Tag Archives: Disneyland

Post-Workout Disneyland Afternoon (or Maximizing A Couple Of Hours At The Parks)

Posted on March 25, 2015 | 2 comments

After my morning workout on Monday, I had my entire day free! I was thinking about doing some errands, but since none of them were urgent I decided that those could wait. Instead of running errands, I headed down to Disneyland with my friend Caroline!

We headed down to Anaheim after lunchtime at got to the gate around 3pm. It wasn’t a super crowded day, but since all annual passes were valid that day, we knew that the after-work crowd would get pretty big.

We started our afternoon in California Adventure. We had a couple of rides that we wanted to ride, but that wasn’t in the cards for us. Our first choice ride was Radiator Springs Racers, but it was down that afternoon. And we wanted to ride California Screamin’, but even the single rider line looked to be over an hour!

We did do a lot of walking around (I easily exceeded my steps for the day while there) and I took a picture for my sister-in-law.

There is a mini vineyard at California Adventure next to one of the restaurants there. When I was in Napa, I mentioned to her that they had this, but I don’t know if she believed me. So I got a photo as proof.

Caroline and I eventually rode Toy Story Mania (where Caroline kicked my butt) and then walked over to Disneyland for the rest of our day.

Disneyland is started to get ready for their 60th anniversary, and things are starting to look really cool! The castle is sparkling now (it’s a little tough to tell in the photo).

I’ll be going to Disneyland quite a few times in the next month or so, so I’ll try to get more pictures of all the work that’s being done for the 60th.

Our first ride in Disneyland was the Monorail. I love riding on the Monorail and especially when I can ride in the front with the driver!

Being up front does give the best view in my opinion of the parks while you are riding around. And there is some construction at California Adventure that I was excited to see from up high.

That area is where Soarin’ Over California is located. They are re-doing that ride and re-theming that section of the park. It won’t be reopened for a while, but I can’t wait to see it when it’s done!

After our ride on the Monorail, we headed over to Space Mountain (another one of my favorites). And as always, I tried to pose for the photo. And Caroline joined me in posing too!

Next was Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters where I kicked Caroline’s butt. It helped that the ride stopped near one of the secret super high point value targets.

After that we rode Star Tours and Indiana Jones before realizing that we needed to head home soon. We stopped for some dinner at the Jolly Holiday Bakery which I have to say was really good! I had a sandwich and it was yummy and filling! Then it was time to make the drive back home.

Getting to do a fun afternoon at Disneyland really makes me grateful that I have an annual pass. Caroline and I didn’t feel any pressure to have to ride a ton of rides or to get everything in that we wanted to do. It was a fun and leisurely trip.

And I know that since I splurged and paid for the parking add-on on my pass (which was discontinued after I purchased it so I’m extra happy I splurged!), I can do more afternoons like this. And if I don’t get any food, the only cost for my afternoon is the gas to get there!

I’m already looking forward to my next Disneyland adventure (which may be very very soon!).

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged anniversary, California Adventure, Disneyland, rides, theme park

Getting Faster Bit By Bit (or Speeding Up My Heart And My Walking)

Posted on March 23, 2015 | Comments Off

I’m getting more and more used to my heart rate being fast during my workouts. And the more days that go by, the more normal my heart rate becomes. In fact, it might almost be back to before the medication this week or next.

It was nice for a little while to have my heart rate faster than usual. I felt like I was getting more out of my workouts since I was getting more time in the orange zone. I know that it doesn’t really work that way when your heart rate is fast due to medication, but it felt like that to me.

But this past week, getting into the orange zone wasn’t as easy this past week as it was the week before. I’m working on using heavier weights during all of my workouts, but I know that I have to step up my cardio as well.

I’ve been using the incline on the treadmill a lot more than I did in the past. For my base pace, power walkers are supposed to be at 3% incline. I now always have it at 4%. During my push pace, I used to be at somewhere between 6-9%. Now I have it at at least 10%. My all-out pace is still at 15%, but that’s because 15% is the highest that the treadmill goes.

But as I get in better and better shape, my heart rate doesn’t go as high with incline as it used to (it’s real proof that my heart is getting stronger!). I’ve tried to slowly increase my speed, but it hasn’t been easy.

