The Karrens: May 2009

May 26, 2009

Day 1 / The Arrival / The Angels vs the BoSox

MAJOR DISCLAIMER: I have posted many many pictures from our recent Disneyland/Anaheim trip in the next couple of posts today. This is mainly for mine & Clint's records & I want to remember every hour so I'm afraid I couldn't bring myself to edit as much as I should have. Feel free to skim through & read whatever portion you want!

Wednesday, May 13th. SLC Airport. The moment had arrived. Tension in the air. Roar of airplanes. Orange County calls.

Love the moving sidewalks.

We arrived in Cali at about 11 a.m. and after only about 1 hour of being slightly lost & disoriented, we made our way down to Newport & Balboa beaches for lunch & to soak in the atmosphere of The Much-Awaited Beach. Actually, I don't think the joy of being on vacation ever quite settled in until it was over.

Delicious subs.

Newport Pier on a gorgeous day.

Postcard quality pic looking south toward Balboa.

Clint treated me to my first Major League baseball game ever! Our timing was perfect. The Wednesday night of our arrival, the Angels were hosting the Red Sox! We bought our tix from a scalping season ticket-holder, really good deal. Much better than we originally thought we'd get.

The view from our seats:

A night of decadence: greasy quarter-pounders from Carls Jr, a licorice red rope, and the Ultimate Super Cheesy Deluxe Whatever-they-call-it Nachos. Clint & I definitely gave in to the atmosphere of the game.

The Angels scored a 5-run homer & while I was cheering this gomer snuck up behind me to join the picture. Awkward, but... sure, hey, whatever. Go Angels. And yes, I got plenty of comments from Red Sox fans about my Yankee Pride. Go Yankees! (Sorry, Shel.)

Final score: LA Angels: 8, BoSox: 4. Root, root, root for the Home Team!

Day 2 / Clint's Birthday / Disneyland

The Big Day! Breakfast on the patio.

Checking in at Disneyland - Clint got his birthday pin. It was the least he could do for getting in free, but he still took off the pin after about 5 minutes.

Hmmm... guess I was pretty excited.

Disneyland was not overly busy on this day. It was fantastic! Most of the rides were between a 10-2o minute wait, which as you know, of course, is remarkably good. We knocked down pretty much all the rides we wanted to do before lunch! Bam bam bam, just like that. It was awesome.

First stop was the Jungle Cruise ride.

2nd stop was Indiana Jones.

Then Pirates of the Caribbean.

Then Splash Mountain. Notice that in this picture we look dry & happy.

drumroll please.....

...the Big Splash...

...and now we are wet & happy! Hooray!

Soggy bottom boy.

Clint then indulged me in the Winnie the Pooh ride. Yay for sweet Clint!

...and he had no regrets. This ride made possible today by the unbelievably short wait time of 3 minutes! Though I have to give Clint props that he would have done it with me anyway had the wait been 10 mins. What a charmer!

Big Thunder Mtn.

Pretty sweet garbage can. Apparently we're buds.

Anybody spare a quarter?

The Matterhorn.

I personally think they should change the name to "The Bruiser." So rickety. Our knees and hips got knocked around like crazy.

This is in Space Mountain. I made Clint shoot a quick pic before entering total darkness. (P.S. This was my first time on the ride since they re-vamped it.)

Clint had the ingenious idea to take pictures of the pictures that were snapped of us on the rides. Some of them actually kinda worked.

Star Tours.

We ate the Golden HorseShoe for lunch & enjoyed the slapstick show by Billy Hill & the HillBillies. Pretty charming.

... but not the greatest picture, I know.

Another hit for Big Thunder.

Teacups! Clint got a little dizzy even though he doesn't look it...

Then...

Small World. Clint just LOVES this ride!

Splash Mtn again. Pretty sure Clint doesn't like this ride as much as Small World.

Apparently neither does red shirt -obviously so happy to be snapped in our picture.

Walt & Mickey=magic.

The Buzz LightYear ride.

Dumbo! Come on, it's classic.

Sleeping Beauty's castle.

Pretty flowers on New Orleans square.

Another go for Pirates.

On our way to Indiana Jones. The line was practically empty! Go figure!

My sexy new tote from the Indiana Jones Frontier shop.

"Class of 2009."

Which Mickey personality are you?

As Clint says: "Yarrrr!"

Afternoon parade. This was obviously a big part of our day as I have made room for 1 whole picture.

In line forever at Splash Mountain - and as you can see Clint is poised to be the next person on the log - and planning on it being the last ride of the day when suddenly everything comes to a halt & they announce that the ride is closed & they don't know if it will re-open. Well, we ditched that action & practically ran over to Space Mountain to get in one last good thrill. Totally worth it, too.