Ahh… Disneyland, where the happiest place on earth all got started. And Chris & I got to go!
First let me say that almost all of the pictures I am going to post Chris took (thanks!) I’m just not great about taking pictures on trips. Especially because his always turn out so nice. It seems silly to take the same photo he just finished taking. Second, I don’t plan on making a record of everything that happened, just some highlights.
Today’s Highlight…. Our Hotel.
There is something to be said for being nice to the people who are going to take care of the place you stay. There is also something to be said for letting your vacation happiness shine through and not hiding it. Case in point, our hotel room/stay at the Hilton Anaheim.
I get way excited about any trip, but especially Disney, and when I get excited I tend to act a little giddy. I smile, I clap my hands, I bounce… I see no reason to hide my excitement. I’m glad I haven’t lost that quality. I like that part of myself, I like being happy. And this weekend, it paid off and I was happy to find out that acting crazy sometimes isn’t a bad thing… Well… We got to the hotel and talked to the clerk, asked him if we could get a room on the 5th floor (which we had heard was newly renovated) or one looking over Disneyland. He asked us about our trip and I was of course happy to tell him that we were going to Disneyland the whole time and were way excited to be there. He asked what we were most excited about and I said seeing the differences in Pirates of the Caribbean, Tower of Terror and Haunted Mansion. Turns out our clerk used to work at the Tower of Terror in Walt Disney World and he warned us that Disney Worlds was much better than Disneyland’s, but he also said that Disneyland had the better pirates (we later found out he was right about both). Well… He picked us out a room, on the 6th floor over looking the park, and said that it was something special. I had no Idea what to expect.
We went up the elevator to the 6th floor and started walking to the room, it was a bit of a walk, with about 3 turns, we passed lots of doors along the way… Did he trick us? We finally found our room, the very last door at the end of the hall, on a wall all by itself. We put in the key and opened the door, no… He didn’t trick us.
2 of our four walls were floor to ceiling mirrors!
Plus, the 6th floor has now also been renovated because the furniture and bathroom fixtures were definitely new. On top of that, we had a great view out our window of Disneyland including the Tower of Terror, Space Mountain and the Matterhorn Bobsleds.
Tower of Terror
Space Mountain
Matterhorn Bobsleds
It made for something awesome to come back to at night, being able to look out over the parks and think about all the things we had done there that day… And on that first day, it built the excitement even more. After looking out the window for awhile, and jumping up and down, Chris and I rushed to the parks…
But that’s another post.
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So here we are, sitting in the airport waiting for our flight. The original goal was to get here around 7:30, but there was no traffic (or virtually no traffic) this morning. We actually got to our gate at 7:30 so we now have a hour and a half wait.
Thank you Bill and Patti for driving us this morning! The drive was so plesesnt and it’s always nice to be seen off by people you love.
We will be in Disneyland for 3 days and we’ll be back on Monday, and then you can expect some pictures and fun blogs (starting, hopefully memorial day night).
The plane ride is 4 hours! Wish us luck!
We are just hours away! I’m too excited to sit still!
DISNEYLAND!!!
So after lamenting that the Disneyland books didn’t have the handy guides that the Disney World books do, I decided to take it upon myself to compile the list. Really I’m not sure why the Disneyland book doesn’t have it. The information is already there. I guess they didn’t want to pay for the extra pages.
The following is the result of about 1 1/2 hours of work (a lot of which was spent making it look pretty). The Rides are in Alphabetical order and lists when the best time to ride is (and if they have FASTPASS) I’m sure there are typos… But it will have to do.
The project served as an outlet for all my pent up Disney Energy… Plus, now I feel more confident about our trip… I wish I could be less obsessive, but I’m not.
Okay, so much for updates while I waited for Disney to arrive.
This month has flown by and now…. 4 Days until DISNEY!
So many things to do, well. Pack, plan, look up more info about the rides, print out the itinerary… Okay, maybe not so much to do. Really it’s pretty much done, but… Anyway.
I felt way more prepared when we went to Disney World. Maybe because I had MONTHS rather than A MONTH to get excited and plan every little detail. This time I feel as though I’m not sure what I am getting into. I’m not sure if that adds to the excitement, or takes away from it. Maybe I’ll be taking a lesson from Chris this trip and just taking things as they come. But I am still disappointed that while, the guide books for Disney World are awesome. They have cut out pages for everything, including a handy reference guide for the rides. I can’t find anything like that for Disneyland. But hopefully we can still avoid the long lines.
