Disneyland!

Where have I been this past week? I've been spending my evenings watching the Olympics instead of editing photos. I've found myself baking cupcakes, making Jello, and pancakes in the kitchen lately too. Weird things are going on! ;)

I'm ready to share my trip to Disneyland from 4 weeks ago. And boy did I have fun!

I got the sweetest call from Nathalie when I arrived in Anaheim. We had plans to get a drink but we were both totally starving. We walked to Downtown Disney and had dinner in a fun restaurant, Ralph Brannan's Jazz Kitchen. I laughed so hard and really enjoyed her company. I was completely surprised that she wasn't falling asleep at the table with jet lag. We did take a few photos while walking to and from dinner. To learn how to take night photos, check out my post here.
Saturday night, after Dan & Zena arrived, we headed out to Downtown Disney. This is definitely a great place that is within walking distance to find night life and a decent meal. I think Zena was most impressed with the Lego Store and its crazy cool designs.

One of the girls at the convention told me to check out the Storyteller's Cafe, so that's just what we did! It was really cute and we got some tasty drinks. Zena got a changing LED acrylic ice cube in her drink and she was thrilled!

I loved the silhouettes all over the place and couldn't help but think of how much my mom would love all of the copper!
I took lots more photos of the lit up trees on our way back to the hotel. I love this one because of the shadows on the sidewalk.
We woke up pretty early on Sunday morning due to Disneyland excitement. Zena hadn't been since 1971-ish. We scarfed down some mediocre hotel breakfast before walking around the corner and down the street to the happiest place on earth!

We started out in Tommorrowland to grab fast passes at Space Mountain, then head over to Star Tours. I was dying to take Zena on Indiana Jones so we went there next. I love to scream on that ride. Or laugh really hard depending on my mood. :)

For a change in pace, we went on the Jungle Cruise. I love riding it with Jenna because we laugh so hard at the corniest parts ever. We did manage to get one of the really good guy who ad libs and surprised us with some extra fun stuff. Instead of making shooting arrow sounds as we passed by the natives, he made automatic machinery noises! The little things in life make me silliest. Speaking of silly, we loved the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride! It was easy to convince Zena that she had to go on it. Both she and Dan were hooked. It was my goal to get a photo with Pocahontas and I was thrilled to walk right by her in Frontierland. I was definitely the tallest person taking a photo with her. She had a rehearsed monologue about "being honored to take a photograph with a princess with such a beautiful smile." And yes, she posed me for the photo! Photo by Dan Corcoran.
Dan snapped a photo of me in Toon Town. My sister and I have a photo of us doing a similar pose from way back in the day!I could help taking a photo of the sign in front of the camera shop!
Sunday was definitely Disneyland boot camp. I ran us all over the theme park for nearly twelve hours! We stayed for the firework show and enjoyed ice cream too. Isn't Main Street beautiful? Monday night we revisited Downtown Disney and chose to have dinner at the Italian restaurant Naples. I was thoroughly exhausted from CHA that day, so the mood lighting and comfy booth had me oh so close to napping right there in the restaurant. The talented balloon girl kept us entertained while designing (for kids) surfing penguins and monkey's holding onto bananas. My favorite part was my lemoncello martini. Have I mentioned how much I love sugar? YUM!

We hopped on a plane on Tuesday and were back to the San Francisco Bay area. Dan's already asking when we are going again. I certainly wouldn't mind visiting again!

Check my flickr account for more photos from my trip to Disneyland!