Disneyland Day Two

We decided to call it a day even before Disneyland had closed and this was a very good decision. As the day wore on I realized the blister on my foot had developed into a blood blister. I had basically gritted my teeth all day long but as we boarded one of the last rides I had to take off my sneaker. I looked at the blister which certainly did manifest itself into a blood blister that wasn’t very pretty. My foot hurt all day long but I was not going to let this detract from all the fun everyone had. I couldn’t wait to get to the hotel where I could rest my foot. We departed Disneyland and headed over to the hotel where I was able to rest my foot. Instead of going out for dinner we decided it would be better just to get take out from the nearby Outback Restaurant.

While we were waiting for the dinner my wife performed some “surgery” on my blood blister. We both thought the best course of action would be to drain the blood out of the blister so with needle cauterized my wife did just that! Thankfully, my mother and the children were downstairs in the lobby to not witness the “surgery”. As soon as the blood (sorry for the descriptive story!) was drained my foot started to feel infinitely better and I would be ready for Day 2 at Disneyland. The rest of the evening we just lounged around the very nice room and everyone was fast asleep very early.

The early morning came and I decided it would be much better if I didn’t work out even though I had planned to workout. My foot was feeling better but I didn’t want to do any further damage and I have to get myself ready for next week’s marathon. These things do happen and I think because I had favored one leg over the other and I had walked differently my legs were sore in places they had not been sore before. Yes, I have to be ready for the marathon next week but I can’t do any more damage to my foot or legs. Strangely five years ago when I ran this marathon my knee had all types of problems leading up to the marathon and I couldn’t finish. I certainly want to finish and barring any unforeseen catastrophes I will finish and hopefully within my goal time. I have put in the necessary training and making sure my legs and feet are in order is a much better course of action then to continue training. Anyhow I would get in more walking today which is not going to diminish my endurance.

Everyone was awake early but the one day incentive of Disneyland had lasted exactly that! My daughter needed prodding but we were on our way over to California Adventure for a fun filled Day Two. We once again hit all the popular rides and my son continues to be a conundrum with the rides. He would have nothing to do with the big roller coaster but did go on the ride that shoots you 10 stories in the air and then drops you those same 10 stories.

The big story of the day was the fact that the rides kept breaking down. We were in line for the Toy Story attraction and there was some sort of technical difficulty. The real issue came when my son, daughter and I were in line for the Tower of Terror attraction. At first my son was all for going on this ride but his sister had actually expressed some trepidation and started to talk about the ride. All my son had to hear was that it was very dark in this particular ride and his angst grew as we approached the attraction. As we were about to get in line he asked me to step across the street as he had “something to ask me.” He then proceeded to tell me that he didn’t want to go on the ride because he was scared.

This wasn’t bad enough until he went into full “meltdown mode” with tears and everything. I talked to him for awhile and somehow convinced him to get in line and go on the ride. All was well but my son wasn’t fully convinced as we waited. We got inside the attraction and were about to board the ride when we were alerted to evacuate. I thought this was part of the attraction but as we approached the exit it became apparent that something had happened to cause a malfunction on the ride. Apparently power was lost and everyone had to vacate the premise. I couldn’t believe this was happening especially knowing how much I wanted my son to go on the ride. I kept shaking my head and I think my son was breathing a huge sigh of relief. I knew there was a very small window of opportunity to get my son on the ride and as we departed that window had closed. I felt so bad because I knew once my son got on the ride I knew he would have loved it but this was not meant to be. I almost convinced him to go back on the ride but there was too much time in between and he would have no part of this.

We did return to the “Tower of Terror” since my daughter really wanted to go on this and somehow we convinced my wife to join us. My wife is NOT a big ride person and does not go on any of the “scary” attractions. The “Tower of Terror” is certainly one of those “scary” attractions but there she was side by side waiting in line. The real fun came as we boarded the ride and I thought my wife was either going to have a heart attack or have an accident in her pants as the ride progressed!!! The ride is based on the premise of a plummeting elevator and it is not for the faint of heart. I think it drops something like a 100 feet and I did literally come out of my seat. As we were plummeting my wife’s legs were shaking beyond belief and she kept saying, “Oh my God” to the point where I thought she was going to weep. She did manage to survive but she wasn’t going back for an encore!! I had a very large smile on my face and my daughter was very excited about the ride as well. It was a very fun day and in spite of the potential setbacks all went well through and through.

As we completed our tour of California Adventure we headed over to Disneyland to conclude our visit. I was very surprised to see how crowded Disneyland had become as California Adventure had closed. We waited a very long time for a very disappointing “Peter Pan’s Flight” ride and after trying to board a few other attractions we decided it was time to head home. Disney had a tough day today because at least four attractions suffered some type of technical difficulty but in spite of all that we had a wonderful time and the fact I was able to be with my family means the world to me!!