My Trip Report: A Magical Time For My Son And Me

[jonvn]

Prologue

The economy is sputtering. To celebrate, the company I work for decided that everyone would get to take a week off of work in Q4 of 2009.
I picked the last week of October,as my kid, Sam, also had that time off from school (he’s on a year round school schedule so he gets off odd hours). I figured that since I was not working, I’d save some money in child care by just staying home with him myself. Child care would run, maybe a couple hundred bucks for the week.

But, since we both had an entire week off, we decided to spend all our savings on an all expense paid (by me) trip to LA. We went to Disneyland and Universal Studios. The tickets had been purchased weeks ahead of time. We stayed at the fabulous Staybridge Suites in Anaheim, which supplied us with a free breakfast buffet, and a wine and beer deal in the evening. Our stay there was for three nights, starting Monday night, the day we drove down.

Day One

We live up in the San Francisco area, and took I5 down the state. It’s kind of a long drive. I listened to Kathy Griffin’s audio book the entire way down. Sam watched DVDs in the back seat. Sam has developed a great habit. He has decided that the best time to announce the need of a restroom is immediately after we pass the exit for the only one in fifty miles. Not much to do, he just ended up peeing out the door of the minivan whenever he needed to. That qas a very important time saver, actually.

He’s done this a lot. At our home in Newport Beach, we once decided to rent a boat and take a cruise around the bay. In the middle of the bay, he announced the need to use a bathroom. He ended up peeing off the side of the boat, waving and smiling to those who saw. I think that will be one of his happiest childhood memories.

My plan was to drive down and fill up at Gorman for the rest of the trip. Unfortunately something (likely kid related) distracted me and I missed the exit. I figured I’ll just get the next one. Well, there was no real next one, and my gas meter said I had maybe 10 miles of driving left. This started me in to panic. You can’t turn around, and there is noplace to go. I got off the freeway, and started dashing back to Gorman. I figure if you are running low on fuel, it’s best to do it while going fast, so you can coast the extra few miles you may need to pull into the gas station.

We did make it back to the Chevron station in Gorman, though. I filled the tank. Somehow I managed to put in more gas than what it’s supposed to hold. Or it seemed like it, anyway. I though I’d let Sam try and pump the gas for his first time. He’s seven, and was very excited by this. He ended up spraying us both with gasoline, and the car stunk the entire rest of the way from it. He of course refused to use the bathroom.

We finally got into Anaheim around two to three o’clock. We checked in, dumped our stuff, and headed over to Disneyland to see what we could do. The place was closing at eight or nine that evening.

We parked, got in, and started running through the place. It wasn’t that crowded, so we managed to get through a pretty large swath of it. We got in line right at closing for the Haunted Mansion, and we did not finish the thing until about a half hour or so after closing. It was very nice to see the park in its normal state, for me anyway. That is, deserted. It never used to be as crowded as it is nowadays, and on dates in late October, you were not likely to run into anyone on your meanderings through New Orleans Square at all.

Sam was very concerned about shopping for souvenirs. He wanted to go into every store we passed to buy something. When I was his age, I didn’t even realize they had stores. I asked him why do you like shopping with me so much, and his reply was “Because you just don’t care how much we spend.”
That much is true. That’s why he ended up with an Indian Jones hat, whip, and a couple of other things I no longer remember that evening. He didn’t want to go on the Indiana Jones ride, though. He likes merchandise, not rides. He also likes ice cream. We stopped at every ice cream stand we passed so he could get an ice cream bar or sandwich.

We walked our way out, and hit up Downtown Disney for a late night dinner, and to check out the shops, of course. As we walked past California Adventure, he wanted to know what that was. I said it was another park, we’re going there tomorrow. He didn’t quite understand, and thought it was part of Disneyland, but I said no, it’s not. It’s a totally different thing, and he seemed to accept this with very little problem.

We got back to our hotel room after dinner, and kind of collapsed. We were both very tired, as we had been going since about 6AM. Driving down from the San Francisco Bay Area, checking in, Disneyland, eating out, and now at the hotel again. It was a lot for one day.

Day Two

Our second day started out in the same hotel room that our first day ended on. This may seem an obvious thing, but to me, this is always a perk. I had decided that the best thing for us to do would be to not waste any time on bathing, so as to shave precious moments off our schedule. So we got up, ran down to the breakfast buffet where I had the lovely scrambled eggs, bacon, and juice while Sam had a piece of bread and a diet coke. He wouldn’t eat anything else.

Off we drive to the park. I had paid for the Anaheim Transit bus that goes between all the hotels and Disneyland, but I didn’t care for the schedule. The busses did not run late enough, and the wait for one at the hotel seemed rather long. So, we paid for parking each day. We entered the California park, and I looked at the show schedule. Hey, Aladdin! I’ve never seen it, and it was supposed to start at 11 (or something). I maneuvered our activity around the idea that we’d be hanging out over there the entire time so we wouldn’t miss this. Unfortunately, the schedule was wrong, and we spent a lot of time in that area for a show that was going to be closed the entire day. That was a shame.