When I started at Orangetheory, I was usually at 3.0 or 3.1 miles an hour. I liked 3.1 miles an hour because then I knew that at that speed it would take me exactly an hour to do a 5K. Eventually, I was at 3.2 miles an hour on the treadmill. And a little while ago I went up to 3.3 miles an hour.

But this week, I really wanted to push myself. Maybe it’s because in my head I’ve realized that there is no way that I will not have another surgery on my hip in my near future. It’s inevitable and I better use my hip before it gets cut up and I have a long recovery. So I went to 3.4 miles an hour for all 3 of my workouts. I know that this isn’t that fast yet and I’m still below 3.5 miles an hour which is the bottom of what power walkers are considered at Orangetheory, but it’s improvement.

And I need to keep taking steps like this in increasing my speed. I’ve decided that if I ever decided to do a half marathon, the only one that I will consider will be one at Disneyland. If I’m going to do something that crazy, I might as well be at my favorite place in the world. All Disneyland races have a required pace time of a 16-minute per mile or faster.

So I found this great chart online to help me get to my goal of 16 minute miles.

I would probably want to be at 3.9 miles an hour on the treadmill to feel comfortable doing a Disneyland race. I know that those races have lots of awesome photo ops, and I’d want to have time to take advantage of those. On the Disneyland race website they even recommend having a training pace of 15-minute miles to allow for the photo ops. So that would bring me to 4.0 miles an hour on the treadmill.

That seems like so far away from where I am right now. But in reality, it’s not that much more of a jump than what I have done from when I started at Orangetheory to now. So maybe in another year (unless I have my hip surgery), I’ll be at my goal speed.

I’m thinking of making a training plan to figure out how to steadily increase my speed. I’m also looking at making a plan for increasing my weights as well. I might work on that this week when I have some time between customers at my day job.

But if any of you have ideas on how to make a plan to increase my speed (I’m not even starting to think about increasing my distance yet), I’d really love to hear your recommendations. I’m really so new at all of this, so I can use any help that I can get!

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Posted in Fitness, Fun Stuff

Tagged 5K, Disneyland, marathon, Orangetheory, race, training, workout

Fitting Splurges Into My Meals (or How I Need To Eat For Life)

Posted on February 27, 2015 | Comments Off

I’m still getting used to post-cleanse life. It’s tough to find a balance even though I completely understand what I need to do now. But I had some opportunities to test out my new knowledge with some splurges over the past week.

It started on Sunday with the Oscars Party. I ate cleanly and limited my calories before going to the party. I tried to go to the party without being hungry, but I knew I could be there from about 3-10pm, so I’d have to eat at some point. I did make some good choices like cut up veggies. But that wouldn’t be enough to hold me over for the evening.

The traditional thing that Chris and Marie make for their party is queso dip with chips. So I made a small portion of that for me and it was really delicious! By eating so clean and plain normally, things that are different taste more extreme than I’m used to. So less of it filled me up and satisfied me. Beyond that, I stayed with pretty healthy options for the rest of the party. My weight the next day was up a little, but that was to be expected because of sodium.

The next test for me was Disneyland. I ate breakfast and lunch at home (and also did a pre-Disneyland workout at Orangetheory) and brought a snack with me. The only thing I ate at the park was my soup in a bread bowl. No treats or candy for me. And all I drank was water. With my smart choices and all the walking I did, I lost the weight that I had gained from the Oscar Party while at Disneyland and splurging a little.

I also had a minor setback/splurge this past week with some crispy M&Ms. Those are my favorite and they only just came back into stores after being gone for a long time. I didn’t need them, but I had them. But I balanced it out by not eating as much for dinner that night.

I’m also looking at finding more good options for lunch. Now that my lunches can be cooked, I’m exploring what else I can eat while I work (which means that I need it to be ok to eat cold). Right now, I’m loving the quinoa cowboy veggie burgers from Trader Joes. I had one the other day with half an avocado and a banana. This kept me satisfied and full even through my workout!

I’m hoping to not have as many splurges/treats in a normal week. This weekend will be tough because I’m going wine tasting and will be going out for some nice meals. But once I’m back, I will be back to my almost always clean eating. But this is normal life, and I have to learn how to live this way and still continue the right way on my weight loss journey.

