“The Happiest Place On Earth”

Day 324

With Easter just around the corner I am reminded of the time me and my family took a trip to California (in April 1981) to visit my dad’s nephew Dave Case, his wife Sue and their family. We traveled to California with my dad’s brother Dwayne (Dave’s father) and his wife Betty. At the time my mom was pregnant with Jordan, so in a way he was a part of this vacation.

For me, there was only one thing I was really excited about with this trip, and that was to go to “The Happiest Place On Earth” …none other than... Alcatraz!! Just kidding! I’m actually referring to Disneyland!

At the time I was only 5, so my memories of the trip to California and Disneyland are a bit sketchy; fortunately, there are pictures to help stir up the memories I do have.

Mom and Aunt Betty with Jaimee, me and Josh

I loved our little "mouse ears!"

Mom (with Jordan in her tummy), Jaimee,

Aunt Betty, me (with my hand on my hip - really?!)

and Uncle Dwayne - standing out in front

of the notorious "It's A Small World" ride.

Here we are, heading onto this ride - we didn't know

what we were getting into on this ride. If I knew that

the ride would have that dang Disney ditty song 

playing all the time (in so many different languages) I

would have turned back and gone on the Matterhorn! 

Dad "attempted" to take a picture of a part of the ride -

if you stare at this long enough you'll begin to feel like

you are on the ride, and you'll suddenly feel very

queasy and need to throw up. That's pretty much

how we all felt after this ride!

This was one of the few rides Mom was allowed to go

on (due to her pregnancy); it was a little boat ride that

was kind of boring, up until this part when we

were "swallowed up" by the whale Monstro

(from the movie Pinocchio). Oh dear. Help.

And here's Jaimee, me, Mom, Aunt Betty and Josh

(in the corner), looking like we are having the

time of our life on this boat ride. Uh huh. Whatever.

I think that is Uncle Dwayne riding in that cart -

this was the "Alice In Wonderland" ride

- definitely more fun than the boat ride!

I've posted this photo before, but I really love it!

Riding on the merry-go-round was a blast!

 I imagined I was riding on the

merry-go-round in the movie Mary Poppins.

I'm pretty certain this was taken at the end of the day -

hence, the reason we're all propped up. I remember

feeling so tired at the end of the day, but it was a

"good" tired. It had been such a fun, rewarding day!

It was an awesome trip, a great experience and I am very happy that I was able to go with my family again in June of 1988. At that time in my life, Disneyland was "The Happiest Place On Earth."