Disney Week

Every time we go to So. Calif. we go to Disneyland. There must be some law that requires you to do so. Even when we lived there we tried to go once a year. In over 40 years of going to The Magic Kingdom I still feel the "magic" when I go under the train tracks as you enter the park.
The only mistake we made was going the week after the 25th. The park was full and they quit selling tickets at 11am. California Adventure was closed to new people shortly after that. It was the most crowded I can ever remember. Thank goodness for the "FastPass" that give you a time frame for getting into a short line on the "big" rides. We still were able to get on everything we wanted. As usualy it was a long day, but the weather was perfect. Space Mountain was open again, Pirates of the Caribbean had some changes, but not to dramatic, the Haunted House was changed to reflect the "Nightmare Before Christmas" and we don't know if that was a permanent change.

After the StarTours ride Lori wanted to get a picture of me and the kids in one of those "put your face in the movie picture" things. It turned out pretty good. Charles is the hardest to recognize since he was the Samuel L. Jackson Jedi. They had to darken Charles up and he has a bald head.The day after Christmas we went into Hollywood to see "The Lion King" on stage. This was the kids big present this year. It was at the Pantages Theatre and it is a really cool art-deco place. The production was really fun. The costumes were amazing. My mom went with us.

The kids wanted to find a rock-n-rol show to attend while we were there. I found a Ska show at the House of Blues at Downtown Disney. This was the first show Lori had been to with the kids. It was a first-wave Ska band called the Hepcats. First-wave is calypso with R and B plus brass. The current 3rd-wave is ska/punk and still pretty fun. The only down side is that I had to pay $3 to have them hold my camera that I had in my pocket... No pictures allowed.... BUT cellphones were allowed people were still taking picture with their stupid camera phones!!! What a rip-off. We still had a great time.

In addition to all this Disney stuff the kids got as their Christmas Eve video.. Cars. So a very full Disney experience.