Friday Night Lights

Scarf . . . check.
Camera . . . check.
Tickets . . . no, Mary. You get those at the gate. Oh.

Ding dong. The Witts are here! We all pile into the car for the quick trip. We pull into the parking lot and look across the rows of cars. All of these people are here for one thing. You can feel the excitement and nervousness in the air . . .

No, it's not the local high school football game . . . it's Disneyland! And we are all now officially Southern California annual pass holders.



We definitely spent 2 of the 4 Friday nights in January taking advantage of that. The first week that we went, we were both pumped for our first Disneyland trip. But I have to say not nearly as much as the Warr-aday cousins. Josh had already been talking about this moment for weeks, including a couple of outrageous statements such as "Going to Disney with someone who's never been before is better than . . ." I can't even finish that sentence on my blog. Ryan hadn't discovered our secret until we all rendezvous'ed in the middle of Main Street. His jaw dropped, a look of sheer joy enveloped his face, and he starts pointing to us and screaming to all of our fellow Disney-goers "First-timers! First-timers!"

Our whole group spent the rest of the night watching me and Adam's faces for our reactions. It's not like we've never been to a theme park before, although I'm not sure if anyone appreciated my comparisons to Opryland. "Oh, this ride's like Chaos! Oh, this ride's like the Flume Zoom!" Maybe the fact that it got turned into a shopping mall makes it seem a little less legit. We've both even been to Disneyworld, but maybe it's been a while (don't miss the matching socks):


Well, who could believe our good fortune that right as we first arrived, that special someone just happened to be walking by. Apparently thats a big deal to actually bump into him, which seems strange to me since he's kind of the superstar of the whole thing. Seems like he would be a little more accessible to his adoring fans, but I guess we just got lucky!


Lucky for us, our group members were seasoned Disney experts, so they led us through the maze with ease and efficiency. Also lucky for us, it was freezing so the crowds were minimal. Here we are on our first Disneyland ride:



The rest of the evening was filled with more rides, more shivering, and the astounding water show Fantasmic. Now remember, I'm expecting the Opryland hotel dancing water. So I was taken aback by the sprays of water projecting images into the air with a full-blown soundtrack, boats appearing from mid-air, and a few evil-doers tossed in that made the little girl in front of me scream with terror.



We passed on the fireworks show to take advantage of the shorter ride lines which is when I was introduced to one of the most spectacular rides ever: Buzz Lightyear. You ride in your car through a maze of laser targets; the more you shoot, the more you score. Here are the Warrens and us as we prepare to go into battle:




And, to top it off, they email you the pic that they take during the ride as a souvenir. Here's ours. Be sure to note the scores in the top corners . . . that's right.



As usual, this post is getting a little long so I will have to save Disney Part 2 for another day. Look forward to stories from the teacups, California Adventure, and a Buzz Lightyear re-match that Adam won't soon forget.