Disneyland

We're back from our whirlwind trip to Disneyland.

Day 1: We flew out at 6am on Thursday morning, took a shuttle to our hotel, a quick cab to Paradise Pier and attended an 8:30 Lilo and Stitch Character Breakfast. What fun. Race and Aurora got to meet Daisy Duck, Minnie Mouse, , Pluto and , of course, Lilo and Stitch. We took the Monorail into Disneyland spent the rest of the day there. Race road Autopia (and gave Aunt Amy whiplash), Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain Railway, Astro Blast, Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, Mr Toads Wild Ride, etc. We finally made it back to our hotel room after stopping at Denny's for a quick, late dinner. Race fell asleep after the first bite of his mini hot dogs and Dean had to carry him back to the hotel. Thank goodness we were staying almost right across the street from the Main Gate.

Day 2: Race was really upset to wake up in his underpants. He is very modest these days and it's on ly acceptable to be completely nude or fully clothed. He made it clear that we should have awakened him and put his pajamas on him. Yeah right. We spent the morning at Disneyland since we had early entry passes to Toon Town. Race got to meet and get Mickie Mouse's autograph and ride all the rides and play with everything in Toon Town. After we left Toon Town Race finally got to ride Indiana Jones, whoo hoo. We had tried repeatedly the day before but it kept breaking down. Race decided he was willing to try the Matterhorn. We went over to California Adventures and spent the afternoon there. Race got very brave and rode California Screamin' with Uncle Jason and Dean. He was just a little upset that Dean hadn't told him that it goes upside down, but he said he had fun. Race decided that he was brave enough to ride the Hollywood Hotel/Tower of Terror; Elizabeth also agreed to try it for the first time. Race got a little nervous getting on the ride; it is kind of unnerving, but he came through with flying colors and enjoyed the ride. We also got to go on the new Toy Story, Midway Mania ride. It's a high tech 3D shooting gallery ride. Before the weekend was over we went on it 4 times. It really is FUN!

Day 2 continued: Halloween Night, the real reason we went to Disneyland. We had special tickets that allowed us into California Adventures in costume for Halloween night. From 7:30 until midnight we wandered the park, rode on rides and Trick or Treated at every Trick or Treat station. The Trick or Treat stations are manned by two Disney Cast members and guests flow by on two sides to receive hand fulls of candy, apple slices and carrots. Race left the park with at least 8 pounds of treats. Race dressed as Indiana Jones, complete with gun belt, whip and messenger bag.

Day 3: Despite being a little worn out, we headed back into Disneyland. We finally got into the new Finding Nemo ride. It's essentially the old Nautilus ride with a lot of 3D Finding Nemo updates. It was really cool, Race loved it, Aurora cried through it and Dean is convinced that the ride was pretty neat and would be worth a 10 minute wait, but not the 1 hour wait we finally settled for. Race also insisted that we ride the Matterhorn, and Thunder Mountain Railway again. We spent the afternoon in California Adventures again and Race re-rode California Screamin'. He's quite proud of himself. We also rode Mulholland Madness, Toy Town Midway Mania and Mulholland Madness again. Race wanted to ride Tower of Terror again, but we ran out of time. We decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner in the park and made reservations at the Blue Sky Trattoria in California Adventures. Basically, it was a huge dissappointment and we would strongly recommend against wasting your money there. The parade came by just as we were getting ready to go to dinner. Lightning McQueen led the way, characters from all of Disney's recent animated movies followed and Mater brought up the rear. It was great fun. Most of the floats and characters were spraying water on the crowd. We finished the night up at Disneyland for a little shopping, a couple of more rides and the Fireworks show. We finally got to bed about 11:30.

Day 4: Homeward bound, finally. We caught our shuttle to the airport at 7:40 and were home at about 1:15. Just in time to wrap up our neighbor Daria's birthday present and head to the bowling alley for a birthday party. Jeez, are we ever exhausted.

The video below is about 4 minutes long and contains a bunch of pictures from Disneyland and California Adventures.