Two days at Disneyland

We learned a couple of years ago to rent a hotel room right next to Disneyland or to rent a hotel within Disneyland (like at The California experience). However, oftentimes you have to rent the ones in the Califofornia experience weeks or months ahead of time depending upon when you rent. Our first experience was at the Carousel which was adequate for coming back to during the heat of the day in Spring, Summer or Fall and you can walk easily from Disneyland to your hotel. This time we stayed for two days at one of the Marriotts nearby as Carousel was already filled up. Besides, we were able to stay for free at Marriotts for two days because we had enough points saved up from staying in other Marriotts Hotels already this year Everywhere from Seattle to Portland to other places in California.

So, it was kind of nice to stay for free like when you get a free flight somewhere of airline miles like last year to South Korea Business Class for me by myself.

Disneyland without your kids or grand kids is a completely different experience. You don't have the responsibility and so you are able to be more of a kid when you go just with your wife or girlfriend. So, my wife and I were really happy to go this time since her knee replacement surgery and my burst appendix this year. In the spring my wife didn't think I would survive to ever go to Disneyland ever again. But, here we are.

For me, I bought a hat for the 60th anniversary of Disneyland because I actually went the first time in 1955 with my mother and have been back about 40 times since then. Most of these times were before I was 30 to 35. It says "Disneyland" 60th Anniversary. We were also there for my son's graduation from College which was a perfect time in Disneyland (there aren't to many perfect times anywhere) in 2010.

In places like Japan people often think of places like Disneyland as a pure land or heaven realm. In some ways for a lot of people it doesn't get much better than Disneyland. So, I was thinking today, Disneyland is almost some kind of Universal religious experience for many people.

As we were walking out after about 5 hours there today(sort of our limit in our 60s at this point) we noticed people in full Halloween dress as characters from various Disney movies like Snow White (the 7 dwarves) one family dress up with with white beards. And various other characters. At first we didn't know what was going on when we first saw two older ladies dressed up one as Cruela De Ville and one dressed up as the "Little Mermaid" as Ariel with red hair. They were so immaculately dressed it was Hollywood style so we wondered what was going on. It turns out that some or all days in October, there is a separate price for a costume party they do many nights in Disneyland during October. But, having been raised in the sort of Hollywood atmosphere of Los Angeles County it did seem fitting that people in costume were so perfectly outfitted as various characters from Disney productions. It was very entertaining.

Though I don't live in Glendale which is right next to Hollywood and Burbank anymore, I still remember the amazing times cruising Hollywood Blvd. and Sunset Strip in Street racers  Friday and Saturday nights when all that was still legal to do when I was in High School in the mid 1960s.

If you can imagine "American Graffitti" in Hollywood instead of Merced or Modesto then you can imagine what it was like then.

When I was 21 in 1969, Disneyland was a pretty safe place to go dancing to bands like Gladys Knight and the Pips and others who were playing often in Tomorrowland then on Friday and Saturday nights. So, taking a girlfriend there was fairly safe and no liquor is served there so you didn't have to worry much about your date getting scared or something. And also, Disneyland has always had a lot of security on hand for events.