More Disneyland, YAY!!

This is a continuation of the Tuesday we were at Disneyland. The rest of Tuesday went fine. Kate and I finally made it over to the parks when Amy and Sarah were coming out of Disneyland and we were going to California adventure. Kate wanted to go on Monster's Inc., which is a fun little ride. So we went on that.

They have this animation place, it is not really a ride, but a building with some different rooms with different activities like learning to draw a disney character and some little mini-shows. I didn't really know what it was when we went in there but I knew there was one thing we had to do. One of them is Turtle Talk with Crush. They have a big screen with Crush from Finding Nemo and he interacts with the crowd, he picks people from the audience and they ask questions. He answers their questions and talks to everyone and does some neat things on screen. They did a phenomenal job with it. One girl said her favorite food was bananas. He said his favorite food was sea grass and since he ate so much of it, he turned green. Then he asked if she ate a lot of bananas, is she banana colored? It was funny. I don't know if they have someone back in the back operating a microphone, or what, but it is pretty impressive. It was a lot of fun.

After that was over we went back out to the main foyer area and the girls were just kind of standing there. All of a sudden, Cinderella just waltzes in, spins and plops down right in between both the girls. In this picture, you can see what it was like, the girls didn't know what to do. Then she tells all the other kids to go form a line, and she talks with Sarah and Kate for a minute, gets a picture, and then we go. But talk about being in the right place at the right time! The girls didn't even know what to think. We had our camera with us, luckily, but not the book, so we didn't get her signature. But it was still good.

Then we went and got some lunch, after which Kate fell asleep. There were a few rides in California Adventure that Kate couldn't go on, so Amy and I took turns with Sarah on some of them. One was Soarin' over California. It is a pretty cool ride, but really short, and the wait was long. I don't think it was worth the wait, but people seem to love it. You get in these seats and they push you out to a giant screen and fly through parts of California. It seems like you are in an Ultra-lite, or something. They have some scents, and other physical effects to make it more real. It is pretty cool, but not something I will go on again if given the choice.

Since Kate was sleeping still, Sarah wanted to go to the Hollywood Tower of Terror. If you have never been on that ride, it is wicked fun. Basically, you sit in the car, they roll you backward a little into this shaft. Then they zoom you up, like you are in an elevator, and zoom you up again, then rocket you to the top of this 14 story building, and you can see the whole park because the doors open to the outside, then they actually pull you down, you are falling faster than gravity, then they bring you up, then pull you down. It is not jerky at all, it is very smooth, sometimes they slow you down and reverse direction and you can barely even tell they did. Then they take you back up to the top and you sit there for a couple seconds, and they make the car tremble, then pull you down again. The ride is really really fun. Sarah wanted to go on it a few times, so we did. Amy was with Kate who was sleeping at this point, so we just kept going. It wasn't very busy and our itinerary was pretty useless because there were no lines for anything.

So Kate finally woke up and it was time to go to our dinner appointment. We had an early appointment for dinner this night and went to Ariel's Grotto. It was pretty fun because the princesses came out after a barker came and announced their entry. One thing that was nice is that we got to sit right by the entry to the kitchen, which is where the princesses came out, so we were lucky enough to be the first table for all of them. The princesses were kind of weird here. There was something in the air maybe. When we came in, Aeriel was right there at the entrance and you got your picture with her. She looked like she was ready to kill someone. I didn't get it. She was courteous, but not really nice, you know? It just looked like she was having a hard day or something. The other princesses were kind of distant, and not very warm. It is hard to explain. When you have been to Disneyland a few times, you expect them to act a certain way, and it seemed like they were not acting as friendly. At Aeriel's Grotto, I think the girls liked Belle the best. I think they are reluctant to showcase Belle very much, because I have not seen her like I have all the other princesses. The times I have seen her, I was unimpressed. She did not live up to her character. This Belle was very pretty, though, and Sarah asked her if she was a teenager. Belle seemed to like that very much.

After dinner, Amy was still sick, so she went back to the hotel to rest. I took the girls on some more rides and to see "It's tough to be a bug." That is a really fun show with 3-D "Bug" glasses, and they have a few physical effects like smoke and stench from a stinkbug, stings from hornets, "acid" from an acid-spewing termite, plus projectiles flying toward you. And at the end, they ask you to stay seated so the beetles can leave first, and you feel these little bumps slide under your butt. It is really fun, and you definitely should see that if you are there. While we were waiting to get in that one, they let you into this waiting area where there was a giant root sticking out of the ground. Sarah climbed up to sit on it, and of course Kate wanted to also. She asked me to lift her up, but my policy is if they can't climb up, they can't get on it. So I said she had to climb up herself. So she asked Sarah to help her, and Sarah, being the sweet sister that she is, offered a helping back. Kate was happy to have made it. That is in Bug's Land where they have a lot of kid-friendly rides. The favorite for Kate is the Heimlich's Chew Chew Train. On our way to that ride, we had to walk by the water fountain area. I told the girls they could go in there, but not to get wet. Kate did pretty good running around and not getting wet at all. Sarah was nervous, she was worried that she was going to get wet. But she finally ran out there. On about her 5th step, she stepped right over one of the jets as it shot water out, and she got drenched. Sarah is so sweet, she thought she was going to get in trouble for getting wet, so she was really sad. I just didn't want them to be cold, I didn't really care if they got wet. So I took a picture of Sarah. I didn't realize she was so upset until after I took the pictures. I thought she was just shocked and looking at her shirt. But then I realized she was crying. So I went over and consoled her and told her that she was not in trouble, I just didn't want them to get wet so they wouldn't be cold. Kate was within earshot and when she heard that she wasn't going to get in trouble for getting wet, she stopped trying to stay dry. What was really funny, is she kept standing above the jets trying to get sprayed, but they never came on when she was standing there.

We went on the Chew Chew train after the water area and then on to the ladybug cups. I really hate those rides, it is similar to the teacups. I just get to sick, but they wouldn't let the girls go on by themselves, so I had to go. I took a video so people could get the full effect, but the port on my camera is broken that allows me to download the video. I will have to find another way to post the video. We went on a couple other rides, like the ferris wheel, then started home. It took us a while, but I was glad to get home, because I was tired-ito.