Trip Report April 22: the day my brother Dillon rejoined the AP land

The day started early. Very early. I had napped several times the day before fortunately, and I needed it. The week had been a busy one and my pain level had increased. The sleep did help some.

I was up all night as usual and talked to Dillon online around 1am to make sure about times. We agreed for me to arrive at his house around 6:15am. He got the wake up call from me at the agreed upon time of 5:40am. After calling him I finished getting ready and got stuff gathered and put into the car and headed out. I arrived at his hour close to the 6:15am and he was still getting ready. Mom and step father were getting the twins up and ready for school. Dillon received his team shirt and put it away for May 14. The kids got to check out the other team shirts while waiting for Dillon to be ready. Once he was ready the two of us headed out. We made a stop at Starbucks to use my free drink post card I got for my birthday and part of my gift card for a second drink. I don't remember what he got but I got a free large caramel apple cider. Yum.
We then hopped on the freeway and headed to our Happy Place! Dillon has been pass-less since December of 2009. Sad times. He got to visit for [three days in August of 2010] and on December 4th when I got my pass but that's all. He attended the Jack Lindquist breakfast during the [Micechat 6th Anniversary weekend] but left after that since we could not afford for him to enter the parks.

I'm not all that great with a camera as many of you know ;) So I don't take all that many pictures out of frustration but try and with Dillon back in APland I'll have more photos soon ;)
I didn't even think at the time to snap a photo of Dillon with his new premium annual pass but stole this off of his facebook the next day:

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We got onto Main Street USA just as they were bringing out the vehicles. We rode the fire engine down to the castle and each received a shiny little sticker we put away.
Before jumping on a vehicle though we got a couple pictures of the awesome scrim they have up to hide the touching up of the emporium. It's the attention to detail like this that makes Disneyland so awesome.
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And a view from the rear of the fire truck:
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We both got to ring the bell ;)

Once we got off the fire engine we headed over to Space Mountain to grab fast passes. Since the line was still only about ten minutes we jumped on...hey might as well since we walked all the way up the hall! And for once the ride didn't break down while we were on it nor while in line. That's a rarity for me. Not sure what I was doing with my hands here...
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Dillon said many times during the day how different things are. Things are changing so fast around DLR that it feels so different...yet still home. It was great watching him rediscover his happy place.

Buzz had a short line so we jumped on there. Our picture was missing as were a lot of pictures. I heard a lot of grumbles of frustration after searching through page after page and many were not finding their photos.

We then headed over to Adventureland to ride Jungle Cruise but were told that an elephant had gone on a rampage and the ride would be open later after the mess was cleaned up. Of course they could not give any estimation on how long that would take. Indy was also closed so apparently the elephant was quite destructive. ;)
So we headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean. That was pretty much a walk on. We did a lot of indecisive talking. Neither of us are good at making decisions so try to get the other one to chose what to do next.

I can not remember what else if anything we did while in Disneyland before deciding to head across the way to DCA.

Rode one of the horseless carriages back down main street to head over to DCA. They had the gates so you could enter from both sides of the construction walls instead of just on the left. It was still pretty early and the park had not been open very long but it was past the mad dash at opening. We took the time to grab a few photos when we got in the always changing park.

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We headed over to get WoC fastpasses. We got in the Yellow Section. Since we were near it we decided to look around the Redwood Creek Challenge area. I'd read Al Lutz's note that some of the themeing would be removed from that area after this weekend. I'm not quite sure still what it is that is being removed. Oh well.

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What he was looking at:
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I didn't manage to get it on video or a picture of it but it was quite funny...Dillon went on one of the slides in the Redwood area and FLEW out. He almost missed the soft landing area completely. Just shot out across the way. It was hilarious but happened so fast I couldn't get the camera out. But I learned...

So from there we headed over to Paradise Pier checking out TLM ride construction and such on the way. Dillon managed to get a few photos. We rode the Zephyr more for the views than anything.

Souvenir shop theming work:
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The WoC platform was up all day with workers kicking back out there:
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I wonder what he was playing on his phone?
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There were tons of workers in the area between TLM and GSS
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He also took video on the ride:
YouTube - View from Golden Zephyr at DCA April 22, 2011

We then walked around through Maliboomer “park” area toward my favorite ride.

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I hate pictures of myself but...here I am happy to have my favorite person with me in line for my favorite ride.
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Of course Dillon beat me by a lot but that's okay. I still love him. ;) It's not his fault I'm a terrible shot.
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We then single rider lined Screamin' I went first and tried to grab a picture of him as he came into the station on the next train. Not a great job...he's the one behind the pole :lol: oopsy
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I do like one of the shots I got of him coming down the stairs tho:
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We then went over to Pacific Wharf and got tortillas and bread. No photos though. The last time I was in the park was when I went for my birthday. I'd pinned the birthday pin to my landyard thingy with my pass holder and so ended up still having the pin with me. I'd taken it off in the morning when I saw it was on there but had just stuffed it into the side of the backpack. Figuring what the heck...we happen to know someone I won't name who has made April their birthday MONTH and celebrating all month so why can't I get a couple extra minutes besides the one day? So I put it back on long enough to get a package of tortillas. There were only three tortillas in the bag. I remember back when you'd get a full dozen or even more if you were lucky. And of course it was corn they were handing out. Do they ever hand out the flour ones anymore?? Oh well beggars can't be choosers.

