A Very Disney Day

Today we spent all morning and early afternoon in Disneyland. Once the gates opened at 9:30, we stopped at the Blue Ribbon Bakery on Main Street where we each got lattes and shared a yogurt parfait. Mmmm! They held the crowd at the end of Main St. until 10:00, so we just sat in the bakery and people-watched until the crowd cleared.

We started out in Fantasyland figuring that later it would be too overrun with the stroller brigade. We rode several rides there, walked over to Tomorrowland and got a Fast Pass for Space Mountain, and then headed over to Adventureland. We took the Jungle Cruise, climbed up to the top of Tarzan's Tree House, and then rode Pirates of the Caribbean - much longer and better here than at Disney World. After that we had our ride on Space Mountain, which we both thought was a little too exciting for us! ;-)

We decided it was time for a break from the park and we were getting hungry, so we got on the monorail to Downtown Disney and had lunch at the Storytellers Cafe at the Grand Californian. Then we shopped a little in World of Disney where mr. lo bought a t-shirt with an old fashioned Mickey on it. We came back to the hotel for a short nap after that. The lobby of Grand Californian is massive, although I thought it seemed rather dark. Storytellers was a great place to get away from the hustle-bustle of the park. I enjoyed walking around Downtown Disney. I like the layout much better than the one at Disney World and it was much less crowded than its Florida counterpart has ever been when we were there.

Our plan is to go back in a little while and ride some of the major rides we missed during the parade and fireworks. The park is open later tonight - until 8:00 - so we'll see if it stays as crowded as it was earlier today. I have been surprised how crowded the park is this early in the season. According to everything I had read, this is supposed to be one of the least-crowded weeks of the year. If that is so, then I'm glad I'm not here when it really is busy because there are more than enough people here for me right now.

I've added today's photos to my Disneyland set on Flickr.