I decided the best thing to do was to catch the shuttle that runs from the mall (rather than trying to drive & park ourselves), and to catch the first one out at 5:30. So we picked up Tom & Jamie at 5:00 and went to the mall. We only waited about 10 minutes before we were able to board a bus. Omigod there were so many buses there to shuttle people in and out of this thing!
The buses get their own lane, so we zipped right by the stopped-dead-still line of cars waiting to get in and were dropped off right next to the Zilker Tree, which had a food-trailer-court set up underneath it..
Tradition is to stand underneath the tree, look up, and spin. My friend Nathan was right -- counterclockwise *WAS* better than clockwise. Of course, I couldn't stand in the exact center, because there was a group of hippies camped out right in that spot having a drum circle or something. Oh Austin and your hippies.
We got kettle corn and water, and then we went down to the trail. Where we found a loooooong queue of people. My group decided to get in the end of the line and stand. I suggested blowing off the line. I said I couldn't see any reason why we couldn't just cross the empty park, as there were no fences or anything keeping us from doing so. But the rest of my party was against it, and when I suggested just going up to the entrance, Mason said that would be cutting in line and breaking the social contract. So we stood there. And stood there. For an hour. I got ants in my pants 4 or 5 times to do something different, but my party really thought waiting in line was the thing to do. Well, after an hour of this, somebody came running down the line hollering that the line was a lie and we were all waiting for nothing. Mason took off to go investigate while the other 3 of us held our place.
While Mason was gone, our line inched forward until.... it just dissolved. It completely fell apart. It was indeed a line to nowhere. As we reversed course and just headed toward the entrance, Mason texted us to abandon the line and just come up. We walked up, and walked right in. Turns out the park was ringed with hours-long lines to nowhere. People just see a line and they get in it without question. I feel vindicated that I was right, even though we didn't follow my instincts.
The trail is a very slow march, with a thousand SUV strollers running over your feet and lots of parents yelling "MASON!!!". All little boys seem to be named Mason right now. It was almost impossible to stop and get pictures without getting knocked over by the river of people all flowing forward, but I managed to get a few.
This display was neat -- first the cloud lights up and the left, with lightning and rain. Then it goes dark and a cloud lights up on the right, then a sun coming out from behind it. Then after that, the rainbow in the middle lights up. Then it all goes dark and starts over again.
I missed being able to get a picture of "The Island of Licensed Characters" (as coined by Mason), a display where Spongebob was next to Fat Albert was next to Underdog was next to The Simpsons was next to Mickey Mouse. It was bizarre. I did, however, get the Christmas Armadillos!
I also got this tree, who I felt sorry for because it was on the trail but didn't get dressed up like his friends.
Disney princesses were sprinkled all throughout the trail, and none of them were particularly special. We all, however, found this rave, disco ball Poseidon to be very special. Especially because his relation to Christmas is very unclear.
And Mason's favorite part of the trail. Santa in a space rocket for no apparent reason.
I would say we were 75% of the way through the trail when Mason's hips hurt, Tom's leg hurt, and we were all emotionally fried from being pressed in and banged against by adults, strollers, and out of control children. We just trudged our way through the last 25% of the trail, just looking to get out of there and be done.
We got on the bus and sped back to the mall, which we appreciated anew as we observed the absolute gridlock surrounding the park for miles around it. Then we had a lovely sushi dinner at Nanami before taking Tom & Jamie home. Our sushi was restorative, but we were still all fried from our Trail of Lights experience.
I think in the end, the guys both thought it wasn't worth it and wished they hadn't done it. I think both of the gals felt that we were glad to have experienced it, because now we know and we'll never want to do it again, no matter how hyped up it is. The overwhelming and the busy just outweighed the fun, unfortunately.
So cool! I wish we had something like that in NH. I have to drive around to find the random Griswold houses.
ReplyDelete