A couple weeks ago, the hubs & I met up with my bff, Rachael in sunny California. And I do mean sunny. We booked this trip, thinking that it would be a nice escape from the crazy high temps, here in Phoenix. Unfortunately, it happened to be during a major heat wave. No escape for us! The temperatures were well into the 90's, and over 100 at times. Despite the heat, we still had a really great time.
We flew into the Orange County airport Friday afternoon, picked up our trusty rental car, and headed to Long Beach where Rachael was waiting at the airport for us. After being reunited with my fabulous friend, we headed to get something to eat at Panera Bread. Ahhh... how I've missed Panera! We have Paradise Bakery, (which is a sister company) but it's not quite the same. But I digress.
After a bite to eat at the much loved & delicious Panera, we checked into our hotel. We chilled for a little bit, and then got freshened up to head out to that evenings festivities. We were driving up to Glendale, to meet up with one of Sam's long time friends for dinner & drinks. We met at her amazing home, then to
dinner, followed by a stroll around the Americana mall. We stopped at
Beard Papa's and had the most amazing cream puff dessert. So delicious! After a little more walking around, and some posing for photos, we headed back to Alli's house. Enjoyed some cocktails, laughs & catching up. All in all, it was a great night, with great friends.
Saturday morning, we got up had some breakfast at the hotel, and then got on the road to head up to Santa Monica for the day. The traffic was extra crazy for some reason, so what should have taken us about 30 minutes, took us twice as long. We got there, walked around the shopping area for a bit. Did a little shopping ourselves, and met up with Rachael's friend, Sarah, and her boyfriend. We all headed down to the pier. It was super hot (even at the beach) and we decided to take refuge in a Mexican restaurant, and have some margaritas. After imbibing in some delicious refreshments, we started our journey back to Anaheim to go to dinner. We were supposed to meet up with Will & Anna, but they ended up cancelling on us (at the last minute, but whatevs. Their loss, right?) The three of us enjoyed a nice, low key dinner before calling it a night.
Sunday was the big Disneyland day. We had SO much fun! We got to the park around 10am, and stayed until closing (at midnight). We ate at the Blue Bayou restaurant, which is inside the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It was a fun experience, and really good food. It was rather pricey, so we probably won't be doing that again for awhile. But I'm really glad that we did. It was ridiculously hot that day, but the lines weren't horribly long. Most were around 30-45 minute waits.
Monday, we were all beyond exhausted, and ready to go home. We dropped Rachael off at the Long Beach airport, then met up with Will for a quick lunch before heading back to John Wayne to return the rental car & check in for our own flight.
It was a really quick trip, but so much fun! I'm glad that Rachael was able to meet up with us. We're already talking about making another trip next year sometime!
Here's a slide show of a bunch of the photos from the trip: Enjoy!
