Disneyland in Pictures - Day 7 FINAL DAY!

Well, despite the previous night's "fun", I still woke with a positive attitude because I was going to see my baby puppy before the end of the night! I walked around the hotel for a bit in the morning, taking pictures:


Our room:

The Disney "art" in the hallways:


And the lobby:

Although the car service wasn't set to get us for a few hours yet, I decided to go ahead and head downstairs, wandering around a bit more, getting breakfast in the gift shop, etc. After a while I got bored and texted the car company to see if they could pick us up a bit early. Not only could they, but they preferred it, and even though we would be getting to LAX 5 hours early, I wasn't too miffed. The only conversation we were having at that point was bile-laced and useless. In my mind though, I was still trying to figure out what I had done to incur such wrath, but I figured I must have done something because we Aspers tend to be mean without realizing it. I barely took any pictures on the return trip, but since we took the exact same route, I didn't see the need, just caught a couple close the airport:

I wouldn't want to navigate into LAX on my own, that's for sure!

We made it to our gate with several hours to spare:

I ended up wandering around LAX a bit by myself. Yes, this Social Anxiety-ridden, Asper with OCD walked around LAX by herself numerous times! Despite all the construction, Delta Terminal 6 really was quite nice:


I kept wandering around, going in the shops, then coming back. Going to the bathroom, then coming back. Going to get food, then coming back.


Going to the bathroom again, then coming back. Walking around more, then coming back. Basically, enjoying the airport (if such a thing is possible). It was far better than sitting in silence. At that point, I still thought our friendship was salvageable and I was actively trying to pinpoint what I could have said or done to make him so mad. Granted, he had been pushing every single button I have all week long (and even in the months leading up to the trip), but I was still trying to shoulder the blame at that point. But, in a very non-eventful way, the actual end to it all was an insignificant little action...he let someone else have in my seat while I was gone on my final bathroom trip, and I just went numb. Whether or not it was deliberate was irrelevant at that point.

I can literally shut emotions off dead cold and, once that's done, can never be undone. I am fully aware that that's not a normal reaction to a situation, but knowing it's wrong and actually controlling the behavior are two completely different beasts in my head. It's a defense mechanism to keep from getting hurt...it's crude, yet effective and I have no plans to ever try to fix the issue. Memories (good and bad), don't get erased, just all feeling attached to them stops and thus people become pronouns and that's that. I wish I could explain it in a way that makes "normal" sense, but I think only another Asper will get it, so back to the story at hand.

Luckily, I didn't have to stand up in the terminal like a goober for too long because boarding time had arrived. And thankfully, I was numb enough by that point that my usual airport stresses were pretty easy to navigate and I had no trouble settling into my seat (probably for the first time in forever...don't go there). I was very pleasantly surprised to see that we took off and circled off shore:



I was SOO happy to see the Queen Mary from the air (and that's about as close as I'd really want to get considering how haunted it is):



Earlier than I wanted, it got dark and started storming, so I put the camera away and started playing games on my iPad:

Granted, there was more drama on the way home, but that's neither here nor there. It's all just he said/she said now. I still don't know what set him off, but now, I just don't care, even if it was all my fault (although I still profess my innocence). When it was all said and done, I still had an amazing time in the parks and even plan to go back someday (with my sister, of course). I've never really wanted to go to California (other than Disneyland), but I'm extremely glad I can now say I've been there. I saw amazing vistas along the way, went to places I could have never imagined going (like the Pacific Ocean) and places I never want to go to again (Hollywood Blvd), but most importantly of all, I'VE BEEN TO DISNEYLAND!

I will admit, after doing this series, I ended up deleting photos of him from my Flickr album...I just don't see the need to keep them. I do, however, have a new saying...instead of "you don't really know someone until you travel with them", how about, "you don't really know someone until you travel to Disney with them"! Fits better I think.

This series was a bit more detailed than I was planning, so I guess I don't really need to do individual reviews of specific restaurants or rides...I'll save that for my next Disneyland trip! Thanks everyone for reading and I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as I did taking them! Sorry I ranted so much, there was just that final bit of bile I guess I needed to get out. All done now and on to Disney World in March!!

Disneyland in Pictures - Day 6 Part 3

I wanted to at least catch the last show of Mickey and the Magical Map, since we don't have that at Disney World, and despite our personal difficulties that almost kept us from getting to the show on time, we did manage it and it turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip.



Once Stitch came out, I got all fan-girly and giddy and I was happy to see the audience respond well.


I really wish we could have done this earlier in the trip so that I could have seen it more than once.

We walked around a bit more:

And we watched the dancing at Fantasy Faire:

We went in search of the Halloween Tree, but the crowds made it impossible to get a good pic:

And rode Pirates yet again although it was touch and go at first because the ride kept breaking down:

At least the Fantasmic lines were easier to navigate through and was was much happier with its dining package than WOC. We managed to get a fairly good spot:

Although the lighting glares were strong, Disneyland's Fantasmic blows Disney World's completely out of the water! We have to live with a stupid Pocahontas scene, you guys get Peter and Hook fighting on a ship!

And although they didn't turn out great, I finally managed to capture the Princess floats, something I still haven't done properly at WDW:


Our dragon is a joke compared to DL's:


Afterwards, we were "invited" to keep our places and watch the fireworks, so we did (the crowds were so horrible, we couldn't have moved anyway). They did the castle projects on the water for us, so it was like standing in front of the castle (without the castle):



Of course there was yet another overly-long Frozen scene:

Which included soap snow:

And still more Frozen:

Once Fantasmic and the fireworks were over with, it was a massive struggle getting back into people traffic. I kept this one as a reminder even though it's not very good.

The whole week I was hoping I had given Haunted Mansion Holiday a bum chance, so I wanted to ride it one final time before we left. We had to switch hotels before midnight and it was after 10 pm at that point, but I was determined. Something happened between us (and I’m still not sure what it was) but, needless to say, he went back to the Grand Cali to wait and I stayed in line for HM.


And managed a few OK shots on the ride:



When it was all said and done, I decided I still don't like the overlay, but it was nice to enjoy it alone, actually enjoying anything by myself for the first time the entire trip. As much as I wanted to stay in the parks for a while by myself, it was time to switch hotels, so back to the Grand Cali I went. It was awful and awkward, but we managed to get a taxi and get over to the other place, the Fairfield Inn on Harbor. It was OK, but obviously NOT a Disney resort.


Because we got there so late, the two bed queen I booked was no longer available and we had to take a king bed and a sofa. Even though the change was a deluxe room I hadn’t paid for, they upped us for free.

Do you want to know what the upgrade was? It was a "Pirate Room". Yeah...this is what a "Pirate Room" consisted of:





They could definitely take a lesson from Disney on what a "Pirate Room" really is:

(from the WDW Website)

After yet another argument as to who would get the bed or the sofa, I crashed for the night because Day 7 means home!