Our Happy Place

“Everyone’s got a laughin’ place – trouble is most folks won’t take the time to go look for it.” - A sign in Splash Mountain

We love Disneyland. It is one of our favorite places to visit. These past couple of weeks have been crazy. Moving is tough, buying a house is tough, work is tough, and school is tough. It has been busy and stressful and exhausting. We are so happy with our decision to buy a house, for Alison to be getting an MBA, and for where we are at in life, but that doesn't make it any easier.

At times we both have wished we hadn't planned a trip to Disneyland this weekend. The timing was less than ideal, but it ended up being a huge blessing. It has been nice to get away from all of the tough things and spend some time together. It gave us a chance to step back and get some perspective.

I think most importantly we had a weekend where we were happy and carefree. Disneyland is our happy place. This weekend we took the time to let that happiness into our lives.

We left for Los Angeles Friday night on the 8pm flight. We ended up getting delayed so we didn't make it to our hotel until nearly midnight. We quickly got ready for bed. We got a few hours of sleep, but we were up early so that we could head to Disneyland for Magic Morning. We actually bought a 3-day park hopper just so we would be able to get one magic morning in.

We started the trip with our favorite rides. For Alison, it was Peter Pan (this has been her favorite since she was a little girl). For me, it was Hyperspace Mountain. We spent the rest of the morning riding many of our other favorites - Splash Mountain, the Matterhorn, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Indiana Jones, etc. There really weren't big crowds or long lines. We were pleasantly surprised. We thought it would be busier on a Saturday in June.

When the lines began to creep longer and our fast passes slowed down we left the park and headed to the ticket booth to upgrade our park hoppers to annual passes. This trip is just the beginning of a year full of Disneyland adventures.

We were getting really hungry so we headed back into the park and got lunch at the Plaza Inn. We got the fried chicken (of course). We also had the Diamond celebration chocolate cake. It was really good. Our favorite part was the white chocolate "diamond" on top. To celebrate the diamond celebration Alison also got some special Minnie ears. She regretted not getting those ears the last time we came so she was glad she could get them this go-round.

We spent the rest of the day wandering the park and riding rides. It never really got crowded and never really got too hot. It was warm, but we were fairly comfortable. We planned well for this trip. We bought a Hydroflask before we came and it was amazing. We filled it up with ice before we left our hotel and it kept our drinking water freezing cold up until lunch. At lunch, we filled it up with ice again and at the end of the day, we still had ice-cold water. It was great. We also bought microfiber towels. You get them wet and put them around your neck and they keep you cool without getting your clothes very wet. Both of these items made helped us stay very comfortable.

Other highlights of Saturday include: Alison beat me at Astro Blasters. She nearly doubled my score. She was pretty excited because it was the first time she did better than me. Afterward, I asked if she had a new strategy and she said, "I aimed at stuff." That is a solid strategy. We also got ice cream and watched the Soundsational parade. This is one of our favorite things in Disneyland. We love the parade and the Gibson girl ice cream.

On Saturday our adventures continued on California Adventure. We have realized that as much as we love Disneyland over the past couple of years California Adventure has become our favorite park.

We arrived at the park a little before it opened. On this trip, we stayed at the Stanford Inn and Suites. It is about a mile from Disneyland. We like to stay within walking distance so we don't need a car and we thought the location of this hotel would be good, but this hotel seems far away.

By the time we got to the park, we were famished so we grabbed a quick breakfast in the park. Alison got a scone and I got a diamond celebration cupcake. It was a massive jelly-filled cupcake.

Saturday was a blast. We rode all of our favorite rides - Radiator Springs Racers, Screamin', The Tower of Terror, Midway Mania, The Little Mermaid, Mater, etc. We also had a few "new" experiences.

We rode Tower of Terror because it is Alison's favorite ride. I don't really care for it myself. For as long as I can remember I have always been afraid of heights. I have gotten better and better at dealing with it, but I still can't get over the feeling of terror I have as when I free fall (like on the Tower of Terror). Alison assures me it is so much fun, and I just have to remind her that I disagree.

