California Day 4

Don't worry everyone, this is my last and final post about our trip to Disneyland!

We headed out for our 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Newport Beach. We started walking to the bus stop in the cold, humid, cloudy air early in the morning to find a couple at the corner practically getting it on. SO gross. Our bus stop was FULL of people waiting. Most of the people had disabilities and it looked like they were going on a field trip with a few care-takers. One of the kids specifically was darling. He had huge buck teeth and followed me around telling me he liked my Yankees baseball cap.

The bus arrived and we all jammed on the bus, making sure Nat & I jumped on first and went straight to the back to make room for the others. The sweet little buck-toothed innocent kid was trying to weasel his way through the crowded bus to get to the back and happened to shove past another bus-rider who was all sorts of tatted up. The tatted up kid started beating the crap out of this little handicap kid and I WAS DYING. I was at the very back of the bus and couldn't do anything but yell. The bus driver, and both caretakers didn't do a thing and my heart shattered into a million pieces right then and there. I was helpless.

Our bus route quickly ended for a bus transfer and we waited for our next bus to arrive. We quickly jumped on and had no idea that 400 stops were in store for us. Hours later we were the only ones left on the bus and we had FINALLY arrived at Newport Beach Pier. Newport Beach was definitely a lot dirtier than Huntington Beach, no one was on the pier- probably because of the amounts of blood pooled up all down the pier. Gag me. We walked the dirty pier and tried to look for fish- nada. No seals either. Bummer.

We saw some beach cruiser rental shack so we decided to rent some! The guy came around the corner with two bright pink beach cruisers. How'd he know?! The salty air blowing in my hair while we rode our bikes felt soo great..

We cruised the beach front all the way down to Balboa Pier and locked our bikes up. We paid a couple bucks to ride the ferry to Balboa island which was the best idea next to renting beach cruisers! The beach front houses were incredible and it was starting to warm up outside which we were thankful for. Balboa island has theee cutest shops, we loved them! There was the cutest boutique called etc etc etc.. that had the cutest window display with a pair of Dolce Vita flats. I was immediately suckered in and splurged on the most beautiful pair of shoes.. I'm in love.

Does anyone know anything about Cali being famous for their freaking frozen bananas?! Because they were EVERYWHERE. We finally tried one on Balboa island, it was to die for. There's ALWAYS money in the banana stand!

We took the ferry back to Newport Beach and returned our bikes so we could go to dinner. We almost cried when we saw the Old Spaghetti Factory. STARVING. We had a great meal. So great I think Nat cried while she scarfed down a 3 course meal in about 2 minutes.

After dinner we stayed at the beach to watch the sunset. We had a long exhausting ride back to Buena Park and we were so happy to finally be home after sitting by pervy homeless people at our bus transfer spot. It's funny realizing that our flight from Utah to California took less time than getting from Newport Beach to Buena Park...! (it's only 23 miles people..)

Sigh.

We had SO much fun on this trip and I'm so happy we were able to go together. My sister is honestly the best & I'm extremely lucky to have her as my best friend! We were bummed to come home, but also slightly relieved. I've never been so happy to have my car back!

We had tons of adventures, and lots of fun!

XOXO



California Day 3 & 4

DAY 3

Disneyland seriously took it out of us. We decided to walk a few blocks to Target because I wanted a pair of flip flops and they didn't have any. WTH is with stores in Cali not selling summer clothes? I get it's Fall and everything, but it was still SO WARM! Target had all of their beanies, scarves & mittens out. WEIRD!

After trudging through the neighborhood of abandoned buildings and used pregnancy tests on the ground, I finally found a pair of shoes and we walked back to the Hotel just to decide we were hungry and had to walk somewhere else. This was my verge of breaking. I'm 8 months shy of being able to get a rental car and I called my dad for help. He's always been able to get me a rental car but he didn't call me back. Spencer tried as well and it was a complete no-go. (There's ONE reason I'm looking forward to 25.)

We had paid for the Medieval Dinner already and the girl at the front desk of the hotel/motel made it clear the place was just a 5 minute walk down the street. I asked if we could take the shuttle and she said we already used our ONE TIME Shuttle use going to Disneyland. ONE TIME USE. 

We went to our room to shower and get ready for dinner. Nat was in the shower while I was putting my makeup on at the mirror when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I yelled for Natalie to look from the shower and she totally didn't buy it. I look up and see "ALICE" written on the bathroom mirror. I had to swear on my life I didn't write it.

