We arrived in Anaheim area after a long drive from San Francisco so we definitely needed the remainder of the day to just rest.  Can honestly say that the traffic in this area is for real, it is craziness!

Day two – Santa Monica Pier for a late lunch and afternoon site seeing and shopping.  The Pier was not overly crowded, beach was beautiful and lunch was delicious.  Just a relaxing beautiful sunny day enjoying the scenes.

Day three – Angels Game Day!  Mike wanted to visit a few breweries before the game, Golden Road and Karl Strauss, both of which were within walking distance to the stadium.  Angels stadium was very nice, we really liked entrance to the stadium with the large baseball caps on either side of the entrance with bats holding up the stadium sign.  We arrive to park at gate opening majority of the time and today was no different.  Not much around this stadium but a lot of memorabilia inside, most of which was Mike Trout!  We did get to talk with catcher Matt Thaiss before the game again, for the third time on our trip. Matt was happy to see us because he batted really well in the last 2 games we were at.

Disney Time!!

Day four – We checked into the Disneyland Hotel dropped our bags and off then right to Disneyland Park, our first time!  Disneyland is celebrating 100 years of Disney, however there weren’t as many statues as Walt Disney World had for their 50^th which was a bit disappointing.  Main Street looked very similar as well but shops were different and smaller – pretty much everything in Disneyland is smaller!  Many of the rides had similarities to WDW but some drastically.  The biggest difference to us was It’s a Small World the ride was longer and seemed a lot brighter as well as the loading zone outside in the open. 

Late afternoon walk to the resort to relax a bit before our dinner reservation, Goofy’s Kitchen, which was right in the Disneyland Hotel.  Dinner was a buffet with many options to choose from.  We were greeted by Goofy for a photo before dinner. The restaurant is character dining with Chip, Dale, Pluto and Minnie walking around periodically throughout the meal. 

After dinner back to Disneyland Park for some more rides and nighttime fireworks. Lorraine really enjoyed a few rides that aren’t in WDW, Pinocchio’s Daring Journey and Snow White’s Enchanted Wish.  Another note we’d like to add that in front of the castle is the 40^th Anniversary Time Castle(capsule).  It is buried beneath the plaque in dedication to the children of the 21^st century, and it will be unlocked on the 80^th anniversary of Disneyland Park – July 17, 2035!

Day five – Disney California Adventure Park – Many differences to the park to any other park in WDW.  Mike really enjoyed the Incredicoaster which he rode twice, once during the day and once at night.  The Guardians of the Galaxy ride was redone in the Tower of Terror building, which I assumed opened recently.  CarsLand is a very family friendly area, we rode Radiator Springs Racers, which was so much fun!  A little scary for Lorraine but she did it anyway! 

Another ride that we really enjoyed was Web Slingers: Spider-Man Adventure.  This ride is very similar to Toy Story Midway Mania however you actually use your arms to throw spiderwebs to capture the bad guys, I hope they bring this ride to Florida!

After dinner we wanted to take in Disneyland Park for one more night before we left.  This time we watched the fireworks from the back of the park so we could hop on a few rides quickly as soon as it was over.  I’m glad we did because got to see a projection show on It’s a Small World of Encanto! 

Disneyland was bucket list item for Lorraine, because our original trip was cancelled due to covid a few years ago. I’m glad we got to experience it but you do not need more then maybe 3 days because it is so much smaller than Florida and only 2 parks.