A Disney Birthday and a Weekend in San Diego (Photo Overload!)

Last Thursday, Brady and I drove out to Anaheim for a fun-filled weekend at Disney and San Diego. We got an early start so luckily we were able to avoid a lot of traffic. We checked into our hotel and headed off to Downtown Disney to check out the shops. Then we went to eat at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and walked around the shopping area next to the restaurant as Sherry made her way up from San Diego. Sherry arrived about 8:30 and after chatting for awhile, we went to bed early because we knew we had a very early day.

On Friday morning, we were scheduled for a Segway tour around California Adventure. We were supposed to be there at 7:15, but we were also told we should park in the parking garage, which was supposed to open at 6.

Long story short, I encountered a very unhelpful "cast member" and we headed over to Downtown Disney to park there. Sherry and I started heading to the main gate, which was a long walk away. Brady went back to the car to grab our confirmation and camera and literally ran to catch up with us. We were repeatedly told to simply wait outside and the tour people would come and get us. Brady double-checked on this and Security came out and told us the same thing. We let them know we were now 30 minutes late and fortunately they actually went inside and let the tour guides know. Otherwise we would have been waiting all day. Miraculously, we were still able to make the tour. We quickly relaxed and had a great time.

After training, which was much easier the second time around (we also did the Segway tour at Epcot), we stopped for a break (and a picture). One of our tour guides is in the background. He spoke 5 different languages, including Japanese.

While I used the bathroom for the first of about 16 times that day, Brady and Sherry apparently had time to go to London.

Before officially starting the tour.

At the end of the tour, we posed in front of Hollywood Blvd.

After moving the cars over to the garage, which had as long of a line as some of the "big thrill" rides at the actual park, we took the tram over to the park entrance and got my special birthday button and free admission ticket.

We treated ourselves to some coffee drinks on Main Street and then headed over to Adventureland. We started off with Pirates, grabbed a FastPass for Indiana Jones for Brady and Sherry and then took a Jungle Cruise.

We wandered around after discovering that the Indiana Jones ride had broken down and decided to grab some lunch so we took the train up to Toontown.

Sherry and I almost pried this weight out of the ground!

Brady was a good sport and joined us on It's a Small World, where fortunately we didn't get stuck in a boat backup like at Disneyworld on our honeymoon. One can only hear that song so many times before going mad.

It was a humid, warm day so when we saw these misters in Tomorrowland, Sherry and I eagerly stood underneath, waiting for some cool relief. We waited...and waited... (notice the hands on the hips)

When the mist finally came, we were slightly disappointed.

After piling into the Finding Nemo submarine. I do mean pile. It was really cramped in there and we all felt a wee bit claustrophobic.

The characters along the way helped to distract us.

Yes, the paparazzi follows us everywhere.

Because there were quite a few rides closed and since I wasn't allowed to go on any of the big rides, we decided to check out some of the Fantasyland rides. I vaguely remembered some of them from when I was little so it was interesting to ride on them again. First up was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, where Jason had some serious competition.

In our car. Sherry looks a little nervous about "going to Hell"

Later on, after Sherry headed back to San Diego, Brady and went on Pirates and Buzz Lightyear a LOT. Here we are on Pirates.

The crowds of people who swarmed in after California Adventure closed was ridiculous. While previously, the wait for Buzz was 5 minutes, the line at night wrapped around the building and then double-backed. When we finally found a spot to watch the fireworks, this was what was behind us, just a sea of people all the way down Main Street.
We also got to see the Fantasmic show...and fortunately, it involved sitting down. By the end of the day, our feet were absolutely in agony.
To avoid dealing with the swarm of people leaving the park, we decided to go on Pirates one more time. Our plan worked and the park was cleared out by the time we got off the ride. After this, we headed over to Buzz Lightyear and rode another 2-3 times since we could practically walk right on...and because we're pretty competitive ;)

The rides literally closed as soon as we took our last ride on Astro Blasters so we scooted over to Main Street to buy a few things we had picked out throughout the day. We went to Disney using our Disney rewards dollars so it covered the Segway tour for the three of us, Brady's admission, food and snacks throughout the whole day, as well as a mini shopping spree. We spent a grand total of $4.28 of our own cash that day. Not bad, eh? Two of our purchases were for Peanut...a baby Dumbo and a heffalump "lovey." We're not even doing an elephant theme, but I loved Dumbo growing up and this stuffed animal reminded me of the "Baby Mine" scene in the movie.
We had such a great time! Disney is definitely a fun place to spend your birthday. There were a lot of other people who shared my birthday and I must have been told "Happy Birthday" about 1000 times, by both cast members and other guests to the park. By the end of the night, I'd get random "Happy Birthdays" from kids in ride lines.

It was definitely a long day. We got up at 6 a.m. and didn't get back to the hotel until 1:30 a.m.!Brady was sweet enough to give me a foot rub before we crashed.

On Saturday, we drove down to San Diego, taking the scenic route along the Pacific Coast Highway, which was great. It was nice and cool along the coast and we got to take in some ocean views. We finally got to see Sherry and Jason's house and after getting the tour, we hung out and relaxed. We took Corona to the park and he got to show off his impressive frisbee catching skills. Then we chowed down on burgers and hot dogs before heading to the Padres game, which was a good thing because their "Sonoran Hot Dog" would have set us back $12.50 each. Yikes. Our field level seats were great. Jason's dad and his friends weren't able to go to the game so he offered us the 4 tickets. We had a lot of fun with the other people in our section psyching out the bullpen pitchers who were warming up with our Nintendo-like sound effects. We'll have to start this up at some D-backs games!

On Sunday morning, I wasn't feeling too great so Sherry and Jason headed off to church while Brady and I got ready for the day. We went out for sushi for lunch, which was delicious. I'm looking forward to getting to eat tuna rolls again, but the crunchy shrimp tempura rolls were definitely the favorite. It seems Sherry has her new favorite sushi place.

We started our drive back to Phoenix around 2 and all's I can say is that we were thrilled to see street names we actually recognized. It was a looong drive, but we're so happy we got to spend some time with some great friends.