The One Where We Hit Up Disneyland for a Study Break

Smack in the middle of finals week.

Me. My roommate, who lives forty minutes away from the Happiest Place on Earth. Our lovely RA who is obsessed with all things Disney. 15 hours on the road (there and back). $125 each spent on tickets + more money on food and gas. 1 full day at Disneylandiaaa. So, so, so perfect.

We wore our matching dorm tanks, it's whatever. Annika, especially, was so excited to be there... She was literally jumping for joy and sprinting everywhere. It's not everyday you see your RA behaving like a four-year-old girl, but I loved it!

First-timers and excited to show it!

We were able to go on most of the rides - including Thunder Mountain [so much fun!] - except the lines for Tower of Terror, California Screamin', and Splash Mountain were all too long. Oh well, all the more reason to go again!

I'm usually one of those wimps who never goes on any rides and just prefers to sit on a bench waiting for my pals to come out and join me. I have a merry ol' time people-watching and eating turkey legs while I'm at it, but this time, I went out on a whim and actually went on all the rides that everyone else went on and it was so fun! On the left is Pirates of the Caribbean and on the right is Space Mountain (MY FAVORITE!). However, for most of the rides, I made Cassandra tell me what was going to happen in detail before I actually got on so that I wouldn't suffer a heart attack and scare little children.

Let's not talk about the Haunted Mansion ride. I nearly had a seizure and a half. Even the little toddlers on the ride thought it was the least scary ride ever, but I was just terrified out of my mind. #IHaveIssues.

Space Mountain! (Ignore the creepy, glow-in-the-dark smile... It's kinda weird.) Oh and those guys sitting in front of us are our new friends! While standing in the 60 minute line, we randomly found out that they are really good friends with one Annika's friends. Such a small world!

We went just a little bit cotton candy crazy. But we really needed something to do while in line for Space Mountain! Afterwards, all three of us were on a bit of a sugar high.

Obligatory castle picture.

The teacups! Most classic ride ever!

We were running a little bit late and went over to California Adventures for food. I got a Monterey clam chowder in a bread bowl from Pacific Wharf Cafe and a Mickey cookie because we are in Disney and that's what you do! The bread bowl was really satisfying... I'm not a big fan of sourdough generally, but the soup was hearty and hot and creamy and perfect and the cookie was soft and sweet!

Hey, dere.

Such a classic view of Disneyland! We weren't able to go up on the Ferris wheel, but I will one day! I've never been on a Ferris wheel - bucket list item!

 

One of my favorite parts was actually pretty lowkey - we went to the Beast's library to figure out what Disney characters we were. I am Nala from Lion King! Also, there was a Once Upon a Time (the ABC show) display up at that building and not even kidding, Cassandra completely flipped out. I think she went back there four times in one hour just to look at the costumes in the glass displays. 

Really cool mural! (Please forgive our awkward wall-sit positions....)

 

There was a really funny story from the day involving Ghirardelli, me taking an obviously wrong ice cream cone, which conveniently belonged to a little boy, licking it by accident, giving it back, and then grabbing my own before hightailing it out of there. Typical.

And, finally, to cap off the day was one of my very favorite parts of the night - A World of Color! We nearly missed this, because our Soarin' ride broke down (seriously, of course that would happen to us of all people...), but we decided to go anyways and that was honestly the smartest decision ever. It was just one of the most moving things. If you are a Disney fan at all, it will bring you to tears/heart palpitations/unprecedented happiness levels. A lovely water/lights/fire/movie scenes show... It embodies everything that Disney is... Absolutely magical.