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Tough Stuff, Weight Loss

Tagged cleanse, Disneyland, lunch, Oscars, splurge, vegan, vegetarian, weight loss

Disneyland Afternoon and Evening (or Spending Time With My Evil Twin)

Posted on February 26, 2015 | 4 comments

I recently renewed my annual pass for Disneyland. The level of pass that I have is only available for renewals, so I wanted to make sure that I renewed in time. I also made the decision to pay for the parking add-on, so I don’t have to spend $17 to park every time I go. I’m super glad I made that decision because just the other day, Disneyland eliminated the option to do a parking add-on (it’s only available now with the highest level pass which is about double the cost of my pass).

Right after I renewed my pass, I got a text from my Evil Twin Shey asking if I still had an annual pass. I told her I did and she said that she had been invited to an annual pass holder event and wanted to see if I wanted to be one of her guests! It was on this past Monday, which worked out perfectly for me!

When I got to the park, I took a few moments to enjoy the lack of crowds inside.

Good to know that Monday afternoons are pretty empty. I’ll have to go to Disneyland more often then!

Shey and her friends who were joining us weren’t at the park yet, so I decided to do a trip around Disneyland on the railroad.

I love the circle tour around the park. It’s so nice and relaxing and I get to see how crowded different areas of the park are that day. And my favorite thing is between the Tomorrowland and Main Street stations. They have the Grand Canyon and Primeval World dioramas! The Grand Canyon diorama was looking great. But when we got to the Primeval World section it was dark and covered by tarps. I guess that they were doing some work back there, but it was sad that we still were hearing the audio for the dinosaurs without getting to see them.

After getting back to the Main Street station, I realized that the parade was about to start. Since none of my friends were at the park yet, I decided to see if I could find somewhere to sit and watch it. And there was actually a bench right on the parade route with one seat left! So I sat back and watched the entire parade (I can’t remember the last time I did that).

The parade was pretty cute and as soon as the last float went past me, Shey texted me to say that they were all outside the gates of the park ready to get our wristbands for the event that evening! So I headed out to meet them and get checked in for the private event.

Since the private event in Disneyland didn’t start until 8pm, we decided to spent the first part of our time at California Adventure. Most of us wanted to ride on Tower of Terror, so that’s where we headed first. 4 of the 5 of us went on and I think we got a pretty funny photo (we are in the first row).

Next, we headed over to one of my favorite rides, Radiator Springs Racers. Again, only 4 of us rode and I think 2 of the girls in the group had never been on the ride before. We all had a great time, and our car tied in the race.

We also rode The Little Mermaid and Toy Story Mania. I rode alone on Toy Story Mania, so I couldn’t do some of the cool Easter Eggs on the ride (you really need 2 shooters for those), but I did get the second highest score in our vehicle.

Before getting some dinner, we went on California Screamin’. To make the wait shorter, we all went in the single rider line. I sat next to a guy who didn’t seem as enthusiastic about the ride as I was.

For dinner, I got baked potato soup in a bread bowl. It isn’t the healthiest thing I can get at the parks, but it’s definitely far from the worst. Plus, I kept my calories low for the beginning of the day and I know that I usually walk over 5 miles during a day at Disneyland. So the splurge was worth it (plus it was getting cold so soup warmed me up)!

Then we headed over to Disneyland where there was only about an hour before the private event started. Our first ride was Space Mountain. I decided to tell all the girls about my mom’s rule how you have to ride with your hands up the entire time. They all decided to try it and I think we all had a great time on the coaster.

After that, the park was starting to clear out. Only guests who had reserved spaces for the party could stay, and it was shocking how few people remained in the park! Our next stop was Star Tours, where we basically walked right on.

Followed by Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. I don’t know if I’ve ever walked on a ride as quickly. Shey and I rode together, and this was her first time on this ride. So I tried to help guide her to find the good targets, and I’m super impressed by her score! I never did that well on my first few times on the ride.

After Buzz Lightyear, I wanted to get an evil photo with my Evil Twin. So we found some pretty awesome evil hats for a quick photo.

One of the features of this private party were some awesome photo ops with characters that aren’t always out. We decided to check out the villains photo-op but the line was pretty insane. We guessed it would take us about an hour to get through the line, and since we wanted to maximize our time, we didn’t wait. Instead, we went on some more walk-on rides.

I love Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and I haven’t had a chance lately to ride it at night. So of course, that was next. The ride instead is already amazing, but what made it magical was what happened at the top of the mountain. The fireworks for Fantasmic were going off as we were on the ride! It was a super cheesy and magical moment that I loved!

