Le Spring Break

So for Spring Break this year, I went to Southern California with three of my best guy friends-- Carlos, Conor, and Nate (Kate). We drove and left on Saturday morning on the 10th and got home at MIDNIGHT on the 17th. 

I don't know why Nate isn't in this picture...

No matter how much Carlos says he doesn't like Toby, I will NEVER believe him because he cuddled with him all the way to California. :) Oh, and I have to add. It wasn't my idea to bring Toby! It was Conor's! So all y'all that are judging me... Judge him :)

I painted this cooler to hold all our snacks. The whole thing is painted and it's super cute. 

So Saturday was all driving and sleeping and laughing and singing and all the good road trip stuff. "Remember how we're going to California?" We named Conor's car "da hoopty." Hoopty: Basically, a piece of crap car. Usually cheap and/or broken down. Can be any size, make or model, but must (or should) be embarrassing to drive. Conor's car is by no means a hoopty but LA brings out Conor's ghetto side and that needs no explanation...

We stayed Sunday and Monday night at Carlos' dads house, but we didn't get to see his dad because our schedule conflicted with his work one (don't worry, we saw him later). Monday we woke up at 6:30 to go to Disneyland. Needless to say the first stop was coffee. 

Sunday we went to Disneyland to pick up our tickets. Carlos used to work for Disney so he got two free tickets and his supervisor surprised him with an annual pass- fo freeee! We walked around Downtown Disney  then went to Newport Beach. 

We went to Vineyard Vines and I found a coat that I am IN LOVE with. It took my entire being not to buy it... We spent a few minutes on the beach and then went to the LAX In-n-Out burger. This location is cool because it's right next to a runway and you can watch planes land. Conor and Nate are both aviation majors and Carlos is hoping to be an Emirates flight attendant so this was really cool for them. :)

I think we went home after that.... The days all blend into each other, and I think that's the sign of a goooood vacation haha. 

The next day we went to Disneyland! I've been to Disneyland twice before this trip, but I really don't remember anything from those trips other than a few small things. One was when I was little and one was when I was in 6th grade. SO. Because Nate and I both don't remember out other trips there, we got "First Visit" buttons! 

And matching sunglasses. 

I don't remember Disneyland being all that amazing when I was there, but I was talking to my mom ans she said that I loved it. I trust her on that haha. 

Disney entrance :)

I've seriously never been so happy in my entire life. Disneyland is amazing and I'm already going through withdrawals. 

 

This is the best picture we took with Jessi bahahaah.

Believe it or not, Conor was nooooot happy on this ride.
Disneyland is seriously the happiest place on earth, and I finally understand why they call it that.
I need to thank Carlos for telling me all the Disney secrets and helping me finally see the light of the Disney world! We watched Fantasmic! which is a water/light/live acting show in Disneyland. It was amazing! It made Carlos and I cry. It was a total reflection of childhood and it seriously was great.

Mostly candid picture of the boys during Fantasmic!

I could go on and on and on about that but I won't haha.
We went to Disney's California Adventure on Tuesday.

The boys made me go on the ferris wheel and I wanted to CRY. I'm usually okay with ferris wheels but the seat we went on was a swinging one. I was so afraid! It made me nauseous for four hours. Seriously.
We also had the best twist ice cream cone I've ever had. nomnomnom.

The best part of California Adventure was meeting Sailor Mickey and Duffy! All of you know how much I love nautical things, so that combined with Disney is just great.
Duffy pointed out Conor's letters and did a little dance when he told him what they meant. We think he is Greek :) He gave me a kissy noise and it was the greatest thing ever! He was so cute.

View from the ferris wheel of death.

We realized half way through DCA that we should have split our park days up so they weren't back to back. We were all really grumpy but then we got ice cream and everything was great again.
So we hung out at DCA and rode a few rides because we were all really tired and just wanted World of Color to get here. Nate and I had never seen it before. It was even more amazing than Fantasmic! It was a light/colorful/water show was well, and it had scenes from all of the major Disney classics. Once again, cry cry cry. Beauuuuutiful.

We were so tired by the end of this that we booked it out of the park and went home. 

The next day we got to sleep in a little bit and hang out and went to UCLA. We spent Tuesday touring UCLA and visiting Delta Sigma Phi and Alpha Chi Omega there. The DSP house there is worse than the one here! Haha. But the AXO house is amazing! They have 100 something girls in their chapter. The girl who gave me the tour was saying that they don't have anywhere to store their chairs for recruitment. We don't even have recruitment chairs... It's interesting to see the differences between Greek life here and there.
The boys got to do special Ritual things, so that was really cool for them.
We went to a sushi place in Santa Monica for dinner, and spent a few minutes on the pier. After that we went to Vanessa's apartment and hung out, played just dance, and went to bed.

Thursday we took a trip to Thousand Oaks to see Conor's friend Dan. He goes to a small Lutheran  college there. We went to a sketchy chinese restaurant \/ \/ \/

and they didn't have sweet and sour chicken. :( It ended up being really good though and we sat outside for a while. Theeeeeen we went to Zuma Beach and it was empty! There were a couple other people there but other than that it was just us.

We then headed back to Mission Viejo
(Side note. I have been writing this blog since the day we got back... It's taking forever.)

The next day we were going to go see Carlos' dad but everything got all messed up and we ended up in Hollywood. We drove around there for a minute looking at sites, the Walk of Fame, and Cahuenga St (see video on the end). We went to Tommy's and got it for free because Carlos Grande loves us. :)

"I'm not a homeless man, I'm just a pile of blankets!" --Conor quotes.

Soooo much Tommy's.

Hollywood sign!

This was our last stop, and we headed home on Saturday. 

It took us 15 hours to get home because we stopped to see Carlos Grande (free Tommy's again!) and Conor's aunt. She made us lunch. :)
We pulled up to DeltaSig at midnight, and we'd left at 7:30 that morning. On the car ride, I discovered that Conor is terrible at taking car naps, while I can sleep anywhere. Here are a few of his attempts...

The view from Con's aunt's house. Middle of nowhere St. George.

All in all this trip was amazing. I learned more about Disney than I ever thought I would know. I visited places on my bucket list, and got to spend a week with the 3 brothers I never had. I definitely owe it to these boys for making this trip amazing, and my mom for financing it. :)

It was literally a magical trip, and I'm not just saying that because I fell in love with Disneyland.

Okay well maybe.

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." --Walt Disney