Birthday 2014 - Day 3

Saturday was our last day at the parks, and since our tickets only let us visit one park per day, we had to decide which park we wanted to visit again. Friday night we decide to visit California Adventures again because it seemed to be less crowded and had more rides we really wanted to ride again. So we packed up our bags...after we finally got my sleepy brother out of bed. And loaded up the car, we were going to drive to the parks ginormous parking garage and ride a shuttle to the front gates.

Our plan backfired a bit as we found out driving to the park. The garage was only allowing cars from the freeway to enter. We were diverted passed the parks and into the parking lot by the Disney Paradise Pier hotel. Luckily this is where Jen and I stayed five years ago so we knew a few short cuts to the main gates. So after is little stroll through the Grand Californian Hotel, we made it to the gates and saw this:

 

The plaza was wall to wall people, it was hard to find where the line for Disneyland started and the line for California Adventures ended. So we found a spot facing California Adventures and hoped it was moving in the right direction. Impressively the lines moved very fast. And in no time we were back in the park.

Our first stop was to get Fast Passes for Soarin' and then we went and tried to get on the Cars ride by using the single rider line. Mom opted to hang out in Cars land while we got in line. She told us later that she road on Mater's Tracker Pull ride again. And even though we were going on as single riders, Dad and I ended up in the same car. That was fun. We ran into a fun car as well.

Then we met up with Mom again and went to use our Soarin' passes. I could ride that ride a million times and never get tired of it. Great fun.

After a nice soar over California, Dad wanted to get some Fast Passes for Grizzly Rapids, he really loved that ride. So while we waited for our time to ride, Mom, Doug and I decided to ride the swings again. Dad and Jen tried to get on the cars ride again.

Walking to the Pier we ran into Goofy's musical fountains. It was quite a hoot to see Goofy and to watch the fountains again.

After our short distraction, we continued our walk to the swings and ran into Dad again. The single rider line for cars was almost as long as the regular line so he and Jen decided to come watch us ride the Swings. We also got a quick glimpse of the green soldiers again.

After a nice relaxing swing, we went to use our Grizzly Rapids passes. After our first experience Dad had discovered some lockers where we could leave everything we didn't want to get wet. It worked out great because most of us got soaked this time around. Wet jeans are not fun, let me tell you.

I'm soaked....pictures don't show it very well...but I was.

We took a break after that to dry off a bit. So we went and had lunch at a Chinese food place.  Earlier we had seen that the Screamer was closed, but when we finished our lunch it was running again. Doug and I jumped at the chance to ride it one last time. Dad, Mom and Jen went and rode the Grizzly Rapids ride again...crazy people. Doug and I got on the Screamer using the single rider line and we finished about the same time as the others. Dad even bought some mugs from the Grizzly Rapid shop that said "Dry is not an option."

And then it was time for us to head out. Jen had to get back to LAX airport for her flight home and my parents offered to take her to the airport so she wouldn't have to worry about getting a shuttle. So we made our way out of the park. We made one stop at the World of Disney shop in Downtown Disney to pick up some more souvenirs.

After getting some great stuff, including cotton candy and popcorn for the road. We headed out. We got Jen to the airport with plenty of time to spare. And then made our way to Redlands, California where some nice relatives let us crash their home for the night.

Sunday morning we headed home, taking a slight detour driving past the Redlands Temple. It's a cute little temple.

And in a short 4 hours we were back in Las Vegas. It was the best trip I could have ever asked for. It will be hard to top such a great birthday again.

Birthday 2014 - Day 2 (Disneyland)

Friday morning we were a bit tired from the day before, so our start was a little slow. But Mom remembered it was Valentines Day and had brought these cute Skittles Hearts for everyone.

 

And as we were walking to the parks we noticed there were a lot more people and realized they were probably there for the beginning of the 3-day weekend. The parks were much more crowded than the day before. We rode into Disneyland on the Monorail and got a bird's eye view of the park. As we pulled into the station at Tomorrowland, we looked down and the one ride Doug was looking forward to riding, the submarines, was closed for repairs. That was just the start to the disappointments. Thunder Mountain Railroad, It's a Small World and Splash Mountain were also closed. But even with the let downs there was a ton of things to do.

