The Next Best Thing

Tim and I are suffering from a fierce case of Disneyland Withdrawal right now. Sadly, our cheap-o Southern California Select passes leave us blocked out for most of the summer. So, we improvised!! We spent an afternoon at Downtown Disney, which is the open-to-the-public, bastard stepchild of Disneyland. Hooray!! (It was still really fun to walk around and hear Disney music and shop Disney merchandise and what not. Sigh... we can't WAIT to get back to the parks!)

We have a sweet hookup at Buena Vista that got us access to the Company D store, which is usually an employees-only store of discounted Disney merchandise. Nice! We got various fundries, like a cute Mickey shirt for Jean, a talking Nemo stuffed animal, and a mini-Yoda costume for Weston.

Then we headed to the Rainforest Cafe for some exciting, jungle-inspired cuisine, along with a few indoor thunderstorms and some general gorilla grunting:
Mommy and Weston in front of the giant, walk-through aquarium. Weston was fascinated by the fishies, but he only had a little while to admire them before our name was called:
So for most of our meal, he lounged and played with Mr. Turtlebottom:
This is the China Island Chicken Salad, which I ALWAYS order whenever we go to the Rainforest Cafe:
Daddy making a wacky face with the boy:
Then we walked to the World of Disney, which is the largest Disney store in the world (I've heard that a few times, and I've never bothered to fact-check on my own, so I'll just go ahead and perpetuate the rumor):
Then we discovered the not-so-hidden entrance to the Grand Californian Hotel, which is the nicest hotel at the park. We strolled around, admired the loveliness, and made flimsy plans to eat at Napa Rose sometime:
The ginormous lobby area:
Then we hit the Marceline Confectionary, which sells these super-scrumptious, giant soft cookies, along with fudge, candies, cupcakes, and other treats:
Isn't it cute inside?

Finally we went to the Lego store and shoved bunches of kids out of the way so that we could play at the Lego tables (just kidding):
Of course we had to pay homage to the life-size Lego Vader:
After we got home and put the wee one to bed, Tim and I played with his new Indiana Jones Lego set:
We had fun reenacting the escape scene in The Last Crusade. Doesn't Lego Sean Connery actually look like Sean Connery? I think so. :-)