Today is going to be a long post, but I hope it's worth it because we are talking DISNEY today!
Mom and I went out west to hang out at Disneyland over Mother's Day. We participated in the Tinkerbell Half Marathon as well as checked out all the new stuff they had for Star Wars and the 60th anniversary.
First off, we used The Mouse for Less Travel Agency to help us book this trip. Since we are normally Disney WORLD goers, it was so helpful to have someone give us an idea on what to expect for Disneyland. Jeannette Cona-Larock is our agent and she is FANTASTIC! When it came to restaurant recommendations and photo pass questions, she was able to help us out with all of it. Definitely check them out next time you are looking to go to Disney. Their services do not cost you ANYTHING and it's so helpful to have someone help you with all the questions you may have.
We headed out early on Friday morning. With the time change, it was like we time warped. We arrived "shortly" after we had left!
After getting to the hotel and unpacking, first item on the list was to get to the expo to pick up our race packets. Then came our favorite, shopping! After visiting all the vendors we made our way down Downtown Disney to shop in all the fun stores they have there.
At the expo!
There are several fun vendors at the expo and we always love the photo ops they have available with the photo pass photographers!
Look mom! I got wings!
All the swag!
Dinner that night was at Napa Rose. It was seriously one of the best meals I have ever had!
My tomato-bell pepper soup with shrimp!
The following morning, we rope-dropped California Adventure and rode several rides!
Hello Cars Land!
Going down Route 66!
I got to see Red! He's my favorite!
While out and about we got to see Chip and Dale! They were so excited to see us!
Happy Chipmunks!
Lots of love from Dale!
We dropped into the Twilight Zone!
Toy Story is our favorite! I actually got the high score for our car!
We pretty much did everything in California Adventure we wanted to do by noon, so we headed over to Disneyland and checked out the new Star Wars stuff they had! The Launch Bay ended up being one of our favorite things on the trip. They had a great small film talking about the impact the past Star Wars films had on movie making and where they were going in the future.
Then we got to meet Kylo Ren! They had us stand in a hallway to wait and so we started chatting. Then suddenly, he appeared from around the corner and just stared us down! He finally invited us in and said "I sense you sympathize with the resistance." I said he was correct. He told me that was unfortunate...he could teach me about the dark side of the force. After our picture he told us to give his condolences to those in the resistance. It was one of the BEST character interactions I have ever had!
Kylo Ren trying to use Jedi mind tricks on me.
I guess it isn't appropriate to side hug Kylo Ren??? I didn't feel like it at all!
Outside the exit they had a place for you to take photos with a lightsaber! Haha.
I'm feeling it. Just need the robe!
The force run strong in my family!
We then checked out the Blue Bayou for lunch...one of my other favorite meals!
The menus lit up!
Before we left the park we ended up stopping to get mom her Mother's Day present...a silhouette of her with my brother and I (who sent me a picture before we left!).
Hand cut. Saying hi to Walt as he looks over the town square!
That night we "carb loaded" at PCH Grill before going to bed early because the next day...we raced!
I could write a whole review about the Tinkerbell race, but I don't think I would be able to add any more than others have already written on other blogs. I enjoyed the course immensely. It was a little weird running down Main Street "backwards" away from the castle and not going down the main street for Cars Land. But the out and back nature of going through Anaheim helped the "non Disney" miles go by quicker. I am THRILLED that they switched to having Photopass photographers on the course because we were able to get awesome pictures like these!
About to run through the castle!
So awesome!
I don't know what we are smiling at, but we are apparently having a good time!
Finish line!
We did it!
My mother (who runs much faster than me) really pushed me on my pace this race. Not to mention we had just a great time chatting as we ticked off the miles. It was such a great race and we finished in pretty much 2:30 on the dot!
After the race we headed back to Disneyland. We got done so quick (and were able to walk back to our hotel) that we pretty much walked into the part shortly after it opened!
It's tradition...gotta take our pictures with our medals in front of the castle!
We rode our E ticket attractions today! Indiana Jones and Hyperspace Mountain galore! We also made our way to the Launch Bay again and we ran into Boba Fett!
Apparently I look like a spy that he needs to take back to Jabba the Hut.
Our second way through Hyperspace Mountain!
Let me say, Hyperspace Mountain was our favorite ride the whole trip! We loved the Star Wars overlay. Going up the hill and hearing the main title theme gave me goosebumps!
The rest of the evening we relaxed and saw the last things on our list.
Dole Whip while watching the Enchanted Tiki Room? Perfection!
Then we capped off the night with watching the Paint the Night Parade and the Disneyland Forever Fireworks!
We ended up snagging a spot on Main Street right before the parade started!
These shows were my fondest memories. Watching everyone interact together with the floats (which were spectacular in themselves) was hilarious. And then we all moved into the street together to watch the fireworks. Everyone was singing and dancing together as they moved from song to song. It literally feels like you are there with thousands of your best friends!
The following morning we had to leave, but we didn't leave before hanging out with our favorite characters at Goofy's Kitchen!
Chef Pluto!!!
The character interactions took the "waffle" (get it? It's breakfast so not cake...). Dale recognized my ears to be like Pluto and he refused to take a photo with me until I took them off!