We started in Tomorrowland and with my favorite ride, Space Mountain roller coaster. It's a coaster in the dark and you can't see where it is going. So much fun. Mom, Dad, Doug and I rode it twice. Jen opted out of the second ride. Down in the souvenir shop we looked for some Mickey ears but Mom and I couldn't find any that didn't pinch our heads, but I still found a really cute hat.

 And we also caught a glimpse of some friendly Storm Troopers, that were trying to stop some kids from building their own light-sabers.

We then went and rode the Star Tours ride. And apparently it has had a major overhaul. The line for it was really long and we found out why. You can go on it over and over again and never have the same ride twice. It was a lot more fun than I remember it being when I was a kid. Sadly we only got to ride it once. Things got a bit crazy after that.

We rode the train to the main gates, for some reason Doug wasn't able to get Fast Passes with his ticket. So we were told he needed to leave the park and come back in. With a quick trip to the front gates, we got it all figured out. And Dad and I were able to take some pictures of Main Street.

 

We got back on the train and rode it over to Adventureland to get some Fast Passes for the Indiana Jones ride, now that Doug got his ticket fixed. Then we wandered around and rode a few rides. And discovered the ones that were closed. And before we knew it was lunch time. We randomly picked a little resturant called the Golden Nugget. It was almost completely empty when we walked in so it was nice to get out of the crowded streets.

Jen liked my hat so much she decided to get one for herself.

Doug was our time keeper for events and things, here he is looking for the next show.

What we didn't know about the place was that just as we were about to leave, huge crowds of people started to come in. Apparently it was a dinner and a show kind of place. So we stayed for the show.

They pulled people from the floor to help act out the story. It was a fun little show.

After lunch we rode the Haunted Mansion ride and I got to ride it again with my Dad. When I was 8 years old I rode the entire ride with my eyes closed. This time he got to see me enjoy it.

Then we rode the Indiana Jones ride. It's quite the adventure, getting shot by darts, almost crushed by a giant rock, big snakes....yeah it's a fun ride. Jen went on it twice.

We hopped the train again and went to Toontown, where we split for a bit. Mom and Dad to wander alone for awhile. Doug, Jen and I together went in search of some princesses. So we explored Fantasyland.

 

 

Didn't find any princesses wandering but we found Alice and the mad hatter. We also rode on a few rides. At 4 pm we met back up with the parents to watch the parade.

 

 

 

 

Afterwards we rode the Roger Rabbit ride and then we split again and us young folk went and watched the show "Mickey and the Magic Map." Fun and entertaining stage show using a huge screen and trap doors and lots of singing Disney characters. Sadly I didn't get any pictures of it.

The we met up with Mom and Dad again and decide to explore Main Street a bit and then head to a nice quiet dinner place.

We rode the train to Critter Country and sat down to eat in the quietest part of the park. Since Splash Mountain was closed no one was in that part of the park.

Doug ordered this fun little dessert cupcake. He shared some of the frosting.

After recharging at dinner we got in the very long line for Pirates of the Caribbean. But it was worth the wait. Always fun to see some pirates attacking a fort.

At this point in the day, my battery on my phone was dying so I wasn't able to get any pictures of the fireworks, the Fastasmic show or riding on the Matterhorn coaster. But with the crazy whirlwind of a day, the night shows were kind of a blur. At 11 pm the park closed and we made our way back to the hotel. Stopping only to take a picture of the Main Entrance flowers all lit up.

Back at the hotel, I collapsed onto my bed and looked forward to one more day of fun.

Birthday 2014 - Day 1

This year my birthday has been quite eventful. It started last Wednesday when I came into work. I had been planning on taking Thursday and Friday off for my birthday so my co-workers surprised me by decorating my desk a day early.

They even brought in donuts and my boss bought me a chocolate cake.

 

One more reason why I love working for this company. Everyone is so friendly and nice. My boss wanted me to take the cake home with me but since I was going out of town for the rest of the week they kept it.

After work I ran over to my parents. For my birthday the only thing I wanted was a chance to visit Disneyland with my parents, my brother got to tag along as well. So as soon as I arrived at their home we headed out for California.

