Friday, March 15, 2013

Beware of Traveling Ghosts

On Tuesday I got back from having a lovely holiday with my dear dear Ashley. Lemme tell you about it!

We started our journey on Saturday morning. Ashley's little boy, Ben, had only been to Disneyland as a baby so he had no memory of going to the park so it was supposed to be a surprise for him. Me having a terrible short term memory managed to say "Disneyland" about 10 times on the drive there but luckily, Ben was too consumed with the I-pad to notice. Since Ashley and I don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, there was a lot of chatting going on in the car, so much chatting that we missed our exit to get onto I-8 and had to drive about an hour out of our way. Oops! We stopped for Chipotle in Yuma and I managed to eat most of my burrito without getting carsick! WIN!

We stayed at her mom's boyfriend's house in San Diego and they had a gorgeous view (I saw tons of Anna's Hummingbirds and a Rufous Hummingbird too). That first night we decided to go shopping and got crazy lost. Her mom let us borrow her GPS and it had an Australian accent that was impossible to understand. Ashley got so stressed out trying to find Target. It was kind of hilarious (wouldn't have been if I was the one driving). When we got back home we ate fajitas, watched 10 billion episodes of "The Big Bang Theory" (one of my fave shows) and got to see Jupiter with a bitchin' telescope--yes, it was worthy of the word "bitchin'". The kitty who lived in the house was a sweetheart and we made friends very quickly. His name was Izzy and he had the cutest little fangs :3

The next day we had waffles then went to La Jolla Beach and saw the seals. It was super duper cool! Here's some pics!





The last time I saw seals was at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco when I was a wee lass. The seals at La Jolla looked so happy just soaking up the sun. There were lots of baby seals too that were sooooo cute! Loved it! I did a bit of wading too because I can't get that close to the Pacific without at least putting a toe in but I zoned out for a minute and my pants got all wet. Rats! We had sammiches for lunch then I took a big girl nap. When I woke up Ashley and I decided to make Pina Coladas (I don't normally drink but I was on vacation so I thought what the hey!) We went to this Vietnamese grocery store by her mom's house to get the ingredients that was so cool! They had stuff from all over Asia. We got a kick out of all the bizarre snax they had (ie: cuttle fish chips, pizza-flavored seaweed, milk-flavored Hello Kitty chews). I got some red bean moichi since people are always eating it in the mangas I read but it was too weird for me (Dad liked it). I had two Pina Coladas and they had no effect on me. Hmmm...


The next day we went to Disneyland. The story we had told Ben was that first we were going to the World's Biggest Grocery Store (he hates grocery stores) then to the Natural History Museum (boring!). He totally bought it...he bought it a little too much. When we got to the parking lot of Disneyland we asked him where we were and he said, "The museum!" When we got out of the car we thought all the kids in princess costumes would give it away but he still didn't catch on. We kept waiting for him to realize where we were and freak out but he never did. Even when Ashley bought his park ticket he was totally oblivious. Finally she shoved a map to the park in his face and made him read it. We got to see the lightbulb turn on in his head for about 2 seconds but there was no freak out. Later he got pretty excited but not what we'd been hoping for.

Our first ride was Splash Mountain and at first he liked it but after the big drop he HATED IT. He said, "I don't want to go on that again for the rest of my life!" He's a funny kid, he didn't really want to go on any of the big rides even though he was big enough to. Ashley and I had to go on Space Mountain and the Matterhorn by ourselves. I was sure he was going to like Indiana Jones but he didn't like that either! The only rides he seemed to enjoy were Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, the Tea Cups, Star Tours, and It's a Small World. Strange...

I made the mistake of asking if he wanted to check out Tarzan's Treehouse, which turned out to kill my knee again. My knee had never fully healed from my Florida trip and going up and down 200 stairs killed it. By about 5pm my knee nearly gave out completely. I had to limp the rest of the day but I still had fun. We got in the front on a lot of rides too. Space Mountain was probably my fave this time since Big Thunder is closed until November. I got a lanyard (finally) for my pin collection and a Donald Duck pin. I also got Ashley and I some mini mouse ears that were so cute! We got so many compliments on them. This trip I actually watched the fireworks show and it was AWESOME! It was narrated by Julie Andrews and they did a different theme for all of the big rides. For example, they projected ghosts onto the castle for the Haunted Mansion and shot off green and purple fireworks while playing audio from the ride. I got so excited when a live actress dressed as Tinkerbell flew all around the castle. At first I thought it was a puppet but then when she did a flip I was like "WHOA! That's a real lady!" It was great! I highly recommend watching the fireworks show in front of Cinderella's Castle. Oh, and one more notable thing, I saw barf for the first time at Disneyland! In the 28 years I've been going to Disneyland I've never seen barf. Mind you, it wasn't technically in the park but it was right outside the gates. Pretty wild! Anyway, here's some pics from our day at the park:





Grumpy Cats

The last day of our trip we drove down to Newport Beach but it was so windy and cold that we only stayed about 5 minutes. We got grilled cheeses for lunch then were back on the rode by 1:30pm. Ashley and I listened to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone on the drive and now she wants to read the books this summer. YAY!

So in conclusion, I had a great trip and am looking forward to going on more trips with Ashley in the future since we travel so well together. 

Oh, and I have another interview on Monday so wish me luck on that!

Happy Friday! 

No comments:

Post a Comment