Disneyland

I spent this past week at Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. REI sent me there for a conference, but there was ample time to have a little fun and take a few pictures.

I attended the World Congress of Business Analysts, which probably sounds a lot more impressive than it is. The conference was, overall, hit or miss. Some sessions were very good (interesting, informative) and some were quite bad (boring, irrelevant). It also offered a good opportunity to get to know some of my coworkers better; REI's contingent was 12 strong. For this reason alone it was worth going.

We stayed at the aging Disneyland Hotel, which is also where all the classes were held. This was convenient because I was able to take advantage of the beautiful weather (80's & 90's every day) to go swimming in the beautiful pool at lunch time. All the families were at one of the theme parks during the day, so the pool was deserted.

The entire Disney complex in California is smaller but far more convenient than Disney World in Florida; you can walk everywhere. The hotels are connected to the parks via Downtown Disney, a pedestrian corridor with shops, restaurants, and surprisingly active nightlife (which we took advantage of).

Without apparent irony or sarcasm, they call Disneyland 'The Happiest Place on Earth.' This is surely only true if you are 7 years old and aren't footing the bill. Parents spend extravagant sums of money buying Disney-branded crap for their kids: every little girl is a princess, every little boy a Pirate of the Caribbean. No wonder kids these days have serious entitlement issues.

I'm fortunate that my employer was footing the bill. My only real expense was entry into the Disneyland park itself for an evening. Some of the rides (the roller coaster style ones) were genuinely fun for adults, and a new Indiana Jones ride was very entertaining. Lines were pretty short, and we timed it so that we wouldn't need to buy the overpriced food in the park.

It was a good trip. I learned a few things, the weather was nice, and I got to hang out with some very fun people. Anya was a little jealous, but she's going to get her revenge: she's going on a girls' trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to hang out on the beach in a few weeks.