California Day Two!!

Wednesday morning... Probably the busiest day of our week as far as time being tight, and the amount of things we did.

The day started early, around 6AM, which is when we headed down to IHOP to grab some food! Plans were for some pancakes or french toast, but I found a good BBQ bacon cheeseburger and Sayaka got a Double BLT! More proof of my appetite change was when I finished my burger and felt pregnant/sick again! Sayaka ate one half of hers before she threw in her towel! We did begin this with a cup of their awesome hot cocoa! After breakfast we headed to the beach!

Now this beach has always been my favorite because not too many people go there, and the view is beautiful! Today was no different! It isn't exactly a BEACH-beach area, but this place is called Balboa Peninsula. There are lots of nice houses near the small bay, and then a few minute walk to the edge of Newport Beach!

We get there and it is another beautiful day! No clouds, clear sky, warm-hot, and a little windy. After not being here for so long, I was shocked to see what the tide has done to the beach area! It created a sort of small cliff (3 feet or so), where it used to be a slow decline into the ocean. After 2 trips to beaches in Japan this year, I was reminded why California beaches are so famous. The beach was clean, yellowish-white sand, and massive! We changed to our flip flops and walked along the beach for a bit. 3 boys came up and did a little wake boarding and I caught a few pics of them. Later on, we saw a dog running towards us! Luckily he was just chasing some birds along the beach, until his owner called out to him. It was around this time when Sayaka whispered "I want to live in California...". The seed has been planted...

After an hour or so we headed to my old job, to surprise them and use their restroom! Everyone was definitely surprised and happy to meet Sayaka and see the weight I lost. We chatted a bit before they rushed us out to go enjoy Disneyland! We would see them later tonight anyway! By the way, my old job, is a 2 minute drive from Disneyland!

We get to Disneyland and I was shocked at the amount of cars going to park there! This is the beginning of October, on a Wednesday, Earth's most random day of the week! We had to wait about 5 minutes to pay for parking! After we parked we headed down to the trams to get to the entrance. Due to the sheer amount of people waiting just HERE, we had to wait for the third tram to arrive! When it finally did, we were off to Disneyland's entrance! I thought I saw a lot of people just waiting to park, and waiting for the tram, but damnit, this place was packed! This seriously felt like a weekend at the beginning of summer! We had to wait about 20 mins to get our Park-hopper tickets for So Cal residents (saved 5 dollars each, and she just checked my ID! We don't even live here! Tommy and Sayaka - 1, the system - 0).

We first entered California Adventure, and went straight for the sundae place! I love this place's sundaes so we got one and some drinks to go with it. I was reminded about something that I love about America, and wish Japan did more of when we bought our sundae. The guy who helped us, Andrew, was physically disabled. When I see that big companies hire people of any background, sex, physical or mental condition, it makes me feel good to be human! While we waited for our food, I struck up a friendly conversation with him, because I was happy to , we ate it so quick and were off to our first ride, Soarin over California!

The whole time in line, Sayaka was nervous because of my description of the ride! When we were seated, I could feel her heart beating fast, as she grasped my hand so hard. When the ride started and we were lifted around 75 feet in the air, she was the only person who screamed. Every time the ride moved, she would scream, and the older couple next to her would laugh at her. By the end of the ride, she was glad she got on it, and it definitely woke her up, if she wasn't awake by then! After we went on what I always call "The water ride". Sayaka didn't want to go on it, but I "silent-something"-ed her into getting on it. Before we got on though, we watched people for about 5 minutes. There is a part where a geyser shoots up and depending on your timing, you may or may not get VERY wet, as the water comes back down on top of you. When our time was up, we were about 3 seconds from the spot, and no geyser! But wait, this is our lucky day! A second before our raft goes over the geyser spot, it shoots up and we get drenched! When we pass the geyser, which was under us, it shoots up and comes down on us AGAIN VERY hard! We seriously looked like we hopped in the shower for a minute with our clothes on! Sayaka looked like a wet dog and she was sooo sad, but interestingly enough, she became super genki (energetic) after we got off, and just kept jumping and singing like a kid!

After that, we did some walking around, window shopping and such until we decided to leave and do more walking around Downtown Disney. There we got Jamba Juice (oh how I missed thee) and boarded the monorail to Disneyland!

We had plans to do dinner with my coworkers in an hour and a half and knew time was limited. I wanted to do the new Finding Nemo ride, but the line was like 110 minutes, so I asked Sayaka what she wanted to do and that resulted in her behind the wheel of Autotopia! The line went by pretty quick, so we made a trip to Toon Town since she has never been to the one in Japan! We made our way to Mickey's house and took our pic with him then it was time to head out! We stopped by Wetzel's Pretzels to get a Wetzel Cheese Dog and then headed to Chilis for our dinner!

When we got there, my friend Mark, the man getting married, arrived around the same time! We waited and chatted a bit while waiting for people to arrive. As soon as we got half of the people, we were seated! Food, drinks, and laughter ensued!

It was a crazy fun night, followed by sad "See you someday in the future"s and promises to email each other more. Sayaka and I were exhausted so we headed home and got to go sleep probably the earliest of any night that week!

Tomorrow, Mark's bachelor party!

Until then, enjoy pics of day two!