We followed that up by riding Pirates Of The Caribbean where we got stuck for 5-10 minutes in the very beginning of the ride. It was right next to the Blue Bayou restaurant which is usually pretty busy. And it was closed during this event so it was completely empty and quiet. That was a little creepy. We finally got moving again and by the time we got off the ride, I realized that I only had time for another ride or two before I wanted to head home.

I really wanted to ride the Storybook Canal Boats at night to see all the buildings lit up. Plus, they recently added a “Frozen” section and I wanted to see how it was done. As soon as we got into the main part of the ride, I gasped. It looked amazing and beautiful!

The archways were all lit up with fairy lights and I really enjoyed the new “Frozen” castles.

I was planning on leaving then, but as we walked by Dumbo we realized that nobody was in line! I’ve never seen Dumbo without a crazy line, so of course we went on Dumbo!

I got my elephant all the way to the top and just spent the ride up in the air checking out all the amazing lights and sights of Fantasyland.

And as we were leaving the park, we noticed a dance party going on with a princess DJ and a guy walking around with a glass slipper. So we got a final group picture with the glass slipper.

By then, I had been at Disneyland for about 10 hours. It’s not the longest I’ve been there, but it was almost midnight so it was the latest I’ve been there. Plus I still had a drive home and had to work the next morning. But even though I left before the rest of my group, I felt like I had a super wonderful and full day at Disneyland!

I’m so grateful that my Evil Twin invited me to this event. It’s a rarity to see the parks so empty and I got to ride pretty much all of my favorite rides! This was the perfect way to start another year of having an annual pass!

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Posted in Fun Stuff

Tagged annual pass, California Adventure, Disneyland, event, rides, theme park

Day 2 At Disneyland (or Gardens and Roller Coasters)

Posted on May 1, 2014 | 7 comments

Monday was another fun-filled day at Disneyland. After going to bed pretty late due to the evacuation of the hotel, I was pretty surprised that I woke up early and feeling pretty well rested (those hotel beds are pretty awesome and magical that way).

My parents and I started our day with breakfast in Downtown Disney before heading over to Disneyland for our first adventure for the day.

While planning this trip to Disneyland, I knew that my mom would love it. She’s a Disneyland person like I am. But my dad really isn’t a big theme park person. But I saw that Disneyland had a tour of the gardens of Disneyland. And my dad is a big gardening person. He has a really green thumb and takes a lot of pride in making the front and back yard of their house look really amazing. So I got us all signed up for the Cultivating The Magic tour.

As soon as we checked in, we got name tags and a headphone/audio set up so we could hear our tour guide without her having to speak too loud. I felt a little touristy in my getup, but I was super excited to do something at Disneyland that I’ve never done before.

We had an amazing tour guide, Amberly. She was super knowledgeable about all of the plants and really made the tour a lot of fun.

Part of the tour included going on a few rides. First, we were taken on the Jungle Cruise. Our tour group got a private boat and instead of hearing the usual Jungle Cruise jokes, Amberly gave a tour of the plant life in and around the ride. That was pretty amazing!

Next we went on the Haunted Mansion. We did learn a bit about the plants in front of the ride, but inside the ride we just rode it like everyone else. I’m not sure why that ride was part of the tour, but I’m not complaining since that’s a ride I go on anyway.

The last ride included on our tour were the Storybook Land Canal Boats. This ride is another favorite of mine and I was so excited that this was a part of the tour. Again, like the Jungle Cruise, instead of hearing the usual spiel, Amberly gave us a tour of the gardens on the ride. My favorite (and I think my dad’s favorite) is the succulent patchwork garden.

Our tour pretty much went into every land of the park. We learned that all the plants in Tomorrowland are actually edible or usable in some way and that in Fantasyland by the Dumbo ride, there is a rose that is named the Disneyland rose.

Our tour ended over by Tomorrowland which was perfect because my family’s plan was pretty much to do all the roller coasters in the park. Because that was our plan, my mom decided to not wear her wig at all during the day. This was the first time she has been wigless for an entire day since losing her hair, and I thought that was very brave. Her hair is growing back and I think it looks great!

We rode Space Mountain first and then we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Big Thunder just reopened after a long refurbishment, and this was my first chance to get to ride it.

