...a world of hope!

Saturday.

Our last day at Disneyland.

Well, half-day, anyways. And we were heading to California Adventure, which had just been the "east parking lot" back when I'd last been at Disneyland in 1990.

I had my fingers crossed that I'd be able to get to Lost and Found (which was between the parks), and see if there was any chance that they'd found Skip's phone. I'd called it hourly, with no answer, until, around midnight, it had finally started going straight to voice-mail.

The last morning of tour was crazy. I had two of my girls being Early Released into the custody of their parents in the hotel lobby at 8am, and then the remainder of the girls to clear out of the rooms by 8:30. And we'd been late getting home from Disney the night before, and then there'd been All That Drama, so things hadn't settled down until well past midnight, so you can imagine that it was a little more than difficult to get the eight girls going once dawn broke.

There was chaos in the hotel lobby, and I lost track of one of my girls, so I decided to do what a Chaperone of the New Millennium would do, and just call her.

So I pulled out my phone, just as I felt it buzz. "You have One Missed Call"

Uh oh. Was that one of my girls calling me? I'd had HORRIBLE cell reception on the trip. I couldn't hear anything in the lobby, and at Disney I'd have more calls dropped than completed. I was wondering if it was just my cell (also new in the last week), but when I looked at the "Missed Calls" log, it was a call from a (714) area code.

Hmm. 714? Isn't that a Southern California number?
Double uh-oh. Is it the hotel, calling me about an issue with one of my girls? Did something happen in one of the rooms? Is there a body floating in the hotel pool?

(why yes, my mind does go EXACTLY there)

And then my phone buzzed with "New Voice Message: Listen now?"

I gritted my teeth, and prepared for the worst. My phone dialed my voicemail....

And I heard nothing... the lobby was too loud.

So I went outside onto the sidewalk. It was already nearly 90 degrees outside, but I found a cool spot under a palm tree. (Sorry, J-jumping. I couldn't resist rubbing it in JUST a little bit)

And the voice mail?

"Hello. This is Disneyland Resort. Do you have a child who has recently been at one of our parks, because we have recovered a cell phone. To claim the phone, or get more information about this, reference the following case number... bla bla bla..."

HALLELUJAH!

So after we made it to California Adventure at 10, when the park opened, I ushered all my girls through the turnstyles, set them loose in the park, and then went right back out through the exit (remembering to get a hand stamp), and headed over to the Lost and Found.

It once was lost, but now is found.

And Skip will be much more careful about where he puts it when he goes on bumpy adventure rides in the future.