A Masterpiece in Progress: Land, Lindie, Laughter

After a delightful and full 24 hours at home, I met my friends, Jenn and Lindie from Calgary at the Vancouver airport. The flight down to LA is nice and short and we saw the most stunning sunset.

Do you ever have those sunsets that you just have to keep looking out the window and have to perpetually stare at it, because it's so beautiful that you wonder if it's actually real. This was one of those. I kept glancing and staring in awe of the beauty of God's creation. Finally I had to go snap a quick photo because sunsets and sunrises from planes are generally pretty spectacular, and this one was no exception.

First stop: Downtown Disney. Dinner at The Rainforest Cafe. Love it. It is literally like a jungle in there. There are gorillas, elephants, massive fish tanks. Every 20 minutes there is a thunderstorm and all the animals start going wild and it rains in certain spots. We sat by the waterfall, so listening to the sounds of falling water while having dinner surrounded by greenery was simply delightful.

One of my favorite rides is the Jungle Cruise (okay, I admit, I have about 20 favorite rides.. but all for different reasons!). Sometimes you get a horrible guide and it sucks, but when you have a good guide it's a lot of fun. :)

And some how there was a slit of light shining on the river perfectly and it looked beautiful and I was transported somehow to a tropical jungle somewhere. I think that's what I love about Disneyland-it's like you're in an entirely different world and you can be fully present there and enjoy every second of your visit and all other worries and cares seem to melt away.

Jenn, Lindie and I have been friends since our time in Quebec together. The summer I was on staff at Capernwray, Jenn, Lindie and I were all staff and lived together in a little house we endearingly called 'Le Chalet'. It was such a fun summer, despite challenges along the way, but it was wonderful to live together and get to know one another and I'm so thankful for their friendships and the fact that we can keep in touch even though we don't live in the same province! And how fun to all take a trip together as well! I love having friends you can just pick up with and that you can be yourself completely.

And Lindie's new thing, as I discovered on her last visit, is kissing everything. So on Triton's carousel, it was no different. Of course, the animal I picked to ride was at its high point, so I had to hike up the thing to get on, but it was worth it for the incredibly fast paced, crazy ride it was. Okay, it's a carousel, it wasn't that fast. But still fun.

Toy Story 3. Love.

Ferris Wheel. Dumb Ride. Although gives you a nice view.

California Adventure Rollercoaster. Awesome Ride.

Smile while you scream. It's a given. Then again, I seem to just laugh and giggle hysterically on any ride I'm on...

Grizzly River Run. Fun. Until your entire backside gets soaked and you get stuck a metre away from the exit for 10 minutes while the ride is broken down. But still fun. :)

Hollywood Tower of Terror. How could you not love a ride where your butt comes flying off the seat as the elevator shaft falls at rapid rates?

And Stitch. Lindie gave me her camera and went to the bathroom. I thought she just wanted me to hold it. Oops. Turned out she wanted a picture.

Mickey's Dance Party. I probably should have jumped up on stage because I have some pretty awesome moves, but I held back. Besides, watching all the kids jumping around and dancing is pretty awesome as well.

Disneyland at Night. Fantastic.

Breakfast every morning right outside Disneyland was great too. Fed the birds (even though they wouldn't come land on my stretched out hand) and got our sustenance for a day full of walking.

Love this sign. It sums up all my wonderful fuzzy feelings of Disneyland and as I pass under it, I just know I will have a delightful day of adventure and discovery and fun.

Since Mickey and I are pretty tight, I decided to opt out of the full body shot and we took a self-portrait instead.

Misty joined us on the Saturday which was a lot of fun to see her again and have some good laughs.

Here Jenn, Lindie and Misty are demonstrating how to lift your arms on a rollercoaster without getting them cut off by the tunnels you are going through. Lindie tried to hide her terror but it's written all over her face.

Hands up! For some reason, for the rest of the day, the hands up thing was hilarious. You probably had to be there though.

Big Thunder Mountain Railway. Love this ride. Love love love. As in, I could keep going on it multiple times because I love it so.

And they were celebrating the lunar new year so there were a lot of festivities going on and dancers and ribbon dances and everything. It was fun.

Finding Nemo Submarine!

Space Mountain. Also Love. (but you probably could have guessed that).

Monorail. We talked about it the entire time and finally took it to go back to the room for a kettle popcorn break and to put on some pants. For some reason this ride was hilariously funny. Once again, the hilarity would probably require your presence.

All day, we saw the Jedi Training happening about five different times. Never seen Star Wars nor do I plan to so I thought it was kind of silly. But when we walked by in the evening, it was a band, so we decided to go right on in and start dancing. Okay, Lindie just stood there mostly laughing at me, but I danced.