I Just PR’d…I’m Going to DCA!!

Post Race – Sunday, September 2, 2012

After I limped back to the hotel room after the half marathon, I quickly got in the shower so I could take a hot bath.  For whatever reason, I love to take hot baths after a half marathon, something about it soothes my achy muscles.  My right leg was feeling fantastic, like it hadn’t just run a half marathon but my left leg was in an extreme amount of pain and it felt like the pain was getting worse.  After I pulled myself out of the tub, I really felt like I was in trouble.

Because we were guests at one of the Disneyland resorts, with applicable park tickets, we could have early entry in to the parks.  The night before, I told K he and D should take advantage of the early admission in to Disney California Adventure (DCA) and not worry about seeing me at the finish line.  It was more important to me that they got in the park and experience Cars Land before the park opened to general admission.  So that’s where they were when I was trying to get myself ready in the hotel room.  But the pain I was feeling was unlike any pain I’ve felt after a half marathon and whatever annoyance I had in my leg before the race was now completely pissed off and rearing its ugly head!  I was in tears trying to get dressed and out the door but I finally made it.

As I limped towards DCA, I was wearing my medal and hoping that people would see limp + medal = injured and move out of my way but that was not the case. I started to feel like I was somehow invisible.  I also started to think my time in DCA was going to be spent sitting on a  bench.

I finally joined D and K in the park and D was famished.  Apparently they had been taking advantage of their early admission by riding lots of rides and hadn’t taken the time to stop and eat.  They were able to ride all 3 rides in Cars Land before any lines developed.  They rode everything in Paradise Pier with no wait at all.  I was happy for them, considering I was going to seriously slow them down.  I was especially happy to hear that K had secured 2 FastPasses for Radiator Springs Racers and that by 9:30, all the Fastpasses were gone, just like I told him they would be.  So I was actually going to have an opportunity to ride the much anticipated ride…that’s if I could limp my way over there.

But now this blog posting has become too wordy.  You get that I was in pain and slow.  Let’s get on to the fun stuff…the pictures!

K and D in the passageway between Cars Land and Pacific Wharf.  (Disregard the photo bomber!)

Mater just rolling down Route 66!

“Mommy, take my picture!”

“Please don’t make me ride Tower of Terror!”  We’re awful parents, we made her ride!  (Don’t worry, she was really yucking it up for the camera!)

New Mad T Party Dance Area..K and D getting their pretend groove on!

Finally time to ride Radiator Springs Racers with D.  Don’t worry about K, he made his way to Pacific Wharf and the beer cart!

Gorgeous and looks just like home..well, north of us.

Time to buckle up and ride this thing!

On the ride!

At the end of the ride!

We had a great viewing spot for the Pixar Play Parade!

I don’t think I could swing back and forth on those things the entire parade but it sure would be fun to try it out for a couple of minutes!

The Pixar Play Parade is a “wet” parade with many of the floats and characters in the parade squirting you with water from their various toys.  Because we were at the very end of the parade line, it seemed a lot of them were out of water but we did get squirted by a couple…like these guys!

In the picture above, notice the guy swinging? Now look at the picture below!

Oh my goodness.  Can you 1) imagine doing that and 2) doing that on a moving float?  Wow!!!  Wow..  that’s all I could say!

At one point we left the park and returned to our room so K could change his shoes and we could drop off some stuff.

I’m normally the leader, not the follower!

I think I took a couple dozen different shots of this during our weekend stay..

 When we arrived back in the park, it was dark and the neon lights were all aglow in Cars Land!

Every time we walked in to Cars Land we would comment that it totally felt like you had just stepped in to the movie.  It was amazing and totally lived up to all the hype!

I don’t know why I loved the waterfall so much but I did!

D and K dancing again..

We had dinner at Pacific Wharf and not just because it was near the beer truck..but because it was in close proximity of where we needed to be for World of Color!

I love World of Color.  It’s an absolute “must do” on our trip to DCA!  Pictures cannot do it justice!

It wasn’t long after World of Color was over that we called it a night.  I was exhausted and surprised I had managed to do as much as we did in the park.  I’m so glad I didn’t give in to the pain and park it on the bench.  I can confirm that my legs barely joined me on the bed before I was passed out asleep for the night!

I’ll leave you with this…I video taped the ride with D on Radiator Springs Racers.  It’s not the greatest video but it does give you an idea of how fun the ride is!