Disneyland: Just Mommy and Rachel

It's been a very long time (too long) since just Mommy and Rachel had been to Disneyland. For months, we've met family, gone with friends, even had Hannah off track for nine weeks, etc. Today it was just Mommy and Rachel and we had a wonderful time. We strolled, we meandered, we window shopped, we did things Rachel wanted to do, and some things Mommy wanted to do.

We arrived shortly after 9:00 and the parking structure wasn't even open yet! We had to wait in line for it to open, as Disneyland didn't open until 10. But once open, we were parked outside the structure and this is what we saw....lots of open space and an empty parking lot! Once off the tram, I thought we'd window shop through the World of Disney store, but unlike times past, it wasn't even open yet either! So we got in line at the Disneyland gates. The gates opened at 9:30 and then Main Street was open for half an hour prior to the rest of the parking opening. We looked at the pretty flowers, and saw some characters, and wandered through the shops on Main Street. Our last visit, we had discovered that Rachel is now tall enough for a lot of the good rides, including Star Tours. And today, she wanted to try it. We literally walked on the ride and soon after it started Rachel was grasping my arm. It wasn't until the ride came to an end that she became upset. She didn't like the ride. But said she'd 'maybe' try again with Daddy. From there, Rachel wanted to see the princesses, So we went to the area where the princesses are and waited for that attraction to open, and then waited our turn in line. Once inside, we saw Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White. For some reason, Rachel was especially excited about seeing Snow White.After spending some time in the Princess Fantasy Faire, we did a favorite ride of Rachel's, the Teacups. She loves this ride and this time did all the spinning herself. She's so crazy! This was a walk on ride as well!! The new Mark VII Monorail arrived at Disneyland several months ago and up until recently, it's only been testing, not carrying any passengers. This was something I wanted to do and mark off my list. We had an entire cabin to ourselves on the first leg of the trip to the Downtown Disney station. That was a first!After the monorail ride, we had time for one more thing before we needed to be heading down Main Street and to the trams. We needed to be back to pick up Hannah by 2:15 and I have it figured I need to be on the trams by 12:45 in order to give adequate time to get home, allowing some time for traffic, accidents, etc.

Rachel chose to do Autopia. Talk about a crazy driver! She drove the entire course and laughed and laughed at how crazy she was being. She had a lot of fun driving and looks forward to doing it again. And with the ending of that ride, we headed down Main Street, stopping off in the Candy Palace for some treats for Hannah and an apple for Gramma. And then it to the trams and on our way home. It was such a great day! Looking forward to another low key day soon. Especially if the weather and crowds continue to cooperate!