going back to cali, cali, cali

This was the view from our balcony at the Newport Coast Villas

My lovely travel mates (above: Forbes & Kitty) (below: Kerry)

My happy place - Disneyland

Disney California Adventure Park

This weekend I went on a whirlwind getaway with the girls. In the past year, three of us have had babies and one has gotten married, so with life getting infinitely busier, we wanted to make sure we set aside some quality time for one another. We decided to converge in Californ-i-a. We shacked up at the Newport Coast Villas, which I would highly recommend. Not only was it a beautiful place to stay, full of amazing amenities, but the location was absolutely ideal. On Friday we went to Disneyland & Disney's California Adventure Park (approx half an hour's drive from our resort).We scored discounted tickets from a local Anaheimian on Craigslist saving us $40 each. It was pretty funny, Kitty and Forbes had never been to Disneyland and wanted us to ease them into the experience. Kerry and I took them on Space Mountain for their first ride. "Is this one of those rides where you slowly ride around and things pop out at you?" asked Forbes. Ker and I smiled at each other, "Ya, something like that." But then as we were getting closer to boarding the announcements started about how it is a high speed rollercoaster in the dark. Oops. But they had so much fun that they coined their new name the "thrillseekers" and sought out the biggest and scariest rides we could find. We hit all the major rides in the two parks, including the California Screamin' rollercoaster that goes from 0-55 mph in 4 seconds and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, a 183 foot tall decrepit hotel (the tallest building in Anaheim) where you are taken up a rickety elevator where two small drops occur in pitch blackness and then you are sent at full speed to the top of the tower, where the doors open to reveal your proximity hovering at the highest point of the theme park before you plummet down the elevator shaft. Then just when you think you're safe, it happens again. I was laughing so hard as I could hear Kerry repeating, "I'm done! I'm done!" Needless to say, in the photo they show of you on the ride, I look like I have actually died in my seat. It was so scary and so. much. fun.
On Saturday we drove from our resort to Laguna Beach, a short 10 minute drive south where we had booked our very first paddle board lesson. It was a blast, but is definitely harder than I thought it would be. All of your momentum comes from your core, which lets face it, after the baby, is no where near what it used to be. Forget about a six pack, my stomach isn't even a one pack right now. But, we all really enjoyed ourselves and managed to do quite well. I definitely recommend a lesson first because coming into shore, with a strong surf can be quite treacherous without proper instruction to help you time it properly. We went here for our lesson where not only was our instructor patient with us on the water but he kept a straight face, even when we fired questions at him concerning a certain gal's fear of attracting sharks with her special time of the month (of which she compared to a BP oil spill).  After working up an appetite on the water, we had a delicious brunch followed by a trip to Balboa Island where we browsed around the shops, ate frozen bananas and got our nails fancified. We capped off the day with a swim & steam at our hotel, followed by a delicious dinner at Kya Bistro. The beauty of a weekend getaway is that you really make the most of your time together. It was the perfect mix.