Day 16 - Disneyland and DCA
It is our last full day in the US and we awake to overcast skies - not to worry though, it is predicted to clear up later on. Our plan today was to head to Disneyland for the morning, then DCA in the afternoon. That way, we could spend all of our last day in Disneyland.
But before we went over the road to the park this morning, we had to make a little detour - you see, it was pretty obvious that there was no way we were going to be able to pack all the goods we'd bought into the two suitcases we had, so we needed to buy another one. We also needed to get some nasal spray for Della who had contracted a cold and wasn't too keen on flying with a blocked nose. We decided to walk down to the new Garden Walk shopping complex, but when we got there, it was pretty much all closed and didn't appear to have a suitcase shop or a drug store. We went into the little Mini-mart at the Tropicana Hotel and found a suitcase at a cheap price ($50) so took it back to the hotel before heading into Disneyland.
We headed up into Fantasyland and Toontown this morning, riding a few of the Fasntasyland darkrides and Roger Rabbit in Toontown - there was also a few last minute shopping items such as a dressable Minnie Mouse, and I got a 75th Anniversary Donald Duck watch. We had arranged to meet Wayne, Jennifer and Gerard at midday, so we headed on down there for the traditional group Castle photo. Gerard's friend Deb was on hand to take to photo, which was a good thing as the usual photopass cast members were no where to be seen! (Thanks Deb!). This was the last day that all of us were together in Anaheim as Wayne and Jennifer were heading to San Diego the next day - so we all said our goodbyes and parted ways.
Jennifer pointed out that she had found three Woozles for sale at the Winnie the Pooh shop in Critter Country, so Della made me head over there to buy all three of the fluffies before heading over to DCA.
At DCA, we headed over to play Toy Story Mania again, followed by a run on Screamin' - while we were in the line for the coaster, Della was feeling a little unwell, so I went solo.
We grabbed a bite to eat at the Farmer's Marketplace - I tried the new Asian counter service restaurant and had Korean spicy chicken which was really tasty, while Della had Fish and Chips.
We then headed over to the Hollywood Backlot and took a ride on Tower of Terror. Della was dying to head back to Turtle Talk, so we went into the Animation building to wait for the next Crush session. While waiting there, Jasmine came out so we got our photos taken with her.
Della has done Crush on a number of occasions yet has never been picked to ask him a question. This time, I made her sit on the aisle and after Crush spoke to a few of the kids on the floor - he finally asked to speak with Della! Or "Deep-sea Diving Della" as he preferred to call her
She got to ask him a question and then he asked her where she was from. She answered Sydney Australia - so Crush asked if she knew where 42 Wallaby Way was! That was funny. He also brought out a Buzz Lightyear toy and asked her what it was - so Della finally got to speak with Crush - that made her day I think
We did a little bit more shopping in the afternoon before leaving the park fairly early and heading over to Tony Roma's for our final dinner (I had the enormous baby-back ribs and it was really tasty!)
Back at the hotel, we decided it was time to pack - but not before doing our traditional loot photo. That's where we get everything we bought in Anaheim, put it on the bed, then take a photo of it. We love taking loot photo - it really shows how crazy we are!
Once that was completed, it was time to begin packing...and it wasn't too long before I thought it was obvious that we couldn't fit everything into three suitcases. Della was arguing that she could do it - but by the size of the pile remaining on the bed, it was pretty obvious that another suitcase was required. I headed back down to the Tropicana Mini-Mart and picked up another suitcase (it was that guy's lucky day, but I guess with all the Aussie tourists in the area, every day is his lucky day!)
We got back to packing and re-shuffling and eventually ended up with a decent distribution of stuff (in fact - all four suitcases were almost exactly 20kgs each, pretty good going!).
Happy that we could get all the stuff home without any bother, we went to bed for the last time in the US.