Happiest Place On Earth

Monday - 6:35am
It's early on Monday morning and it's time to wake up. I hate waking up early, and I am not a morning person whatsoever. But with the airplane leaving at 10am, I had to be at the airport by 8. Unfortunately, the airport is on the other side of the city, and quite literally too, so it takes at least 45 minutes to get there. Trust me, with slow drivers, it's not a fun ride. But anyhow, we hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream and my cardigan... no, wait.

We had issues with the left turn signal in our oh-so luxurious Buick Lacrosse, so we had to take it back. Then, to make up for it, we end up with a Chevy Impala. So, it's fair to say that we didn't get the best transportation vehicles; but that doesn't matter too much.

We basically just spent the rest of the day walking around and had dinner at Denny's.

Tuesday - 9:45am
After another early morning and breakfast, we've arrived at Disneyland. It took about 20-25 minutes to walk there. Our hotel was close enough that we didn't really need to drive; because if we drove, we'd have to find parking and would have to walk the same distance anyway. Unfortunately, my dad forgot to bring the booklets that the tickets came in, so he had to walk all the way back to the hotel to grab the books so we can enter the 'Happiest Place on Earth'. By about an hour later, we finally get in.

The place was pretty crazy. The amount of people and the amount of work put into building such an impressive theme park just blows my mind. So we spend the whole day there, doing the things that you do at the Disney Park.

Ride of the day: It's a Small World.

Wednesday - some time in the morning
We really wanted to watch 'World of Color', and being the hot commodity that it is, the lineup was longer than the Great Wall. Seriously. You probably could have seen the lineup to get tickets from outer space. But with much patience, we managed to snag tickets for the 10:15pm show. So we had the day to kill, and just continued to trek along.

World of Color was amazing. It was probably worth every bit of waiting. There is a lake sort of thing in the middle of the park, and they use the water and light projections to pretty much put on a presentation that included a medley of some classic Disney shows. Very impressive.

Thursday - after more sleep
We figured that we might've been too aggressive with the way we were going about this vacation, so my dad decided to slow down a bit by going to the beach. We got an extra hour of sleep, which was way helpful because I was already almost out of gas after the second day - and, that my back was seriously ready to give out. So we ended up on Laguna Beach. It was somewhat hazy when we got there, but it was still a really nice beach. It is crazy how much more intense the sun is in California than it is up here in Edmonton - but that is of no surprise. So we spent a big chunk of the day at the beach.

When we left, we decided to go to a shopping complex called 'The Block'. It was a pretty cool place that was pretty much a mini shopping outlet with some pretty cheap prices.

Friday - forgot to wake up
We decided that we would get shopping over with on Friday. When I say shopping, it means an 'all day, drive two hours to a premium outlet' shopping. We drove up to Northern California, a little west of San Francisco, to Camarillo. There, in what seems to be the middle of no where, is a HUGE outlet. You could find just about all upper-end stores here. More walking!

After the day, I went back to the hotel with $140 turned into clothing. I am poor, so I had to put a huge limit on how much I could spend. But nonetheless, I was satisfied with the place. It probably wasn't the best outlet I've been to, but it's definitely worth visiting if you like high end clothes with Old Navy prices.

Saturday - didn't feel like it at all
Since it was a super combo pack thing that my dad bought, we got to get into Universal Studios, too. So, today was the day. And very early into the day, and after a week in California, I came to the conclusion that Californians have very nice legs. Yeah, I guess you can pretty much say that I checked everyone out in order to arrive at that conclusion, but it's the truth. Besides, with 70% of girls wearing really short shorts, and guys that wear shorts, and moms and dads wearing shorts, it's hard not to look at someone without seeing much skin.

Anyways, Universal Studios was really cool. The studio tour was by far the best ride in the whole trip. They pretty much set up the tour to be an adventure ride kind of thing, so when you go through the park, you experience all the technology and toys that they've developed over the years.

Sunday - since when
This was the first Sunday, in a long time, where I didn't go to church. It felt really weird since church has been in my routine since I was born. Not going to church meant going down to San Diego. We drove down WAY too early for anyone's likings. We decided to go to Sea World, or whatever it was called, and it's your typical water based theme park - with one exception: the sweetest Killer Whale show on earth. Yes, trained Killer Whales putting on live performances. Shamu makes the sea lions and dolphin shows that WEM has/had look chump. It was a really sweet experience to see so many interactive events with such wild animals.

Monday - earliest yet
It was time to go home. We had to leave the hotel at 7:30 to be able to have everything returned and ready for our flight at noon. It was a long day of travel; but, at about midnight, we got home from an overall stellar family vacation.

After four theme parks, two hotels, a few shopping centers, sore muscles, a broken back, and a lot of sweat, it's pretty nice to say "I'm home". I would have to rate the vacation at about a 8.5/10. The only thing that would've made it better was taking a more relaxed approach. But that would mean, staying more nights, which translates to spending more money. But whatever, all's good.

California girls are, most definitely, unforgettable. Haha.