starting off at the land

our second day of our trip
brought our first visit to the disneyland parks

we have spent countless hours at disney world (i will refer to it as wdw)
so we were really looking forward to experiencing disneyland (dl)

going with a plan similar to one in which we would follow at wdw
we started our morning early at space mountain



we were basically able to walk right on
we waited just long enough to get a few pictures to send to drew

one of the biggest differences we noticed between the 2 space mountains
is that at DL, we were able to sit side by side

you'll notice stacey is excited about going on
but about 1/2 way into it,
he realized his motion sickness patch hadn't QUITE kicked in
and well ...
i think this pictures says it all

one of us does well with rides ...
the other needs a little help
and that help hadn't QUITE arrived yet ;)

we decided to give his stomach a little break
do a little exploring

 

and go in search of good coffee

LOVE that starbucks AND ghirardelli can both be found at california adventure

we picked up our first ghirardelli white mocha of the trip
and
decided to enjoy it while waiting for toy story mania

thankfully the wait times weren't even close to what you'd wait in the standby line at wdw
BUT
we were a bit disappointed that there wasn't a fastpass option
AND
even waiting 30 minutes was long when we had 2 big parks that we couldn't wait to see

i'm pretty sure stacey beat me each time we rode ...
but i always beat him on buzz lightyear ...
and i knew we'd be riding that later ...
so i had to let him feel like he was good at something

after toy story mania we explorered paradise pier
and killed some time watching mickey's fun wheel

before using our coveted radiator springs racer fastpasses

AND
going in search of snack #1 for the day

the first thing on my list was something that i had been craving since our spring break trip
a stuffed jalapeno cheese pretzel

just as before
it was FABULOUS

and a great start to our afternoon!!

we hit up another of our wdw favorites



we had picked up fastpasses earlier
but were surprised to find out that we didn't even need them.
we got on the ride ....
we got to sit in our favorite row (the top) ...
and were done in less than 10 minutes!

what's even crazier is that
over the course of our week at DL
we rarely saw the line for soarin' get over 15 minutes
if you have ever visited soarin' at epcot
you know that is unheard of -
AND a very pleasant surprise!!

after the weather MN had been having
we were wanting to soak in every bit of sun that we could
so it was perfect!!

it was a BEAUTIFUL southern california day
and we were LOVING just walking around the park
and
taking in the details that we so easily miss
when we have 3 'little' guys by our sides

 

 

we wrapped up our afternoon with dinner at another of our wdw favorites 

and then i went to get our spots for world of color -
which is a FABULOUS water and light show put on at california adventure.
it was the PERFECT ending to our first day
and SO fabulous ...
that it deserves a post of it's own ...