It was really great and I love the improvements. The only problem I had was trying to keep my hands up for the entire ride. My parents rode together so I rode alone. And since the restraint in the ride is a lap bar for the entire bench, there was a lot of room next to me. And whenever the ride took a turn, I flew across the bench. I ended up having to hold on with one hand.

Our next coaster was the Matterhorn. I personally don’t love this ride, but my mom does and she really wanted to ride it. I got a great picture of the three of us before the ride started.

I’m glad I took a picture before the ride because my dad really didn’t like the Matterhorn. He had the same complaints that I have: too rough, too little padding on the seat, and it makes your bones hurt.

After the Matterhorn, it was getting really hot inside the park so we took a lunch break in Downtown Disney (where it was nice and air-conditioned!). After lunch, my mom decided she wanted to rest and my dad and I headed back into the park for one final ride.

I wanted to take my dad on Star Tours. It was redone a few years ago, so obviously my dad hadn’t been on the new version yet. And I don’t know if my dad and I have ever ridden Star Tours together. As a kid, I was terrified by the ride. So my dad would take my brother and my mom and I would ride the People Mover while we waited for them.

Fortunately, I’m over my Star Tours fear so my dad and I got to enjoy the ride.

After that, we joined my mom back at the hotel where she was resting by the pool in the shade.

We relaxed at the pool for a while. I had to head back to LA that evening, but I wanted to wait until rush hour traffic died down.

We had a very busy two day trip, but it was so perfect! My parents had a great time and I got to spend some nice quality time with them. I’ll probably see my parents again sometime this summer. I’m hoping to make it to Tahoe and my parents might be coming down here to see a show at the Hollywood Bowl (my dad has never been and my mom hasn’t been in 50 years).

I know that my mom and I will do another Disneyland adventure in the future and now I’m thinking maybe my dad will join us for it as well! And if not, at least I got to show him why I love Disneyland so much and I know that he at least understands it a little bit.

7 Comments

Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged cancer, Disneyland, rides, roller coaster, theme park, tour

Vacation At Disneyland (Celebrating My Mom’s Badassness)

Posted on April 30, 2014 | 2 comments

Once my mom was done with her treatments for cancer, I knew that I wanted to celebrate with her somehow. I knew my parents would be headed down my direction (they wanted to see my grandparents first) so I tried to think of ways to celebrate in LA. But then I decided that we should celebrate at Disneyland instead (why not be at the Happiest Place On Earth to celebrate?).

I thought that we’d do just one day (and go to both parks), but my mom decided that we would do 2 days at the parks and they would get a hotel room there. And to save me from driving back and forth, I could stay at their hotel room with them for a night.

I was super excited to go! I recently got a new backpack at The Container Store that seemed perfect for Disneyland and I couldn’t wait to try it out.

We all met up at the hotel on Sunday morning. My mom decided that she wanted to stay at the Grand Californian, which is the hotel connected to California Adventure. I had never actually been inside the hotel, and I was super impressed by how amazing it was as soon as I walked inside.

My parents got there shortly after I did, and after a quick stop to put all our things down in our hotel room, we were off to California Adventure. I had gotten my parents 2 day 1 park tickets, which meant that we couldn’t do both parks in one day. But we wanted to spend time in each park so Sunday was devoted completely to California Adventure.

We met up with my mom’s friend Roberta and her family once we got inside the park, but we only really spent the day with Roberta (her son, daughter-in-law, and young granddaughter didn’t want to ride the rides so they walked around on their own).

One of our first rides was the tires in Cars Land. My mom loves this ride because it’s so similar to the flying saucers that were in Disneyland when she was a kid. My dad had only been to California Adventure once (and it was when the park opened so there weren’t a ton of rides there) so this was all new stuff to him. My mom rode with Roberta and I rode with my dad. Somehow, the tire that my dad and I got was a total bust. We couldn’t make it move at all. My mom and Roberta on the other hand we flying around really fast.

Next was on to one of my favorite rides, Radiator Springs Racers. My mom and I both love this ride so much, and in all the times I’ve ridden it, my car has always won the race (I’m sure I jinxed myself now). Before the trip, I was a little worried about how my mom’s wig would do on the rides (because like me, she likes to ride with her hands up). She wore it on Radiator Springs Racers, and as you can see from our ride photo, her wig stayed on without a problem!

