When your youngest child reaches the height of 42", take the family to Disneyland.

Save up, because it is going to be expensive. How expensive? Well, if you are like me, and drive your family of four from Sacramento and stay for three days, it is going to cost $1,844. Approximately.

Nick and Alisha joined us on our trip, and it was pretty much the ideal family getaway.

Here's the breakdown:
Before we left, we secured a room at Staybridge Suites in Anaheim, close to the park: $510 for four nights.

We also bought tickets for three days at Disneyland. Three day tickets are pretty much the minimum stay where you actually save money on park tickets. In 2011, tickets to Disneyland cost $80. For a two day ticket, you add $78 and pay $158. For three days, you add $41 and pay $199.

After three days, adding additional days gets really cheap. The fourth day is just $20 more, the fifth day is another $11. The sixth day is $5!

Kid tickets are a little less.

We paid (2 x $199 + 2 x $183) $764 total four four tickets (no sales tax).

Three days sounded like a luxurious stay to Stacy and I. Neither of us had ever been to Disneyland for more than one full day. We figured we could spend two days in Disneyland and one day in The other Disneyland - California Adventure.

But first we had to get there.

Our trip begin on a Wednesday. We picked June up early from school and brought her home "to run errands".

We sat her down and surprised her and Ferris with news of the trip, which was starting immediately.

To help withstand the six-hour trip, we bought a dual DVD player package for the car. They were $166. We rented $1 DVDs at the Redbox, intending to return them in Anaheim. Initially the kids were more excited about the DVD players in the car than they were about Disneyland.

Just out of Sacramento, we stopped for coffee and gas. We paid $47 for the 12 gallons it would take to get us the 400 miles to Orange County, California.

We packed a lunch for the road, and a box of snacks and easy food for the hotel room.

Disneyland doesn't let you bring food into the parks, or I would have packed an entire shopping cart.

I considered keeping track of every cent we spent on the trip, but I'll spare you from that level of detail for now.

We stopped a few times during the six hour drive, including a stop for hot dinner at Chipotle at Grapevine: $17.50

After about seven hours on the road, we checked into our hotel, a few blocks from Disneyland. The suite had two distinct rooms, including a fridge and a tiny stove.

The kids were extremely excited about staying in a hotel.

Can you spot the kids' bed in this photo?

In the morning we met with Nick and Alisha at breakfast downstairs. The hotel breakfast was eggs, waffles, bagels and canned peaches, juice and and coffee, with a rotating selection of sausage, bacon and ham.

An included hotel breakfast buffet takes on a special significance when your next meal is going to cost $45 inside Disneyland.

The hotel didn't have a dedicated hotel shuttle to Disneyland, but they were on the route for a subset of buses routes dedicated to Disneyland and the Anahiem convention center. It was just as good, with two extra stops on the way to the park.

We bought three day shuttle bus passes for $10 each, and we were on our way.

We jumped off the shuttle a few minutes later, standing in a wide plaza between the two parks: Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure.

We didn't have "park hopper" tickets, so we had to choose just one park for the whole day. We chose Disneyland.

Six minutes later, my son was hugging Pluto.

It was an overcast Thursday morning in October, so the park was lightly attended.

Alisha and Stacy stopped to grab a cappuccino ($4.30) on Main Street.

Next we introduced our kids to Sleeping Beauty's castle in the center of the park, and made our way through to Toontown.

Our first legitmate ride was Roger Rabbit's Car Toon spin. This is a "dark ride" where each car can spin around 360 degrees like a teacup.

We picked up Fastpass tickets to the Car Toon, and the line looked very short, so we stepped in.

This was a mistake. The line was actually about 45 minutes long, it was just concealed completely within the structure of the ride. The ride was pretty good, but our kids weren't familiar with the Roger Rabbit movie, so we didn't plan on returning.

Our Fastpasses would go unused.

For anyone unfamiliar with the Fastpass, here is how they work:

Disneyland is a one-entry fee park, good for all the attractions and rides. Twelve years ago, you had to just wait in line for rides, with the most popular rides sometimes taking 60 or 90 minutes of wait time.

Fastpass is a virtual ride reservation system, controlled by small ticket dispensers outside of the eight busiest rides. The Fastpass ticket is printed with a ride time span for you, e.g. 10:20am - 11:20 am., usually at least an hour from the present time. It is a reservation to ride.

When you arrive at a ride with a Fastpass reservation, you queue up in a second, super-short line, run past all the other people in the regular line and jump right onto the ride.

