California Adventure

We made it safely to Paul's parent's house Tuesday November 26 at around 10:00pm.  We first stopped at his sister Cheryl's house to have dinner, dessert and games.  It was nice having a break from traveling.  We were pretty worn out though and wanted to have a good start the next day.  We made plans to go to California Adventure!  Glenn had been so good to be dragged all over Europe and seeing things that were mostly for us.  We decided that we'd make this vacation and holiday a treat for him.

(I forgot to take a picture of the sign when we walked in, so I got one as we walked out.)

We didn't get there as early as we wanted--but we had had a late night and hadn't decided quite yet how we were going to do all this.  We finally decided on going to California Adventure today, then Disneyland on the following Monday.  We hoped that would mean less of a crowd because it would be after the Thanksgiving holiday.  Well there may have been fewer people, but it was still really busy.  When we first got into the park, Paul went to get a Fast Pass for the Cars ride, but they were already out for the day!  Seriously?!  So I was kind of bummed about that.  Looking back on our time, we didn't plan very well, and so I think we made some poor choices.  But we did have fun on the rides that we did get to go on!

Our first stop was a Bug's Land.  

Glenn hadn't seen the movie yet, but we have read some books so he knows the characters.  

Our first ride was Flik's Flyers.

Then we went spinning on Francis' Ladybug Boogie.

We crashed into each other on Tuck and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies.

We felt full after riding Heimlich's Chew-Chew Train.

We got wet running underneath the giant sprinkler hose.

We had a lot of fun at Flik's Fun Fair!  And loved all the decorations that really made it feel like we were little bugs walking around.

After all the rides there, we said good-bye to being a bug...

...and hello to Radiator Springs!

Our first stop in Radiator Springs was at Luigi's Casa della Tires.

It was an interesting ride on air.  We had to lean together as a family in the direction we wanted to go.  We had fun bumping into all the other families there!

Then we waited and waited and waited in line for the Radiator Springs Racer ride.

We found ways to entertain ourselves in line.  When we got close enough to see the ride, we took some pictures of that too.

  I was amazed at how long the line was, and we hoped that it would be worth the wait!

It was pretty fun!  It would've been more fun if we didn't have to wait as long...but it was still fun.

We liked that we could take a picture of the picture they took of us. :D

After our long wait in the line, we were pretty hungry!  We made a pit stop at Flo's V8 Cafe for some lunch.

We had heard that the food at the park had really improved, and even though it was pretty pricey, it was good food.  We thought that was right on at Flo's.

After lunch we walked around the city and loved seeing the sites and characters from the movie!

After Radiator Springs, we headed over to Soarin' Over California.

Glenn really liked that one--it was a really cool feeling.  I loved watching his feet dangle as he really felt like he was flying.  It was a great way to 'see' lots of places in California.

We then made our way to Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.  We got to be wilderness explorers with Russel and Dug.  Glenn liked this because he could run around and climb and do lots of fun things.

Then it was time to have fun at the Paradise Pier.

Glenn loves carousels, so we hitched a ride with some sea creatures on King Triton's Carousel.


We again waited and waited in line for Toy Story Midway Mania.

Thankfully they had Mr. Potato Head as an entertainer while we waited in line.


Finally it was our turn!  It was a lot of fun to play and ride.

It was fun to see how many points we got by the end of the ride.  One side did much better than the other, but I won't embarrass that person by saying who that was. :D

We had fun playing with the 3-D glasses before we had to return them.


It was really convenient that the end of the rides led right into little shops!  
But instead of buying the stuff, we just played with all the stuff.

We made our way down to the Zephyr!

And the Jumpin' Jelly Fish.

By this time we were pretty hungry again.  We grabbed some dinner and again were happily surprised at how good it was--for amusement park food.

We were right by the pier when they started their cool water show.

Glenn fell asleep during the show--he had had a pretty full day.  Paul and I still wanted to do things, so we just took turns holding him and riding on the rides.  We went on Goofy's Sky School by ourselves.

And we went to the Muppet 3-D Vision show.  Glenn slept all through that as well!

We sure had fun at California Adventure! 

Glenn got a free pin that celebrated his First Time there!!

 Here are a few last pictures of our time there.  We enjoyed seeing some Disney characters...

...and the Christmas scenes.

We didn't get to all the rides or all the shows or get to see all the characters.  But I don't think that is possible in one day.  We saw what we saw and did what we did, and we had fun!