Delightful Disneyland

This little angel doesn't look exhausting, does she? Oh, but she kept us running!

She was worth the chase, and I loved our trip to Disneyland.

Especially since we went off season, and on a Monday. NO LINES. And I mean NONE.

We loved Ariel's ride so much that we just stayed on it and kept going round and round, we didn't even have to get off and get back in line. Because there were NO LINES! wow, I was happily surprised by that. 

All of the characters we met were happy to see us and spent some time conversing.  Alice really liked the white rabbits on Sugarwing's dress.

Before our trip, I bought a few cutey pie dresses on sale at TJMax for about $10 each, with some leggings and light sweaters for layering to keep up with weather changes.  That was the right choice, and I thought she looked adorable.  Even with the dresses pulled up over her head most of the time.  At least they all had underskirts.

But the highlight of the park for our kiddo?  Ariel, her hero.   We made reservations at Ariel's Grotto for lunch, and the morning leading up to meeting the world's most wonderful princess was filled with anticipation.

Finally, lunch time came, after hours of Sugarwings telling us she was soooo hungry, trying to convince us that we should go straight to the restaurant at about 9am.  And 9:15, 9:16, and so on. 

Meeting her idol was everything she had hoped it would be.

And was followed by meeting a few of the "lesser" princesses, who while weren't as dreamily ideal as Ariel, were all beautiful and she was happy to meet them.

Our own princess was so exicted by Belle, that she did a twirl for her and whacked her elbow on the wall. Belle was kind enought to kiss her arm and make it feel better.

Cinderella sat down to chat.

Sugarwings didn't see any reason to let her lunch get cold just because royalty was visiting.  She got a laugh from each princess who came by, just by being her own sweet, silly self.

She sure kept us entertained.  

From her insistance that her Lego race car had to be the tallest one ever.

(even tho it would only roll a couple inches)

To her zest in chasing down every character that she saw. (Even though it was a bit like being outside with Twinkle when she sees a bunny and takes off.  Zoom, she was GONE. )

Good thing the park wasn't crowded, and we could easily follow her.

And her joy in the small things, spot lights, statues, flowers, etc.  This kid would have been fine not going on a single ride, she was happy with just poking around and looking at all the details.  She played with this spot light on the carpet for about 30 minutes while her tired, old grandparents enjoyed the break and sat on a sofa in the air conditioning while clips from our favorite movies played on the giant screens.

I'd never been to Disneyland in CA before, and it won't be my last time.  I enjoyed the small, compact size of it, and the fact that everything was in walking distance.  No boat to the tram to get to the parking lot to drive to the hotel like you have to endure at the Florida  park.

We could easily walk to the hotel mid-day to take a break and rest, then walk back later on for more fun.

We stayed at the original, recently remodelled, Disney hotel  and it felt upscale and pampering.

I was also thrilled with the quality of the food. We had great meals Downtown Disney and in the parks too.  We'd packed lots of organic, healthy snacks to carry with us, so bought very little in the way of junk.  A couple little treats here and there, just because it was a vacation. But mostly, we sat down at good restaurants and ate grilled fish, or chicken, and lots of veggies.

By bringing our own snacks, we saved a lot of cash and could spend more at restaurants and eat much healthier. And it was nice to take the time to have a sit down dinner with a glass of wine after traipsing through the park all day.

Yep, it was all the best.

The only thing that could have made it better, would have been to have the rest of the family with us.  I hope we can take them sometime, fun is best when shared.