Happiest place in the world?

Renee loves Disney.  I can take it or leave it.  There are some great movies, but I'm not a passionate fan by any measure.

Since Renee was in Hong Kong with me, I decided to take her to visit Disneyland.  She had been to several in the US, whereas I had never been to any, so it seemed like an ideal opportunity for us to both experience the "Happiest Place in the World".

I was actually a bit excited about going.  Even though I had grown out of the prime age for this type of activity, it was still one of those experiences that everyone wants to have at least once in their life.  The idea of going to Disneyland is so filled with joy and happiness, it wasn't something I wanted to miss because of some self imposed ideas on what was and wasn't age appropriate.  As we arrived at the front of the park, I could feel my excitement growing.

Sadly, not much of this excitement was to last.

I was definitely too old for most of this.

The rides were heavily geared towards very young children which made it hard for me to enjoy too much of it other than for nostalgia reasons.

Worst of all was that the upkeep and general care shown to the park as a whole was terrible.  It was dirty, poorly maintained and the whole place felt in need of a big renovation.  Given the cost of entry and the reputation it has, I definitely felt like I had been taken on a bit of a "ride" (puns can be funny).

There were still moments when I felt lost in the magic of Disney though.  Sitting through the Winnie the Pooh ride, I felt a rush of the memories of childhood.  I loved Winnie the Pooh when I was young.  I remember watching the cartoons and my parents reading me the stories.  One of my oldest memories of school was the Winnie the Pooh themed activity days we did in my first year.  My mum came in with the other parents to help and unbeknownst to the teachers and other parents, my mother was and is a talented artist.  They asked her to help with some of the drawings to decorate the classroom, she very quickly drew enormous versions of all of the characters on large sheets of butchers paper that soon adorned the walls of the entire classroom.  I still remember seeing this perfectly rendered, enormous pictures of all my favourite characters.  This all seemed normal to me as my mum had always been able to help me with my drawings when I was at home.  I didn't fully appreciate her skills as a young child, but I definitely noticed when all the parents came to visit, with all of them standing around in awe, looking at all the drawings my mum had created.  When these activity days finished, since my mum had been the one to draw them, I was given the first choice of the pictures to take home with me.