Yesterday I took Son to Disneyland with a theme planned for the day: Hidden Mickey Photo Safari. We had the book with all the hints in hand as we set off armed with my trusty camera to hunt down the many hidden mouse orbs scattered throughout the park.
Son was giddy with excitement when I put him in charge of shooting our prey. He wore the large neck strap Indiana Jones style over one shoulder throughout the day as he captured one icon after another. We found rodents of all shapes and sizes hidden as plates in the Haunted Mansion, rusty gear wheels and cactus on Thunder Mountain, shaded bricks in the Mad Hatter's shop, etc...
We reveled in the morning's captured prey as we ate our lunch, then headed to our most anticipated hunting ground: Indian Jones. Son pulled out his archeologist flashlight and took pictures of all the ancient writing on the walls to be deciphered at a later date over a bowl of fruit loops. He also caught on film, the elusive mouse one rarely sees in the dark halls of Indiana Jones' world. This moment: priceless.
After reveling in our booty, we headed over to California Adventure to go on all our favorite rides (Tower of Terror, California Screamin' and Toy Story Mania - yay!!). My little hunter was dog tired, and this is where that vision of perfection slowly faded away like a mist on a shadowy lake. Before going on Tower of Terror, I made Son use the bathroom even though he swore he didn't have to go. I also abused him by forcing him to swallow his dignity and use the Women's restroom with me. He huffed and puffed, stomped his feet and begged to use the Men's room. I held firm. He was pissed.
We were only out of the bathroom for a minute or two before I noticed the camera wasn't around his shoulders. I ran back in and checked his stall. Nothing. Now you know why this post has zero pictures.
Poor Son broke down in tears and apologized repeatedly. I consoled him as best I could, saying I should have let him use the camera in the early in the day while our minds were fresh, and then taken over the camera duty in the afternoon when we were both getting mentally and physically tired. He asked if I was mad at him. I told him I was sad the camera might not be returned, but we could use this opportunity to pray for the lady who found the camera and that she'll do the right thing and turn it in to Lost and Found (let me just say that it's a good camera with a 12x zoom, huge memory chip and high end battery, so it would be pretty darn tempting to keep).
We went on rides, had dinner at sunset overlooking the water, finished the night on the roller coaster and then checked with Lost and Found at the end of the night. Nothing. As of this morning, still nothing.
I can keep praying for that lady who has my camera, our photo safari and all my favorite pictures still stored on the camera hard drive (that offends me the most; this possible thief will be able to see my most treasured photos, but i digress). Yes, we can continue to pray for the return of the camera, but more importantly, pray for the person's integrity to kick in, and for my own materialistic camera loving soul.
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if you hung out long enough to read this to the end, here's a reward:
While we were having dinner overlooking the waters of California Adventure, I noticed that the Imagineers and crew were getting ready to run lights for the much anticipated water show opening in June. This morning, video has surfaced of that run through. Note: Spoiler Alert!! Click this link to enjoy the entire run through!!
Come back and tell me what you think of the upcoming water show. I think it's going to be phenomenal!!
