Whirlwind of a Weekend

Here below is a brief synopsis of the crazy weekend my roommate and I just experienced:

Thursday: Harry Potter midnight showing...the preshow was great! A guy dressed up as though he came from the house of Slytherin and challenged the audience to a duel. A few people got up, and then one guy in our theater who was dressed as Voldemort stood up and took him on...he did a great job acting it. And a guy dressed as Hagrid got up and sat on the original guy. Pretty hilarious.

The movie was great! I left it hardly believing 2 1/2 hours had passed by and definitely wanting more. Hope the last one is amazing.

Friday: Traveled to California. Pretty uneventful except for a dust storm and rain once we got into California.

Saturday: It was pretty fantastic. :) I love Disneyland. No Becky, I didn't get a caramel apple. I still wouldn't have eaten it. It rained for a good portion of the day, so the lines were amazing! The longest line by 15 minutes was Space Mountain, and it was 35 min. Totally unheard of for Disneyland on a Saturday.

We hit all the rides I wanted to go on, went on Thunder Mountain twice and Splash Mountain three times in a row since there wasn't a line. They did a good job with the update on the Submarine ride, which is now Finding Nemo. Loved the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters...it's an interactive ride where you shoot at things and get points for it. :)

I was being really intense while Kaylee was in it for the fun of it. :)

They've updated the Nightmare Before Christmas decorations for the Haunted Mansion, so that was interesting to see...Pirates was good, but I miss the old Pirates...not such a fan of the new stuff they've added for the movies. The movies were based off of the ride, so why should they change the ride??? Gah!

Got a picture with Minnie and Mickey...will upload eventually...

Ate at the Blue Bayou...mmmmm, Monte Cristo's!!!

The fireworks were canceled due to high winds, but Fantasmic was on and it was Fantastic! Went on Splash Mountain three times in a row on the same log because there wasn't a line...the second time we came up and there was Ariel and Prince Eric on their boat about to start performing for Fantasmic...we screamed and they heard us and waved! It was awesome...

So yeah. 9AM-11:30PM...with a 50 minute drive back to Aunt Linda's house.

Sunday: Oh. My. Gosh. Well, the weather was great until just after we passed through St. George. Then the heavens opened and it was snow. Heavy thick snow and it was heading right toward us. That is the most trippy thing to have to stare into for 1 1/2 hours. My eyes are still tired from that. Then of course it was sticking to the road (we had heard it wasn't). Then we were driving on pure ice. We must have passed more than 10 incidents on the side of the road, 3 of them had obviously rolled. I was kinda freaking out.

We get to Beaver and they shut down the freeway....

We hear they are going to reopen the freeway. But I am NOT about to go drive on that again. So we pull into a Best Western and get on a waiting list. There are some cancellations, so everyone but the couple above us on the list get a room. The freeway reopens, and they decide to drive it.

Then an angel of mercy dropped down and a miracle happened.

So by this time, we have been sitting in the lobby of the hotel for at least 1 1/2 hours. I am in shock from driving and seeing all those accidents. Then this guy who had been on the waiting list pops his head in the door and asks if we are still wanting a room. He explains that he and his partner are thinking about trying out the freeway and may give up their room. And hour later, he comes in and hands us the keys. He GAVE us the room. Didn't ask for any money in return. I about dropped to the floor and started crying when he did that. We go in the room, and they turned up the temp to nice and toasty so we could thaw out.

The amazing thing is the lady at the front desk offered to take us to her house if we couldn't get anything. She asked us if we had money...was really taking care of us.

We are too wired from the shock of the drive to fall asleep right away, so we watch a movie and I tossed and turned until about 1:30, 2:00AM. Finally fall asleep, wake up at 7:30, and are on the road by 8:00AM. The roads were by far and away SO much better this morning, but there was still ice on the roads. We passed another roll over accident. But we were able to travel at the speed limit most of the way, thank goodness. I missed work this morning because I was still exhausted and such from the trip overall, but am at work right now.

So hopefully tonight I will get a full night sleep and be totally perky tomorrow.

And there you have my wild adventure. The End.