Sometimes when you live in California, you just have to take a Friday off of work and drive to Anaheim. And when I say Anaheim, I mean Disneyland, because that town has just about nothing else going for it.
A few months ago (remember how we are planners), Tiffany and I decided it would be fun to pop on down to Southern California for a long weekend. Since my job gives me a day off for my birthday (within 30 days of my actual birthday) we decided to go in May.
Thursday night we drove into our Ramada Inn that was a mile away from the parks. We were pretty excited about the advertised "hot breakfast", I love me a good hotel oatmeal. Turns out we were a bit premature to be excited about that. It didn't matter though, because we of course had a big "The Great Disneyland Food Tour 2017" list of foods to try, but we will get to that later. So after our yogurt mixed with dry oats, we headed out to Disneyland.
After Tiffany was being quite slow and in absolute no hurry to actually enter the park, I started to know that something was up, and then who did I see walking towards us??
Our good friends Nate and Emily! They drove down from Provo to surprise me for an early birthday. Tiffany and them had been coordinating it all for months, without my knowledge. I truly have some wonderful friends. Shout out to Tiffany for always one upping herself when it comes to my birthday. I was so happy to see them and excited that we would be spending the whole weekend together.
Since we were at the park as soon as it opened, we were able to go on so many rides with little to no wait times in the first two hours. Tiffany finally got to ride the Peter Pan ride, and out of obligation, we went on Small World.
I posted this photo on Instagram with the caption: "Is it a small world, or did my friends intentionally come here to surprise me for an early birthday?"
Some real world behind the scenes look into this picture: It took us three separate times, and three different photographers to get this photo #highmaintenance
Get ready for a lot of these ride photos. This is our attempt at "YMCA". Nate got absolutely soaked on this ride. A note to all future Splash Mountain riders: if you don't want to get wet, sit in the back.
After riding Splash Mountain, we stopped in next door to Poohs Corner for some sugar. A peanut butter sandwich, chocolate chip cookie, and a chocolate covered pineapple were all on the menu for our morning snack. Food review: I could skip the cookie next time.
Emily said, "let's make the most ugly face we can for this picture", so I turned to Tiffany and whispered "let's smile, and not let them know." I got to say, Emily crushed it. I still can't figure out what those people in front were going for.
These Minnie ears just matched my outfit too well.
Then it was time for lunch at Cafe Orleans. They serve a sandwich that Tiffany and I have been wanting to try for a year now. Last summer we came here and discovered that you have to have a reservation, and thus we were thwarted in our plans. So this time we were prepared and had a reservation ready to go.
As it is a restaurant, it is what some might consider, more of a classy affair. Nate and Emily had no shame though in bringing in their turkey leg that they bought from the nearby food cart. As they said "Either way, the money is all going to Disneyland". I don't think our waiter liked us very much.
There it is. The Monte Cristo Sandwich in all its glory. All $20's worth. That's right people, $20. I mean it was good, but probably not $20's good.
We also spent a lot of our lunch scheming how we could steal leftover french fries from nearby tables.The waiters were too fast though, so we never got our chance. The lady behind us had sweet potato fries we really wanted to try, but as you can see, she boxed them up to go. Thwarted again.
With the combination of our productive morning, and working the fast pass system like pros, we did everything we wanted to do and more. More being Mr. Toads Wild Ride. Did you know that part of that ride includes the Devil and you travel through Hell? It's interesting.
Dole Whip of course.
Afternoon snack: A garlic cheddar bagel twist
Since it isn't busy season yet, there were characters walking around everywhere. Belle and the Beast actually got on the ride and rode the carousel with us.
French dip sandwich for dinner. Was I hungry? No. Before dinner, we were waiting for a Star Wars movie thing, and I was doing jump lunges and squats trying to burn up some calories and make room in my stomach. It's a good thing Tiffany and I share every meal/snack, or I would have been rolling out of that park with an empty wallet.
Tiffany and I wore matching soccer mom shoes both days. But a huge shout out goes to these shoes. We walked 10-12 miles a day, and these kept my feet feeling great the whole time. Adidas cloud foam for the win.
Nate and Emily got a corndog for dinner. Those things are so dang delicious.
Disneyland by night.
Our last ride of the night. Nate's face kills me.
Even after a 15 hour day, walking a mile back to our hotel-that-was really-a-motel wasn't that bad. It was midnight though, so Tiffany and I just sped walked past every hobo and random stranger we saw and tried not to be judgmental.
Though the weekend wasn't over yet, to be continued.....
No comments :
Post a Comment