Day 17: Wednesday June 15, 2016
Today was our last day in America and we spent it at the happiest place on Earth- Disneyland! 2 years ago, Miss Hannaford and I visited Disney World in Orlando Florida, but this is our first visit to Disneyland in Anaheim, California.
Our first impression of Disneyland was that it was much smaller than Disney World but it was also backwards. The Town Hall is on the opposite side of the town square than in Disney World. While we were in the Town Square we had the chance to meet Mickey Mouse himself!
Then we caught the horse drawn tram up to Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and had photos taken in front of the castle.
After our visit to the castle, our next stop was to visit Miss Hannaford’s favourite attraction from Disney World- The Haunted Mansion! The Haunted Mansion in Disneyland is slightly different especially on the outside and at the beginning of the ride but otherwise it was just as fantastic as the one in Disney World!
After the haunted Mansion, we had lunch at the Three Bears, followed by a climb of Tarzan’s tree and a visit to the Enchanted Tiki Room- this was Miss Hannaford’s favourite place in the park because of all the great animatronic puppets that were even the columns that held up the roof!
On our walk back to the entrance of the park, we visited the attraction called Great Moments with Mr Lincoln- an audio animatronic presentation about Abraham Lincoln.
For the afternoon, Miss Hannaford and I went to California Adventure which is opposite the entrance to Disneyland. This park feels more like Disney Hollywood Studios in Florida. The ride we both wanted to go on was the Ferris Wheel. The Ferris Wheel has two kinds of cars- stationary cars and swinging cars. Miss Hannaford didn’t want to get sick, so we went on the stationary cars.
We wandered around the many shops looking for Muppet merchandise for Miss Hannaford’s collection. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any but it did fill in some time while Miss Hannaford was waiting to meet up with one of her American friends, Steve Swanson from the Muppetcast. The Muppetcast is a podcast about the Muppets and Miss Hannaford has been listening to it for 9 years. Steve is the host of the Muppetcast and he wanted to interview Miss Hannaford for the podcast about her experiences last week at Beyond the Sock.
They met at Carthay Circle Lounge in California Adventure and the interview took 2.5 hours! Steve thought I was really pretty, told me I look like a real Muppet with my golden triangle facial features and he got to hold my new friend Professor McCluckagall! After the interview, Steve and Miss Hannaford went to watch the fireworks in Disneyland and we all went on the Haunted Mansion ride together followed by visiting the inside of Sleeping Beauty’s castle!
You can listen to Miss Hannaford’s interview on the Muppetcast here: http://muppetcast.com/show-285/
Day 18: Thursday June 16, 2016
Today we flew home to Australia after our amazing 3 week trip in America. Miss Hannaford and I were so tired that we slept for about 8 hours of the 14 hour flight home to Sydney. We will be arriving in Sydney on Saturday, because we are going to be flying over the international date line. I am looking forward to seeing all my classmates in Macquarie Blue, Green and Gold when I go back to school next week.
Lucy and Miss Hannaford