California Adventure & Disneyland (Day 2)

On Saturday, we enjoyed half a day at CA Adventure and the other half at Disneyland again. This ferris wheel was the first ride we went on at CA Adventure. You are in little gondolas that swing which was a fun twist on the typical ferris wheel seats. 

Getting ready to go on Soarin' California (one of my favorite rides)

Princess castle!

The castle looked awesome lit up at night. The fireworks over the castle were so pretty, I loved the show!

Truman & me with Mickey in his Halloween attire

Getting ready to watch Fantasmic

Truman loving spinning in the teacups

On our way out of Los Angeles we decided to go see the LA Temple. It was enormous! Then we had our six hour drive back home and back to reality! Such a fun trip together... I will miss getting to hang out with Truman all the time, he's so fun to be with. 

Huntington Beach

Truman's highlight of the trip was going to Huntington Beach on Friday. The weather was absolutely perfect; you couldn't have asked for a better beach day. The beach to Truman is like a feeling of going home -- he misses it and was so excited to get there. 

The sun worshiper soaking it all in...

Then on came the wetsuit and body surfing

Truman loves the salt water and paddling into a wave

He's so cute

We had a fun picnic at the beach with Quiznos salads, baked BBQ chips, Sobe's, Vitamin Water, and trail mix.

Then Truman rented a boogie board and seriously doubled his fun

You could not tire him out! He was boogie boarding for hours!

I took lots of pictures, got as far as putting my feet into the water, worked on my tan, tried to keep the pesky seagulls away from our food (They were crazy! They stole our chips and trail mix, haha), & got some cookies n' cream Dippin' Dots from a snack store on the beach. Yum! Very relaxing day!

We had a great day at the beach together!

That evening we went out to dinner at a good local Thai restaurant. Afterward, we headed to the theaters to see the new movie Money Ball. We both really enjoyed the movie and the great relaxing day. 

Disneyland

For the last 3.5 years I have been trying to convince Truman to go to Disneyland with me. All the hard work paid off, and we finally went together! The last time I went was about 4 years ago, but Truman hasn't been since he was about 8 years old. There are a lot of fun or updated attractions not to mention the California Adventure Park that he had never seen.  

 Truman was not very interested in going all the years, he would say, "Why would we go? We don't have kids." haha. Well, I am a kid at heart and I love Disneyland and once you do have kids Disneyland is a whole different type of experience. He agreed to go if we only spent one day at each park and got to spend a day at the beach. Deal!

 We at lunch in Tomorrowland and had the cute entertainment of the 'Jedi Training'

They picked all these kids from the audience and they got to wear Jedi knight robes and each received a light saber 

The kids learned from the Jedi masters how to use the sabers and then they got to get in a light saber duel with Darth Vader. It was hilarious and adorable to watch. 

Splash Mountain log ride

Going down the falls on Splash Mountain & Truman blocking my face hahaha

We went on Star Tours and someway somehow before we put our glasses on, this particular ride got a picture of my face (maybe while I was in line), the 'bad guys' start attacking your vessel because there's a rebel spy on board. They put a picture up on the screen and ask if that person is in there and are scanning the craft for that person. So you can imagine my shock while I look at the screen and they have me marked as the Rebel Spy. In all my years of going to Disneyland and going on this ride, I never knew they were picking someone from the audience, haha. Then when we got off the ride and all filtering out, everyone was pointing at me and whispering "...that's the rebel spy..." hahah. It  was funny. 

Something especially fun about going to Disneyland was seeing all the 'Halloween Time' decorations. Growing up, I only went to Disneyland during the summer so this was my first time seeing it in this manner. Starting mid-September, Disney decorates the whole park with Fall and Halloween decorations.

The Haunted Mansion also gets changed and becomes Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas which was a fun twist on the ride

Even the classic Mickey face at the entrance of the park was done with festive Halloween colors

Main Street

Truman & I both had a great time! Truman thought there wouldn't be enough to do for even one day in the park. That's one of the best parts about Disneyland though, there are so many great things to do! It's not about thrill rides, it's about themed rides and about entertainment. Disneyland does things right and Truman was surprised by the great quality of all their shows, rides, entertainment, and costumes. Between the two parks, we watched World of Color, Aladdin, Mickey's Soundsational Parade, the fireworks, and Fantasmic. I can't wait to go back with kids someday.

More vacation posts to come....