Day 3, Sunday, by Emily (with additions from K)

I'm typing this from the fastpass line for Radiator Springs Racers.
We were expecting California Adventure to open at 8 so at 7 :30am we arrived at the gate only to find they had early entry today. Our first stop was to get fastpasses for Radiator Springs Racers, in the new Cars land. Well the fastpass line was already huge! And not opening until 8am.Being the footsore woman I am, I volunteered to stay and get fastpasses, while Fred and Ru went on the California Screaming coaster.

Saturday evening we all went to California Adventure Park for the first time. (this trip). We rode California Screaming, Soaring over California, and the Tower of Terror. We also watched the Muppet 3D movie. In between we managed to find the hand dipped corn dogs, which were consumed with mixed reviews.

Although I had grabbed fastpasses earlier in the day for Splash Mountain, we didn't make it. I was cold and didn't want to get wet. Thankfully it didn't take much to convince the group. We got back to the Tropicana at around 10, and my boring meal of plain rice and veggies never tasted so good.

Update: written poolside at 2:30pm

What a busy morning for those of us who ventured out. Fred and Ru finished with the coaster and we went to explore Cars Land. Radiator Springs is AMAZING! It's so detailed, and HUGE. They rebuilt the cliffs of Sedona, a 1950's town, and it's all car related. Christmas wreaths were constructed of tires. The decorations were traffic signals, and the music was all driving themed holiday tunes. We rode TowMater then Louigi's flying tires. Since the fastpasses we got weren't good until 11:50 worked out the Toy Story themed Midway Mania. It was fun, we hadn't done it before. It was like a 3D shooting gallery from a moving car. It is undecided whether it was worth the hour wait in the cold. We continued down the boardwalk and rode two spinning swing rides, the jumping jellyfish, and then Little Mermaid. Aerielle is so sweet, and Ursala is so bad. We rode a odd uncomfortable little coaster called goofy's sky school, which should not exist. 

We finished the ride and rushed across the park to Disneyland where we had a lunch reservation at Blue Bayou. We met J and K there. They had visited Mr. Lincoln and were just getting started on their day. I'll let them continue the lunch story. 

We knew we would  be a little late for our fastpasses to Radiator Springs Racers but went anyway, as quickly as we could. 

From Kathy:  J and K could not get out of bed on Sunday morning.  Correction......K could not get out of bed.  J was up and ready to get into the shower, but I could not envision moving/walking/riding.  My knees felt like aching knots and my body felt like concrete.  We slept in to about 9 and prepared for our day in a leisurely fashion.  We knew we had to meet Em, Ru and Fred at 11:30 for lunch at the Blue Bayou and we stopped in for a visit with Mr. Lincoln beforehand.  He was decidedly presidential and I was filled with patriotism after our visit.  

Our lunch at the Blue Bayou was a wonderful experience.  After all their running around in the morning, the Pearson/Talbot family was dragging a little.  But after some time in the hushed, dark and peaceful BB, everyone felt better.  The menu was intriguing, but what impressed us the most is that they actually took Emily's dietary needs into account.  In fact, she had a conference with the chef who came out to make sure they could prepare something that she could enjoy without fear.  We all enjoyed our wonderful selections and they took off to make their fastpass time to the new Radiator Springs Racer (that Emily waited an hour to get).  

Meanwhile, Jeff and I caught the train around the park and walked to DCA.  We met our companions.  They were happy they got to Radiator springs in time for that ride, but sad that Grizzly Mt. Rafts were closed (they drained all the water for some reason--Em postulated that perhaps somebody had polluted the water with ashes, per a final request to be buried at Disney)  Anyway, they went home for swim, sun and nap and J and I decided to try single rider lines.  We went on Soarin' over California again and then walked over to the raft ride.  They had refilled the river and soon riders were getting wet, so we decided to join them.  We got in the single rider line and both ended up in the same raft with an Asian family from San Francisco.  We all got soaked, but after that we sloshed home for a nap too.  I must say that single rider lines are the way to go!!!