So it costs $83 to go to Disneyland. That's a lot. It's a magical place and all, but $83 is not cheap; Mickey and Minnie definitely aren't eating ramen noodles for dinner.

Costs aside, the Goob, the Sandra and I had fun on Sunday. We took the scenic route down to Anaheim (actually past Anaheim, back through Anaheim, and then back to Anaheim again) but arrived at the park before the crowds were too insane. A little Pirates of the Caribbean and Space Mountain later and all was well. We then headed over to the California Adventure part of the park, where the Tower of Terror sent my anxiety factor shooting skywards - I'm a total wuss when it comes to rides involving steep drops. To entertain ourselves in line we played "who's the weirdest dude here", and quickly found our winner, dubbed Freaky Frank. And of course, when they sat us down to go on the ride, Frank and I were sharing armrests; having anxiety AND having a weirdo staring at you are a great combination when you're about to be dropped twelve stories.

The day concluded at Big Thunder Mountain, which conveniently broke down as we were about to get on. The timing was actually pretty good, as we were all pretty tired and being stuck on a ride with animatronic squirrels for an hour probably would have reduced the magic factor somewhat. And speaking of magic factor, yeah, I high-fived Goofy.

This is the first year since 2002 that I'm not going to be in Antarctica during the Winter, and I'm going through a bit of withdrawal. Reading through my journal entry from this day two years ago, however, makes the withdrawal a bit easier to bear:

In the words of Shane, "What kind of shit have I gotten myself into now?" Winds are sustained at thirty-to-forty knots, waves are twelve-to-fifteen feet, and the boat is jumping like a Mexican bean. With the assistance of drugs my vision is horribly blurred but I'm not feeling ill, although several of the fellow passengers have been heaving forth with great gusto throughout the day. One thing they don't tell you about rough seas is that while walking around is very, very tough, using the bathroom is practically a gymnastic event.

Even with the threat of hideous seasickness it would be nice to be heading back again.