From here we decided to walk through Bugs Land and into Hollywoodland. We considered seeing Aladdin but drphibes finally got there then and didn't want to see it so we left the line to go meet up with him. He'd just come from breakfast and then upgrading his pass so he don't have to worry about it on gumball day.
Once Dom was there we did some more indecisiveness. All three of us are quite bad at making decisions or taking the lead. Not a great thing as a team. Oops.
He decided he wanted to check out Redwood since he too had seen the note and hadn't been in there in years. So the three of trekked back across DCA to the Redwood area. Took some more photos over there and got Dom to try the slide but this time I was ready.
Please excuse the annoying laughter....
YouTube - Dominick plop from DCA slide

Inside the theater area from afar (it was blocked off):
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Around that area:
This fish amused me:
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Turtle!
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So then they decided to get me on the tower of terror. That is not exactly a favorite of mine and I have to apologize to the people on the ride with me ahead of time for my foul mouth. There is a word that starts with the letter “s” that I scream the entire time on that ride while turning my hands white from holding on so tight.
The guy in front of us hid Dillon boooooo. Both guys enjoyed my terror.
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We headed back over to Disneyland and discovered they were doing some filming and had two of the soundsational floats out. By this time they seemed to be almost done or taking a break or something and there was no place where we could really see well as they were making everyone keep walking. So we kept walking but I put the camera in Dillon's hand and said get anything if you can.
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We got in line on the fantasyland side for Matterhorn and Dillon ran off to get us all fastpasses. While he was gone the floats came RIGHT there by us. But of course HE had the camera so I was thinking some not very nice things but did try to get a couple photos with my stupid phone.
Twitpic - Share photos and videos on Twitter
Twitpic - Share photos and videos on Twitter
Twitpic - Share photos and videos on Twitter
Twitpic - Share photos and videos on Twitter
Twitpic - Share photos and videos on Twitter
Twitpic - Share photos and videos on Twitter

Meanwhile Dillon managed to grab a tiny bit of video from near IASW:
YouTube - skybluefusion's Channel

So eventually he rejoined us and the three of us got on Matterhorn. Dillon still had the camera and got some random shots I quite like:
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Before boarding though he handed me the cam to put away and instead I played with it. Here's an actually pretty good shot of drphibes:
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Dillon is a man of mystery:
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He was enjoying the ride...Dillon happy makes me happy
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Laughing at me for one reason or another:
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We hit Fantasyland and road on toad. This is why I need to let Dillon do the photographing...when I try I get stuff like this:
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Oh hello!
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This one worked tho!
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So we then headed back to use our Roger Rabbit fastpasses.
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Dillon doing some kind of dance?
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Everyone has at least one picture of this pose:
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I think it was at this point we stopped for lunch. It is hard to remember. We ate at the Village Haus but I did not take any photos during this time. I had the child's pizza and it like exploded on me. It was fine and then half way through I went to take a bite and sauce was EVERYWHERE. I had it on my glasses, on my shirt, on my lap, on the table, and where ever else was near me. The guys just looked at me like I was insane when they looked over and saw me trying to clean pizza sauce off stuff. The boys enjoyed their lunches but I do not remember what they had...I think Dom had some sort of salad thing and Dillon some sort of sandwhich thing. We were able to use the coupons they had in the time schedules that day to get like 25% off or whatever it was which helped.
Once done eating we sat there in the restaurant with my notebook and the park maps and did some basic rough strategizing for gumball rally.
I don't remember if we rode anything else while in Disneyland but Dom needed his ride on Monsters so we had to go back to DCA
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Someone get this girl a hairbrush or at least a hat!
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The “we're cool” uplook:
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Follow the sign:
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Dillon pointed out this sticker on the side of the cab that's amusing but I couldn't get close enough before the cab took off:
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Tried again and don't know what this is? Floor?
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Third times a charm or so they say...and it might have been if not for Dom's dang knee!
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I continued to play with the camera throughout the ride:
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These indecisive llamas then kind of took up residence on the bench outside the ride for snack time and to add clothes as the temp had dropped. And to try to figure out what the heck we were doing next.
The camera was passed around and played with. Dominic decided to photograph the exploding backpack:
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Which snack do you want? At least make THAT decision!
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huh? What?
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My back itched. Dom didn't like the view
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We be confused
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We are confused by Dillon's height
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Seriously Dillon why are you so high above us?!
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So we walked back through bugs land to check out blue sky cellar
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Dillon is creepily trying to get a photo of the three of us I think:
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Aha finally inside:
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So many details
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I stole the camera while Dillon was checking out details
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No wonder Dom left early...he lost the top of his head
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Uh what?
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This wasn't so bad
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Then Dillon took the camera away from me
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I have no idea what's going on in this picture or which of us took it
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Then Dom decided to go out to his car for his jacket and was supposed to come right back but then apparently got a better offer and dumped us. He did come back for a hug good bye before going to meet someone somewhere else. Oh the curses of having an actual social life. While waiting for him to find us for goodbye we saw a kitty hiding and enjoying a nap behind the train
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Now without Dom we went to the bakery and Dillon got a huge cinnamon roll and I got a NOT so awesome strawberry kiwi hot tea. The warmed cinnamon roll was good. It was time to head over to WoC. As soon as they let the crowds in we were ready. He chose the wet zone. We enjoyed the cinnamon roll and tea while we waited and talked to the family standing next to us and the two small boys were with a family who were standing behind us and let the small kids stand in front of us as long as they agreed to turn off their annoying flashing necklaces for the show.
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Eventually the show started and all were wowed. After that we headed back into Disneyland with everyone else. We didn't take any more pictures after the show though. We used the shops to help get down Main street since the fireworks were just ended and the mass crush toward the gates had begun.

Some other pictures from that day:

Space Mountain:
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Walking toward Thunder:
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Intersting shot of thunder
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And I leave you with one last example of why the technicolor llamas should have been called the CONFUSED llamas
YouTube - DSCN5803

So there....the trip report I promised to write last month is finally done and posted! Ta-Da!