Southern California tends to be cloudy all through May and June. It's called the "JuneGloom" 
Day 1: May 5 - From OC to OC!
It was Disneyland departure day! DH and I woke up at 2:30am Eastern in order to finish packing, load up the car, set up instructions for our cat- and bird-sitter (we had dropped off our Lab at a country kennel the night before), and be on our way to Orlando by 3:30 for the 90-minute drive. Our flight was at 7:20, but we were dropping off our Jeep at an offsite parking lot and wanted to have plenty of cushion since MCO is a huge hub. Jeep dropoff went well and the shuttle from the parking lot dropped us off at MCO, where we headed through security and it was a good thing we'd arrived so early because it was packed, even that early in the morning. We made it through security and stopped to pick up some breakfast since we had a 45-minute layover in ATL (not enough time to grab something to eat) and walked to our gate. No cool trip report photos of MCO; we didn't even have time to sit down and relax a little before getting on our plane.
Soon we boarded, and got settled in for the hourlong flight to ATL. I learned a few years ago that long flights are better for me if I wear compression socks, so for this trip, I made a special purchase of ProCompression socks nicknamed "The Gibblers." Funny side story here, Andrea Barber (Kimmy Gibbler on Full House and Fuller House) and her family visited my tiny hometown (population: 2,000) in the Midwest when I was in middle school. I'm a little older than she is and my sister is her age. My sister actually met her at our public pool and they became friends, my sister was sent Andrea's newsletter The Gibbler Gazette and Andrea always included a cute little note for my sister. She seems a very sweet person, and still remembers my sister (they are actual Facebook friends, not via a Page), so I wanted to get her compression socks, which my sister heartily approved.Also they are really cute and did the trick for our long flight to California.
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The Gibblers in action!
In ATL, we didn't have very far to go to catch our flight out to Orange County/John Wayne Airport (since we were flying MCO to SNA, we were going from OC to OC!), and soon we were on our way west. The flight was 4 and a half hours, but we busied ourselves with the newfangled technology on board, slept, and I also read. Upon arrival, we picked up DH's checked bag (I usually try to pack light and just take a carry-on and bag) and found our Super Shuttle. The trip to our hotel was really quick and we arrived at the Hilton Anaheim shortly after noon Pacific time. Check-in wasn't until 4pm but I took a chance to see if by some stroke of luck our room was ready. No dice, so we stowed our luggage with Guest Services, and walked to the race expo to kill some time.
The race expo was held in the Grand Ballroom of the Disneyland Hotel, but bib pick-up was in the underground parking garage. Big change from Florida Disney race expos, which are held at ESPN Wide World of Sports in two buildings! So we walked down the green carpeted ramp to bib pick-up.
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Walking to the expo, I spotted this gorgeous tree. These seem to be all over Anaheim and are just striking. If any west coast readers know what type of tree this is, I'd be interested! It looks like some sort of legume, but I'm not up to speed on west coast foliage.
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The green carpeted ramp to bib pick-up in the underground parking garage.
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The walls down the ramp were decorated with Tinker Bell and her friends, including my half marathon costume inspiration, Fawn!
Bib pick-up went smoothly as usual (thank you, volunteers!) and I also had to have my photo taken since I was participating in the Pixie Dust Challenge, which includes the 10K on Saturday and then the half marathon on Sunday. They photograph participants in order to get a positive ID after completion of the half; apparently there has been a problem with cheating in the past such as different people running each race under the same bib. It's sad that it's come to that, I certainly wouldn't want a medal I hadn't earned, but apparently some people don't care. More on that later. Receiving this bib was actually pretty exciting because I'd been seeded in Corral B (!!!) for the 10K and Corral C for the half marathon. I'll never have that sort of seeding at WDW, so I was pretty stoked about that. Of course, Disneyland races have far fewer corrals, but it was still pretty cool.
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Corrals B and C!
After bib pick-up, we walked over to the Dooney & Bourke booth to look at the race weekend exclusive bags. I really liked the pattern because for me, it evoked Mary Blair's work (the artist who did the concept art for Peter Pan, Cinderella, and Alice in Wonderland, Small World, and also the giant mosaic in the Contemporary resort in Florida), but I wasn't sold on the purses. After Star Wars Half Marathon Weekend in 2015, we'd seen the race weekend Dooneys in stores afterwards, so I told myself that if they were still available at the end of the trip, I'd get one. We had 4 more full days ahead of us and plenty of opportunity to spend money!
