I’d been itching for a vacation after seeing Matt jet set across the country for work and pleasure while I devolved into the position of housewife/dog sitter. The responsible thing would have been to fly down to Austin to scout out our next apartment, but I threw caution to the wind and jetted off to Los Angeles.
Initially I was going to go solo, but all it took was the mention of Disney for Heidi to make the 6 hour drive down from San Jose to join me. I’m so glad she did (thanks, Heidi!) because sometimes things are just more fun when you have someone to experience them with. We made it a bit of a bachelorette party; albeit one of the tamest bach parties I’ve ever been to since we were too exhausted to do much more than shower before crashing every evening. Also, we were at Disneyland.
The weekend started immediately after work on Friday. After an airport fiasco which has since been resolved, I made it to LA where we immediately headed to Koreatown for some barbecue and cocktails. Even though it was 10pm, the restaurants we tried to go to had 1.5 hours waits!! Welcome to LA! We bellied up to the bar and toasted the vacation with cocktails while we waited and then gorged ourselves on the amazing food. Definitely worth the wait if you find yourself in LA and enjoy Korean food.
Day 1: Disneyland
The next morning we got up early and made the 40 minute drive to Anaheim and “the happiest place on earth.” I had never been to Disneyland and haven’t been to Disney World in close to 20 years (just saying that makes me feel incredibly old), so I was excited.We did a two day pass so we could experience both Disneyland and California Adventure. Heidi came prepared with Disney tank tops, a bride sash, and bride buttons to properly celebrate the weekend.
The weekend was HOT! Like over 100 degrees hot. I think that helped keep the crowds at bay; there were a lot of people, but not as oppressive as I imagined and the longest we waited for a ride was about 30 minutes. Our first stop was to get bride Minnie ears, of course.
We didn’t take the most efficient plan of attack, but we were able to see and do and ride everything we wanted to….with a few extra steps on the Fitbit. We took full advantage of the fast passes, which was a lifesaver on the more popular rides – we were able to bypass the hour+ waits on Space Mountain and Indiana Jones and walk directly onto the ride! Toontown was a highlight – we went after all the character meet and greets were over so there weren’t a lot of kids around, plus everything is interactive and really detailed.
Aside from the water rides and Big Thunder Mountain railroad, we rode pretty much every ride:
- Indiana Jones
- Alice in Wonderland
- It’s a small world – loved how most of it was still original
- Matterhorn – a little jerky but fun
- Mr. Toad’s,
- Peter Pan – we managed to get around the 50 minute wait by going immediately after the fireworks, but WHY IS THIS SO POPULAR?! We weren’t overly impressed
- Pinocchio
- Snow White
- Roger Rabbit’s car toon spin – longest wait of the day, but lots of interesting things to look at in line
- Haunted Mansion
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Buzz Lightyear astro blasters – Heidi kicked my butt at that game
- Finding Nemo submarine voyage – really cool ride in a submarine!
- Space Mountain – most fun ride for me, so nice we rode it twice
- Star Tours – which left us both feeling green around the gills
Oh and I just want to remember how long the line for a Dole Whip was – I think we waited longer for that than we did for most of the actual rides! The park during the day was great – Disney has such amazing attention to detail that I was constantly amazed at all the things they thought up. As great as it was during the day, it’s really magical at night. The lights just add such a fun element, plus there was an almost-full moon.
We caught the fireworks and parade while munching on churros, and by the time the park closed and it was time to go home we were sweaty, overly sunscreened, and utterly exhausted.
Stay tuned for day 2 where we tackle California Adventure!
mattandbethtravels 