This is the second time writing this…hopefully I’ll get everything in again. Stupid computers. OK. Today we went to Disneyland California Adventure. We started the day by riding Tower of Terror twice. There were absolutely no lines anywhere in the park! Then we went to go see the rollercoaster. It closed as soon as we walked up to it because of a malfunction. We instead rode on the ‘sunwheel’, a ferris wheel that has cars that swing on tracks. Then we rode on a ride that shoots you straight up in the air very fast. That was a lot of fun. We also decided to go on the swings (like at Camp Snoopy or Valleyfair). By that time, the rollercoaster was working again. About 2/3 through the 30minute line, the ride shut down again. Oh well. We saw two 3D movies – It’s tough to be a Bug, and Muppets. They were very entertaining. We left Disneyland California and went to Disneyland to finish up on some rides we missed. We went on ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, ‘Star Tours’, and the Monorail. We ended the day by doing a bit of souvenier shopping. We thought we might come back if the weather permitted, but it rained for most of the evening, so we went to Outback for steaks, and then stayed in. No fireworks tonight. Now for today’s pictures:

Sarah in the backlot at Disney California

View from the top of the Sunwheel

Christmas Tree in Disney California

The back of the castle lit up

David and Sarah in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle

The day didn’t turn out half bad. We went to Target in the afternoon (I forgot socks) and had McDonalds. It rained pretty much straight through from noon-5 or so. We left the park around two. For a while, it looked like we wouldn’t make it back in. Took a nap this evening (from 5-6:30 or so) and walked back to the park. We made it back in just fine. We rode on the Haunted Mansion (Christmas edition) and went to the tiki room. As we were about to get in line for Space Mountain (around 9pm here) the ride shut down for 20 minutes or so. In the mean time, we went over the the ‘Small world’ promenade where they were playing music and having a big party. We watched the 9:00 fireworks (which were really cool) and headed back to Space Mountain. We gave them our fastpasses, and were on the ride in 10 minutes, instead of the 100 minute wait. The ride is AWESOME! We were almost done…and the ride stopped. The lights came on, and we could see cars elsewhere in the ride. Evidentally, people did not get off/on the ride quickly enough, and they had to reset the whole thing. No problemo though, we got to ride the ride again! Not bad at all. We ate $5 a slice pizza and went to Sleeping Beauty’s castle, where all the New Year’s festivities were taking place. It was very crowded, but we managed a good position to see all the action. The ‘biggest fireworks’ of the year turned out to be less than the normal fireworks, but still better than a Rochester/Roseville fireworks show nonetheless. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Sarah in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle

Exit to ‘Small World’

Minnie, Mickey, and Pluto at the New Year’s Bash

50th Anniversary Logo at Night

Sleeping Beauty’s Castle at night

Sleeping Beauty

Inside Space Mountain

We woke up early this morning to catch an airport shuttle from the hotel we stayed at to the Minneapolis airport. Mpls got about 6 inches of snow and counting as we were leaving, so our plane ended up being delayed about a half an hour to make it be de-iced. When we arrived in Dallas for our connecting flight, we had to run (literally) in order to catch our flight. It was a LONG flight, and Sarah and I didn’t get to sit next to each other, for whatever reason . There was a screaming child sitting in front of Sarah (for about 1/3 of the flight). When we arrived in LA, our bags didn’t. We waited for the next flight from Dallas to arrive, and our bags came with it. We found our shuttle to Alamo Rental car, got that all set, and went to pick a car. We were settled on a midsize Chevy Malibu, but the guy outside said we could upgrade for free to a fullsize Chevy Monte Carlo. It is an awesome car (definitely a highlight for the boy). We went to Target (which was a little bit weird) and ate at Red Robin (first food in 14 hours). Then we went to Downtown Disney to make a bear! His name is Georg, and you can see him pre-stuffing in the pictures below. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, but we have tickets to Disneyland. Today it was ‘full’ so only California Adventure was accepting visitors. We will go tomorrow to see if we have luck at all. In the evening, there was space, but we did not have tickets yet, so….hopefully weather will cooperate for a while. Weather was in the 60′s, partly cloudy.