Chapter 11
Day 4-5, Tuesday-Wednesday – Princess Fantasy Faire
Back in their hotel room, father and daughter tuned to Kung Fu Panda on the TV and enjoyed more of Po's adventures while they finally ate their chocolate cookies from Sweet Sunday; then Danny borrowed Grace's laptop to upload photos from his camera to the cloud site that Chin Ho had helped him set up. Grace was playing Scrabble on her father's smart phone when it buzzed in her hand.
"Hi, Uncle Chin!" she answered the call.
"Hi, Gracie. Are you having a good time at Disneyland?"
Grace agreed enthusiastically and rattled off some of the rides she went on that day.
"And Danno stopped a fight and stopped a little boy from running into a horse," she said, willfully ignoring the "cut it off" gesture her father made.
"So he's getting into trouble without our help, hmm? May I talk to him, please?"
"OK!" She bounced off the bed and gave the phone to her father. "It's Uncle Chin," she said unnecessarily.
"Thanks, monkey. Hey, it's almost time for the fireworks to start. Maybe you can see them from the window," Danny suggested.
Grace scampered over to the window and leaned against the ledge where she had a slightly obstructed view of the two theme parks.
"Sounds like you don't need Steve to get into trouble," Chin greeted his friend.
"Pssshhh. It was a toddler running away from his mother and a couple of boys shoving each other in line." Danny deliberately did not mention the purse snatcher, because that was decidedly a crime in progress. "You're not still at work, are you?" Danny asked suspiciously.
"No, I'm on a date," Chin answered.
"Whoa, babe, I know it's been awhile, but calling someone else when you're on a date is a bad idea."
Chin chuckled. "Malia went to the ladies room." He scanned the dining room to make sure she wasn't returning yet. "We were talking about you."
"Even worse. Talking about work is the kiss of death, babe. Trust me," Danny said with heavy emphasis.
"We were talking about Disneyland," Chin corrected. "Malia said her favorite Disney movies were the ones with animals — Lion King, 101 Dalmatians and especially Lady and the Tramp. I wondered … do you think you could find me something with that romantic scene from Lady and the Tramp?"
"The spaghetti scene?"
"Yes."
Danny remembered browsing through the Main Street stores next to the Carnation Café. "How expensive are you willing to go, Chin? We saw some watches today, leftover from Valentine's Day, I think. Romantic scenes including that one. I think they were around $200, though."
"That would be perfect. Cute yet practical, just what Malia likes."
"Is that why she likes you?" Danny teased. "Tell you what, I could send you a picture tomorrow. It would be early. We were going to spend most of the day at California Adventure, but there was something I wanted to do at Disneyland first."
"I don't want to put you out, brah."
"Not a problem, Gotta walk right past the shop. Besides, I owe you for walking me through this the cloud site business. Now I know I won't lose my photos, even if I drop my camera into the Rivers of America. And I can send you a photo I took with my camera, not just the ones I take with my phone. Like this." He forwarded Chin the picture of surfers and hula girls in Small World.
"Good work," Chin praised. "I knew you could do it. Hey, I've got to go. Malia's coming back."
Before she could ask who was on the phone, Chin showed his date the photo. "Look what Danny sent."
She admired the photo and laughed at the caption: "Pineapple infested hellhole, Disney style."
As Danny hung up, Grace called him to the window to see the fireworks.
Wednesday was Daddy's Day, Danny's choice. They were going back to the Food and Wine Festival at California Adventure and then to the baseball game at 7 p.m. But first, Danny surprised Grace by detouring into Disneyland and guiding her to the Princess Fantasy Faire back near Toontown. With their focus on riding rides the day before, Danny hadn't realized this girly section existed until they passed that way going into Toontown.
Grace realized the area was designed to let little girls live out their princess fantasies, meeting Disney characters and buying a little bling. She held back, protesting, "But Danno, this is your day."
Danny kissed the top of her head. "What I want is to spend the day with a princess," the fond dad said.
Grace hugged him and entered the path, posing for photos with Jasmine, Aurora and the Little Mermaid along the way. Because of her fishy tail, Ariel was seated on a shell throne. She made a hit with Danny and Grace. When she found out Grace was from Hawaii, she said, "Oh, that's one of my favorite places to swim. The ocean is so beautiful. I think I've seen you playing in the water."
"Daddy and I are learning to surf," Grace agreed.
"You've probably seen me wiping out," Danny said.
"Maybe I'll say Hi the next time I swim by," Ariel said.
Grace grinned, playing along. "That would be a nice surprise, wouldn't it, daddy."
"Surprise would be a good word for it."
Danny shot several pictures of the two water women smiling at each other, before they had to move on. Ariel waved goodbye and turned to the next child in line.
"She was nice," Grace said.
"They're all nice. They're proper princesses."
As they left the attraction, of course they had to pass through the gift shop.
"Don't you already have a tiara?" Danny asked, even as he pulled out his wallet.
"That's a Cinderella tiara. This is a Little Mermaid tiara," Grace pointed out, indicating the shell design.
Danny shelled out for the tiara, because it looked so cute on her, but drew the line at a wand. "Just one more thing to carry around. And Ariel doesn't have a wand."
They began the trek to the front of Disneyland, pausing at the watch shop where they found the Lady and the Tramp watch still on display. Danny shot a picture with his phone and sent it to Chin.
"I've got a friend who might want me to buy this for him," he explained to the clerk.
On Oahu, Kono had just arrived to pick up Chin for work when his phone went off. The watch was perfect and the price within reason. Chin sent back a quick, "Yes!"
"Have we got a case?" Kono asked.
"No, Danny sent me a picture," Chin replied. Because he wasn't ready yet to tell Kono he was seeing Malia again, Chin showed Kono the Small World picture that Danny had sent (the night before).
Analyzing photos was part of Kono's job. She immediately realized the photo had been taken with flash, which Danny's phone didn't have.
"He sent it from the cloud site," Chin agreed, proud of his pupil.
"You're a good teacher," Kono said.
"Danny's not as bad with technology as he likes to pretend," Chin answered. "He just gets impatient."
"Word!" agreed Danny's surfing teacher.
After they bought the watch and stowed it safely in the daypack, Danny consulted his growing collection of Disney folders: maps for Disneyland, California Adventure and Downtown Disney; a showtimes insert for the two parks and a separate guide to the Food and Wine Festival events. (No wonder he needed a daypack!)
Danny saw a cooking demonstration was coming up in about an hour at Paradise Pier. As King for Thursday, he declared this would be a day of nibbling at the Food and Wine Festival. But they actually started at Disneyland's Blue Ribbon Bakery (one door up from the watch shop with the Carnation Cafe squeezed in between). Waving at Chef Oscar as they passed, they shared a chocolate croissant and an apple while they trekked out Disneyland's front gate and across the plaza to California Adventure.
Better make sure you had lunch before you read Chapter 12. We're going to the food festival!
