We had a very fun, Disney weekend.
Friday night Howard and I met Tracy and Bill for dinner, then went on the From Imagination to Celebration tour. At one point in the tour the tour guide said gave us some directions. Howard and Bill were chatting so missed it. Tracy asked me what she said. I said she said to wait here and when she motions to go up, and to stay to the right, or was that the left. The tour guide had said one then changed it to the other so I couldn't remember which. I told Tracy to follow the person in front of her. She said that was fine as long as I wasn't the one in front of her. Saw the fireworks. We were told they were the best seats in the place. We saw it from the train station. While it was a nice spot to see them, and you really could see a lot, you weren't right in the middle of the fireworks. I think this show is probably best viewed from a variety of locations on different days. I've seen it twice, and still think if i were to see if from a different spot, it would still be a different show. So much to see and going on it's really hard to see it all in just one show.
After the fireworks we decided not to deal with the crowds and go find a bar. Well just one wouldn't do, how about 5.
Then we stood around talking till after midnight, with comments every couple minutes that we're getting up in 4 hours maybe we should go to bed. Finally about 12:10 we left the Grand Californian and Drove home. When you go to bed after 1 am, 4 am seems really quick. Woke up at 4 and drove down to the port. Tracy and Bill got there after us, and they talked to Barbara who had a great location at the end. We all jumped in Tracy's rental car and drove down to the end to watch the ship come in. After it passed us we jumped in the car and went to the restuarant the rest of the dissers were waiting for the ship. Got there and watched the ship dock. Saw lots of people including Joyce (DisneyPata), and her daugher and granddaughter (?). Had a wonderful chat with her. Found out she lives right near my sister, and not too far from us. Talked to MaryJo from the
disneyland board. I've seen lots of her posts, so it was nice to put a face to the info.
Slowly everyone started leaving and we were still standing around talking. Howard and Brian were looking for a place for breakfast. Finally found a Dennys and we all followed Brian. End up in the parking lot. No Dennys. But there is an IHOP across the street. Decided to go there for breakfast. Peter called tracy and said they'd be off the ship but when asked Tracy had no clue what time he said they would be off the ship. And she complained about my directions.
After breakfast, and standing around talking in the parking lot for awhile, we headed back to the terminal. You can easily pull up and drop people off. We were told if we didn't see our party to pull into the parking lot and the cost was $1 per hour. So we drove around and waved to nemo, then parked. They have a shuttle that will take you to the terminal but we preferred to walk. At 9am, there were already people waiting to get in. We waited and waited and waited. Watched lots of people come out. The porters would come out, and if you were being picked up would dump your luggage on the curb, and leave to go help the next people. One group kept telling him to wait. He really didn't want to wait, just wanted to dump the luggage and go.
If you're parked in the lot, the porters take your luggage to the parking lot shuttle, and load it there. They will not walk out to the car with you.
After again standing around chatting (which cost us an extra $1 cause we went over our hour) we left to go shopping. After shoping, we stood around talking some more. Peter showed me the big pin. I had pretty much decided not to buy this pin. Well when Peter offered to show it to me I should have said no, because now I want it. The pictures on the internet do not do this pin justice. Peter and Jen sounded like they had a great trip, and I would have liked to be able to stand there all day listening more about it.
We said goodby to Tracy, Bill, Peter and Jen, and went to my moms to get Lindsay. We got there at noon, so got lunch out of the deal. Howard laid down and took a nap, while I went shoping. Came back to my moms, and rested for about 45 minutes before getting up again to drive back down to the port.
We got to the port, parked, and went to the CM table and picked up our Mickey hands and buttons. Walked around and noticed they were giving out Mickey hands there too. I had Howard pick some up for Barbara while I called her. I knew she was planning on eating dinner down there, but wasn't sure if she was where they were giving Mickey hands out. She said they had gotten them and were standing with a groupf of dissers. Since we had walked by them earlier (hard to miss with those Lime Green Pirate shirts) we knew exactly where they were. We stood around and talked to each other, and another family. The other family had a daughter about marissa's age and another about Lindsay's age so they had a nice time together. After the ship passed us, we ran to the cars and back ot the end where we were in the morning. Watched the ship leave, and stood around talking. Again we were the last to leave. Decided to go for drinks, so drove back to Ports O Call. Afterward we walked around and then left. Brian and Howard were planning on when to get together next. I'm planning on taking my sister to the ship next Saturday for their cruise. Well probably bring them in the early afternoon, then go for food or something, and be there to wave as the ship goes by. We invited Barbara and Brian back to meet us. Hopefully they'll be free.
We then hopped in the car and went over the Vincent Thomas Bridge to terminal Island, and drove over to Long Beach. Drove over to the Queen Mary. Then over by the Long Beach Aquarium and Shorline Village. Then drove home.
Ports O Call is made up of lots of different restuarants all one on top of each other. Kind of fast foody. Get in line order your food, then go back and pick it up. Find an open table to sit. Down the way they had some nicer looking more sit down type restuarants.
Since I'm not much into fish, I think when we go back on Saturday we'll walk around Shoreline village in long beach. It's not far away, there were a couple different areas with shops and restuarants. In this area there are a bunch of different places. There was one spot with metered parking that ends at 6pm. I think if you were to spend a couple hours down there it would probably cost up to about 10. One place had max of $8. I don't remember what the other place had for parking rates, but it wasn't much more. There was also a Ferris wheel, and a carrousel down there. If we get there next saturday I'll post more information.
www.shorelinevillage.com
Here's a link to my pictures from this weekend. Maybe later I'll rearange add some captions.
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/djl-xtra@pacbell.net/album?.dir=/1da2
We'll probably be heading to Disneyland in a little bit.
Guilty as charged! 
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Must be too much talking going on. 
