Road Trip Day 11

(Evening of Day 10)

 Back in Anaheim and checked into HOJOs... LOVE!

We decided to splurge and stay 8 minutes away from Disneyland.. quick walk in the morning to the park (even better for the end of the day! They have an A.MAZ.ING water park "Castaway Cove"for the kids to play in...

 200 gallon Drench Bucket...

S-curve water slide...

 AND all this....

• 4 mini water cannons
• Water curtain
• 2 water umbrellas
• Toddler wading pool with beach-style entry
• Speedy, the friendly turtle, and 13 water fountains
• Bubbling whirlpool spa with foot and back jets!

Day 11

Today was the day....

 Carsland ...

We got up EARLY and went to California Adventure Park for park opening... Carsland just opened on June 21st and was super busy... we wanted to ride Radiator Springs Racers. We could have stood in line to get fastpasses (the line was already an hour long wait time and remember the park wasn't even open yet) OR we could jump in line and wait for rope drop. "Rope drop?!" you are asking.. well, they will let guests into the park before it's official opening time but have you roped off in the main hub... some lovely cast members (aka workers) will come with a big tassel rope and walk the huge crowd to an area... you can only walk as fast as the cast members leading the pack... it's to help from people running and risking people being trampled to get to a ride.

SO, we followed the rope drop into Carsland... as we got close I unclipped CD from the stroller and told her to jump out while we were walking, Moto-Moto ditched the stroller while we went to get in line for Radiator Springs Racers (RSR). Disney is very good about making you think the line is not very long... weave, weave, weave...

we ate our breakfast in line and stopped for pics along the way.

 We were in line for about an hour (though we were walking the whole time so it didn't seem that long.) We loaded into the car and the empty seats were filled with strangers from the "single rider line." (A good option if you don't want to wait in a super long line for a ride and are ok sitting along side strangers.)

 RSR was awesome! I really wish we could have done it more than once but I wasn't up for standing in a 3 hour line by this time! We explored Carsland more & posed for more photos... it really felt like we stepped into the movie!

 

 

 It was still pretty early in the day & chances were good that we'd get to do another favorite, so we dashed over to Paradise Pier and did Toy Story Mania...

 Met Jessie... "You're the best friend a cowgirl can have."

Walked back toward Condor Flats and met Minnie...

 

Love this photo of CD!

 

 

  

Ordered lunch at Taste Pilots' Grill... kids had snack packs, Moto-Moto had a burger & fries and I had a salad... though I could have prepared myself a salad from the burger fixin's bar (for free) with the assortment that was there! 

While the fam ate, I ran for fastpasses to...

Name says it all... TERROR!

The photo was taken at the very top before all the crazy drop sequence took place!! Never knew when the big one was coming!!

(You can tell who has been on this one... posers!)

  

We needed something to do so we could calm down & relax and were just in time for Disney's Aladdin - A Musical Spectacular...
 The Genie was so good!! Hilarious!!

Pixar Parade...

most of the floats squirted water, which was very refreshing, it was HOT! (Also enjoyed a Cool Lime Refresher from Starbucks)

More photos....

Took a break from the parks for a little shopping at Downtown Disney (DTD).  Moto-Moto was looking at jewelry and wanted to get me this for our 15th anniversary that we were celebrating while there... until he found out the price (as much as our whole 23 day road trip. Thanks for the thought honey!) The lady behind the counter was nice enough to let me have a photo with it...

Long, busy day at the park so we went "home" to HOJO. The kids crashed early so I put on my jammies, crawled into bed and at 9:30 enjoyed this....

That's right... I enjoyed the Disneyland fireworks right from my cozy bed while I watched my beautiful princesses sleep!