So remember when I said in the last post I would be comin at’cha fast and furious?
Well, now I am. Two posts in less than a week? I know. I am too good to you.
And this post is gonna blow your mind. Because in this post? We more like attended a Disney night than hosted it. I know right? It’s like some sort of dream.
But yeah, this night was hosted by friends of ours – Keith and Jessica – so we travelled to their house in Ipswich and they did most of the work – and they did an super dee duper job. We wanted to hang out but due to the fact we have so little time to do so many nights, we have no time for simply social gatherings. EVERYTHING needs to be a Disney night. Oh, you want me to come visit you in the hospital to see your new baby? Dumbo night. A graduation party for your daughter? Toy Story 3! A funeral for a loved one? Hakuna Matata, looks like a Lion King night.
My point is WE. NEED. DISNEY. NIGHTS. At any cost.
Cross-country trip Day 12 – 2nd half
So last we left off, we left off hopefully having eaten at Clifton’s and then I just sort of left you there? It was all like, “Clifton’s? More like cliffhanger. Amirite?
So after lunch, the plan is to go check out Hollywood Blvd. We have a few stars we definitely wanna see. Walt Disney? Mickey Mouse? Donald Duck? Winnie-the-Pooh? Kermit? Obviously. I don’t know if you guys are in on this whole thing but we like Disney.
Then, we will try to find a store to grab some essentials. Because we are dropping the car off today. Yep, we will be car-less for the next few days. Which is dumb considering we are on a road trip right? Well, you know what else is dumb? Shut up.
Then we will Uber back to the hotel for some pool time before dinner. Around 6:00 we will walk over to the Disneyland Hotel and, after getting a quick look around, go hit our 7:00 reservation at Steakhouse 55. I am thinking I NEED that bone-in rib eye so hopefully it remains on the menu until we get there as they rotate their menu often.
After dinner, we will probably walk around the hotel a little more and then head back to our hotel to catch the Disney fireworks from either our room or the pool. Oh, did I forget to mention we can see the fireworks from both our room and our pool? Yeah, stop with the jealousy.
The theme night
So as I mentioned, we went to Keith and Jessica’s house in Ipswich for this Disney night. This was awesome in its own right because it was the four of us as well as Keith, Jessica and their kids (Will, Jack and Ellie.) And even their niece and nephew Emma and Sean came over for a bit. It was pretty sweet-town.

And we landed on Peter Pan as the movie of choice. Two things on this:
- We drove pretty much all the way to their house and realized WE DID NOT BRING THE MOVIE. Ugh, but we went ahead and figured something out that I can’t really get into here. On account of its total Black Ops. But we figured it out is all you need to know. Seriously, you don’t wanna know any more. In fact, I’ve already said too much.
- And eh, this next point isn’t that big of a deal oh wait just kidding THEY HAVE NEVER SEEN PETER PAN. Yep, none of them. Soak that in for a second.
I know. It’s a lot. You ok now?
…
Well to make up for it, we got to watch the movie via projector so it was a big screen experience. Check it out:

The food
We ate all the food. The theme was very pirate-y. Arrrrrr you ready?

So to start, they made a hot dog pirate ship for the kids (pictured above) as well as had some Pirate’s Booty and Peter Pan peanut butter and crackers.

We also had some coconut shrimp and pineapple.

I mean, and of course Captain and Cokes. Also, cake.

For our entrée, we had some surf and turf – fresh-caught striper (caught AND cooked by Keith):

And steak tips for the non-seafood eaters. Well, for Nickie mainly. Miss “I don’t wanna seafood.”

For sides, we had some green beans and mashed potatoes. Because Peter Pan wears green. And erm, mashed potatoes.

So yeah, food.
The activity
For the activity, Jess put together a treasure hunt outside. Which is awesome on account of they have animals.
Chickens…

Goats…

Pigs…

Myles and Emma…

Crazy monkeys…

Super cool treasure hunt.
And the treasure was money AND Starburst. And the money came in handy because Ellie and Emma ran a 50/50 raffle that night. Which we were all excited about until I realized they get to keep half the money. Bunch’a shysters up in Ipswich.
The movie
Here is where I wrote about Peter Pan. But this isn’t about me. Take it away Owen…
Peter Pan is a great movie for many reasons. One of the reasons Peter Pan is a great movie is that it tells a story, or stories. You could look at this story in many ways, two of the ways you could look at this movie is that it is good to grow up and also it could be saying not to grow up. I look at the movie as it is good to grow up. Back on topic…Peter Pan has a good backstory. The backstory is that there is a family that the kids believe in Peter Pan, the mother believes that kids should believe in Peter Pan, and the father thinks it is foolish to believe in Peter Pan. On the other side of the story there is this boy named Peter Pan who lives in Neverland with the lost boys and Tinkerbell and his enemy Captain Hook. Peter Pan chopped Captain Hook’s hand off and fed it to a crocodile who swallowed a clock, and after Peter Pan fed him Hook’s hand tic tock got attached to Captain Hook and followed him a lot. My favorite scene was when the lost boys John and Michael were walking and singing “, Following the leader.” Yep nothing but that great song, I mean how could you not like that fantastic, incredible, amazing song. Now I’ll have to send it back to dad.
Special thanks again to the Vanderbilts for hosting this Disney night. Hopefully, we can do another one there in the future. You guys did a great job! And don’t forget to check out the rest of the Goodreau social media empire –
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