Disneyland and more!

For our first family vacation, we actually went a lot of places. It was a rather dizzying tour of the West Coast.

I remember we left Portland and went north. I was somewhat asleep in the back of the camper shell when I heard Mom saying that we were in Washington. I thought that meant we were going to go to Washington, DC. They didn't teach us much about geography in the first grade. (What was surprising was that when I was in the 11th grade, there were about 10 students in my History class who still thought Washington, DC was in Washington state. And this was after Mount Saint Helens erupted. One of those students wondered why the Federal government wasn't being affected by it.)

I don't remember us doing much in Washington state. I remember going to Canada and visiting a few places there. I remember eating at a Space Needle-type restaurant and then going to a planetarium. One of the first images they showed was of the surrounding city and that building could be seen in the background.

I knew one of the highlights of this trip to Canada was that we were going to get to see The Banana Splits. It started off with a parade. We got to see the Splits pushing some go-cart. In front of us, one of them was able to get it started and then they drove off. It was exciting to watch. The strange thing was that Fleegle's fur was this light green color instead of the shades of brown that I was used to seeing on TV.

This parade led to something called "The Land of Milk and Honey," which looked like a state fair of sorts. There were a lot of rides and activities. We went to a show featuring the Splits. For about 30 minutes, they performed a few songs and comedy routines to what I later determined was a pre-recorded track. We ran around the Land of Milk and Honey for a few hours and saw another show with the Splits in another location at the park. It was the EXACT SAME SHOW! I wanted to see something different.

One other memory I have about Canada was getting hit in the head by a bear holding a giant key. Actually, it was a statue of a bear with a low-hanging key. I just didn't see it before hitting my head against it. It hurt.

So we worked our way down to Southern California and Disneyland. We got there early in the morning before the park opened. It was a lot of fun packed into one day. Back then, you had to purchase a packet of tickets to go on the various rides and attractions. If I recall correctly, there were A, B, C, D and E tickets. The C tickets were for the rides, and for whatever reason, we had fewer of those tickets than the others. Once you ran out of tickets, you went home. Because of this system, lines were not a problem at that time.

We took some pictures of us at Disneyland. In one of them, Loyd and I are posing with Pinocchio and I am crying. I don't remember why. I guess I might have been freaked out by the sight of this giant Pinocchio standing next to me.

A lot of people seem to have this same experience going to Disneyland: When we left the park, we were unable to find the car. (I guess we parked in the "Itchy" lot.) We walked around and around and just could not find the car. Finally, Dad had the rest of us stay put in one place while he ran around to find the car. About 15 minutes later, he showed up with the car. I got mad because that hour we spent looking for the car would have been better spent inside the park.

Our next stop was the San Diego Zoo. I don't remember a lot about the zoo, aside from some of the photos that were taken. And I really don't recall driving home immediately after the zoo. Apparently, Dad drove for 22 hours straight to get us home. I think we had run out of money and didn't have enough for a motel room.

So, that was our first family vacation. There were more to come, but not a lot more. I probably won't get to go into much detail about them, but this one was special because it was our first as a family.