Last week was DJ's collegiate sports video association convention over in Anaheim, California. He flew out on Monday and I met him there on Wednesday. It's been several years since I've had the chance to travel with him to his conference, and I'm so thankful that my parents were able to come down to keep the girls so I could go.
I arrived in Anaheim around 3 and rested until it was time for his awards dinner and casino night.
DJ has been in charge of the awards ceremony the last two years but took a break this year. We were able to catch up with several friends that we've met throughout his years as a VC, and even a few of his former students who went on to their own careers in college football.
Thursday morning, we woke up to rain but that didn't stop our plans of heading to Disneyland! I have to admit, I was so excited about Disney, but mostly because we were getting to experience it without our kids! I know that sounds awful, but there was no major planning on our part. We didn't have to book character meals, we didn't have to ride tea cups or Dumbo or try to calm whiney tired kids.
We had planned to arrive to the park at 8, but didn't make it to the park until 10 because of the rain. Everyone I had talked to said to just go during the rain and enjoy it because lines would be super short, but since we knew it was just us and we'd have the entire day, we decided to wait until the rain stopped. Literally as soon as we arrived, the rain ended and the day was gorgeous!
I did a little research on their Max Pass system, since it's different from Disney World's Fast Pass, and it was super easy to use. As soon as we walked in to the park, we scheduled a max pass for Thunder Mountain Railroad and basically walked right on. Afterwards, we rode Pirates of the Caribbean, did the Haunted Mansion, and then saw the line was super short for Splash Mountain so we headed that way. And y'all, we got soaked!!! Like, we had to ring out our socks and dry off in the bathroom with the hand dryers.
We landed a Max Pass for space mountain, and grabbed a quick snack. We probably had to wait the longest for space mountain, but that's because they had to shut down the ride a few times.
After space mountain, we headed to the Nemo submarine ride while waiting on our next max pass for Matterhorn Bobsleds.
We ate a late lunch, went on Buzz Lightyear, rode the train, walked through toon town, met Mickey Mouse, and decided to wait in line for Indiana Jones. We had scored a max pass for it, but it wasn't for 9:30, and by that time we had basically ridden pretty much everything we really wanted to ride. So, we waited in line for Indiana Jones, then went on the Jungle Cruise.
We finished off our evening with a dessert, and rode the Snow White ride and the Pinnochio ride. I mean, we seriously rode a ton of rides!
We stayed for the fireworks but because of the wind, it turned out to be a light show, so we decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel.
Friday morning we got up, and ubered to Huntington Beach.
We walked the pier and watched the surfers and volleyball players on the beach.
We brought our swimsuits and a towel, but it was chilly!
So, we opted for a yummy lunch instead!
We decided to walk through the town and went to the surfers museum.
Then we decided to book a whale trip over in Newport Beach.
We arrived about an hour before we were scheduled to leave, so we grabbed a snack and walked by the water.
Since we knew it would be cooler out on the water, we bought long sleeve t's and set out on our adventure.
Cheers!
Unfortunately, the water was rough! The captain of the ship made the call to turn back around for safety, and even though it was a bummer, he totally made the right call.
This guy loves to be on the water.
We asked someone for a local restaurant recommendation, and they highly recommended Bearflag.
DJ had salmon and I had fish tacos.
They were so good!
Saturday morning, we slept in and boarded our flight home.
I'm so thankful we were able to take a few days and get out of town. It definitely did us good after the year we've had with moving, starting over in Austin, and trying to find a new normal here in Texas.
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