The day started out fine; I woke up at 6:59am, before my 7 am alarm went off--which was great because then I could get things packed and ready and only have to wake Lucas up and dress him. I quietly got ready, packed snacks, drinks, blankets, jackets, cameras, extra clothes, and some toiletries in case we spent the night at Susans. I was about to just try to get Lucas, but Olivia was up before I even opened the door! I brought them down and fed her, Grandpa was already up letting the dogs out. I cut up a banana and waffle for Lucas to eat in the car, had his juice ready, left the second carseat with grandpa and left around 8:15am. Iris graciously bought my ticket the night before and I printed it out. Lucas gets in free, so we just had to get Susan a ticket.
Got to Susan's with no traffic. We left around 9:30am and got back on the 5 toward Anaheim. We got to the exit for Ball Road (always remember that name when I went to Disneyland as a kid) and the exit was sooooo backed up. Iris then called and let me know it took them an hour from the exit, to the parking garage of disney..
Well, we then took our hour to get into the garage, and then we got the call from Iris- Disneyland was sold out....never in my life had I heard of or imagined that! It was crowded sometimes, but NEVER sold out! So there was no way we could get out of the line anyway, and we forged on. We saw that California Adventure (the adjacent theme park) was not sold out, and my ticket was interchangeable so we paid $15 to park, unpacked everything and put it all in the double stroller with Lucas, and remembered we parked in "Goofy 4D", found the elevator and headed for the tram...
then Iris, who was in line trying to buy us a CA adventure ticket before they sold out, called and let us know, they already sold out too...WOW! Disappointed and angered that so many people picked the same day we did, but relieved that Lucas didn't know what he was missing, we made our way back to the car. We passed a woman with her 2 kids crying and telling us 'this is the worst nightmare ever!' I tried to help and was thinking I could sell her my ticket, but she needed a group of them...
Then I took forever trying to get out of the freaking parking garage because they had exit signs basically going in circles, and I finally asked an attendant and they said "Oh you have to ask them to move the cones.." Geez, why would they do that!? Most people had to leave unless they had seasons passes or pre-purchased tickets! I asked if I could be re-imbursed my $15 and they said "Yes just get back in line to the toll booth.." Yeah, the one that took me an hour to get through...So imagine how much $$$ Disney made that day!? On parking alone!
Coincidentally, I took the wrong turn on the way out, and ended up back in line anyway. I figured $15 was worth the wait--it didnt take too long since they were sold out. Got my refund and got the hell out of there.
On the way home, which was by that time (~1pm) full of traffic, I exited when we saw a sign for "Knotts Berry Farm" which for non-CA people, is yet another old theme park based at what used to be a berry farm (imagine that!) that sold so much jelly and jams, that they had to bring in amusements to entertain the lines. Eventually it grew into a full-fledged theme park, although not as big as Disneyland. The rides are fun, and the food is world famous (their Chicken recipe hasn't changed since 1934). But alas, they were way too crowded as well, what with the other Disneyland rejectees with the same idea. And at 2pm, it just wasn't worth paying for parking, and tickets only to enjoy a 'poor-man's disney' lol for a few hours.
We got back on the freeway, and Susan called our sister Sarah who lives in Pasadena. She invited us to come over and play with my neices Raquel and Maxine, and have them play with their cousin Lucas--they'll have to meet Olivia soon too! Thankfully the directions I chose on the GPS took a nice side-street route that had no traffic. Sarah's apartment has nice views of the San Gabriel mountains and we enjoyed some good local Mexican food. Lucas played with the girls--so cute--and we watched Wall-E and listened to music. All in all, it wasn't a wasted day because we got together with more family and Lucas had a great time playing. Thanks Sarah for salvaging what would have been a big waste of gas and time! Lucas had so much fun. I hope we can meet up with Sarah and the girls regularly. But I also hope we can take that trip to Disneyland later in January when ALL YOU PESKY KIDS get your butts back in school! lol.
Thank you SO much Iris, for buying my ticket--I will be anxiously awaiting a good time to use it when it's not so crowded--I am in a way glad that it was sold out before we went to the park, because it wouldn't have been enjoyable with a double stroller being pushed through a sardine-can-packed park of people anyway :)
Some pics from Aunt Sarah's:
Is this cute or what!?