And I was super happy that my dad decided to ride with his hands up too! Even though my face is covered up by the photo number, I still think this is a pretty amazing photo. Roberta also took this really great photo of me with my parents while we were waiting in line.

We also rode Soarin’ Over California (the music from that ride is the ring tone for my phone) and Toy Story Mania (where for the first time ever I had the highest points in the car).

Next was another roller coaster, California Screamin’. Neither Roberta nor my dad do upside down roller coasters, so they waited on a bench for my mom and I to ride. We ended up riding twice, the first time in the front row (which is my favorite) and the second time in the second row. Again, I was worried about my mom’s wig on this ride, and so was she. So while we got ready to leave my dad and Roberta with all of our stuff, my mom decided to leave her wig with my dad as well.

It was actually pretty funny when she took it off because my mom said that some lady walking by her gave her a double take when the wig came off. My mom is getting her hair back, and if you didn’t know what she looked like before or with her wig, you’d think that this was just the style that she wanted to cut her hair in.

Both rides on California Screamin’ were awesome, and my mom and I agree that it is one of the best roller coasters out there.

Next we met back up with the rest of Roberta’s family and went to dinner. And after dinner, my mom wanted to rest before World of Color, so we headed back to the hotel.

On the way, we passed all of the bear sculptures that are near the hotel, and since my mom loves everything to do with bears, I took her picture with them all.

I also found the coolest hat for my mom, but she didn’t think that she’d wear it at all.

After resting for about an hour, my mom decided that she didn’t want to stay up for World of Color (the show was at 9:45pm). But my dad and I both wanted to see it so we headed back into the park. But since we had some time to kill before the show, we decided to ride Radiator Springs Racers again. In the dark, the mountains are all lit up and are really pretty.

Then it was time to get into our section for World of Color. I’ve seen the show a couple of times, but my dad had no idea what the show would be like. He was pretty impressed by it, but we got pretty wet while watching it (I guess we were in the splash zone).

After World of Color, we headed back to our hotel to get some sleep before we had our next big day at Disneyland. But while I was in my pjs and getting ready to brush my teeth, the fire alarm went off in our hotel and we were evacuated. The evacuation waiting area was actually right next to our room so we didn’t have to walk too far in our pjs (and I was glad that I brought pj pants instead of a nightgown). We waited outside for about 30 minutes before we could go back into our room. I have no idea if there was a fire, but we never saw the fire department while we were outside the hotel.

Finally, when we got back inside around 11:30pm, I was ready for bed and for our next adventure the next day!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged California Adventure, cancer, Disneyland, rides, roller coaster, theme park

A Disneyland Tease (or A Mini High School Reunion Steps Away From The Happiest Place On Earth)

Posted on April 24, 2014 | 1 comment

On Easter Sunday, I had absolutely no plans. I was going to do some cleaning in my house and get ready for my work week, but it was a pretty unscheduled day.

I had an errand that I had to do in Anaheim and was planning on putting that off for another day until I saw that a friend from high school was at Disneyland that day.

My friends Ali (who co-hosts The Super Fantastic Nerd Hour podcast) and Nhu-An (both of whom I went to high school with and are now engaged) were at Wonder Con in Anaheim and decided to take their day off to do a Disneyland adventure. I totally wanted to join them, but my pass was blacked out for the day. And I didn’t want to spend a lot of extra money on a blackout day ticket. I really wanted to go into the parks, but I knew that spending that money wasn’t the right choice.

I had messaged them both to see if they would be spending any time outside of the parks on Sunday so I could meet up with them and say hello. Even though it seems like I keep in touch with a ton of people from high school, I had not seen Ali nor Nhu-An since we graduated high school in 2001.

When they messaged me back, they said that they planned to spend the entire day at the parks. So I suggested that maybe we meet up for a drink or something in Downtown Disney toward the end of their day. We agreed to meet up around 9:15pm between the parks so we could have a quick catchup.

I did my errand in Anaheim and then hung out with a friend until it was time to go over to Disneyland. You can actually park for free at Downtown Disney for 3 hours, so at least I didn’t have to pay the $16 to park at the parks. I walked over to where we were supposed to meet when I got another message.

They were at dinner and running late. But they could still meet me when they were done. So I hung out between the two parks for a while. It’s actually not bad there. I was able to see the fireworks (even though I couldn’t hear the soundtrack that went along with it).

