'I want Mickey Mouse'

When we arrived at our hotel in LA, Noah had his first taste of the whole Disney experience, as he was fascinated by a large statue of Mickey Mouse in reception. It was TOO cute when he woke up the first morning in the hotel and his first words uttered were ‘I want Mickey Mouse’. Well as we were planning a trip to Disneyland for the day, it was a request we could definitely comply with! We had enjoyed a walk around Downtown Disney the night before amongst all the hype and lights, and felt that we couldn’t miss the opportunity to experience Disneyland in all its splendour even if just for the day.




We are amazed by a Lego R2D2 and a bunch of yabbering monkeys on our jungle cruise

Vibrant colours on the Winnie the Pooh ride
It was a long day but a good day, Noah got to experience several rides, most of which scared him silly at the time but when we asked him after each one if he had enjoyed it, the answer was ‘yeah’. We went on the Jungle Cruise (twice), a Winnie the Pooh dream ride, the Pirates of the Caribbean (probably our favourite), Mr Toad’s Wild Ride through London, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Mummy/Daddy only!), Finding Nemo Submarine Adventure, Buzz LightYear’s AstroBlasters, and the gentler Railroad ride. We also got to watch a parade down main street which is all part of the Disneyland experience.




Noah plucks up courage to touch his first ever goat
We go underwater in search of Nemo  
Noah was most fascinated by seeing Mickey Mouse everywhere he went, all the paraphernalia meant sighting Mickey was a pretty regular occurence, and so the cry of the day was ‘another Mickey Mouse!’ When it came to meeting him in person however, he was a lot less sure…and got quite upset…funny boy.

The obligatory pose with Mickey....Noah is not too sure!

The Parade of Dreams...cheesy but oh so Disney!

O.I.A
We coined a new synonym for all the amusing things we saw whilst in America – short for ‘Only in America’. Mark, who had never set foot in the States before (I had been to Hawaii 9 years ago), felt that it really lived up to all his expectations of everything being completely larger than life. From the size of the cars, the brashness of the people whose favourite phrases seemed to be 'uh huh' and 'back up', the food and portion sizes, it just didn’t disappoint. I think he felt he was living in the movies for the two days we were there. We ate at the Red Robin Burger joint for lunch when we arrived and were amazed to see the bottomless Coke and Steak Fries just kept on coming. The last night we ate at Joe’s Crab Shack and seeing the waiting staff stop mid-service to do a rehearsed dance to ‘Wild Wild West’ was just classic.

The dining experience at Joe's Crab Shack

However much fun we had in America, it is so nice to now be in familiar surroundings with our dear family amongst the gorgeous spring blossoms. Noah has already bonded beautifully with Grandma & Grandad which is a delight to see, and bodes well for us all to create some wonderful memories over the next three weeks.



Noah wins the Find the Soldier in the Garden Game

....is amazed to find 'Poppa's Tartoes' loaded on a tractor halfway around the world, and enjoys a game of catch with Granddad


Below are a couple more blogs of our travel story and our slightly manic few days lead-up to the big trip.