Last year, Olivia gifted Ana's boys Disneyland tickets - the trip was set for September 2019, Halloween season. She asked if any of the West Jordan Blackham Boys would like to go too ... Coop and Colton had recently had to make up school after the cruise, and they weren't sure about going through that again (Colton also had games, and Coop ended up on a Seattle trip overlapping this excursion). Keaton though ... he was up for it, and he went to represent our family. He drove out with Maga and Olivia, and Ana's family and Clay and Courtney's crew met them there.
The littles LOVED having Keaton along!
I asked Keaton for a recap of the trip, and he delivered!
My memory might be off for some of the things we did on certain days so bear with me.
It was Saturday night, September 28th. I had everything packed for the week and headed over to Maga's house to spend the night as we were waking up bright and early the next morning to begin the trip. I passed out pretty quickly being that it was around midnight. Livi had grabbed me and Aidan a McDonald's midnight snack, and we had turned on Big Hero 6 (which is my type of sleepy ambiance given that I practiced falling asleep to movies and shows my whole childhood). Clay was hoping to leave by about 7:30 and what that means to us Blackhams is 10:00 basically (yes, 10:00 is bright and early). Maga wanted to drive and wouldn't back down on the possibility of her grandson taking over (until later, muahaha). We stopped at McDonald's for breakfast, where I soon learned that was going to be my first meal of the day for the upcoming week. And so began our journey of 14 hours on I-15 with frequent steps on the brake, and history lessons on the legends of Gordy, how Maga's life was growing up in California, and my pa when he had hair (which I believe to be a myth).
The drive was actually really great, granted I spent a majority of the time on Netflix. But it was fun spending time with Maga and crazy Aunt Livi. After a heap of traffic, we finally arrived in Anaheim and stopped at the Travelodge Inn and Suites so Livi could help Ana and Adrian get settled into their reserved room. Clay was staying in another hotel and we didn't see him that night. Meanwhile. Maga, Liv, and I found our way to Maga's old friend Joyce's apartment, where she was sweet enough to let us stay while she, ironically, was staying in Florida visiting Disneyworld. It was a very great place to stay for us, and from what I heard about Ana's location, better than their hotel. Beds were comfy, it had a well-organized bathroom, I had no complaints.
The first morning? Head to Disneyland! Again, didn't leave until 10:00. We all got ready with our landyards, Disney outfits, and bags to prepare ourselves for the day. Maga introduced me to Airborne vitamins. They boost your immune system, which greatly helped me for the week as I was fighting off a cold. The three of us took one every morning and every night of the week. By the time we got there, Clay, Courtney and their kids had already been in the park for an hour. We drove over to Ana's hotel and met the boys there so we could all walk to the park together. It was, I want to say about 3/4 of a mile, so not too bad. We made it to the back entrance of Downtown Disney and security stops the one and only crazy Aunt Livi. Turns out she brought butterknives so we could spread mayo onto our sandwiches for lunch. Metal ones. Joyce's. We all thought it was pretty funny except for Livi who was genuinely upset thinking she had to throw away Joyce's knives, but instead she walked a ways back in the parking lot and stashed them oh so sneakily behind a bush and made her way back. To add to the humor, she was stopped yet again by security claiming they watched her stash the butterknives on site and declared her too dangerous to enter. My aunt, decked out in Disney gear, with homemade Minie Mouse ears down to the colored toenails on her feet. At this point, Adrian and Maga step in and try to work it out and security said if she just throws the knives away in the garbage, then she can come in. But Livi wouldn't accept, realizing that the knives were not hers ... so she walked all the way back to the hotel and back, all was well. We walked through Downtown Disney to the park entrances where we upgraded our 3 tickets to Park Hoppers so we could bounce between Disneyland and California Adventure's whenever we pleased. I appreciated this a lot.
