A Child Again at Disneyland

I had a chance to go to Disneyland with Lori and my parents, the happiest place on Earth. Lori and Lisa needed to get to Long Beach to catch their flights home, so we drove Lisa and dropped her off at the airport, since Lori wasn't leaving until the next morning, we spent the day at Disneyland, and it was TOTALLY my dad's idea, which really blew me away.  I loved that he suggested we go to Disneyland.  I didn't feel like it was the happiest place on Earth a few days before Christmas though, it was a mad house.  There were so many people and it was so busy that it was difficult to even walk from one ride to the next.  Another issue I have is that I am significantly older than the last time my parents took me to Disneyland and my equilibrium won't let me ride any rides without getting a bit of a headache. However, even in our old age, all of us were a little giddy as the tickets were bought and we were walking down Main Street.

Since it was Christmas in just a few days, all of Disneyland was decked to the halls in wreaths, trees, ornaments, presents and all things Christmas.  Other than the decorations of a million people everywhere, it was really pretty. 

We decided to try to use our time wisely and hit up the rides with the littlest lines first and run to get the fast passes while we waited for the rides.  We had to pick the rides very carefully because Dad and I can't handle the motion of most rides.  I just have a weird head but my dad has a legit reason for not being able to ride any rides since he has Meniere's disease and the sudden motions will send him into a dizzy spell from down under (and I'm not talking about Australia). We decided that Pirates of the Caribbean should be Ok for us all since it is just a boat ride to see the moving scenes. Oh geez, we were so wrong, that ride is jerky, and the lights and the loud sounds sent dad into a really bad dizzy spell.  He closed his eyes and could barely get out of the boat.  Here we are right before the ride started.

We got off the ride and found a seat for us all to sit, dad was hoping it would pass, but it became a full fledge attack, so we called the Disneyland EMT, and they came with a wheelchair and took us to their small clinic down Main Street.  Dad said he just needed to sleep it off and for us to go have fun without him.  So after giving the nurse our phone numbers, and making sure he was asleep, we left to continue our adventures feeling a little less excited and awful bad for dad.

We had fast passes for the haunted mansion, so we went straight to the mansion and waited only about 20 minutes to get on the ride.  The entire ride has completely changed since I last went years ago.  The ride is now completely centred around The Nightmare Before Christmas and Jack Skeleton.  It is significantly less scary (or I am much older and it doesn't scare me).  The decorations were really rad, and I enjoyed the change, because I don't do well with scary.  

After the Haunted Mansion, we wanted to check out the new Star Wars section of the park.  The Star Wars part actually just opened, and it was so fun to see it all fresh and clean.  Since the rides were not open yet and maybe people didn't know it was open, it was not busy with a million people so I super enjoyed walking through this land.  I am not a huge Star Wars fan, I actually haven't even seen all the movies, but I could defiantly appreciate the attention to detail.

At one point, as we were walking between buildings it sounded as though one of the Star Wars ships flew right over our head, we all ducked and looked around trying to find where the plane was, only to laugh and realise it was just a really good sound effect.  The Falcon ship was really impressive, it looked as if they got the real one from the set, maybe they did.

We left Star Wars Land and decided it wasn't a true trip to Disneyland without a ride on It's a Small World.  The line was still about 30 minutes long, so we got in line and just talked and laughed.  I have never had to wait in line for Small World, so this just proves how crazy busy it was.  

As we were about to depart the boats, the lights of It's a Small World suddenly turned on in all their colourful glory.  It was fun to see it all lite up and crazy bright.

Mom got a call from dad letting us know he was good as new and he was able to sleep the attack off. We ran back to the clinic to check dad out.  We were all starving by this time, especially dad, so we decided to grab some food to go and try to get the battling piano show at the Golden Horseshoe.  Dad didn't want to go in the room with all the loud people and music echoing off all the walls, so he took up a bench right outside and we were able to find a balcony seat.  Mom, Lori and I were super excited because this is usually my favourite show.  Let's just say that even though we were right on the balcony, we left after only a few minutes.  Gosh, it was boring and nothing compared to their old show, Bill Hill and the Hill Billy's.  I miss that show, it was my favourite, and sadly the battling pianos just didn't live up to Bill Hill and his battling fiddles.

Our next stop was at the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride.  Dad insisted that he would be OK and that this is one ride he really enjoyed, so we got in line and waited about a half hour to get on.  This is really a fun ride!  You go around trying to shoot all the aliens and creatures with the gun on your ride.  Dad ended up beating us all by at least six times, it was crazy.

By the time the Buzz ride was done, the castle was all lit up and the Christmas Parade was to start within the hour.  We wanted decent seats, so decided to stake out seats and eat food while we waited.
The castle was super bright and so pretty. It looked like Elsa's castle, and I'm not sure if the was on purpose or not.

Our parade waiting paid off because we had fabulous seats for the parade.  We enjoyed the floats, music, dancing and singing.  I love parades, so I was in my happy place, and I loved every second of it.  It was fun being here with my oldest sister, Lori and my parents.  It made me feel like a kid again.  

