Birthday Weekend

Friday 9/21

We picked up our friend Dan at the butt crack of dawn, just before 6 am. Made a short pit stop at Barstow and made another pit stop at Chino for some breakfast at IHOP. Then it was straight to Anaheim from there. We encountered a bit of heavy traffic before noon due to reports of the Endeavor Shuttle flying over Disneyland. There were people standing by the sidewalks, at the top parking garage and at the roof of Paradise Pier, hoping to catch a glance. It wasn’t until we were waiting in line to buy the tickets that it flew over us. It was quite a sight to behold as everyone cheered as it flew over and the mass stood still for a few minutes to update their statuses and upload their pics (I only recorded a few seconds of it). Vince got to see the redesigned Carthay Circle Restaurant and admire his work. Of course, he won't get credit can't put it in his portfolio :/

Originally, I wanted to try doing the day hopper but we settled for Disney California Adventure since I’ve never been to it while Dan and Vince haven’t been there for a few years. In no particular order, we rode at Radiator Springs, Tower of Terror, Monsters, Inc., Goofy’s Sky School, Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, Grizzly River Run and Soarin’ Over California. We checked out the Frankenweenie exhibition, Sorceror’s Workshop and the Aladdin Musical at the Hyperion Theater. We met up with Corinne and ate at Tortilla Jo’s before riding Goofy’s Sky School. By then, most of the rides were full. Although we missed World of Color, we got to catch the fireworks at 9:45 pm over at Disneyland. I bought my first pair of ears, something I didn’t do when I first got to Disneyland.

Saturday 9/22

One minor bday gift was seeing pics of Jim Carrey as Colonel Stars for Kick Ass 2! This day was somewhat more laidback. We drove to Torrance to eat at Capriciossa for Lunch. It’s an Italian/Japanese restaurant that I use to frequent on Guam. Vince and I had to black ink squid pasta (family size) and it was well worth the price and trip. Next stop was Little Tokyo, although we took an odd turn and ended up in the bad part of China Town before we got to the right place. The Japanese Arcade that Dan and Vince talked about was… okay. We eventually made our way to the Kinokuniya bookstore and Marukai market. We checked out a little art exhibit/show called Tokusatsu and bought a few shirts. There wasn’t enough time to check out other places so we ended up grabbing some White Castle burgers from Stater Bros and playing some SNES games.

Sunday 9/23

Woke up early and had a big breakfast at Original House of Pancakes before going to Downtown Disney. We only stayed for less than 3 hours for the free parking. I bought a Tokidoki shirt from D Street since we were not able to go to Tokidoki at Melrose and we enjoyed an Apple Pie Apple from Marceline’s Confectionary. Well, I did but Vince's stomach didn't. We drove home to check up on our girls. It looks like they survived not having any human contact for a full 2 days. We weren’t able to get anyone to watch them at the last minute. It was a short weekend but it was a good birthday weekend :)

More pics and/or video to be uploaded soon!