Fastpasses are awesome. You can only hold one or two at a time, so you can't avoid lines all day, but the system definitely frees up several hours in each day when you might otherwise be standing in line, staring at your smartphone.

We didn't spend any more time in Toon Town, we circled back to the "Disney Princess Fantasy Faire", which I believe was just a walkthrough attraction where you can meet and pose with a few of the Disney princess characters.

We were scared off by the 90-minute posted wait.

We made our way back down to Fantasyland, spotting Snow White, the Mad Hatter and Mary Poppins on the way. We also rand into Jafar and Malificent.

We rode Snow White's Scary Adventure. Another dark ride.

It was already 11:10 am. We made plans to come back to this area to hit the Storybook canal boats, Pinocchio's Daring Journey, etc., but we wanted to pick up some more Fastpasses first.

We headed to Tomorrowland, where we found the newest attraction, a revamped Star Tours ride. Unfortunately everyone was queued up already, and even the Fastpasses weren't going to be good until 7:30 that evening!

We opted instead for Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blaster, another dark ride, this one had spinning cars and dual pistols with which to attack battery-hoarding baddies on the way. Each rider's target performance was calculated by a score on their dashboard. It was pretty fun!

Next we walked deeper into Tomorrowland and got in line for the Submarine Voyage... I mean the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage.

In line we bought some cotton candy. $6 in this souvenir bucket.

I don't think there is any other theme park with an underwater ride. It's kind of ridiculous if you think about it.

If I remember correctly, the ride used to involve a simulated squid attack. In the Finding Nemo re-vamp, the submarine starts off the same, idling past some underwater scenes, but ends up sailing past a series of underwater scenes from Finding Nemo.

It was an odd combination.

By this time it was afternoon, so we stopped at the Plaza Inn restaurant for lunch.

Chicken was a specialty, so Stacy and I split a chicken lunch and a Cobb salad. The kids had chicken kids meals. Our family total was $48.50. There was a lot of food, tempting me to re-use our souvenir cotton candy bucket as a chicken leftover tote.

I resisted the temptation.

After lunch we walked over to Adventureland and picked up Fastpass tickets for the Haunted Mansion. For the halloween season, they had re-decorated with a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. It looked extremely busy, but we would be skipping that line in about an hour.

We caught a glimpse of Jack Skelleton.

The line for Jungle Cruise was fairly short, so we jumped in line and tried that next.

I wonder, how do they make a track for a boat ride?

Towards the end of the ride we spotted princess Jasmine sneaking out of a side door into the back of Aladdin's Oasis.

Tragically she was shot by a blowgun dart and fell paralyzed into the jaws of an alligator.

Next we hit up the Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse, repurposed into Tarzan's treehouse.

Impressed with the pre-show at other rides, where the wait in line is decorated so thorougly that the wait is almost enjoyable, I had joked with Nick that it would be funny if one of the line just came to and end and opened out into the park, without a ride.

That's what Tarzan's treehouse is, a long staircase up a giant tree structure, decorated to the gills with memorabilia and vignettes, but it's just a walkthrough attraction.

Pirates of the Caribbean was closed for the week. Rumor was they were adding something to the ride to make guests get a little wetter.

Next we went out to Critter Country and noticed that the wait for Splash Mountain was marked as being only 30 minutes.

We weren't sure Ferris would qualify as 40" tall, but he stood tall and was definitely tall enough to ride! Yes! This meant that he qualified for both Star Tours and Space Mountain! Awesome!

We jumped into line. It took 50 minutes, but it was worth it. Splash mountain is a real thrill ride, which isn't the usual result for a log flume, and our kids loved it.

We let our three year old sit in front.

He survived.

Our Fastpass appointment for haunted castle had arrived, which also signalled the availability of another Fastpass.

Nick and I ran over to Thunder Mountain railroad and picked up another batch of Fastpasses for everyone.

We reconnected with the group and trotted past the line for Haunted Mansion. It was 4 p.m. and we were finally using our first Fastpasses of the day.

I hate to say it, but the Nightmare Before Christmas re-dressing kind of ruined the haunted mansion ride. It wasn't spooky at all, with cartoonish additions in every corner.

I guess that's preferable to giving the kids nightmares for the next 10 days, but the adults were unimpressed.

Next we went on a candy run to Main Street. The Candy Palace delivered.