Before we went over there, as part of our package of hotel/park tickets, we were each given a free lanyard with one pin. We went into the main shop there at the entrance (lord knows what these things are named) and got our two lanyards with their pins. Of course one pin on a lanyard is kind of sad, so we started looking at other pins. We were directed towards some store whose name had the word “flea” in it, as a better place to look. So, later we went there and filled up a couple of lanyards with pins.

You may recall that the only reason I took off this week was because I thought it would save us the cost of child care for the week. I had just spent on pins the amount the child care would have cost. But that’s a small issue. The tickets, gas, food, and hotel alone was already a multiple of what we’d spend.
My plan was to eat lunch at the hot dog stand in the Hollywood area. Remembering that Sam ate basically nothing for breakfast, I thought a hot dog would be good. He seemed to agree. But when we got there, he said he didn’t want one. And asked if there was anything else there. There is not. In fact, if you walk into DCA early, there is basically NOTHING to eat in the entire place. We walked out of Hollywood, and over to the snack bar in the train. I got a sandwich. Sam got an ice cream cone. That was lunch.

We ambled into and out of the flea-named pin store, and over to the rides at Flick’s Fun Fair (another whatever it’s called). He is starting to want to go on rides by himself, so I let him. He had fun. He did not want to go and see the bug movie, though. “We saw that at Walt Disney World.” Fine.
He played a bit in the fountains in the area, and got totally soaked to the skin. This was not good. His clothes got tight on him and was causing severe discomfort when he walked. Also, the extra three or four ice cream breaks we made on the way over to the pier area wasn’t helping his stomach along at all.

We had both gone on the Toy Story ride and he went on the giant ferris wheel by himself. The mouse face that they have put on that thing is as creepy a thing I’ve ever seen. It feels oppressive and overbearing. I didn’t care for it at all. But, I am sure most others will like it fine.

After the ferris wheel, he hit the dead boat climbing thing. It was there that we had a bit of trouble. As I mentioned, the ice cream had caused a bit of trouble, and his pants were already soaked anyway. He needed to change his clothes. He could not walk without being in pain.

So, we proceed to walk over to where we can maybe find something. We went over to the raft ride store, where he got a new shirt and some shorts. There is no bathroom nearby, so we had to walk to one so he could change. But each step was becoming more and more painful to him. I picked him up and carried him for a couple hundred yards until I found a good place to change him short of the restroom.

He’s 7, but he’s also my son, so he is about 4’10 and weighs 90 or so pounds. He’s not a shrinking violet, and carrying a squirming and soaking wet 90 pound non-violet was not working. We took a couple of stops. He was upset. I noticed an alcove near something that looked like a gas station, and we went back there, and I stripped his clothes off him, and put the new stuff on. He was excited to be walking around Disneyland with no underwear on, once I told him it would be OK. He immediately started to feel better.

I felt bad for him, so we went into the gas station store, and we bought a bunch of plane toys. Little jets, and a pilot pin with his name on it. Since his lanyard was full, he had to have a new one, of course. But I drew the line, and we did not get anymore pins until the next day.

We walked over to the pilot hamburger place, whereupon Sam almost instantly covered his new pants with mustard.

We decided to leave. In the main entry plaza he needed to use the bathroom. He walks into it, and I am watching the door. I must have blinked, because I did not see him come out, and when I walked in there after a while, he was not in there. Great.

I start looking around for him, and did not see him. I went to the ticket taker at the gate, and said “I lost my kid.” They called a lead, and at that point, I looked across the walkway, and Sam was there with a couple of people, tears in his eyes. Oh dear lord. He was fine. I told him, though, that it’s easy to get lost there, so no more of his walking off like he had been doing.

We sat there outside the park for a few minutes, with him sitting on my lap. At least he forgot about all the other pain he was in before.
To make it up to him, we went over to the RideMakerz store. We had seen this store earlier, and Sam wanted to go in it. We went in, and if you have not gone there, it’s really fun. We put together a radio controlled car, and picked a bunch of pieces, and it only cost $129. He hasn’t quite gotten around to taking it out of the box yet.

Sam wanted to eat at a drive through, so we ended up at a McDonald’s or something. I don’t quite recall where we had dinner that night. It was just as well, he was dead on his feet, and we were both getting cranky.

Next: Day 3, where Sam has had enough fun.

[SNJ]

Your son is not a fan of the rides? What does he say about Haunted Mansion or TSMM? Are they just kind of 'there' for him?

Nice report, btw. I enjoyed it.

[Tron 2.0]

Seriously looking forward to the next part.

[jonvn]

No, he really doesn't seem to be a fan of the rides. They are either too wild, and scary, like Indiana Jones, or for babies, like Winnie The Pooh, or for girls, or some other thing. He does like some things, but his reaction at best to them is a bit blase.

He does like to go shopping.

[jonvn]

Unfortunately, I won't be adding to this. Thanks for the replies. I may add stuff on facebook.

Thanks.

[Bob38dizfan]

Great report. I enjoyed reading it.

[jonvn]

glad you liked it. If you friend me on facebook, you'll be able to see the rest once I write it.