chase the light

Hey look, it’s that castle! No trip to to L.A. would be complete without a pop into Disneyland. It’s changing so fast there that every other year or so whole new things are opening. The one thing that brings back the most nostalgia though is the smell of Pirates of the Caribbean. Ooooh you sweet delicious bromine that Disney adds to the water making it seem dank and musty and keeping it clean at the same time. Love it. IYKYK Screw you chlorine. Today was a shame. My goal today was to shoot “landscape” photos at Disneyland so I shot the broken XPan aaaaallll day long. A broken camera all day long. So I don’t actually have that many photos from today.

Parking at Disneyland is now some ungodly amount so I asked my ‘ol buddy ChatGPT what are the best parking options for Disneyland. Hey ho buddy’o Hal 9000 says park at the Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center, or ARTIC to us locals… Erm, anyway they were just dying to fit something into an acronym. It’s free parking and the shuttle to the park is a few bucks as opposed to the $40 to park at the resort. That’s just goofy. It’s actually a very cool station as seen above in the last photo. I mostly just enjoyed the vibes today and shot non-existant pictures.

While I was having a little rest by the castle I noticed a family taking pictures with a Mamiya C330 medium format camera. Of course the wife was taking the photo of her husband and child then they’d swap. I threw on my photographer’s hero cape and walked over to them and said, “I can take your picture with the Mamiya if you all want to be in!” They seemed so pleased and saw that I had a Hasselblad slung around my shoulder so that I wasn’t some mental person and about to run off with their TLR. I took a few photos of the three of them and I guarantee they’re very happy to have those photos on film. So that was nice.

Later I went to California Adventure and I really do miss a few things from when the park first opened in 2001. I kinda miss the Monorail going across the Golden Gate Bridge. Why they got rid of that I have no idea. Also the big California letters that used to be out front in the promenade. They were such good photo ops. Spoiler alert at the end of the this trip I get a picture of them in their new location. Disneyland donated them to the state of California.

27,000 steps later I take the shuttle back to ARTIC. Anaheim Regional Transportation Intermodal Center. LOL The worst was I still had another 1.5hr drive home. That was a tough drive after being on the go all day. So, Disneyland ticked off, but after lying down I decided I’d go back in a few days. My feet are saying whyyyyyyyy?