Southern California Trip - Part 2

Day 3 of our trip lead us to the main event Disneyland.

  And boy was it crowded!

We headed straight to Tomorrow Land (which is my boys favorite) and to the Buzz Lightyear ride which is one of the rides that all of them seem to enjoy.

 

 

 Then we did the new Star Tours adventure ride.  One of a few rides that was on the "must do over and over and over" list and where you get to wear these awesome glasses that make the ride so much more real.

 Autotopia was also a big winner with my kids.  Who wouldn't love to drive their own car even if it is limited to where it can go.

 

 This was his first car ride on his own.  More to come this next year, on the real road.

 No, my youngest boy didn't get to be trained as a Jedi Knight at the Star Wars Academy, but it is still an entertaining show to watch.  The red faced Darth Maul is especially intriguing.

 Finally a ride Ms M loved.  The Merry-Go-Round.  Not too fast, not too flashy or noisy.  Just a gentle up and down as we go round and round.

 

Here is a look at Disneyland through the view of my children's camera.

 Nightfall showed Disneyland all lit up.  And we got to see the Disney Christmas Parade.

 

 

Shortly after that we called it a night and headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest.

Universal Studios was our destination on Day 4.

Luckily, the park opens in the late morning so we could sleep in a little.  And, thanks to that lovely So. California traffic, by the time we did get there it was lunch time.

 

 

 The best part of Universal Studios is the Studio Tour.  Here we are (all 21 of us) getting ready to load our tour tram, and of course we can't forget our 3-D glasses.

 It is amazing to think that these sets are what we see in some movies.  And that this is where a lot of movies and tv shows are actually filmed.  It is a fascinating process.  And there are some unbelievable special effects.

 

 Here, you can even pretend that you are part of a baseball stadium.  I think I recognize some of those spectators!

The transformers ride was the one ride that he was most excited about.  He almost backed out of it because he felt it would be a little scary, but holding my hand we got through all the intense action that ride provided.  And in the end he was glad he experienced it.

 

Another theme park, another long day but we got to experience everything we wanted and thankfully this park wasn't as crowded.