Lisa's Letters from La La Land: Stupid is as Stupid does...

Well, I’m kind of starting where I mean to finish today, with the title being a fav quote from a movie that I have always loved… ok, well, yes, when its on the TV … again… I do tend to roll my eyes and utter something like ‘again?’… but I always end up watching it because it is a landmark movie.

I’m referring of course, to Forrest Gump… and ultimately the lovely dinner we had at Bubba Gumps - a direct spin off from the movie.

But before I get too far ahead of myself, lets go back to the beginning to see what happened today before all that shrimp was consumed…

As was the case with all the other days, today dawned hot, hot, hot, and the girls all split up doing various activities… some headed to the County Fair, others went on an LA tour and still others – including myself – had factored in a ‘rest’ day…

But ‘rest’ is a misnomer in this instance, because while I did move through the day at a more leisurely pace, it was anything but restful. So I hit the parks early as I’d intended, but today was different in that I wandered at a slower pace, taking a billion photos of window treatments, inside shops and other details I knew I’d want to remember. I ‘did’ the whole of Main Street, shopping as I went, and stood for a good while deciding if I were going to have a caramel apple or not…but this time not – I’ll grab one on the way out of the park.

From here my aim was to ‘do’ Tomorrowland so I boldly went where I hadn’t been (yet) before and rode Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear - not quite reaching my high score from last time – and then lunched at the only burger joint left in the park.

Then it was a quick whirl on the Nemo Subs ( and as always, the fake Aussie accents annoyed me) and then Fast Passed Space Mountain.

Now this is usually a top 3 ride for me, but with the ghost overlay for Halloween, it was way downright scary and my screams were of genuine terror as I flew through the dark at break neck speed with ghostly fiery red bony hands clawing at me as I passed.

Nup… once was enough till next time.

So what would counteract the shaking as I exited that ride? Small World of course… dolls and a repetitive song ( and air conditioning) was just what the doctor ordered.

Now I know this ride can drive people to distraction, but I love it, and it was closed last time I visited, so I enjoyed this immensely. On my way out, I decided to line up and meet and greet Merida ( from Brave) and a scorching half hour in 40C sun later, I had my photo taken and was on my way… only I was disappointed that a strong New Yorker accent greeted me rather than the Scottish one I’d been expecting.

Hot and bothered I made my way to get a Dole whip, but the line for this delectable pineapple sorbet was longer than most rides and after half an hour of the line not moving, I left it still overheated and went and rode the teacups – my all time fav ride.

Now somehow in my heat affected state, I ended up at the Big Thunder Ranch, and wandered around here watching the pumpkin carvers making magic happen from a vegetable I detest and listening to the bluegrass band who were hilarious and fabulous all at the same time.

Goofy and Donald were there entertaining the kids and in their Halloween get ups – which turned out to be the only time I saw them dressed this way.

As I made my way back to Adventureland, to ride the Jungle Cruise, I stumbled across a little area decorated for Dia de los Muertos… Day of the Dead, which is a Mexican holiday celebrating the lives of those gone before, held the day after Halloween. The bright colours of this display were just gorgeous and I plan to celebrate this holiday when I get home too, cos it struck a chord with me.

After a very long hot wait and a quick ride on the Jungle Cruise, it was back to the hotel for a bit of internet time catching up with family and friends, then off to walk with the girls the 1K to Bubba Gumps.

I really loved this restaurant – the food was great, our servers were a lot of fun and the drinks were sparkly.

All of the Aussie girls presented our one American traveller with a mountain of Tim Tams – which aren’t readily available in the US - and Sandie was presented with gifts from the girls for all her hard work arranging our trip.

After almost buying out the gift store, we walked off our desserts by trekking back… all except Sandie who got to hoon home on Pats motor scooter… mono’s were not out of the realms of possibilities it seemed.