Shopping (and Bench Sitting) at Disneyland

In one of the stores on Main St., Mrs. DisneylandTraveler took a look at a Mickey Mouse watch she thought she might want to have. You could see the look of temptation in her eyes - "Should I do it? Should I ask if I should do it? Is there money in the shopping budget to do it?" Yep, she was wondering if she should pull the trigger (or charge card in this case). I'm looking at her and thinking of the line attributed to NBA star Charles Barkley "A watch? Why do you need a new watch when there is a perfectly good clock on the stove in the kitchen back home".

You see, unlike Mrs. DisneylandTraveler or almost anyone else who accompanies us in our trips to Disneyland, I'm not much of a shopper. She sees opportunities for cuteness and expanding her Disneyland universe. I see dollar signs and thinking where are we going put this junk or outside of this park, she's never going to wear that. And so it's a test of wills. I can spend about 3 minutes in a store and that's about it unless it is one of the rare occasions where I really do need something (I have a habit of losing baseball hats on rides).

So after about 3 minutes, I try to politely excuse myself, and go outside and find the nearest empty bench to rest and people watch - two things I really love to do at Disneyland and it doesn't cost a dime (minus the armed robbery it costs to get in). In fact, on one of our trips, I took a picture of all the benches I plopped my rear end on while Mrs. DisneylandTraveler and my sister took their sweet time and browsed through the stores.

There's some bench winners - around the flagpole is a prime spot, so pleasant, so historic. The Main St. Hub is a good place providing you get can a bench in the shade. I really like the benches adjacent to the Golden Horseshoe facing Rancho del Zocalo - not usually a very high traffic area there and the bougainvillea vines covering parts of the restaurant are just beautiful certain times of the year. Of course, there are a few bench losers too, the cement slabs outside Star Trader are not meant for prolonged sitting, or any sitting area formed from cement for that matter.

It should be noted that the the bench and chair (shown below) on the front of one of the Main St. building facades look inviting but they are terribly uncomfortable. Sit, take a picture, and move on. I think that is the intent.

I'm not all negative when it comes to shopping. I like Off The Page in DCA. I like the Five and Dime Gag Factory in ToonTown. And I like Star Traders just to look at the Star Wars stuff and look forward to seeing the X-Wing fighter because I haven't seen it since it has been re-displayed inside the store. The stores I like, I'm good for about 10 minutes in there and then it's off to another bench.