In kindergarten I moved from northern California to Brea California, which is right next to Anaheim. At that age, annual passes to Disneyland were relatively cheap, and my family always got new annual passes each Christmas. My sisters who are older had school at 8am but I was enrolled in the afternoon session and I was fortunate enough to spend my mornings with my dad at Disneyland. Every morning I would start my day with one of my favorite sights: the sleeping beauty castle. While there are parts of the castle you can enter, it is mostly a gateway to Fantasyland, my favorite place as a child. To me, the castle is a symbol of youth, imagination and creativity. The castle is large, yet due to the color scheme and gentle curves of the towers make not intimidating, but inviting. The walls of the castle block the land behind it from view so that the second you get through the castle you are suddenly thrust into the magical world of fantasyland. The walls are a clever device used by Walt Disney to keep the lands separate from each other. The park is layed out strategically so that if you are in one land (say Tomorrowland) all you see are the futuristic rides and attractions and cannot see any of the attractions from other locations, even though they are all right next to each other. The architecture of the sleeping beauty castle achieves not only the practical architectural goals of furthering the illusions of the park, but it is also a special piece of architecture to me and to thousands of people, as a representation of “the happiest place on earth”.