Before we headed for the exit, Lori and Dad came with me to check out Mickey's Toon Town.  Sadly, we were too late and it was closed.  I was really hoping to get a picture with all of us and Mickey or Minnie, but I'll take a memory of running to Toon town instead and finding it closed.  I loved that they went along with my wish to get together with Mickey.  I sure love that I had this experience with Lori and my Mom and Dad!  It is a memory I will treasure, even with the millions of people and Dad's attack, it was a great day.  Thanks Mom and Dad, I love you!

GartenCheu, Dinosaur Park

It was a beautiful summer day so we decided to go on an outing with the Lunds to GartenCheu in Kaiserslautern.  The kids all call this the Dinosaur Park because there are large dinosaurs all over the park.  GartenCheu is like a come all and do all type of park.  There are playgrounds, trails, a small skate park, slides, swings, ice cream, a stream and more.  We spent a few hours just hanging out and letting the kids have fun.

The huge tunnel slide was one of the favorites.  At first Monster was scared to go up the different ladders to the top.  When Kevin took him up, he was quite a mess.  He went down only one time and declared that it was too scary.  Luckily, there was a much smaller slide close to the tunnel that Monster slid down over and over again.  He enjoyed the ability to go up the slope and stairs on his own and being able to go down the slide as many times as he wanted.

A favorite for Little A was the ropes course.  She and the Lund kids tried to go from the beginning all the way to the end.  There were a few tricky spots that required her to reach a little further then her arms could go, so with just a little help she made it all the way around the course.

There were multiple swing sets and the kids had a blast running from one to another.  There was a nest type swing on one of the sets that the kids decided to try out.  One of the kids got swung in circles and ended up getting motion sick, needless to say, they didn't go back to the nest.

The parents found a few seats to rest in while the kids found a stream.  The shoes got thrown off and little toes found the rush of wet sand and cool water.  The absolutely loved getting their feet wet and playing in the water.  Rocks were collected, shorts got wet and fingers got dirty, but smiles were all around and the kids were entertained for a really long time.  

On the walk out of GartenCheu, there is a lego museum right before you exit.  We took some time to walk through the museum.  It was so neat seeing all the lego buildings and cities. Most of the buildings in the museum were popular European churches and buildings.  Monster wanted to play with all the cars and people.  Luckily in the middle of the museum was a lego play area, so he was able to play and create while we admired.

Damyang Bamboo Forest

When we moved to South Korea I started making a list of cool places to see.  My list kept getting longer and longer as people recommended locations.  With only a month left and with Talia here, I decided to try to see as much as possible before we left.  The Damming Bamboo Forest has been on my list since day one, so we decided to go check it out today and invited the Walkers to join us on our adventure.  It was a bit of a drive so we had to leave early in the morning to get there at a decent time.

  

In my mind, I thought this was just going to be a small walking trail in a bamboo forest, but I was so extremely wrong.  The entire park was huge and the trails were long.  Our GPS had us park at the back end of the park.  We paid our admission fee and were greeted by a beautiful lake with a fountain and nice chairs to relax in.

We took a look at our map and realized right away that this was going to be a ton of walking.  It was super hot, so we started walking.  There were so many hill to climb, I was really proud of the kids and their endurance.  Of course, that's why we do cool stuff with friends, because the kids will last longer.  Friends and the bribe of ice cream is the secret to long hot walks and crazy adventures.

We found a playground, so while the kids played we took a lunch break.  They enjoyed a few bites of their sandwiches and running around on the equipment.  They really enjoyed the playground.

The forest had cute stops all along the trail.  One stop had cute bamboo chairs and was near a waterfall.  I'm pretty positive the waterfall is man made, but it was a good one.  We enjoyed the little mist that we got from the falls.

The bamboo was beautiful.  I was surprised at how high they grew. I was also surprised at how thick some of the bamboo were.  It was pretty neat to be completely surrounded by bamboo.  We were all talking about this, and we couldn't figure out if bamboo had started here and then was planted more by humans, or if the entire thing was man planted.  I mean, there isn't many places that have natural bamboo growing in South Korea, but to have it thrive so well here, we couldn't help but wonder if it is native to Damyang.

While out exploring in the forest, we found this crazy reflective cube.  It was just stuck on the side of the path, fashionably Korea randomness.  The kids had fun looking at their distorted reflection in the cube.

All around the Bamboo Forest were some awesome lanterns.  Each lantern was different and was made out of a bamboo pole.  They were sporadically placed around the forest, so it became a treasure hunt to find the lanterns.  The kids tried to be the first to find one and point it at.

We enjoyed our walks and hikes throughout the forest.  It was a beautiful way to spend the morning.  It was especially fun to spend it with such great friends. I am glad that we got to share this with Talia.

We ended our day back where we started.  We took time to walk around the little lake and cross over the bridges.  The kids loved the fountain in the middle of the lake, and they really loved seeing all the fish in the water.