Whirlwind Trip to SoCal

As I mentioned this morning, my friend Kelsey and I spent Veteran's Day weekend in Southern California because I was presenting a paper at a conference and she was kind enough to keep me company so I wouldn't have to drive there are back on my own. We decided to make the most of our time in SoCal so we hit up Hollywood on Saturday afternoon and spend Sunday at Disneyland.

Hollywood wasn't quite what we expected. It certainly isn't as glamorous as it looks on TV or in movies, but it was still fun! We decided to visit the wax museum and since it was a combo ticket, we went to the Guinness World Record Museum as well.

Captain Jack Sparrow greeted us as we entered and I so I snapped this photo for my sister and co-blogger, Ashton. She loves Johnny Depp!

I love Gwyneth Paltrow, so I just had to take a photo with her. It was amazing how life-like the wax statues were...not that I recognized that many of them, but I suppose that comes of growing up without watching many movies.

Ah, the entrance to Disneyland.

Kelsey insisted we go on the It's a Small World ride and though I was dreading it, it actually was really awesome! The song did not get stuck in my head because they change it for the holidays.

The decorations inside were amazing. This is as simple as they got.

Since I went on It's a Small World, Kelsey humored me and we rode the carousel together (I don't know what it is about them, but I ride carousels whenever I get the chance).

Here we are together in the lower left hand corner of the mirror.

The mast of the pirate ship we set sail on.

Mike Fink, King of the River's cabin. Davy Crockett was visiting! I had to snap this photo because I have way too many good memories of singing "Daaavy, Daaavy Crocket, King of the Wild Frontier" with my siblings.

Ah, the haunted mansion. It was awesome!

Before dinner, we watched the parade. The chimney sweeps were our favorite part. These guys were super talented!

We ended the evening with a trip on the Disneyland railroad followed by the holiday magic fireworks show.

Overall, we had a great time in SoCal, though we were both very glad to return to the land of tree-canopied cities and rarely-glimpsed skyscrapers.