Day Two

The second day of our trip we headed for Disney California Adventure Park.  We had walked through part of this park the day before because we were staying at the resort so we could enter the parks through the Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and Spa.  

We stopped at Starbucks for breakfast and then we rode our first ride in this park, The Little Mermaid - Ariel's Undersea Adventure.  They did a really job with this ride and we all really enjoyed it.

We spent quite a while in the Paradise Pier portion of the park.  As we walked through we noticed a commotion off to the left.  It was Jessie from Toy Story 2 - Haley and her Big Sis stood in line for a picture.  When we felt that we had our fill of that area we headed to the place where I most wanted to be, and I had a good feeling that Haley would like as well - Cars Land!

Cars Land is wonderful.  Radiator Springs is exactly like it is in the movie.  You walk right down the middle of the street that Lightning McQueen fixed up so well.  Haley got her picture taken with Mater and then later on with Lightning McQueen himself.  We had lunch at Flo's V-8 Cafe and shopped in all of the shops.  We didn't ride any of the rides however because the lines were really long and it was really hot.  Well, hot to those of us that come from the Pacific Northwest.  The humidity was doing us in.  We decided that it was time for our afternoon break again.

This time when we got back to the hotel I convinced Haley to climb in to her bed for her nap.  I thought that would be more comfortable than the couch.  She was happy to do it. I had told everyone that I wanted to be back in the park by 4:00pm because there were several things that we didn't want to miss.

When we returned we went straight to "a bug's land."  This is another wonderful environment that felt like we were right in the middle of the movie.  We went to the 3D adventure "It's Tough to be a Bug!"  There were several interesting moments in this one.  We were supposed to wear "bug eyes" - 3D glasses, but I noticed that Haley kept taking hers off, so I don't know how much she got out of the show.  Also to make it more realistic we were sprayed with "acid" and "felt" bugs around us.  Haley didn't like it much, but I kept saying it was funny and fun and hoped for the best.

The next ride was Heimlich's Chew Chew Train, it was really geared toward little kids.  Most of us didn't really get it.  After that it was time to find our places for the Pixar Play Parade.  We found a really nice shady spot right in front of a waterfall.  I am so glad we got to see this parade, it was all of the Pixar characters that Haley loves so much and it was done really well.  The thing that I didn't know and Haley didn't appreciate was that every float that went by squirted us with water.  There were even bubbles coming from the light standards.  It was really fun, but Haley doesn't like to get wet when it isn't her idea and she was getting pretty upset.  It was a good thing it was warm enough that we were dry shortly after the parade was over.

After the parade we headed back in to "a bug's land" and rode a few more rides.  It was such a cute area, I really loved the details.  The next thing on the schedule was Disney's Aladdin - A Musical Spectacular.  The show began 6:20 pm and I thought we had just enough time to get there.  When we came out of "a bug's land" there was the Red Car Trolley right there.  I thought it would take us where we wanted to go, so we all got on.  

Little did I know that it only made two stops, where we got on and at the very end.  So we got to see where we wanted to go as we went by and we saw a few more things that would be fun, but we had to hurry to get back to the Hyperion Theater.  We rushed up to the gate and I told the Cast Member that we had special seating (thanks to staying in the resort hotel) and we were rushed right in.  After we found what I think were probably the best seats in the house we realized that everyone else had been waiting in line for a while.

My brother and my husband were concerned, neither one of them is a fan of musicals.  I just smiled and hoped that they would not be too uncomfortable, because Aladdin is one of Haley's very favorite movies.  The show was amazing.  From the beginning it was as exciting and fun as the movie.  The genie was not Robin Williams, but he did a great job of creating his own special character and his jokes were very current.  The production was very professional and magical and I think it was worth the price of admission all by itself.  Haley loved every minute of it.  She sang during the songs and laughed at all of the jokes.

After the show we found a hot dog spot in Hollywood Land.  When the adventurous half of our group finished eating they headed off to ride the Grizzly River Run.  Haley really wanted to shop at the store across the street.  After that we went back to "a bug's life" to ride some more rides.  Our family found us there and we headed back to Cars Land.

Cars Land is beautiful at night.  Everything is lit up with neon and it looks just like it does in the movie.  I really wanted to be able to ride one of the rides in Cars Land so we decided to stand in line for Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.  Mater's Junkyard is decorated with all of his adventures and Mater sings a different song for each ride.  We stood in line for at least twenty minutes and I never got tired of listening to Mater.  I was concerned that the ride looked a little like the teacups and I did not want to be spun around, but it wasn't.  You are pulled in a car behind a "baby tractor" and it is like a giant square dance.  It was so much fun.  Haley and I and her Big Sis rode together, we had Haley in the middle.  We learned a lesson on this ride though, Haley was holding three Schliech horses while we were in line and I forgot to have her put them in her purse.  When the ride was over they were gone.  We frantically looked around the car and found all three of them, but it was a close one.

After our ride we got our picture taken in the middle of the street and then headed back to Hollywood Land.  My brother and his wife told us that we did not want to miss Turtle Talk with Crush and they were right.  It is an interactive show, Crush from Finding Nemo talks with the audience, he talked with my brother and his son and it was so much fun.  

As we were exiting Turtle Talk with Crush we saw a sign for Sorcerer's Workshop.  It was a really fun interactive place where we learned what Disney character we were most like;  Haley is like Nala from The Lion King. We also got to record our voices over scenes from our favorite Disney movies, Haley had a ball singing "Hakuna Matata".  My brother and his family decided to head back to the hotel after that.  Disney California Adventure Park closes an hour before Disneyland Park so we headed back over there.

Haley's Dad and Big Sis were ready for more fun so they took off ahead of us.  My Mom and Haley were really dragging as we entered Disneyland Park and Haley saw the Disneyland Railroad train again, so we decided to go on another ride around the park.  We were lucky we did because as we came back to the station that we started at they announced that it was the last trip of the day.  The train was heading in to the stable for the night.  

Haley and my Mom were done so we left the park and headed for our hotel.  My Mom and I were a little apprehensive about which direction to go, but Haley just kept pointing us in the right direction. 

Haley got us back to our hotel safely and we called it a day.