Monday, March 31, 2014

Shades of Blue in Monterey County

Today's post is set at Monterey County, a very beautiful place near Salinas which will officially start my San Francisco travel diary. We went on a three day trip to San Francisco and met up with my Ninong and Dad's best friend and his family. The weather here was so much colder compared to LA and I can't help but reminisce about it as we're facing Manila's intense heat right now! My Ninong took us around their beautiful beaches with very photogenic birds and squirrel! I never expected to be all covered up at 2 in the afternoon while under the sun.  It was a lovely day when we toured Monterey, breezy and sunny at the same time. I mean, look the sky in these photos! These had no editing whatsoever, it was simply just that beautiful!
Ever New polo | Love Papaya Clothing leggings | Toms shoes

Our first stop was Lover's Point! A lot of weddings was held under this very tree.
Birds posing for the camera with the perfect shades of blue as their backdrop.
Still in awe, really! This place is just beautiful beyond words!
During our entire San Francisco trip, I think half of the photos we had was all birds. Haha my dad just had the time of his life with these birds. They were really photogenic! 
Thank you Ninong Dan for taking us around!
We also saw a lot of Golden Retrievers in Monterey! They all looked so fluffy!
The pretty trees at 17-Mile Drive!
Notice my uneven buttoned polo? I did it hastily by the time I got out of the car since I was excited for the view but it was unexpectedly really cold!s
The signature pose is never forgotten, of course!
Look at that fur!!!!
This beach, seriously!!! I never knew I'd appreciate beaches as much as I do now!
There are times when it suddenly hits how grateful you are for everything, this was one of those moments.

Love, Paola 

Thursday, March 13, 2014

Travel Diary: Welcome to Disneyland!

Welcome to Disneyland, the happiest place on earth! And not just any Disneyland, but the very first one and the father of all Disneylands, Disneyland Park in California! I love this place for all it's worth - for making kids' dreams come true, for taking the adults back to their childhood, for it's very creative attractions and shows, for its enthusiastic staff, and for just being magical in every way possible. I always feel like a giddy 4 year old whenever I go to theme parks and this one is just 10x since it's like stepping into a different world where all my childhood fantasies come alive! My younger cousins keep telling me until now that they wish we could repeat Disneyland. And while doing this blog post, I was wishing for the same thing too! This is a pretty loaded post which I hope will bring happiness to you (even if it's just through photos) as much as it brought happiness to us!
We spent the night at a hotel near the park to save travel time and avoid traffic.
Fuelling up before Disneyland!
The theme park itself is quite far from the parking area and on the way there are stores and restaurants located at the Disney Walk.

But for people like us who prefer not to walk, you can take the shuttle!
And there it is! The iconic Mainstreet Station!
First of the many not-so-hidden Mickeys!
Family photo!
It was a lovely day during our visit. Look at those clear skies!
Our first stop was Tomorrowland since it was the closest and I wanted to take everyone to Space Mountain, my favorite ride of all time. But the park was very crowded during our visit (since it was on a weekend) so we just got a Fast Pass first and started looking for other rides.
And the Astro Orbitor was where we ended up! 
Up next was Autopia! I've tried this ride in Hong Kong but I wasn't the one driving so it was my first time to drive here. This was fun but really tiring. The pedal was so hard to press. Haha
Waiting in line for the ride.
Look at me, I'm 20 years old and still this excited to ride a theme park ride!
How cute! My cousin Shawn was almost lying down while driving just to reach the pedal!
Lesson learned that when driving, always look at road. Right after this shot, I bumped the car in front so hard that I got a headache! Haha 
Since we're all such awesome  drivers, we made sure to get our official Disney license!
Lunch at the Plaza Inn.
Sleeping Beauty's castle. Just look at that crowd!
Big rock mountain. My cousins wanted to try this one, but we didn't get to try it since it was a water ride.
After lunch, we headed to Fantasyland for Snow White's Scary Adventures (which wasn't very scary at all)!
Pinocchio's Daring Journey also wasn't very daring, but atleast it had a short line! 
In the afternoon, we looked for a good spot in the Mainstreet for the Mickey and Friends Parade. 
Cute Asian kids!
There it is! Mickey and Minnie's float opening the parade.
Simba.

Alladin and his dancers.
Now onto my favorite part...
The Disney Princesses!
Aurora posing for the camera.
My two most favorite princesses when I was younger!
Surprisingly, Tiana here looks exactly like the one from the movie. I wish they completed the Disney Princesses though, still missing Mulan, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Merida and Anna and Elsa! My cousins were looking forward for the Frozen casts!
Not sure what movie this is from but this was also the last float of the parade. The whole parade was shorter compared the one in Hong Kong (see my blog post about it here).
After the parade, we were off to Adventureland for Indiana Jones.
We had to wait in line for it for more than an hour but the ride was worth it!!! It was everyone's favorite! Also, waiting line wasn't an issue for us since we just spent the waiting time playing different games. After this ride, we went back to Tomorrowland to use our Fast Pass for Space Mountain. Everyone loved the Indiana Jones ride but Space Mountain still has my heart! Forever favorite!
 We took a break from all the rides to have dinner. Being in Disneyland requires Mickey ears, even if it's made from paper plates. Haha
Then it was time to see the fireworks! 40 minutes before it started, people were already starting assemble at the Mainstreet so we headed there too, to get a good spot. 
 While waiting for the fireworks to begin, we played different games and we were causing so much scene in the middle of the Mainstreet that other people even started joining our games and guessing our charades! Haha
 My mom and my signature pose that we've been doing for more than 10 years!
I love this photo, so cute!!!
 Sleeping Beauty's castle at night. It was almost time for the fireworks!
 The fireworks show was incredible!!! It was a narration by Julie Andrews of Disney's history an it combined all the iconic Disney movies and songs! It was quite long too!
I actually had a hard time choosing photos of the fireworks since everything was just so pretty!
THANK YOU, DISNEYLAND! You were magical!!! 

Love, Paola