It Never Rains In Southern California

Characters from Song of the South in front of Splash Mountain

Chris and I made a really short trip to the OC this past weekend. Chris' brother Andy was getting married and Chris was asked to be an usher for the ceremony. Since I can't get much time off for the new job as we are still in training, we had to leave on Friday night and I came back on Sunday.

Since the wedding wasn't until Sunday, Saturday was completely ours. Since we decided not to rent a car, the choices were limited for us. We could either go hit Newport Beach, or go to Disneyland. Since I have only been to Disneyland once, and that was before Chris was born, it was definitely time to go again.

Disneyland was definitely interesting. It was hard to try to remember how the park was when I was 5, and then not to mix it up with trips to the Magic Kingdom in the years in-between. Still, a few things stood out, mostly the Disneyland exclusives like Casey's railroad, Sleeping Beauty's Castle, and the Matterhorn.

I enjoyed some for the changes like the new Indiana Jones ride, Toontown and Splash Mountain. I did bristle at others, like the fact the 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea Ride has now become a Finding Nemo ride, and Capt. Jack Sparrow appears too much in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. At least Eddie Murphy was kept out of the Haunted Mansion.

I loved the Indiana Jones ride, but the best ride at Disneyland was Splash Mountain. not only was it a great log flume ride, but i was really happy that Disney actually acknowledges the characters from Song of the South. I remember seeing the movie as a child, but now you have to go out of the USA to buy a copy due to the story teller, Uncle Remus being a slave in the south and the stories being old slave fables. Uncle Remus isn't in the ride, but Brer Bear is, and he seems to be tied up, and showing off his big bear bottom all of the time. Who knew he was into BDSM?

Each and every time we went over to Space Mountain it broke down, which was a great disappointment to me. We couldn't ride everything, the lines were long and we wanted to get over to California Adventure, but Space Mountain was the one I was really disappointed to miss out on.

We crossed the former parking lot and went to Disney's California Adventure in the evening. The themeing is really great at the park, though it can take a while to walk to a ride. I wonder if they will slowly fill the park with more attractions. Still, there were some great rides there, like the mouse coster, Mulholland Madness and California Screamin', the really great coaster. It's built to look like a wooden coaster on the pier, but it's a well made metal coaster with some great banks and drops. It's good to see Disney make some thrill rides that a 4 year-old can't ride.

One of the good things about Disney is how immersive the themeing is. Many times the ride isn't very intense, but you sit there looking at the environment. The haunted Mansion and Pirates are both very immersive rides, but so is Thunder Mountain Railroad. I found the soundtrack that played out of the headrests in the cars on California Screamin' really did enhance the ride. It's interesting not that Disney has a rollercoaster, or a log flume ride or a free-fall ride, but what they do with the ride in the look, story line and atmosphere of the ride.

We both packed wrong for the trip, and as we got into the evening the temperature dropped to 50 degrees, and the rain started to come down. We were both in T-shirts expecting 70 degree LA weather. Chris and I both had to pay a good price for Disneylad-branded warm ups so we could keep going into evening hours. At 11pm we gave up, too tired, cold and still somewhat wet. We couldn't make it to midnight and crashed in a few moments of getting back to the hotel.

The next morning we made it down to a marina in Newport Beach to board a sort of hybrid yacht and party boat for the wedding. The wedding, dance and reception were all on board the ship as we moved along Newport Bay, looking at all the big houses by the sea. It was a relaxing, casual ceremony and really a great way to do it. I still had a seasickness patch from last year's cruse, so I put it on, but it wasn't really something I needed as we didn't leave the calm bay. Still, when we got out to the jetties, I could see the much more turbulent waters of the Pacific.

Chris' family also always treats me very well. Not to say that my family doesn't treat chris well, but they've had less experience with Chris around. It was funny that as Chris' brother and parents didn't remember my last name, I was told I would have to check onto the yacht as one of the Brides (not THE bride, that's a whole different thing). So at least for one day, I took Chris' name. I also sat in the front row with the rest of the immediate family. It's nice to be included.

After four hours at sea I had to go back to the airport and get crammed into another full flight so I could get back to do nothing at work on Monday, tired after getting to bed at 1:30 am.

So I guess we'll have to get back out to Southern California again sometime soon to start to see the ballparks in LA, Anaheim and San Diego. I'll need to go back to Disneyland again to hit Space Mountain and a few other rides we passed up to get to the important ones. Now if I could only find my disneyland board game i used to have as a kid.