A Weekend in Disneyland

Time to theoretically dust off this blog and start writing again. I've thought a lot about starting to create content online again after basically disappearing for two years and I thought the easiest way to ease myself back into it would be to share a few photos of a trip I took a little over a month ago with two of my best friends. We had been planning a trip for awhile and finally made the decision to go to Disneyland! Our trip definitely could have used a little more planning and time management but we made it work and throughout the ups and downs we made the best of it and had a great time regardless.

We all live in Arizona and instead of flying we decided we wouldn't mind taking a little road trip and driving the 5 hour drive from Phoenix to Anaheim. We had rented out an Airbnb that was about 5 minutes away from Disney and were super excited to get there. The drive was pretty easy, I was exhausted because I hadn't slept the night before but I surprisingly didn't get super sleepy until we got to Cali.

When we arrived we had some time to kill before our Airbnb was available so we decided to drive down to Huntington Beach to see the ocean and explore. I unfortunately didn't take hardly any pictures there, I was exhausted and it was a super overcast day. I would have loved to wade in the water or lay on the beach but I had forgotten to bring towels or sandals so we just walked around for a bit and grabbed lunch at a local Mexican restaurant right by the ocean.

We were excited to get to our Airbnb after the long drive but once we arrived it was...not what we were expecting. We actually ended up leaving and getting a hotel room closer to Disney, we had some trouble because most of them were already booked but we finally found a place to stay and sleep for the night.

We decided that our first day was going to be spent in California Adventures! We didn't get the Park Hopper tickets so we just spent a whole day in each park. The last time had been was when it was Paradise Pier, so I was pretty excited to see how Pixar Pier had come along. I actually liked it a lot more than I was expecting to! 

My favorite ride is hands down, The Incredicoaster. It's exactly the same as it was when it was California Screamin', just with a touch of the Incredibles.  When I visited Disney the first time it took almost an hour of constant convincing for me to even get on that ride. But now I could have honestly rode it all day which is really saying something considering I usually get super nervous and hate roller coasters. (I usually refuse to ride any ride that goes upside down, roller coasters for me are usually a hard pass.) 

Of course we had to hit up Cars Land once the sun set, I just really love how it looks at night with all the neon lights. I have so many pictures that look nearly the same as the two above from the first time I went to Disney. But I can't walk through Cars Land without snapping a few new ones. 

Maybe this is an unpopular opinion but I think California Adventures looks the prettiest at night, even prettier than Disneyland. I just love all the lights and the iconic ferris wheel (which by the way I rode for the first time and it was the only ride in the whole park that made me feel nauseous).

Of course we had to make sure we rode Space Mountain as many times as we could! It was actually the very first ride we went on when we got into the park. When I went in 2015 it was Hyperspace Mountain, so it was cool to see how it is regularly. 

(Fun fact: I actually got stuck on this ride the very first time I rode it, now even though I love this ride, I get nervous every time I get on it that it's going to get stuck again.

We made reservations at Cafe New Orleans just so we could get the Monte Christo. It was good but soo filling we split it between two of use but could have easily split it between three. It's a ham and cheese sandwich that's deepfried and sprinkled with powdered sugar that you dip in jam. I'm not a huge sweets person and usually lean towards savory but it was still really good and a nice balance between the two.

This was the entrance to Club 33. It's an elite restaurant that you have to be a member of to even get into. I guess there's a huge waiting list and it's super expensive to get into, but hey a girl can dream, right? 

Our short trip to Disney was so much fun, even though we had some things go wrong, I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. I had so much fun with my friends and I'm so happy we planned this trip. Hopefully our next one will be less short notice (and a few more days long) but I think we made the best of it.

It feels so weird and exciting to be posting again? I really hope that I have gotten my motivation back and can start writing more and taking more photos. I hope to keep this blog more consistent and update it again soon.