Disneyland Day 1, Part 1--Hotel, Expo and Lunch!

The day started off early.  I had just landed at the airport at midnight after returning home from my grandmother's funeral, and got home at 1am .  And I was back up at 4:15 and at the airport at 5:15am.  But I was super excited so I didn't feel tired.  I had on my Dumbo shirt in honor of the Dumbo Double Dare!

 

 Cori and I were flying out together on Delta.  We had a few minutes so stopped for a oh-so-healthy breakfast at Burger King before heading to our gate.  The flight was quick and uneventful.

We met up with Suluh at the LAX airport after landing.  I had heard that LAX was big and confusing but we got off the plane and walked to the baggage carousel.  I think Orlando is worse, with the trains you have to take between concourses.  Anyways, we jumped on the van to head to the rental car place.  This was a last minute decision. But Suluh got a rental car for $8 TOTAL! and had driven around LA a bunch so we were good to go!

The trip to Disneyland was also quick.  We managed to avoid all of the crazy LA traffic that I had heard about.  Soon we were on Disney property!

We got a little lost (ahem, tourists we were!) and drove around in a circle once before we found the Paradise Pier hotel. But there wasn't a sign at the beginning that said where to go for our hotel so we had originally turned like we were heading to the Disneyland Hotel.  Oops!  We parked in the parking garage and headed in.  There was a greeting for the runners!

 We checked in.  I asked if there were any park view rooms available, but there weren't.  He handed me our keys and said they would text me when the room was ready.  I also asked for a birthday button.  (My birthday was Sunday but I wanted to wear it all weekend.)

We headed over to the expo.  We were bringing some shirts over for Raw Threads so we met up with them.  I had read on Twitter that the Expo was a disaster, but after dealing with the disaster of the Princess Half Expo, I figured it couldn't be THAT bad.  Oh man was I wrong!  This was way worse!  The runDisney merchandise shop was chaos.  There was hardly anything on the racks and the poor cast members were bringing more items out by the handfuls.  People were grabbing multiple things from them, then just leaving the extras wherever they wanted.  It was insane.  We then got in line for the LOOOONG wait.  We took turns waiting while the other two people wandered around the expo.  It took us two hours in line to buy our merchandise!!!  That is absolutely ridiculous.  They were not prepared for this.  And a lot of people that came later didn't get Dumbo items.  I'm sure hoping they fix that for the Glass Slipper Challenge!

When it was my turn to walk around the Expo, I had to get a picture with Cinderella's Carriage from Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings at Disneyland.  I had the Carriage at my Walt Disney World Wedding and this one was a little bit different.

I bought a cute new Sweatyband (to match a Lululemon skirt I recently bought).  I also picked up some samples of Sports Beans

We were gifted a Dumbo pin and a Disneyland Half for our runDisney Mickey Vinylmation (thanks Jen and Terry!)

 At the expo, we bought a tech tee I Did It Shirt (the other I Did It shirts I have from the other races aren't tech tees.  I wish this one wasn't either.).  We were completing the Coast to Coast Challenge so we had to get a shirt to show that!  We liked the guys shirt better because it shows all the races on the back.  And we had to get the Dumbo tank because it says "Will Run For Peanuts" on the back.  So cute!

 

We also bought the necklace and a Dumbo Sweatyband.  There was a Disneyland Half Marathon Sweatyband too but I wasn't able to get it.  I really wish I had been able to!

We then went to get our packets.  We were told the secret to skipping the line--go down, into the girl's bathroom, then there's a back door out into the packet pickup area.  And I'm not sure why there was a line.  The pickup area was pretty empty when we were in there.  Then you had to get your bags with the shirts in it in a different line.  I think the shirts are soo cute!  I just wish they weren't so boxy and that the xsmalls aren't still so big.  I can't wait til Marathon weekend when they start having gender specific shirts!

At Raw Threads, we got the Fly pullover and the Dee (Cori got the Dum) shirt. (Don't mind the wrinkles from being crammed in my luggage).

We also picked up our Lasting Commemoratives free art card.

AAAANNNDD  I finally got the New Balance runDisney shoes!!! I was sooo excited to get them! (Thanks Terry!)

 

At the Expo, I got a phone call saying that I needed to stop by the front desk to switch out keys because the room we were supposed to get still wasn't clean.  So we headed back to the hotel, grabbed our luggage, switched out keys and headed to our room.

And SURPRISE!  It was upgraded to a park view room!!  I was so excited!  The room was really cute!  I was expecting it to be what is a value room at WDW since it was the cheapest of hotels at Disneyland, but it definitely wasn't!  I'd say it's more comparable to the moderate resorts.

We were starving.  We hadn't eaten since 5:30 am and it was now 2pm California time, 5pm our time!  So since we had a car, we headed to check something off our list--In-N-Out Burger!!

Yum!  I wasn't sure what to order and the super nice guy taking orders was eager to give suggestions.  I got a single burger, animal style, French fries "well-done, animal style" and a Neapolitan shake. 

The burger and shake was delicious! Even though I love the crispy fries, the "well-done" was a little too crispy.  And I wasn't a big fan of the animal style on the fries. 

The girls enjoyed their meals too!

 

We saw a group of teens all dressed up.  They were completely decked out. Beautiful dress, but still.  At a fast food restaurant.  We asked what she was dressed up for and she said her Quinceanera.  (We also saw a similar group walking around Disneyland later that weekend).

 

We stopped by the grocery store next door to stock up on Gatorade and water.  Then we headed to the Endurance Sports Connection Three Little Pigs Challenge Meet up.

We got a fabulous swag bag.  It was ADORABLE! 

And there was lots of goodies.  Normally, they hand out bacon (or bacon gummies for those who don't eat bacon) on the race course but they couldn't here so we got it beforehand.  I had to take a picture of Cori's cute gummies. (Somehow the picture of all the goodies is black!)

On the way home, we saw the starting line!

 

We got home and were relaxing some when there was a knock at the door.  There was a special birthday delivery from me from my hubby.  He knows me so well!  I was so excited to get it! 

Then we got our race outfits ready for the 10k the next morning!  They were so cute!  The tops were from an Etsy shop, Chic by Amber, the headband was from Sweet Sweat Bands, and the skirt was from Rock City Skirts.

 

 

Coming up next...evening fun!