The low lying clouds across LA
county made us desert rats happy, but the rain did not. We weren’t sure if the weather would be worse
on Friday or Saturday, so we made our way to Disneyland
with Claire. Kimmy has a silver pass
that allowed us access Disneyland for free: yippee! As we extracted the beast of a stroller from
the back of the truck, I asked Donna if she wanted to take her raincoat.
Looking at the amount of items we were attempting to stuff under the stroller,
she shook her head "no" and eyeballed the cloudy sky.

Main StreetWe took the elevator down from Daisy
2 Parking Garage and across the tram to the entrance. Kimmy waved his ID badge and we began to walk
up Main Streetin The Happiest Place on Earth. After a
few hours and a nice lunch, it began to rain. Esther moved closer to Kimmy, under the umbrella, and I sat eating pot
pie in the rain before pulling my lightweight raincoat (which I chose to bring)
up around my ears.

Donna, sans raincoat, pulled the
stroller top over Claire who was wearing her Hannah Anderson outfit from Aunt
Susan and a pink fleece hat. Even though the stroller seat was reclined, Claire
kept pulling herself forward to play in the rain. We eventually had to give up
on the drenched stroller all together and after purchasing her a t-shirt with
Minnie on it, we turned the plastic bag upside down, tore holes in the bottom
and both sides, then slipped it over her head. Her makeshift raincoat reminded me of Natalie Portman in Garden
State.

In order to experience one exhibit,
the attendant told us to park the stroller outside the front entrance; Donna
flipped out about leaving the Mercedes of strollers (well at least the Volvo of
strollers) out where anyone could roll it away. With a sweeping hand I showed
her the other thousand strollers lined up outside rides all over the park, but
she still wasn¹t happy about it. After the ride, everything was exactly as she
left it and the strap of the heavy diaper bag I carried through the exhibit
only left a semi-permanent indentation on my right shoulder.

Even with free tickets to the park,
there gets to be a point where you just cash it in and head to the warm, dry
car. Of course, about the time we made it there is when the rain dissipated.

That evening Kimmy taught us a card
game called Continental, which we loved immediately. Donna and I are game
freaks as you can tell from here. The game changes each round and there are
eight total rounds. Esther and he play
this game in Madrid with her father when they visit, and they lose to him even
worse than they lost to me that evening.