Chapter 141
Home for Halloween

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(Originally posted February 14, 2014)

Saturday was our departure date from CO, and I’ll be honest: we weren’t really too sad to be leaving the state behind us after this visit.

Tracy and I stopped at one of the local microbreweries in Boulder and tried our their fall special, a “pumpkin pie” ale with a dollop of whipped cream on top.

We were drinking it when this grasshopper (or is it a cricket?) suddenly fell from above and landed on our table. We decided he seemed friendly enough, so we just photographed him and let him be.

The transformation at Tracy’s parents’ house was amazing after the fans had totally dried out the basement. It looked totally unrecognizable as the same place we had been staying and had to evacuate, but we were glad that almost everything had gotten salvaged.

In fact, they had to do so little work that the small stipend provided by their home insurance actually covered almost all the damage.

As we prepared to leave, we didn’t really know when we’d be back (we knew we couldn’t really come back to CO until the basement had been refinished and re-carpeted, for instance), but we were okay with that. We’d actually spent about a month in Colorado between our August and September trips, so we were ready to be home in CA for a while.

At the airport, we realized there was a Wolfgang Puck Express in our terminal, and Tracy and I got the Four Cheese Pesto Pizza we’ve read such positive reviews about from the Frumps going to the restaurant at WDW. It was like a slice of Disney right in the Denver airport, and we felt like it was a great way to usher in our trip back to Disneyland.

Tracy also insisted we get one of the giant pickles because she always wants one at Disneyland but can’t justify the price.

Our flight back to Orange County was also much less eventful than the one coming out had been, and we were very excited to make it home and sleep in our own bed after spending the better part of two weeks in hotels.

September 22, 2013

We got home on a Saturday, so of course Sunday had to be spent at Disneyland. Not only were we excited to be back in the parks in general, but Halloween Time had officially started while we were in CO, so we were ECSTATIC to go see everything.

Before heading to the parks, we had to make a stop at our friend Anna’s house because she’d had her baby while we were away. Here’s Tracy with baby Phoebe.

Once we left there, however, we went straight to Toy Story and parked. We liked the Cheshire Cat on this bus ad.

After heading through bag check, the glorious pumpkin heads greeted us from across the esplanade. These decorations are one of my favorite changes they make for Halloween.

We definitely were experiencing a sense of déjà vu as we entered Disneyland all decorated for this holiday. It looked almost identical to how it had on our first trip two years previous, but it was such a major change from the Disneyland we’d gotten used to visiting several times a week for the last six months.

When we first walked in, Ariel was doing a meet and greet in her brand new dress. I still can’t decide how I feel about most of the new princess looks, but I like the Ariel one in general.

We walked under the arches and were greeted by the sight of the giant Mickey pumpkin!

There was also Halloween bunting and pumpkins all over Town Square.

I love the Halloween Time logo.

Tracy and I decided to brave the line to take a picture with the pumpkin.

Next, we headed down Main Street.

The Market House hadn’t quite reopened yet, but it was going to any day now.

We booked it away from Main Street because the parade was about to start, and we went toward New Orleans Square instead. We had a hankering for some Pumpkin Beignets, but the line at the Mint Julep Bar was EXTREMELY long, so we decided to come back later. Instead, I took pictures of these lovely seasonal flowers by the train station.

Of course, since we’d been gone when it opened, our first stop had to be Haunted Mansion Holiday. As I think I’ve said, this incarnation comes in close to the top of Tracy’s list of all-time favorite attractions (and I really like it too), so we were excited to ride it again. We were also anxious to see what kinds of changes had been made in celebration of the overlay’s 13th anniversary.

The line was crazy, but we still had the GAC for another two weeks or so before the system was set to change over.