UPDATE: We finally have pictures!

Wednesday 3/17/10 was the kick off of our whirlwind tour of the Southwest. We had a good indication that the trip was going to go well when we arrived at LAX (me from SFO and Louisa and Neva from BOS) within 5 minutes of each other at adjacent gates - a serendipitous start to be sure!

After car rental (a Yaris, not our favorite, but at least no “acceleration issues”) we headed south to Anaheim and the Doubletree Disneyland, which ended up being a great hotel - not that we were there all that much.

Following a good but short night’s sleep we woke to a sunny 80 degree LA day and headed to Disneyland for breakfast with Minnie Mouse and friends. Neva finally realized where we were going when we pulled into the parking lot and her first question was “Mommy, do they have roller coasters here?” (more on that later...). We made a quick stop to pick up supplies, consisting of ears and an autograph book and headed to breakfast. Watching Neva’s reaction to the characters was fun, though she was a little shy. In an attempt to record something profound for posterity, Louisa “interviewed” Neva on camera and asked her what her favorite part of the park was so far and Neva replied “the sausage is really good!” which, of course, cracked us up.

The remainder of the morning consisted of a walk through Fantasyland, with stops at Peter Pan, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, the Teacups (twice), Pinocchio and Alice in Wonderland. We gave Neva the choice of waiting two hours to meet the princesses or riding roller coasters. True to form, she chose excitement over dresses and bows, which meant that we were off to the Matterhorn. This was her first “adult” ride and she passed with flying colors.

Next up, we moved to Tomorrowland to check out Nemo, Autopia and Buzz Lightyear (reminiscent of, but better than the Pharaoh ride at Legoland). Following that was my personal favorite moment of the day - our ride on Space Mountain. Being a pretty substantial coaster for a four-year-old and being in the dark, we weren’t sure how Neva would react. Sitting next to her going over the first drop and hearing start to laugh was probably the highlight of my day!

Not wanting to slow down a bit, Neva led on as we visited the Tiki Room and the Jungle Cruise. Then it was time for what quickly became Neva’s favorite ride, Thunder Mountain Railroad. After that we all enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean and I was glad to see that the updates to reflect the movies didn’t detract from the classic scenes we all love.

Finally it was time to stop for dinner, but following that we were back to Thunder Mountain (almost twice), on to a quick stop at Pixie Hollow and then it was time to enjoy the fireworks. It was quite a good show and overall a great day but after 13 hours we were all ready to call it a night and head back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep.