explains my favoritism.) The 50th anniversary of the park found the Haunted Mansion taken over by Jack Skellington of The Nightmare Before Christmas fame. Simply put: GREATEST THEME RIDE EVER. (And if you don't agree, I will fight you.)

And though we stayed mostly in Disneyland itself, we did pop over to California Adventures for a look-see. For those not familiar with it, think STATE OF CALIFORNIA sans the whole central part of the state. California's got vineyards, white water, that bridge up north, Santa Cruz, burritos and the film industry. Other than that, California is a whole buncha nothing.

Reflecting that whole buncha nothing, the park itself was surprisingly devoid of visitors. (Everybody was crammed over across the way, waiting two hours to hit Splash Mountain.) Taking advantage of this, we waited 20 minutes to thoroughly enjoy the park's biggest rollercoaster, California Screamin'. (Apparently there are no gerunds in California either).

Overall, the vacation was superb. The boys voted Space Mountain the clear "ride winner" in Disneyland, followed by The Matterhorn, Buzz Lightyear Space Adventure and The Haunted Mansion (which I think they voted for simply because I like it so much). California Adventures was fun, but had its own short list of best rides. There, the Twighlight Zone Tower of Terror topped totally. (Aliteration. Yay.)
But now the vacation has ended. No more chocolate-dipped, frozen bananas, no more $3 bottles of water. Back to the road.