disneyland - november 2013

oh right... i mentioned last post that i would post all the other pictures "next week"...  well, i intended to do this much sooner than now, but it is still within the week, right?  yeah, well here goes!
we drove down saturday morning, leaving san leandro around 6:45am, so we got to our hotel and checked in around 2 something, and then were in the parks by 3.  we headed straight for cars land, hoping for a fast pass to radiator springs, but they were all out for the day.  first ride we hit up was the mater's tractor pull.  cutest little short wait ride in the park for sure.  and it's actually fun (unlike the tire ride... erika and i found that one dull back in may)
hit up toy story mania, because that ride is awesome.  jenny beat me, but not by much!  so hah. here is my ever present feat of this trip.  never ever have i gone on an upside down roller coaster, and leading up to this trip i told myself "i'm 25 now... let's get this over with" and that, plus a 10 minute (probably less) ride wait, and that can now be crossed off my bucket list.  it freaked me out a bit, but i survived.  and i may consider doing it again.  but nothing more than this one loop as of right now.  anything more is a little too intense to even begin to think about!
a few years back (like not long after graduating high school) i bought this mickey mouse sweatshirt from hot topic.  turns out, at some point after that jenny bought the same one not knowing i had it.  well, they had to make an appearance on this trip, so after a failed attempt to eat at the rainforest cafe, we donned our sweatshirts and headed in to disneyland for the remainder of the evening.
this blog post brought to you by the number "5"
a jaunt back to our hotel, and then we settled in for the night.  alarms went off at 9 am, and then it was back to the fun.  ran and got our fast passes for radiator springs, and hit up some character spots in california adventure.  unintentionally, quite a few characters.  it was like we found there secret hiding place.
so obviously, i had to make sure i got this picture... and i did. hazah!
if i didn't admit to myself about how i buy mickey ears and then never wear them again, i probably would have bought these as my souvenir this trip. but i resisted the urge, telling myself about my super awesome toy story mickey ears that i already have waiting for me at home. and it worked. so he headed over to hollywood area to look for a character or two... and KABLAM we found a bunch. probably could have spent hours there just rotating through random character appearances. the onlyone we didn't get that was out while we were there were the mary poppins penguins. we weren't quick enough for them.
so i guess we were surfing?? i clearly didn't get the memo on that one
jenny was trying to speak raccoon, but i had to translate for her. when it was finally understood that he was asking what she was celebrating, she got the good ol' thumbs up from mr. raccoon
as far as getting to do all the rides we wanted to, we got lucky and got everything in over the course of a day and a half... of course with the exception of thunder mountain railway, which is STILL closed.  grrr.  hopefully all the renovations means it will be up and running again next time i'm there.  i miss that rickety roller coaster.  as far as all the other "taken on the ride" photos, those are all on my phone.  perhaps i will post them in the instagram post for november, just so they get seen in all their entertaining glory.  and so disneyland can be stretched out for just one more post.  :)
so this was one non-disneyland stop i made sure had to happen.  and was basically my only souvenir purchase.  and a delicious souvenir it was.  i LOVE the show ace of cakes (so sad it no longer airs) and when duff started a west coast bakery plus this little cake mix studio, i knew i wanted to go.  originally i wanted to do the whole sit down and decorate your own cupcakes shabang, but with not knowing what traffic was going to be like on the way home, bought 8 cupcakes (i shared with my family, don't you worry) and jenny bought a whoopie pie.  they were delicious, and made a fantastic week of desserts for me.
the trip was a nice break from reality, and well worth the get away.  it now tops the list as my longest drive ever...  boy am i glad i have my rav4 now.  my corolla would never have made it!  alas, now it is still back to the continued reality of school, work, and more work.  and crafting!  at least there is a little bit of goodness in there.  gotta get ready for these holidays that are sneaking up on us.  ack!