When Perfect Days...

...go bad.

Well, we won't focus on the bad.

Mom and I did have a nearly perfect day at Disneyland Saturday.  It ended with me walking through my front door very ill.  I won't go into the gory details except to say that the fever didn't break until 3:30 am the next day,  I had to cancel today's visit with my Mom and I was only awake about three hours between 11:00 PM Saturday and 7:00 AM this morning (Monday).

I think I made it through.

To focus on happier memories...

A normal trip to Disneyland means breakfast at the Rancho del Zocalo, a ride on the Mark Twain and/or the DLRR, a few merchandise stops, the Laughing Stock comedy show, ice cream for lunch at the Coke Corner with fingers crossed for a good ragtime piano player.  We stay through the Mad Hatter's Musical Chairs set (if there is a piano player and if the Mad Hatter shows up), then get dinner somewhere before heading home.

Sometimes we get lucky and get to make changes.

Saturday we made it to the park in about an hour.  Lines at security and admission were long, so we braced for big crowds, but for what we wanted to do, it wasn't bad.

We had breakfast at the Rancho, as usual.  I haven't returned to my no carb/no sugar food program yet, so indulged in the biscuits and gravy.  Afterward we boarded the train at New Orleans Square, planning to take in the first Laughing Stock show afterward.  When the CM asked how far we were going, I replied "around the circle," meaning we wanted to get off at New Orleans Square again.

I do love the new train route.  I think when the trees grow in it will be really lovely.

Fall color! 

I especially love all the new waterfalls.

Learning the settings on my camera.  Actually got a halfway decent picture...

...and one of my favorite scene!

The "sport" setting works for a rolling train, too.

The CMs forgot to let us off at New Orleans Square, so we went on to Toon Town.  That worked OK for me since I wanted to look for something for my grandsons for Christmas there.  We ended up with this year's  purchase-with-purchase tote, instead, so that was OK.  I had never been to Toon Town for Christmas and thought the colorful, silly decorations were marvelous.

We made the trek back to the Golden Horseshoe for the Laughing Stock show, but they were halfway through and the theater was jammed.  I decided, crowded as the park was getting, that we might be better off moving on to the Coke Corner and trying to get a table for the Mad Hatter's appearance, if and whenever he might show up.

And we learned we had totally scored when we got there.

Our favorite ragtime piano player has always been Ragtime Michael, and he hasn't played there regularly for years.  But, on Saturday, there he was!  He took a minute to explain to us that the holiday schedule was different from what it had been for the last few years and that this early afternoon set was his first, with his last not ending until close to 9:00.  Tough for him, I'm sure, but how delightful for us.  I love to sit at the Coke Corner with terrific piano music (and Michael is the best) people watching while the lights twinkle.  As Michael was finishing the first set, he suggested we stick around for the Dapper Dans who were coming up in the next set.

It was a great set.  I really wish Blogger allowed larger video files.  I got some darling video of all the acts that evening, but all of them are too large to put in this blog.

My mom and I have two favorite castmembers at this Park.  (Well, we had more, but a lot of them are gone.)  Ragtime Michael is one, and a particular Mad Hatter is the other.  So it made us both smile to see them sharing this set on Saturday.

Musical Chairs ran into my absolute favorite time at Disneyland.  Twilight.  When things start to get mellow and the lights come on.  Especially at Christmas.

I've never really mastered taking pictures at night with any of my last three cameras.  But a friend on facebook challenged me to the black-and-white photo journal meme and I had to figure out how to take monochrome.  Homework.  It turned out that the monochrome setting was in the same heretofore undiscovered set of settings as the night photo setting.  I was excited to give it a try.

And, frankly, delighted at the results.

 

I was even able to capture the "snow" falling when the castle was lit.  Now, if I can only manage to get the camera straight...

I would have stayed all evening, but I've been really tired since I got home from Japan and decided we should probably leave a couple of sets early.  (This was the first time in months - actually, probably years - that we've left after dark.)  I'm glad we did leave early.  There was an accident in LA that caused a long-lived snarl, and then we passed a full car burn after that.  The trip that took us an hour in the morning was more than twice as long on the way home.

Another limo-tram ride.  Funny story.  Just as they got Mom buckled in - crooked in the car - another family came up the ramp.  The CM asked, "How many in your party?" and they answered, "Seven."  He looked at Mom and me and said, "Oh, OK, we'll get you on the next tram."  And off we went.  I'm sure he realized that to fit in their wheelchair he was going to have to undo Mom's crooked one and straighten her out (and there was a tram right behind us), but it struck me as hilarious that he said that with a completely empty tram behind us.

 

A perfectly delightful day.  I plan to bring her again in a couple of weeks (the 2nd, I think), before our passes go on blockout.