Birthday Trip!

 For my birthday this year Rob and I decided to take a little vacation. We've both been working like crazy and it was a much needed break. We both took off Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from work but didn't have a real plan of what we would do.

Wednesday 

After sleeping in we realized it was time to decide what we were going to do for our days off. We thought about going to California but hadn't made any plans so we didn't know if it would be too late. We also considered going to stay up in Salt Lake to do different things each day (Lagoon, Park City, etc.). And our last option we considered was going down to Zion National Park/Saint George. 

Rob decided he really wanted to go hike Angels Landing so we booked a hotel in Hurricane and drove down that night. We got to the hotel and didn't know what to do with ourselves for the rest of the night. It was about 8:00 so too late to go into Zion's and hike but we didn't want to just sit in the hotel. Rob looked up movies and we decided to go see How To Train Your Dragon 2. The soonest time was a 3D showing so we decided to just go with it. Little did we know that we would be getting red and blue 3D glasses and that it was going to be the worst 3D movie we've ever seen. It was a cute little movie but having to see it in the pathetic 3D just made me thankful for what movie theaters we have in real life civilization! 

 

Thursday

The next morning we woke up, ate breakfast, and headed to Zion National Park. I was put in charge of the map to help us find where we needed to go. I thought for sure we were on the right track until we ended up by the tunnel - no where near where Angels Landing was! So we had to drive back down and found out you can only get up by shuttle... woops! We parked the car (in a spot you aren't supposed to park personal cars in) and rode up to start our hike. It was so beautiful and so much fun.

Just staring the hike to Angels Landing

Just staring the hike to Angels Landing

Wait, we're hiking what?!

We made it to the top!

We lived!

Rob's one goal was to hike it without touching the chains once. He was very successful with that and didn't have to use them at all. I, on the other hand, was using them anytime I could because I did not want to fall down. Although it wasn't easy we did it!

It took us about 2 1/2 hours round trip and by the time we got down it was starting to get hot. Although we would have liked to do other hikes it was just too hot so we headed back to the car. 

At this point I thought we were going to drive back home and go stay in Salt Lake. Rob had a different idea though and wanted to go to the beach. He convinced me by saying that we could go eat at Rainforest Cafe that night! Of course I couldn't say no to that so we started our drive out to California. 

While driving we had to call his parents to see if they could find us a hotel out there last minute. We were in and out of service and it wasn't really possible for us to find a hotel. 

When we got to California it was amazing to be able to get out of the car and stretch. It is not a good idea to go on a long hike and then get in the car and drive for 7ish hours. We were both so sore and stiff... and sweaty.

We unloaded all our stuff in the hotel, washed up and went to our favorite restaurant Rainforest Cafe. 

It was a really long wait so while we waited we went down to Roxy/Quiksilver and bought our souvenir shirts/jackets like always. (Our philosophy is that we're not going to wear Disney clothes outside of Disneyland so why not get some fun California clothes instead that will actually be worn!). We went back and still had to wait quite some time but in the end it was worth it.

Friday

The next day we got up and spent the day at Huntington Beach. It was pretty crowded but we still enjoyed ourselves. We ate lunch at the fun diner on the pier, Ruby's. Last time we went they had the most delicious Heath Shakes. They didn't have them this time so we branched out to other candy bars. It was still really yummy though!

We probably don't pronounce this place right... It's on our way to Huntington Beach and we look for it every time.

We headed back to the hotel and I was so exhausted that I fell asleep for a little while, while Rob was watching TV. When I woke up we decided to go back to Downtown Disney and get some dessert from Haagen-dazs.

It was a really relaxing day with no pressure of needing to be somewhere.

 Saturday (My Birthday)!

We were trying to decide what to do Saturday morning when Rob said we should just go to Disneyland. Not just go to it though... buy annual passes! It took some convincing but we ended up going down and buying them. Because it was my birthday they also gave me a birthday button to wear around. People all around Disneyland would call after me to tell me happy birthday! It was definitely a new experience being there. 

I felt like we hit every ride we wanted to go on and we still weren't rushed. We never waited more than 20 minutes for a ride and it was just a perfect birthday.

The cars ride made it look like we were in Zion again!

The last ride we went on was Splash Mountain. As we were about to go up the big hill for the big splash they kept stopping us and saying there was a "log jam ahead". Going up the hill we kept jerking forwards and backwards and I was sure we were going to die going down. We made it down the hill and got stuck in a HUGE line of other logs waiting to get through. Eventually a lady came down after about 20 minutes and yelled "If I see any phones or cameras out I will confiscate them!!". She started pulling people out of the logs and we had to follow her back behind the ride and be walked off. We never found out what was really wrong but the one lady was cranky whatever had happened!

After finally getting off the ride we headed to Rainforest Cafe again for a birthday dinner. This time we found out there was a patio you could sit on outside with a shorter wait. They told us it would be about 20 minutes but we were called back in less than 2. Our food was delicious as always and we tried a new dessert called Chocolate Indulgence. It was so yummy!

 

After eating we were deciding whether to go back into the park again - but we both felt like we rode everything we could have wanted to. So instead we just went back to the hotel. It was the best birthday ever! I seriously couldn't have dreamed up a better birthday weekend. Rob was so good to me and made sure it was amazing!