Anaheim, California happens to be only 4 hours away from Vegas. And it is a nice little drive through the desert.

Dad was able to reserve two hotel rooms at a Best Westerner just a 15 minute walk from the Disneyland parks. My best friend Jennifer wanted to join us, so she flew down from Salt Lake City, where she was visiting her sister, and was landing at LAX the same time we were checking into the hotel. Her shuttle arrived a while afterwards and she soon joined us at the hotel. Our two rooms had a door connecting them and after opening it up it felt like we had one big room.

Dad paid for the hotel, I paid for the park tickets. We had a three day pass. And decided for my actual birthday on Thursday we would visit California Adventures first. So after a good night's sleep we walked to the parks.

We walked right under the Monorail Track

Doug admiring the huge plaza between Disneyland and California Adventures

Entrance to California Adventures

Mom hanging with Mickey

Dad saying hi to Walt

We got to the park just before it officially opened so we headed over to my favorite ride: Soaring over California. We were almost the first ones there.

Soarin is a big screen 4D experience of hang gliding over some of the prettiest places in California. I love this ride. We got to go on it three times. And every time we got the best seats. Afterwards, we had been told that we needed to get a Fast Pass (a ticket that gives you a specified time to go to a ride and be able to get past half the line) for the new Cars ride. We found them in the Bugland part of the park.

After securing a Fast Pass for that afternoon, we wandered around exploring. First ride we came to was the Tower ride. An elevator that drops you from the 13th floor. Jen loved that ride, the rest of us not so much. We couldn't even get Dad on it the first time. But we did get him on it when Jen and Mom road it again. Doug and I pass on the second ride.

Then we went and saw the Muppets in 3D. A fun little show.

Then we walked over and checked out the Grizzly Rapids ride. A wild wet ride in round eight seater inner-tubes. It wasn't warm enough yet in the morning to ride it but we decided to come back later. The sign at the end of the line said "You will get wet, You might get soaked."

Later when we did ride it we did get wet.

After that we walked to the Pier part of the park. We rode a few small rides. The swings being Mom's favorite, they reminded her of the ride in her childhood home in Idaho. Then while Doug and I rode on the California Screamer roller coaster, Mom, Dad and Jen rode the new Ferris Wheel.

 

As we all stopped to catch our breath, we had some lunch at one of the yummy food shops just off the Pier.

After lunch it was almost time to turn in our fast passes so we made our way over to Cars land. The place looks like it jumped right out the movie.

 

 

Another fun little ride at this part of the park is Mater's Tracker Pull. You sit in a trailer pulled by trackers and get whipped back and forth. Mom rode it twice. The best ride is the actual Cars ride.

You ride in one of the actual cars from the movie and race another car full of people around the a fast track. I'm glad we got the Fast Passes because the wait line was over an hour long. But what a great ride. Then I got Mom and Dad to ride on the Sreamer...that was so fun. I'm still amazed that I got them on it. By then it was warm enough to ride the Grizzly Rapids. We all got wet. It is now Dad's favorite ride.

At around 5pm we happened to be in the right place to catch the Pixar Parade.

 

 

Then we headed out of the park and over into Downtown Disney to find a place to eat my birthday dinner. There are a lot of fun shops there. The coolest is the Lego store. Outside the store are HUGE figures built out of legos, they are very impressive.

Yes that dragon is made out of legos

 

We decided to eat at the Rain Forest Cafe. The wait to eat inside was about an hour so we opted to eat on one of their outdoor balconies. Jen paid for my dinner for my birthday gift. And the cute waiters even came out afterwards and sang happy birthday to me.

Not the most flattering pictures of me but it captured the moment. After dinner we headed back to the park to watch the night show, "World of Color." I was amazed to see what they could do with water, lasers, fire and some movie projectors. These pictures do not give it justice. I had to constantly remember to close my mouth, it was literally a jaw dropping show.

 

 

This show makes the Bellagio fountains look like common fountains. I'm happy we got to see it. Afterwards the park closed and we walked back to our hotel, very tired and a little sore. But it was a great day. And one of my best Birthday's.