The Second Happiest Place on Earth

After Mallorie's performance today, she spent the rest of the day at Disneyland. During the evening, there was an awards banquet where her middle school was awarded the third place trophy for their performance. In order to celebrate this moment with her, we had purchased 3-day passes to Disneyland and we would spend the weekend and Monday in the park. As we approached the entry gates, we were greeted by numerous Disney employees and signs inviting us to enter "The Happiest Place on Earth". The kids were obviously excited. Dakota had never been to Disneyland before and Whitney was was only 6 months old when she had been there. It was all new and exciting. The crowds were large, but none of them seemed to mind. Each time we stood in line for an hour to ride a 10 minute ride, I would breath deeply and try to think happy thoughts so as not to go nuts at the number of people most of whom seem to speak little or no English. Each happy thought that went through my mind always came back to the same theme, baseball. I quickly realized that Disneyland wasn't "The Happiest Place on Earth", it was the second happiest. After all, how could this park even compare? There was no retractable roof, no swimming pool in right-center field, no outfield or pitchers mound, no on-deck circle, no Big Unit, no visiting team special at the concession stand, no team shop, and the only Diamondbacks logo I could find was on my shirt and hat. Besides, who among us could listen to 162 renditions of "It's a Small World" without taking some form of medication? Disneyland is a great place to visit, but it is no Bank One Ballpark.