“Laughter is timeless. Imagination has no age. And dreams are forever.”

A Disney interlude...

I know this shouldn't be a whole blog post. We only squeezed in 2 days at Disneyland. But I can't help it. It's Disney.

Disney was never part of the original plan for this trip, but when we realized we were going to have to fly out of LA, rather than San Diego, we couldn't resist. Early Friday morning, we made the 2 hour drive from Mission Beach, San Diego to Disneyland Drive, Anaheim. We pulled into Disney's Grand Californian Hotel and we were home. Valet parking, checked into our room right away and treated like gold. By 10AM we were in California Adventure Park. We headed straight for Cars Land where Cody and I each quickly rode the Radiator Springs Racers. Arra is too short for this one still, so she'll have to wait for next time. (Tip for parents travelling with little ones too small to ride: Use the Disney Rider Switch Pass on rides or just get in the single rider line-up!). The rest of the day was spent only riding rides that were Arra sized. We did pretty well avoiding long line-ups, although, with the help of a giant turkey leg, we did survive the 45min wait to get on the Toy Story Ride. Arra looked so cute in her 3D glasses, I wish we'd gotten a picture! Her hands down favourite ride (and therefore our favourite ride of the day) was The Little Mermaid. She was clapping, laughing and pointing everything out to us. It was awesome. After Arra's (and Cody's) nap, we spent the afternoon in the hotel pools. Our little thrill seeker loved the water slide and went down it no less than 20 times. Dinner was in Downtown Disney at the Rainforest Cafe. Arra was mesmerized by most of the animals and the periodic thunderstorms. She was terrified of the gorilla that happened to be right next to our table. We went back to California Adventure for a few more rides after dinner, but Arra was falling asleep on her feet, so we decided that was enough fun for one day.

Grand Californian Hotel lobby

Arra was overwhelmed with all of the stuffies in the stores. Luckily she's still at the age where she's happy to just look.

Keeping her eye on that gorilla at The Rainforest Cafe.

Day number 2 at Disney was at Disneyland Park. It is my favourite place on earth. I know it is commercial and crowded, etc. I don't care. I have loved it since I was a child and I guess at this point I always will. Disneyland is celebrating it's 60th anniversary this year, so it was fun to be there for all the celebrations. We started our day on Cody's favourite ride The Jungle Cruise. It is an original park attraction from 1955 and it shows. It is kitschy with bad jokes. It's perfect. Arra loved it. Next we rode 2 more classics The Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion. These are probably my favourite 2 rides since I was little, and they still hold up! We knocked off a few more rides before grabbing massive Disney corn dogs and heading back to the hotel. Our afternoon was spent in Toon Town and having dinner at River Belle Terrace. I had hoped to watch my favourite show, Fantasmic in the evening, but thought better of it when we realized we had a 3AM wakeup ahead of us. It was a short but sweet visit. Until next time...