Chapter 115
You Don’t Look a Day Over 57

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(Originally posted December 3, 2013)

We took our desserts over to the edge of the island and sat along the wall that separates the walkway from the private beaches.

Both of us LOVED our selections. I can only speak for mine, but it was DELICIOUS. And the views as we ate simply couldn’t be beat. The sun was setting, and Balboa Island was absolutely beautiful.

After we finished eating, we decided to walk around the island. The houses along the waterfront are SO nice. We correctly assumed that they were also some of the most expensive homes in the whole country, ranging from $4 million for a “scraper” up to $16 million for some of the gorgeous homes with views like this.

One house had this giant dinosaur outside of it, so Tracy took a picture with him.

As if their homes weren’t ritzy enough, almost every single homeowner along the island also had boats, which ranged from little schooners all the way up to multi-million dollar yachts.

We rounded a bend so that we were facing due west as the sun finally sank behind the horizon. The views were spectacular.

After the sun finished setting, we found ourselves rounding a corner onto the other side of the island.

Bird!

We kept walking all the way around until we had done a full circle of the island’s perimeter.

I think it took about an hour from start to finish, but it was a lovely walk, and we were totally won over by Balboa Island. We declared that it would be the sort of place we’d happily come to every week to take a walk at dusk.

We walked back past the banana stand again on the way to the car, and then we headed home.

July 17, 2013

The next day was Disneyland’s 58th birthday, so we knew we needed to head to the parks to celebrate after work.

We arrived at a relatively busy park and walked down Main Street. Tracy was wearing her full Wendy homage outfit, complete with her bow and her new Hot Topic tank top.

Walking straight back to Plaza Inn, we ordered ourselves some Fried Chicken. Now, when we got the chicken and waffles on the 24-hour day, Tracy had loved dipping her chicken in the syrup that came with the meal—she’s become a little addicted to syrup ever since we started going to Bruxie, and in essence, has turned into Buddy the Elf.

She actually asked the cast member working at Plaza Inn if there was any chance they had any syrup from breakfast that they would give her to eat with her chicken. I was convinced the cast member would say no, but instead, she went on a mission into the kitchen to look for some. Eventually, she came out with a couple little containers full of syrup just for Tracy.

We sat inside at Plaza for the first time since eating here for breakfast a couple years ago, and we loved the ceiling and the atmosphere.

Of course, we loved the food too. Plaza Inn Fried Chicken continues to always be delicious.

While we ate, we noticed that one of the cast members, a busser named Moses, was really going above and beyond with all the guests he was interacting with. Whether chatting with people about what they were planning to do for the rest of their day or offering to go get guests to-go cups so that they could refill their drinks and take them into the parks, he was a prime example of a fantastic cast member. We made a mental note to fill out a card for him at Guest Relations, and we also went back to find out the name of the gal who had gotten Tracy her syrup (Katie) so we could fill out one for her as well. The staff at the Plaza were killing it tonight!

We decided that our plan for the evening was going to be to ride as many opening-day attractions as possible to best recreate the experience of being here on July 17th, 1955. First, we headed back to Fantasyland and rode Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.