Disneyland Part 1

 This past weekend I went on holiday with one of my favorite humans to one of my all-time favorite places: Disneyland. The park was insanely crowded due to the Christmas season and the 60th anniversary celebration but we still had tons of fun. Let me tell you about my mini-break with my very good friend, Twinkie-Chan.

 Since neither one of us wanted to drive solo to Anaheim, we both decided to fly to LAX and meet at the airport. From there we took a Super Shuttle to our hotel. There was a buttload of traffic so it took us over an hour to get there but that was cool because we hadn't seen each other since June and had lots to talk about. It was a little weird though, because we had a family sitting behind us who basically listened to our entire conversation (I hate when people do that). When we got to the hotel, Stephanie had some little gifties for me so I opened them before we went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. She got me this suuuuper cute Pikachu camera, a lapel pin, some lip balm and a book and some candy. I love her lots!

 On Friday I was pretty much up with the dawn since I'm used to having to be at work at 8am but Stephanie is a creature of the night so we didn't wind up getting to the park til about 10:30am. Since the line to Space Mountain is my absolute LEAST favorite to wait in, we immediately got a Fast Pass from there and then hopped in line for the Matterhorn. I hadn't been on the Matterhorn since fall of last year so I was totally surprised by the update to the ride. When the yeti was staring at us from behind these ice windows I'll admit that I emitted a little shriek and then when you see him up close I let out a big shriek. I pride myself on my Disney knowledge and expertise so I was shocked that I hadn't heard anything about the new yeti.

Later that afternoon we met up with my friend, Melanie (owner of Femme de Bloom) and her friends Matt and Jasmine (who were all super nice and fun). We all went on Indiana Jones together and then stopped at the Jolly Holiday Bakery for a late lunch. I got a tomato and caprese sandwich that was hella good and a lemonade. I'm happy that Disneyland has started offering a variety of vegetarian options even though I ate this sandwich two days in a row because it was that yummy. As soon as the sun started to go down it got windy as heck and really really cold so we had to haul ass to our lockers and change. Luckily, I'd brought my fleece leggings, gloves and my down jacket or I think I would've died. It got down to 43 degrees that night but it felt like 35 to me. But I shouldn't complain because we thought it was going to rain all day and it never really did. Both of us would have been in a tight spot if it had rained. My hair turns into a frizzy mess and Stephanie's hair spray solidifies when it gets wet.

One major bummer of the trip is that we kind of failed in the picture taking department. I think we got maybe 30 photos total when normally I take 100+ (I'm especially disappointed in myself since I had about 4 cameras on my person the whole trip). But I guess it's proof that we were having a good time since we didn't have time to take a million pictures. On the last trip I went on I took about a thousand photos since the person I was traveling with pretty much didn't talk to me the whole time (yikes!). I am disappointed we didn't stop and get our pic with Donald in his Christmas sweater, though. We kept thinking we'd see a whole bunch of characters but ultimately wound up being trapped in lines most of the day.

That night was a momentous occasion for Stephanie because she had her very first DOLE WHIP. We'd passed the stand several times that day but the line was too gianormous. That night when we were making our way over to Pirates of the Caribbean we passed it again and there was NO LINE (probably because it was cold as hell outside) so I managed to talk her into one. Later that night we were talking and Stephanie said she'd never been on the Disneyland Express so of course we HAD to go on it. I told her it had the Grand Canyon and dinosaurs and was really kitschy and weird. Once we got on the train I worried that I'd talked it up too much and she was going to think it was the lamest thing ever (also, I'd forgotten the dinosaur part was between Tomorrowland and Main Street when we had wanted to get off at Fantasyland--oops!) but luckily she dug it! She was like, "TOTALLY WORTH IT!" It was adorable. We had planned on staying til close but by about 9:30pm we were starving again and frozen so we left the park and boogied over to the nearest IHOP. I got a cheese quesadilla in case you wanted to know.

We went to the park again on Saturday so in my next post I'll tell you about day two! Thanks for reading!

Xoxo,
Courtney

Disneyland Bound

Winnie-the-Pooh Disneybound

This Thursday I will be taking a mini break and returning to my favorite place on Earth: Disneyland! Even though I was last at the park in October of last year, it still feels like AGES. I've been going to Disneyland every year (often twice a year) since I was 5 months old and I honestly never get tired of it. It's just such a magical place for me and it's always been a secret dream of mine to work for Disney in some capacity (mostly as a voice actor tbh). I wanted to enroll in their college program back when I was graduating from ASU but they told me that you can only apply if you're still currently enrolled in classes (but then a girl I graduated with got accepted into the program the following semester so I don't know how that works). Anywho, I'm super excited about this trip because I'll get to be reunited with my bunny, Stephanie (aka Twinkie-chan) and I also get to meet my internet bunny, Melanie, (owner of Femme de Bloom) for the first time.

Miss Twinkie-chan

I last saw Stephanie in June when I visited her in San Francisco. We had been internet buddies for a while (and she's been my craft hero for about 8 years) but got along in person like peas and carrots (not peas and guac). I absolutely adore her and can't wait for our first holiday trip together. She's never been to the park during Christmas time so I'm excited for her to see all of the decorations. Disney spares no expense when it comes to Christmas decorations and how they transform the Haunted Mansion into the Nightmare Before Christmas is pretty amazing.

Miss Melanie

My darling Melanie and I met through Instagram about 2 years ago. I'm amazed by all of the wonderful people I've met through Instagram. I've made so many friends and hope to get to meet more of them in person in the future. Melanie is such an inspiration to me, she really is a marvel. Not only does she go to school full time for a PHD in Psychology but she also teaches and runs a very successful craft business. On top of all of those achievements, she's 100% adorable and is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. I'm so excited to spend some time with her at our favorite place and take 10 billion buddy pics. It's going to be THE BEST DAY EVER!

Stephanie and I will be going to the park again on Saturday and it'll be my first time going to the park 2 days in a row. Last year I did one day at the Magic Kingdom and then one day at California Adventure but this time we decided to do two days at the Magic Kingdom. California Adventure was cute but since tickets for both parks are the same price, we'd rather spend an extra day at the Magic Kingdom.

I found out recently that two other internet bunnies of mine, Kelly Anne and Andrea are going to be at the park close to the dates we'll be there but we're going to miss them by a hair. Such a bummer. There needs to be a day where all of my internet friends all meet at Disneyland and I get to hang with all of them at once. That's the DREAM.

Now I just have to decide what I'm going to wear. AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!