We were super creeped out and laughed about how Alice was the one making all of the weird noises the night before. ew.

We started walking to dinner which took us 25 minutes in the blazing sun with, again, cars honking and yelling things in languages I don't understand. Maybe that's a good thing. Complain complain.

We got to dinner and we were SO EXCITED again that we were around civilization. You guys, if you haven't ever been to a Medieval Dinner place.. you are SERIOUSLY missing out. We loved it so much and the food was great! We had soup, 1/2 chicken, garlic bread, potatoes, BBQ Rib & a drink, all with NO utensils. We had a blast!

 

For the record, we took a cab home.

DAY 4

We decided we really wanted to go to the beach so we had to figure out bus routes through Orange County. We originally wanted to Santa Monica Pier but our bus route literally drove right through Inglewood & Compton. So we decided on an hour and a half bus ride to Huntington Beach instead!

 Huntington Beach was one of my favorite things. There's something so majestic about the ocean & breathing in salty air. Plus I saw a huge seal and it pretty much made my whole day. It was the PERFECT temperature & Nat was dying to get back into the water. She rented a surf board and wetsuit and rocked it on the only waves coming in. We found some AWESOME local shops & I really didn't want to leave Huntington Beach.

We headed back to the hotel/motel on the bus & got off on our stop. Which ended up not being the correct bus stop. We were totally stranded with all of our shopping bags in the middle of ghetto-ville. The next bus didn't come for another hour and a half, and the closest bus stop we needed was 2 miles away. We tried calling 3 different cab companies none of which could send a cab right away. We called the hotel for a ride, but again, we already used our ONE SHUTTLE ride to Disneyland. We walked to a burger place down the street and waited for what seemed like an eternity for a cab to finally pick up our location.
We got back safely & it was just another adventure...


XOXO

California Day 1 & 2

DAY ONE:

It was a bitter/sweet thing coming home from my sister trip to California. I've always loved California but I've always gone with family/friends and we've always stayed in nice places. Now that I'm married and think I'm poor, I figured my sister and I could stay somewhere just outside of Anaheim on the cheaper side of things. Horrible/Awesome decision.

We got to the tiny Long Beach airport which I thought was dainty and cute. We took a cab ride to our hotel in Buena Park and almost crapped my pants when we pulled up to our hotel lobby ($60.00 later) First of all, Travelocity said this place was a HOTEL. Nope. Motel. Which is still fine, but that wasn't the only thing that was completely not true. The first thought in my mind was 'I'm totally using the safe in the room' then BAM. There's a fee every time I use the safe. Ugh. We walked to our motel room at the very back of the motel passing lots of vacant rooms with the doors propped open. The pictures online really hyped this place up so when we walked into our room we both laughed out loud. Broken lamp, uneven pictures on the wall & a squeaky King bed.
 

We decided we were starving and walked outside to see what restaurants were close and realized we were surrounded by abandoned buildings and it was quite the walk to anything but McDonald's and some weird looking local burger place. As we were walking in the pitch black to the corner, cars were honking & people were yelling out the windows of their cars  & I thought I might crap my pants again. We safely got down the block and the minute we walked in the restaurant I took all of my credit cards and cash out of my wallet and stuffed them in my bra so I would have empty purse in case we got mugged. I felt like everyone in the restaurant was staring & quickly realized we were minority which was fine. We walked back to the hotel/motel and decided to call it a night.

 

DAY 2:

Despite the super weird noises we heard all night I still felt like we got a good night's rest. Our hotel/motel had free continental breakfast which about saved our lives every morning. Waffles, pancakes and orange juice galore. Today was Disneyland! We scheduled our shuttle the night before and we were pretty bummed it didn't leave until 9:30am. We patiently waited outside only to see they completely over-booked the shuttle by about 6 people who all crammed in this tiny van and left Nat & I standing awkwardly beside the full ride. We finally got a ride from the manager to Disneyland and we decided to hit up both parks. When we saw civilization around Disneyland we were SO EXCITED!

 



 

We finished our night with the AMAZING World of Color show at California Adventure. Seriously I was blown away.. and I think it puts the Bellagio fountain show to SHAME.

Our feet were tired, we were exhausted & we were so happy.

There will always be something magical about being in Disneyland!