While I waited, I did some work on my phone and played a couple of rounds of Words With Friends. And then Ali and Nhu-An came out and we had a mini reunion outside the gates of the parks.

It was actually pretty fun. We chatted about some random stuff from high school and Ali and I discussed podcasting. I’m trying to hook him up with a fun guest (and if it happens I’ll totally share it on here) for his podcast and he is having some technical issues that the hosts of the podcast that I work for can probably help him with.

We only hung out for about an hour before they were both ready to head back to their hotel (they had just had a full day at both Disney parks). Before we said goodbye, we got a quick picture together to prove that we had a (almost) 13 year mini reunion.

While I haven’t really stayed in touch with a lot of people from high school in real life, I love that since we all stay in touch virtually it’s not awkward at all when we get together even when it has been a long time since we saw each other face to face. I also like how all the high school cliques that used to exist are pretty much gone now and everyone I stay in touch with over Facebook is very supportive of each other. I sometimes wonder if high school had been like this if I would have still felt like such an outsider.

Either way, this was a great way to spend a Sunday that was completely open for me! And in less than a week, I’ll be spending 2 days at Disneyland with my parents!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged California Adventure, Disney, Disneyland, high school, podcast, theme park

Happy Birthday Mommy! (or The Past Year In Review)

Posted on April 4, 2014 | Comments Off

Today is my mom’s birthday. I know I’ve written a birthday post to her in the past, but I think that since this past year has been quite a year, she deserves a new birthday post to celebrate everything from the past year.

Since my mom’s last birthday she was diagnosed with breast cancer and kicked ass while completing all her treatments. While my mom was going through her treatments, I got to see her a few times.

The first time I saw my mom was after her surgery but before she started chemo. This was on my trip to Tahoe. And during that trip, not only did we hike a lot, my mom took me off-road driving and drove so aggressively that I had a seatbelt bruise for days afterwards!

I also got to see my mom when we all went to Maui for my brother’s wedding. That was a great week filled with lots of adventures.

After the wedding was when my mom started her chemo treatments, and I have to say that she was able to still be her usual ass kicking self through all of it. I’m still amazed that she still played tennis (and usually won) ever week. She even scheduled chemo around her tennis matches.

Usually, my parents are in Tahoe a lot during the winter (so my dad can fulfill his dream of being a ski bum), but because of the treatment schedule, they didn’t get to go too often. That’s ok since Tahoe had a horrible winter as far as snowfall goes.

Somehow, the universe must have known that my mom was done with all her treatments because there was a good snowfall the other day. So my mom, dad, and Tucker are all up in Tahoe this week celebrating my mom’s birthday.

While thinking back at this past year, I think my family has become much more grateful for the little things. I don’t think we were ever ungrateful people, but we make more of an effort to be grateful now.

I’m so grateful for my mom (and dad) for so many reasons. While they don’t completely understand my desire to act, they support it as much as they can. I’m grateful that my parents are willing to pay for me to fly home so I can see them (and Tucker). I know some friends who don’t have that opportunity so they don’t get to see their family very often. I’m also really grateful that my mom is almost as much of a Disneyland nerd as I am, and we are going to try to get my dad to enjoy Disneyland as well when the 3 of us go to celebrate my mom’s birthday/the end of her treatments later this month.

I know that my mom is going to have an awesome birthday today. I’m sure she, my dad, and Tucker are going to go on some sort of adventure in Tahoe. I’ll just have to wait to celebrate with her in a few weeks.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff, Tough Stuff

Tagged birthday, breast cancer, cancer, Disneyland, dog, Hawaii, Lake Tahoe, Maui, mom

Happy Birthday Justin (or The Most Epic Disneyland Adventure Where We Conquered The Park)

Posted on February 26, 2014 | 1 comment

Yesterday was my friend Justin’s birthday. For his birthday, he wanted to go to Disneyland and he put out an invite on Facebook. One of the joys of being out of work is being able to go to Disneyland on a weekday, so I told him I’d meet him at the park.

We actually both got there at pretty much the same time, so we met at the trams that took us from the parking lot to the theme park. After a snafu with my annual pass (which ended up taking an hour at the ticket booths at the end of the day to fix), I ended up getting a free ticket for the day so I was able to go into the parks before dealing with the issues with my pass.

