The Happiest Place on Earth

Who says only kids can celebrate their birthday with Mickey Mouse?

Turns out that Disneyland is the place to celebrate your birthday, no matter what your age. When my friend Allison mentioned that she celebrated her birthday there last year, I thought my 28th birthday was a great excuse for Jack and I to make our first trip to the place where dreams come true (technically Jack went to Disneyland as a child, and we've both been to Disney World, but this was our first venture together to the tourism mecca in Anaheim). Because I'm me, I did a bunch of research ahead of time and knew that I could go to the guest relations office and get a free birthday button. But I gotta say, it's a whole lot less special when every third person in line for the rides is also wearing a birthday button. Apparently I'm not the only one who researches this type of thing.

We were a little worried that the place would be jam-packed on a Saturday near the holidays, but thanks to the phenomenon known as the California wildfires, it was actually pretty empty. Granted, we probably inhaled enough ash that day to shorten our life spans by at least a couple weeks, and it was really windy and smelled like a bonfire, but we barely had to wait in any lines, so I think it's a fair tradeoff.

I think we managed to ride almost every single ride in the place (excluding the ones that get you wet, of course...it's not that warm in Orange County in November!) and it was a ton of fun. My favorite was, hands down, Space Mountain. Between the music, the darkness, the "stars," the speed....it made me laugh out loud in sheer joy every single time we rode it (which, yes, was more than once). I could probably have done without all the kid-friendly rides like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (which was not at all wild) and Snow White's Scary Adventure (which was not remotely scary), but they're old-school and classic Disney so they're part of the experience. And I'm all about the experience. I even ate a frozen Mickey head just because it seemed like something one should do when one is at Disney.

All in all, great day. Even with the smoke. I'm still a little partial to the Magic Kingdom, but I'll gladly return to Anaheim in 5-10 years when I have some children just dying to shake Tigger's giant orange paw.

Aboard "The Matterhorn." Not bad for an self-portrait action shot, eh?

The obligatory picture with Mickey. We waited in line for like half an hour to get this!

Jack in Mickey's house. Nice, hard furniture. He's cute, huh?

Self-portrait in front The Matterhorn. I hear there's a basketball court at the top!

Helping Buzz Lightyear save the world.

A little taste of a California wildfire. This was taken at about 2pm. The sliver of whitish-gray sky you see near the bottom of the skyline is what color the sky would/should have been were it not for the smoke and ash.

Smoky sky in the New Orleans area of the park.

Me and Captain Jack Sparrow. Dude wears a LOT of eyeliner!

Sadly, this is the second picture from my birthday weekend in which my mouth is open and I'm about to eat something really unhealthy (see fried pickles in the previous post). I hope my dietician hasn't seen this blog!

Pay no attention to the Home Alone kid seated in front of us.