June selected "Chocolat-Ears" Chocolate malt balls ($5.95) Ferris selected a unicorn pop. ($1.95) and Stacy and I had chunks of fudge ($7.50).

The parade wouldn't start for another hour and a half, but people were already camping out on Main Street curb.

Next we rode Thunder Mountain. Our 40" tall son was measured again, and welcomed inside. We hesitated at the entrance and turned to grab another set of Fastpasses for Thunder Mountain.

The ride had a tiny line for Fastpass ticket holders, so we waited about 10 minutes to board, passing a few hundred other passengers.

Thunder mountain was the first real roller coaster of the day, and we all held on for our lives. After a morning of slow dark rides, we were hitting our stride.

As luck would have it, our second set of Thunder Mountain Fastpasses had given us an appointment in just 20 minutes.

We sat on some benches and hung out.

Twenty four minutes later, we were back on Thunder Mountain.

We wandered back to Main Street as the sun went down, reaching it a few minutes before the parade was scheduled to start.

I've never seen so many kids on shoulders in my life.

The parade was pretty impressive.

I only realized later that most of the music was broadcast over the park loudspeakers and that it moved from one bank of speakers to the next as the appropriate float rolled by.

Disney parade performers are ultra professionals. I never saw any of them out of character, or not smiling, unless they weren't supposed to be smiling.

Seeing the parade end at 7:45 p.m. was the end of the day for a lot of guests, including our family.

Ferris had been asking when we were leaving for about two hours, so it didn't break his heart that we didn't stay till closing.

Nick and Alisha headed to dinner and we headed back to the hotel.

Our kids fell asleep in one minute.

The next day we went to California Adventure. It's directly across from Disneyland.

California Adventure didn't open until 10 a.m., so we actually got there before they opened.

On the plaza were hundreds of hexagonal bricks, engraved with the names of people who have died at Disneyland.

No, no, no, wait, these were just sold to people who wanted to put their names close to Disneyland. They were sold for $150 each, so you are looking at $6,150 in this photograph.

A good 15 minutes before 10, they started letting us in.

Here's Nick and Alisha getting their tickets scanned.

Being there as the park opened gave us an exciting start to the day. Everyone wanted to run inside and do everything all at once.

So we did.

First of all, we grabbed a Fastpass for California Soaring, a hang-gliding simulation, then we jammed over to The Little Mermaid - Ariel's Undersea Adventure ride.

This was a dark ride with maybe a 5-minute wait. It was awesome, with many completely animatronic characters and projected faces.

Definitely a dark ride for 2011.

The bathrooms were newer too.

Did you know that it is very difficult to pry a three year old away from a Dyson Airblade?

With almost no lines yet, we continued trying to knock out a bunch of rides.

It was a cool morning, and overcast, and this part of the park (Paradise Pier) looked exactly like a real beach boardwalk.

We almost climbed right aboard the "Golden" Zephyr.

Then we picked up a Fastpass for Goofy's Sky School coaster and walked right on to the Jumpin' Jellyfish ride.

We had barely just arrived, and it was time to cash in our first Fastpasses at California Soarin'.

This hang gliding simulation has a unique ride mechanism. It is gigantic.

Passengers are loaded onto three rows of seats, but as the ride begins, the gigantic arm lifts and pivots them up and moves them closer to a huge IMAX movie screen.

The three rows turn into three levels of fliers, stacked on top of one another.

According to Wikipedia, the unique ride mechanism was demonstrated to the engineering team with a model built from an erector set.

The ride also features location-specific scents being introduced into the air around the ride.

I also noticed that the material used in the seats is the same nylon netting material used in the Herman Miller Aeron chairs.

After California Soarin', we were due back to Sky School to redeem our Fastpasses, but we got distracted on the way by an extremely short line at the Grizzly River Rafting ride.

Yesterday we had been relieved to find that Ferris was over 40" tall, and today we found that he was over 42" tall! This was a terrific revelation, but how did he grow 2 inches in one day?

Being 42" meant that a bunch of rides at Cal Adventure were open to him, including Tower of Terror and Goofy's Sky School. We were ecstatic.

River Rafting was a really fun ride. Its amazing what a difference a round boat makes when you are enjoying a ride as a group. We literally ended up just laughing and screaming through the whole trip.

The raft seats are reinforced and decorated by a steel "backpack" frame, complete with water jugs and sachels. It's a great detail.

It was a little early to be dripping wet, so we warmed up with three cups of hot cocoa ($9).

