I received the mother of all surprises for Christmas this year: a trip to Disneyland, plus tickets to the Canucks games in Anaheim and LA. This is where it pays to be on top of things. Luckily I accomplished most of my organizing and cleaning during my first week of vacation, since my second week was spent in the warmth of the Southern California sun.
It is atypical for either of us to put together a gift like this. We usually poke around for ideas and set a budget; but Colin felt we had both worked really hard to overcome the financial and emotional setbacks of 2010 and that we deserved some fun in the sun. He received no argument from me. Disneyland plus Canucks road trip – that is a dream vacation come true, and another item crossed off the bucket list.
During the day the weather was warm and fabulous. It felt so good to get away from the dark, wet, and grey for a few days. However the evenings were very chilly and I regret not having warmer clothes with me to bundle up in. And I would suggest you never go to Disneyland between Christmas and New Year’s. I was expecting it to be like the summer: busy with longish line-ups for popular rides. Instead it was a whole other level of busy. There were days were you couldn’t even move through the park because it was so jammed packed. They even closed Disneyland a couple of times because it was so over-crowded.
My first taste of a Canucks away game was versus the Anaheim Ducks. We went for dinner at a bar across the road from the Honda Centre – along with all the other Canucks fans. The game was a ton of fun, and it was easy to drown out the fair-weather Ducks fans.
The Honda Centre is a very nice venue, but the beer line-ups were far too long. And the beer is more expensive than the beer sold at Roger’s Arena. However, the tickets are bargain basement prices compared to a ticket to a Canucks game.
We spent NYE at Disneyland and then headed to LA in the evening to go to the Kings game. It was the same deal as Anaheim – Canucks and Kings fans gathered at LA Live in the ESPN Zone across from the Staples Centre for some pre-game festivities. Although this time it was a lot harder to be a Canucks fan.
While Ducks fans don’t really give a who-ha, Kings fans do; some were impressed by the mass Canucks showing, but most taunted us. And it didn’t help that the Canucks didn’t play a great game and eventually lost. I tried, but I couldn’t yell loud enough to drown out the Kings fans.
After the hockey game we returned to Disneyland to ring in the new year. The next day we flew home to the dark and dreary weather. Oh well, I just have to put up with it for six more weeks then it’s off to Hawaii.
Aloha.
