bye bye, bug's land

would it be a weekend if we didn't make it out to rope drop at least once?

for the long labor day weekend, we decided to head out on that monday.  we figured it would be busy, because it was also the end of pixarfest and one of the final days before the bug's land area closed forever.  and there were quite a few people already there as we parked, got through security and made our way through the turnstile at california adventure.  not to mention, it was a wonderfully cool and overcast morning.

now that the bean has overcome her fear of the dreaded loop on the incredicoaster, it's become her favorite way to start our disney days.  we made our usual beeline towards the pier, but as we got closer we noticed that the ride wasn't running and there were no people waiting in the queue.  bummer.  the cast members were turning people away and didn't have an estimated time as to when the ride would be up and running again, and so we decided to head back the way we came and go through bug's land towards the guardians of the galaxy ride.  since it wasn't crowded yet, i figured it was a good time to snap a few farewell pictures.

i'm going to miss these popsicle stick benches.  wouldn't it be cool to have one of these in the back yard?

it seemed that everyone else had the same idea as they realized that the incredicoaster was down, because we actually had to wait about 20 minutes for the guardians ride.

by the time we got off, it was time for our fastpass to radiator springs.  yeah, we're total creatures of habit because this seems to be our usual routine nowadays.

as we walked through cars land, we caught the first signs of the halloween overlays.  yes, already.

our next fastpass was for toy story mania, so back to the pier we went.

the old lady wanted to grab one last "ants on a log" churro from bug's land before we crossed over into disneyland.  we took one final glance up at the four-leaf clover as we munched on our treats.

the water play areas are what we'll miss the most.  this is where i used to take the bean when she was little on those hot summer days...we'd pack extra clothes and put on bathing suits and board shorts and just spend our time here giggling and cooling off in the water that sprinkled down on us from overhead.

the bean didn't want to be in the picture but volunteered to take it instead.  bye, bug's land.

here's a super flattering picture of all three of us.

over on the disneyland side, we caught the horse-drawn trolley that took us from the beginning of main street through the crowds up to the castle.

our next fastpass was for space mountain, but check out the standby time even almost three hours into the day:

we wandered into frontierland to look in a few shops and it was fun to tease the special friend with this picture, where he totally looks like a fashion blogger.  in his gilligan hat.  LOLOLOLOL forever.

big thunder mountain was our next stop, where we caught a glimpse of the progress over in the star wars: galaxy's edge area.

we decided to have some skewers from bengal bbq, which we hadn't had in awhile.  the bean decided to try the pork belly skewer, which looked pretty delicious.

i went with my usual safari skewer...bacon-wrapped asparagus.  yum.

the beef and chicken skewers weren't very pretty, but the old lady assured me that they were super tasty.

and i tried the hummus trio, which was super disappointing.  the hummus was just not yummy.  at all.  and it got stuck to the lid and kinda looked like poo.

the bean talked us into a ride on the jungle cruise, which we hadn't done in awhile.  we sat up front and she pointed at the carving in the boat, which we don't usually get to see.

by then the park was super crowded and the sun had finally burned through the cloud cover.  it was just before 1:00, and we were satisfied with all we'd squeezed in.  so we headed on out of there and made our way back to the car, and on the way we spied poor rapunzel, who must've been dropped by someone as they scurried from their car to the tram.

while it can be a little challenging to get up early for our rope drop mornings, it's always worth it.  there's no traffic on the way there, we usually get pretty good parking spots, getting through security and the front gates is always a breeze, and we get to do all of our favorite rides and attractions before the crowds arrive.  it's a total win.