[Claire]

Friday, December 31

When we'd planned our trip, we'd planned to get 5 day park hoppers (Mon-Fri)....but when we got there, and got the 4 day for the price of 3 days and knew we weren't going to use the entire fifth day.....we pared down our trip to four days in the parks.

On Friday, we booked our room for another night since we'd also planned to go to Pasadena to camp out for the Rose Parade. We had breakfast reservations at Storytellers, and were just too beat to even think about camping out that night.

We headed back to DTD to World of Disney. I got a 50th Anniversary mug and a 2005 calendar. Chloe got a Tinkerbell doll and the girls got various goodies here and there. More pins, too. They spent all their Disney Dollars. Except Courtney.

She wanted to go to Compass Bookstore. She and I headed up that way, while everyone else waited at the GCH. I got myself the new Tom Wolfe book for the ride home and Courtney spent $60 on books for herself. I was pleased with the selection of books there!! She also bought herself a Classic Mickey tea set. They've played with it non-stop!!!

We had a late breakfast at Storytellers....mmmmm.......our new favorite place to eat at DLR....mmmmm.....then said our goodbyes to Disneyland. We were all pretty pooped.

We got in the car and headed to Toys R Us in Fullerton, so Cassidy could use her gift cards to buy a Gameboy Advance SP. We left there and headed to The Character Warehouse. I'd never been before.

At first, we were underwhelmed. My husband said it felt like the "Ross Dress For Less of Disney." And I agreed. There was even a dying rat outside the freaking store!! Gross!! We were joking around that it was their version of Mickey Mouse.

But then.....Cassidy spotted the Haunted Mansion play sets. We have all the princess castle play sets that DL put out several years ago, but had never seen the HM before! They were priced at 2 for $14! We got two, then bought Courtney four shirts for $4 apiece. They're the character ones that are still sold at the resort. She got an Alice one and Sleeping Beauty and I'm blanking on the others. They're still selling for $26 at the World of Disney. Cassidy got a glow in the dark Electrical Parade shirt and Chloe got a Dumbo long sleeve tee. Cass also got the Star Wars sticker books, stickers, and postcards (my Star Wars junkie). There were some nice zip up sweatshirts with Mickey on them and some Disneyland wear, but it's not really my thing, so I didn't buy myself anything.

I think we spent about $54 there and left with two huge shopping bags. I'm glad we took the time to go there. It's just off Harbor in Fullerton on OrangeThorpe in the same shopping center as Circuit City on the right side of Harbor, if you're heading north from the resort. I thought it was worth it, and I'm a pretty picky shopper.

We spent the rest of the day at Newport Beach, ate dinner at the Spaghetti Factory, and took the ferry to Balboa Island to walk around and look at lights. That place is SPECTACULAR at Christmas time. If you've never been there, or have never seen their boat parade, it's well worth the effort to see it!! We wandered around Balboa for hours, sipping hot chocolate, and wishing everyone a Happy New Year. Gorgeous!

We headed back to our hotel in Anaheim and watched the fireworks from our room's balcony. You can't beat HoJo for a great unobstructed view of the Disneyland fireworks! They are HUGE!!

Much better than sleeping on the streets of Pasadena, although watching the parade on TV the next day HURT MY HEART!!! We were sooo close to being there!!