To the Disneyland Hotel…and Beyond!!

Let’s go back in time, shall we?

Early on Friday, August 31, 2012, we made our way to the airport for an early morning flight to Orange County.  Since we were running the Cars Land 5K Rally on Saturday, we had to arrive on Friday for packet pick up!  The airport adventures and flight were uneventful.  While we waited a really long time for our luggage at the Orange County airport, I noticed the artwork above us!

I thought it was awesome the details on the wings were flight paths!  Neat-o!  D wasn’t as impressed as I was.

Because it took a super long time for our luggage to arrive, we missed the Disneyland Express shuttle by 4 minutes so had to wait a whole hour for the next bus.  The wait wasn’t too horrible, gave me time to charge my camera battery!

After a short shuttle bus ride (maybe less than 40 minutes), we arrived at our destination, the Disneyland Hotel!!

Upon arrival, we were able to check in, which meant we could drop off the heavy, heavy bags in our room!!!  Okay, only the bag for D and I was heavy – weighed in at 45 pounds at the airport – I blame the running gear!

It’s all in the details!

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We were in the Adventureland Tower, 2nd floor, overlooking the pool.  It was an awesome location.  It was nice to sit in the chair by the window and just watch the world walk by, swim away, and be surrounded by so much greenery!

Normally we don’t splurge for such expensive hotels.  But when I do destination races, I try to make things as easy on K as possible when it comes to getting to/from the finish line area.  The easier it is on him, the easier it is on me.  So that is the only way I justify the splurge of the Disneyland Hotel.  During other visits to Disneyland, we stay off property with no issues.

Justification story over.

It was nearly 11 am so we made our way to the Expo because I have a one-track mind!  The sun was beating down on us and when 11 am came and went and the line to the Expo kept growing behind us (only about 20 people in front of us), I looked up on my phone what time the Expo “actually” opened.  12 pm!  Say What?!  We decided to ditch the line and get some lunch – we were starving.

I had read that Downtown Disney was getting an Earl of Sandwich and it was supposed to open in June.  Dirty liars.  It was still under construction.  We were tired, hot, and hungry so we settled on the next closest thing, ESPN Zone.  *Insert deep, hilarious laughter here!!*  If you know me and K, you know we are not sports people.  So we must have been really desperate to settle on ESPN Zone!  Ha!

The place was pretty empty!  We learned something about D we already suspected but had completely confirmed for us that day!
She WILL watch anything!!  And yeah, those are two big glasses of beer for K and me.  It was yummy.  And the food wasn’t bad at all. We were happy travelers!   Lesson learned, don’t judge a restaurant on its “theme”.  Big mugs of beer can win over the biggest of skeptics!