Rachel

May

27

Disneyland Annual Passes – Why Would You Do That?

Adventures  Posted by / 0 comments

A lot of people ask us why we have Disneyland Annual Passes.

We live in the Bay Area, so it’s not like we can decide on a whim that we’re going to head to Disneyland for the evening. If we wanted to just go there randomly, no matter what, we’d have a 5.5hr drive ahead of us. I can imagine that the excitement of “spontaneity” would wear off during the drive. We also have a dog, so we’d have to find a dog sitter. Really, at any point for the Kleists, going to Disneyland on the “whim” definitely requires at least like half a day of preparation.

So, why purchase annual passes for Disneyland when you live over 300 miles away?

Well first, the cost. Here’s the deal – Disney just upped their prices again last week. For $150 you can enjoy both Disney parks, for one whole day. ONE day. Want to add days? The price jumps to $217 for 2 days, and so on. Disney ain’t cheap. I’m not going to dip into the conversation about why Disney is so expensive, and why the price increases seem so drastic, and how it’s outrageous (blah blah blah) because at the end of the day, a trip to Disneyland is just going to be expensive no matter what. If that bothers you, I’d kindly suggest traveling elsewhere. The Disney Annual Passport system actually isn’t terrible, and it can still benefit you even if you live 300 miles away. A Premium Annual Passport isn’t cheap ($699 for the year with no blackout dates and free parking), but if you’re planning to take a 3 or 4-day trip to Disney 2 times or more in one year, the savings are actually pretty substantial. That’s actually what prompted Jason and I to look at it in the first place  – we were originally planning to go 3 times in 2013 for various reasons – we thought there had to be a better method than paying $265 x2, three times that year.

Take Jason and I for example. We got our passes in February 2013 and we ended up going 6 times while the passport was active (over one year). Those 6 trips translate into about 18 days total in the park. If we do 18 x $150 that’s $2700. I know what you’re saying, what about the multiple day passes? Okay, let’s look at that. Let’s say I trekked down to Disney 6 times last year, each being a 3-day trip, that still puts me at $1590 in Disney tickets just for myself.

The cool thing about the Annual Passes? They have a monthly payment plan for CA residents with no interest. So, Jason and I pay monthly on two $699 Annual Passes. Don’t get me wrong, that’s still a hefty sum, but we’re loaded so it doesn’t bother us 😉 JK! We’re a family on a budget, but we budgeted for Disney. It’s really our only vacation throughout the year. We may do an overnight here and there, but our big trips are always down to Disneyland. So that means we’re actually just prepaying on our vacations each month so the overall financial blow isn’t as bad when we go.

So how much did we save last year? Since we went 6 times, 3-days each (assuming we’d pay $265/person per trip on 3-day tickets) … we ended up saving $1389. 

I get it, we’re not your typical Disney goers because we go multiple times in a year. And we’re only a family of two; I can imagine that if we were a family of three or four, we’d probably do things differently. So, annual passes aren’t for everyone when you live 300 miles away. But, for now, having the annual pass is really the only thing that makes sense for us. Now we can go to Disney worry-free and with some great discounts while inside the park (15% off food, 25% off merch, etc.)

All that to say – if you live in the Bay Area and you plan to visit Disney more than 4.66 (price of a 1-day Park Hopper ticket divided by the Premium AP) days in one year, the Annual Pass might be the way to go for you. If you’re only planning to do your one big trip a year, then stick to the regular passes.

Call us crazy Disney people all you want, but we have a method to our madness. Joke’s on you!

the dream

the dream

 

 

May

15

Brew Talk: Woodchuck Smoked Apple Cider

Brew Talk  Posted by / 0 comments

No one asked for this, but Jason and I thought we’d start sharing our adventures in food and booze, along with other life stories. I guess this blog will have an eclectic purpose. So here we go.

The Kleists have recently gotten into the wonderful world of beer and bourbon. It’s pretty awesome because we live in a town that appreciates the art and craft of good wine and beer making, and there are a few distilleries popping up here and there so we know bourbon in our area is on the horizon. While we’re not experts on the subject, we’d love to give our incite on beers and bourbon. Rachel likes wine a lot but she does not feel like she stands a chance in the wine world when it comes to talking about tannins and mouth feel and floral notes. Just know that red wine is great, and white wine is cool too if it’s warm outside and there aren’t any Corona Lights around.

