Our California Adventure Begins!

Well, today was a totally fun, excitement-filled day! It's hard to believe that we started the day in Vancouver! After waking up and very quickly finishing up a few last-minute packing items and eating some breakfast, we jumped in our home teacher's car for a ride to the Portland airport. From there, it was a short wait til we boarded a plane to Long Beach. Then we grabbed the next available taxi and rode to our hotel in Anaheim where we checked in, dropped our stuff off in our room, and then headed over to Disneyland Park and California Adventure, arriving less than an hour after California Adventure opened! We then spent the entire day at California Adventure, never quite making it over to Disneyland because there were SO many fun things to do there!

Here are some pictures of our day with some captions and descriptions:

Luke at PDX, ready to go!

Deboarding the jetBlue plane at LGB

Selfie outside California Adventure, right before entering. Exciting!

We started off by making a bee-line to the Radiator Springs Racers fast-pass line. I knew the wait time for this ride would be really long, so I thought that by getting a fast pass as early as possible, I'd set us up to be able to do the ride at least once today. Fortunately we got a fast pas before they were all gone, with a return time in the afternoon. We did four of the Bug's Land rides to start off the day and then headed over to Radiator Springs to check out the lay of the land.

First view of Radiator Springs. What a cool new addition! My new favorite place at Disneyland!

I really love Radiator Springs! It's so fun to see the whole town recreated right there for you to walk around in! Luigi's Tires was one of my favorite spots, especially inside. They had a bunch of character cars driving around or in different places where you could do a meet and greet or get a picture. We didn't hand out in Cars Land for too long before deciding to find some other rides to do while waiting for our fast pass time to arrive.

"Red" from Cars showed up for a minute. He was one of very many 'characters' we saw throughout the park

Entrance to Luke's favorite ride: Radiator Springs Racers!

We went over and did the Grizzly River Run, which is one of my very favorites as well because the scenery and staging is so pretty! Feels like we're really up in the mountains/forest! We got pretty wet (wetter than I remember from the last time I was here!?), and I felt bad that Luke was wearing his new shoes that Suzanna had specifically asked me to avoid getting wet! Oh well, they dried out after a while cause it was a pretty warm day!

I love Grizzly Rapid Run! The staging is so cool and realistic too!

Luke and me on Grizzly River Run, about to get totally soaked! Perfect on a hot day!

Kind of a cool picture of the ride with the Grizzly bear in the background.

We went back over to Cars Land after lunch and got to do the Radiator Springs Racers ride. It's such a fun ride! You get in the car and start out driving through Carburetor Canyon before re-enacting part of Lightning McQueen's first experience there: driving the wrong way on the freeway at night, nearly getting hit by a train, running into Sheriff, etc. Then you meet Mater and go cow tipping. Finally you meet the rest of the crew and get new tires or a paint job, courtesy of Luigi or Ramone. Then it's off to the races with another car and set of guests as you cruise through Ornament Valley, up and down and all around before crossing a finish line. I was really impressed with how quick the cars got going! It was really thrilling, especially to hear Luke laughing and yelling excitedly!

Neat waterfall on Radiator Springs Racers

Luigi hooked us up with some new whitewall tires for our big race!

McQueen and Mater were there at the end of the race to congratulate us!

I very literally had to hold on to my hat because it nearly flew off my head! Twice! Luke's huge smile was unfortunately covered up by the top part of the windshield.

We got off the ride feeling like we were on top of the world! Luke said to me, "This is better than the spinning boat one! That was AWESOME!" Such a fun experience! Glad we got the fast pass, and now we knew why it was such a popular ride!

So far so good! Having a blast!

A look at the boardwalk near Midway Mania (the ToyStory ride).

We headed over to Paradise Pier to check out some of the rides over there. I remember thinking that the Toy Story ride wasn't worth the wait the last time we were here, but the wait times were all generally a bit lower today than they were at Spring Break time last year at our most recent visit, so we decided to do it anyway. And boy was it fun! We had a blast (pun not really intended?), shooting all the different targets on the screens as we went careening through the ride. Luke held his own and did pretty well for a four-year old! Not that I had much of a score to brag about anyway!

Another selfie, as we got ready to do Midway Mania.

Midway Mania

Luke is ready! Equipped with his 3D goggles and a red (of course!) shooter!

Our final scores. I was player 1 (if you couldn't guess). What's up with the beaver awards?

Then it was time for the swings, the jellyfish, and Goofy's Sky School, a little blue steel roller coaster.

