Tag Archives: disneyland

a day of (california) adventure

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My friends Ruby and Jason were in town a few weekends ago and where did we go? California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort.

:)

The park is undergoing major construction right now (it’s scheduled to be finished 2010-2011) but we managed to keep ourselves busy for a few hours.

I’m not allowed to post pictures of Jason (hehe) so I’ll share random ones instead.



First we hit Toy Story Mania. I love this ride. Too bad I suck at it and only scored 91,600 to Rob’s 171,800.



The Food and Wine Festival was going on and while we didn’t attend any culinary demonstrations, we saw Food Network Star Guy Fieri. I love him! I could watch Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives all day long.



We stopped in the candy store at Greetings of California to drool over the treats. Look at those HUGE caramel apples. YUM!



If you’re familiar with my love for all things Disneyland resort, you know that Rob and I always go to the Animation Building to draw at the Animation Academy. This is one of our favorite attractions ever. This time we drew Mickey’s best friend, Pluto.



Since we were in the Animation Building, we thought we’d check out the Sorceror’s Workshop. Surprisingly, I’ve never been in there, hehe. In Beast’s library, you can find out what character you’re most like. First, you get your picture taken and then you answer a few random questions. It turns out I’m most like Mulan. Pffft. Just because I’m Asian. HAHAHA.



Here’s the picture Rob took.



Rob is most like Timon. BWAH.

We had fast passes to go on Tower of Terror but I just could not convince Ruby and Jason that a multiple drop thrill ride is fun. Hee. I’m always a little apprehensive before I get on the ride and I’m totally screaming and clutching at Rob for dear life during all the drop sequences but I just love it when it’s all over. I guess it’s the adrenaline kicking in.

At that point, we headed out of the park and continued our Disney day by watching Up (my review is below — highly recommended). All in all, we had a great day (no, great weekend) hanging out. Miss you guys and hope to see you again soon!

april update

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Wrote this last night…

Yup, I’ve been neglecting the blog again. Sooo lazy. I went to Santa Barbara over the weekend to visit my cousin and I brought back a cold and sore throat (no, it is not the swine flu). We had a good weekend eating tons of food (yummy gumbo at Cajun Kitchen and amazing Crab Cakes Benedict at Sambo’s), walking up and down State Street, and running around the Santa Barbara Fair (no rides for me but I had funnel cake!!!). I took Amtrak, which was so easy! It’s been over 10 years since I’ve taken the train anywhere and I was seriously surprised at how CROWDED they are. On the way back to Orange County, there were no more seats so people were standing. Crazy! The trip was roughly 4 hours each way and the time passed really quickly. I brought my trusty MacBook and a few books and the ride was over before I knew it. I’ll definitely make the trip again.

Tonight is the Chuck season finale (haven’t watched it yet because I’m waiting for the Lakers to win the game against the Jazz). I am really, really hoping it’s not the series finale. So much so that Rob went to Subway today to buy a footlong sandwich in support of the Finale and Footlong campaign to SAVE Chuck. NBC, you better not cancel this show!!!

I finally downloaded some pics from the past few weeks — hopefully you don’t mind if I share? :) Click for bigger…

Let’s start with some pics of Diesel…



We bought Diesel this cute little “house” and put it in our “office” so that he could sleep in there during the day. What a cutie.



Rob was bored and thought it would be funny to put my Mickey ears on Diesel’s head. Diesel was obviously not pleased.



Back on Easter, we went to a barbecue at my cousin’s house and were in charge of making dessert. We decided on cupcakes! We used regular Betty Crocker cupcake mix (both chocolate and yellow cake) and then made this strawberry frosting (mostly because it gave us an opportunity to use the awesome Kitchenaid mixer we received as a wedding gift). The frosting was A-MA-ZING. I changed the frosting ingredients to only include 1 stick of butter (2 sticks seemed waaayyy too much) and I used 4.5 tbsps of strawberry puree. The recipe says it’s enough for a dozen cupcakes but I used it for 2. Yummy.

