Gates' (Emergency) Trip Disneyland & Happy Birthday to Him as Well!!!

Get into Disneyland free on your Birthday

Many know that this year Disneyland is offering a free ticket into one of the parks on your birthday. It is quite simple, one registers with Disney and they send you an email a few weeks prior to your birthday, show up with your voucher and ID and you get a ticket to either Disneyland or California Adventure.

Well nothing is ever simple at our house. Gates planned ahead and registered for his free ticket. While the family was in San Jose for Christmas Southwest was running special deals on airfare. So the planning began.... Several scenarios were looked at: driving there and back in one day, flying in, getting a hotel one night, taking the whole family, just Roger, or going solo. Attempts were even made to have Alexis (and some of her family meet at the park). Eventually it was decided to not worry about it and go some other time.

Fast forward from beginning of January to the 25th. As Gates was at church he felt like he needed to go, no reason, just go. Of course when he told Angie it was a simple response, "You don't need to go, you want to go." More discussions ensued to see if Alexis or Mom and Dad wanted to head down to Disneyland (of course they wanted to go) in the end they could not. When Gates got home from school on Monday he still felt like he needed to go and Angie had already bought the snacks he would need for his trip.

Angie was not thrilled with the idea of Gates leaving on the trip, but also felt that he needed to go. And so that Gates does not sound to mean he did offer to take the whole or part of the family, but it was clear that the prompting was for just him and not the rest of the family.

We'll keep the schedule of the day in PDT (it is just to confusing to work between MST and PDT).

Jan 27th

3:00am - wake up, shower, grab stuff
3:30am - head to bank and pickup funds
3:45am - on the road (there is no traffic through Phoenix at 4:45 in the morning, thankfully)
9:15am - after hitting some traffic on the 91 I arrive at Disneyland
9:45am - grab a cinnamon roll and sit down in the Gibson Girl by the elephant (start working)
10:30am - head over to Nemo Ride (really is cool) catch Space Mountain (twice, 5 minute line-awesome) and score 500,000+ points on Buzz Lightyear (personal best)
12:15pm - grab a snack at the Bengal Barbecue Grill, get fast pass for Indian Jones and draw until time to use said pass.
12:55pm - cash in the fast pass then catch Pirates
1:30pm - went over by the Carnation Plaza and spread out my work (started my primary elevation)
2:45pm - went through the Sleeping Beauty Walk Through
3:00pm - walked around for a bit (took some pictures)
3:15pm - took a 20 minute sit by partners and just relaxed in the California sun
3:45pm - spent some time looking around in the shops
4:30pm - went and sat on the dock were the sailing ship Columbia is (did some more drawing) this is the best spot in the park to sit and enjoy
5:00pm - took the train from New Orleans to Main Street Station (did a couple sketches on the trip)
5:30pm - went shopping along Main Street
6:00pm - had dinner (way more then I should have eaten) at Cafe Orleans
7:15pm - rode Thunder Mountain
7:25pm - looked for a seat for Fantasmic! (nothing good)
7:35pm - rode Matterhorn (nailed the big 4 rides)
7:55pm - take the Monorail (now Mark VII trains) out of the Park
8:30pm - pull out of the parking lot and head home
11:30pm - stop about half hour out of Blythe

Jan. 28th

2:30am - start driving again
6:30am - get home

(Gates) The main reason I feel I needed this trip was to help with our design project. I was able to get a good deal of inspiration from just walking around Disneyland (it had been over a year since we had been). I love walking around the park (alone at Disneyland is a special time for me). It was nice to not cart around kids, bags and strollers - very free. I hope to finish some of the drawings I started and get them posted. It was a great trip - I spent about 1/3 working, 1/3 walking & sitting, and 1/3 on the attractions.