Rounding Out the Ultimate Disney Experience in California
Monday, May 7th, 2012
On Friday, April 20, 2012, I was able to complete the ultimate North American Disney parks experience by visiting Disneyland. Believe it or not, I actually had visited both Disneyland and Walt Disney World within the span of one week back in 1992. But this trip slightly altered the milestone, by occurring in the same calendar week and with a visit to all six of the parks. (Animal Kingdom and California Adventure were not in existence in 1992). In actuality, with this visit, I visited all six of the parks within three days. And there were four of rides that I rode one day in Florida and then the next day in California. Finally, it represents the only time that my family was at one Disney park on the same day that I was at the other. Read the rest of this entry »
The week had finally arrived for the big family Walt Disney World trip, partially courtesy of my Mom and Grandpa Murphy, whose inheritance provided some funds to supplement our park tickets. I think you all know how I treasure my vacations, so I wasn’t all that thrilled to be wasting a Saturday when we could have begun our trip on that day. But truth be told, it was nice to have a full day to tie up some loose ends, and get packed and ready for the week-long adventure. I was able to get to sleep at a fairly decent hour, especially considering that at 3:30am on the morning of Sunday, April 15, 2012, my alarm would be going off and I would be getting ready for the awesome travels ahead. 
Pat Carroll is a classic. It is a bit ironic that her most famous role came in the 80′s, when her career in television went all the way back to the early 1950′s. Among those early parts, she could be seen in the recurring role of Bunny Halper in 12 episodes of The Danny Thomas Show, as well as parts in The Red Skelton Hour, and appearances in The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laverne & Shirley, My Three Sons, Too Close for Comfort, and in voiceover in the 1988 Superman animated series. 
It was my first Disney visit of the year, but it wouldn’t be my last. Nonetheless, like any of my visits to any Disney theme park, it was a unique, fun, and awesome experience. It came on Sunday, February 12, 2012, following another very fun and exhausting day in the Los Angeles area. I had stayed at David’s house the night before and we were up bright and early and ready to begin our day at the butt crack of dawn. We left the house in Burbank around 7:45am and met Jimmy at Knott’s Berry Farm, where we would have breakfast at Mrs. Knotts Chicken Dinner Restaurant. I had the Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Hash to kickstart the day. In a bold and dramatic move, I spilled my entire glass of water across the table. 
I didn’t really know the name Sherry Alberoni when her name was announced to be a guest at the Hollywood Show in Burbank on February 12, 2011, so I looked her up. After than I ended up purchasing not one, but two signed photos of her. Oddly, neither one of them were from Josie and the Pussycats, which was why she had been invited in the first place – as part of a reuion of voice performers who worked on that show. I was more interested in a couple of things that she had done earlier in her career.