Sooo, let the fabulousness begin!
Mark and I were blessed to be able to save some money over the last year to take a trip to Southern California. We went to Disneyland (and California Adventure Park, of course), Universal Studios, Sea World, and the San Diego Wild Animal Park. We were gone from a Friday morning through the next Friday night, and can I just tell you, we had a blast!
The whole week was jam packed, so we didn't get a lot of down time, but what are you going to do with so many things to experience? You just have to go and go until you drop, which is precisely what we did. Mark would make fun of me because I would fall asleep every night before getting back to the hotel. Whether in the rental car, on the bus, or simply sitting on the bench at the bus stop, I was out every time! So here's a run down of what we got to do.
DISNEYLAND!!!
That Friday afternoon we got to California we picked up our rental car (a brand new Ford Focus, bright red with black leather interior...so nice!), checked in to our hotel (The Hotel Menage, which was fantastic!
Go check it out at http://www.hotelmenage.com), found a Bubba Gump's for lunch (oh my gosh, real seafood again!) and went back to crash for the night because we were exhausted from working the night b
efore. But, after getting a great night sleep, taking advantage of the empty pool and hot tub at 5:30am, 
and eating a delicious breakfast at the hotel's restaurant K'ya, we went on to spend our first day in the Di
sneyland park. We got there bright and early to wait in line for them to open the gates at 8:00am. We were excited like little kids. That first day we rode everything- Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain, the Matterhorn, Pirates of the Caribbean, the
Haunted Mansion, and tons more. The Fastpass service is AWESOME! I don't know what we would have done without it. For lunch we left the park and headed to Downtown Disney to eat. Yes, I don't believe in eating in the amusement park. If I'm going to pay that much for food I'm going to a sit down restaurant with air condition! That first day 
Mark took me to the Rainforest Cafe because I'd never been before. Loved it. After eating we went back to our room for a nap (the afternoons there are so hot and so crowded that we didn't really feel we were missing too much). Then we went back out to experience the magical world of Disney at night. Very cool. Parade of lights, fireworks, and cool shows on the river. WILD ANIMAL PARK!!!
Sunday morning we woke up and made the 1 1/2 hour drive from Anaheim to San Diego.
We had the choice between visiting the San Diego Zoo or the Wild Animal Park, and we chose the 
Wild Animal Park because it sounded
a little bit more unique. Before we left for the trip to California we hadn't really planned on spending a night in San Diego, but after realizing it was a ways away I went ahead and booked us a night in a hotel right downtown. It was called the Sofia Hotel (http://www.thesofiahotel.com) and this one was even more amazing! It was really, really old and located in the gas lamp district of down town. There were a lot of homeless people hanging around in the streets (along with many other characters, which
made it one of the most interesting places we've ever been) but the hotel itsel
f was probably the nicest one we'd ever seen. The rooms were really, really tiny (I think because it was so old) but everything in them were super quality and beautiful. But anyway, the Wild Park. It was pretty interesting and peaceful...reminded me of being on a safari in Africa once. It wasn't quite as fun as we had hoped, mostly because it was sooo hot, and the animals were pretty far
out and hard to see sometimes. We actually just spent half a day there
and drove back into town to find a beach. We did find one, and spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the waves and laying out on the warm sand. It was wonderful! I was missing the ocean so much. We're kind of landlocked here the big NM. As the sun was 
getting lower in the sky we went back to our room to shower and get ready to walk on the piers by the bay. We strolled up and down as
the sun set, smelling the smells and watching the people. It was truly beautiful. We slept really well that night, what with the hill hiking at the zoo and the wave surfing at the beach.SEA WORLD!!!
Okay, I was a little bit surprised, but I have to admit that Sea World was almost my very favorite thing that we got to do. I'd never been before, and being the animal lover that I am, well, I
was in heaven. We went to every show they had, and I was so impressed with both the animals and trainers! The sea lions were hilarious. And well, of course Shamu was amazing. I also loved the show they had featuring just regular pets like cats and 
dogs (though there was a pig as well, now that I think about it). Mark had a blast there too. He was so excited to pet the sting rays and actually touch the sea urchins. I got to see some sea turtles up close (my very favorite of the sea creatures!) and even came away with a sea turtle stuffed animal for my
souvenir. I'm sure the day was hot because of the sunny weather, but with that cool breeze coming off of the ocean, and the fact that you're sopping wet most of the time from sitting in the SPLASH ZONE, it felt perfect. That might be why we both forgot to reapply our sunscreen that day and got a little scorched. That's okay, it was all worth it!CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE!!!
In case you're not familiar with it, California Adventure is another amusement park that Disney built right across from Disneyland. It (obviously) has the theme of California,
including the Golden Gate Bridge, Hollywood and the like. We spent all day Tuesday there, and really liked it because they had some scarier rides and it wasn't quite as crowded. Our favorite ride was the 
Tower of Terror...my heart is beating a little quickly right now just thinking about it. It was based out of the
Hollywood Hotel and had a Twilight Zone theme. Basically you are in an elevator that drops 180 feet multiple times. Very exciting. Another ride I loved was Soaring over California. It was a high, simulated ride in front of a huge screen that made you really feel like you were visiting all of the beautiful spots in California. I think we rode both the Tower of Terror and Soaring Over California three times! California Adventure is also where we
saw a lot of
our favorite characters. I'm a huge Pixar fan so I was very excited to meet Woody and Sully and the gang. All of Mark's dream's came true when he found Aladdin and Jasmin and was able to pose with them. Sigh. Its a little embarrassing standing in line with a bunch of kids, and then getting to the front
and explaining to the character that its really just going to be you in the picture with them. Ha ha, as you can see though, we had no shame. I also loved the part of the park called Paradise Pier which is set up to look like a retro 40's amusement park right on the water. Beautiful at sunset!UNIVERSAL STUDIOS!!!
Now we get to Mark's favorite part. And my least favorite. Ha ha, I don't know what my deal is, but apparently I don't care about how movies are made. I
mean, yeah, there were some cool parts, but I have to admit I was pretty board a lot of the time. We took the famous tour, seeing a bunch of the different movie and tv show sets. The Desperate Housewives one was really cool. I've never seen the show, but the set looked like a real 
neighborhood, so I was pretty impressed. There were also some pretty cool rides there like Jurassic Park and The Mummy and The Simpsons... and some big shows like Water World. Ha ha, lots of enthusiasm, I
know. But still, out of love for my hubby, I had to post a little bit on the subject. I did really enjoy City Walk right outside of Universal! There were tons of cool shops and restaurants. We ate at the 
Hard Rock Cafe there. After the park closed we met up with one of our best friends, Brandon, who lives in L.A. He took us to tour Hollywood and to sample Bob's Big Boy burgers. We saw all of the Hollywood handprints in the concrete in
front of the Chinese Theater, so that was pretty cool.Whew! I'm worn out again just from writing about the trip! I think I'll just add some more of my favorite pictures to wrap this up. All in all it was just so wonderful to get away with my sweetheart for while to play. We had such a good time together. Sigh. Now I wanna go back. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment