The day after Christmas Leslie and I moved Elsie from in front of the Kelly home over to an RV Park named Anaheim RV Park due to its proximity to Disneyland. It was a pretty nice Park, basic in the features but good for our purposes. We had a couple of really nice evenings there with friends. One was actually after the New Year when Rosemary and Robert Thompson came to pick us up and take us (and our daughter Madison) to a local specialty food court type of place that had lots of different small counter service eateries around a very cool common area. We had a nice time, and we also went out to their home one evening for an enjoyable dinner.
The other nice evening was a dinner I cooked on December 30th for Sara, her boys and nephew Jake. Although I have known her boys their entire lives, and love all of them, it was the most time I had ever spent with Jake and really enjoyed getting to know this fabulous young man. I made my specialty Chili which seemed to be a huge hit with everyone. I have that recipe posted on this site.
In early December of 2017 Leslie had arranged for a special private tour day at Disneyland and it was one of the best days we ever had at the park, and that says a lot as we both have loved Disneyland from when we were kids.
The private VIP tour is a program that charges by the hour for a group of up to 10 people to be escorted through Disneyland (& California Adventure Park if you want) allowing you to jump the lines on any ride you want to. Since lines for most rides are 30-45 minutes for basic rides, 1 to 2 hours for more popular rides, and up to 3 hours for the top 3-4 rides having this really makes the day easy and great.
We started the day with breakfast at Goofy ‘s kitchen in the main Disneyland Hotel, plus the program includes seating in a special reserved section for the Main Street Parade and the Fireworks much later, plus dinner reservations at any restaurant you choose.
As I said above this is the second time we have done this, the first being two years on a less popular day than New Years Eve,so I was worried we couldn’t reserve it. Not only could we reserve it but we were able to get two groups!
We had two groups as we had so many people who wanted to come. In one group was Leslie, me, Kelly, Pat, Jayden, Josephine, Devin, Noem and Nick. In the other group Sara Gold had her boys Jordan, Sam, Zack, nephew Jake, niece Lital, plus friends Joe & Mary.
We all met for breakfast as I noted, then split into the two groups for the tours. We started our day at California Adventure and from there hit every top ride in that park and later in the Disneyland Park. By the time of the parade we were exhausted and thrilled to have our private viewing area for the parade as it had chairs and a great view.
After the parade most of us just went over early to our dinner reservation at the Blue Bayou Restaurant. Some went on another ride and still got to the restaurant before we were seated. The place was super crowded, but the meal was very good and we all had a great time.
After dinner Leslie and I were too tired to wait around for the fireworks show and the New Years celebration so we just went back to the coach. Most others left too, but some of the younger people went to the new Star Wars Bar and stayed through for the midnight celebration and fireworks. All in all it was another great day at the happiest place on earth.
The next morning we were all supposed to meet at a local “Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles” for breakfast. But Leslie and I were the only ones there on time, and the others only showed up after we called to wake them up! A couple never did make it. But it was my first time eating at this iconic southern California eatery, and my first time having Chicken and Waffles together much less for breakfast. The food was really good, and the owner was there and treated us great. Another fantastic part of a really wonderful week.
Bakers Be Gone 