Just spent the last four days at Disneyland. I had a fantastic time, and the park was decorated for my favorite holiday -- Halloween! Everywhere jack-o-lanterns glowed in windows. During the nightly fireworks show, ghosts raced up the side of the Matterhorn. We rode just about every ride in the park, from the thrilling, fast-paced jeep ride through snake-infested temples on the Indiana Jones ride, to the newly revamped Pirates of the Caribbean ride in which Jack Sparrow now appears. Perhaps my favorite was the Haunted Mansion redone as the Nightmare Before Christmas. Zero floated hauntingly in the corridors and ballroom.

Disneyland really is more than a theme park, at least how I think of theme parks. It's not just rides, it's music and dancing and stunning shows. We caught the Fantasmic show on Saturday night, where they project animation onto misting walls of water and work in fire and fireworks. It's really incredible.

We also rode the thrilling Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ride, which resides in a spooky, run down-looking hotel decorated for a Halloween night in 1939. After listening to Rod Serling describe the terrible events that befell the hotel, a bellhop ushers you into an elevator that drops you straight down, then rises again, the doors opening to reveal a vista of the park and hills around you before dropping you once again.

It was quite a spooky visit!