Paradise, Pier, Pouring

I love California Adventure Land! And especially since they have some great new additions coming up, including a 'Cars' land and the little mermaid ride!!


The rollercoaster is awesome and I pretty much just giggled the entire time while Brooke screamed.


And most of the rides in a bug's land bored us solely by watching them.. so we only went on one, which was the heimlich chew chew train from a bug's life.


Saw Aladdin the musical! They do an awesome job of it and the special effects are fantastic as well!

And Pixar pals are always my favorites!

Makes me want to go home and watch all these movies again!

And Toy Story 3D ride is one of my faves! Although my arm is usually quite sore afterwards!


here's Heimlich, but I enjoy the ride every time even though it's the smallest little kid ride ever. Once again, the only adults in the line are ones with children. Except for us. hehe





But at least the ambience and decor in A Bug's Land is cool. And it is a good shortcut to get to the tower of terror, so we walked through it a lot.


And a trip to Disney is never complete without going on the carousel, right?

I love this picture.. because I'm soaked and it's pouring rain..

All in all a fantastic time in both parks! I don't remember walking that much in a long time! Hope you enjoyed coming to Disneyland with me through my blog! Probably won't go for a while but definitely have my fix to last me a LONG time!!

Tiki, Teacups, Toad

After a wonderful week in Palm Springs, Brooke and I drove to Anaheim, where we prepped to spend the next three days at Disneyland!!


I think we went on pretty much every single ride in both parks. Covered a lot of ground. And the infamous Tiki Room I always enjoy. Every time we passed it, I'd offer for us to go in again, but Brooke wouldn't go for it. It was probably me singing at the top of her lungs that threw her off. :)


They were celebrating Mardi Gras in the New Orleans Times Square while we were there too, so there were decorations and dancing and festivities which was just delightful!


And one of the longest lines we stood in was probably for the Dumbo ride... the rest of the little kiddie rides we did early in the morning. But the thrill of flying with Dumbo was worth it.


The first two days, mid-afternoon, it would pour rain and get really stormy and windy. Brooke had a poncho, I was happy being soaked and we spent a lot of the time on the indoor attractions. However, the benefit of having it pour rain, was that in the early evening, the park was way emptier than normal and there were not many lines.


And then we went on the tea cups and even though i know they make me sick, I spun them as fast as I possibly could. And that is probably why we only went on the tea cups once. :)




Just looking at these pictures of us spinning makes me feel a little queezy in the stomach! haha

And we even got to meet a few characters out and about.

Brooke sporting her fantastic poncho.

Please observe the couple behind us in this photo. They were harsh making out behind us and it was gross because we could hear it. So we just kept taking pictures of them in the background of us and finally they stopped. And in this photo you can also observe what happens to my hair when it's straight at the beginning of the day and gets rained on. :)

This is us waiting in the pouring rain for the Peter Pan Flying ride. Worth it. Rain definitely added this new dimension to things. As you walked around in your soaking wet shoes, and watched the water pile up everywhere, it had a magical feel to it. Mind you, I'd take sun at Disneyland anyway over rain.


And then there's the creepy dolls that don't look anything like the princesses they represent. Really Disney? Could you not take a little more pride in your stuffed animals that don't look anything like they should?

Space Mountain: one of my favorite rides!

We liked to make crazy faces for all the pictures. Sometimes it looks like i'm scared but really it's just me making a face. Phewf.


Finding Nemo Submarine Ride: also one that makes your stomach feel gross. But nice to watch the different scenes from Nemo underwater.


Alice in Wonderland caterpillar ride. One of those rides that you stand in and every other adult there is with a child. But hey, we don't need kids to have fun on the little kiddie rides!




Next up: More pics from Disneyland and some from California Adventure as well!

Palms, People, Paradise

My family has been travelling to Palm Springs since I was a little girl and I used to have a love/hate relationship with it. Now I absolutely love it and have learned to relax and just enjoy 'being' while on holidays.


Brooke told me she wanted to go away and my mom was already in Palm Springs, so I decided it would be fun to join her there and check out Disneyland at the end of the trip (since I am becoming quite the expert).


I love love love the palm trees. Contrasted with blue skies. Watching it transports me to some marvelous paradise, just knowing it will be wonderful and warm outside and that all is well.


The place we stayed had a bunch of different pools so it was fun to check out different ones each day. Read 6 books as well which is always a bonus. Good to get a dent in the book reading. :)


I actually didn't take any pictures during our week there. Well, except for the ones posted here. But they were all taken in a ten minute span and then ten more minutes at the night market one night.


We stocked up on fresh fruit and veggies from the market and feasted to our heart's content. On Valentine's, we even made our own gourmet dinner (we figured the restaurants would be way too busy).

In the mornings and evenings, we enjoyed some intermittent wogging.

All in all, it was a wonderful balanced holiday. Good time to relax, get some good swimming in, go out to some of my fave restaurants down there and just take in the beauty of the mountains and palm trees and greenness that are present in the middle of the desert. Oh, and the shopping as well.


Not a huge shopper, but we went to the outlets and I got some killer deals on a snowjacket, snowpants and a rainjacket from Columbia. 80 bucks all together. Always nice when you can get an originally priced snowjacket (210 dollars) for 30 bucks. So now I feel a little more prepared for winters in Quebec!


And of course, my mom and i had to have an awesome photo shoot. Because she's awesome and so am I. And that makes our photos awesome.


And no visit with brooke is complete without her stealing my camera and taking self-portraits. :)


One night we also went over to my friend Kristen's place. We went to uni together and she's doing her masters in Cali. It was so wonderful to see her again and to connect. She made us a super tasty dinner and we watched the Canucks win. Wooh!


And Palm Springs wouldn't be Palm Springs without the markets. Usually you always see someone you know from back home (saw a few people we knew and had dinner with a couple of them!) I love walking around and looking at all the crazy homemade stuff that's pretty creative. And seeing all the older women whose skin is the darkest shade of brown amongst the wrinkles from far too much sun exposure.





All in all, it was a fantastic trip and just fun to hang out together. Oh and my mom and I got obsessed with Yahtzee and probably played at least 100 games... Probably won't have the chance to go to Palm Springs again soon, but I definitely enjoyed the visit this time around!


Next stop: Disneyland!