Twelve Hours of Mouse!

Yup, I found the mouse... over and over and over again, and apparently we weren't even in the park where we expected to see the mouse that much (if at all).  So educational moment, for those of you unfamiliar with Disney California.  There are two main parks, right across a plaza from each other, the original being Disneyland and the newest being Disney California Adventure Park.  Today we explored the Adventure Park.  We were there merely 20 minutes after the park opened (a nice 10 minute walk from our hotel), and we stayed until it closed at 9pm.  Yup, 12 hours! Can I even do justice to this day?  Between my two escorts, I believe we have hundreds of photos, and even some video.  We went on almost every ride there (that wasn't restricted to actual kids) and many of the shows.  Even though it was still a park based on mostly movies, just like Universal Studios yesterday, it was a completely different experience.  I can't explain it, but I definitely preferred today.

We started out on an adventure quest, to earn badges and a final crest (kinda like Girl Guides).  I think it was really meant for little kids, but Clare and KayRena had fun trying to get me through all of the challenges and I managed to ear my Senior Wildeness Explorer sticker.  Go me!  While there we also got to learn our Spirit Animal.  Apparently mine is a skunk (curious, adventurous)   We then went on amazing ride called Soar, where we were lifted off the ground and taken on a quick tour of major parts of the world in such a way that you really felt like you were flying over them, and even lifted your feet every now and then as things went underneath us.  Very cool. i can't exactly remember the order of things after that, but I know I went on my first roller coaster sometime around then.  It was called California Screamer and now I know why.  If I had a voice box, I would have been screaming too!  What a rush though.  The best part was the beginning.  Clare says most coasters drag you up to the top of the first hill and then let gravity do the rest.  This one started with a "3, 2, 1, scream!" announcement and then we were blasted up and over that first hill.  Wild!

I was excited when we went over to Radiator Springs next (Cars movie if you don't know).  I know this movie, and was once again excited to see how exact they were in reproducing this town.  I got to meet Mater (my personal favourite), and have a ride that started out like a leisurely drive through the countryside, then into town to get my tires changed, and eventually out to race another car at high speed through the hills.  Yup, I'm really liking these rides now I've got the hang of them. I won't bore you with details of every ride we took, because well, it would take too long, so here's a quick recap of the rest.  I met Elsa, Anna and Olaf from Frozen.  I rode in a clam shell below the surface and watched as The Little Mermaid came to life (and listened to Clare and KayRena sing along to every song).  I rode a caterpillar named Heimlich from A Bugs Life.  I helped Sulley and Mike save Boo in the Monsters Inc. ride.  I rode Goofys Flight School (not one we plan to ride again, I just want to add).  I got completely soaked on the Grizzley River Run (Clare never did dry off, and her clothes and backpack and contents are now hanging around the room).  I found out the Disney character I am most like is Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas (KayRena is like Mulan and Clare is like Merida from Brave).  Oh and we got to talk to Crush from Finding Nemo (very fun even if I didn't get to ask a question).  

  I'm not sure if that's all of it, but you get the idea.  But by far, the greatest surprise was at the end of the day.  All we really knew was that their daily finale is a show called "World of Colour" and that it was a lights and water show.  Well let me tell you, this mouse knows how to put on a show!  Not only was there huge fountains spouting high above our heads, and coloured lights shining on them, but they used the mist as a screen to show clips from popular Disney movies, and even added fire towers, and smoke effects too.  I only hope that some of Clare's pictures do it justice!  If you are really curious, look it up, there are plenty of videos on YouTube , just try and find a 2016 one :).

Well I don't know if I've done this day justice at all, but I'm exhausted and so is my scribe, so I can't keep her up much longer, and she still needs to try and find photos to add to this :). Yeah I'm a slave driver, I know.

  Whatever!  Footnote:  I apologize for recent blogs coming as one big paragraph.  I don't know what is wrong with the app Clare is using, but she does put paragraphs in, they just don't stay.  Then she tries to go onto the website to edit further, but it won't let her scroll down, so she can only fix the first few paragraphs.  It's driving her nuts, so I thought I'd make sure you all knew it wasn't because she doesn't know what a paragraph is!

So you are the mouse I keep hearing about?