4 Years of Fun

Four years ago today Casey and I were partying like this:And acting idiotic like this:Four years ago yesterday, we had done this:And had a yummy luncheon with our best friends and family at Dukes, Malibu (it's fun to celebrate for two days!):
And yesterday we were doing this (acting overly excited about riding the Matterhorn):
Yep, we celebrated our Four Year Anniversary on Oct 22nd. And my gracious mother-in-law watched our kids for two days while we had an in-town get away. It was great!
We started with something very out-of-the-norm for us both: massages at Burke Williams. Since it was our first massage experience, we opted for a short 25 minute session. But when those minutes were up, we both could have gone for another round! Next time.
We also enjoyed their fabulous facilities (jacuzzi, sauna, steam bath, etc). I'm pretty sure I shouldn't have been taking pictures in there but since there were no nakeds walking around I snapped a few. Their ambiance is very dark and relaxing. Personally, I'd love a spa that's white and airy feeling. But this was great too. The huge jacuzzi is up there to the left. It was nice and hot and there were iced washcloths for cooling your face:
The fresh cucumbers were scrumptious. Not sure if they were for eating or for beauty, but I chomped on a handful!We probably would have stayed longer if we'd been able to hang out in the same jacuzzi together. It was a little boring chilling in different locker rooms. But we loved the experience overall:
From there, we ventured down through LA:
The lovely BH City Hall Building where we got our marriage license 4 years ago (an annoying experience but pretty building):
Cool homeless man who enjoyed the photo op:
We stopped at the Miracle Mile for lunch at our favorite pizza place, Rocco's and parked right next to Casey's old job at Millward Brown. That's his old building in the background:Bored while waiting for our food, Casey decided to take pictures of our eyes:I'm glad mine looks a little more feminine. It's strange to look at your face so up-close:
Cheesy calzones. Yummmmmm:
From there we headed down to Orange County for the rest of our stay at...Disneyland! I could not believe how amazing the traffic was on the 5 freeway and just had to take a picture. Can you believe this emptiness?
We stayed at the Grand Californian Hotel, which is inside California Adventure:
The hotel is beautiful with very dark wood, and cool craftsmanship:
The lobby was quite pleasant with a piano man playing tunes:
The hotel was great and it was nice to be right there in the theme park....but we have to be honest, it felt a little like Summer Camp. It was mostly how the staff acted. Check-in was at 3pm. We got there at 2:45 and they wouldn't let us to our room because it "wasn't time yet". Oh brother. But then they told us we couldn't check in till 4pm because rooms just weren't ready yet (at least the bell man held our bags for us).
The next day we tried to get a late check out. They smiled and simply said "no" (with that, "We're Disney and we rule the world" twinkle in their eye). Of course, a housekeeper showed up at 9am to clean our room. Hmmm.....it takes 6 hours to get our room ready for the next guest (who will prob have to check in late at 4pm)? We were just annoyed by them. They weren't very accommodating, that's all. Disney is good at many things and just so-so at other things (food). But we still had fun just the same! And the park was GREAT; fairly empty on a Tuesday/Wednesday. We waited only 15-20 minutes for most rides. We played for about 3 hours in the park riding the favorites: Space Mountain, Matterhorn, and a really cool thing on Mainstreet - 50 Years of Magic. My sister recommended it and I do too! Steve Martin hosts at short 17 min film showing how Disneyland started, with real footage from the past. In the lobby, while you wait, are cool souvenirs from the past and a model of what the park looked like in 1955 when it opened. Very interesting.
After playing on park rides, we cleaned up at the hotel and headed further south in OC for a night-time adventure: We ate yummy sushi at a place in Irvine:And then went to an indie Theater to see the film Man on Wire, about a french man who was obsessed with tight-rope walking:
When the Twin Towers were built in the US in the 70s, he knew he HAD to walk between them. He rigged a cable in the night and the next day, walked the rope for 45 minutes before being arrested. Cool documentary. Too bad it started at 9:45pm because I was falling asleep at the end! I'm too old for late movies. Bummer.

We got a full night sleep and slept-in till 9am! That's a vacation enough for me! We hung out at the lovely pool for a few hours in the morning:
I read, while Casey did homework:
And more homework (I promise, we had fun too): Then we headed back into the park for more adventure:We were super hungry though and made our first stop at Corn Dog Castle. Remember last time I posted about these corndogs but wouldn't post a picture because it was just too discusting looking? Well, you get one this time. The size isn't as obvious here, but they are HUGE:Next stop, the Tower of Terror. I love this ride every time. It's a great ride...but it's an even greater ride because of the anticipation you create yourself. This makes it even more scary and stressing. Great fun!
Casey says, "I was trying to look like a wax figure". Accomplished:
Waiting for the service elevator. Chatter, chatter, chatter go my teeth:We're having fun! (and how bout that group of guys in front of us?)Our favorite ride of the outing though may have been the new Toy Story Mania ride. Super fun! It's better than the Buzz Light Year ride at Disneyland though it's sort of similar, with interactive game playing. We were reluctant to wait in line, thinking it was a kiddie ride. But we stuck it out for the 40 minutes and we're so glad we did! We even went back for a second round. Our scores, Casey: 135,000, Dana: 123,000.
Of course we didn't get back in line again without stopping for some of this:
This is my new favorite treat in the whole park! You can get a variety of swirled flavors in your cone. But it's not what you think. The flavors are not ice cream, they're syrups that infuse the ice cream. YUMMMM. Chocolate was delish. But orange would have been great too. I recommend! (In the Pier area of Calif. Adventure).
We had a great time! We loved the Candy Corn decor:And we loved going at our own pace. Of course, being in a place with tons of kids made me miss mine just a bit. I'm glad they had fun with Grandma and Grandpa.

And I'm glad I married my best friend 4 years ago. Many more great years to come!