Back to brews though. Costco’s really been on their craft brew game recently. Jason and I are pretty loyal to our local breweries, but if they happen to be closed one day or we don’t want to make the trek to fill up our growlers, we’ll often hit up Costco for a brew fix. We’re both very loyal to the IPA, but we’ll venture off the path every once in awhile ESPECIALLY when it’s 100 degrees outside. So, we picked up a couple ciders, one was a pear cider which we’ve yet to try, and the other was this:

IMG_7012

Woodchuck Hard Cider: Smoked Apple

So, let’s have some Brew Talk. First off this cider pours dark. We weren’t expecting that, but maybe should have with the “smoked” in it’s title. It smells like apple at first, but quickly the smokiness makes it’s way up your nostrils and it’s like, “Woah, where’d that come from?” At 6.5% this brew’s alcohol level is actually pretty high for a cider and it definitely packs a punch.

Rachel’s thoughts: The first sip was really pleasant. The apple was prominent and there was that definite sweetness that comes with a cider. However, it wasn’t long before the smokey components made themselves known and, for me, it was all downhill from there. Honestly, it tastes like a mixture of campfire, bacon, and smoke, with a little bit of apple thrown in the mix – which doesn’t sound gross initially, but just imagine all of that in liquid form. Even though I gave it a valiant effort, it didn’t take long for me to know that this beer wasn’t for me. The aftertaste was just smoke and that was too much for my palette to handle (liquid smoke is my nemesis). We didn’t eat anything with this beer, but I can imagine that paired with a burger or something heavy to offset or compliment the smokiness, it may have made this brew a little more drinkable. I endured about half a pint and threw in the towel. I give this cider a 4 out of 10, BUT would possibly give it another go if I were eating a meal that complimented it well.

Jason’s thoughts: Basically this cider is like a BBQ party in your mouth. You get hit at first with a sweet taste, followed by a smooth smokey flavor. I have a feeling that dudes who have a full lush beard and love smoked meats and bacon would enjoy this manly cider. I agree with Rachel above in that it would be good with food. I would pair this with a pulled pork sandwich or a fat BBQed burger. I give this a 7 out of 10. It was good, but I would not always reach for this cider if it was available to me.

So, there you have it. The Woodchuck Smoked Apple Cider is good for dudes, and maybe okay for chicks if the circumstances are right (like most things, amiright?). The average score for this cider is 5.5 out of 10, and since it’s only $3.99 at Costco for 22oz the Kleists say, “Throw some pork into a crockpot, toast up a few pretzel buns, and give this cider a whirl.”

If you happen to try it, or have tried it, let us know your score/thoughts in the comments!

 

May

12

The Kleists, Lately

Recap  Posted by / 0 comments

Now’s as good a time as any to start using this thing again right? I just feel like I’m in the perfect blog writing position.

IMG_1706

This is now.

There are some things about married life that you just aren’t told about, pre-married life. Like, for example, married life is really similar to single life. I can imagine that if I were single right now, it would be very likely that I’d be sitting outside in this gorgeous weather with a beer and my laptop. Marriage just means I get to do that with my best friend. #winwin

So, I’d like to update y’all a bit on our lives, since the last time we posted anything was October of last year (we’re super committed to this thing).

First off, Jason and I work together now, like literally, in the same department. For every 7 people that said this was a great idea, there were at least 2 who stated otherwise. We felt the ratios were tipped significantly in one direction, so we just decided to go for it. For the last seven months I’ve been the copywriter and online communications sensei at Cornerstone. It’s a big thing, working together. You take the dynamics from your home life and married life and you bring it to work. And likewise, you take your work stuff (and coworker) home with you. There are a few challenges that come with that, but when you’re as resilient as me and Jason, you just make it work. Truthfully, it’s been amazing. It’s not for everyone, but it works well for us.

