Happy Post-Disney Halloween! – Stallion Cornell

Or Happy Holidays, if you’re as cranky as I am.

Trick or treating tonight was fun. My 10 year-old girl was a gypsy; my eight-year-old girl was a kitty; my twin boys were Zorro and the Human Torch, respectively. My two-year old stayed home after he refused to put on his lion costume. He ate a lot of candy anyway. Like he didn’t eat enough junk food over the past three days.

Getting back into real life after a vacation just sucks out loud. Everything’s piled up. The real world is mad at you for leaving. And to top it off, the Moist Board is down, and my hosting service hasn’t fixed it. I’m still working on it, guys. We’ll get there. (UPDATE: It’s up! Hooray!)

Disney’s California Adventure was a very clean, fun amusement park, but it’s no Disneyland. The rides are a bit more aggressive – they have a genuine roller coaster, for instance, which is something Disneyland doesn’t really have. And no, Space Mountain doesn’t count – it’s cool, but if you turned the lights on, there wouldn’t be much to recommend it. There isn’t even a decent drop off, for heaven’s sake! Compared to California Screamin’, it’s a walk in the park.

The water ride was fun; I really liked Tower of Terror, and Soaring Over California was a revelation. It may be the best ride in either park. One of my twins hated it, though. He also hated Star Tours. He feels ripped off by simulators. He wants to move, dag nab it!

Now, actually, I understand why Disneyland remains essentially static. Nobody wants to see a drastic update. It’s the nostalgia that sells it, so even though the technology is somewhat stale and the thrill rides aren’t there, nobody complains. All the new stuff is over at California Adventure, and nobody cares. Magic Mountain, the other big amusement park I frequented growing up in So Cal, is closing down, despite its bigger and better thrill rides year after year after year. You want roller coasters with big drops and loop-de-loops? Go to Primm, Nevada and don’t bother with Disney. That’ll keep the lines shorter at Pirates of the Caribbean.

That’s all for now. When I can get back in the swing of things, I’ll get more verbose. Right now, all I can think about is the seeming eternity before I get another vacation again.