Southern California Photos 2

DUPLICATE PHOTO WARNING First thing in the morning, it was a short walk over to the parks. We were going to do Disney's California Adventure today, but it did not open until a couple hours after Disneyland opened, so we went over there first. We got delicious cinnamon rolls from the Main Street Bakery before the whole park opened.
I tried to get a photo of this plaque over the entrance to Main Street USA the last time I was here, but it came out blurry. This is much better.
City Hall is where guest services is located.
The Opera House holds "The First 50 Magical Years" movie with Steve Martin and Donald Duck. It's pretty good.
Every Disney park has its Emporium.
This is the crowd heading into the park in the morning.
Play a bunch of olden days arcade games in the Main Street Penny Arcade.
The castle.
If you have seen my pictures from last time, you might remember that Space Mountain was painted bronze five years ago. It is now white like its WDW counterpart.
The loading area.
My nephew, my brother-in-law and I all had our eyes closed when the souvenir photo was taken. I don't know why my sister is wearing sunglasses.
This used to be the Carousel of Progress. Now it is the Disneyland version of Epcot's Innoventions.
Disney's California Adventure is now open.
They turned an old Western Pacific train into some shops and restaurants.
Over there is Condor Flats, a kind of aviation-themed area of the park. At the Taste Pilots' Grill I later had a Wild Bleu Yonder Burger which was basted in steak sauce and topped with bleu cheese crumbles. Mmm! I've tried to make it at home since then, but it's not quite the same. Also in Condor Flats is...
...Soarin' Over California. It's just like the one in Epcot but this one was first.
DUPLICATE PHOTO WARNING I don't usually go on rides like Grizzly River Run where you tend to get wet. I went on the ride. I got wet. No, I got soaked. I don't know how many hours it took to dry off, but it took a long time.
DUPLICATE PHOTO WARNING After attempting to dry myself off a bit with baby changing towels in the men's room, we headed over to the Hollywood Pictures section of DCA. They added a couple of things since I was there last. One is an old favorite and one is new.
This is the new one. It is a Monsters Inc. dark ride attraction. It's not bad, but it is more for the kids. But it is good to see some attractions based on this movie.
It was at this point I took part in that time-honored tradition of losing a cap on vacation. You see, I was still wet from that stupid water ride and my clothes were sopping from my cap to my socks. I didn't want to put my drying cap into my wet shorts, so when I came inside I hung it from my camera case. When I got my camera out to take a picture of these two Monstropolis newspaper machines, the cap fell to the floor and when I went back immediately after the ride it was gone. That makes four caps lost, three at Disney parks. The other was at the Theatre Casa Rosso in Amsterdam.
The Tower of Terror in DCA is slightly different that the one at Disney-MGM in Florida. There are more elevators here, but the show before the drop isn't quite as elaborate. These cars do not leave their elevator shafts.
The lobby looks the same.
You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension. A dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You are moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into...the Twilight Zone.
DUPLICATE PHOTO WARNING There is the Sun Wheel Ferris wheel. A third of the cars are fixed and the others are on rollers and tracks. They move around.
Looking north from the high on the Sun Wheel. That is the Grand Californian Hotel down there.
I was really starting to feel ill on this ride. The swinging of the car was getting me dizzy. There was a barf bag in the car but fortunately I didn't need to use it.
After DCA closed, we went back to Disneyland. In the waiting area for "The First 50 Magical Years" was all sorts of park memorabilia, including this old model of Disneyland when the park opened in 1955. The only ride at the time was the Jungle Cruise.
Here is a model of the track inside Space Mountain.
I learned in "The First 50 Magical Years" movie that the Disney family crest was on Sleeping Beauty Castle. And that's it.
DUPLICATE PHOTO WARNING Oh, the dear departed Mr. Toad. Well he's not departed in California, just in Florida.
There's a wood carving of the man, er, frog himself.
Those little cars sure bring back memories of when I was a kid. My nephew and I shared a car this time. He took the wheel and "drove" just like I did when I was younger. (He did just as lousy a job, too. We still got hit by that darn train and went to hell.)
If you didn't know better, you'd swear this was New Orleans, but it is New Orleans Square.