Let’s all have a moment of silence for the fact that my Disneyland trip was almost a month ago. It seems like just yesterday I was that crazy lady crying on the promenade, torn between Disneyland and DCA and a desire to do everything at once in an incredibly short amount of time. As you’ve probably seen me prattle on about on Twitter, it was a fantastic trip – truly eye opening and emotional and a hell of a lot of fun. (If you missed it, I penned a few initial thoughts on Disneyland here.) I’m desperate to relive it, and I hope you might consider joining me as I revisit three terrific days in the Happiest Place on Earth.

First, however, I need to dwell a bit on the non-Disney, because here’s the thing: southern California blew my mind. In particular, I think San Diego is my spirit animal.  So if you’ll indulge me, a few reminiscences from my time in San Diego:

Morning over Petco Park.

Even on a cloudy day the Pacific is so, so beautiful.

Ocean Beach, San Diego

Hamilton’s Tavern, the best dive in the world that has Pliny the Elder on tap for $4 bucks a pint.

Beer tasting at the Stone Brewery.

Looks suspiciously like….

Coronado Beach, Coronado CA

Okay – conference done; beer consumed; ocean viewed – time for Disneyland! I am the idiot who decided to drive from San Diego to Anaheim at 5pm on a Friday, so my anticipation was temporarily replaced by serious traffic-induced rage. Traffic crawled. I cursed. I regretted eating only a bagel very early in the morning. I started feeling like maybe I’d rather be taking a nap in a warm bed somewhere. Maybe Disneyland wasn’t worth it.

Eventually, though, I made my way into Anaheim and my anticipation grew. Unfortunately, so did the gridlock surrounding Disneyland. For someone accustomed to taking the back way to WDW and encountering no traffic while doing so, this wasn’t the normal Disney arrival experience to which I have grown accustomed. It’s especially frustrating if you’re an anal retentive and pathologically punctual person like me, so I was seriously sweating missing my reservation at Napa Rose. (And here I thought I’d have an hour or two to kill before dinner!)

Finally, the Grand Californian is in sight. I pull up to the guard house, and am told by a chipper Cast Member that there’s currently no parking available, not even for valet. So, I’m directed to a parking lot across the street. Now I’m seriously stressing about time and am cursing myself for not stopping to use the bathroom earlier, so I make a quick stop at the Paradise Pier hotel on my way back over to the Grand Californian. Based on my four-minute visit to Paradise Pier, I feel reasonably confident I will never stay there. Outdated. Underwhelming. No “wow” factor; really no factors at all. Cross that one off the list.

Grand Californian…it’s like the Wilderness Lodge and the Grand Floridian had a baby. And that baby looked a little weird.

After speed walking back to the Grand Californian, I arrive at Napa Rose a little out of breath but only a couple minutes late. First impressions? A little dated inside, kind of like California Grill before the recent refurb. Like what Imagineers thought California looked like in the 1990s, but this time actually in California. Beyond that, however, it was pretty much the ideal meal. From the hostess to my server to the food runners, every Cast Member I encountered was cheerful, attentive, and genuine. Since I was dining alone, I was seated in a “cozy” corner, which was indeed just that – quiet and warm, with a great view of an outdoor fireplace.

Fresh butter and sourdough and a terrific glass of wine: my true happy place.

The downside to a cozy table in the corner is that the lighting was terrible, so I won’t bother posting my mediocre pictures of the meal. What I will tell you is that the food was fantastic, and the dessert course in particular was a refreshing change from what you’ll find at a lot of WDW signature restaurants. My chocolate cake was brightened by citrus, passion fruit, and pomegranate, and my server suggested an excellent champagne to complement the chocolate.

After being wished a fond farewell, I headed out of Napa Rose and attempted to find my way over to Disneyland. Let me tell you, after countless weeks in Walt Disney World it was awfully weird to be on Disney property and not have a clue where I was or where I was going. Somehow I wandered out into Downtown Disney, and then I could see Disneyland fireworks, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to get there. After being “that tourist,” I found my bearings and walked over to the promenade separating Disneyland from DCA. Already, the scale of the Disneyland resort was leaving an impression on me – had I really just walked from a resort hotel, through Downtown Disney, and to the front gate of a park in less than 10 minutes?

I picked up my park ticket from a will-call window and headed to the Disneyland turnstiles. What…no biometric scanners? Score one for Disneyland!

And then…I was in Disneyland.

Posted on Twitter with the caption “CRYING.”

If you’re a WDW veteran, the thing that hits you when standing on Disneyland’s Main Street for the first time is this peculiar sense of being somewhere that feels both so familiar but also completely foreign.

There must be a German word for this feeling, right?

With only a couple of hours to see the park after dinner, I mostly concentrated on trying to get my bearings. All of my WDW muscle memory was of no use here; Fantasyland made no sense to me. At all. I walked by it’s a small world hoping to get to Frontierland, and I ended up in….Toontown? Huh? In retrospect, I’m really glad I had this quick evening visit to orient myself – it made the next couple days of park touring that much easier.

Eventually, I found my way to Big Thunder Mountain (It felt so small! And so in the wrong place! And so sadly closed during my trip!), and the made my way over to the one attraction I knew I had to experience first: Pirates of the Caribbean. Although there was a bit of a line, I didn’t really mind: I wanted the extra time to soak up the differences. If it wasn’t for MM+, I might give the WDW Pirates’ queue a slight edge, but regardless: the Disneyland version of this ride is five thousand times better than what we have in Florida. I know it sounds stupid to say that experiencing a Disney attraction was life-changing, but I’m going with it – I couldn’t pick my jaw up off the floor. As I noted on Twitter, DL’s Pirates felt crisp – like “seeing the Florida version with a thick film removed.”

Oh hey, entire scenes we don’t have in Florida! Effects that actually work! Audio that is crystal clear! A truly immersive storyline! *cries*

Truth.

Resisting the temptation to hop back in line, I instead made my way over to Indiana Jones Adventure. No single rider line was available at that late hour, so I joined the regular line. Again, just the queue for this attraction was a revelation – impeccably themed, with crystal-clear audio and sound effects. The line moved quickly, but I was both impressed and exhausted by the incredible length of the queue – not the best walk when you’re still in your work shoes!

I have no pictures from Indy, but suffice it to say it was ridiculously good – I think my Twitter response was something along the lines of “sorry, Dinosaur.” To see ride technology utilized in such dramatically different ways was pretty staggering – Indy just blows Dinosaur out of the water – it actually feels like a thrill ride, can you imagine?

Once off Indy I continued my wandering, soaking in as much atmosphere as I could. Like this, for instance:

Atop the Dole Whip stand.

Oh, you know, just….real torches. Also real? The gas lamps on Main Street. It’s funny how a little thing like real fire can go so far toward helping you suspend disbelief in a themed environment. So simple, but so important. WDW doesn’t hold a candle to DL in this regard (get it – candle? fire? puns? Bueller?)

By this time it was nearly park close, I was tired after a busy day at my conference, and so I headed toward Sleeping Beauty Castle for one final look before heading out for the night.

I don’t get the “it’s too small!” crowd – SBC is just right.

Overwhelmed but happy, I trekked back to the car and checked into my hotel for a quick nap. After all, I had only two days left in Disneyland, and I wasn’t going to waste a moment.

Coming up: I find an attraction more painful than Primeval Whirl; I continue crying everywhere I go; I accidentally enjoy a parade; I pledge my undying love to Tony Baxter.