California- Day 2, California Adventure and Disneyland

Our second day in the parks went very smoothly. We learned our mistakes from previous day and left all the "extras" at home (my purse, extra toys, extra blankets, hats, and other misc items) so we didn't have to constantly track down and count all the items in our "party". Babulya did manage to lose her favorite Utes hat the day before and that's when we realized we were carrying too many extra items.

The first thing we encountered at California Adventure was the Cars characters. Alex was in heaven!
Even though it was still morning, we did have to "cool our engines" already and run through the fine mist :)
Soaring was one of our favorite attractions.
This next picture is especially for Oleg.
We ate lunch at the Wharf- yummy seafood. I do have to make a side note here to say how impressed I was with food at the parks. Not to say that it's 5 star food, but compared to Disney World 4 years ago it was a HUGE step up. They had lots of fresh, healthy options almost everywhere we ate. They even had little kiosks everywhere selling fresh fruits and veggies.
Next stop was The Tower of Terror- a much anticipated ride (well, at least I've been waiting for it for 2 days).
Alex did not like it much, in fact, he cried as soon as we started riding it.
Then I took Babulya on the ride, so I got to ride twice :) She loved it!
I have to admit though that the same ride at Disney World was much more exciting, more advanced and a little more scary. I miss Disney World. I think next time we'll have to go there :)
Another favorite part of the park was the Bug's Life section. There is just something about being surrounded by oversized items and pretending being a bug for a few minutes. And having lots of shade didn't hurt either :)
Monsters Inc ride was a fun one... for Alex :)
We tracked down some very cool buttons, even Nicholas got a "1st Visit" button.
We cooled in the shade while Papa and Alex rode some rockets.
Then unexpectedly there was a Pixar parade passing by. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!Alex got SO excited!!! He ran around, danced, and tried (successfully) to get the attention of the parade characters.
One of the parade characters managed to spray our camera with some water, not that it needed to cool down, but we sure did!
We walked around some more, watched and rode rides, played some games.

Alex even got to play a "baby" while Nicholas was using his Baby Bjorn.
We made it back to Disneyland just in time to see the Celebrate parade. It was very cool and Alex got to participate in the dancing.



We ended our day by eating some yummy (once again) food at the French Market and buying some souvenirs for the kids.

Until tomorrow. Now on to the next adventure!