Greetings...From Southern California

Hans and Pam weren't able to get away for spring break this year. Also, this is the first year TCU spring break coincided with LISD spring break. Thus, the Voorn brothers had a possible spring break plan. After Evan got his cast removed on Wednesday, and Ian returned from his other trips, why not go to California, stay with relatives, and visit Disneyland? A plan indeed.

During the off season for Disneyland, they offer a 2 for 1 deal for SoCal residents, where you can visit both Disneyland and California Adventure for the price of 1 ticket. So all Aunt Josi had to do was buy tickets for me and Evan and we're in! We decided to get Disneyland's underachieving younger brother out of the way first, so California Adventure it was.

We learned a lot about California in this park. Apparently the state wants to keep things like earthquakes, forest fires, and L.A. riots on the down low, and instead advertise redwood forests, movie studios, and the Santa Monica Pier. There were some decent roller coasters in the pier section of the park, one in particular called the "Mali-Boomer" (haha). That's it at right. The ride sends you up in the air super fast without notice, and then you free fall. It was a great spot for photos, and the Voorn brothers had a blast up top:

There were other good rides, like a virtual reality type thing where it looks like you're flying over California. And we went to an awesome Muppet 3D show (who doesn't love the Muppets?). Evan had never been on *real* roller coasters before (excluding Space Mountain 6 years prior), so he had a blast on these.

Another ride we only did once was Big Grizzly Mountain or something. It was basically a tube ride with lots of water and rapids. Evan got soaked, as you can see by the photo, whereas I remained mostly dry. However, doing it in the hot California sun at 2pm, we dried off quickly.

Day Two: Disneyland

We got to Disneyland just after opening time of 9am and headed on the usual Voorn family Disney route, which means go counterclockwise and start in Adventureland. Our first ride of the day was the Jungle Cruise, one of my favorites and my dream job to be a cruise ship operator. They don't carry guns anymore to shoot the charging hippos, though. PETA put a stop to that I guess.

We did the regulars of Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, The Tarzan Treehouse (Swiss Family Robinson now homeless I see), and the Haunted Mansion. My absolute favorite ride EVER is Pirates of the Caribbean, and this was even before they made a movie with Johnny Depp.

This FastPass thing that Disney does now works rather well. Basically, you sign up for a time to ride and it cuts your wait time down drastically. On Splash Mountain, we chose to ride singly, since the raft (log) is a 5 seater, 5 seats in individual rows. And that was better than waiting 2 hours, which is what it was at the peak. There's the mountain below, and the view from my raft as it crested the big drop.

We rode the monorail, visited Mickey's Toontown briefly (not really for boys aged 21 and 12), and vowed to skip "It's a Small World." If that song gets in your head - and it will - it can be deadly. The only ride we did in Fantasyland was the venerable classic, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Evan, having been born in the 90s, I guess was too young to know what movie the characters came from.

I had to pose with Mr. Toad's stone likeness. The other good character name is "Angus MacBadger." How Scottish.

Our cousin Alex showed up around 3. He lives in Lakewood, very close to the house that I grew up in. Even though he lives so close, he doesn't make it over to Disneyland every day, this having been his first time since last summer. We rode Splash Mountain again, did Pirates again, and a few other rides. Evan was jonesing to do the Autopia cars, whereas Alex and I (ages 20 and 21) thought cars that go 6.5 miles per hour really isn't a thrill after having a real license. We did it anyway, Ian driving in front of Alex and Evan and snapping photos/driving all at the same time. Multitasking.

Evan still crashed into me as we were nearing the end of the track. Alex was scared for his life, I'm sure. Even though the Autopia freeways are nice and slow, it still could be dangerous to take cell phone calls. I did, though.

The last thing we did for the day was ride Pirates of the Caribbean one last time. What a ride... the 1960s era animatronics will never get old. Afterward, I needed proof of my visit by taking a picture with one of the pirate wenches, Imean, ride operators.

But the kicker was...he had a HOOK for a hand!

So that's pretty much it. I'm out of pictures. What a trip, though. All three were amazing. Now beat that, I dare ya.

Miami New Orleans