All The Disney Details- The End

Thank y'all so much for indulging me in my little endeavor to preserve the memories of my nephew's first trip to Disneyland and in turn share way too many pictures of said event.  This is to be the last installment of my series on this subject.  Truly, thanks for the patience.

By the last day at the Disneyland resort, Nathan had really gotten comfortable with the place and pretty much knew where everything was.  He was feelin' quite at home that last morning when we noticed he was wearing the remainders of his ice cream all over his face- yes, ice cream that we had let him eat with his breakfast as we were cleaning out the hotel room fridge.

I have some really good excuses for allowing this.  1)  First and foremost, we were on vacation and that totally allows for eating ice cream for breakfast.  2)  He saw the ice cream before I had the chance to throw it out.  3)  I had been awakened by the alarm clock next door at 6am, that proceeded to go off for over 15 minutes before I could get anybody in that room to shut that sucker down.  I guess there must have been one heck of a party going on over there the night before because these people seemed a little more than hung over.  So I was in a weakened state, what can I say?

It turned out to be quite a stellar day for eating all around when we had lunch at the 'Big Thunder Ranch Barbeque' all you can eat place inside the park right before we used our fast passes to take another ride on 'California Screamin'- the roller coaster with the big loop and the 55 miles per hour.  Yeah, this was Nathan's idea.

Amazingly, we made it through without any encore performances from our lunch.

As the trip wound down, there was a definite sense of how grateful we all were for how well things had gone.  After such a long build up to this trip (with all the complications that my sister had thrown our way, it had been a couple of years since I had promised this to Nathan) we were all making sure to take in everything we could to save the memories in our hearts and know that this was just the beginning of a positive new future to come.

Nathan's Dad and my husband took the opportunity to buy a few more souvenirs that Nathan had been eyeballing, including a flashing light saber and a light up spinning R2-D2.

He used his cool new toys to help him enjoy the 'Fantasmic' show at the rivers of America in Disneyland.  This show was even more impressive than 'World Of Color' had been.  It has the light show on the fountains along with live Disney characters and boats added to it.

Here is a good sampling of the show. (You may want to pause the music player.)




Yes indeed, this kid was happy and satisfied.

On the way back home we realized just how lucky we had been.  The weather for us had cooperated with our plans quite magically, after all.  When we were on the road, the weather was miserable.  Both ways.  But while we were actually at our destination we were treated to blue skies and warmth.  So when we had to take a 3 hour detour to avoid a snowy mountain pass on the way back, I took it as a reminder of just how fortunate we had been.  Plus it allowed us to show Nathan the Redwoods.

One extra stop for some fresh air and a break from the windy roads and Nathan was able to give me the 'No Hurl' guarantee.  To think that car sickness almost got to him after all those crazy rides! 

We all made it back to the comfort of home, safe and sound, that night.  What a trip it had been!