Hidden Mickey Monday!

This hidden Mickey can be found in Goofy's Kitchen, located in the Disneyland Hotel.

Each chair in the restaurant is cushioned with this fabric pattern with tons of Mickeys!

Hidden Mickey Monday!

This hidden Mickey can be found in Mickey's House in Toontown.

This Mickey took me by surprise. I wasn't looking for it and came across it all on my own! I can't believe how many times I have taken pictures sitting in this chair, or myself or others. And never once did I think to look at the back of the chair! It is visible from behind, but only if you are looking.

You can find this Mickey in the room with the television set playing old Mickey Mouse cartoons, next to Pluto's bed and a mantle. To view this Mickey however, the best place is in the room right before, with the player piano, to peek over the half wall to get a glimpse of the back of the chair.

Hidden Mickey Monday!

This hidden Mickey can be found on the Mike and Sulley to the Rescue! ride in DCA. Once you enter the room with all the floating doors, on the right-hand side, Boo is beating Randall on the head. With each hit Randall changes colors, with one pattern as this! This Mickey is tough to capture, I ended up recording that portion of the ride with my video camera, and took a still of it for this picture.

(Another pattern to look for is the Haunted Mansion purple wallpaper!)

150 Year Old Tree

"All the plants in Storybookland are 100% real. 

They have been miniaturized with a secret known only to Tinkerbell, and a few cast members."

On one particularly slow Disney evening we took a ride on the Storybook Canal Boats. I actually love to ride this ride twice, once during the day to see all the little details of the houses, and once at night to see it all lit up. It was later at night and our tour guide was very enthusiastic and offered bits of trivia about the ride between his versed speech. He told us that one tree in the attraction was over 150 years old, and had been planted by Walt Disney himself! He pointed it out as we passed by, just to the left of Pinocchio's miniature village.

Hidden Mickey Monday!

This hidden Mickey can be found in DCA, in the queue for Tow Mater's Junkyard Jamboree.

This is a very new addition to the many Mickeys found in DCA. This Mickey is pretty easy to find if you are looking for it, although there is a lot of "junk" to look at around this attraction.

Hidden Mickey Monday!

This hidden Mickey can be found in Downtown Disney, right next to the tented area where they check your bags before entering the parks.

I was especially excited about this Mickey since I found it on my own. I am a fan of the Hidden Mickey books and do a lot of research on the internet, but I had never heard rumors of this Mickey before spotting it while waiting in an especially long line to get though baggage check.

My Top Ten ways to Beat the Heat! (Part 2)

5. Grab a Dole whip or float and watch a show in the Tiki Room. They allow any food or beverages in the Tiki Room as long as you take your "enchanted garbage" out with you. The seats along the four back walls have backrests, while the closer seats only have half-backs. Any seat in the house will give you a good view, and enchanted characters are in every corner of the hut, so you won't miss out on anything.

4. Get soaked in DCA's Bug's Land. For those extra hot days where you want to be all-wet right-now! In the center of Bug's Land is a water play area designed like a giant hose that spouts water from the ground. It's in a shady area and there are plenty of benches around as well.

3. Check out what's new in the world of technology at Innoventions in Tomorrowland. Not only is it a "house of the future" but there's also tons of fun games and activities. You can try out new video games, like Disney games for XBox360 Kinnect, sing karaoke, and even find out what you will look like in 40 years at the aging booth. Also, Asimo, Honda's walking robot does demonstrations at the top of every hour.

2. Spend some time in the Animation Building on Hollywood Blvd. in DCA. Inside, there is a large room filled with couches, surrounded by enormous screens. Classic Disney songs play to Disney movie clips, production art, and concept art project on the screens. This is also where to go to learn how to draw a Disney Character in the Animation Academy, talk to Crush from Finding Nemo in Turtle Talk with Crush, find out which Disney character fits your personality in Belle's Library, and even have your voice in classic Disney scenes and songs in Ursula's Grotto.

1. And, of course, you could always ride Splash Mountain or Grizzly River Rapids. Keep in mind however that at the middle of the day when its the hottest, the line for these rides will be crazy long. Both lines expose you to waiting out in the hot sun, so I recommend getting a Fast Pass early in the day especially if you know it will be a hot one.