Second, we’ve taken up racquetball and it’s pretty serious, you guys. If you even slightly know us, we’ve probably (definitely) bored you with our racquetball stories. But it’s true, nerdy and true. It should be noted that I (Rachel) do not suit up in the full garb, but my husband absolutely, 100% does. What does that entail? Well, that’s goggles, one glove (just for his racquet hand), a brightly colored sweatband, a racquet (obviously) and an official gear bag. So far there have been no major racquetball accidents, but I (Rachel) did almost go blind by hitting the racquetball straight into my own open eyeball. You’re probably saying out loud, “But Rachel, where were your goggles?” And I’m gonna go ahead and just tell you right now that I’ve opted out of the goggles, even after 2-near blindness incidences. I guess you can say I prefer to live on the wild side. If and when we will get our official “Team Racquetballers” sweat wicking shirts is still a mystery to me, but I can only imagine that Jason has already designed and ordered them.

serious racquetballers

Serious Racquetballers

Third, I ran another half marathon. I know I know, what am I doing to myself? Save the knees, Rachel! Livermore had their inaugural half marathon in March and since this is my city, I knew I’d only kick myself if I didn’t run it. So I trained (for real this time), for a little over 4 months and showed that race who was boss. It was really an incredible experience. My first half marathon was amazing, but it was in a town I wasn’t familiar with and I hadn’t ever run 13 miles before so I was more focused on the length (and heat) than I was with the whole experience. This time I felt more prepared, and subsequently more proud, because I had the chance to accomplish this in the place I’ve called home for the last 25 years. Plus, it helped that I was able to train ON the actual race route. Anyways, all that to say I finished strong and shaved 11 minutes off my last race time, woohoo!

You know I went straight for pizza and beer immediately after this photo was taken.

You know I went straight for pizza and beer immediately after this photo was taken.

Fourth, Jason and I recently met Guy Fieri. Plz don’t act like, if given the opportunity, you wouldn’t meet him too. Here’s the thing about the “Triple D” host – we think he’s a super goofball. Like, we’ve spent our fair share of time making fun of the guy, but when we happened upon a poster in our local Costco alerting us of his appearance, we simply couldn’t resist. Plus, Guy was there on Jason’s actual birthday, and Costco is less than a mile away from our home, we literally didn’t have a reason not to go. Anyways, we met him, and now we have this photo to memorialize the moment forever. If anything, at least I get to have the memory of Guy Fieri saying “Ah, J rolls with a redhead? I like that” to Jason, and that’s a pretty great memory.

Mr. Flavortown himself

Mr. Flavortown himself

Well, I was going to include a recipe in this post because #yolo, but Jason and I are eating an assortment of Trader Joes frozen appetizers because it’s 8:15pm and no one’s got time to cook these days.

Thanks for tuning in and be sure to ask us about this blog a bunch now so we’ll remember to post on it more often!

Oct

29

Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup

Cooking with the Kleists  Posted by / 0 comments

Fall is upon us and the last few days have been chilly here in the Bay Area. When it’s cold and gloomy outside, grilling isn’t really an option. But you know what is? Soup! How easy is it to throw a few ingredients into a pot and more importantly, how cozy is it to eat that soup next to a fire? All that to say, last night was a pretty perfect night.

I found the original recipe on Pinterest, but we had to adapt it because quite honestly, it sounded pretty boring. The original recipe ends up just being a flavored broth and tortellini, Jason and I knew we needed to add some fresh ingredients for added flavor and texture. We bought everything from Trader Joes.

Ingredients

  • 1 small onion (diced)
  • 2 cloves garlic (minced)
  • 1 package of Cremini mushrooms (sliced) (really, any mushrooms will do)
  • 3/4 cup cherry tomatoes (halved)
  • 2 cups half and half
  • 20oz tomato soup (we used the tomato and roasted pepper soup from TJs)
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 1 package cheese tortellini
  • 1 tbsp Italian Seasoning
  • 1 tsp oil
  • salt and pepper to taste

What to do!

We started by heating 1tsp rosemary infused olive oil in a pan and sautéed the onions, garlic and mushrooms with salt and pepper until they were golden (on high heat for about 6-8min). We transferred those to a big pot and added the tomato soup, half and half, chicken broth, tomatoes and italian seasoning, bringing it to a simmer. Once the soup was simmering we lowered the temp to medium heat and dumped the package of tortellini in the soup, letting it cook until the tortellini was fully cooked (9-12minutes). Add salt and pepper to taste after dishing yourself up a bowl. This recipe will yield enough  for 6-8 people.

We pan fried kielbasa for an appetizer (which would also be a fantastic addition to the soup, we later found out!).

