My brother and I had just come out of a college basketball game at the Anaheim Convention Center and were about to head home when we saw a packet of A, B & C tickets in the glove compartment and thought "how can we put these to good use?" ---Next thing we know, we are parking our car in a motel parking lot about a 1/2 mile from from the entrance to Disneyland and thinking up ways to climb the fence and get in.
It turns out, there was a hedge that fully covered the 20-foot-high fence, just to the left of the main entrance. We quickly scaled the fence, but proceeded to get hung up clearing the top barbs, just as the lights from a security cart were coming around the service road on the inside of the fence, going toward the entrance to the right. We jumped down and hopped into the bushes --just in time to be out of sight, and proceeded to head the opposite direction to find a way into the park.
My favorite free "ride" at Disneyland has always been the Swiss Family Tree House (now called the "Tarzan Treehouse"), and this became our route that got us into Adventureland for free-- There was a ridge between the Safari Boats and the Pirates of the Carribean rides that lead directly to one of the major branches of the Treehouse. We climbed over one of the rails onto the stairs and walked up, over and in!
No Need to Turn Us In
We ended up getting brought into the Disneyland security office, on a later trip and got our due . . . but this time we did the best we could using the tickets we had for Mr Toad's Wild Ride, Peter Pan and a couple of other "kiddie" level rides, before we almost got caught -- You'll have to ask my brother about that.
The lasting memories I have about this time (now 35 years ago), include:
- Bonding with my brother
- I couldn't have written a more exciting real-life adventure
- How much fun you can have with no money and a little ingenuity
- How cool the Swiss Family Tree Fort was (and how it made a way in--kept us from being stranded on the service road)
The parking lot is now California Adventure, and the motel was about where the Tower of Terror ride is now.
I hope we find ways to get out and do wild things (without getting hurt) --things that inspire us to think about having fun without the regular forms of entertainment.
Seems like work is work and play is play, but it's always great to find things that remind you how hard you worked at having fun--- every time I see a treehouse, I feel like a kid---
