Southern California, part une

Howdy all! I'm back! Yeehaw! Slaughter the fatted calf!
 
22 months is a great age to take your kid to Disneyland.  They don't want to stand in long lines, so you don't have to either, and they're too young to ask you to buy stuff for them.  A. did fill the stroller basket with Wiggles bath towels when he saw them, but we sneaked them back to the shelf and he hasn't mentioned them since.
 
Some high (and low) lights:
 
1. What's with hotel rooms not having a bathtub?  We had to request new rooms both in Santa Barbara and the Disneyland Hotel (DLH) because they only had us a shower.  One woman at the DLH told us that we didn't get a bathtub because we requested a king bed, and all the rooms with a king bed had only a shower.  What kind of hotel logic is that?  Besides, she was lying because we did end up with a room with a king bed AND a tub. A. does not take showers, and while the swimming pool will clean him to some degree,  he doesn't put his head in the water and I did want to wash his hair at least once. 
 
2. We never had a long line, and the park was pretty crowded.  Even on the Pirates of the Caribbean. (Yes, we took A. on POTC  - much to the consternation of a snotty teenage girl who snottily informed us that it was "kind of a scary ride, you people with babies" with much eye rolling.  A. did better than you probably did, Scared Snot Girl). 
 
For all the rides, we usually had to wait for 2, maybe 3, cars to fill up before our turn.  Apparently we frequented the unpopular rides, but it was great.
 
3. Disneyland has changed a lot in the 25 years since I was last there.  No more acres of parking lot surrounding the hotel and the main gates. You can't even see the parking lots, really. It's all filled with California Adventure and Downtown Disney.  And remember how you used to be able to see the Matterhorn from the I-5 and you'd cheer because you were almost there? All the little wimpy trees have grown up and you can't see it anymore.
 
4.  A.'s favorite things were saying, "DIZzy-Lan!" and "MICK-eymouse!"  It was very cute and people were charmed.  I'm always kind of impressed at how many comments we get about his cuteness from people who see little kids all day long (like at DL).  I just wish they wouldn't try to touch him so much (so does he).  He also loved chasing the sparrows (someday we'll have to teach him not to torture birds),  running in vacant lines - under the chains and around the pylons, and running around fountains.  When he's walking, he likes to stop suddenly in front of people, squat, say, "Ready, set...GO!" and then stand up and run.  The problem is that people tend to trip over him, and you never really know when he's going to do this.  So I said, "Sorry!" and "Excuse us!" a lot. 
 
He also loved the hotel elevator and informed everyone who joined us in this small magic transporter room that they, too, were in the "e-vator" and were going "down" even when we were going up. He also imitated the beeps at each floor. Most people found this charming, I believe. He also politely said "bye-bye!" and waved to all the elevator occupants. I think he may have a future as an elevator operator, if he can get that "up" and "down" thing right.
 
Like most kids, he enjoyed the characters unless they tried to get too close or touch him. Pooh was OK, and Rolie Polie Olie was also OK (although taller than I expected).  Aladdin was OK since he was human. The rest he just tolerated.  For some reason we kept running into Captain Hook, who is one of the scarier ones.  I think he was stalking us.
 
Coming up.....Part Deux: Morticians Visit the Happiest Place on Earth.