Disneyland

My husband and I just got back from a little vacation to the happiest place on Earth.  I hadn't been to Disneyland in 12 years and it had been 17 years for him so we thought it was time.  We spent the first day at Disneyland and went on a ton of rides.  I have to say that the fast pass is the most awesome thing ever.  We would get our fast passes for one ride, then go on rides with short lines, then jump past a ton of people by using our fast pass.  It felt like we spent most of the day on rides rather than waiting in line. 

The heat was awful, though.  We picked the week that had a massive heat wave covering most of our state (hello, 112* temps) and so it was horribly hot, even in Anaheim.  However, we got an early start, went back to our hotel to cool off when it got hot, then went back to do some of the late night stuff. 

Aside from the heat and the crowds (I don't recommend going in the summer time if you can avoid it), we had a wonderful time.  We got to check out the new Star Tours ride, which is amazing.  Seriously, it was a huge improvement over the way it used to be and it was an awesome ride when I was little.  We got some Star Wars souvenirs at the shop that you walk through after the ride.  Husband got a hat (to replace the one he lost on Splash Mountain) and I got a shirt. 

We got to watch the fireworks while we were on the Matterhorn, which was a great treat.  They started before we got on the ride so we watched from the line, then got to see them as we went around the mountain.  

We spent the second day at California Adventure.  They were still in the process of building it the last time I was there so I was excited to see what it looked like.  I loved the early 1900s feel that it had.  We went on Soarin' and Grizzly River Run.  Soarin' was incredible.  We got front row seats and it really felt like we were flying over California.  There is some crazy technology involved in that ride.  Grizzly River Run was so much fun.  We rode a raft with six other strangers, but it was fun.  Both times we rode we chatted with our fellow passengers and really enjoyed the experience.  Also, we got really wet both times, which made for a nice break from the heat.  I prefer that ride to Splash Mountain.  Splash Mountain has one big drop and two smaller ones.  The big drop scared the heck out of me and we didn't even get that wet.  Grizzly River Run has a bunch of drops, but nothing terrifying, and you actually get wet.  It's probably not as great if you're there in February, but it's wonderful in August. 

We did a few other things on our trip, which I'll share later once I have all the pictures that we took and I stop feeling quite so much like a zombie. 

Updates

Yeah, it's only been about six months since I last posted anything.  We'll call it settling in.  A lot has happened in the last six months.  We moved into our house and painted one of the rooms.  We've done very little to the house outside of that because I had the worst work schedule in the world and barely saw my husband.  But now my schedule is at least semi-normal so we've been enjoying our new time together. 

I've crossed a bunch of things off my list.  We rode a train near Santa Cruz.  It took us through the redwoods and was a ton of fun, even if we were the only people there without kids. That also counted as visiting a new city as we'd never been there before. 

We celebrated Christmas at our house, which was a lot of fun.  It was so nice to have everyone together and not have to worry about traveling as much (although we did still travel).

Yesterday we had a picnic, which was awesome.  It was the first really nice day that neither of us had to work so we spent it outside where we watched people ride a zip line.  Hubby almost talked me into riding it, but we decided to go do other stuff instead.

I also had surgery.  My gallbladder finally came out and I feel so much better.  Laying around for a couple weeks led to me reading a few books.  I read Wil Wheaton's Just a Geek, which is hilarious and sweet, much like his blog.  I love reading his stuff.  If I can ever get it to work for me, I plan on reading Memories of the Future soon.  That book is a bunch of his memories and critiques on the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation (yes, I'm a huge nerd).  If it's even half as funny as the podcasts that he created for it it'll be great. 

I also read the Tenebrea trilogy by Roxann Dawson and Daniel Graham.  Those books were freaking awesome.  I had to order the second and third ones when I was only halfway through the first because I knew I didn't want to wait to read them.  The writing is incredibly well-done and the characters are so realistic.  It's sci-fi, but very relatable at the same time.  I wish Roxann Dawson would publish more as she's an excellent author. 

So basically that's been my life outside of work for the past few months.  I'm looking forward to getting back to blogging.

A Mini-Trip

On Saturday DH and I got up early and we both had the urge to go somewhere, even if it was just for a day.  So we talked while we got ready and eventually decided to head to the beach.  He wanted to play with his metal-detector and I wanted to read a book on the beach.  It took us forever to get there because there was so much traffic and our GPS took us in the most roundabout way possible, but we made it.  While I read I saw I seal playing in the waves.  If I'd had a camera on me I would have taken a picture because he kept popping up really close to us.  Then, in the parking lot we saw one in a pond where they dock the boats.  He was playing too.  We also saw a tiny bunny.  It was cold and windy, but still so nice to just get away for a day.  Before we left, we stopped at one of our favorite restaurants and got clam chowder bread bowls.  It was a wonderful day. 

