SoCal! Disneyland and Newport Harbor

BOY were we excited to take Valerie to Disneyland! We knew we had to take her this year while we are (just barely) within driving distance of Disneyland in Anaheim, California and she is at the age where it's all real and magical. We had talked to some family at Sara and Dannon's wedding back in October about our plans, Tom and Karen, and they enthusiastically offered to have us stay with them in Mission Viejo. We gladly accepted their offer and determined the last weekend of February would be a good time to go.

We picked Valerie up from school on Friday and started driving right around the evening rush hour, in hopes of making it to their house not too long past midnight. It's a six hour drive without traffic, and rush hour added about 45 minutes to the trip, plus we stopped for dinner at Ginger Cafe in Gilroy. The drive was pretty smooth once we got south of San Jose, although it was very dark (I hate driving in the dark since I got LASIK - I see big halos).  Rich thankfully took over the second half of the driving.

We woke up on Saturday morning to sunshine, palm trees, and a gloriously beautiful SoCal day! It was absolutely perfect for Disneyland, about 75 and sunny. Unfortunately, the entire population of California, all 40 million of them, also thought it was a perfect day for Disneyland. So much for a random February weekend not being too crowded. I'd hate to see what it's like on a peak summer day. My god. The crowds.

We had a nice big breakfast with Tom and Karen at home and then we got ourselves ready for the day and headed out. It was about a 30 minute drive, plus the slow crawl into the parking lot, where we had our first taste of being herded like cattle. Finally, around 11 am we were there!! We brought the stroller since we knew Valerie wasn't going to make it through the whole day walking. She tires easily. I also had Minnie Mouse ears for her to wear, but she wasn't interested in keeping those on, so we never did get a picture with those.

 

Our first sighting in the park was Belle, meeting a long line of fans just inside the gate. At first we just walked in and took in the sights. People, characters, balloons, storefronts, the castle which I learned is not Cinderella's castle like the one at Disney World, but Sleeping Beauty's. We caught a bit of an abbreviated live action Frozen show, and then got in line to meet the princesses in the Royal Hall. We got super lucky and got in line before it got very long, and it was definitely a highlight of the day. Valerie was scared at first, but the first princess in the hall was Belle, and she did a wonderful job making Valerie feel comfortable enough to smile and get a hug and a picture. The next princess was her favorite.... Cinderella, who was also wonderful and gentle and chatted with Valerie about her mice friends hidden all over the park. The third was Snow White, who was a little too in character and scared Valerie with her startlingly high pitched voice.

  Next Rich and Valerie got in line to ride King Arthur's carousel, the first ride of the day, and then we "pulled the sword from the stone."

After that it was time to find some lunch, and we had a cafeteria-style meal at the Plaza Inn, where I got a plateful of extremely overpriced spaghetti and Rich got fried chicken meals for himself and Valerie, who did not remotely need an entire meal for herself. I nearly passed out at the amount of food we threw away but I pulled myself together and tried to let it go, in the spirit of Elsa.

We walked around some more, despaired at the monstrous lines for everything, walked through Sleeping Beauty's castle, and rode the Mad Tea Party teacups. We wanted to meet Mickey and Minnie in Mickey's Toontown but the lines were so long we gave up and went to see a show instead - Mickey and the Magical Map, which was great, and we all enjoyed sitting down.

 

  

 

After that we tried to get Valerie to nap in her stroller, to no avail. We gave up on that and headed to Main street to get ice cream before Mickey's Soundsational Parade, which again was awesome. The highlights of the day were definitely the shows, parades and fireworks. Disney knows how to put on a show, there's no denying that.

We then got in line to ride the Flying Dumbos and the sun went down while we stood in that line. We squeezed the three of us into a dumbo for our third and final ride of the day, and then went out to Downtown Disney outside the park to find beers. The lines and crowds were really starting to wear us out. We each drank a nice cold, refreshing beer to help us gather our strength for fighting the crowds once more, and we went back in to find a spot to watch the Paint the Night parade and the Disneyland Forever fireworks show.

There were no spots to be found. We circled and circled and finally squeezed into a spot on the ground behind several tightly packed rows of people. By this time Valerie had passed out in the stroller and we let her rest for half an hour til the parade started.

I woke her up to watch the parade, which, of course, was totally worth it. Amazing lighting, costumes, sound, music, dancing, moving floats... an epic display. We loved the parade, and the final fireworks show was absolutely spectacular. I can't even imagine the budget for these shows and all the special effects. Just wow. It was really worth battling the crowds and staying for.

As soon as the last show ended we made our way back to the car, and, starving, began our search for some food. I wanted Cheesecake Factory but there was nowhere to park, so we tried to get to Panera, but they were closed, and we finally came to the last resort - Burger King. Rich got a burger, I got a veggie burger, and while not one of the better veggie burgers I've had, I was so hungry it sure tasted good. We drove back to Tom and Karen's and passed out, grateful to have survived the day.

Sunday morning we slept in, had a lovely breakfast of pumpkin waffles and fresh fruit out on the patio, and got ready to drive to Newport Harbor for a day on their boat, the Genty Lee. It was a perfect, relaxing day after the Disneyland craziness. We made sandwiches for lunch and cruised around the harbor, while Tom and Karen told us about the various celebrities and scandals associated with the harbor homes we passed.

 

 

Then we headed out to the ocean and saw seals, whales and dolphins up close. It was amazing! Valerie fell asleep and missed the whale, but she needed the rest. We cruised back into the harbor and  got a nice dinner at the Cannery (I think?) to end the day. What an absolutely beautiful day with our wonderful hosts, we could not thank them enough for such a fabulous visit. Every minute was jam packed and we can't wait to get back down to SoCal again, hopefully with more time to spend!