disney sunday fun day

during the bean's birthday party, my friend dailygluttony mentioned that she and mini DG were thinking of hitting up disneyland for a sunday fun day.  and since we happened to be completely free, the bean and i decided to join them, along with lilcee and mini cee.  mini DG had monday off, and so they planned to stay late and hit up the fantasmic dining package.  unfortunately the bean didn't have the day off, so we decided to head out for rope drop and then meet up with the others when they arrived later on in the day.

of course, it was supremely crowded even just getting into the parking structure that morning.  and so although we'd arrived just before 8, we didn't actually make it into the parks until almost 9:00.  yikes. still, we were excited to be there...especially as the trams were running like clockwork and we didn't have to wait in a long line to get to the front gates.

a quick look at the disneyland app told us that space mountain was a very easy 10-minute wait, but it seemed that everyone had seen the same thing.  by the time we got there, it was up to 40 minutes.  oh well.  we grabbed fastpasses for star tours and then got in line for space, which had recently received its "ghost galaxy" halloween overlay.  

with a good 20 minutes still left until our fastpass window opened, we decided to head over to tomorrowland terrace and grab some breakfast.  while the blue french toast is no longer on the menu, we managed to make do with a breakfast burrito that was jammed with sausage, bacon, eggs, cheese and hash browns and an order of french toast sticks.

star tours time!

and then she was surprised to see her sister and special friend walking towards us.  they'd been to the parks the day before and decided to stay at a nearby hotel for the night, so it was fun to see them and hang out.  

while they grabbed something to eat, she had fun watching a bunch of the disneyland ducks frolicking in the water.

i'm not a fan of the teacups ride.  in fact, i just don't do any shinny-type rides at all.  barf.  the old lady must've felt the same way.

the bean has been making a lot of really weird faces in pictures lately.  it kills me.

matterhorn time!  we'd gotten fastpasses with a quick turnaround time, so it was nice to actually ride all together for once.

mickey & the magical map is still my favorite disney stage show.  this is also where we finally met up with our friends.

it was a really busy day at the parks.  turns out it was disneyland's unofficial-official "gay days" weekend, which explained the crowds.  and the long waits!

while they headed to star tours with their fastpasses, we decided to grab some snacks.  a frozen hot chocolate and a mummy macaron from the jolly holiday cafe hit the spot quite nicely.

when we reunited with our friends, we got in line to do a little canoeing, AKA the one-sided arm and shoulder workout.

and since we were already there, we decided to take the rafts to tom sawyer's island.  we hadn't been there in ages, and definitely not since access was available again after a long closure.

it was about 4:00 by the time we rode the rafts back to the "mainland," and i was pretty pooped.  the old lady and her special friend had already bid us farewell, and with school the next day we decided to part from our friends and head on home.  i'd promised the bean that we'd pick up a turkey leg to take home and carve up for dinner, and armed with some candy corn-flavored cotton candy and a mickey pumpkin popcorn bucket, we headed home.

i hope we get to go back at least once more before halloween.  i love their holiday decorations.  and duh, it's disneyland.  i always want to go back.