One of the newest rides is Luigi's Rollicking Roadsters, located in Car's land. It replaced Luigi's flying tires. There was somewhat of a long wait, but since it is so new we decided to brave the line. We really enjoyed the ride. You basically ride in a car while it "dances" to some music. All the cars are choreographed to make it a fun ride. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

It was a really hot day. We were very grateful for our microfiber towels (which we kept wet) they made a huge difference. We were also very grateful for our Hydroflask. It allowed us to have cold water all day long. We brought another water bottle, which we would fill up. We would pour the water from our water bottle into the Hydroflask whenever it was running low. Both of these items made a really hot day enjoyable. Since it was so hot we decided to eat lunch a Flo's. They have plenty of indoor seating so we got to enjoy our lunch with air conditioning. They also have delicious milkshakes and the food has improved immensely since the first time we ate at Flo's. California Adventure does not have as much shade or as many indoor rides as there are in Disneyland so we were always on the lookout for ways to stay cool.

One activity we tried was the "It's tough to be a bug" show. This has been in A Bug's Land forever, but somehow we always overlooked it. We gave it a try. It is a good activity on a hot day because you get out of the sun and off your feet for a few minutes. There were some pretty great moments in the show. At one point giant spiders descend from the ceiling and Alison hung on to me for dear life. That was her worst nightmare. I don't know if we would do this one again, but we were entertained.

It was more crowded on Sunday than on Saturday. One of the most popular rides was Soarin'. I have always loved Soarin' and they recently changed it from Soarin' over California to Soarin' over the World. With wait times of over 75 minutes, we decided we would have to use a fast pass. We waited until a little bit later in the day to ride it. We were not disappointed. The new version is amazing! It was a highlight of our trip. The exotic vistas were truly stunning. We couldn't wait to ride it again the next day.

Since it was so hot we rode on the Grizzly River Rapids ride. We usually pass because we don't really want to get too wet. Today we didn't really care, which is good because we got soaked. It was so much fun. We loved the rapids and drops. Plus our wet clothes kept us cool for at least an hour after we got off the ride.

Despite the crowds and the warm weather our Saturday in California Adventure was a smashing success. We rode every ride and did every activity we wanted to do. We had a great time doing it together.

Monday was a good day in the park. It was less crowded, but easily our hottest day. We did a good job beating the heat. A lot of people stopped us to ask where we purchased our microfiber towels. They were pretty disappointed when we told them we bought the towels on Amazon.

We started out in California Adventure where our first ride of the day was Soarin' over the World. We love this ride. Utah even made the cut with a scene from monument valley. We were glad we got to ride it again. Alison insisted we also ride the Tower of Terror again. I didn't like it, but it was a good sport.

For lunch, we went to the Cove Bar. We have been wanting to eat here since last December, but it has always had crazy long lines. When we walked by there was no one in line and we jumped at the opportunity. It was really hot so we each got a refreshing beverage. Alison had the cotton candy lemonade and I went with a sparkling mint mojito. To go along with our drinks we got some lobster nachos and spinach artichoke dip. Both of which were amazing. We will certainly eat here again.

After lunch, we rode a couple of other rides before heading to see Frozen Live at the Hyperion. It was really good timing because we were indoors for the hottest part of the day. The show is spectacular. They went all out with the stage effects and the acting was great. The best part was probably Olaf. He was so funny! We loved it.

We took the rest of the day pretty slow. We wandered around California Adventure riding a few more rides before hopping over to Disneyland. We rode a few final rides and ended up on Main street where we had some delightful grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for dinner. For dessert, we had a raspberry and a tangerine Mickey Mouse macaroon - so good. We didn't have anything else on the agenda so we found a seat on a curb and waited for Paint the Night, which was the last thing we did in Disneyland.

This morning we woke up at 2:45am to get ready to catch our flight home. We arrived at 9am and headed right to work. Reality came crashing back hard, but we are so glad we got to spend a weekend in the most magical place. We can't wait to do it all again.