And now the thrilling conclusion to the wild stories of our Disneyland trip:
Space Mountain - Ghost Galaxy
It's no secret that Space Mountain is one of the best rides at Disneyland (although Justin would probably disagree with me...)
We were especially enthused about it this time because it would feature the new additions for Halloween -- the Ghost Galaxy (ooooooooohhhh! *Ghost noises*).
This was one of the first rides of the day. And frankly, it sucked. No matter how enthusiastic we were for it:
Anticipation is always better than the real thing.
The first time we rode it just seemed to go really slowly. I was not afraid of anything ghostly and it failed to provide the experience that it promised.
How is that possible? This is one of the best rides there and it was non-eventful. I wasn't completely upset about it, but it was not a good opener to our day (which turned out to be quite traumatic anyway, i.e. the Previous Post).
After all the terrible luck we had with ahem...snacks and wet rides, we decided to try Space Mountain again. I mean we had Fast Passes, why not use them?
Quick Side Note: Did you know that you can use Fast Passes later than the time shown? It's true, it was confirmed by several employees. You can't cash them in earlier than the time shown, but if you happen to get soaked on a ride and are unable to make it to your time slot because you are buying new clothes and changing, you can just return to the ride and hand them the late ticket and it will be accepted. We did it like three times this trip because of certain setbacks...
Anyway, back to the story, we decided to ride it again. This time with Fast Passes. We flew to the front of the line and were able to get on the ride within minutes.
The second experience was in no way similar to the first. This ride was fast, freaky and fun. Tiffany pretty much closed her eyes and screamed the entire time. The ghostly parts were still a bit "whatever" but the ride itself was a vast improvement.
We were even stopped by a survey taker (with those cool little electronic surveys and the red uniforms), which I had been secretly hoping would happen ever since the first time we went to Disneyland last year. I was able to express my enthusiasm for the ride which left me content.
Someone Lost a Nickel
After riding Space Mountain for a second time and being more pleased with it this go around, we headed to another ride across the park to which we had a Fast Pass for.
We again flew through the line and made our way to the second line that led to the launch point.
Tiffany stopped. The thought came to me that she was hurt in some way. This was the opposite of the case. She bent down and picked something up. She spread it in her fingers to get a good look at it and then her eyes went wildly alert. She came quickly up to me and told me to put that something in my pocket. No questions asked, I stuffed it in. It felt like money.
Once we stopped at the back of the line Tiffany said she thought she saw a $100 symbol on one of the bills. I slyly pulled the bills out and counted. It was not a little bit.
This is not an accurate representation of the denomination,but it is similar to the method of discovery.
What my dear wife had discovered on the ground was nothing other than a wad of cash.
We both began to smile from ear to ear. This was a great discovery. The first stages of emotion were of utter giddiness and joy for what had been found. We discussed briefly about its origins, but mostly we discussed what our course of action would be.
Tiffany was under the impression that we should try and find an employee to inquire about lost money. I was less enthusiastic about this idea, especially if the employee happened to be dishonest.
We decided to tweet/text the question to our friends and family. What would you do? You find a great deal of money on the ground with no one around to claim it. Do you -
Take it to a lost and found?
Keep it and count it a blessing?
We went ahead and rode our ride, hoping that our respective group would answer the question for us and make the decision for us. Go ahead, ask yourself these questions. You found some money, what do you do?
Now for what we decided to do --
We had checked our responses and talked with Tiffany's mom. The consensus was to just keep it, but there was a really strong minority that said to return it. This didn't help at all. It made it worse actually because the line became more and more blurred.
If it was just a few bucks or even less than $50 I would have no problem just keeping it. The owner most likely counted it a loss and has moved on. But this was more than that. Not a lot, but definitely enough to help us out in our low economic state.
After much deliberation and soul-tormenting, we decided that we would feel less guilty about ourselves if we just turned the money in. We were careful to whom we spoke to and to who we gave the money. This led us to the Disneyland Lost and Found (next to California Adventure on the left-hand side). We stood in line and waited our turn to file a claim.