Overall, this was a fantastic cold weather meal. 1377361_10201358900268980_1299638345_n

 

 

Oct

12

Hank the Skeleton

Adventures / home life  Posted by / 0 comments

A lot of you have grown to love Hank over the last few weeks. For those of you who don’t know him, let me tell you a story.

Several weeks ago Jason and I came across Hank, a pose-n-stay skeleton Halloween decoration that also happened to have a severed spine. Most people would discard Hank on account that he was supposed to “pose-n-stay” … but we grew fond of his handicap.

photo

“not Hank”

I only discovered Hank’s handicap after taking him out of his home (box). I carried him upstairs in 2 pieces to show Jason that our decoration was broken and he quickly showed me that maybe having Hank be in two pieces, rather than one, gives him character that other pose-n-stay skeletons don’t have. NOTE: we gave him the name Hank because I usually name things by using the first name that pops into my head. 

Due to my busy schedule, I ran downstairs, placing Hank delicately on the floor in an un-severed and natural looking position, and left for the day. A short time later I received an Instagram notification – apparently Hank, laying delicately on the floor, scared Jason.

Screen shot 2013-10-12 at 3.31.13 PM

This started a war between my loving husband and me. Hank quickly became a household name as he made his way from place to place in our house. Just when I thought I’d put him in the BEST PLACE EVER, Jason would tie him to the garage door and I’d die a little on the inside.

Here’s a few highlights:

After a few weeks we realized we’d run out of places for Hank to hide. So we’ve put him in his final resting place, for now, allowing him to bring joy to all who visit our humble abode.

Screen shot 2013-10-12 at 3.32.16 PM

Oct

07

Prosciutto and Arugula Pizza

Cooking with the Kleists  Posted by / 0 comments

Before Jason, I (Rachel) was a terrible cook. Actually, I wasn’t so much a terrible cook, I just had never tried or cared to learn. Thankfully Jason comes from a family who values the art of cooking, so it was only inevitable that I’d learn.

My new favorite thing is Pinterest. We’ll come up with an idea and I’ll type it in Pinterest and 700+ delicious recipes will flood my feed. Honestly, I don’t know how anyone did anything before the internet. Yesterday we re-filled our Altamont Beer Works growler with 64ounces of Hella Hoppy – if you’re a Bay Area local and enjoy good beer I highly recommend them. And the only logical thing we could think of to accompany our delicious beer was PIZZA.

As I mentioned before I opened up Pinterest and typed in pizza and I saw so many delicious looking things. But one caught my eye – a Prosciutto Arugula pizza. Lemme go ahead and tell you how easy this recipe is – if I can do it, I guarantee your 4yr old son can do it too.

We made a quick trip to Trader Joes and picked up a pack of pre-made pizza dough ($1.20) and the pre-made pizza sauce next to it ($2.99). Then we picked up a package of prosciutto ($4.99), a bag of arugula ($2.99) and a bag of shredded mozzarella ($2.99). So for $15 we either have enough for 2 pizzas, or 1 pizza and snacks, or 1 pizza and a salad – what I’m trying to say, it was $15 and we had plenty of ingredients left over for other things.

What do you need:

  • Pizza pan
  • Couple handfuls Arugula
  • Prosciutto (4 slices per pizza)
  • 3/4cup shredded Mozzarella
  • 3-4tbsp tomato sauce
  • Pizza dough
  • 1tbsp olive oil

What do you do?

  • Preheat oven to 550 degrees or your oven’s highest setting
  • Grab your nearest pizza pie pan ($4.99 at Target) and slather a little bit of flour on it to ensure your pizza doesn’t stick
  • Coat your hands with flour and knead out the dough – we used a rolling pin too – until you get it to the size and consistency that you desire
  • Brush the edges with olive oil
  • Coat the dough with tomato sauce and sprinkle half of the cheese on top
  • Layer strips of prosciutto across the sauce and cheese
  • Spread the rest of the cheese on top and place in oven on middle rack.
  • Cook 6-9min – if the cheese is browning and bubbling, the pizza should be done
  • Place the fresh Arugula on top of the cooked pizza to finish off this delectable dish

And voila, within a few moments you should have a delicious and elegant pizza to share with friends and loved ones.

Enjoy!