So, the first day we headed into Disneyland and immediately went to Indiana Jones. I was really excited because I've never been on in even though I've been to Disneyland at least two other times before. Aidan and Amare are excited because it's INDIANA JONES! We waited in line for about 45 minutes, which seemed bad at first but we all got used to pretty quickly, and onto the ride. It was great I loved it! Amare was pretty scared at the beginning because it's a fairly dark and scary placeto start, but after it was done, he said he would gladly go again. We went on a few more rides in the Disneyland park for probably another couple hours and decided to hit California Adventures. I remember California Adventures being the better park from my previous times so I was certainly pushing it. We met up with Clay's crew at the Guardian's of the Galaxy tower. It was new to me because the last time I was on it, it was the Tower of Terror. Aidan backed out at the last minute (Cooper did when our family went years ago). Not as scary this time, but I definitely think it was better! I'm not the biggest fan of Guardians of the Galaxy but it goes to show that you don't have to be a fan to enjoy the ride. Instead of jump scares and feeling like you're in a busted elevator, it's pump up music and like a 360 experience joining Rocket fighting off bad guys and finding little baby Groot. Definitely one of my favorite rides, and in the fan gift shop they had really well-designed robot hands featuring the six infinity stones used in End Game. I got to try on the Thanos glove and the Iron Man glove just for the fun of it. We then headed over to the Incredicoaster, after seeing on the Disneyland app on our phones that it was about a 15 minute wait. We all went over there and waited in a much longer than 15 minute line, but it was worth it. Before, it used to just be the California Screamin' but after a crimson red paint job and lots of sound effects became the Incredicoaster. Definitely did not disappoint! To me at least... Sam didn't want to go on and he backed out with Coco, the picture at the end greatly captured Livi's opinion, and Maga announced that was probably her last roller coaster haha. We found a snowcone shack based on Monsters Inc the abominable snowman that served "yellow snow." I had a special snowcone with blue raspberry filling at the bottom, the yellow snow and a cherry on top so it looked like the Pixar ball and it was delicious. Throughout the day, we went on a few more rides and bounced back to Disneyland to get a feel for everything we have to discover. The last ride I remember going on was Splash Mountain with Ana, Adrian and the boys and I have a fantastic picture on that ride that I will cherish forever our shared enjoyment of getting soaked at 9:00 at night in cotton shirts and socks. Overall, Monday dragged on a little longer than most the other days because no one was really sure what to do or where to go and we're all still getting the feel for it. We headed for home at about 10:00pm and had dinner at a little strip mall with plenty of options that didn't disappoint. Nothing super special, but we ate there most nights and I for one was fine with that.
Day two Tuesday, we decided to focus on California Adventure for the morning and afternoon because that night they were doing the special Halloween event called the Oogie Boogie Bash and you had to have that reserved. We have it planned for Thursday night. Everyone was pretty sore from walking all about the day before and Liv and I had the idea that we can use Joyce's wheelchair for Maga (that she so kindly laid out for us for this specific reason. Maga has been struggling with hip pain). Maga refused saying she can walk just fine. Yeah, sure Maga. We said we'll bring it just in case *wink wink.* This was the first time Maga allowed me to drive and it was because I beat her to the driver's seat. This time, we drove to a little landing zone to drop off Maga and I and had Livi take the car back to the hotel and walk with Ana and them. I convinced Maga to get in the wheelchair and I didn't mind pushing. Turns out, you get into Disneyland a lot faster with a wheelchair so it was awesome! Blew by the line to get in, and everyone waiting in their normal people lines are like, "awww look at that! Grandson pushing Grandma so cute." And me and Maga are like, "muahahahahahaha suckas!" So we headed into California Adventures and we got there about the same time as Courtney and the kids. Clay was up late working the night prior so he was catching up on a little sleep. In the meantime, we went to Cars, Guardians, Toy Story Mania, Incredicoaster, Grizzly Rapids (we got soaked) and we were flying through the lines. Tuesday is already better than Monday. We met back up with Clay, Ana, Adrian, Liv and went to the lazy adults favorite ride Soarin' Through California. Yeah I mean it's cool when you're a kid, but the cousins would all rather go on Incredicoaster haha. We split up into two groups one going to Guardian's and the other Grizzly Rapids (Guardian's is quickly becoming a fan favorite). I went to the Rapids with Livi and some of the littles. After, we got lunch and headed back into California Adventures towards Incredicoaster, so that those who haven't gone can go. I stayed back with Maga and Sam and we watched them takeoff.