Of course, Pluto loved them!
Did I mention my favorite, gluten-free Mickey Waffles?????
Last goodbye!
Disneyland has such a special place in my heart. It was my first park as a baby and the history behind it strikes a chord in my heart. I actually like it being a smaller park. It does not lack for things to do and it feels more immersive due to the compactness of it. I prefer the Disneyland version of several rides (like Haunted Mansion, Pirates, It's a Small World, etc) as well.
It was such a fun vacation. A whirlwind for sure...and I'm fairly certain I am still on California time. But we had such a wonderful time and lots of precious memories together. I know I will certainly cherish the fun Mom and I had together for a long, long time.
But the fun doesn't have to stop here! If you want a more in depth look you can check out all the Go Pro video I got from the trip! You can watch us on Radiator Racers, going upside down on California Screamin', hanging out in Tower of Terror, our awesome Jungle Cruise Skipper and more!
Have a great rest of the day and see you real soon!
So in case you didn't read all my other posts, Jared and I are big geocachers! Many of our trips camping or otherwise include geocaching. We find it enhances our trips and makes things fun. We not only see beautiful views but we learn a ton historically and educationally.
I've been trying to complete my "Finds in on a day" calendar. Basically, find a geocache for every date of the year, including Leap Year. Here's how I stand to date.
Only 163 more to go!
Naturally, trying to achieve this makes my geocaching find rate go up from 0.3425 caches/day in 2015 to 1.0849 caches/day. You then quickly rack up the numbers. So while it seemed like only yesterday we were celebrating 500 geocaches, 600 was coming up really soon.
Thing was, we had also started a Lord of the Rings themed series while this was all going on. We had found about half of the needed geocaches over subsequent trips. So when Jared came around and asked me if we wanted to not only grab all the rest of them, but to make the Puzzle final my 600th, I was game. There was only one catch...I needed 16 more caches and we only had 10 left in the LOTR series. So we had to make up the extra as we went along.
But why read about it when you can watch the adventure! Check out the video below to see what the fuss was all about! (Keep in mind, it took us much longer to find the final geocache than 4 minutes, but I clipped most of the stuff out so you won't have to watch 22 minutes of dark screen haha).
I am so excited to talk about what might be one of my new obsessions...maybe not on the caliber of my Disney obsession, but it's up there. I'm talking about, my hammock!
Back in August, Jared and I went up to his family's reunion up in Pennsylvania. They live in Amish country. It was one of those times where I actually felt like a grown up because they actually let us rent a car from the airport and drive it three hours into the country. One of the favorite stores to visit while we are out there is called Peight's. It's kinda like Amish Walmart but the food quality is way better and the goods are much cheaper. One of those goods we bought was a hammock for $15. It's tiny and made of cotton rope but we finally got it put up on our back porch a few months after the trip at it quickly became one of my favorite spots. I love going out there and doing my quiet time. Reading my Bible and drinking my coffee is way better when enjoying the fresh air and letting the wind rock you back and forth.
Loving my hammock from PA
One issue is that it's a one person hammock. So if Jared and I wanted to hang out on the back porch, we didn't have two hammocks to hang out in. So inevitably, we would end up on opposite sides of the porch...one in the hammock and one at the patio furniture.
Fast forward to Christmas. REI was having a sale on their ENO hammocks and so I went ahead and bought one for Jared. It's a double hammock so I knew it would actually fit his tall frame unlike the Amish hammock would. He was very excited about it. And I have a live photo to prove it.
Jared with his new hammock!
Problem is, after Christmas is winter. Not hammock weather. So fast forward to spring when we finally get to try it out. Then Jared get's an idea.
"You know, there's all these cool hammock tents that they make for backpacking. We could use them and go backcountry in the woods and it would be so much more comfortable then sleeping on the ground in the tent."
Thus, a whole new adventure unfolded.
I give Jared credit. He did his research. He scoured YouTube for the best hammock set ups, things to think about, quality reviews, etc. He landed on a company called Sierra Madre Research. Not only are they great quality, but they also help provide clean water to communities that don't have access. Their story is actually one to check out and it is definitely worth your time.
So after watching all the youtube links that Jared sent me I finally got a sense for what he was wanting to do. And I was game. Skeptical...but game.
We then invested in a second hammock (the Pares from Sierra Madre), even bigger than the one from ENO that works with Sierra Madre Research's design. It's big enough for both of us if we only wanted to take one hammock and not bunk (good idea for cold weather, but not for hot). It came in a great package and I immediately went and set it up out on the porch. It was certainly super comfy. But it's one thing to set it up on your porch and a completely different thing to camp with it.
Loving how it folds up so small!
Testing it out on the porch! This thing is huge!
But we are people of planning (haha) and since we already had a camping trip down to Brenham planned, we just figured we would test out our set up as well. Jared learned what knots we needed to tie (I'm still working on that). And let me tell ya, it worked great!
