I Caught a Little Piece of the Sunshine

Well my friends, I just got back from California! Emily and I had the greatest time spending almost a week there, so yes, you can all be a little jealous. ;)

First stop? Anaheim! It was absolutely perfect! The weather was beautiful, and the sun was shining. We spent Friday and Saturday in Disneyland and California Adventure. Don't worry, we dominated Disneyland, and even did our favorite rides twice! We got to ride Star Tours before it opens officially too. We got to sit in the front seat for the Indian Jones ride (SO COOL!). We met Ariel, Belle, Tiana, Mickey, and Pluto as well and saw many other characters! Lines weren't even bad. We saw World of Color (favorite!!), the firework show at Disney, and Fantasmic! We did so much there and had a blast. I think I have an addiction to the happiest place on Earth, where dreams come true...

Disneyland!!

We met some of the princesses. Tiana was super cool!

World of Colors. My favorite.

We, of course, had to meet Mickey!

Fireworks and magic. It doesn't get better than that.

Then, we took a day to drive up to San Francisco. We stopped at Santa Monica Beach, because no on passes up an opportunity to go to an ocean. We drove Sunset Blvd and got to see how the lucky people of the world live. We saw the Hollywood Sign (for 2 seconds, but it still counts), and saw the movie premiere of Kung Fu Panda 2! We drove past millions of orange/lemon/cherry trees and finally made it to the hostel we were staying at in SF. Yes, a hostel. It was pretty much like the college dorms on campus, but a lot of the people spoke a different language.

At the beach in Santa Monica. There was an awesome pier here!

Day one in SF was awesome. We went to Chinatown and walked around and saw all the neat buildings. We ate Dim Sum for lunch and it was delish. We went to the Fortune Cookie Factory. Awesome. We then started walking to Fisherman's Wharf and stumbled upon a cute bookstore, City Lights, and explored it's 3 amazing floors. Little did we know that it was famous... At Fisherman's Wharf we walked around Pier 39, and watched the sea lions for quite a while. They were hilarious. It was super cold and windy on the piers too. We saw Alcatraz and had a very cool view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Then we walked the pier some more and ended up at Ghirardelli Square. MMM. It was great. We then walked back up Hyde Street to the hostel to take a quick nap and did some shopping at H&M. New favorite store? YES. We got free pizza at the hostel and watched a movie with some of the other hostel-stayers. It was neat.

With the TransAmerica Tower. It was cool.

We stopped at a small bay to see the bridge after Ghirardelli  Square. It was super cold. haha

Day two was also great. We took the bus to Golden Gate Park (the neighborhoods and buildings in SF are AMAZING) and went to the Academy of Sciences. I loved that place so much. We saw an albino alligator and penguins and butterflies and snakes and lizzards and birds and so much more. It was way fun. We walked around the park some more (which is larger than Central Park) and went to the Botanical Gardens. They are so beautiful and separated into sections by country. The flowers and trees were so cool there. We then headed back and ate at a cute diner next to the hostel.

In the rainforest at the Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park

The Botanical Gardens. I love this flower oh so much.

Day three, we left for Utah. But first, we found Lombard Street (the crookedest street) and drove down it. Bam. We had walked past it on our first day in SF without even noticing it, so we had to see it before we left. We then drove back to Utah, going through Donner's Pass (the most beautiful place ever) and also driving through the Salt Flats, which I thought was neat.

All in all, it was a fantastic trip and I LOVED spending time going on adventures with Emily. I would also like to admit that I have the travel bug...