Well, what is a blogger supposed to do after completing a grueling quasi-athletic event such as the Penguin Plunge?  Well, go to Disneyland, of course. 

Actually the plan was for a day of Disney and two of central coast surfing, but weather forecasts and surf conditions suggested we postpone the central coast leg until another time.  The end result has me back home two days early (and two days before any clients think I’m supposed to be back!), exhausted from a day with the Mouse, and feeling kinda old after brunch in my hometown, a place I barely recognized. 

The visit to the Magic Kingdom allowed Spinner to work on his fear that the Mouse was still trying to kill him.  Since we survived with no further injuries, that goal was successful.  We also had the opportunity to check out their holiday decorations, especially the Jack Skellington ‘When Holidays Collide’ version of the Haunted Mansion, which absolutely, totally and completely ROCKED.  For the first time in years the Small World attraction looked fresh too, even if our boat’s dispatcher looked like he was sending us off to some unimaginable fate. 

This morning we shot up to Huntington Beach in hopes of finding some decent surfing, or at least a good brunch.  No surf.  Good food.  Great restaurant location.  Even a same ol’-same ol’ cholesterol scramble goes down pretty good when you can watch dolphins doing flips while you’re waiting for more coffee.  The classic prints on the walls helped set an atmosphere that almost overwhelmed the big-chain management. 

This was the first time I’d been back to Huntington’s pier in many years.  Even the pier had little in common with the one I grew up knowing, with big chunks of the original destroyed years ago in a storm.  The rebuilt pier and renovated Main Street both struck me as just too commercialized.  It’s not the place I knew anymore, even though two blocks away were the same old cottages that have been there since before I was born.  It’s attitude that’s important, and that’s changed.