And of course, a few weekends ago we went to Disneyland. Again. :)

We got to the park just shortly after the 8am opening and headed straight to Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters!



I beat Rob!



Rob went to Fantasia Gardens (the smoking area) and I wandered around the castle to find Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Awww.



Then we headed over to the Plaza Inn to have (all you can eat) breakfast with Minnie and her friends. I had a traditional breakfast of eggs, bacon/sausage, and potatoes along with some Mickey waffles and a variety of fruit. Also available were biscuits and gravy, tons of pastries, a huge assortment of cereal, and other items I’m sure I’m forgetting. SO GOOD. Plus, we got to meet…



Captain Hook just walked right up to our table, grabbed our camera and started taking random pictures… like this self-portrait of himself. What a character.



Minnie dropped by…



… and Tigger too! We also met/saw Eeyore, Max, White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, Alice and Rafiki. Definitely lots of fun.

When we finished up with breakfast, it was HOT HOT HOT. The weather had been pretty chilly the days prior and then the day we go to DL, it got up to 96 degrees. CRAZY. Anyway, CA Adventure opened at 10am so we made a beeline over there to ride Toy Story Mania. We arrived shortly after opening and the line was already at a 30 min wait. We figured this was the best it would get so we wait in line… only for the ride to BREAK DOWN about 10 mins before we got to the front. We decided to wait it out but after awhile, we were all instructed to get out of line. ARGH. It wasn’t meant to be on this trip again.

We decided to get out of the heat and hang out at the Animation Academy. This ended up being an AWESOME decision because…



… I met Sorceror Mickey! I’m upset the picture quality is crap, though. I will meet him again! And take a better picture.

It was almost time for the Laker game so we went over to the ESPN Zone at Downtown Disney to watch the first game of the series and also to wait for my best friend Robyn to join us. YAYAYAY.



The Lakers were up by 20 points at half time so when Robyn arrived, we headed over to Animation Academy again since she’s never been there before (!!!). We drew Minnie and mine was terrible as usual (Rob’s holding mine on top).



We headed over to Toy Story Mania to see if it was open again and found that the wait was 60+ mins. INSANE. Instead, we went back over to the Hollywood Pictures Backlot to ride Tower of Terror. The three of us are at the bottom right of the picture. I’m in the middle scared out of my mind (the constant drops feel never-ending), Robyn has her hands at her face to hold on to her glasses, and Rob’s egging on my screaming.



Back at Disneyland, we go on Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters twice in a row. The second time I think we found a Hidden Mickey on one of the maps visible in line.



Robyn beat Rob! And Rob was not pleased. Hehehe.



And finally, for our last ride of the day, we hit It’s a Small World. I haven’t been on this ride in YEARS. They recently made some changes and sprinkled Disney characters throughout the ride. I saw Alice, Aladdin, Jasmine, Pinocchio, Nemo, Ariel, Flounder, Woody, Jesse, Lilo, and Stitch. SO CUTE.

That’s it! We’ll have to schedule another trip before the summer heat sets in for good… YAY.

we cheer + disneyland again

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Congrats to my friend Emma (and Mike) who gave birth to a baby girl this morning! Awww. :)

I missed the Girl Scouts this year. :( I even found the dates/times of their booths on the OC Girl Scout website. Oh well. I suppose my waistline is thankful that I didn’t buy any Thin Mints or Samoas. Mmmm.

We bought a new Wii. The broken one was no longer booting up. :( We looked up the “symptom” on the Nintendo site and it advised us to send in the old one for repair. Since we’ve had the console for 2+ years, it didn’t have a warranty anymore and would cost $75. We thought that wasn’t bad. THEN in the part where you enter your credit card info, we found out that they also charge $10 for shipping and tax on top of that, which brought the total to just under $100. LAME. Rob had $125 in Amazon rewards so buying a new Wii made more sense since the difference of $124.99 wasn’t much more than the repair cost.

