Disclaimer: I know I’m a photographer and I take great pride in my amazing DSLR and SLR cameras. However, every now and then, I revert to the good ol’ fashioned iPhone. These photos were all taken with my hand held mobile device so don’t judge J. And may I just add, since my camera is usually glued to me in all outings, having nothing to worry about except a husband, phone and finding Arial for the day was very freeing!
Three weeks ago Justin had no idea what we were doing for his 35th Birthday.
We had given ourselves a budget of $1000 and decided, not a penny more. My first instinct was to just have a San Antonio weekend and go back to visit friends and our old stomping ground. Then for whatever reason an old friend texted me the lyrics to Under the Sea. (Honestly I have no idea why and there probably wasn’t a reason except that, The Little Mermaid was the most watched movie by girls born in the 80s!) I began to think about the times Justin and I have been out to Cali to see family and we always run out of time to make it up to Disneyland. Then I began thinking of all the many happy memories I have from that place with my family.
See, my mom is from LA and her side of the family was born and raised there. Most still live there except my mom. It’s like a second home and I can recall many summers spent with my grandparents and siblings at the beach. In fact you get us talking about Disneyland and we may have more of the exact same memories than we do of times in Texas!
I figured, we don’t have kids, no strollers, Southwest Airlines points and a free place to stay. Why not? I began research to make sure we could do this all under $1000.00. With the help of our very dear friends and their extra car, we did! The surprise birthday trip was becoming a reality. My one mistake, about a week before the trip Justin was pulling something up on the iPad (where I had just booked our Disneyland Hotel and forgot to close the window) he came into the office and said, “Sorry babe, but I think I know where were going.” Man…oh well, it was getting awful hard to contain my excitement and keep the secret.
We spent the first half of the trip at Grandma June’s new old house. She had a fire that burned her house down over the summer and has been going through a long, tedious and stressful rebuilding process. She had been back in her home for 3 days when we got there. It’s perfect. She did an amazing job picking our paint, cabinets, counter tops, light fixtures and so much more! I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like or do to us if we lost everything the way she did. We made our way to Ikea and picked out the new kitchen table and chairs. Then Justin and I spent the evening building everything. Grandma was so amazed at that store. For someone that saw the Great Depression, WWII and more I could imagine the concept of Ikea is pretty unique. We also couldn’t leave Cali with out a fish taco. And where better to get one of the best fist tacos in the universe but El Zarape in University Heights SD!
We also got to spend some MUCH needed time with close friends, Erin and Ryan. Erin and I lived together after collage and were in each other’s weddings. As I’m getting older (because yes, that’s what I’m doing, not getting younger that’s fosho) I see the true value in good friends and these two are true friends! Ryan serves our country in the Marines and is stationed up in Camp Pendleton. He’s been deployed twice and they have both been an incredible example of a strong, faithful and patient couple. They are expecting their first baby this year!!!!!!
We started our way to Disney at 4:30 AM, which to us was really around 6:30 AM because of the time difference. Since we were staying one night at the Disneyland Hotel we got a few perks. One of which was an early entry pass to the park. We got in an hour before it officially opened! I had the whole day marked out to every last second. Don’t worry because from exactly 10:10 – 10: 20 I had planned in fun!
The first thing we did was, The Peter Pan ride. I could never get enough of that pirate ship sailing over Neverland! Next, we knocked out everything in Tomorrow Land. Justin’s favorite was the Star Wars ride, but of course! I had made online reservations at the Blue Bayou a few weeks before and thank goodness! It was completely booked until a few days after we’d be back in Texas! In honor of my sister I had about 13 Mint Juleps and enjoyed every sip (as kids that used to be one of our favorite things about the park…the beverage!) I think this trip turned into more of a trip down memory lane for me rather than a Birthday trip for Justin. Hehe
The Happiest place on Earth sure took it out of us! We were exhausted and crashed that night only to wake up to one of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve seen in ages. Could have been the layer of smog covering LA but hey… gorgeous nonetheless. We ate in the Oceanside Harbor at the Beach Break Café, phenomenal if you ever get the chance to pop in, walked on the beach and then headed back to Grandmas.
We finished up the trip with Super bowl Sunday. We started watching with family and then Erin and Ryan after halftime. What a blessing it is to be able to travel like this. I know it won’t always be the case to pick up and go whenever and wherever but for now we can and our final bill came out to be $923.63. That’s right, under budget!!!!
I may be a smidgin bias but is this not the cutest grandma you ever did see? I hope one day I’m as wise, kind, loving, brave and cute as my Grandma June!
