Blake and Marla in Disneyland 2012 pt 3

Monday, February 13

Disneyland

I got up early and did my walk again. This time I chose to walk through Downtown Disney. I checked yesterday on my pedometer and I did nearly 18kms of walking through the day. It was a little chilly of a day – lots of clouds and a slight breeze. I walked back to the hotel but made a quick stop at Jack Banyon's New Orleans style restaurant. It was a chance to get beignets. I was looking forward to seeing if my new tummy could handle then. As usual I bought too many – six. Four would have done us nicely. I could only eat one.

So Marla and I once again returned to California Adventure through the Grand Californian hotel. I really like the Arts and Crafts style of the hotel; it is very much like the great hotels of the national parks. But passing through it is getting rather old. The nice thing about passing through the hotel is that is serves as a shortcut for Disneyland Resort guests to California Adventure. It puts you in through the entrance of Grizzly Rapids River Ride on one side and Soarin' on the other. This time we went to Soarin' which was a bit of another mistake because I forgot to pick up our fast passes for world of color. But Soarin' was a hoot. It is another one of our favourite rides.

We continued through the park which was mostly under construction as the main entrance and Cars Land is being finished up before they open this summer. We were kind of hungry so we stopped for Chinese Food at the Cannery Row section. We ordered the children's portion of Chicken and Rice. I had to assure the clerk that was really what we wanted and it was pretty good. We went all the way across to the end of the park to old Hollywood and a trip up the Tower Of Terror. This time there wasn't much of a wait which was kind of nice. Tower Of Terror is a huge fun ride. We had a great time – Marla screamed through most of it which was fun. We then continued through Disney's Hollywood of old to the Monster's Inc ride. It is a better version of the movie than the Little Mermaid is. It looks a lot less vinyl and plastic and there is more of the story. I like the part where you are in the door sorting area.

From Monster's Inc we moved over to the Muppets in 3D. The rain has kept everyone away so there was no waiting and all was good. The Muppet show hasn't changed in years but why mess with it. It is still fun and effective. Once it was over we were getting hungry so time to try another kid's meal. This time we were at the Award Wieners restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard. Where else is there to get a good old fashioned American Hot Dog. We long awaited this because we couldn't get on at the Carefree Corner in Disneyland. Our favourite Coca-Cola Corner spot there was closed for renovations. But this one was very good. Marla had about three-quarters of it with the bun and I had my quarter dog with just Mustard, Relish and Ketchup and no bun. It was filling enough for me and served me no ill effects. So I was feeling great and we were off again. This time we did a little shopping. There really wasn't anything we needed which was just fine with me. We are trying to keep the costs down and our little frugality is working.

Another Merry-Go-Round, this time it was King Trident's ride. I am so lucky to be married to Marla because she really likes Merry-Go-Rounds and deep in my heart I do to. So we can indulge our inner child and jump on. Our inner child is apparently really close to the surface. Adventure called and we moved over to the California Screamer roller coaster. Wow, what a great ride. It has its ups and downs and it even has a loop de loop. I thought it would be a challenge for Marla but she did great on it.

We decided to take another shot at Toy Story Midway Madness. It is a ride through 3D shooting game and it is like being inside a kids video game featuring an old time carnival section. It was lots of fun but I think the luster is off it a bit for Marla and me. It is not as fun as it was the first times we experienced it.

Our last ride for now was Mickey's Wonder Wheel. We were paired with a couple of little Japanese Girls and apart from the occasional shriek and lots of giggles everything went fine. There were wonderful amazing views from the ride and a little bit of a physics lessons for me. If you want to go to the top of the wheel you must ride on stationary outside cars and not the moving inner cars.

It may sound like we were always eating but there were long breaks of riding rides and standing in lines between our meals. But here we were hungry again so we decided to head back to the hotel and along the way we would grab something to eat. We found a place between Paradise Pier and the Redwood Trail that served Italian and Mediterranean food. We had a meat ball thing which was really good for me and by accompaniment it had the best rice I have had in ages with it. I am not really supposed to eat rice but I couldn't resist a couple of spoonfuls. Again this is one of those children size portions so I protected myself from eating too much. However after a good feeding and listening to a dandy group of Peruvian jazz singers, and getting really cold in the shade, we headed back to the hotel for a nap. I like this nap part.

We then walked back to the bridge and settled in to watch World Of Color. We found a cement bench to sit on but had to get up and move to the rope line before the show started. We became pretty good about holding our own spaces. We saw mostly the top half of the show but it was really good. But when it was over we were cold from walking around and standing for a couple of hours. Still I was hungry so we stopped at the ESPN Sports Zone. We had a plate of chicken wings and they were delightful and we got the bonus of watching Vancouver Canucks beat Phoenix in an OT shootout. All in all a pretty good night.

To see more pictures of our day in Disneyland go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/56705607@N00/sets/72157629549253465/