I love Disneyland. It's like stepping into a different world, a magical place of huge mansions, princess castles, old fashioned main streets, riverboats, pirate islands, towering mountains, and make-believe characters that mingle right in with everyone else. It's amazing.
The problem with Disneyland is it's not free, nor is it inexpensive. Especially when you are bringing your whole family. So I needed to figure out a way to take my five children without spending an arm and a leg doing it.
One of the most expensive parts of going to California was paying for a hotel. It was almost impossible to find somewhere that would allow six people to stay in one room, but two rooms cost twice as much, and I worried about letting some of my five children sleep in a room without an adult.
On the other hand, it took six hours to drive to Disneyland, and we wanted to spend as much time as possible in the park when we were there, so it really wasn't practical to drive over and back in the same day. But we could sleep in the van on the way home.
So one night in the middle of the summer I loaded my kids into our mini-van, each with their pillow and blanket, piled a cooler full of snacks, lunch, and pop into the back, and took off for California. It was about three o'clock in the morning. We drove straight to Anaheim, getting there just as the gates to Disneyland opened at 9:00 am.
What a delightful day we had. It had been three years since the last time we were there. Then Alyssa had only been two, and Stephen a baby. Now they were old enough to enjoy everything, and I loved seeing my excitement and wonder mirrored on the faces of my children.
By the time the electric light parade began at 10:00, though, we were all pretty worn out. Slowly we left 'the happiest place on earth', walked through the emptying parking lot, and tumbled into our van. I could have slept right there in the parking lot, but was uncomfortable being in the middle of so many people, so I drove out of the park, onto the freeway, and headed towards Arizona. A couple of hours later, with all the kids sound asleep and my own eyes drooping, I pulled off the highway into a rest area, made sure all my doors were locked, and closed my eyes. I was so tired, but of course I couldn't go to sleep. It felt like my eyes were wired open, and try as I might I couldn't seem to drift off. But I told myself to relax, stop worrying about who else might be driving along this stretch of highway in the middle of the night, and rest, even if I couldn't go to sleep. I woke up a couple of hours later, stiff, but no longer sleepy.
It was predawn, though the sky was light and I knew the sun would soon be up. Rolling down my window, a gust of fresh air blew over my face, and I breathed deeply. This was lovely! I really, really, really didn't want to go home yet. It was hot in the Valley, there were obligations and jobs waiting for me to do at home, and I really didn't want my little vacation to end. Anyway, who said I had to go home right now? The kids and I were on summer break from school, so why couldn't I take my time getting home?
I had taken an Arizona History class at ASU the previous summer, and my mind was still teaming with all the stories and geography I had learned. I might have grown up in Arizona, but there was an awful lot of it that I had never seen. Since we were on this side of the state, why not take the time to visit some of the places I had learned about?
So a few hours later, when we crossed the Colorado River and entered Arizona, I turned left instead of going straight, and drove up the river to Ehrenberg the first tiny town I'd studied. There was a cemetery I'd read about that I wanted to see, and although the kids thought I was crazy, I drove through the empty streets and soaked up it's quaintness, looking for landmarks that might still be there.
After Ehrenberg we followed the river on up to Lake Havasu. Again, I had read and studied about this resort town where an enterprising young entrepreneur had rebuilt, brick by brick, the actual London Bridge over a part of the lake. We parked the car near the bridge and walked down to see it. It was cool, perhaps a little understated, but still fascinating. By this time it was early afternoon and we were a long way from home, but I still didn't want our trip to be over. “Why not try to get a hotel here?” I thought. Surely they would be cheaper than in California.
We drove around a little, until I found a comfortable looking motel with a vacancy sign blinking. Not only did they have a room they would let all six of us sleep in, it was only $35.00! Remarkable!
Once that was settled, and I'd called home to let mom and dad know we wouldn't be back as soon as we had planned, I took the kids back down to the lake. We hadn't brought any clothes with us, and we were all looking pretty rumpled and dirty, but I'd seen some stands set up along the waterfront selling souvenir T-shirts. I was lucky, and found shirts for all of us, on sale even!
There was a dock in the same area, advertizing boat tours of the lake. They weren't very expensive, and I thought the kids would enjoy that, so I bought us all tickets and we spent the afternoon speeding around Lake Havasu, seeing the sights and the London Bridge from underneath, up close and personal. It was so much fun. The captain even let each of the kids take a turn steering the boat, and I snapped pictures all afternoon.
That night we took showers and cleaned up as best we could, then turned in early. I'm telling you, a bed never felt so good! I hadn't realized until I lay down just how tired I really was.
The next morning we left the Colorado river and followed the early settlers rout east, across the desert to Kingman, then on to Williams and Flagstaff. I never enjoyed scenery so much as I enjoyed that ride, imagining hot, dusty pioneers covering this same route a hundred years earlier; feeling their excitement when the distant mountains first became visible and knowing eventually we would get up into the cool pines.
From Flagstaff we drove south-east, stopping to see Mormon Lake. It was so beautiful! It was cloudy, cool, and misty way up there, and it really felt like we were in a different world, more like England than Arizona. Then I drove across country, down the rim, to Payson, our old favorite mountain town where we always bought soft serve ice-cream cones on the way to or from the cabin, and finally headed down to the valley and home. We had covered a lot of ground on this trip, most of it unplanned, but it sure was a fun vacation for me.
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