Sunday, August 14, 2011

Day Fifty-One: Our California Adventure

Our plan for today was to head back to DisneyLand, for all of the things we missed, and then over to California Adventure, for everything else. We finished DisneyLand with Star Tours, which was the same as the ride in Florida. We wanted to get Erik something with Jedi Mickey, but couldn't find anything suitable. Sorry! We went on Space Mountain. I wasn't ready for it. They take you up two large hills at the very beginning, so all I could think was "Where is the huge downhill?" Since it was so dark in there, you couldn't tell where it was coming. Around every turn, I was freaking out a little. Robyn was next to me and just kept laughing!! We were really hoping to do Nemo's underwater ride, but it was closed when we got there. We had done everything that we wanted, so we went to a gift shop to do some shopping, and headed out of DisneyLand. It was sad.
Afterwards, we went next door to California Adventure, which is where they have more of the "adult" things to do. You could tell you're in California, when DisneyLand has a winery and cellar on the premise! Our first stop was to their "Hollywood Pictures Backlot". We were excited because we had just been there! We decided to go to the MuppetVision 3D. So much cooler than the one in Florida!! It starts off with the 2 old grumpy guys sitting in the balcony, criticizing the show. It had all of the "cheap 3D tricks" (like Kermit promised against) but newer ones, too. Somehow, they had Fozzie shoot a water gun at you and they had bubbles all over the place. They also had some more characters come out of doors and stuff. At the end, the building 'blows up' and it looks like there is fire coming out of the walls and stuff. When the show was over, you couldn't even tell what had been there. It was so cool!
Our next stop was to the Monsters, Inc. ride. At the end, the train stopped at the old boss lady. We figured that it was to let the cars in front of us off. No big deal. Then she started talking. She was like "Hi girls. You two in the third row (where we were sitting), are you two twins or something?" "Uhh... " after being in shock, "...yeah...". "Oh, nevermind, you humans all look the same." The girl in the front kept turning around to look at us. I was still in shock. After that, we met Sulley (also from Monsters, Inc.) and he gave us a great big hug and kisses! (It makes you wonder who's actually under the costume...) Anyway, it made our day!
The Tower of Terror is right next to it, so, since I promised Robyn I would do it, we went in that direction. Luckily, there was hardly a line (surprising) and we were able to go up rather quickly. I was shaking the entire time! Apparently, though, I have grown up a lot since Florida, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The picture at the top says otherwise, though, because I definitely covered my face at the top. They opened the doors to the outside twice, which made it worse because you knew that the only direction to go was down. It was a good thing we went when we did because the line when we got out was huge. We walked through "a bug's land", which is set up to be you walking around like a bug. Everything is high above you. We took pictures with Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater from Cars. After that, we walked around their Paradise Pier. It's designed to look like a boardwalk pier, and has shops, restaurants, and more rides. We went on the "Toy Story Midway Mania", which is a ride where you have to hit the target to get points. There are a bunch of different games that you play. It is another competitive one. Robyn won, but it was close! There is also a Ferris wheel there, with a huge picture of Mickey in the center, but we decided to head out and try to find the "Soarin' Over California" ride. It is one of the rides they pride themselves on, so we went for it. It is also one of the more popular rides, which made for a super long wait. It was about an hour until we actually got to go on it. They set it up to be sort of like an airplane, but once it starts, your feet end up dangling off the floor (our would anyway!) They take you over Yosemite Falls, Redwood Creek, the Golden Gate Bridge, Napa, and a few more. It was nice to see the Golden Gate Bridge on a sunny day, but I don't know if I would have waited in line to go on it again. I'd rather see the real thing! Since it took longer than we wanted, we didn't have time to do much else. It was a little disappointing, but we did everything we wanted to. We didn't do a very good job of planning- another day would have been perfect. All in all, though, DisneyLand was so much fun! It is absolutely amazing how much work and effort goes into running something like that, and as well as they do! And the artistic ability to build the sets and rides! Half the time, we were just looking at everything around us, not paying attention to the actual ride! Each character looks like who it's supposed to be and stuff. It's amazing!!
After Anaheim, it was off to our next stop. Since the last two days had been pretty long, we were going to stop for coffee before we got any farther. Turns out, the GPS thinks that there is a Starbucks in the middle of a gated community in the Laguna Hills. After getting turned around in a very affluent community, we decided to get back on the highway and keep going. We tried to go on the Pacific Coast Highway, but ended up going north on it. After turning around, we decided that it would probably be best to go on I-5 and just get to the campground. Since we couldn't find somewhere to stop, we figured we would get a water from one of the rest stops. It didn't taste 'right,' but it was legit bottled water, so we drank it anyway...Nothing has happened yet... We stopped at the store to pick some stuff up, and finally got to the campground. It's only two hours from Disney to here, but it felt like forever! We pitched our tent and made dinner. Now it's time for bed!!

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