And like that!
We’re on our way to Disneyland via Sea-Tac, Sacramento, Long Beach, and a bit of Uber Comfort to Anaheim.
Today’s official start:
3:55AM.
I actualy set alarms for 3:55, 4:00, and 4:05 to the clanging of church bells. It’s the kind of decision that causes me to either wake up before those church bells go off... or within a second of them starting.
We were already mostly packed so getting up, putting final touches on packing, getting ready to leave, and shutting our place down went smooth as we hoped... with Linzy and Martin swinging by a little after five and then driving on ahead to park at a Sea-Tac lot. We followed shortly after.
Side Note: this was our first time driving down from Cap Hill. It was amazing the distance we covered, actually making progress toward Sea-Tac in the time it would normally take us just getting to I-5 from our house.
Anyway.
Turns out there’s not a whole lotta action around Sea-Tac at 530-ish AM. The shuttle grabbed us right away, whisking us to the Southwest entrance where, by ‘n by, we met up with Linzy ‘n Martin again. Then boarding passes. Then checking in bags. Then to the gate and Sacramento and Long Beach and that Uber Comfort ride with driver Dave who also runs a company that handles online marketing for other companies. He also used to run a record company in the 90s.
By ‘n by, we’re standing in our room at the Anaheim Magestic Garden. The room’s huge with another door opposite that opens into a courtyard that gives way to the pool. The vibe’s all medeival. But like royalty medeival. The wall opposite our bed (there’s two) even holds the muted forms of a forest.
After basking in the gloriousness of the room and poking about the various courtyards, hallways, and walkways... we indulged lunch in the hotel restaurant and rested up a bit until our favorite locals arrived: Derek, Kimmer’s cousin; Kyle, Derek’s son; Dylan, Kyle’s best friend; Shane, Derek’s friend going way, waaaaaay back.
A bit of deliberation later... and we’re headed out in two cars for the Packing District which is this huge, two-story warehouse filled with bars and restaurants and dessert places.
Heaven!
After some of us scored dinners to go, we all walked across the street to another building called Make and into a place called the Unsung Brewery Company whose owners were apparently raised on massive doses of DC and Marvel comics. Aside from the taps, the interior of the space is filled with comic books, superhero and villain figurines, posters, wall paintings, models (some, like the X-wings and TIE fighters, suspended from the ceiling), and a giant flat screen mounted up high playing Guardians of the Galaxy just then.
While Kimmer ‘n I scored a sampler of brews (her favorite: the nitro coffee), our friend, Shane, had stepped across the lobby to a little hole-in-the-wall called JAV’s Barbeque for a brisket plate. Of course as soon as Kimmer spied this yummy deliciousness, she sent me over right away to score some for us.
And yes.
Totally yummy.
Afterward, we filed back into the Packing District for pop gelatos at Pop Bar afterwhich Shane took the boys back to Irvine whilst we hit the local Target for the food and drink we’d keep at the hotel so we wouldn’t need to buy as much inside the parks where it’s all more expensive.
Should’ve been an easy hit ‘n run but we were in that Target for almost an hour ‘cause it turns out we’re all A.D.D..
Yeah.
We looked around in there...
A bunch.
We got everything we needed, though, and, after watching Linzy hustle some random carts in the parking lot back to where they belong, Derek dropped us back at the hotel a little after 10. Minutes later... our heads hit the pillows, the culmination of a looooooooong day of travel and getting ready... fueled only by four hours of sleep.
Four hours.
Yeah.
We were exhausted.