So over the weekend, I bought We Cheer. OMG, I’m seriously addicted. It took me a few routines to get my moves synced to the game, which was a little frustrating at first, but after I got the hang of it, I was having so much fun! It does look a little cheesy (the cheerleaders remind me of Bratz dolls) and there’s no storylines (just random conversations between the characters that add nothing to the game) but whatever — I skip all that extra stuff and focus on clearing songs and unlocking stages. It’s a pretty good workout too. Thumbs up!

We also made an impromptu trip to Disneyland again on Sunday. I LOVE DISNEYLAND. I now want to spend my 30th (!!!) birthday weekend there. Anyway, we found out Saturday night that there was supposed to be a “storm” coming in the next day so we decided to play it by ear. I woke up at about 7am on Sunday morning and it wasn’t raining. WOOT. I really wanted to get to DL as close as possible to the 8am park opening. So I took a shower and when I got out, it was raining. HARD. UGH. So I didn’t even bother waking up Rob. I went back to sleep, lol. Then when I woke up again at about 9am, it was clear. It even looked like the sun was trying to peek through the clouds. This time I woke up Rob and we made it out of the apartment by 10am. Our first stop was across the street at Starbucks to get some coffee and while I was ordering inside, rain started pounding down again. GRRR. I was ready to go back home but Rob said we might as well drive to Anaheim (about 15 miles away) and see what the weather was like there. I’m glad we did because on the way, the rain stopped (again) and it turned out to be a great day to be at DL. The crowds were really light too, probably because locals didn’t want to brave the rain. We are troopers! :D

Obligatory pics…



A new “sight” at Celebration Point. Not sure if I like it since it seems totally out of place on Main Street… good picture spot though!



We weren’t planning on spending the entire day at the park so we only did what are now our “must do’s.” First, we walked quickly to Space Mountain to get a Fast Pass. Then we made a beeline for Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters where Rob beat my score again. BOO.



We headed back to Main Street and killed some time by the Partners’ statue because we wanted to have fried chicken at the Plaza Inn for lunch and they don’t take reservations. We got there about 5 minutes before their noon opening and the line was already looooong. Crazy!



The fried chicken was excellent! Mmm, I’m drooling right now just thinking about it.

After lunch, it was time to head over to California Adventure. We walked alllllll the way to Toy Story Mania and found out the wait was 60 minutes. We decided to pass. Next time we’ll have to hit that ride right when CA opens.



So of course, we headed over to the Animation Academy. We found out that the next session at 1:30 is for Jack Skellington but the 2:00 session is for Piglet. Since we’ve drawn Jack before, we decided to wait for Piglet. We went outside to walk around and we found Goofy! The line to take pictures with him wasn’t too long so I convinced Rob to come with me. Hehehehe. My new goal is to find Sorceror Mickey so I can take my picture with him when I’m wearing my Sorceror Mickey ears.



Back at the Animation Academy, I found that Piglet is freaking hard to draw! My drawing is on the left and it suuuuucks. Rob’s is so much better. *pout*

Finally, we went back to DL to use Fast Passes for Space Mountain (my favorite ride EVER). And after a quick walk through Downtown Disney to check out the Lego store, we headed home. *happy* Can’t wait for my next trip.

february update

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Random entry alert! I’ve wanted to do a “what I’ve been up to” post for awhile now (really an excuse to post some pics) but am always too lazy… here’s a quickie version. :)

Back on Valentine’s Day, Rob and I went to the happiest place on Earth, Disneyland. We bought annual passes for each other for Christmas and finally went to get them activated. The best thing about having annual passes is that we don’t feel the need to do EVERYTHING in one day. We can totally take our time, relax, and visit select attractions. The most important thing we wanted to do on this trip is ride Toy Story Mania at California Adventure. It’s an interactive midway ride and it is SO FUN. Seriously. It’s a MUST.



Here I am in my Mickey ears and the Toy Story 3-D glasses. Spiffy.



Of course a trip to CA is not complete without visiting the Animation Academy. This time we drew Goofy. My drawing is on the right.



Lunch was at Cafe Orleans. We shared French Onion soup, Pommes Frites (garlic fries with the yummiest aioli ever), and a Monte Cristo sandwich (turkey, ham and cheese fried in a light batter with berry puree). Not the healthiest lunch but SO GOOD.



