Chapter 165
Bears and Bournes

November 1-3, 2013

Our first trip back to Disneyland post-Halloween happened on Saturday, November 2nd, and these decorations at the tram stop already indicated that the seasons were a-changin’.

Of course, the Halloween decorations along the route were still there too…

We started our day at Downtown Disney, going through World of Disney to see if they had any good holiday merchandise in yet. Their selection wasn’t huge, but there were a few fun items.

Our plan was to start at DCA, which had some Christmas garland adorning its entrance.

The lines to get into the park were intimidating, but once we got past the turnstiles, it felt pretty empty inside. We saw Pluto on Buena Vista Street and decided to pose with him.

We went searching for Francisco next (of course), but we couldn’t find him in his spot by Grizzly River Run. There were, however, some really pretty rainbows being created by the sun shining off the attraction’s mist.

The little bridge that allows you to get closer to Grizzly has to be one of the best-smelling places in the world—if you love the Disney “musty water” smell as much as we do, that is.

I also just love how kinetic that area is with all the water rushing around.

We were really hoping for a double rainbow…

Our next stop was over at the entrance to Paradise Pier. Duffy’s location (RIP) had been decked out in Christmas regalia.

And our favorite bear was dressed as Santa Claus!

Heading into Duffy’s shop, we found some more holiday merchandise like this lovely Christmas train.

We’d gotten a DAS time for Mickey’s Fun Wheel (though it ended up not being necessary because the non-swingning cars only had a 5-minute posted wait). We even got our own car, which never seems to happen.

Tracy was ready for a nap.

She found a way to get comfortable.

While we were up at the top of the Fun Wheel, we saw guests being evacuated from California Screamin’—which had stopped atop one of the big lift hills.

I would NOT enjoy having to walk down from up there…

Ready for a snack, we decided to try the new Bavarian Pretzels (left over from Oktoberfest) at Bayside Brews. We were sad that nacho cheese wasn’t an option to go with this pretzel, but spicy mustard would suffice.

The pretzel was really tasty—even if it wasn’t shaped like Mickey Mouse.

We walked past The Little Mermaid after our snack and saw that they had added some subtle decorations to the building.

We’d gotten Fastpasses for Soarin’ earlier, so we went to use those next and had a good ride.

Done with DCA for now, we hopped over to Disneyland. Tony Baxter had just had his new Main Street Window dedicated a couple days earlier, so of course we had to find it up above the Magic Shop.

My celebrity-ometer went off when I saw two plaids escorting a family down Main Street, and it turned out that it was Matt Damon with his family. Since his wife wasn’t with him, we thought it was funny that one of the plaids was holding the hand of one of his children to walk her down the street. Combination babysitters/tour guides/bodyguards.

I promise this picture wasn’t too intrusive. Just lots of zoom taken from a ways away.