We had chosen to pass into Disneyland through the left viaduct in the berm more or less just because we had been taking pictures on that side, but, the view we got as we came into the park really provided that "I'm home " feeling more than anything else on the trip, Main Street with the Matterhorn in the background, I guess this was also one of the first views that felt as if it was " just like I left it " back in 1981, (yes, I know some things have changed but I'm talking about the feeling) it was really nice to see.

If you only have a little time at Disneyland (or for that matter the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World), the Main street vehicles may seem a waste of time that could be spent touring, after all by the time you wait to load you could have already walked to the other end of Main Street, but, for me taking time to enjoy these " little things " is a lot of what about taking a longer trip to the park (or for that matter even shorter but fairly frequent trips ) is about, so when we noticed the Main Street Fire Engine getting ready to load up this was a natural for our first attraction of the trip to enjoy.

Our driver was an fun, friendly, guy who threw off a few almost Jungle Cruise like quips at the begining of the drive before settling in for the jaunt up Main Street.

You may have noticed by now an abundance of gold paint (the Main Street lamp posts for instance), yes, this was done in celebration of the parks 50th anniversary, most especially in the case of attractions that were there on opening day one ride vehicle has been painted gold in the case of the Main Street vehicles one of the Horse-Drawn Trolley cars is done in gold, and one of the old time cars as well, the others are still in their normal color scheme.

Upon arriving at the upper end of Main Street, we headed for Adventureland, and the Indiana Jones Adventure, stopping only briefly to take a picture, of the entrance to Adventureland, that reminded me a bit of the only picture of Disneyland that I took as a kid.

We both enjoyed Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, I really like the way it blends in with the already established Adventureland surroundings. I do feel that the sets in the actual ride scenes are not detailed and realistic, but that's compared to the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion, then again compared to the Dinosaur attraction at Animal Kingdom, which also has a very nice queue and uses the same ride technology it seems to me that " Indy " is a clearly superior attraction.

After enjoying Indy we moved on, my wife taking in the smoking area in Frontierland, and I taking the opportunity to take a few photos around the area, and familiarize myself with the new, (to me anyway) tiered waterfront area. If you think you'll be reading this entire trip report pay attention to the flowers around Laffite's anchor in the picture below, we'll get back to this later.