We spent a full park opening to park closing day at Disney California Adventure, so we enjoyed a relaxing rest day to reset before enjoying some time at Disneyland. We used our rest day to sleep in, go for a nice run, and eat a big brunch at our condo.
One member of the family spent a long time building his new Lego set.
We then spent most of the afternoon swimming and hanging out at the community pool. There were a few ducks hanging out there, but very few other people.
After swimming, we made a taco dinner at our condo, walked into Downtown Disney for some Salt & Straw ice cream, and then watched a movie before an early bedtime to rest up for an epic day at Disneyland.
I took way less pictures during our Disneyland day than our DCA day, so I have less photo evidence of the over 16 hours (7 am to 11:15 pm) of park time that we spent at Disneyland. We were lined up and ready to rope drop Rise of the Resistance only to find it with a delayed opening, so we pivoted and spent the first hour of our morning touring Fantasyland.
We knocked out Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (to Hell), Snow White, Pinocchio, and It's a Small World within the first hour of the day. Using Lighting Lanes, single rider lines, and short wait times, we rode SO many rides. Gadget Coaster, Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, Roger Rabbit, Winnie the Pooh, Tiana's Bayou Adventure (single rider for the win X 2), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Storybook Canals, Space Mountain, Smuggler's Run, Haunted Mansion, Indiana Jones, Jungle Cruise, Rise of the Resistance, and Matterhorn.
Although Zach didn't ride it, Space Mountain was a favorite for the rest of the family. Other favorites included Tiana's Bayou Adventure, Indiana Jones (NOT for Briggs), and Rise of the Resistance.
It's a Small World is one of my favorites. I like it even better at Disneyland than Disney World. So, of course, we had to make sure to ride it twice.
Meeting characters is always fun, so we made sure to find time to meet Donald...
and Mickey again.
And while we were riding rides and meeting characters, we were also snacking it up. We got frozen lemonade and apple juice as a morning snack, Lime Ice Block Drinks while watching the Bluey show, and Dole Whip for an afternoon snack.
We had a huge (and scrumptious) lunch at Tiana's Place, complete with beignets, cornbread, and sweet heat chicken sandwiches for the girls and Zach while I went with the andouille sausage po'boy. It was all so good...and we all ate way too much. Because we ate so much for lunch, we ended up snacking on some more churros and popcorn in the evening before a late night snack-y dinner of Hawaiian chicken tenders and fries at the Galactic Grill in Tomorrowland.
We filled in other parts of our day with shows...like the new Bluey show and the Storytellers show. We also did some shopping.
And, of course, nighttime entertainment at Disney is always a must.
We all LOVED the Paint the Night parade. It was one of my favorite Disney parades ever! And we ended our day of Disneyland fun with the 10:45 showing of Fantasmic. Although the park stayed open until midnight, my family was ready to call it a day after the Fantasmic show ended. It felt a little wrong to leave the park before it was actually closed, but we had definitely made a more-than-full day of it, so I couldn't complain.
It was another full day of Disney fun to cap off our California summer vacation.
Our final morning in California included packing up, eating a big breakfast to finish off some of our groceries, and then heading back into Disney Springs for some final shopping and snacking. Churro toffee for the win!!
We then headed to LAX, grabbed some Chick Fil A for lunch, and then flew home.
National Parks. Theme parks. Flying. Driving. Hiking. Riding. Good food. Family time. We filled our summer vacation with many of our favorite things. I always love spending time with the people I love in places I love. Already looking forward to our next adventure!!