Since both Justin and I are annual passholders, we didn’t feel like we had to rush around the park and do a ton of rides. We started in California Adventure at Toy Story Mania, where Justin ended up beating me, but not by a ton. Next, we rode Radiator Springs Racers. This is really one of my favorite rides in the park. We did the single rider line, so we didn’t end up riding together. But that’s ok. While my car was waiting to go, I took a quick photo.

The ride was great as always. Then Justin and I decided to head over to Disneyland and do some of the rides over there. While walking through Main Street, we noticed Cruella de Vil just standing there with no line to take photos. So we took the opportunity and got some photos with her (I took one for Justin and he took one for me).

Then, right next to her we saw Pluto with almost no line! We figured we had to do another photo.

I was trying to give Pluto a kiss in the photo but now looking at it it just looks awkward.

Next, we were going to ride Star Tours, but on the way we saw Peter Pan and Captain Hook coming out from a backstage area. We figured we should see if we could get pictures with them too. They said we could, but only if we walked with them. So I ended up getting a picture with them toward the end of Tomorrowland.

Finally, we went into Star Tours where finally Justin and I got a picture together (wearing the awesome 3D glasses for that ride).

For the last ride of the day, Justin and I went on Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. Earlier in the day, Justin mentioned that his dream was to max out the counter on the ride. In order to do that, you have to get over 1,000,000 points. Justin was super motivated to beat me in this ride, and check out what he did.

I don’t know why his score is above my head and my score is above his, but he got over 1,000,000 points! And not only that, he had the 33rd highest score for all of Disneyland! And this was done on his 33rd birthday!

After that awesomeness, there was no way that the day could be topped. We declared that we conquered the park and headed out.

Justin was going to go straight back to his car and I still had to go to the ticket booths to deal with my annual pass issue (thank goodness it’s all fixed now), so we took one last quick picture together to remember this epic day.

I don’t know how future Disneyland adventures are going to top this, but I’ve got almost an entire year left on my annual pass to try.

Happy Birthday Justin! I hope the rest of your day almost lived up to the awesomeness of Disneyland! And thanks for letting me be part of your celebration!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged annual pass, birthday, California Adventure, Disneyland, rides, theme park

Another Year Of Disneyland! (or Paying With Ink Recycling)

Posted on February 11, 2014 | 1 comment

It’s been almost a year since I got my Disneyland annual pass. And if you remember, last year I paid for a little bit of it by recycling ink that my mom gave to me (she doesn’t want to have to deal with going to recycle 10 inks every month).

Well, I saved all my ink recycling money for the past year so when it was time to renew, I had quite a bit more in gift cards than I did last year. I actually had enough to pay for almost half of my annual pass! So the balance that I had to pay on my own was only a little bit more than a one day park hopper ticket. Not too bad!

I’m really excited to have another annual pass. As you’ve all seen in my posts about Disneyland, I like to go to the parks. I have fun there and I do get a ton of walking in.

With not having a job right now, I’m going to try to take advantage of the free time and do some more mid-day park adventures. I’m actually thinking of paying the extra money for a parking pass so I can do that more often (it takes 10 visits to pay off the parking pass, and I went 9 times last year).

I’m spending an hour every morning and an hour every evening applying for jobs (if I spend more than 2 hours job hunting I start to go a little crazy). That leaves the middle of the day open for me right now. I’ve been going for walks or planning on going to spin classes (I’m going to the 10:30am one today!) in my mid-morning through afternoon free time. But I think I’m going to start going to Disneyland maybe once a week.

I don’t always ride the rides, especially when I go alone. But it’s such a gorgeous place to walk around and if I don’t have to pay the $14 to park there, it pretty much makes it a free outing (not counting the gas to get there).

I’m a little nervous to spend more on my annual pass because I don’t have a job right now and I’m pretty much living off my unemployment (which barely covers everything). So I’m going to spend this week trying to budget and plan it out (I don’t think I’ll have time for Disneyland this week so I don’t have to worry about it yet).

But at least for now, I know that I can go into the parks almost any time I want and not have to pay a penny! And this will come in handy because in the spring I have a multi-day Disneyland adventure planned! But more about that when it gets closer to the date.

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff, Saving

Tagged annual pass, Disneyland, savings, theme park

Tag Archives: Disneyland

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Happy Birthday Justin (or The Most Epic Disneyland Adventure Where We Conquered The Park)

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Another Year Of Disneyland! (or Paying With Ink Recycling)

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