want to know my favorite perk about living in orange county? disneyland!  and when you and your best friend both have season passes, you go on a tuesday and take as many ridiculous selfies as possible, drink beer, skip through the park, and spend the entire day laughing your ass off.  

     

a night at disneyland

a few pictures from an impromptu, late night trip to disneyland last week.  man, i love this place.

eat // naples ristorante e pizzeria

one of my favorite things to do in orange county is to head to downtown disney to people watch and get a little taste of disneyland without actually paying the big bucks to go into the parks.  it's a great place to kill some time on a warm summer night.  there are street performers, plenty of shops to pop into and browse, tons of restaurants and candy shops, and you can catch the disneyland fireworks without all the crazy crowds.  there's even a house of blues and espn zone!

so last week, my friend and i made our way to downtown disney for dinner.  we scoped out the disney store, i fell in love with a pair of minnie mouse ears, and drooled over mickey caramel apples.  we ultimately ended up at naples ristorante e pizzeria for dinner, and boy did we make the right choice.  the restaurant is charming, even though it's crazy busy.  we were lucky enough to get seated on the upstairs patio (if you can request it, do it, it's worth an extra wait) and enjoyed great views, weather and food.  it was such a great dinner - long and relaxing, just enjoying the company, the wine and the meal.  i definitely left that table one happy camper!  

adventure // disneyland

our trip to disneyland last week was an awesome one.  the weather was fantastic, it wasn't too crowded, and my mom and i got on all of our favorite rides.  we were able to utilize the so cal resident special they have going on right now - 2 days for the price of one!  we upgraded to park hopper tickets for an addition $15, just seemed like the right thing to do.  

my mom and i are strategic disney goers.  we get fastpasses for our favorite rides and make sure we plan the day out to so we get the most in.  i even downloaded an app that tells us wait times and fastpass return times.  disneyland in the morning, pop over to california adventure for a few of our favorite rides, then back for round 2 and the parade.  can't forget some delicious soup bowls in new orleans square, perfectly fitting considering we were there the day after fat tuesday.  

i can't wait until we go back to use our 2nd day pass.  we are definitely so lucky that we live so close to the happiest place on earth.  every time i go to disneyland i feel like a little kid again.  i get excited about the parade and the fireworks and even wait in line to get my picture with mickey.  there's really no place like disneyland.

ig lately

yesterday was such a great day - my mom and i went to disneyland!  we try to go at least once a year, as a mother daughter thing, but we haven't been in about 2 years so this trip was way overdue.  the park was pretty crowded (considering it was a wednesday) but we strategically planned our day and never waited in any line for more than 30 minutes with the exception of indiana jones which took about 45 (but that's ok - that's mom's favorite ride!).  we even made it over to california adventure to hop on our 2 favorite rides there.  i'm so glad that we were able to go and have a fun filled day without any arguing or negative tension between us.  we ended the night with the parade on main street and a ride around the park on the disney rail road.  

and since i couldn't wait to share some pictures from disneyland, here are my instagrams from the day!