After we got soaked on Splash, I was ready for a sweet treat!
This caught my eye...but I knew I wasn't going to down the whole thing in one sitting and I didn't want to carry it around.
So I got this instead...
We decided since we were so wet we'd go for another ride on Splash. Single Rider this time. We hadn't ridden that way before. We walked up and ended up in the same log. Nobody wanted to sit in the front. They tried pulling people farther back in the line and NOBODY was interested! We were more than willing to ride up front and got soaked again. It was still somewhat early in the afternoon so we decided to go Single Rider again. We couldn't possibly get any more wet than we already were. My hair was splashed totally down over my face. I kind of looked like Cousin Itt -- except my hair isn't anywhere near that long.
So here we go again. Single Rider is the way to go! We weren't lucky enough to get in the same log this time, though. When my husband was waiting to get in his assigned log I saw him talking to another man that would be sitting in front of him. He was pulled out of the stand-by line as a party of 1. I could tell from afar that my husband was filling him in on the existence of the Single Rider line, as evidenced by the man standing there looking down and shaking his head back and forth. He had just waited in a 45+ min. stand-by line.
So after Splash we were talking about whether or not to head back to the hotel and change. We were soaked to the bone. You know we had a serious soaking if we were talking about going back to the hotel to change, given that there was a shuttle involved and we only had 2-ish total days in the parks. There was no way we'd dry off before nighttime -- it was mid to high 60s. In the end we decided to stay in all of our wetness. I was already feeling bad for the person who would have to ride the doombuggy after us. That's where we headed next -- the Haunted Mansion.
We tried to sun ourselves a bit while watching all the activity going on in the empty Rivers of America.
My husband noticed they were letting people go beyond the wall and enter the empty area near the Mark Twain dock. There were people that were dressed normally and people that were obviously CMs coming from their regular posts. We headed over to see if we could go in too. The CM that was manning the gate said the tours were for CMs only -- so obviously the plainclothes people were there during time off. So the CM asked if we were CMs. My husband told them that I was for about 15 minutes back in November, trying to get us in on my stint as a performer in the Tiana's Showboat Jubilee Show.
That didn't fly, so we didn't get to go in and explore.
Since Single Rider worked out so well for us with Splash Mountain we decided to give Indy's Single Rider a chance.
This time things didn't work out so well. We hadn't done SR before on this ride. We got separated into different groups, no matter how hard we tried to act like we didn't know each other.
He ended up going in the elevator and I ended up being directed to the stairs. We were separated for about 30 minutes. I was on the very last section of stairs, ready to make that last turn and go down to the platform. Then it happened. The ride broke down.
We were given the indication that it would be up and running in no time, and when it was, the people that were riding would get to go through again since their ride was interrupted. That's totally fine -- that's how it should be. So we waited. And waited. And finally they announced that it would be at least an hour, so everyone had to leave. We went through the exit. I wish I had gotten a picture of that crazy mass exodus. Crazy! ONE CM was giving each person who was leaving the line a HANDWRITTEN pass to come back later. We still had our FPs from earlier so we bypassed that crazy line.
We browsed in the shops, visited our go-to restroom and headed over to Town Square for the Flag Retreat Ceremony. (This is sounding just like our afternoon from the day before.)
We had some time to spare so DH saved our seat and I headed down to the First Aid station to refill our water bottles.
Took a pic of this display along the way.
Now we were expecting the ceremony to be exactly like the one from the day before. Not so. This time there was no
Disneyland Band marching down Main Street, playing lots of patriotic songs. This time the Dapper Dans were performing. Not as much music, but still very worth scheduling it into our day. One very cool thing was that they led the audience in The Pledge of Allegiance before the flag was lowered. While they sang "America The Beautiful" the same 3 men from the day before marched up behind them.
After the flags were lowered and folded, the Dapper Dans sang "God Bless America" while the men stood in the middle.
Something missing from today's ceremony was the invitation to our current/former service men and women to come forward and be recognized. The military anthems weren't played this time. That was one of my favorite parts from the day before. Two women who had stood up the day before were there again this time, but there was no recognition. We just noticed them in the crowd.
OK, two more pictures before hopping to DCA.
I had meant to go back later when it was darker to get a better picture of the light in the window, but I forgot.
And that concludes this segment!
So maybe the real H.M. is somewhere else and I missed it.
Yay! A waterside table! 
Another reason to go back. 
Out of curiosity, for those of you who have been going to DCA for years... did any of you just LOVE it from the get-go? Or did it grow on you over the years? 
Some rides just weren't the same fun-wise without my kids. Toy Story was one of them. They all just love that ride. DS10 asked if we'd ridden Screamin' yet -- his favorite ride. I wasn't sure if I was going to, given that I still had that dull, lingering headache from my ride on TOT the day before. And riding Toy Story didn't help it any, unfortunately. But, I knew I would regret it if I didn't ride Screamin', so that was next.
scared