Before we left, we made sure to get on Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. I had a measly 46,300 points. Rob totally beat me with 93,700. Too bad for Rob the picture got our scores mixed up. OOPSIE. Hehe.



The following weekend we celebrated our friend Sebastian’s birthday with pizza at Round Table (his choice) and dessert at Guppy House. There were 9 of us and we shared a large mixed fruit shave ice. It was GINORMOUS. We barely finished it.

I’ve been going through lots of Netflix movies lately too…

Eagle Eye
Entertaining but not very good. :/ Reminded me too much of I, Robot. Not very original. Also, I guess Transformers didn’t really require much acting from him because this movie made me realize Shia LaBeouf is a pretty good actor. I liked him a lot here.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Another Shia LaBeouf movie! Only meh. Lots of potential too. I just didn’t care for the storyline AT ALL. And the dialogue was so predictable. I lost count at how many lines Rob would guess before the words even came out of the characters’ mouths. Disappointing.

Wanted
I had no expectations before watching this movie so it was a pleasant surprise to find myself really enjoying it! Lots of thrilling action sequences and a well-constructed storyline. Plus, James McAvoy!

What else? Hmm… a couple of random things…

I love when DVDs have digital copies included. I load them right onto my iPod to take with me to the gym. As much as I love listening to music when doing cardio, my mind inevitably wanders, I get bored, and I stare at the clock. Watching and listening to episodes or movies definitely keeps me occupied.

Our Wii broke. :( I tried to use it yesterday but the console was eerily quiet (you couldn’t hear it booting up) and the TV just had a blank screen. After checking all the connections and looking up the problem on the Nintendo site, we determined that we had to send it back. Unfortunately, the repair would cost $75, $10 shipping, and CA tax, which was almost $100. !!! We might as well buy a new one. UGH UGH UGH.

excuses excuses

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My friend Ricardo reminded me that it’s been almost a week since my last post. Here are my excuses…

1. I’m still unpacking. Yes, STILL! The kitchen and office are pretty well organized but there are still boxes and piles all over the floor in the living room and the bedroom. It’s taken so long because we’ve been waiting on a few large pieces of furniture (TV stand, bookcase, bed frame/mattress) and didn’t have anywhere else to store our stuff. We have everything now except for our bed frame (it’s coming next Tuesday) so YAY.

2. I’m too busy living at Target. HEH. I’ve been to Target 4 TIMES in the past week. And I’ve purchased many, many items during each trip. Moving is not cheap.

3. I haven’t watched TV regularly in over a month so have nothing to blog about. I know, right? What is wrong with me?!? One of our Tivos broke during the holidays and OF COURSE, it was the one that I used to record my shows (aka the shows that Rob refuses to watch like Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Private Practice, Grey’s Anatomy, etc). Shows were on hiatus around that time so it wasn’t a big deal but then in January, I got caught up with packing and planning for the move that I let weeks and weeks go by… now I am so behind. :( The good thing is that we now have a DVR to replace the broken Tivo. SCORE.

4. I’m lazy. HEE! This really sums it up. Case in point, take a look at the navigation on the left. It badly needs some TLC. For one, I am now 29 not 28. For another, all the site links no longer work (I took the pages down awhile back). I really need to a huge site overhaul. But again. I’m lazy.

In other Kelly news, I have a 3-day weekend coming up (thank you US Presidents) and Rob has agreed to go to Disneyland on Valentine’s Day. I have THE BEST hubby in the world. We actually bought each other annual passes for Christmas so we’re going to activate them on Saturday. I hope it doesn’t rain. I’m so excited to wear my Mickey gear again. :D

Random picture of Rob today during office hours. Isn’t he such a hard-working employee?



Finally, WTF Chris Brown. WTF. You are dead to me.

happy 2009

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So it’s the last day of my holiday vacation. :( So sad. But before real life begins again, I have to share some vacation highlights!

