We had a trip to Disney World planned for the beginning of November. To help with my Disney withdrawals, my roommate bought me a ticket to the Haunted Mansion's 50th birthday event. It was AMAZING! I didn't expect it to be as great as it was, as our last two trips to Disneyland were less than stellar. I highly recommend it if you have the opportunity to go.

It started with a phone call from my sister. "Hey, Dad wants to come out to San Diego. If I rent a car, will you drive him out here?" (My dad is 80 and lives in Tucson, Arizona.) Then she said the magic words "we could go to Disneyland for a day."

Ironically enough, I had started entertaining the idea of taking my dad to Disneyland a few days before that phone call. For the last couple of years, I had began suspecting that our trips to Disneyland during my childhood were really due to my father. I mentioned my suspicions to my sister (she is 8 years older than I am), and she immediately said "Oh it was totally his idea."

None of us kids are close to my dad due to some stuff that happened in the past. As he gets older though, my siblings seem to want to do more with him. My older brother and his family have annual passes to Disneyland, so I ran the idea past him. He was all for it, which meant I had to tell my younger sister (couldn't have just 3 out of the 4 of us). A quick phone call, and she was in. The only time frame that worked for everyone was during my trip to Disney World, so all of those plans were cancelled.

I called my dad today to confirm the details with him. Since he gets tired out very easily (I don't see him being in the park more than an hour or two), I wanted to be sure to put the things he wanted to do first. I asked him what his favorites were. To my surprise, he could tell me all about both parks and describe the rides he liked. I didn't even know he had been to the park since DCA opened. I guess I really do get it from my dad. :P

Now we are planning a 4 generation trip to Disneyland, and I have high hopes for it after how great the Haunted Mansion event was.