A Surprise Visit to the Happiest Place on Earth

 One of the main reasons that Sarah wanted me to go on this trip is because she had something special planned for me, that had been in the works for months. Turns out that Sarah had been talking to Carlie Chatfield (now Westenskow) about taking me and her to Disneyland and California Adventure for free. I was totally in the dark about this, and I was literally in the dark, as Helen drove Sarah and I to Disneyland. I was in the dark because Sarah asked me to blindfold myself with my jacket, as well as put on earphones and listen to music so I would be disoriented on our drive to Anaheim. On the drive I thought we were heading to the beach, like somewhere in the south. So, yes, I was completely turned around. I had no idea where we were when Sarah told me to get out of the car and walked me to the front of the park with a jacket on my head. I started to realize where we were when I heard iconic Disney music being played in the background, and then Sarah told me to take the jacket off and there I was, at Disneyland and California Adventure.

We met Carlie and Chad at the entrance of the park, and that was when I knew how we were going to do this excursion. The first ride we went on and waited in line for was the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance “attraction.” Carlie was always hesitant about calling it a ride because of the parameters that it is set in. As we waited in line (probably our longest wait of the day), Carlie and Chad told us about the story behind Rise of the Resistance and told us that we would be experiencing something like no other. It was actually quite cool once we entered the building. It was like being captured by Nazis, and Sarah wasn’t having any of it. The woman that was part of the Imperial Order told us to stand in a straight line at attention, but Sarah said that we would never reveal the secrets of the resistance to them. The woman (who had a mask on) walked and got about a foot away from Sarah’s face and just stared daggers into Sarah. Sarah held her cool for about a minute, before she started laughing. In the attraction, the resistance did save us and took us through (sneakily) around the imperial base, until we found our way out. It was quite a cool ride.

We did a lot of other new things. For one, we went on Carlie’s favorite ride, one that she worked on for a long time before working at California Adventure: Pirates of the Caribbean. As always, it did not disappoint. And while we were there, they told me that we would be going to the Blue Bayou for dinner, a really prestigious restaurant that you need to reserve a seat for that is in the location of Pirates. I knew that would be special. We also looked at the gift store for pirates and saw a lot of pirate related merch as well as Disney related merch. We then did Tom Sawyer Island, which I had never done before.

We then decided to head to California Adventure. This is when I found out that Carlie meant business, because we beelined it to the entrance of that theme park and all the rides therein. Some new rides is we went on the Spider-man ride on Avenger’s Campus which is a virtual ride where you can pretend to have your own webslingers. That was really fun. I would go on that again in a heartbeat, especially since we did single rider line on that. Sarah and I went single rider on the Cars ride, which was a really fun adventure ride. I especially loved racing the other car around the canyon. We then went on the Little Mermaid ride. Nice and laid back. After eating some Italian, we went to Carlie’s ride that she works on: Toy Story Mania. This is another virtual ride where we sit and play some fun carnival games. It was definitely worth getting to the front of the line with Carlie’s leverage that she has. The line was uber long, and Carlie laughed when I suggested that we wait in line for her ride. We wanted to go on the Incredicoaster, but it was down for maintenance pretty much the whole day we were there until we needed to leave.

However, I did convince Sarah to do the Guardian’s of the Galaxy: Mission Break-out ride with me. It was a really cool experience because Sarah was already scared to go on the ride, but then we bumped into a Mexican family and specifically the daughter of the family. She was also very scared to do this “tower of terror” but extremely excited as well because she absolutely loves the Guardians. This gave Sarah a nice little distraction as we prepared to board the ride. The girl was shaking and Sarah did her best to help her calm down before and after the ride. The ride was really fun, and Sarah and I locked elbows 100% of the time. It was a blast. Dropping down rides are always a sensation indescribable.

After California Adventure, we high-tailed it back to the Blue Bayou. The atmosphere was very inviting and peaceful. The food was good. Sarah and I got a salad to share. The food was good and our waiting staff was great.

The Westenskow’s departed us after going on the Jungle Cruise.

We then met Sarah’s mom and spent our time in Fantasyland while chatting with her about our day. Finally, we ended our day in the Hall of the Presidents and watched the video about Abraham Lincoln.

I had a great time that day. The surprise was more than I could expect.