Our PCH Road Trip: Disneyland

A lifelong dream of mine was fulfilled earlier this month when we decided to take an 8 day long road trip along the Pacific Coast Highway in California! We decided to start in Southern California because we had Disneyland tickets and I wanted to use them. I couldn't bear the thought of being in Southern Cali and not visiting Disneyland!

The night we arrived in Anaheim was an eventful one. Long story short I am a very naive traveller and booked us the sketchiest hotel EVER. I won't go into too many details but suffice it to say the black mold on the ceilings, the grey stains on the towels and the word "TROUBLE" etched into the television were enough for us to ditch the hotel at 1030 at night with nowhere else to stay.

Luckily a very nice hotel opened up right across the street from Disneyland on Travelocity! So I immediately booked it and we rolled into the lobby at 1100pm.

Lesson learned, pay the extra $50-$75 a night to stay in a place that you don't have to fear being murdered.

  

I am a hardcore Disneyland goer and so we arrived at the park before it even opened! We decided to use our Magic Morning the first day which allowed us to enter the park an hour before it opens for everyone else.

Feeling very elite with our magic morning and being one of only a few people in the park we decided to stroll over to Fantasyland and ride a few of our favorite rides before stopping to get ourselves some Mickey Mouse pancakes!!

Yum. I am not typically a pancake or even really a large breakfast person, but I make an exception for Mickey Mouse pancakes. With their delicious blueberry eyeballs and maraschino cherry noses, sprinkled with powdered sugar and magic.

It was fun being there the first day just Nathan and I because we got to saunter along, doing whatever we pleased. We saw the new Frozen musical, wandered through all the shops, ate a month's worth of rent in treats and took in all the atmosphere and magic Disneyland has to offer.

Day 2 Nathan's sister Brittany and her husband Buck flew in to go to the parks with us!

We love to hang out with these two so obviously we had a blast! Buck's favorite place is Car's Land so we started our day wandering the roads of Radiator Springs.

Ok this ride is the CUTEST ever. You hop in these cars and they line dance with each other! It's one of my personal favorites.

The one and only!

Poor Nate always gets booted to the front of the log on Splash Mountain and so he always ends up getting soaked, but at least he is having a good time.

The Pooh ride that didn't stink.

Day 3 we took it easy and meandered around! We go to Disneyland so often that I don't really feel pressure to ride every single ride or even to ride all the big rides a bunch of times. I just like being at Disneyland for the magical atmosphere. And I love just sitting on a bench sometimes to people watch. Luckily this crew is very chill and so we took time to watch shows, play the penny arcade games, walk through every shop, and eat all the treats our hearts desired.

So cool fun fact - this was Mrs. Disney's favorite horse! If you've ever seen Saving Mr. Banks you may recognize it as the horse Walt Disney makes P.L. Travers ride. I love that movie.

Licensed to drive.

 I haven't ridden the Dumbo ride since I was like 5 and I forgot how freakin' fun that ride is!

We ended our Disneyland adventures by staking out a spot to watch the Main Street Electrical Parade! Which is cool because that parade last played in Disneyland like 15 years ago and it's only back for a limited time this year! So that made me feel pretty lucky that we got to see it. I think my fellow Disney goers were pretty much exhausted at this point after clocking 10+ miles a day on foot! I could've gone another 3 days though, haha! I love Disneyland.

Goodbye for another 6 months or so, Disneyland! You treated us well.

Stay tuned for the next 5 days of our PCH Road Trip!