Our California Adventure – Day 2

Wednesday morning, we slept in, as we tend to do on any regular day where I don’t have to work. Then, it was off to the shuttle stop to await our bus to Disneyland!

After spending almost 12 hours in Disneyland, and in spite of long lines and aching feet from all the walking, I have to say that this is truly a magical place. We had an amazing time!

To start off, once we were in the gates we ran into someone we knew from Denver. A friend of a friend really, and we seem to bump into him in Denver a lot too, such as at the zoo or at a church that we were visiting for a special marriage event. Granted, he is a pretty recognizable guy with nice, long, reddish hair and full beard, but still. What are the chances, especially since this place is so huge? We also missed seeing our neighbors too, by only a day, but we knew they were going to be here.

The first thing we did, at Adrianna’s request, was hop on the train that goes around the park. We rode it to Toon Town, where we got off and began our walk around the park. I love the cartoon hills!

Here, we saw Minnie Mouse (though we didn’t get to meet her) and then we visited Mickey’s house.

Once we wound our way through Mickey’s house, we got to actually meet him. Adrianna ran right up to him and gave him a LONG hug. Seriously, she didn’t let go for a long time. It was the sweetest thing and I wish we would have gotten it on video.

After Mickey’s house, we went on Gadget’s Go Coaster. I wasn’t sure if Adrianna would go for that, since it has only been recently that she let me talk her into riding the actual animals on the Denver Zoo carousel instead of sitting on the bench seat. But she did great and yelled, “Wheee!” the whole time. We also visited Donald’s Boat.

We had lunch in Toon Town, which was awesome because while we were there, Goofy and Pluto showed up. As soon as Adrianna spotted Goofy, she ran after him so quickly that I had a hard time catching up to her. He was walking fast and had a destination in mind where he was going to stop so a line could form, but Adrianna was not to be deterred and she chased him down. She was rewarded with a hug, but I missed the photo op, to my disappointment. But I did get her picture with Pluto, and he signed her newly purchased autograph book too.

After Toon Town, we headed across the park to the Tiki Room in Adventureland, which was a cute show of animatromic birds. I still have their main song in my head…”In the Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room.” We also hit the jungle cruise, on which I really enjoyed the driver’s witty jokes while Adrianna liked seeing the “wild” animals and the boat ride.

We then headed to Tomorrowland, where Adrianna and Greg rode the Astro Orbiter.

After that, we backtracked to Fantasyland to visit some more rides we had seen on our way to Adventureland. Yes, we were sporadic! In Fantasyland, Adrianna and I rode Dumbo the Flying Elephant and we all rode King Arthur Carousel and Casey Jr. Circus Train.

We headed back to Tomorrowland to Innoventions, which was a pretty neat exhibit showing a bunch of technology that “could” be used in homes today. If you are rich like Bill Gates. But still, very cool.

By this time, it was starting to get dark. Greg and I really enjoyed Disneyland at night. There is even more added character and fun when the lights start to come on! They also closed off Sleeping Beauty’s castle in preparation for the fireworks show.

We took this time to wander around the corner of Disneyland we hadn’t really seen yet over in Critterland and New Orleans Square. I specifically wanted to visit The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. We were in luck here; no line! So we went twice. I really enjoyed the ride and the fact that it depicted scenes and music from the original cartoon of the same name.

We finished off the night by catching the fireworks show. Amazing and magical are two words that come to mind. SO worth staying for. I highly recommend it. The highlight for Adrianna was seeing Tinkerbell fly over the castle. All three of us enjoyed the show immensely and hope to attend again on Friday night.