"You just finished your PhD. What are you going to do?"
"I'M GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!!"
That's an approximation of a conversation that took place just minutes after defending my dissertation a few weeks ago. And last weekend, to Disneyland I went with my two beautiful sisters.
During our mid-week trip, we enjoyed phenomenal weather, super short lines and lots of bonding time. Fan-tastic. The only sore spot? Missing our lovely mother who went with us last year. Sigh. Next year!
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So, the standard doctoral tam (graduation cap) doesn't fit my giant cranium. I was so tempted to pick up these Mickey ears to substitute. |
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One of my dissertation references? Star Tours intergalactic travel security robots. ha. |
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The creepy, creepy Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room. The best part? Dole Pineapple Whip. |
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Brenda (left) flew all the way from New York to celebrate. Disneyland season ticket holder Emily barely needed an excuse to pop down to Mickey town. |
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Tower of Terror is my new favorite ride. The blind drops. The screaming. The inappropriately grabbing people's thighs to hang on for dear life. (Oh, is that just me?). |
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Best churro of my life. |
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A few minutes in Toon Town is quite enough. |
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A perennial fav- Mr. Toad's Wild Ride! |
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I walked through Sleeping Beauty's Castle for the first time and felt compelled to watch the cartoon when I got home. Still one of my top three Disney flicks. |
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Love me some Haunted Mansion. I've never seen such short lines. So short we walked right on, twice! |
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It's been a week and I still have "It's a Small World" stuck in my head. |
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Be warned. It's a Small World is 15 (freaking) minutes long. |
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If I could only wield a chainsaw like this. |
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D'awww. |
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So serious. |
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Cars Land is FAB! |
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Since the Mamarazzi wasn't present taking photos of us every six seconds, we started asking all of the official Disney photographers to take snaps. |
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Someone's excited. |
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If you need to rest your feet, check out the Bug's Life show. It's 15 minutes of adorable. |
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Butterfly garden at California Adventure. |
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Love California Adventure's Boardwalk. |
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Rawr. The roarin' grizzly water ride? Fan-tastic, despite the fact that I got soaked twice. |
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If you want to stay dry on a water ride, bring me along. |
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The new Cars ride--Radiator Springs Racing--is great fun. Word to the wise: Use the single rider line. Even off season, mid-week, the line was 90 minutes long. |
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Hot tip- Download the MouseWait app. It lets you track and update waiting times in both parks including for popular eateries like Gibson Girl and Dole Whip. |
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The entirely park practically came to a stand still for this family of ducks. Mama duck walked her babies right through the middle of a ride. |
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Sailor Donald! The lines were so short, we didn't feel guilty stopping to meet characters. |
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For the record, I would SO put flower swirls in my front lawn if Mr. T wouldn't flip out. |
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Friday night dinner of champions at Gibson Girl. |
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On our last day at Disney, we had to catch up on Splash Mountain action. In the evening, we encountered the shortest line ever. So we rode. We got soaked. |
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And we went again. (Grump Cat says: Zippity freaking doo dah) |
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And AGAIN! Four times in one day! |
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Mickey! |
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Space Mountain. The best way to start the day at Disney. |
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Lots to explore at California Adventure. |
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So close to buying these adorable ears... Dear hat/headband makers of the world: Can we please stop having "One size fits all"?? Some of us have huge noggins, okay?? |
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Could they be any more adorable? |
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We visited the princesses, of course. Aurora here grilled me about how many dragons Mr. T slew to win my hand and of course, how many rooms my castle would have. |
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Would that I could grow beauties like this! |
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LOVE. |
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Toad lovers, unite! |
xoxo,
shawna
Other magical adventures:
- Ridiculous amounts of fun: A mother-daughter Disneyland adventure
- Flying solo at the Wizarding World of Harry PotterLabels: ASU, California, California Adventure, Cars Land, celebrating, Disney, Disneyland, graduate, graduation, Mickey, MouseWait, Mr. T, Mr. Toad, personal, PhD, princesses, rides, sisters, Tower of Terror, Travel