We had an appointment time at Goofy's flight school, but a rolling Phineas and Ferb dance party stopped and gave us a show while we drank our chocolate.

In addition to the cartoon stars, two hot gals in knee socks kept the audience's attention.

Our Fastpasses were almost expired by the time we actually got to Goofy's Sky School, which meant that we were on time to pick up a second set.

This was an extremely compact roller coaster, with tiny four-person vehicles making incredibly sharp turns and harrowing falls. The kids loved it.

It had been a very full day, and it was barely past noon. We walked down around the lake and through the midway area.

A tiny "wharf" area held a food court, where we opted for mexican food at Cocina Cucamonga.

Lunch was $43.90.

Stacy had this carne asada and chicken tamale.

Ferris had a kid's taco with rice and oranges.

June had a burrito with rice and oranges.

I opted for the Chicken Tacos.

After lunch, on the way to the Bug's Life-themed Bug Land, the Hollywood Tower of Terror loomed in the distance.

I hope this photograph fully portrays how awesome it looks. It was huge and creepy with an unsettling architecture, even if you ignore the lightning burns on the exterior.

We also got a look at the Cars Land attraction being built at the southeast corner of the park.

Workers were crawling along scaffolds, building a gigantic rocky painted desert.

We picked up Fastpasses for Tower of Terror and headed back to Goofy's flight school to make our second appointment for riding the tiny coaster.

This time Goofy himself made an appearance and engulfed Ferris.

Nick and I were both stopped and asked to complete a survey during our stay. I believe there were only 3-4 questions on the survey.

Back on the boardwalk to pick up some rollercoaster Fastpasses, we got a closer look at the giant ferris wheel, Mickey's Fun Wheel.

As you can see from this photo, the wheel actually dips to the level of the lake, with boarding taking place below the water level. I bet they did this so that they could make the wheel as large as possible without breaking high-structure building restrictions.

After we got the California Screaming Fastpasses, we gambled that the kids would probably rather spend time in Bug's Land than go on a bunch of terrifying rides.

Stacy and Alicia stayed with the kids while Nick and I continued through to the Tower of Terror, armed with six Fastpasses.

Tower of Terror is a drop ride, where riders sit in an oversized elevator car and zip up and down an elevator shaft in complete darkness.

Like Soaring Over California, it was a type of ride I had never experienced before. I was excited to try it, and with our first two Fastpasses, we'd only wait about 5 minutes to get in an elevator.

During the wait, we listened to a spooooky announcement about what to watch out for in the elevator. They we heard the announcement in spooooky Spanish.

I find it difficult to question the methods of Disneyland. I know the Disney team is amazing, and they have been doing crowd control for long enough to be world leaders in the field.

However, I didn't understand how the elevator car loading sequence was designed. Look how the numbers in the staging area are in six columns, but they pivot into rows when passengers take their seats.

Why didn't they make the staging area mimic the arrangement in the car itself?

Maybe figuring out loading charts gives the illusion of a reduced wait time.

The elevator ride was awesome. Very disorienting and freaky. On the top floor, steel curtains flip open and bathe the car in sunlight, revealing that you have been whisked to the top of a five-story building in seconds.

They you fall.

Nick and I jumped off the ride and ran back around to the front, still clutching more Fastpasses. We went a second time.

By the time we exited, our wives had joined us at the exit, just in time to view some of the Incredibles gliding in at the end of their mini-parade.

The Incredibles kids were not among them.

Probably in school.

We went back through Bug's Land, stopping at Francis' Ladybug Boogie for a teacup ride.

I bet one of these surly ladybug cars costs more than a Volkswagen.

We didn't stop for the Princess Dot puddle park. A tiny Snow White was having a moment in there.

We made a Fastpass appointment for the River Raft again, then split up so Nick and I could exploit our stack of California Screamin' Fastpasses.

The kids stayed with Stacy and Alisha in Bug's Land.

Earlier in the day I had assumed that there were two seperate coasters on the wharf, but it was just one long one: California Screaming.

It starts at the Lagoon edge with a burst from its linear induction motor, shooting it to the peak of a tall hill.

The blue split tubes on the hills were a mystery to us.

Visually, the ride is highlighted in a few places by these tubes, places where the track is both far above the ground and likely to produce screaming.

An internet search revealed that they block screaming sounds from crossing the southern border of the park into a residential area.

Here's a picture of the ride operator. His name is Greg Repuyeor.

