The day started early. Apparently all days start early, but I don't usually participate. We turned in early last night, and I slept fairly well, so a crack-of-dawn start for the day wasn't totally outrageous.

It was a little after six when I woke up and heard the shower running. I looked around the room and saw Eric, Tammy and David, so I naturally asked, "Who's in the shower?" For some reason this struck everyone as funny.

The way I got the story is that Eric ran the hot water in the shower for twenty minutes before giving up on the idea of having any hot water. By the time I was half awake, he'd already called the desk and got a sleepy maintenance guy to come in and run the shower for another ten minutes. He was the one in the shower when I surfaced.

The first two showers were lukewarm. I took the third and was satisfied with the water temperature. No one in any of our other rooms had any trouble getting hot water, so we definitely had a legitimate complaint.

A continental breakfast was available, but all I could take that early was coffee. Morning isn't a great time for me to try to eat, despite all the "most important meal of the day" propaganda from the scrambled egg and French toast industry. Thanks, but I'll eat later.

Mom and Linda took the shuttle to Disney's California Adventure, while the rest of us walked up the block to Disneyland. Getting into the park at eight in the morning has its advantages. We had already ridden on several of the major rides before we encountered any lines to speak of. It's different walking right up to Big Thunder Mountain and Star Tours and just getting on the ride. We didn't even have much of a wait at the Matterhorn.

By 11:30 am I was through riding for a while. All of us had arranged to meet at Sleeping Beauty's castle at noon for lunch, and the eleven of us who were at Disneyland all got there on time, so I guess everyone was ready to eat.

After lunch, John, Suzanne and I stayed at Disneyland while the others headed next door to the other park. I was worn out and ready to slow down for a while. We hit the Main Street shops (I did some Christmas shopping, shhhh) and by 3:00 pm I was back at the hotel with my shoes off and my feet up. Our day wasn't done, but I was done in, at least for now.

This was my first time on the Indiana Jones ride. I'd been on Pirates of the Caribbean years ago, but it was like a new adventure for me. And the Haunted Mansion has been done over in a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. All the attractions are first rate fun and family friendly. Sometimes you just have to stop and watch the faces of the children (and adults, for that matter) to appreciate what makes the Disneyland experience so great.

Being pregnant, Tammy couldn't go on all the rides. I offered to go on the Small World ride with her, but she wasn't that desperate.

But guess what? I got a second wind, and all it took was an hour's nap. I dozed peacefully until 4:30 pm, and by then I was ready to start the day over again.

And that's just about what we did. We took the shuttle back to the park and went on most of our favorite rides one more last time. It was almost like being there for a second day, except that it was night and therefore dark. That meant that in addition to the rides, we also got to see millions of pretty colored lights and the fabulous fireworks display.

This time when we left it was 10:30 pm and we were all ready to cash in for the day. It was exhausting, but it was also our only day at Disneyland, and we wanted to get the most we possibly could out of it. I think we succeeded.