PhotoBlog: Balboa Park Botanical and Rose Gardens

Birthday at Disneyland

Grown up Day at the Park!

One of my Favorite Kinds of Days.  We do this often because we all need to feel like a kid again!

One of my friends recently posted about how she felt like a grown-up, and posed the question at what point in your life do you feel 'grown up"? My simple response?  NEVER!  Never stop believing in the Power of Magic, never stop taking the time to feel and act like a kid again.

So you ask, What do you do during grown up day at the park to accomplish this?
First we ride Splash Mountain.

This might be one of my favorite pictures from the mountain, and you can't even see me in it (I am the 4th person back btw).  You can tell from my friend in the front that we had already gottten super wet, even before the big drop.  Soaking wet.  After the fall we then splashed each other with even more water.  Having fun, doing kid things.

 Photo ops for this sign are always high on my list.  It's so pretty.

My SIL and my BFF's GF, both pretty wet from Splash.

 Since we were already wet, we decided to head over Grizzly River Rapids in DCA.  This was Fun.  More fun than I had imagined.  I got zero water on me!  My two friends in the front of the splash picture however got the short end on every single drop, every bit of water.  There are no pictures to prove this, so you'll have to trust me!

Then we hopped on Screamin'.  The park seemed busy at this point, but the lines moved very fast.

Waiting in Line for Toy Story Midway Mania, I decided to snap a few photos.

These two are my favorites.

I clearly beat my SIL, but darnit, my BFF got 169100 - highest in car.

We head towards Tower of Terror.  The line for this is always weird.  It's not so long outside in the lobby, but takes FOREVER once you've watched the video.  I had plenty of time to snap some incredible photos of the 'basement'.

Silliness aside, the pictures for this ride always turn out very nice.  Ok, so maybe not nice, but funny is certainly a term I can use right?

At this point we are done with DCA for the day and head back to Disneyland.  How many rides can we ride in 6 hours?  On a Sunday?  First up... Captain EO.  Wait - 12 minutes.  Since we are right there, Space Mountain is afterwards.

Disneyland seems to be getting busier by the minute, but I love people Watching.  It's after this that we witness our 2nd Security perimeter of the day.  It's the 2nd time in 3 hours that Security has found an abandoned backpack.  20-30 foot radius around the bag while police are called in.  Basically shutting down Rancho Del Zocalo (where we had planned to eat dinner) because the backpack is left 10 feet from the entrance.  Word of Advice to those travelling to the Parks.  Please do not leave your valuables alone, as Disney does NOT mess around.  You will not be able to come back for your bags in a few minutes.  

I love photos of big Thunder in the evening hours.  My new camera really knows how to pick up all the colors, and I snapped a lot of fantastic ones.

Finally we end the day with my favorite ride ever. The Haunted Mansion.  One Ride.  I snapped 100 photos.  95 were blurry (my own fault for having the settings wrong on the camera), but I did get this one.  My New Desktop Photo.  I took 1 photo during the Stretching Room Elevator.  It captured not only my favorite Painting (Tight Rope) but a shot I've been trying to get for YEARS with other cameras.

If you'd like the originals of any of these photos, please send me a message.  I'll gladly share.  Enjoy your Day!