Disneyland?!

Welcome to Anaheim! Actually, I have no right to use the city's name, as all I saw of it was John Wayne International, the highway between the airport and the hotel, and the micro kingdom of Disneyland. Lucie seems to be expressing the question I was asking myself as of October 2nd: how did this happen?

Well, Daddy had a conference to attend, and Mommy had a choice: stay home alone with 2 monkeys for the week, or go to The Happiest Place on Earth. I hoped Brennan would enjoy the Disney experience despite being a little young for it - but the prospect of some SoCal weather and a nice hotel pool tipped the scales.

OK, Walt, it's been 20 years, let's see what you've got -

Upon arrival at the Grand Californian, we were separated from our luggage by a young man in a peculiar Alpine uniform. While I was frantically digging out the items we would need to get through the afternoon, I briefly and inappropriately recalled a variety of train-related scenes from various Holocaust films I have watched. This would not be the only time this happened. I don't know if it was all the trains, or all the lines that triggered these thoughts.

Bren, however, quite liked the trains - and we rode a number of them. Above is his favorite, the one that runs around Disneyland - which is where we went, after our luggage went to the holding tank. Disneyland, on a sunny Sunday in early October, was a shockingly hot and crowded place.

We had 4-day park hopper tickets - not that 5-day tickets cost that much more, but at the time I ordered them, even 4 days seemed egregious. That's as many days as I devoted to Rome on my last trip to Italy, for crying out loud. Since Monday promised to be another hot day, I thought avoiding a 20 minute wait in direct sun to ride Dumbo was the right move. (I was wrong, by the way. More on that later.) So we ambled the length of Downtown Disney and shared breakfast at the La Brea Bakery. The water fountains alone can provide a morning's entertainment for small children - but in addition, there's about the biggest Disney store I've ever seen.
Much to my disappointment, the longest either child would wear mouse-ears was about 2.7 seconds. The only way I got this photo was distracting Lucie with the second set of ears.

Even though 3 is a little young for full-on theme park appreciation, one benefit is that it's also young enough that the gift shop/souvenir concept is still alien. Brennan happily played with the full roster of Winnie-the-Pooh for a while, then put them all back into the appropriate bins. Seriously, the only thing the kid bugged me to buy all week was chocolate milk and a pumpkin muffin.

After a morning in the commerce district, it was time to swim- and the pool situation at the Grand Californian did not disappoint. There's a water slide pool, a quiet pool, a kiddie pool, 2 hot tubs, and one other pool who's theme I could not determine. There are piles of children's life jackets available for use, servers to bring lunch (and wine!), and tons of comfy pool-side lounge chairs for mommies and little sisters to relax while admiring the aquatic adventures of big brothers.
Up next: into the belly of the beast!