ending our disneyland drought at last

it seemed to take forever, but the girls and i finally made our first trip of 2020 to our beloved disneyland.  the new star wars ride had just opened a couple of days before, and they're doing some crazy "boarding pass" system where you can only get on the ride if you're able to secure one.  well, all of the passes for the entire day are getting snapped up literally within two minutes of the park opening.  that means we probably won't get to ride that thing for months, unless they do away with the passes and open a standby line like any other normal ride.

however, they're also celebrating lunar new year at california adventure - which means delicious food and fun merchandise for sale.  because we got there just as the food kiosks were opening for the day, it was pretty crowded and we had to stand in line (luckily, not too long) to buy one of their "sip & savor" passes.  since this food festival isn't as extensive as others, the passes cost a little less and have only 6 tabs instead of the usual 8.  that's okay though, we were still happy to take advantage of the savings that the pass offers.

while we waited in the line, we eyed some of the merchandise available for sale.  look how cute these ears are:

there were hats and shirts and other trinkets too.

the first set of kiosks already had a really long line, so we headed to the second set and found that most of the items we wanted to try were there anyway.  and look how cute the signage is:

the old lady ordered the vegetable egg roll with chilled sesame-garlic noodles.  she was pretty satisfied with it, and those noodles were actually really tasty.

the bean was excited to try the smoked beef bulgogi short rib, served with white rice.  while she was hoping that the "rice cake" description meant the chewy rice noodle sticks she'd enjoyed at lilcee's house a couple of months ago, she was still happy with this entree.

as for me, i'd opted for the shrimp fried rice with garlic-bacon edamame.  it sounds pretty basic, but it was perfectly cooked and seasoned and i would totally get this again.  and again, and again, and again.

we shared the black sesame mochi donut, which we'd had high hopes for.  after all, it looked like the modo donuts we'd had a couple of weeks ago...but looks deceived us in this case and this ended up tasting more like a regular cake donut.  bummer.

although the vietnamese cold brew served with coconut milk and sweetened coconut cream was pretty good.  for a cold brew, it was pretty mild and the bean actually liked it even more than her sister and i did.

we went to the back of the park to check out the rest of the lunar new year offerings.

the bean and i wrote wishes for the coming year on these little mickey-shaped papers and added them to the wall of wishes.  we were amused to find that her wish was pretty similar to the one just below where she tied it.

while they walked ahead of me, i was pretty excited to catch a glimpse of mickey and minnie heading to their meet & greet spot.  i know it's silly and i'm a grown ass woman, but i was pretty elated when i waved at them and when she saw me, minnie waved right back.  heh.

and then i caught mulan and mushu as they exited the pavilion to make way for mickey and minnie.

here i ended up doing my best mike wazowski:  "i'm on the cover of a magaZINE!"  thanks, kid.

with a short 15-minute wait quoted for the non-swinging cars on mickey's fun wheel, we decided to get in line for something we hadn't ridden in ages.  i always love the great views of the park we get from the top of the wheel.

we were amused when the bean decided to use one of her disney gift cards she'd gotten for christmas on a new accessory:

and through the magic of maxpass, we were able to get onto both of the rides we really wanted to do that day.

on our way out of california adventure, i stopped at the churro cart to try something i'd read about on twitter - the fluffernutter churro.  drizzled with marshmallow cream and peanut butter with mini chocolate chips sprinkled on top, it was just as delicious as i'd hoped it would be.

these signs were posted at the turnstiles into disneyland, just in case you'd held out hope that you could still score a boarding pass for "rise of the resistance."

we enjoyed some fried chicken for lunch at plaza inn, and then took our first castle selfie of the year.

it was really crowded by then, and we knew the chances of riding anything on that side were pretty low.  we did a little browsing in the shops, and then as we passed this we decided it was finally time to stop and have our silhouettes done.  we'd talked about doing this for ages, and it seemed as good a time as any.

we took turns sitting in this chair while the artist used a pair of long-handled scissors to hand cut our silhouettes.  "don't smile!" we were told.  that's harder than it sounds.

the finished product was handed to another cast member who stood at a table at the rear of the shop, and she brushed some sort of glue onto precut mounts before pressing the cutouts onto the cards and smoothed it down with some kind of backing paper that helped adhere the silhouette to the card.  it was actually the longest part of the process, and while we waited for ours to be done the artist who sat down for his shift handed us these little freebies:

he told us stories of his 20-year stint at tokyo disneyland, sharing the park map he kept in his bag and talking about the differences between the parks.  and then when our silhouettes were finished the cast member showed us the frames available for them, telling us that this was the only place in the world these could be found and pointing out the 24 hidden mickeys in the decorative border.

pretty neat, right?  and when you have this done, they actually give you two copies.  this way the bean and i could keep one at the house and the old lady could take the other to display at her place.

another disney bucket list item, check!