it's basically like a carnival with lots of icy cold fun mixed in. outside, it looked like this:
that swing ride, by the way, was apparently a former attraction on michael jackson's neverland ranch.
we headed into the dome first, where we got to visit the "ice kingdom."
because it was comprised of lots and lots of ice sculptures (with one rule: don't touch the ice!), the temperature in there was a frosty NINE degrees. because we're a bunch of soCA wusses, they provided loaner parkas that we happily threw on.
we may also have let ourselves get talked into buying the souvenir photograph. how awesomely cheesy is this??
the theme of the ice kingdom was charles dickens' "a christmas carol." the sculptures were ever so slightly creepy, but it was fun to walk through the various scenes anyway.
at the end was a replica of the queen mary, with two different ice slides to ride down.
well, yeah, of course i rode down it too.
tunnel. of ice.
as we finally exited the ice kingdom, we came upon something that would've been interesting had we not had the kids with us - the ice bar, specializing in vodka drinks.
and no one could resist the lure of the glacier glide - which looked scary as hell, but was so much fun.
back outside, we got another look at that swing ride...and an interesting view of the world's largest rocking horse.
the girls talked mr. lilcee into getting into the exceedingly long line, but those smiles were worth the wait.
and the best part - a booth sponsored by maruchan, where we scooped up lots of packages of free ramen.
you would think that would have completed our evening, but wait - there's more. we parted ways with the lilcees and headed out on the road, arriving here:
because the hub was hosting a poker tournament/fight night viewing at the house, we got to have a date night at the best hotel in all the land. i'd say she was pretty excited about it:
just like the parks, it's all dressed up for the holidays.
our room was in the frontier tower, where we found a cool display that was a recreation of the concept model for disneyland's big thunder mountain railroad.
and then our room...oh, it was magical. look at this headboard! when you flipped a switch, those fireworks lit up and we got to listen to "a dream is a wish your heart makes."
and this is one of my most favorite vintage photographs of the 'land:
but seriously though - best bed ever.
while i checked out the toiletries and all of the hidden mickeys...
my little companion decided to get comfy in one of the bathrobes.
after the long day we'd had, we both passed out fairly quickly. i did wake up when the old lady tiptoed in, but since she'd just worked a full shift at work and then drove down to anaheim, she was changed and in her own bed in no time.
and that was a good thing, because we had grand plans for the next day:
oh, the magic. it never ends.
I'm having fun vicariously... through my girls!
ReplyDelete