Disneyland

Anaheim, CA. Visiting with friends on the West Coast is always the highlight of going to Disneyland.

No trip to Anaheim would be complete without catching up with Dave, Lisa and Siena (13 months) Porcelli. It has been fun watching Siena grow from an infant to taking her first Disneyland steps. Ashley is very sweet with her. She introduced Siena to the princesses and fairies. Perhaps on our next trip she will help her play musical chairs with Alice and the Mad Hatter.

This year we connected with the Smith family relatives. While not blood relatives, we really enjoyed getting to know Joanie Morris and her brother, Sterling and his son, Daniel (8) Smith. Joanie and Sterling gave us the insiders’ tour of Hollywood and shared some ice cream with us at Mickey’s Soda Shop.

Over the trips we have gotten to know Brianna Garcia, a local artist. She drew an amazing picture of Ashley with Alice in Wonderland. It hangs in Ashley’s room.

We tend to spend our evenings huddled around Ragtime Robert’s piano. His regulars have accepted us into his fan club. They even allow us a front row seat so we can watch his fingers as he plays. This past year he released two CDs. It is nice to now be able to listen to his magical touch between visits.

Kimberly Fero is another cast member we visit with after she is done with work. Kimberly has an autograph book of children dressed in costumes. She has them sign as their characters. Ashley has signed it as Tiger Lily, Jane Banks, Mary Poppins, Wendy Darling, and Alice in Wonderland. Kimberly is the embodiment of Disney magic.

Over time we have gotten to know some of the guests and bump into them on our trips. We bumped into the Quibell family from Arizona, Masumi from Tokyo, and others. It feels like home when we see so many familiar faces.