(We leave for California in like 2.5 days. I am so very, very excited! )
In other news, Photobucket is giving me fits whenever I want to edit anything. (Which is why it's been a little bit since I posted) Is anyone else having problems??
There were several years there where I got to enjoy Disney magic every single year. 1997 - 2001 was awesome!
In
1998 I qualified to go to a national competition for FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America). Normally all the fundraising involved to be able to afford nationals wouldn't have excited me, but that year it was being held at WDW. Um, yes, please! To make it even more exciting, one of my best friends also qualified, so we fund-raised and vacationer...er, competed together!
We stayed at the WDW Dolphin, which was awesome! (Though this is a picture is from the Swan, haha) We only had 1 full day and two 1/2 - 3/4 days that we could spend in the parks (before and in between events) so we finally decided to spend a full day at MK and half a day in Epcot and AK (which was pretty new). We had a great time in MK, but I struggled with this new (large) land that was so close to the map of DL that I carried in my head, but different enough that I kept getting us lost or hitting dead ends. Very disorienting and frustrating! I really enjoyed the Skyway to Tomorrowland, which hadn't been in DL for some time already, and I loved getting to hang out with just my friend and I for several hours that evening. For a 15-year-old that had never done the park sans parents, making decisions about what WE wanted to do was awesome!
We enjoyed AK, though we got soaked in a full-hour downpour at one point. We really had to rush through Epcot, as we just didn't have time to fully experience it. By the time we got to the world showcase, we had just enough time to walk through and take a picture in each land. (Which have our 90's bangs beautifully plastered to our foreheads, because it was 4th of July weekend and HOT and HUMID.) Sadly, though it was the 4th, that year they were under a fire watch and had absolutely NO fireworks. Really?
The next February, my parents (who were jealous of my WDW trip) visited too.
In
1999 it was time for my family to make our normal trip, and everyone was tall enough to ride everything this time! (Except my 14-month-old baby brother, who was left home with relatives. He was our surprise "caboose...)
My strongest memory from this trip was looking through lots of the little shops on Main Street. You know, the kind my parents didn't want to get within 50 feet of when we were all young, with the pretty breakables and expensive art. So amazing and fun! Also, one of my other best friends (also my cousin) and her family happened to be there at the same time, so we hung out with them for a few hours one day, and that was a blast!
In
2000 I was graduating from high school, and my school was small enough (graduating class of 42!) that we still do "senior trips" during spring break. The whole trip was a blast, but strangely enough
Disneyland was the least fun day (we also spent a day at Universal and part of a day at Six Flags). Mostly because we had one friend who had a lot of problems and was in a wheelchair, and got really stressed not being able to get herself up out of Space Mountain, and refused to ride anything else, and we didn't want to leave her, but really wanted to have fun, and...add some HS drama, etc.) So that wasn't the best trip either, but I survived, cause like I said, we had an overall great time. (About 25 of us went, plus some chaperones)
In
2001 California Adventure (which we had been watching at all its stages of development for years was finally open! My parents went first in May (to "check it out") and then took us back in June. (That was the year they decided to get an annual pass, and snuck two other little trips in here and there!) I know a lot of people weren't that impressed with it when it first opened, but we've loved it from the beginning! Soarin', obviously, was our favorite, but we were pretty impressed with Screamin' too. That is still one of my mom's very favorite rides! I really liked the Paradise Pier area, with all of it's atmosphere and beautiful lights.
I think we rode almost every ride (not all of "A Bug's Life" land, but everything else.) Pretty awesome.
Sadly, 2002 did not involve Disneyland. I -did- meet my future husband that year though, and I also moved away from home for the first time (to transfer to a University after I got my A.A.) so we'll still call it good.