Waiting to get on the Silly Symphony Swings, looking back toward California Screamin'.

Silly Symphony Swings. I actually really like this ride!

Luke, waiting in one of like 20 lines today. Kip was a real trooper!

Goofy's Sky School! This very quickly became a top ride! One of our favorites!

Goofy's Sky School loading area.

We did the Grizzly River Run one more time since there was almost no line before heading over to do Soarin' Over California with a fast pass. We loved the River Run again, but Luke wasn't so sold on Soarin' Over California. I thought it was a pretty fun ride, as you're lifted up in the air in front of a huge IMAX screen and flown over various shots of California with some music playing in the background. Very cool ride. Not really worth the wait when the kid wasn't very excited about the experience, though.

Grizzly River Run; again!

Close up shot of the Grizzly

Rapids

More rapids

We hurried over to Radiator Springs Racers for a second round on the ride, thanks to some other local guests who gave us their unused fast passes when they determined that they wouldn't stick around long enough to use them!

Round 2 on Radiator Springs Racers

Then we met up with Brian and his family for a little while! Luke and I had tried Tower of Terror earlier in the day, but he got really scared right before we got on the ride, so we had to exit without riding. They gave me a return pass (like a fast pass) to be used at any point later in the day, so I told Brian to come over and we'd meet up so I could go on the ride and take one of his kids. Turns out they had a similar pass, so most of us went on the ride together while Jessica's parents hung out with the littler kids outside. I love Tower of Terror! Good times!

Silly Brian. Oh wait. I guess I'm being kinda silly here, too. Tower of Terror!

We then went back over to Paradise Pier where Brian, Josh, and I went on California Screamin', the big steel roller coaster. Luke would have really liked it, but he's a few inches too short for it. Maybe on our next trip! Jess watched Luke for me, and she got him situated on the carousel. Looks like he had a good time!

Thanks for watching Luke for a few minutes, Jess!

Brian on California Screamin'

Me on California Screamin', sitting next to a guy from France who commented on how much screaming and yelling I did on the ride (not that you'd believe it from this shot!)

A shot of the swings from the Mickey Fun Wheel

Luke and I ended the day on the huge Ferris Wheel. I hadn't been on this one before, but I enjoyed the experience. It was especially cool to be way up high as it was getting dark outside because we were able to see how all the attractions were lit up. Very cool!

Another shot from the Mickey Fun Wheel. What a cool place to go after dark to get a view of the park and the lights.

Mickey's Fun Wheel at night.

It was an awesome day! Full of thrills and fun! Here's a recap of the day, sort of a play-by-play for all the rides we went on:

10:35: Radiator Springs Racers fast pass line
10:50 Tough to be a Bug
11:25 Flik's Fliers
11:35 Francis' Ladybug Boogie
11:45 Tuck and Roll's Drive 'em Buggies
12:10 Luigi's Flying Tires
12:20-1:10 waiting to ride Radiator Springs Racers (regular line), then it breaks down as we got right to the front
1:20 Mike and Sulley to the Rescue
1:35 Lunch at Taste Pilot's Grill
2:25 Grizzly River Run
2:45 Tower of Terror fail
3:10 Radiator Springs Racers (fast pass)
3:30 Ariel's Undersea Adventure
3:50 Midway Mania (Toy Story)
4:10 Silly Symphony Swings
4:15 Jumpin' Jellyfish
4:25 Goofy's Sky School
4:35 Goofy's Sky School, round 2
4:45 Grizzly River Run, round 2
5:05 Soarin' over California
5:35 Radiator Springs Racers, round 2 (fast pass)
6:35 Tower of Terror with Brian's family
7:10 California Screamin' with Brian and Josh
7:10 Carousel (Luke)
7:35 Mickey's Fun Wheel
7:55 Jumpin' Jellyfish, round 2

One other interesting and noteworthy thing about the day was the fact that today was September 11th. I've never flown on September 11th, so I was curious to see if the experience would be any different than flying on other days. I'm pretty sure there was heightened security, as I saw extra TSA personnel, including K9 bomb-sniffing dogs and officers with assault rifles. Anyway, I guess they had a moment of silence this morning right before we arrived, in honor of September 11, 2001. JetBlue offers free television programming on their flights, and this morning MSNBC was rebroadcasting the live feed from NBC from the morning of September 11, 2001. I was pretty much glued to that station for the duration of the flight as I watched the liver reporting of the terrorist attacks, including footage of the second plane hitting and both towers falling. It was sobering, to say the least, and I felt like it put the rest of the days activities in proper perspective.

msh