Disneyland / California Adventure Day 3

I let the kids (all three of them) sleep in while I washed clothes at the laundry mat. California Adventure doesn’t open until 10:00 anyway, and we made it by 10:30. We headed straight to the Tower of Terror, got a fast pass, and waited in line (30 minutes). I was having the best time! Rick was graciously letting me ride all the rides first, because when we went to Disney World two years ago I was nearly 8 months pregnant and I had to sit on the benches with the grandmothers.

Our first ride on Tower of Terror was a lot of fun, but the second ride was even better! The second time we waited in line with a dark-skinned family, I don’t want to call them African-Americans because I’m pretty sure they were from a different country because they were speaking French to each other. There was a grandmother, her daughter, and three grandkids. They were so funny because they were really scared about going on the ride. They kept asking Bradley all kinds of questions about the ride once they found out he’s been on it a bunch of times. When we got almost all the way to the actual ride, they all started cracking up at the youngest little girl (about 5 or 6 years old), so I asked them what she said. She said that she thought they were going to jail, because of the people running the rides! For those of you who have never been on Tower of Terror, the people running the ride are dressed in Hotel Bellmen uniforms and they do look kind of scary! The little girl kept saying “La police” in French, which sounds like “La-pohli-sah, La-pohli-sah, La-pohli-sah!” She was too cute! They let about 20 people on the ride at a time, so we got to ride with them. Once it was over, the grandmother said to me “once is enough!” I wish we would have bought the picture of the ride because they were in various states of grabbing each other’s arms and covering their eyes. That was one of our most memorable rides!

After that we headed over to the California Screamin’ – a huge rollercoaster with a loop-de-loop that takes off like a bullet. It was a blast! Bradley is such an adrenaline junkie – just like me! I hope that doesn’t come back to haunt me later… While we were waiting for the fast pass to go on the rollercoaster again we took a ride on the ferris wheel. You can either choose a stationary car, or the swinging car. Naturally I picked the swinging one, and Rick was more scared of that swinging car than he was of the rollercoaster! I guess it’s because we had Ella with us and we weren’t strapped in. We got to see a lot from up there and the breeze was really nice!

After this Rick took Ella back to the hotel and Bradley and I stayed and waited in line for the Grizzly Bear Run – a water rapids ride. The sign said it would be a 55 minute wait, and it turned into 65 minutes. In the middle of the afternoon. In the scorching hot sun. With nothing to drink. I thought my knees were going to give at any moment. Poor Bradley had a melt-down near the end of the line when they people running the ride were letting tons of fast pass people go and no stand-bys go. Sometimes it’s tough to be 7!

After that we were definitely ready for a dip in the pool at the hotel. Bradley made friends with some teenage boys from Washington State. They couldn’t believe how good a swimmer he was! Bradley was having so much fun with them, and he didn’t understand why we couldn’t spend our entire vacation with them. Again, sometimes it’s tough to be 7! He kept breaking down in the room, wondering why we couldn’t do what they were doing. It started this huge discussion about life-long friends. Ever since we moved, he has really had a hard time not having any friends. We keep telling him that he will make friends once he starts school, and sometimes it helps, but sometimes it doesn’t. Every once in a while Rick and I will talk about moving somewhere else in a couple years, maybe somewhere closer to home, so Bradley was bringing that up, saying he’ll never make life-long friends if we keep moving. It really breaks my heart. I try to explain to him that I didn’t meet Aunt Sindey until 4th grade, and we’re still friends. Then I try to explain to him that I didn’t meet Aunt Susan until I was in my 30’s, and we’re still friends. It’s hard for him to understand that you will (hopefully) continue to make friends your whole life. This is one of the toughest things about parenting – trying to explain life lessons to your child, who wants to believe you, but sometimes can’t. Hopefully time will heal these wounds.

On the way back to the parks this guy stopped me and asked me if I wanted to listen to his cd. He was a good looking guy, so of course I said yes. Rick kept on walking, but he knew once I stopped I was going to buy it. His name is “Freeze” and I couldn’t help but think of Ternisa – she would have loved this guy! He’s about my heighth or a little taller, and I knew he had muscles, but I didn’t imagine he would look this good: http://www.myspace.com/freezeizit. He was a really nice guy, and after I shelled out the $10 for his cd, his friend Smoov got me, too: http://www.myspace.com/quanentertainment. I talked to them for a few minutes and found out they had been friends for 7 or 8 years. I asked them who was better, and they just laughed! They get that question a lot. I also pointed out to Bradley that these guys had only been friends for a few years (another life lesson). It cost me $20, but we got to laugh about me and Freeze and Smoov for the rest of the trip. And we listened to the cds on the way home, with awe-inspiring lyrics like “life is like a bowl of Bisquick mix” (Freeze), and the sound of guns cocking and shooting (Smoov). Back in the parks we headed straight for rollercoaster. This is a picture of the ride picture with Rick and Bradley on the rollercoaster. It didn’t come out too well, but you can see they were having tons of fun!!

After this we rushed over to Soarin over California. I got fast passes around 2:00 that afternoon, and they weren’t good until 8:15 that night. That’s how popular the ride is! It was absolutely the best ride of the trip for me. You go into what looks like an airplane hanger, and they have all sorts of pictures of older airplanes and pilots on the walls. I couldn’t stop thinking about my Dad – he would love this! On the ride you actually sit in these rows of seats that start out on the ground and then they move forward towards a huge movie screen so that you are hanging in the air. The seats move with the movie, and the movie is scene after scene of beautiful parts of California – the Golden Gate bridge, Lake Tahoe skiers, rock climbers on mountains, the wine country, and even air-craft carriers in San Diego Bay (which Bradley recognized immediately since we had just been there!). As the movie goes along, different scents are released in the air so you really feel like you are in the scene. I totally understood why the fast passes went fast for this ride! It is awesome! While Bradley and I were on Soarin Rick got us a spot for the Disney electrical parade. It started right when Bradley and I walked up, so it was perfect timing!

After the electrical parade we headed over to the ESPN Zone in Downtown Disney. The chopped salad there was excellent! Either that or I was really starving by 10:15!