1. Spending time with friends and family.
Christmas Eve is spent with my family — my cousin and his wife just bought a Wii so they asked us to bring our games so they could try them out. We brought Guitar Hero with us (with our one measly guitar) and my cousin pretty much spent the entire night playing it all by himself. Heh.

Christmas Day is spent with Rob’s family — his parents hosted lunch and there was a constant stream of relatives visiting all day. I was pretty much parked next to the food table. YUM. Rob watched the Lakers crush the Celtics. :D

Rob and I also hung out with friends — my best friends and I had a yummy dinner and annual gift exchange (where I received the Gossip Girl s1 DVDs and a gorgeous Paris picture book among other FABULOUS presents). And our friends Daniel and Carolyn hosted a potluck where we dined on healthy foods such as fried chicken, spam musubi, and korean bbq and played Rock Band 2 all night. Well, the guys did. I sang “Hungry Like the Wolf” and that was it. I suck at Rock Band.

2. Looking for (and finding!) an apartment.
Rob and I spent all day on the 26th and 27th driving around Orange County visiting various apartment communities. OMG. They were built by the same developer so after seeing 2 places, they all started to look exactly the same. Except for the kitchens. We barely cook at all but for some reason, the look of the kitchens really made a huge difference in how we felt about the apartments. We really liked 2 communities — Option #1 is a new-ish community (6 years) on the border of Tustin and Irvine and very close to a major retail shopping center and lots of “hustle and bustle.” Option #2 is a brand new community a few miles south close to the Irvine Spectrum but in a more quiet, less developed area. After visiting both locations a second time we went with Option #2. The rent was over a $100 less per month and we couldn’t pass up having a brand new apartment with granite kitchen countertops (sooo pretty). We still feel like we’re central to lots of stuff in the OC (South Coast Plaza!) so that’s good. We anticipate moving in sometime the last week of January. CRAZY!

3. Seeing Jorge Garcia (Hurley from Lost!) at South Coast Plaza. Rob spotted him going up an escalator while we were looking around in Crate and Barrel. I didn’t believe it was him at first but it totally was! I wanted to follow him but chickened out. :P

4. I had Pinkberry!
I snagged a Pinkberry gift card from work (for some reason, a vendor thought it was a good idea to give out gift cards even though there is not a single Pinkberry in the Bay Area) and treated myself to a large. Oink oink. SO GOOD.

5. Going to CA Adventure and Disneyland!!!!!!!!!!
I’ve never been to DCA and it’s been about 5 years since my last trip to DL so I figured it was about time and I begged Rob to go with me. :D He agreed to 2 whole days! WOOT.

First day was spent at CA Adventure. A rundown of our day with some pics thrown in for good measure…

CLICK to see larger versions of the pics.

Grizzly River Run. Fun but I got SOAKED. ICK.



The Golden Gate Bridge!



Tower of Terror. OMG. I screamed and held on to Rob’s arm for dear life during the entire ride. Looking back the feeling of weightlessness is actually pretty cool.

Taking a quick shopping break and trying on the bride and groom Mickey ears!



Next up we went to the Animation Academy where we learned how to draw Donald Duck. This was definitely our favorite attraction of the trip! My drawing is on the left. :D



Walking around the Wharf (does not beat the real thing right here in the Bay Area)…



Soarin’ Over California. A simulator ride that takes advantage of scent in addition to sight and sound.

California Screamin’. Awesome wooden roller coaster. Probably my favorite ride at DCA.

Mulholland Madness. Fun little mini-coaster.

At the Hollywood Pictures Backlot, I found the cutest fountain. So here I am with my Sorceror Mickey ears taking a picture with the Sorceror Mickey fountain! I have no idea why I am smiling like that. Dork.



Monsters Inc. Cute kiddie ride that takes you through the movie.

And to close our day at DCA, we went back to the Animation Academy to draw Jack Skeleton. My drawing is on the right.



Last picture of the day – Mickey, the “C”, and me!



