While in the bay area, waiting to go to New York, we have been taking advantage of the beautiful scenery and amazing destinations all around us. This time, we made it down to Monterey Bay on a whim. No real plans or destination, we just thought Monterey would be a pleasant escape from San Jose if even only for a 1/2 day. We didn’t make it the aquarium, but we did have a wonderful drive and lunch on Cannery Row. We only snapped 18 photos which have been posted to our Flickr gallery.

Disneyland Baby Moon

What is a baby moon? I asked Katie the same thing! Turns out that it’s your last vacation before the baby is born. Pretty slick, eh? We took ours at the place that got us in this whole mess, Disneyland in Anaheim. We always wanted to stay at the Grand Californian at the resort, but thought it deserved a better reason than just “because”… what better reason than Lucy? The hotel was amazing and because Katie was preggo, we really couldn’t go on too many rides, but that didn’t matter. This was not only our baby moon but our last trip to Disneyland for a very long time. Our goal was to walk the park, take many photos of our favorite spots and just relive the thousands of happy memories the park facilitated. To sum it all up, mission accomplished. 121 photos have been posted to our Flickr gallery.

Katie has always wanted to see the Christmas parade and this being potentially our last year in SoCal, I caved and we settled in on the curb, across the street from the Penny Arcade. While waiting, we met a couple who was from Oregon but used to live in Orange county. We talked for a good hour+ and they shared much of our likes/dislikes about the DLR experience. They were far more negative than us, something I didn’t think possible!

Once the parade started, we waived and cheered at just about everything that floated by. By the end, our rears were in pain from the concrete and legs asleep from the 3+ hours of reserving our sweet spots. We had dinner, hit a few of our favorite rides and headed for home. All in all, a good trip. 31 photos have been posted for your enjoyment over on our Flickr page.

Small World, Holiday Edition
This trip was a little different as we actually set out to ride “Small World”. Now, if you have ever been on “Small World”, riding it once per calendar year is enough but now that it’s decked out for the holidays, we broke this rule. I tried to take photos in the ride, but the darkness and blur of the photos weren’t worth posting. So, short summary, it’s amazing. They pipe in the smell of ginger bread and play holiday music. The robot children are dressed in their country’s holiday garb which is actually pretty interesting.

Parking @ DLR
To sum up the trip, we got “Rock Star” parking to boot. Let me explain… parking at DLR is a nightmare. I mean, it’s not terrible by any means, but if you get in at the wrong time or during a heavy flow, you may end up walking near a mile to get to the tram to just enter the park. DLR cast members (what they call their employees) will often tell you where to park while directing traffic. When they are directing traffic, you are at the mercy of lady luck, which as you know likes to screw us regular folks over on a regular basis. When they are not directing traffic, you pretty much can choose any row you want to go down and see what’s open. Our standing rule is “Don’t get greedy” which refers to passing up OK spots in hope of finding a great spot. Often if you get greedy and pass up a OK spot, the person behind you will snag it (so there is no going back) and there are no better spots available.. you will have to go back to square one! Very aggravating. SO, this trip, no one was directing traffic because we arrived later in the evening. We ended up parking ridiculously close to the escalator to the trams, one row behind the handicapped parking spots. Like I said, “Rock Star” parking. Not having to trek to your vehicle is a great way to end a day at DLR.

Photos of the day can be found over on our Flickr page.

The next day as part of my birthday present Josh took thursday off and we went to DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!!!!! We got our season passes and started out in the park. Josh hadn’t been there in over ten years so it was like going with somebody who had never been. Later in the day Jacob and Tak joined us and we ran the park! We had an AMAZING time. We even got neck straps for our passes and are going to start collecting a new pin for every visit. My first pin is one that says “my boyfriend is a pirate”…which is true…he is the only person I know who knows all the words to the Pirates song. He also bought me a medallion from the pirates ride…we are going to have it engraved with our names and the date…something to remember the day forever. I’m excited to go back after the move. We had the best time!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night we had a great night…Josh’s brother Joel came over and had dinner and hung out with us. We had a great time talking and joking and playing the Wii of course. Joel is a lot of fun and the two of them together is hilarious!!!!!! Hopefully he will move back soon so we can hang out more.

Today…I bought a sweet little girl named Gretta…she is my new Jetta. I had been hemming and hawing over getting her for a long time and had been trying to sell my car…and today was the day. We went the dealership and got good deals all around and tonight we drove home in her. She is graphite blue and oh so pretty. She is my first car purchase and I’m so stoke about it! Who wants a ride?

Now that we have had a week of fun we have to buckle down as Josh moves into our new apartment in two weeks and I move in two weeks later. So we have a lot to do.

Disneyland
Katie and I have been wanting to go forever… and now we are… tomorrow no less! We plan to take 1000 photos and ride “Pirates” many times.. possibly even get Micky ears. “[We're] too excited to sleep!”

The Great Apartment Hunt is Over!
After a month of searching and walking through endless models, Katie and I have finally found a place for us to live! Initially we were looking for a place in the SFV, Burbank or Pasadena but nothing panned out. Finally, we looked where I used to live, Parc Chateaux in Stevenson Ranch. Online we saw a 2 bedroom that we fell in love with so I called the leasing office to check the availability. It was 6:03p, after office hours, but the leasing staff was still in the office & picking up! The woman on the phone gave me an available unit number to do a drive-by inspection… and it was perfect. The next morning, I called Katie and we decided to go with this one.

Katie, being on “vacation”, zipped the 3 miles down the road and asked to see/reserve the unit for mid November… when the leasing agent informed her that the unit was rented yesterday at around 4p! ARGH *expletive deleted*!!! Katie, heartbroken and upset called me back and let me know. She also said that the leasing agent had mentioned a 829sq ft 1-bed/bath available for only $300 more than I pay for my place now. I asked her to have a look at it… I mean, Katie’s current place is 780sqft and it fits us well… so in theory, this 829 should be fine… and it was. Katie fell in love with it and put down a holding fee. After work I zipped by and saw it… loved it.. and filled out the application. The funny part is my previous address… is the same address with only a change to the apt number! The leasing agent remembered me and we were approved almost on the spot to move in.

After all that is said and done, we found a great spacious place that we both love in a great location. My brother Gary and his girlfriend live about 1/4 mile away in another unit and we gave him the referral so he can collect the $300 reward. I didn’t tell him about it, but I did tell him there is something at the office for him to pick up… he should be pleasantly surprised!

Now, we will be breaking my lease (yay penalties) and my move-in date is November 3rd… so I get to pack up my house. Again. Katie’s lease is up on December 8th, but she will be moving on the 16th of November.. leaving us almost 3 weeks to clean her old place… not that it needs it, but a little extra time isn’t too bad.