Getting a rollercoaster Fastpass for each member of our group seemed like a hack, because only two of us were actually using them.

We ran back in line and used a second set, then we ran to catch up with the girls at Grizzly River Rafting Company.

The day had warmed, so the raft ride was a little more enjoyable the second time.

This time I caught a photo of a tiny waterpipe leak the designers added on the main lift section.

Because you are strapped into the raft, one or two unlucky passengers can see this sprinkle coming from 20 feet away, but are pretty much helpless to dodge it.

What a great detail.

It was only 4:30 p.m., but we were running out of gas. The lightly populated morning had enabled us to see most of the park already, and our enthousiasm for seeing every last detail was starting to wane.

We took a break at the UP themed Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.

You know, they might as well just change the name from California Adventure to Pixarland.

This section was a good place to relax and let the kids run around on a type of playground they had never seen before.

There was a zip line, a rock climbing wall, a spirit cave, observation tower, slides, a hollow log and about 3,000 feet of rope net catwalks.

A little after five p.m. we had had our fill of California Adventure and made our way back out to the shuttles, stopping to deliver on a cotton candy promise from earlier in the day.

I should mention that we were much less tempted to buy souvenirs from the California Adventure park. There weren't nearly as many stores as there are in Disneyland, or perhaps they are just better concealed.

In the plaza between the two parks, we could see a crowd of halloween costumes arriving. A special halloween event called Trick or Treat with Mickey was about to get rolling. It sounded like a wild event, but we weren't interested enough to justify the $60 price tag.

We went back to the hotel, where are fellow guest were enjoying this non-trademark infringing mouse head-shaped pool.

For dinner we went to California Pizza Kitchen across from the Anahiem convention center.

The place was packed with families and groups. It was pretty easy to tell which groups were there to visit Disneyland and which groups were there to visit Blizzcon.

Nick and Alisha bought dinner.

We got back to the hotel around 7:30 and the kids fell asleep in one minute.

Saturday was our last day scheduled at Disneyland.

Our morning routine of hotel breakfast and shuttle was sharpened and we got to the park earlier than ever before 9:12 a.m.

Here's Ferris with Captain Hook.

On this second Disneyland day, we were a little more focused on getting the right Fastpasses at the right time. This time we picked up Star Tours Fastpasses first. Then we walked over to Space Mountain before the line got out of hand.

Unfortunately after about 5 minutes in line, a gal made the announcement that the ride was having difficulties and would not be running for some unknown period of time.

We left.

We walked past the Matterhorn and got in an extremely short line at It's a Small World.

It's a Small World is a ridiculously long ride... it's 15 minutes long!

Check Wikipedia. If you do, you'll also learn that the ride was originally designed and built in eleven months for the 1964 World's fair in New York, then broken down and carted to California to be rebuilt in Disneyland.

You'll also learn that the "boatload of veiwers" ride model was a guest-eating line destroyer, and its success prompted a re-design of Pirates of the Caribbean from subterranean walk-through to a similar float-through ride.

When we emerged, Disneyland was filling up with people. It was a beautiful October weekend, and everyone was showing up to join the fun.

As this was our final day, we had a short list of must-rides to hit.

The first was Peter Pan's Flight.

There was a 40 minute wait for Peter Pan's flight. I had only remembered the flying over London part, but the ride has about 10 more scenes after that.

Next we picked up some Fastpasses for Space Mountain and visited Autopia.

Autopia is a ridiculous ride. It is a miniature highway of mini gas-powered cars. I think you have to be 8 to really enjoy it.

Alisha and Nick were still checking out Innoventions Pavillion, so we stopped for souvenirs and ended up watching our kids build some lightsabers in Star Trader.

We got two ($47.30).

Lunchtime was nearing, and we weren't ready for mexican food again, so we wandered into Frontierland looking for some chow.

At the mouth of Frontierland, some souvenier pin traders had assembled, flipping through catalogs and trading with other guests.

I have two questions:

1. When did collector pins get so popular?
2. Why aren't we trading Fastpasses here?

We didn't have $7.00 hand-dipped corn dogs. For that price, I expect a real hand to be included.

We ate at the French Market in New Orleans Square. Lunch was $49.50.

While everyone was finishing up lunch, I ran over and picked up some Fastpasses for Thunder Mountain Railroad.

It seemed strange that I was collecing Fastpasses for a third ride before our appointment time for even the first one had arrived. My fears were doubled when a Fastpass didn't emerge from the machine, but when I consulted a nearby employee, he assured me that there had simply been an error in the system. He fixed the problem and the machine spit out my tickets.

