The first iron coaster in the world - the
Matterhorn Boblseds.
Heading in to
Frontierland. I love the decorations throughout the park at Disneyland
The
Petrified Tree that Walt gave his wife Lillian as an anniversary present in 1955 for their wedding anniversary... she quickly found a nice place for it in the park and had it set up there.
Even all these years later, I still miss the original
Golden Horseshoe Revue. The show closed in 1986, but it is still fondly remembered
About to board the
Mark Twain
On board the Mark Twain, looking out over
New Orleans Square - hands down my favorite land in any Disney park.
Pirates of the Caribbean first opened in this land in 1967 and still delights and draws large crowds. It's in the left side of this photo - the cupola with the flag on top is the portion of the building where the entrance is. Just to the right, the green wrought iron draped balcony, is what was to be Walt's apartment for entertaining VIP's and guests - above the entrance to POTC. Sadly he died before ever using it. It became the home of the
Disney Gallery in 1987, and then in 2008 was transformed in to the
"Dreams Suite" for that silly "Year of a Million Dreams" promotion. Since the Gallery was booted from that coveted space, it later found a home in early 2010 in the former
Bank of Main Street space on Town Square. It's a nice space, but nothing as special as its former home, to say the least. The Bank of Main Street was actually a working Bank of America branch, for many, many years - and the only BofA branch open on a Sunday in all of Southern California when it was an actual operating bank. I don't remember the year it shut down operations, sometime in the early 2000's, and then it became the AP processing center for several years.
Here's a view inside the apartment, of the Living Room, after it was converted to the Dreams Suite.
And the view from the balcony, looking out over the
Rivers of America
Passing the
Sailing Ship Columbia, docked and not in use that day
Coming up to and then passing the
Haunted Mansion (my all-time favorite attraction), all decked out for
Haunted Mansion Holiday - or as I affectionately say - taken over by that wierdo Jack Skellington and his
Nightmare Before Christmas pals. (I know that many, many, many people love that overlay... but I don't. IMO they should have left that classic alone - BUT - it draws huge crowds, so there you go).
A replica of the first American ship to circumnavigate the globe - and also used at night as Captain Hook's ship in the
Peter Pan sequence of
Fantasmic! - the Columbia is a very cool ship indeed. You can even go down inside and see what life was like on a ship in the 1790's. I've always loved that ship.
Some nice moosy friends along the banks of the Rivers of America, as you continue the journey around
Tom Sawyer Island.