I have no house updates though.  We are still waiting and it sucks.  If they'd approved it right away we'd be moving in a couple weeks.  At this point we're looking at mid-September at the earliest.  I suppose the one upside is that it will probably be the first time we've moved when it wasn't 100 degrees out.  I'm just hoping to avoid rain. 

Anniversary Trip

This weekend DH and I took some time off so we could go on a vacation to celebrate our anniversary.  On Friday we left early so that we could go to the San Francisco Zoo.  We got there just in time to see them feed the grizzly bears, which was awesome.  One of them attempted to catch a fish right in front of us (she didn't get it).  It was amazing.  We saw lots of other animals too like giraffes

He was going to town on this leftover branch from the morning feeding.  Because we were the only people there to watch this show (which was really only about 7 feet away) we skipped the feeding later in the day.

We saw gorillas.

It doesn't really look like it in this photo, but this guy is huge.

We also saw kangaroos.

These guys are super lazy and this is one of the only shots I got of one standing.  There was a really loud bang right before this that made every kangaroo jump up.  There are also peacocks everywhere at the zoo.  They go in and out of a bunch of different animal habitats.

This guy was also massive

One of my favorite things to see.  He was enormous and he kept moving around.  Seeing one of these in the wild would be terrifying.

We got to see them feed the penguins, which was great.  I love penguins so this part was very exciting for me.

Unfortunately it was hard to get a decent picture because there were so many people around. 

Finally, we saw this big guy.

He's a new addition to the zoo and we got to him right at the end of his display time.  They were draining his pool because apparently that's the only way you can convince a 4000 pound hippo to get out of the water and go to bed.  We waited quite a while before he finally gave up and walked inside.  It was totally worth the wait to see him get up and move around.

DH and I both got really sunburned while we were there.  Fortunately, it was a bit on the chilly side so we had sweaters on.  It's just our faces that are burnt.

After our trip to the zoo we went to Pier 39 and had some dinner and got some treats at a shop called Chocolate Heaven.  If you're making a trip to San Francisco I highly recommend it.  They had some delicious treats, including a handmade smores candy that we devoured tonight.  After that we drove to Sausalito where we had intended to spend the night.  When I told DH that the GPS said we were only 42 miles from Bodega Bay he convinced me that we should drive up there.

Last year at this time DH went away with his friends for his bachelor party.  They ended up staying in this really nice hotel that he's been talking about taking me to ever since.  We found it late at night and got the last room.  It was worth the drive.  The Bodega Bay Lodge is wonderful.  The people are nice, the restaurant was delicious and the hotel room was amazing.  We had a great view of the bay and the ocean.  It has spa services on site and a heated pool and spa.  If you're looking for a romantic getaway this is the place.

This morning we got up and spent some time on the beach, ate a clam chowder bread bowl at The Tides restaurant (that's the restaurant from the movie The Birds), and then decided to cut our trip short and head home.  DH has some work stuff coming up this week so we decided to come home so it would be easier on him.  We were ready to come home anyway.  The zoo and a ton of driving exhausted both of us.  We had a wonderful time and I get to check some things off my list and we still have tomorrow to enjoy together (which is our actual anniversary).  It was great to get away just the two of us and spend some quality time together without having to worry about schedules.

Random Road Trip

On Saturday DH and I decided to go for a drive.  Even though it had been sunny and gorgeous for several days beforehand, it was rainy and gloomy on Saturday.  We still wanted to get out of the house though.  We picked a city that is fairly close, but not somewhere we'd spent any time.  We saw the signs to Yosemite, but decided it was too far.  Until we made it to the first city we picked.  At that point the sign said we were only 24 miles away, so we went for it.  It was so worth the drive.  Because it's still early in the season there weren't as many people as we've seen there before.  There were still a lot of people, but nothing like it is in July. 

We saw Half Dome:

and Yosemite Falls:

and sweet little deer.

It was a great trip.  I can't wait to go back again once it warms up a bit and we can ride our bikes around in the valley. 

Vacation

I requested time off for an actual vacation.  This is the first time I've done it outside of my honeymoon.  DH and I are trying to plan a weekend trip for our anniversary in April.  I can't wait.  I just can't think of anywhere to go.  Any ideas within northern California?