While waiting in line Tiffany struck up a conversation with a woman waiting in line in front of us. She had lost her lanyard with not only her collected pins, but her family's tickets, their hotel room, and I think she mentioned some money. We instantly felt for the lady and her family. That is a truly terrible thing to have lost (or in her case, possibly stolen). We mentioned how sorry we were and that we hoped she would find it. She was grateful and continued on to fill out a lost claim.
The woman that handled our claim was very friendly indeed. She joked and laughed with us as we described the situation. She told us about some of the weirdest things that she had heard have been returned to their department (A glass eye was one of the wildest). She mentioned that a kid once found $1,400 on a money clip and had returned it. The owner believed the money to be lost and decided not to pursue it. A few weeks later, the man's girlfriend bugged him to go ahead and see if the money had been returned so they went to check. When the employee pulled out the money clip with all the money still there, the man fainted to the ground knocking his head against the pavement!
Once the claim was filed, the employee handed us a claim ticket along with four Ultimate Fast Passes to any ride in the park (good to get up to six people into a ride), she gave it to us for being honest. Hooray for Disney rewards!
Keep it and count it a blessing?
We went ahead and rode our ride, hoping that our respective group would answer the question for us and make the decision for us. Go ahead, ask yourself these questions. You found some money, what do you do?
Now for what we decided to do --
We had checked our responses and talked with Tiffany's mom. The consensus was to just keep it, but there was a really strong minority that said to return it. This didn't help at all. It made it worse actually because the line became more and more blurred.
If it was just a few bucks or even less than $50 I would have no problem just keeping it. The owner most likely counted it a loss and has moved on. But this was more than that. Not a lot, but definitely enough to help us out in our low economic state.
After much deliberation and soul-tormenting, we decided that we would feel less guilty about ourselves if we just turned the money in. We were careful to whom we spoke to and to who we gave the money. This led us to the Disneyland Lost and Found (next to California Adventure on the left-hand side). We stood in line and waited our turn to file a claim.
While waiting in line Tiffany struck up a conversation with a woman waiting in line in front of us. She had lost her lanyard with not only her collected pins, but her family's tickets, their hotel room, and I think she mentioned some money. We instantly felt for the lady and her family. That is a truly terrible thing to have lost (or in her case, possibly stolen). We mentioned how sorry we were and that we hoped she would find it. She was grateful and continued on to fill out a lost claim.
The woman that handled our claim was very friendly indeed. She joked and laughed with us as we described the situation. She told us about some of the weirdest things that she had heard have been returned to their department (A glass eye was one of the wildest). She mentioned that a kid once found $1,400 on a money clip and had returned it. The owner believed the money to be lost and decided not to pursue it. A few weeks later, the man's girlfriend bugged him to go ahead and see if the money had been returned so they went to check. When the employee pulled out the money clip with all the money still there, the man fainted to the ground knocking his head against the pavement!
Once the claim was filed, the employee handed us a claim ticket along with four Ultimate Fast Passes to any ride in the park (good to get up to six people into a ride), she gave it to us for being honest. Hooray for Disney rewards!
Even though I wouldn't have felt completely bad about keeping the money, I'm glad we turned it in. Speaking to the woman in line at the Lost and Found was a very encouraging moment that helped me realize it was the right thing. My wife the ultimate in integrity was once again right in her decision to turn the money in. She has always been an example of honesty to me and I appreciate her for it.
BTW - if the money isn't claimed within 30 days we have 30 days ourselves return and claim it or it will be donated to charity, so maybe it is a happy ending after all!
Secret
Tiffany knows what this picture is about. It's a secret and it's between us. No fear though! I will make up a story for you to think is the real reason for this picture.
As we went to inquire about a lost and found we entered the City Hall. As we were walking in we saw none other than comedic legend Mitch Hedburg! How could this be? Hedburg is one of my all-time favorite comics and unfortunately he's been dead for several years! I guess there was a bit of ghostly magic at the park that day.(Okay that wasn't true, but it did happen to us in downtown Hollywood the other day. We also saw Hulk Hogan driving a Scion from Wisconsin. It was a very surreal experience because it happened within a few seconds of each other).
1 comments:
Nice use of my weird expressions. It truly was a magical day. Maybe we'll be richer when the 30 days is up. Or perhaps we'll just have to settle for our souls being enriched through our integrity. Hmm... one will never know. Well, at least not for 30 days. Yay! Good story telling!
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