Disneyland

November 15, 2014

Mom!

We are in Disneyland! It is my first time here and it is so much different than WDW. We are staying at a hotel/motel across the street from Disneyland and it's called The Tropicana. The name makes it sound like a resort but really, it's a motel.

We arrived around noon at LAX on Thursday, November 13. It took a sweet forever to get from LAX to Anaheim and by 3pm we were desperate for food. We hadn't eaten since early that morning and it was about 6pm at home so almost 12 hours! After getting some food, we made our way back to the hotel/motel and everyone decided to rest. Except me, of course. I'm on vacation...I can't sleep! I dabbled on my iPad and painted my nails. That evening around 8pm, Lindsay, Deb, and so made our way to Downtown Disney. It is set up to resemble DD in Florida but it is definitely smaller. We walked around and then decided we needed some pizza. I finally felt exhausted after that and as I was getting ready for bed, I realized that I had been awake for 21 hours.

The next morning we went to the Avengers Expo after eating some breakfast. I ate pancakes...carb loading. We spent about two hours there along with spending a lot of money. I ran (and by ran I mean walked) all of our stuff back to the motel and returned to meet everyone at the park entrance.

We chose to visit the Disneyland park that day. That park is just like Magic Kingdom at WDW. It was much smaller though. The lines weren't horrible but they were definitely spiked due to the traffic from the runDisney weekend. We made our way through the park, although we skipped some rides because we just didn't feel like waiting in line. I stayed by myself to watch some of the parade and then I went back to the motel to change before we dined at PF Changs. After dinner, Lindsay, Dad and I played with these toys that we bought that shoot up really high into the air!

Saturday morning, we didn't get a super early start because Dad and Linds had to take a taxi to Best Buy so she could get another battery for her GoPro. Deb and I walked around Downtown Disney and I dropped into the Expo for one last look. Eventually we met up to head into California Adventure! We definitely rode everything we wanted to in that park! California Adventure has a few unique rides of its own but also has rides from some of the parks in WDW.

For dinner that night, we met up with Bryanna and Kevin and we ate at Tony Roma's Steak House. As we were getting ready for bed that night, my tummy started to get nervous for the race so I decided to jog 5 laps around the motel complex. It didn't really help my situation but I was definitely ready for bed after that.

POST RACE.

After the race we headed back to the hotel to shower. I showered first because I was going to go meet up with my friend Katie, who I hadn't seen since our last day of living in Greece in 2009. We met outside of the park entrance because her family lives in San Diego and just so happened to be visiting Disneyland that day! We chatted for about 45 minutes and it was like nothing had changed! I love when that happens! We parted ways after my family met up with me because we were starving and it was time to eat.

Apparently it is a post-race tradition to eat Mexican food so that is what we did! It was really good but we sat outside and it was still so chilly from the high winds so I was ready to go change my clothes. My family stopped at World of Disney to pick up obligatory souvenirs but I rushed back to the hotel because I needed warmer clothes. I met up with them again and after a little more shopping we went back to the hotel to rest. Again, I think I napped for like 20 mins because how can I be expected to sleep on vacation! I also packed up my suitcase. I was able to meet up with birthday girl Bryanna and Kevin for about a half hour in Downtown Disney! Soon it was time to say our goodbyes and head to bed because we were all exhausted. It was about 9pm. The next morning we were flying to San Francisco and I was so excited!