Then it was up to the hotel ballroom to do some shopping and pick up the race shirts. I'd pre-ordered a couple Raw Threads tanks (I'm in the Club and we'd been given a discount in April and with expo pick-up, I didn't have to pay shipping or pack them) so I needed to pick those up, I wanted to buy a Sparkle Athletic visor for my half marathon costume (I already have so many of those visors, but needed one to go with an orange costume), and of course I wanted to check out the official runDisney race merchandise, and we also needed to pick up our DL tickets from the travel agent. Luckily, DH is a patient man. Also I'd warned him beforehand.
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Green carpet entrance to the expo in the Disneyland Hotel's Grand Ballroom.
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Another Fawn!
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This is the only photo I took of the expo, but that chandelier is huge!
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Race weekend shirts included with registration. Since I was running the Pixie Dust Challenge, I got 3 shirts: PDC, 10K, and half marathon. Tink is not one of my favorite characters, but for some reason, I really like her race weekend logo font. We also got a drawstring backpack.
The race merchandise preview had been posted on the Parks Blog earlier and I wasn't really struck by the design this year - I really loved the retro/classic look of last year's and so it was a teensy bit of a disappointment. BUT! That just made it easier to get in and out of the booth. There was actually a line to get in, this was around 1pm on Thursday, the first expo day. Typically, some race merchandise flies (no pun intended) off the shelf and this held true for Tink Weekend. By the time I'd arrived, the wine glasses had sold out. One less thing to buy! I ended up spending far less than I'd intended, so yay? I've been collecting race medal pins this year, and I've always gotten race weekend car magnets (except during Star Wars Dark Side, which apparently sold out in the first hour or so of that expo) and was able to get both at Tink. I moseyed on over to the I Did It! shirts and since I'm a sucker for race course maps (on the back of the shirt), I ended up buying the Pixie Dust Challenge shirt.
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Then after torturing DH with commerce, we walked over to Trader Sam's to get a cocktail. As WDW AP holders, we'd been to the Florida version 3 or 4 times since it'd opened last May, but we had never been to the original in the Disneyland Hotel.
Next Up: Uh-Oa, Batten Down the Hatches!
Thank you! Yes, it was all good stuff! Tink definitely exceeded my expectations.
Ah, that makes sense! Kind of like coming to FL in the summertime and experiencing the subtropical afternoon thunderstorms. I'm coming back in January for Star Wars, so I'm looking forward to that. And thanks for the congrats!I loved reading your report. Congratulations on finishing the races---that's awesome! Loved your comparisons of DL and WDW. I grew up in Southern California, so DL will always have a special place in my heart, but YEAH POTC and IASW are SO MUCH BETTER ar DL and being able to just walk up to a restaurant and BLUE BAYOU!!!
Good to know about Cafe du Monde, but very sad, too.Love me some beignets too, and FWIW, Cafe du Monde's are not so great, post Katrina.
I don't know if you are still wondering, but those trees are jacaranda trees. Beautiful, aren't they?
And THANK YOU about the jacaranda trees! It turns out that we have quite a few of them here in FL, too, I've started noticing them, but I think they're far more striking in Cali because they're planted in greater amounts. They are gorgeous, not unlike our poinciana trees, which have red or yellow flowers.
(With apologies to snails.) 
+ It's always the worst part of any training regimen. (So of course I admire you all the more for it.) Because to do it more or less voluntarily--without a coach or trainer threatening me---is practically unthinkable. I had a coach that attempted to shame my running style. He said, "YOU RUN LIKE YOU HAVE A BARREL ON YOUR BACK!" And I replied, "Well, YEAH! What's your point? You mean I DON'T have a barrel on my actual back? ??!!" This was news to me.
I HATE to run--seriously. I've always played sports, been athletic, but I hate running. This is me on the track:
More like
IMHO, it is totally worth it! But DH and I daytripped it to Epcot yesterday and I got that urge to be staying on property (mostly so we wouldn't have to drive homeDo you know that it's possible to spend 10 minutes getting a pebble out of your shoe during the running part of conditioning?
But I'm thinking it might be worth it to have an "excuse" to go to Disney more!
Naw.....
), and I said to him that one of these times we should really spend a weekend there that isn't race-related! I loved everything about Soarin' Over California: the ride and movie, the Jerry Goldsmith score, the smells. DH and I went to Epcot yesterday specifically because I'd scored Soarin' Around the World FPs, and I'll admit I was skeptical because I was stuck in that "this was my favorite ride, harrumph" mindset, but it was amazing!!
