Disneyland Day 1

So I don't forget all the fun details of our trip, I wanted to get our days blogged as soon as I could!

On the first day of our trip, we woke up bright and early (at 4) so that we could pick up my mom (at 5) and get to the airport to catch our flight (at 7:50).  When I checked us in for our flight, I noticed that all of our boarding passes were labeled with TSA Pre Check (not sure how that works, but I'll take it)!  I figured we would be extremely early for our flight, but after grabbing breakfast and getting a little turned around on the underground trains at Seatac, our timing was perfect. :)

 

 

After a quick flight and taxi, we arrived at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel about an hour ahead of schedule!  We dropped off our bags and headed straight to California Adventure.  One of the perks of staying at a Disney hotel is that there is a private entrance into California Adventure, which happened to be almost directly below where our room was.  On our first day, we were able to get into the park with out waiting in any line.  Amazing. 

Hilary and Violet arranged to take a mini-vacation to Disneyland to overlap with our trip, so we met up with them at the entrance to Cars Land and started our first day of fun!

After riding the rides in Cars Land (Hilary hooked us UP by getting us on Radiator Springs Racers with them using a fast pass/stroller swap combo), we decided to head to the Tower of Terror. in hindsight, this was probably a terrible idea.  Violet liked it (although it still scared her - I think she likes being scared)!  Going on this ride probably traumatized Ben a little and it made us have to convince him that the rest of the "big" rides on the trip were "SO FUN! NOT SCARY LIKE THE ELEVATOR RIDE"!  It also solidified his passion for Fantasyland and his desire to spend as much time there as possible for the remainder of the trip :)  Which was fine with me - it was adorable seeing him love those rides so much.

But back to TofT: 

 

Ben was the only person on our ride that had not been on it before.  By the middle of the ride he was SOBBING.  And he couldn't figure out how to cover his ears (too loud) and his eyes at the same time.  So the result was this:  I LOVE Greg's face as he is looking over at Ben from the row behind us and mine as I was chanting "It's okay! It's pretend!  It's ALL PRETEND"!

The other funny part about this is that he was wearing his Happy Birthday button with his name on it, so as I carried my traumatized child towards the exit afterwards, everyone on our elevator was saying "Happy Birthday, Ben"!  

The good news is that after a magical trip in Fantasyland, all most was forgotten.  (Until he would see the tower again and remind us that he did NOT want to do that one again).

 

 

 

 

After more rides in Disneyland, we had some dinner and headed back to our room.  We were all exhausted and in need of sleep (and some warm milk and cookies)!

 

Rides Rode:

Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters

Mater's Junkyard Jamboree

Radiator Springs Racers

Monsters Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! (Twice)

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Soarin' Around the World

Tuck and Roll's Drive 'Em Buggies

It's a Small World

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Pirates of the Caribbean

King Arthur Carousel

Dumbo

Mad Tea Party

Food Ate:

At the Cozy Cone Cafe: Chicken Verde Cone, Pretzel Bite Cone, and Garlic Cheese Bread

The French Market: Clam chowder in a bread bowl, gumbo in a bread bowl

The Golden Horseshoe: Chicken nuggets and fries

Wine Country Trattoria (walk up bar): Wine before Tower of Terror ;)

Room Service: Warm milk and Mickey/Minnie Mouse Cookies

  

Miles walked: 7.85