Sabbatical Trip #2...

Trip #2 (what was supposed to be #3 before we got slimed) is in the books. 

Hawaii was a little disappointing, or as disappointing as Hawaii can be because it's still Hawaii. How was Disneyland?

It was great. 

Because it's Disneyland. 

And Disney at the holidays is amazing. And I mean pretty much any holiday. Easter is probably the most underwhelming, but even Easter has hidden Disney character eggs around the park you can look for and some pretty springtime decorations. The Fourth of July fireworks are incredible, above and beyond their normal fireworks which are pretty spectacular. 

But Halloween and Christmas are next level. The amount of detail they put into the decorations is amazing. The special events and showcases are fun. Christmas takes the edge because to really enjoy Halloween to the fullest you need to do the Oogie Boogie Bash and that's an extra ticket and a limited amount of time. Christmas is all day, everyday, with bonus extras in the fireworks and World of Color shows. 

We went this week because it's the first full week of Christmas being open, and also the lowest attendance levels. We've been closer to Christmas and holy smokes it was packed, like close the parks because they've reached capacity packed. This week was busy, and each day closer to the weekend was busier than the day before, but crowded to really crowded instead of you are going where this crowd moves you crowded. 

I've written before about one of the things I love about Disneyland is that every type of person goes to Disney. Goths and girlies. Families and singles. Disney adults and Disney toddlers. Families, like the WHOLE family, grandparents, aunts, uncles, all the kids. Nothing makes me smile more than seeing a fully tatted, pierced, over dyed black hair, combat boot wearing, person wearing a Disney t-shirt waiting in line for Pirates. Or Soaring. Or Toy Story Mania. I just love the contrast. 

I wear my Disney stuff, of course. Old school Disney merch, or my Maleficent collection. Brent has a few things as well. Because it makes me smile. It's like a rock concert where you wear the t-shirt from their last tour. Or going to a sporting event and wearing the team jersey. You are marking yourself as a fan. I wear my Disney stuff outside of the park as well. It makes me happy, and if it's a Maleficent t-shirt gives Brent a heads up on my mood. 

Before we left Brent said, "I wonder how many MAGAs we will see?" I told him I wasn't sure, but maybe they wouldn't wear the stuff because it's Disney, he said, "It for sure won't be zero."

Waiting in line to play Toy Story Mania and he leans in ands say, "I told you. Whole family." I look over and across the line from us is a family, Dad, the two older boys, the younger kids (boy and girl twins) are all in Trump shirts. Mom is in a Disney sweatshirt, but the rest of them wearing the stuff you see in pictures from his rallies and think...surely this cannot be something they really wear? The (guessing) 15 year old boy was wearing a shirt with a much thinner than he really is Trump standing in front of the White House with "Daddy's Home" printed on it. The 17 or 18 year old boy was wearing one with multiple pictures of Trump on a horse (thankfully not shirtless like Putin but, I mean, they know that's what it's supposed to be like right?) The Dad's was a list of grievances on the back with Trump Will Fix it! with Trump holding a hammer on the front. I couldn't see what the younger kids' were exactly, just could make out the hair. 

Now you know when they picked out their shirts it was to get a reaction. They were going to own the libs for sure. Trigger some snowflakes. Drink some liberal tears. And I'm not sure what their whole day was like, I know they got more than a few eye rolls in line (more than just from me) but nothing else. If that's all they got all day I bet they were really disappointed. Because they want a reaction. There is no joy in the win for them. It's your loss that they savor. It always feels like they don't actually know what they want, they just know they don't want you to have something. 

Heather Cox Richardson just wrote an update that showed that people now think the economy is better. A few weeks after the election, no change in administrations, but now it's better. Why? Because they aren't constantly being told how lousy it is. Because the republicans know that they want people to think it's great starting the end of January so they need to lay the groundwork. They can't steal credit for the positive outcomes if they don't start now. 

But I know that even before that people were saying they were so worried, but a good amount of people were not. How do I know? Because we just went to Hawaii and Disneyland and we weren't there by ourselves. Now, for sure, it's possible that everyone paid for Hawaii on points and miles like we did, but it's not plausible. And Disney? They don't play that shit, you are paying for their stuff with cash. Sure the flight you can do on miles, but park tickets? No, no thank you, that's real money. And if you stay in a hotel at the park, not one of the ones close to the park, you aren't using points either. And the Grand Californian was full.

And none of that is cheap. And if you are worried about putting food on the table you don't take trips like that. 

Brent and I both have had to travel for work during lean economic times and airports were not full of families, it was business travellers. Hotels were not bustling with kids at the pool, it was strictly conferences. If you really are struggling, you don't do extras. And when the country is really struggling tourism suffers. 

Are some people struggling? Sure. Absolutely. But is paying more at the grocery store slowing down major purchases for a large chunk of the population? Apparently not. The country is not struggling. That is the difference. And now that the election is over you won't hear as much about it at all. Except for maybe a few people who seem to think that they will be better off under the billionaire brigade. 

We aren't sure how many more trips like that will be in our future. One of the things Trump has said he wants to repeal is the CHIPS act. Intel is already struggling (as I've written about) and that could be an unsurvivable blow to them. Which leaves us not taking the retirement package because we needed Brent to be able to work for another few years at least to not having a job and also not having that voluntary retirement package. We'd be screwed. But we'd figure it out. I've been out of the workforce for a long LONG time but retail and food service are almost always hiring so we'd scrape along. But we would not be going to Disney or Hawaii. Because when you are scraping, you aren't splurging. 

That's the reality we are looking at. 

But for now? The world is ending and we went to Disneyland where I ate my weight in churros! Which was a trick because the more you eat the more weight you have to eat your weight in...Man I love churros. 

Disney did not disappoint. It rarely does. 

One more trip left. 

Three and half more weeks of sabbatical left.

It's been lovely so far.