Garden Ramblings: Nick's birthday at Disneyland...

Nick loves cars and has many car toys. So when Don, his father found out that the "car attraction" just recently opened at Disney's California Land, he arranged at trip to Disneyland for Nick's birthday. "Papa" (Grandpa Lee) was invited to go as well and it turned out to be a guy celebration with three generations represented. So the guys spent the next 3 days at the Disney parks.

We met at the John Wayne Airport on Sunday September 9. Big brother Nathan was there to greet us and provide transportation as he lives close by at Long Beach where he is stationed with the Coast Guard.

The first stop was Costco to pick up "goodies" to have at the motel and Disneyland. You can imagine what was bought with guys doing the buying of favorite things. One was a huge pumpkin pie which we had for breakfast quite a few mornings as well. But there were some nutritional things as well if you can believe that.

Then it was off to the motel to get checked in. Don did a great job on finding the motel which was nice and very convenient being within walking distance to the park. We even had a separate bedroom which was really nice for Nick. Plus it was great that Nathan was able to stay with us at the motel.

Then it was off to dinner as everyone was hungry after a long day of travel. We decided on going to the Rain Forrest Cafe in downtown Disney which we knew Nick would like. At the end of dinner, the restaurant staff brought Nick an ice cream sundae with a candle and sang Happy Birthday for him. Nick was very surprised and blew out the candle right away before they could sing and turned very shy when they started singing to him.

After dinner we spent some time in Downtown Disney visiting the huge Lego store there where Nick found some Star War characters. Nathan arranged for a Star Wars picture to be taken of all of us which was a lot of fun in the making.

We spent the next 3 days at the parks and had a great time. Nick really enjoyed the cars attraction, being picked for the "Jedi Academy" to be trained as a warrior, bug's world, and "toon town", along with all the other attractions we found along the way. On the evening of the last day we went to see the "World of Color" show which was an amazing finish to our Disney adventure.

Thank you Don, Nathan, and Nick for inviting me to be a part of the celebration. It was great spending time with you. And thank you Don for organizing and hosting the celebration. I had a great time!

Nick loved all of the palm trees along the walkway to Disneyland

Dinner at the Rain Forrest Cafe

Nick loves his "big" brother, Nathan

Our "Star Wars" picture. Look out galaxies, here we come!

Nick loved his sucker. He received "Disney Dollars" from Grandma and Papa to spend on his adventure. He had a great time spending them at the many shops along the way.