Because we booked the trip so fast after deciding to go it still seems unreal. I can’t believe that on Friday I will be in one of the Happiest Places on earth sharing time with Mickey and Minnie. 
YAY!
It has been a month for shows!
Yesterday I went to see my good friend Meagan Little (she plays Hope Cladwell) in the River View Theater Company’s performance of Urinetown. Yes that is the name of the musical, and no, it’s not bad. I’ve listened to the songs of the show and did a little research about the show before I went (I’m just that kind of theater goer) but I was not prepared for the show to be as good as it was.
The show is just wildly funny and the vocals of the cast was amazing, everything from the set to the choreography captivated my attention. Even just little staging details that you pick up on… Hear no Evil, See no Evil, Speak no Evil. Staging with a candlestick, rope, knife, wrench, etc… (a la CLUE). And although some of the cast told me that they dropped lines/cracked on stage, I wasn’t able to tell. I just thought that it was a fabulous show.
The Riverview seemed to be a very well run company, especially for being in it’s first season… So kudos founders Angie Kells (who also directed the show) and Jeff Cook (who was the light and sound board technician). I also feel that I should mention that David “Doc” Lindquist’s (who also plays Caldwell B. Cladwell) and Angie Kells’ choreography was great for the show and really fit the songs. Just excelent.
See for yourself.
I’m here!
Cop Song (ooh Flashlights!)
Little Sally counts her money
Hope listens to Bobby’s Heart
Shhh….
Ah, there it is. It’s saying…..We all want a world, Filled with peace and joy……
Officer Lockstock, Caldwell B. Cladwell & Officer Barrel Dance
Poor Hope
Oh Yes! Urinetown is still playing for another weekend. At the Memorial Civic Theater in Richmond IL.
May 16th @ 8:00PM
May 17th @ 3:00PM and 8:00PM
May 18th @ 7:00PM
So if you have the chance and are close by, check it out. You won’t regret it, it’s just a great show.
Learn more! http://www.riverviewtheatre.org/default.aspx
As it always seems to happen, when I go and see one show on a weekend I have another to go to as well.
Todays show was of a different nature, I went to go see my friends (Tess, Bill and Robin) perform with the AHCCB. This was Bills first time playing with the band and I’m thrilled that I was able to see him do it. Well Done!
This talented group of musicians performed their concert “When East Meets West” and the songs were great. The most memorable for me were “Medley from ‘Miss Saigon” and “Horse on the Prairie”. The latter of which was written by one of the bands members Taka Urayama, and I must say that it was a pretty amazing piece.
Although I tried to just sit and enjoy the music, I felt I needed to capture some of this show on (digital) film. So here are a few of the shots I got during the show.
The Full Band Waiting
Tess Waiting
The Conductor (Adam La Spata) Takes a bow after the first song
Barbara Decker Wachholz sings “Into the West”
Bill and Tess at Intermission
Bill, Tess, Mollie and Maz (he’s there I swear!) hang out before intermission is over.
Adam Explains his Outfit
(it represents the east while Adam is the West, East Meets West, get it?)
The Band Takes their Final Bow
It was great to be able to see the band perform again, it’s always a treat. I can’t wait until the 4th of July parade/concert! Today was especially great since Pattie, Bill, Mollie and Tess will be leaving for Springfield tomorrow. It’s always nice to hang out with them. Have a great time guys! Come home safe!
This post has been updated from it’s original version. Since there are nice people on youtube who posted last nights show I thought it was only fair to post the songs from that show. After all, the venue was awesome and so was the audience.
So last night I saw Jonathan Coulton at the Lakeshore Theater.
He wrote the song at the end of the game Portal (which is amazing, both the song and the game, everyone should play it). I won’t post that song here because it would ruin the game for anyone who has not played it (I think).
The show was pretty amazing. Lot’s of fun, lots of audience participation. I hadn’t heard many of his songs before going to the concert, really just the portal song, and Ikea, but I like his sound very much.
If you’re interested you can go to his store and listen to all his songs (http://www.jonathancoulton.com/store/downloads).
Here’s one of the songs he played last night. The slide show can be found by itself on youtube, but since I found a taping of last nights show I thought I would post this.
I like it, I like it alot.
The opening act was Paul and Storm but not only were they the opening act, they also sang with Jonathan (and he sang with them. Which made for a fun opening, closing, combined sort of show.
This is one of the songs they played together last night.
At the end of the night I had Jonathan Coulton sign my arm. And I went home happy.
It was great, especially for my first concert ever.