I found it very comfortable. I made a couple of bug nets to go around the hammocks thanks to an instructable I found and Jared used a tarp to keep rain off us. We experienced two good solid Texas storms while out there but we were nice and dry. Duchess finally learned that under the tarp was better than outside the tarp. I was super comfortable. Jared read that when you sleep in a hammock, your back gets cold because of the thin hammock fabric. So before we left, he had me run to Home Depot while he was on a trip and buy Refectix, an insulator that they sometimes use in attics. It reflects 95% of your body heat back to you and we could definitely tell a difference when we slept on it in the hammock vs. not. I put my sleeping bag on top of that with our small camping pillow and I slept great, despite the storms going on.
Jared with our set up (tarp off at this point)
Speaking of which, that was another place we saw the hammock system really excel. Even though they weren't being good neighbors, we helped out the boy scout troop that pulled in next to us the second night we were out there. The morning after the biggest storm, they were talking about how their tents got flooded. The way the campsites were configured, we would have gotten flooded too because of where all the water was flowing. In a hammock, we didn't have to worry about that as we were off the ground and had made a homemade gear back to keep our stuff off the ground too.
So all in all, I'm sold. We are investing in a legit hammock tent set up called the Nube from Sierra Madre. The 2.0 version comes out June 2016. We plan on taking this set up with us when we go to the Smokies this year and even to Yosemite if the terrain is favorable. And, we figured if we have it, we might as well use it at Disney World since we are staying at the campgrounds for our trip!
Until then, you will find us on our back porch, in the hammock together. Saturday afternoon we had a wonderful nap in the hammock while a small cold front came in and a gentle rain was coming down. So peaceful. These are the moment's I'll remember.
In case you want to watch our trip and not read...here is the Go Pro footage from the weekend! While these videos were primarily used for scrapbooking purposes, if you would like to see the places we got to go, you can check out the youtube playlist for this trip below!
So as explained last week, Jared and I went on a camping trip to Brenham where we also attended a Geocaching Mega Event. This was our first ever event of this type and we were very excited!
First of, we ended up camping at Nails Creek State Park. It's not my favorite State Park ever, but it does has a very long trail that goes all the way around the west side of the lake. It's almost 30 miles long if I can remember. Jared and I walked four miles of it the last time we were here. It was pretty, but nothing too memorable.
What was interesting is that they had many of the camping spots closed down because of flooding. So all the available spots were equestrian locations. We picked one in the back corner where there was a little bit of privacy. Good thing too. While we were alone on Thursday night, Friday and Saturday we had almost a whole suburb of people join us. They were blasting music and talking really loud. I honestly don't understand why people do that. It's so inconsiderate and personally against everything I believe camping is about.
Anyhow.
The Geocaching event taking place was hosted by the Texas Geocaching Association. It is an Amazing Race style competition where they hide around 100 geocaches in the area. There are regional teams (think North Texas, Central Texas, East Texas, etc) and those team race to see how many geocaches they can find over the course of three or four hours. There's special points awarded for teams that find geocaches first and things like that. It was a very cool concept.
Geocachers celebrate milestones with coins. Here's our coin from the event!
While we understand that Jared and I are abnormalities for work schedules, we were a little surprised at the demographics of the group. There were hardly any 20-somethings there and mostly older, retirees at the festival. Also, there seemed to be a ton of people that were more interested in drinking than doing geocaching. So much for making new friends that we would want to hang out with.
First event of the weekend.
One thing that was very awesome though is that Brenham and Washington County have a geotour, where they have a list of geocaches at interesting or historical places that you should visit. Theirs included the place where the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed, the cute little town of Chappell Hill, the original location of Baylor University up in Independence and the church where Sam Houston was baptized. We also got to see the location of Sam Houston's house. While it put several miles on the Jeep, the tour itself was incredible. The weather was impeccable and we loved driving through the country side with all the bluebonnets starting to bloom. We got a really cool geocoin for completing the tour (you get clues in each geocache that you then have to write on a "passport") and we loved seeing all the cool historical spots and shops in town.
Bluebonnets in bloom at Washington on the Brazos
On the porch of a store in Chappell Hill where we had to
walk up and down Main Street to solve a lab cache.
Antique carrousel in Brenham
Location where they signed the Texas Declaration of Independence
Example of a clue in the geocache!
Up in Independence at the site of Sam Houston's house (it's actually across the street from us)
Speaking of cool shops in town, we of course had to stop at Blue Bell while we were there. There was a cool pottery place as well and of course, the airport!
Blue Bell!
Our crew grabbing a cache at a winery!
The other thing that was very cool at the event was the introduction of Lab Caches. These are geocaches that are only available for a certain amount of time (in this case, the weekend of the event) and were field puzzles you had to complete. They ended up coinciding with many of the geotour spots so we were able to complete them in a reasonable amount of time. However, it was sad to see that on the leaderboard, there was a ton of cheating. Someone completed the puzzle in 0h0m. Hmmmmmm.....
Our congrats message for completing the lab caches!
However disappointing our fellow humans can be sometimes, we loved the lab caches and the tour. These were actually the highlights for us as the event seemed a little disorganized with a lack of information and communication to those wanting to come see what it was all about.
Next on the blog, I really want to share our new obsession, hammocks! So look for that in the next week or so!
