Grad Night

Yesterday/last night/this morning, I was at Disney Grad night with all the Seniors from IH. I am not a huge Disneyland fan, mostly because I don't want to buy a ton of junk with Mickeys all over, but we actually had a really good time. 

We left IH at 2pm and Sofia and I were in charge of 45 students on our bus. It was 80 degrees and no air conditioning on our school bus. Traffic was typical LA and it took 2 hours to get to Disneyland. Sofia and I laughed and talked about how awesome summer is going to be to feel less miserable. 

Once we got there we had to pass out tickets and wristbands and read all the rules and expectations. Curfew was 3:30AM sharp. We set the kids free off the bus and we could do whatever we wanted as long as we kept our cell phones on.

I was most excited for the trip because we had park hopper tickets and I got to go to California Adventure for the first time. CA Adventure is smaller than Disneyland, but most of the rides are scarier (upside down, big drops), than the more traditional Disney rides. Our first ride of the day was CA Screamin' the traditional roller coaster. It was also the longest line of the day so I was glad we got that out of the way early.

 Right is the group of chaperons that went to Grad Night while having a churro break. Stacie (science teacher), was the organizer of the entire event, Sofia (French), Me, and Jennie (Admissions).

My favorite ride of CA Adventure was Soarin' Over California. It is flight simulator that makes you feel like you are hang gliding over all the cool sights in CA. You start out flyover the Golden Gate Bridge. Super cool! When we were flying over a golf course in Palm Springs a golf ball came flying straight at us on the screen and it was so real everyone screamed. Ha

Sofia posing on the main Drag

CA Adventure is supposed to showcase all that our state has to offer. For people who live here it is a little ridiculous because we see Sunset and Hollywood Blvd all the time so the replicas aren't that exciting. Disneyland has a more magical feeling to it.

My least favorite ride of the day was the Tower of Terror. The ride is a haunted elevator that brings you up 13 stories and then drops you down in the dark. Or at least I thought.

At the top of the ride they open up the windows so you can see all of Disneyland and Anaheim. Then it drops you 3 stories and then two more and the the windows open again. After the first drop you go back up to the top and then drop all the way down. I didn't like the going up and down and bumping all over the place. I would have preferred a single drop like Drop Zone at Great America.

Glad I did it, but I def don't need to do it again.

Here we are after Tower of Terror. All of us were a little freaked out. I was happy when the ride was over.

At 11PM the parks closed to the public and it was only school groups walking around. I expected it to be shoulder to shoulder of rambunctious high school grads, but actually there weren't many people. The waits for the lines were awesome. Only took 15 minutes to get on Space Mountain, and 30 to get on Indiana Jones. My favorite two rides at Disneyland are Thunder Mountain, that we rode multiple times, and the Jungle Cruise.

At 1:00 the chaperons were pretty spent. We got to go to the Chaperon Headquarters for free food, coffee (hot chocolate for me), and breakfast foods. That was totally worth it! The brownies were amazing. After a little break we went on one more ride and then headed back to the bus to corral the girls back into the buses.

3:30AM sharp hit and we were on our way back to IH. Everyone was exhausted and feet hurt. Today I feel like I have a Disney hangover. Too much sugar, not enough water or sleep. I slept from 5-10 and now I am hoping I can take a nap today at some point.

Grad night was fun. Glad I went for the experience. Not sure how soon I'll be doing that again though. Even though its like an all day thing yesterday, it is cutting into my day today too because I am too tired to function and rejoin my normal routine.

Back to bed...

OH!! But real quick. While all this was happening at Disneyland, there was a 4.0 Earthquake and we felt it while eating dinner. Weird.

And more importantly, Matt Cain threw a perfect game last night!!!!!! I can't believe I missed it. Good thing I was wearing my Giants gear. So cool because we saw him pitch last week in San Diego and it was the first perfect game in Giants history. I almost got teary eyed when Kristin text me.