Today at Disney California Adventure: Meet Oswald the Lucky Rabbit!

There was a nice-sized line waiting on Buena Vista Street early this morning for the first-ever appearance of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit...at least during regular business hours. Oswald recently made a brief appearance at an Annual Passholder event.

Many in the crowd were wearing Oswald shirts or ears, and when he appeared an enthusiastic cheer went up.

Disney was well prepared to handle the crowds and had two to three people manning the cameras, snapping pics on cell phones and personal cameras along with the official PhotoPass photos. They also allowed each guest to snap quick solo shots of Oswald.

There was obviously quite a bit of interest in seeing Oswald today, and hopefully that will continue in the weeks to come.

For those who aren't yet familiar with Oswald, he was a pre-Mickey Mouse creation of Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, but Disney lost the rights when he left Universal Studios, after which he created Mickey Mouse.

Decades went by and Disney finally regained the rights to Oswald in a unique trade for sportscaster Al Michaels in 2006. Oswald's Gas Station was part of the brand-new Buena Vista Street which opened in 2012, and now two years later Oswald himself has arrived at the park.

To learn more about Oswald, I recommend the 2007 Disney Treasures DVD set The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. It includes a featurette, "Oswald Comes Home," and a 1999 documentary on Disney colleague Ub Iwerks.

We had a short but very successful trip this morning, enjoying breakfast at Flo's, walking right on Radiator Springs Racers via the single rider line, and using a FastPass to quickly get on Grizzly River Rapids. We left after that, as Anaheim could reach 104 degrees this afternoon!

Earlier this weekend: Today at Disneyland: Halloween Time 2014.