Veganmomma: The Disneyland Trip

Thursday was our Disneyland Day. Athena was super excited to go for her birthday this year instead of having a party. So we packed the car nice and early and headed North with Grandma, Uncle, Aunt, and cousins. The day went amazingly well, with the exception of the rain. Yes, Rain! It never rains in So-Cal! The rain was steady at times, but there were breaks in it, and the lines got significantly shorter once the rain started so that was nice. The kids really didn't seem to mind at all. I considered getting one of those rain ponchos I saw everyone wearing, but they were $7. I just couldn't bring myself to spend $7 on a plastic bag and it wasn't cold at least (until the evening). So the day went kind of like this, we went on a bunch of rides, had a little break for lunch that we packed in, more rides, road the monorail to Downtown Disney, dinner, shopping, home. We were planning on going back for more rides after dinner but the rain was really coming down and it was starting to get colder so we decided to call it a day. If I counted right, we went on 12 rides which was more than enough I'm sure. Rowan did marvelously. We had to chase him around as usual but he took 2 naps in the ergo (1 was really long and my shoulders were killing me!), he slept through or nursed on practically every ride. Let's see, Peter Pan he was sleeping, carousel also asleep, the Tea Cups he was nursing, Pirates of the Caribbean he nursed and started to fall asleep, then proceeded to sleep through the Winnie the Pooh ride and The Jungle Book Cruise, slept through the long line for Finding Nemo, but woke up for the ride. I was very happy that the employees seemed pretty laid back and I never had to take him out of the ergo for the rides. He was awake for a few, but not many! He woke up when Chris and Athena were on Dumbo and was very sad. He kept whining his "uh uh uh" meaning he wanted to join them but it was too late:(
For dinner, we went to the Rainforest Cafe. I wouldn't call it vegan friendly, but the staff was very helpful and I felt pretty knowledgable as well (they seemed to know what vegan meant). The excutive chef ended up coming out to our table because we had so many special dietary needs in our party. He assured us that their veggie burger was vegan, but not the bun so he served it on their foccacia bread and made sure to leave off the butter and the house sauce. I thought it was a pretty good burger and the kids did like the restaurant because of its theme. I wouldn't go out of my way to go back there, but it was good to know that if we were hungry and stuck at Disneyland, then there was some place to go.
The drive home was peaceful with both kids sleeping. All in all, a good day, and while we are definitely not Disney people (in fact we try to avoid Disney as much as possible), I definitely plan on going back again maybe next year. Athena had such a great time and I think she'll even enjoy it more now that she knows what to expect.