You gotta love Disneyland. They fix your problem.

I met back up with the group and we were ready to ride!

First we went to Star Tours. The updated version of Star Tours is awesome. The story is a little better and the graphics are stellar. Everyone in the car laughed at the rebel spy feature, but I won't spoil the surprise for you.

After Star Tours, we jammed back through the crowds to Frontierland to make our Thunder Mountain appointment.

Thunder mountain was super crowded, with the standby roped-off line winding all the way back to Rancho del Zocalo. It must have been a 90-minute wait.

But we had Fastpasses, and they must have been the turbo variety, because we were at the front in three minutes flat, boarding an empty mining car.

No matter how many times I use a Fastpass, it is quite a rush to stroll past a giant line of people like that.

Our final set of Fastpasses was for Space Mountain, but we were free to pick up one more set, so we headed over to Splash Mountain.

We stopped to get ice cream Mickeys on the way. ($12.75).

Unfortunately, the day had turned. Large crowds had already decimated the supply of Fastpasses from Splash Mountain, making the next available appointments at 7:30 p.m.

That was too late, by then we'd be back at the hotel, taking a break before the 8:30 fireworks show.

The end was near, and another visit to Splash Mountain wasn't in the cards.

Luckily, there were plenty of characters around, including the ones we'd have to chase down, such as Cruela de Ville.

Back to Tomorrowland for Space Mountain. Even with Fastpasses it took a good 20 minutes to reach the cars.

The kids were excited, and I was a little nervous that this "Ghost Galaxy" Halloween version of the ride would freak them out.

It was freaky, but the kids hardly noticed. Space mountain is a pitch black, all indoor coaster ride. Quite an experience for a first-time rider.

They both loved it.

At 4:07 we were done with rides, heading out to pick up some souvenirs before taking a rest at the hotel.

We got a dress for June and a shirt for Stacy.

Nick and Alisha bought the kids ears.

As our transactions in the stores ended, we realized that we were right next to the parade end gates, positioned in the just right spot to see a bunch of characters up close and personal.

We waved and got all of their attention, just before their floats rolled off stage.

Here is Snow White.

Belle.

Mary Poppins and others.

Her vehicle was actually a carousel horse trike.

We left Disneyland at 6 and took a break at the hotel, eating fast food from the drive thru. We wanted to recharge before making a night run out to see the fireworks show.

That plan worked out pretty well, we ended up returning just in time.

The fireworks show was spectacular.

You may have seen a fireworks show that was timed to a soundtrack, but at Disneyland, the soundtrack tells the story, and the fireworks just illustrate it. The show has several segments, including six that represent each of the park's regions and the rides in it.

Traditional fireworks only make up a small portion of the show, as laser lights, jets of flame, projected images and a death defying Tinkerbell flight work in unison like nothing I'd ever seen before.

After the fireworks, we were salmon swimming upstream into the depths of the park. We tried to make it onto Thunder Mountain railroad, but the ride was suspended due to some safety concern.

Then we walked around the top of the park and waited for Fantasyland to open up after the fireworks cleanup.

Some rides were deserted, including Pinocchio's Daring Journey, so we climbed aboard as fast as we could navigate the maze of line chain.

Finally, we met back up with Alicia and Nick, as well as Gwen and Bulent, to ride Alice in Wonderland.

At 10:03 pm, we emerged from this final dark ride, said our goodbyes and headed back to the shuttles. Our trip to Disneyland was winding to a close.

Back at the hotel, the kids fell asleep in one minute.

Thanks for sticking with me through this long personal odyssey through three days in Anahiem.

Here is the simple expense report for three days in Disneyland:

Another facet of the story is revealed if we analyse the data making up my park experience.

With my $199 three-day ticket, I experienced twelve characters, thirty rides, three walk-throughs, four parades and one fireworks show.

Obviously the "ride" is the base unit of entertainment in the resort, but I needed numbers for character interactions, parades etc., so I came up with relative values to those activities and tweaked them until my total price equalled that $199.

Thus my trip can be dissected into 30 rides at $4.70 each, twelve character visits for $2 each, three walk-throughs for $3, four parades for $5, and a fireworks show for $5.

I could also divide the price by the total number of hours being entertained to the Disneyth degree, but I'm not going to bother. I'll just tell you it was well worth it.