Me, too! Loved it this second trip. And it really does add to the overall ambiance of Paradise Pier...along with that wheel of death.
Nice! It's magnificent in the daytime, but at night is just breathtaking!
Thanks - it definitely grew on me, and I think photos don't really do it justice. And now that I'm home and it's hanging with all my other medals, it really isn't much bigger than the other rD medals. It's the same size as Star Wars DS Half, maybe it's because there is no cutout and it's a solid design that makes it look so honking big. And it is different from a lot of the other medals in design, so I like it for that reason, too.
It was, but stay tuned because we arrived home on Tuesday, went back to work the rest of the week, and then we daytripped it to WDW that Saturday! Coast to Coast within a week!
and 
and 
. I am from California, I grew up there, and I miss it (not the taxes , politics, or crowds, but the weather and sights and the OCEAN!! and the MOUNTAINS!!!) so I was pretty much in mourning over them dumping the show, so I'm so glad to hear you love it!
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No doubt! Even our little day trips end up helping quite a lot. And I totally get what you mean about going without it being a thing that whole weekend. We need to do it, the problem is that I was a little overzealous in signing up for races this year: I'm doing the W&D challenge in November, the WDW half in January, and then also signed up for the Rebel Challenge (I need that Kessel Run bling!!) also in January. I also just quit my job this past Friday, so it will be interesting to see what happens. I know I'm going to be way less stressed out and have more time to myself.
This is very good advice! We have been married for 19 years, but this is good advice for any length of marriage!My DH has said so many times to "Never stop dating your spouse" when he is asked to give advice to young marrieds. Sorry, I know this is a little
OK, so I LOVED Soarin' and was SO sad when they took it out of Epcot before Marathon Weekend this year, but being able to do it again one last time in Cali during Tink weekend was just wonderful. And the new one is fantastic! Different, but fantastic. Though I secretly wish that they'd bring back the California version for special occasions from time to time.I AM SO HAPPY TO HEAR YOU LOVED SOARIN!
Blonde moment. Yeah.
... so I guess these days are one of the big perks of living close enough to take occasional day trips)
You quit your job? Are you nervous and/or excited about the changes that will bring? I'm lucky in that I have a job I love so much I would do it even if I was a billionaire, but it can also be very, very high stress and has its share of frustrations which I could definitely do without! (Dang people! They ruin everything!)
I used to only do one rD event each year...until last year when I did 2 and got my C2C, then this year started with Dopey and I just couldn't stop for some reason. I love it, though. I ran a half marathon last month in my homestate and it was just awful, terrible. It made me realize how well rD races are run by comparison and even local races here in Florida. Perspective!
Yep! Food booths set up just like Food & Wine Fest, though not as many. They've been slowly rolling them out and increasing the booths over the (I'd say) last 3 or 4 years and it's wonderful.
Ha! And you are very welcome, thanks for reading!When I first read your post about the Aquavit, I thought you wrote "Norway CONSTRUCTION Day" lol---well, it is under construction over there...maybe they made a whole holiday out of it...
Thanks for posting this TR!
Thank you! Too funny that Tink chased your son around, maybe she thought he was Peter Pan!I love the bonus! That was really smart to wait to take your medal pic with Tink! I enjoyed meeting her in February- though my 7 year old did not. He was trying to hide from her, and Tink literally chased him around the area. It was pretty funny, and made me like the character a bit more
Oh and the food looks so yummy! Lunch time for me!
It's definitely more likely during the weekend - that's usually when we daytrip it there or stay for a weekend during F&W. I'm glad you didn't witness it; sometimes I get embarrassed for people on their behalf. And don't get me wrong, we imbibe and have fun. But we pace ourselves throughout the day, drink lots of water, too, and also sample the food.
Absolutely a perk! I get people asking me for Disney tips all the time, and I always have to ask them to give me more specific questions because our objectives are different than the average person going to Disney. We love the freedom to just go to the parks on a random Saturday. Which I wish we could've done this weekend, but waiting until this new job actually pays!Sounds like you had a good time at Epcot! I love those moments when the park is relatively empty and you can just wander around without other people getting in your way ... it's such a nice change of pace. (Unfortunately, I rarely get the chance to do that because I usually have such limited time in Florida
Thank you! The festivals at Epcot are among my favorite times of year!
Awesome! I've followed you back, too.
Sounds like you have a nice pink C2C planned - have an absolute blast!!
