A Mother Daughter Trip to Disneyland- Thoughts on Vacationing Without My Husband

This past week my daughter, E, and I spent 5 glorious days at the Disneyland Resort.  We had a magical time despite epic downpours and a small earthquake.  While I intend to make a separate post about some of my favorite memories about the trip, I wanted to start this mini-series by talking about vacationing without my husband, A.

This was the first trip I had ever taken without either my husband, my mom, or a friend in tow.  It was quite literally E and I the entire time.  And while it seems like a given, we of course missed A’s absence and both of us made mention of it on several occasions.  So, as I list the other things I missed about my husband not being on our trip, please don’t think that I also didn’t miss his presence.

1. The men’s line is always shorter.  So, picture this.  Monday evening, E absolutely HAS TO ride Peter Pan, which always has a longer wait no matter how crowded the parks are.  She happily gets in line to wait the 45 minutes for Peter Pan.  While in line, nearly to the front, the ride breaks down, but we’re so close to the front E refuses to get out of line (technically I don’t even think we could get out of line if we tried as it’s tight quarters that close to the ride entry).  After waiting for 20 minutes for the ride to start again, E states she has to use the restroom.  Quite the conundrum, right?  We’ve now been in line over an hour and are SO close to the front, but she’s 4.5 and needs to potty.  After she assures me she can hold it, the ride begins to function and we’re loaded onto our ship and off to Never-land within 5 minutes.  We get off the ride and search for the nearest restroom.  We find said restroom and the line for the women’s restroom is out the door.  The line for the men’s restroom doesn’t exist.  Thankfully, she made it to the potty in the nick of time, but had A. been with us, it would have been much easier to let her slip into the men’s room with him.
2. Being both the pack-mule and the child chaser is a tough job.  Usually when we vacation A. carries the backpack and pushes the stroller, I round up E.  Being solo (and in the midst of a lot of rain, therefor needing to haul around a ton of stuff) this made me both the pack-mule AND the child chaser.  Now, don’t get me wrong, E was very, very good.  But there were times (ahem- the monorail) where it was very exhausting trying to make sure I had eyes on her, the stroller folded, and a handle on all of our crap.  And in the specific instance of boarding the monorail, the very young men working the attraction didn’t have any empathy for a solo mama as they repeatedly and hastily informed me my stroller must be folded prior to boarding (admittedly, I waited for the very last minute).
3. When your tires go bad, it’s nice to have your husband with you.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I was raised by a diesel mechanic.  I know a decent amount about cars and tires (though admittedly not as much as I should) and all that stuff.  But when my tire pressure light came on in Palm Springs, I panicked.  I couldn’t find a Discount Tire (because in California they operate under America’s Tire Warehouse) and needed to get my air pressure situation under control.  After a brief freak out, the kind people at Firestone helped me out in Palm Springs.  However, when the valet retrieved my car upon check out and the tire pressure light was on, I knew something was up.  2 hours, $320.00, and two tires later, I knew what was going on.  While I handled it (for the most part) gracefully, having had my husband there would have made it much nicer.
4. Selfie Sticks are banned in Disneyland.  So, I have very few photos of E and I together except a few selfies we managed to get when we weren’t in the downpour of rain (really Southern CA, you’re in a drought?)
5. Being the only driver for a 6+ hour drive is way boring.  E was great in the car, she understood she had to either be able to get something for herself or wait until our next gas/food/restroom stop.  But still, driving across the desert alone as the only driver kind of stinks, especially when you get a later start than anticipated driving home (see #3.)
6. Rain is really wet.  We got A LOT of rain while we were at Disneyland and while it made for empty parks, it also made for a very wet mama (E was warm and dry in her “rain shelter”.  Trying to get something out of my backpack (that was under my poncho) or other tasks requiring coordination in rain gear was much harder solo than it is with my partner in crime.
7. He gives really great foot rubs.  Totally not going to lie, I am a spoiled woman when it comes to foot rubs.  And after trudging around all day in the rain, having one would have been really nice.  He did make up for it rather handsomely once we returned home though.

In all seriousness, while it was a really great experience for E and I to take a trip just the two of us, it truly wasn’t the same without A.  We have great family vacations together, and when a part of us isn’t present, it’s definitely felt by the others!

And in case you’re wondering what my husband was doing while we were gallivanting around Disneyland?  Working.  Apparently last week he put in over 80 hours in the office closing out the year and doing all that fun accounting type stuff.