Some random comments:
– Wow, I am SO OLD. We were only at DCA from about 11am to 9pm but my feet were KILLING me. What happened?!?
– I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it but Rob smokes. And I honestly had no idea that there were smoking areas at DCA. So Rob would leave the park every once in awhile to handle his business. Then we happened upon a smoking area in the Condor Flats area across from Soarin’. Isn’t that crazy? The other one is in the Hollywood Pictures area near the Muppet Vision show. (At Disneyland, there’s a smoking area near Big Thunder Ranch and another at Fantasy Gardens, which I dubbed “Smokey Gardens.” :P )

Overall, I enjoyed DCA but I probably wouldn’t spend another whole day at this park alone… I’d definitely have to mix it up with some time at DL. Still tons of fun, though. I’m sure I’ll be back to draw some more characters at Animation Academy and ride Screamin’!

Our second day was spent at Disneyland. YAYAYAYAYAYAY. I seriously love this place. My face lights up and I get so happy here. *giddy* There was an INSANE amount of people at DL and we missed a lot of the “kiddie” rides due to long lines (and the fact that they don’t have Fast Passes) but we trudged through and still had a great time. :D Since it was DL day, I forced Rob out of bed at 6am(!) so we could be at the park by the 8am opening. That didn’t happen exactly as planned but we still arrived around 8:30am.

Matterhorn. Always a classic. One of my faves.

Splash Mountain. After agreeing not to ride any water rides (considering how wet we got after GRR the previous day), we still went on SM when we saw that the stand-by line was only 5 minutes. Well, we got UNBELIEVABLY DRENCHED. So soaked that I had to buy a t-shirt and sweatshirt to replace my dripping sweater. I wish I had a picture of us after the ride but I was preoccupied.



Haunted Mansion with the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay. Going on this ride totally made me want to see this movie.



After breakfast, we made our way over to DCA to go to the Animation Academy again! This time we drew Winnie the Pooh. My drawing is on the right.



Back at Disneyland sporting our Mickey tees!



Hanging out at the Star Trader store in Tomorrowland. One of my favorite stores because they have Star Wars themed merchandise. Heh.

Rob as Buzz Lightyear.



Me as Goofy.



Rob as Eeyore.



Me with an awesome R2D2 backpack I found. :D



It may be unbelievably crowded during the holidays but I just LOVE seeing all the decorations. Look how gorgeous Sleeping Beauty’s castle is!



Eating a pineapple dole whip. A MUST HAVE.



Indiana Jones Adventure. Not as crazy and fast as I remember but still a goodie. Thank goodness for Fast Pass — the stand-by line for this ride got up to 2 hours!

Pirates of the Caribbean. A good time to rest our tired feet. Also got to see the holiday decorations in New Orleans Square.



Space Mountain. MY MOST FAVORITE RIDE EVER. The Fast Passes for this ride ran out quickly or I would have tried to get another one so we could ride it a second time. It’s the BEST.



Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. My first time on this ride! Rob’s score: 63,800. My score: 52,200.



The HUGE Disneyland Christmas tree in the middle of Main Street. We passed it because…



… we were on our way to DCA and the Animation Academy for a second time! This time we drew Minnie Mouse. My drawing is on the left.



Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Another oldie but goodie.

The castle all lit up!



And Small World too! I took this picture as we were waiting for the Fireworks Spectacular, which were pretty fantastic. I always love the music and the buildup to the Disney “snow” at the end.



Star Tours. Went on this ride because the line was only 10 minutes. It’s ok. I kinda think the video needs to be updated.

And finally, we end our day with another ride on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Rob’s score: 14,800. My score: 48,500. I WON!!!



And so ends a great day and a fantastic holiday vacation. :D

Back to real life tomorrow.

holidays

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Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!

I’m down in Southern CA and have been keeping very busy… eating, visiting family, eating, apartment hunting, eating, opening Christmas presents, eating… :)

I had a very loooong day at Disney’s California Adventure and I have to get some rest for Disneyland tomorrow… but I wanted to say Hi to everyone! I promise a better holiday update after the New Year when I’m back in the Bay.

womanizer

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I just downloaded Britney’s new single Womanizer from iTunes. It’s #1 right now. YAYAYAY.

