The happiest place on earth? Seriously?

I am in California, as I am a few times each year to visit relatives, marvel that there isn't snow on the ground, wish I had Dodgers season tickets and have fun.

In a few hours I will load the wife, our almost-seven-year-old, and the still-likes=to-cuddle four-year-old into a "FREE HOTEL SHUTTLE TO DISNEYLAND!" and visit the self-proclaimed "Happiest place on earth". Just Google that term if you don't believe me.

I have been thinking about that claim a lot. First, let me anger all the parents reading and declare that we are being suckered by a giant organization that doesn't exist to make the world a better place but, in fact, wants to take our money and pay the stockholders.

They do that by delivering family-friendly entertainment but they also do it by changing copyright laws because of their powerful lobby in congress, squashing creativity and they teach children ideas and principals that aren't as magnificent as they seem at first blush.

That sounds a tad over-negative and I don't mean that the Disney Corporation is evil . . . Well actually they are a little evil but they aren't trying to cause harm and they are probably less evil than some. They aren't giving us bad drinking water or making us wait six months for life-saving surgery.

Anyway, my kids will be having a grand time at the "Happiest place on earth," and I like it when my kids have a grand time and yes, it is all pretty harmless. But I refuse, absolutely, to accept that it is authentically a place that is so happy that it wears the undisputed crown. It has been carefully designed to drain my wallet and I know going in that it is going to do a fair job of that tomorrow.

That doesn't make me particularly happy actually, but all kidding aside, we will all have a good time. I would rather be at Six Flags, which also is a place where you might as well just throw dollars off the roller coaster as it loops around, but I don't mind spending money to create memories and together experiences.

According to the internet other contenders for the "happiest place on earth" are:

* Oktoberfest
* Some people called the "King Family"
* Hooters in Manilla (and that reminds me that I have a great Hooters story I must share here someday)
* the back of an establishment in Vegas
* Vassar
* Denmark
* A pit with foam bricks
* Utah

Stay with me here but numbers show that people are reading my blog so I will share a little secret. Ready? Shhhhhhh. People who write blogs want other people to read them. Some deny it, some will even argue, but its true. So I feel very grateful that anybody anywhere reads the words I type. The numbers also show, clearly, that people don't leave comments, but back to Disneyland.

What I want to know from all you non-commenting readers is where is the genuine happiest place on earth? I have been wracking my brain all the live-long day (approximately the same amount of time some people work on the railroad, or so I am told) and I just can't decide. I know the easy answer, and a genuine one, is that the happy place is at home with your family. But just like in Sunday School when you can always raise your hand and say, "Read the scriptures and keep the commandments," that is a bit of easy-way-out. It isn't wrong, but it isn't enough.

Stretch your brains and stretch your fingers and please, please tell me (outside of the obvious answer) where is the happiest place on earth? In the meantime, please enjoy some photos of happy places.