Today was Disneyland: Day 2.
We went back to go to the other side of the park, California
Adventure. Calvin was very excited since
that’s where Cars Land is. On the way
in, Calvin got to see Mickey again and give him a big hug.
Cars Land is basically an exact recreation of Radiator
Springs, the fictional little town from the movie Cars. Throughout our time here, I’ve been continually
impressed by the attention to detail on the part of Disney. They really think of every last little
thing. But with Radiator Springs, they
really outdid themselves. Denise and I
were floored at how realistic everything was.
And Calvin could barely believe his eyes!
As soon as we came in, we saw Red (the fire engine) and Calvin
got to take his picture with him which he thought was pretty awesome. For some reason, from the first day to the
second day, Calvin developed cold feet regarding rides. I had to practically drag him onto the Luigi
tire ride. Afterwards, he said he had
fun on it but that didn’t seem to help with getting him onto other rides.
For breakfast, we dined at Flo’s V-8 Café. After breakfast, we saw a familiar face in
front of the Cozy Cone Motel… it was Mater!
I can’t even describe how excited Calvin was! So we all got our picture taken with him. After checking out the rest of Radiator
Springs, we passed the Cozy Cone again and there in front was none other than
Lightning McQueen! If Calvin was excited
to see Mater, this was easily double that.
So of course we had to get our picture taken with him, too!
Before this trip, we told Calvin he could pick out a
Lightning toy for doing a good job with potty training. Since I’m a softie, I caved and bought him a
giant Mack with 15 cars inside that he really wanted. It’s his new favorite thing!
Right before leaving for our midday break, Denise convinced
Calvin to go on a Bug’s Life ride which he also really enjoyed… after the fact. We also did a Bug’s Life 4D which is kind of
neat. Denise and I had already done the
same thing at Disney World, but you actually get air blown at you, the seat
moves when “bugs” are supposedly crawling underneath you, and so on to add
another dimension of realism.
When we came back, Calvin got to meet Jake from Jake and the
Neverland Pirates! As if Calvin didn’t
think that was cool enough, Jake grabbed Calvin’s Lightning McQueen car that he
was holding and played with it. So now
it’s officially been blessed.
Afterwards, we went on a Monsters, Inc. ride. Then we went on what we thought was a Muppets
4D thing but to our surprise, it turned out to be a 4D preview for the new Oz
movie. That was a little bit scary for
Calvin but he made it through it.
After that, we caught the Pixar parade which was really
awesome. It had elements from all of the
Pixar movies. We all loved it. Then we headed towards Radiator Springs again
which we were all excited for since, in the movie, it was all lit up with neon
at night. It definitely didn’t
disappoint!
Somehow we managed to get Calvin to go on the Mater tractor
ride which is kind of like a Scrambler/Tilt-A-Whirl type thing. He really loved it! In fact, he told us later that it was his
favorite part of today. We then went to
Paradise Pier, which is a boardwalk-type area, and went on a Little Mermaid
ride (Denise’s favorite) and a Toy Story ride.
We then finished up rides with a spin or two on the giant Mickey ferris
wheel.
Even though Calvin was getting pretty tired, it was almost
nine o’clock at this point so we decided to stay for the 9:15 water show. It’s a pretty incredible combination of
Bellagio-style water jets, colored lights and Disney music from most of their
movies. Calvin got really into it and
even clapped at the end of most songs.
Once again, he didn’t even make it to the park exit before zonking
out in his stroller!