While they were waiting in line, my little churro quest began. Nearby there was a Señor Buzz's Churros stand and I got one covered with red hot cinnamon powder. After they're done, we walk back around towards a Cocoa live street performance and we got horchata churros and a cream dipping sauce. Those were amazing. Then, we headed towards Grizzly Rapids for my third time but before going on we got these gourmet-looking S'more churros and that was definitely my favorite one. A few more rides and a pumpkin spice and green apple churro before we headed to the other park. Indiana Jones again, and then the Buzz shooter game ride and right close by to that Star Tours. That made me decide to check out the new Star Wars land where they had an exclusive lightsaber shop where you get to build and keep your very own lightsaber along with a whole surrounding experience. You did have to pay for it ($200) and only two people can come with you so I took the two littles, Amare and Sam, and they helped me build my lightsaber (video
here). We three met back up with the fam and we walked through a mythical forest with lots of lights and fog and eerie sounds. At this point it was pretty late and none of us were looking to go on anymore rides, but some of the littles convinced us to go on Autopia which was fun. We ate at Pizza Planet from Toy Story and then to our respective sleeping spaces.
Wednesday was a little bit of a different agenda. We were going to Universal Studios. A farther drive but we only get one day of it (Clay's family didn't do Universal because they did it the year before and went to the beach instead). We got there and the first ride we went on is the brand new Jurassic World. I'm not too big into Universal so I really didn't know what to expect. Turns out, you get absolutely soaked in the first minute of the ride by some giant dinosaur looking whale whatever it was awesome! After that, we did Transformers and it was basically a 360 version watching the movie in 3D, but it was awesome too! Then we went to the Mummy ride, and it's a Space Mountain sort of dark roller coaster really fast ride and I loved it. We learned that those were basically the three best rides in the whole park besides some Harry Potter ride Clay's family say we greatly missed out on. We went on Simpson's, Despicable Me, Kung Fu Panda, and they're all kinda the same boring thing. The last thing we did was the Studio Tour which was pretty cool just seeing all the studios and props they use for popular movies. Fruity Pebbles churro there. Then, that night we went swimming at the hotel pool and hot tub which felt nice for our poor sore legs and feet.
Thursday we didn't have an actual Disneyland ticket. We had the Oogie Boogie Bash that night in California Adventures when it opened. In the meantime, that morning, we went to a taco restaurant in Newport Beach that was delicious, and following breakfast, we went to the beach for about an hour and a half. Of course the boys couldn't help themselves and jumped straight in the water, but Ana and I hadn't expected anything else of them. Then we headed to some famous frozen banana shop. I loved it. I got two bananas and Adrian got a frozen cheesecake. We headed back home and got in our costumes, which was necessary for the Halloween bash, and headed for the park. Basically, there are a lot less people, a bunch of cool lights, free candy, and you can go on any of the rides with almost no wait. Cars, Guardians a couple a times, Incredicoaster three or four times, Toy Story Mania a couple times (me and Clay had a little rivalry and I ended up winning of course because I had a Buzz jacket on), Goofy's Sky School, Swings, Soarin', a couple more churros, and yeah. Fun day, dinner, and home.
Our last Disneyland day, Maga, Liv and I had to pack our things and get to a hotel because Joyce was coming home that day while we would be gone to the park. So we did that, and the met everyone at the Disney gate entrance. We actually got fast passes this day, so we used that to our advantage. I first went with Clay's family to Smuggler's Run, the new Star Wars Millenium Falcon ride and I (a Star Wars nerd) geeked out at about everything I saw (video
here). When you get into the cockpit, there are six seats: two pilots, two gunners, and two engineers. They let me have one of the pilot seats because they said that's the most fun one to do. The six of us were easily the best crew ever. Really amazing ride definitely one of my favorites. We all met up and split up a bunch of different times in the day. I went on Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones a couple times, Buzz a couple times, Star Tours again, and time flew by. Sure, you're waiting in lines but you barely notice after you get off the ride. For the big finale, we watched a water show called Fantasmic that was pretty neat we all enjoyed it. A GIANT corn dog later, Clay, the kids and I went on Pirate's for our last ride and then we get pictures, souvenirs, last moments and head home to sleep before the long drive back the following day. Maga thought our hotel was absolutely treacherous, and she was right. But it was just for one night (bless Joyce's heart).
Clay hit the road first while the rest of us went to breakfast at a local Denny's. I got to drive my first road trip, the entire trip home. Maga woke in and out of sleep a couple times, asked for a Whopper and Dr. P stop at Burger King which Livi mistakenly thought was a "whoopee" stop. They dropped me home first, talked to the fam, as Dad and Cooper were just returning from their trip too. Everyone was home safe, including my lightsaber ... which I think is broken now, but I would definitely do it all over again!