It’s almost birthday time! AND I have a 3-day weekend to celebrate (thank you Christopher Columbus). I just have to get through the next few days of work…

Speaking of birthdays, Disney is offering guests free admission to Disneyland or Walt Disney World on their birthday in 2009. You have to register here. WOOT. I AM SO THERE. I’m totally going to have a Disney-themed 30th birthday next year. (Maybe).

I don’t have anything else to blog about so Diesel wants to say Hi…



OH! Before I forget… to answer the questions from the previous entry — Robyn, you win the award for most photobooth pics. You were in there a whopping 12 times! Rob, Uly, and I tied for second with 9. And Grantland was next with 6. :)

paris day 3

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I want to go to Disneyland. I have absolutely no idea why. I just do. So just a minute ago, I took a look at the ticket prices online. HOLY MOLY. When did it get so expensive?!? $63! And that’s just for 1 day and 1 park. If you want to park hop or whatever, it’s $83 for 1 day. Oh well, I’d still love to go. Maybe when I’m in Southern CA for the holidays…

Had an okay weekend. I got a stomachache on Saturday so I spent a good part of the day in bed. Ugh. I caught up on The OC (really, really liking this season so far) and I watched The Break-Up. HATED IT. There were some funny moments and Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn were good but the whole storyline was… EH. I also went to see Borat today, which was pretty hilarious. I wouldn’t say I *liked* it, though. The highlight of my weekend was getting an iPod nano! Rob got me a 4gb red one as a belated birthday present. I’m going to use this one for the gym. :D

More Paris…
Sun, October 15: Day 3
After our Parisian breakfast of croissants and coffee (I must have gained about 10 pounds from all the bread I ate!), we were off to Montmartre to see Sacre Coeur. (Montmartre is the northern part of the city where many artists reside). We took the Metro (we’re total pros now) and got off at Anvers. I was actually hoping the Abesses stop would be open by now (it’s been closed for renovations). That was the Metro stop featured in the movie Amelie and I just wanted to see it! Maybe next time. :D We walked up a hill (huffing and puffing the whole time) that took us to the bottom of the steps leading to Sacre Coeur. We took a breather by the carousel and prepared ourselves for the stairs. I guess we could have taken the funicular up but we were feeling adventurous. As we headed over to the stairs, we were approached by the men who try and stop you to tie a bracelet around your wrist. If they happen to get you, you’re tied to them and have to give them money to be released. They try to convince you to take the bracelet by saying it’s free. We walked away from them quickly (though one of them totally grabbed Rob’s arm) and started the hike up the stairs. It took us a little while (we stopped every time there was a bit of platform) but it was worth it when we arrived at the top. The basilica is absolutely gorgeous and the view from up there was wonderful. We were overlooking all of Paris! We went inside and lit a candle for my mom and walked around admiring the statues and sculptures. As we exited, I noticed that they had those machines that make impressions on coins for souvenirs. Is it just me or is that the *last* thing you’d expect to see in a church? I’ve made them before but at an amusement park!



We walked down to Place du Tertre to check out the artists’ square. There were some absolutely gorgeous watercolor paintings of the Arc and the Eiffel Tower and I was incredibly tempted to purchase one but I decided against it since they were pricey (between 25-50 Euros) and I didn’t know how the heck I was going to take it with me on the plane. We continued our walk through Montmartre and into the Pigalle area (Red Light District) on the way to the Moulin Rouge. Since it was Sunday, most of the shops were closed (so weird to me!) but we did find one sex shop that happened to be open. We went in but there was nothing exciting. LOL. Just a few more steps down was the Moulin Rouge! It was so fun to see the famous dance hall and its iconic windmill.



