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Wednesday Oct 19- Early Flight to LA

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This a five day trip for the six of us to "do" Disneyland. We've done it before, but the kids have been obsessed with the place! They admit, however, that this is probably the last time since its becoming obscenely expensive! The kids picked us up at 4:00 this morning, for a 5:30AM flight (ugh). Our uneventful flight through Las Vegas and on to Long Beach, meeting a pre-arranged ride to the hotel, got us there by 8:30ish. To our surprise, our rooms were ready so we took a bit of time to unpack and get organized. The weather is unseasonably warm today, probably over 90 by this afternoon. We spent the day in Disney California Adventure. We managed to get three rides in - Mater's Graveyard Jamboooree, Radiator Springs Racers and Soaring. The latter two were awesome! Racers is a great almost-a-roller coaster with the most amazing red rock Utah-like scenery. Soaring, of course, is an Imax ride around the world. Wait time was +/- and hour. Late fast food lunch at the Smokej...
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Thursday Oct 20 - Return to DCA

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 Spectacular weather today! Lots of sun but much cooler. We started out in Hollywood Land. Janet and Olivia did Guardians of the Galaxy. We did a couple of kiddie rides... Mickey's Magic and Monsters Inc . Fast food for lunch from Pym Tasting Kitchen. We left DCA by walking through the lobby area of Grand California Hotel .....wow! Reminds us of Yellowstone lodge. Coming out the other side we're in Downtown  Disney. Back to our hotel for a rest. We'll return for a dinner reservation, then explore Pixar Pier and some light show. This afternoon we returned to California Adventure and did a few more juvenile rides.  We had dinner at The Lamplighter Lounge on the Pixar Pier. It was a nice looking place but oddly they placed the six of us in the dining room at a table about like a coffee table. And it was extremely noisy. I had a salmon steak which was excellent. We attempted to do the Web Slingers Spider-Man Adventure but, alas, the ride had technical difficulties so we could...
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Friday Oct 21- A Day in Disneyland

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Another warm, sunny day to spend in Disneyland. The kids headed over early, while we enjoyed a relaxing breakfast at the hotel. We caught the 10:00 bus and rendevoused with the kids by the main entrance.  Today I have enjoyed a full day with a wheelchair! Shawn and Jack did a great job pushing me around. And, we moved from one place to another without having to wait for Grandpa to hobble in! I was impressed the way Disney accommodates "disabled" people with assistive devices.....we often got preferential treatment in otherwise long lines! We enjoyed (or not) a bunch of rides today.  We started at the juvenile Mad Tea Party (although we discovered if you turned the wheel to the left, it would in fact make you dizzy!). We did the always delightful Small World ride with its certain "earworm"; the clever Storyland Canal Boats with its miniature castles and villages; Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, also very juvenile; the the stupid Buzz Lightyear Astro Blaster. The kids enjoy...
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Saturday Oct 22 - Shopping

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Much cooler today, wore my jacket all day! We spent the first part of our day "shopping" in Downtown Disney. The street seems to go on forever! Lots of great restaurants, the famous Disney Store, Lego Store, Star Wars Store, etc. The kids were on a mission to spent the Disney Bucks they had accumulated over the year.  My knee seems much better, but still not good for walking much, so I was grateful to have that wheelchair! It also gave me an excuse to not shop - I could sit outside the store in my chair and happily people watch! Late lunch today was great! We went to the Jazz Kitchen, featuring cajun style dishes. I enjoyed a bowl of Gumbo YaYa. For desert, we shared an order of beignets.  Back to the hotel at about 4:00 for our rest time. We'll go back to Disneyland later to see the fireworks.  -- Return to the park at about 7:00. Now its drizzling a bit and quite cold! Its really crowded! First stop was the "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" presentation. Odd, i...
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Sunday Oct 23 Back to Disneyland

Beautiful sunny day, but still a bit cool. Light jacket all day. We caught the 7:30 bus (😞) to be in the park by opening at 8:00. Lots of people pouring in! While the kids went off to do Thunder Mountain (again), we found coffee and beignets. We rejoined and went to Pirates of the Caribbean, another earworm favorite. They'd made a few upgrades since we saw it last; Jack Sparrow looked much better! Then we worked our way back to Main Street for our late breakfast reservation at Carnation Cafe; very good pancakes and breakfast sandwiches at a table by the sidewalk. The kids went off to do a few things that were still on their list; we took the Mark Twain Riverboat around the lake, rode the horse drawn taxi back down Main Street; met the kids back in Fantasy Land only to discover it was lunch time! (Eating again?) A pretty good pizza slice at Red Rose Tavern! Jack and Janet went back to the hotel for a swim; the remaining party rode the Monorail all the way around then the double dec...
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Monday Oct 24- Home

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We got our ride to the airport at 4:15AM. We flew from Long Beach to San Jose, another small airport. That was the absolute smoothest flight I have ever been on! We arrived back in Boise around 3:00, picked up the car from the valet (a great new service at BOI) and were home by 4:00. Observations: It was a fun trip - everything went according to plan; everyone was happy all the time! Disney is obscenely expensive (the fast pass/Genie Pass cost something like $20 per day per person. But its worth it!) Its amazing how the Disney folks manage so many people - but it works! We were impressed at how accommodating EVERYONE was with my wheelchair! Disney, the hotel shuttle bus, restaurants, airports, everyone was very kind to this guy who looked disabled!
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