Chapter 93
The Best Food

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(Originally posted November 5, 2013)

Although we hadn’t really planned on paying for a snack this afternoon, the fact that we hadn’t bought any merchandise made us eager to get something fun to commemorate the day. We went into Candy Palace and had a look around.

We asked the cast member about those Mike Wazowski Cake Pops, and she told us they were only going to be there for one day, so if we wanted one, we should get one. In reality, she was totally wrong about that, and they were around all summer, but at the time, we believed her.

Even though it was the same price for this little Cake Pop as for the usual big ones, we decided as a Monstrous Summer treat, we would pay the price.

The Cake Pop was (luckily) really delicious. There was already no seating outside the Refreshment Corner—I’m telling you, the park was very suddenly getting busy—so we took a seat on the edge of the platform housing the Ragtime piano. The dense cake actually made for a pretty filling snack, so we were satisfied.

By this point, it was actually time for us to leave Disneyland. We weren’t going far, but we had places to go. On the way out, Tracy took this picture and Instagrammed/Tweeted it with the hashtag #jasonindisney per a contest that one of our Liner friends was running. This information will be important in the future, so stow it away in your brains.

We walked over to the Grand Californian because we were about to go to another Touring Plans Lines meet. This one was actually being held in a room at the Grand because Touring Plans staffer Guy had gotten a hotel room for the night. We were excited because we had spent hours and hours in the lobby of the Grand Californian without ever seeing what one of the rooms looked like.

When we got to the lobby, we were early for the meet, so we sat by the fire for a little bit to kill some time.

When it was time to head up, we didn’t really know where we were supposed to go. Luckily, we saw Guy’s wife Jen as we got out of the elevator, so we walked with her to the room, since she knew where we were going. Arriving at the meet, there were probably more than 10 people crammed into the hotel room. We had already met Naomi and Guy, but there were several new faces as well. David, another Touring Plans staffer, introduced himself, and we chatted for a few minutes with Naomi’s boyfriend Ken. Prolific Disney photographer Tom Bricker also showed up for a bit. Other than that, we were never really properly introduced to the other people there because they were already in the midst of conversations when we showed up. They were all excited about the event, and many of them planned to stay all night.

The room in the Grand was quite well-adorned, but it WAS just a hotel room, so I can’t imagine us ever finding a reason to shell out $500 per night to stay there. I think it was technically a Garden View room, so we could see the courtyard and the pool from the nice little balcony.

I would have taken pictures of the room itself, but it felt a little too awkward when surrounded by people we didn’t really know.

We stayed at the meet for more than an hour, and it was a lot of fun. Again, it was nice to actually talk Disney with people who really GET Disney. One topic we all focused on were the special food items that were available for the day. Guy had already tried a few of them, but the one he was most excited for was also the one we NEEDED to eat. We actually left the meet around 6:00 because it was getting to be close to dinnertime and we had to get to the restaurant before it got too busy.

We made our way back to the Esplanade and saw the crush of people waiting to get back into the parks.

Luckily, the lines were moving decently fast, and we got in after about 10 minutes. We headed straight back to Plaza Inn.

Of course, if you haven’t guessed by now, the special food we were waiting to try was Fried Chicken and Waffles.

That’s right. Plaza Inn Fried Chicken and Mickey Waffles. PLAZA INN FRIED CHICKEN and MICKEY WAFFLES. I just don’t know how to drive my point home about how excited we were for this meal.

Look at it. Doesn’t it look heavenly? Well it tasted even better than it looks. Hands down, I think this was the best meal we have ever eaten on a Disney property. It. Was. Amazing. I can’t believe they haven’t added it as a permanent menu item at Plaza Inn yet because it was SO popular too.

Eventually, the food was gone (which made us very sad in spite of the fact that we were both full to bursting). The crowds were starting to get a little overwhelming, and we decided it was time for us to leave. So we headed out of the park just as the thousands of people getting off work were coming in to spend the night.

It sounds like this all-nighter was MUCH more organized than One More Disney Day and actually went off without any hitches, but I’m still glad we didn’t try to stay. Those sardine-can crowds just aren’t for us (which is why I doubt we’ll ever go to the parks on Christmas Day or New Year’s Eve). We had gotten a taste of the Monstrous All-Nighter even though we were only in the parks for about four hours. And now we could go home, pack, and get some rest because we had to wake up at the crack of dawn the next morning to head to the airport.

May 25-31, 2013

Saturday morning, we flew out early. It was the first time we had ever flown out of John Wayne, and we LOVED this airport. First of all, it takes less than 10 minutes to get there from our home—which is simply amazing when compared to any other airport we’ve ever had to frequent. Secondly, it just feels really quaint. Everyone there is so friendly and all the processes are so efficient. Perhaps our favorite thing is when they announce over the loudspeaker that “someone left such-and-such item at security, so please come back and claim it if it’s yours.” I feel like at bigger airports they can never afford to be that personal.

We flew Frontier this morning, which was fine. They are one of the airlines that has started to really cut back on amenities, so it’s not the greatest experience, but there’s nothing horrible about it either. One thing that we didn’t love (which isn’t airline-specific) is the special takeoff procedure required when flying out of John Wayne. As a noise-reduction measure, you have to take off at a much steeper angle and then turn around over the ocean before starting in the right direction. We felt a little like we were riding Mission: SPACE as we experienced the steep takeoff, and we were glad when we finally made it to a cruising altitude.

Landing in CO, Tracy’s parents were there to meet us at the airport. On the way to Boulder, we saw this Hidden Mickey on the side of a building. It was as though a piece of our new home had followed us back to our old home.

It was great being back in Colorado. The air just felt cleaner and we loved seeing our mountains. But of course, we were MOST excited to see this face.

Stupey Doodle, we love you!!!

We just couldn’t stop taking pictures of her.

When we first got to CO, it was Memorial Day weekend, so Tracy didn’t have to go to work until Tuesday. We had wanted to go to Boulder for Memorial Day because the annual Boulder Creek Festival is always a really fun time. Picture a huge street fair, but instead of being on the street, it’s held along the banks of Boulder Creek. There are hundreds of vendors, lots of live music, and the whole city seems to turn out for the event.

We went over on Sunday and met up with my dad for a while at the Festival. While walking around with him, we passed by this sign that made me laugh. Again, Disney had followed us here.

We watched part of a concert by FACE—a local a cappella group we had followed in high school—and then Tracy wanted to try to find a thumb ring from one of the vendors. After looking around for a while, we found this booth, and Tracy liked the ring and the story behind it.