California Day 4

Disneyland! Unfortunately, I didn't think to take a shot of the front of the park, what is wrong with me? You'll just have to pretend there's an establishing shot here. *sigh* Anywho, fun filled day for Andrew, Jake and me. We spent the entire day in Disneyland, from 11or12 to past midnight. It was awesome. Going with Andrew was like having Mickey Mouse there with us, he knew pretty much everything about the park! He knows the layout like his own house. We went straight for Space Mountain to get our fast passes and then went to Toon Town!!

We had a delicious lunch (that was a little pricey), but actually really good. We ate at a table with an umbrella and people watched. We were next to town hall, so every 20 minutes the clock would chime and a new character would come out to entertain the crowd. Very fun :)

I was disappointed to see that the Roger Rabbit ride was closed. Bummer! So I settled for this photo of Jake instead. I'm pretty sure I was on this ride with my mom and sister 12 years ago, but I hardly remember.

Mickey Mouse fountain! It cheers my heart. I love Mickey. I want to be able to visit more often. 

We went for the Mad Tea Party, which was fun. Here was our view of the Matterhorn while we stood in line. 

We were able to go on quite a few rides in one day, more than I anticipated. Thanks to the fast passes we hardly spent any time waiting. What a fabulous invention! Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Indiana Jones Adventure are the roller coasters we went on.

There were plenty of other smaller rides that we had the pleasure of attending as well! Star Tours, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Peter Pan's Flight, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters and Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. We also walked through Sleeping Beauty's Castle!

Such a full day. It was extremely satisfying. 

Here is Jake greatly enjoying our spin on the Mad Tea Party. Andrew was spinning our tea cup and making it go super fast. I believe the motion blur really adds to the effect. I also really appreciate that Jake's sunglasses are so reflective because you can see Andrew and me in them!

Andrew spinning the tea cup with everything he can muster!

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It would have been nice to ride it again! We only had to wait about five minutes because of our fast passes. I love wooden roller coasters. This one has a fantastic scary dip where it looks like you're about to run right into the ground.

Jake and me standing in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle. We're sporting our Happy Anniversary buttons! Andrew grabbed them for us from the customer service booth. Through the day we were greeted with a pleasant cries of, "Happy Anniversary!" from strangers and cast members. It was really nice.

Here's a beautiful view of main street Disney. It was hot and crowded. I love the shops though. There were too many strollers. Too. Many. Almost all of them were two seaters too. Children under the age of 3 everywhere.

While we were in line for Finding Nemo's Submarine Voyage we were able to catch the fireworks show. It was really nice! I love fireworks. When they started I was bummed because I didn't want to miss them, but the line for the ride was so long that we were able to catch the entire show. A good and a bad thing. Fireworks were good, ride wasn't good enough to justify the long wait time. Oh well.

Here is me while we were waiting in line to get on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. So much fun! This was moments before it was our turn to hop into a cart.

Ahh, Sleeping Beauty's castle lit up beautifully at night. Extremely high ISO for this one, seeing as it was very dark and I had to hand hold the camera (no tripod at Disneyland!).

I wish I had photos of Pirates of the Caribbean. A flash ruins the ambience of the experience, and it was so so so dark inside the ride that I don't think even the highest (and crappiest looking) ISO setting on my camera would have captured anything. I'll just have to keep my memories fresh by thinking about the experience often.

-MJ