Charisma82 writes...

Tuesday, June 25, 2007: Day 5 of Gathering of the Gargoyles

I guess there really isn't a day 5, and that's probably when everyone is getting home, but still… Here's the last day of my journaling from a non-gathering point of view.

Kay and I didn't wake up until 10:00am the next morning because we were wiped out from Disneyland the day before. We packed and left the hotel around 11:00am to go next door to IHOP for the 3rd time in the three days (IHOP, day 3… it's kind of a joke around here now). We were going to meet my grandparents and my aunt and her family there, and since they called and told us they had a table already, we knew we'd be in and out of there quick. When we went inside, they were nowhere to be found. What had happened is that they went to the other IHOP on that street (for some strange reason, the IHOP people decided to put two IHOPs on the same street, literally 4 blocks from each other). We drove to the other IHOP and had breakfast there (so I guess we went to IHOP 4 times all together on the trip). When we finished breakfast, my family drove to the parking structure and went on the tram again to get into the Disneyland Park while the rest of our party walked (they had a parking pass for their car somewhere else and we didn't).

We went to California Adventure on this day. And again, there was a problem with the ticket I had to get into the park (the whole name thing was off… it was annoying). What made it worse than the day before with the other Disney employee, was that the lady was even more perturbed at us than the one before. Usually, Disney employees are the nicest people ever, but the two that we got that ushered us in each day at the ticket booth needed to remember where they worked. Enough on that. We met up with the rest of our party at a shop at the front of the park after we rented a locker to stuff our extra stuff in. We went to Soaring Over California, and seeing that the line was over an hour, we got fast passes. We went by the Grizzly Peak River Run thing and it was over an hour to wait in line (not surprising because it was REALLY hot and muggy outside), so we kept on going. We finally decided to go watch the Bug's Life 3D show, which is cute, and then after that we headed over to Tower of Terror, which only my family got on because no one else wanted to lose their breakfast or were too scared to get on it. After that ride (which is one of my favorites at that park) my cousin and Tyson wanted to get on the Grizzly Peak Rapid Ride, and so we stood in line for over an hour to get on it. That had to be the longest hour of the whole day… no the whole trip. I was not in the best of moods waiting for that ride, especially because the last time I'd gotten on the ride, I'd been soaked and uncomfortable for the rest of the trip. So, I made my dad get me a poncho that I would sit on so my backside wouldn't get wet. I didn't care if the top half of me was wet, but the bottom half of me was going to stay dry. The ride was fun and I didn't get too wet like others in our group, so I was happy. When that ride was over we had a half hour to kill before we could use our fast passes (which are a blessing… I need to shake the hand of the guy who came up with the idea of fast passes and tell him he deserves the biggest raise in Disneyland history…) so we went through the tortilla and sourdough bread factories. I like these because they are a nice little break from the crowd and you get to learn stuff too. Once we were done in there, we used the fast passes to get on Soaring Over California. Just about everyone who has gone on that ride have had only nice things to say about it. It is a very cool ride. We've seen people cry once they get off of it. How did you like that ride?

After this ride, my aunt and her family said their goodbyes to us. They left the park to go visit a friend of my aunt's for the next day. My grandparents and my family ate dinner (I had a sourdough bread bowl from the bread factory and everyone else had Mexican food). When we finished there, my family and I rode the Mulholland Madness roller coaster. My grandparents left after that to go do whatever they wanted and then they left the park. My mom, Kay, and I got on the Boomerang ride and then my whole family got on California Screamin'. That ride is awesome. We headed back over to Tower of Terror because my mom wanted to ride it again, but the line was too long, so we went to my favorite place ever which is called the Disney Animation Studio. This place is my favorite place in both parks combined, hands down. I LOVE IT!!! Have you ever been in there? If not, you're missing out. We didn't get to go to any of the rooms to do anything because my parents wanted to leave soon, so we sat in the main room, listening to music from Disney movies while drawings of the movies were shown all over the round room. After this, we did some shopping (ran into my grandparents 2 other times) and then left the park around 9:30pm. When we got home around 12:30am, everyone went to bed as soon as we walked in the door.

So, that's the whole thing and I am now finished with the journals. I hope you and all the other Gargoyles fans had a great time at the gathering. Though I didn't get to go (hopefully one day I will), I did have a great time at Disneyland.

Thank you for your time and all that you do.

-Charisma82