Our next stop for the day was the Marais. We made our way there via the Metro. As we walked up to the street level, we found ourselves at the Place de la Bastille. There’s nothing left of the prison at all so there’s nothing to see. Across the street, though, stood the Colonne de Juillet (memorial to commemorate the deaths in the street battles of 1830) and also the Opera National de Paris Bastille. The Opera completely stood out because it’s made of glass… I actually didn’t like it at all. We continued walking over to Place des Vosges. It’s a beautiful park that’s perfectly symmetrical (nine houses on each side of the square). I just loved all the parks/gardens in Paris. They’re so well-maintained, gorgeous and peaceful.



By this time, we were so hungry. We spotted a Quick fast food restaurant (like the McDonald’s of France) and ordered Supreme Cheese burgers meals. It wasn’t really a very good burger (my all time favorite fast food burger is from In-n-Out) but it came with Coke! And it didn’t cost us $5! Heh. After lunch, we walked along the Rue de Rivoli down to Ile de la Cite. We sat in the Square du Jean XIII, which is a beautiful garden behind Notre Dame. I think I love the back of Notre Dame even more than the front. The flying buttresses are spectacular. Guh.



I wanted to pick up a book to read for the plane ride home so we looked for the English bookstore Shakespeare & Co, which I knew was nearby. What a great little store! It’s TINY. It felt so homey and the employees are really friendly and give you recommendations on books and things to do in the area. I picked up The Time Traveler’s Wife, which a good friend had suggested to me. (I finished the book on the plane and didn’t like it :/).



By this time, we were absolutely exhausted from all the walking so we bought tickets for a 1 hr. sightseeing cruise on the Seine. We sat on top of the boat for a good vantage point of all the sights. The boat passed many of the monuments (D’Orsay, Conciergerie, Notre Dame, etc) but once we got to the Eiffel Tower, our camera battery died after just a few photos! GRRR. I was a bit surprised to see that the homeless population of Paris have tents set up all along the river banks. Some of them looked pretty permanent too. Looking back, though, I’m not sure why I was so shocked. Paris is a big city and all big cities have homeless problems. Still, it was a nice trip down the river and we got to rest our poor feet. After the cruise, we picked up gyros and banana/nutella crepes for dinner and headed back to the hotel for the night.

Up next: the Louvre!

music post!

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I really really want to go to Disneyland. When I was still in elementary school, I went to Disneyland every year for my birthday with my parents. I guess I’m just feeling nostalgic. Plus, I’ve heard Space Mountain is open again! I LOVE Space Mountain. It’s my all-time favorite ride ever. Hmmm. Maybe for Christmas…

I’ve discovered lots of great artists and songs from all of you so I thought I would return the favor and upload some of my current “songs of the moment.” :)

Please right click and save target as…
username: cookie
password: monster


Black Eyes Peas – Don’t Lie
Black Eyes Peas – Gone Going
Black Eyes Peas – My Style (with Justin Timberlake!)
Death Cab For Cutie – What Sara Said
Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek
Jack Johnson – Better Together (if I ever get married, I want this song to be a part of my wedding somehow)
Jack Johnson – Banana Pancakes (Yum, reminds me of Hawaii)
James Blunt – Tears and Rain (Many thanks to Barry for reccing him in the first place!)
Kanye West – Gold Digger
Kanye West – Touch the Sky

I’ll probably take these down in a week or so. Songs deleted!

And some VERY brief TV talk while I’m here (beware spoilers)…
Veronica Mars, 2.02, Driver Ed
Wasn’t feeling this episode at all. It was all Jackie’s fault. She SUCKS. But yay Meg!

Gilmore Girls, 2.04, Always a Godmother, Never a God
How rude was Lorelai during the baptism?! UGH. If I were Sookie, I would have thrown her out. That entire scene was obnoxious. It made me so mad!

Prison Break, 1.07, Part 2
EEK. T-Bags is so awful. I hope he’s offed and doesn’t get a chance to escape. The actor who plays him is amazing, though. I seriously feel icky and squirmish watching him onscreen. *shudders* Anyway, loved the Michael/Sara interaction (ie. sexual tension :P ) and the Michael/Lincoln hug at the end (you can just tell all is right with the world when they see each other). Too bad we have to wait 3 weeks for the next episode. Stupid baseball.