27d4f0bc-17fc-4d0d-aaec-eaaf2b738db1

Aug

21

Paleo is for Lovers

Wedding  Posted by / 0 comments

 

So we decided to go on the Paleo diet for 30 days. There are a few reasons we chose to do this, but the main reason is to feel healthier. It’s a big transition, but we figure anyone can do anything for 30 days and probably make it, so… we’re challenging ourselves.

What’s Paleo you may ask?

  • Paleo is a diet, aka The Paleo Diet. Basically, you go back to your caveman roots and only eat foods that can be killed or picked or dug up. We’re getting rid of wheat, sugar and processed foods – all of the things that we love so much.

How will we do this?

  • We’re going to eat according to the rules of the Paleo Diet. We’ve planned our meals for the next 30 days and rid our home of our favorite, non-Paleo friendly, foods. (we mourned this moment for too long, honestly… we’re still mourning)

Today was our first day, and we survived… but barely. I’d prepared for the absolute worst. No energy, cranky, hot and sweaty, hallucinations. But, save for my absolutely uncontrollable urge to eat bread 24 hours a day, it wasn’t really all that bad.

For Breakfast: we ate an egg/tomato/onion scramble smothered in dill and salt and pepper.

For lunch: I found this recipe for tuna salad that had tuna and every vegetable in the world, probably. We ate the tuna salad over Romaine lettuce because it was a salad.

For dinner: We grilled up some chicken breast, mushrooms and sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli. Every blog I’ve read about the Paleo diet has said you can eat as many veggies as you want forever, so… we’ve taken that pretty seriously. (I don’t have a photo because we were definitely too hungry to stop and photograph)

Lastly for dessert: We ended our first Paleo day with a banana, strawberry, chocolate almond milk, almond butter, and a little bit of chocolate whey powder smoothie that changed my life. (Also not pictured for same reason above)

So, we did it… for now at least, apart from feeling hungry for most of the day, and still kinda feeling hungry right now at 9:51pm.

We’ll chronicle this adventure so check back for updates.

Are any of you on the Paleo diet? Have you tried it before? Have any pointers?

Follow us on Twitter @rachelkleist and @jkleist

 

Jul

23

Jason + Rachel kinda have a kid

home life  Posted by / 0 comments

Don’t let the title fool you. SPOILER ALERT: We’re not prego.

We may not have a human child (and we probably won’t for awhile, thanks for asking) but we do have a child of the dog-kind and that’s sort-of like having a kid.

Babies & Puppies may have comparable rolls.

Here are the similarities… feel free to argue with me (but you’re wrong):

  • Human babies eat everything off the floor. Dog babies do the same thing.
  • Human babies eat and poop all day. Dog babies also do that.
  • Human babies love to cuddle. Dog babies also love to cuddle.
  • Dog babies sleep in crates. Human babies sleep in cribs.
  • Dog babies are leash trained. Some human babies are also leash trained for places like Disneyland.
  • Dog babies have to be socialized. Human babies also need to be around other human babies.


I’d say the biggest difference is that one is a dog and one is a human.

OK, there are a lot of differences and I get it, dogs and babies should not be compared because, OMG they aren’t similar at all. BUT sometimes puppies carry some similarities to a baby’s behavior and patterns so…

Back to my point: J and I kind-of have a baby and we’re realizing that our dog-baby is good training for when we have a human-baby.

For example:

  • Boo hasn’t been the puppy that whines in the middle of the night. But sometimes she wakes up, or moves slightly and Rachel hears it immediately and checks on her to make sure everything is cool. Jason also wakes up to those things. LOL jk, Jason doesn’t hear any of that stuff. The moral of the story is: now we know that J is a much sounder sleeper than R, which will be good to know when we eventually decide to have a human-baby.
  • Sometimes puppies don’t do what they’re told and that’s frustrating. But you can only get so mad when you remember that they’re only 4 months old and this is probably the first time they’re experiencing this thing that you’re mad about. Jason is super patient. Rachel isn’t as patient, so Jason’s a good guy to have around (for the puppy’s sake… and our future children’s sake).
  • We have to remember to feed our dog and take her out to go to the bathroom and we also have to remember to spend time with her & find her a sitter if we’ll be gone overnight. These are all things we’ll have to do with a baby. We have to take our selfishness down a couple notches with a dog, and I’m only assuming like tons more with a baby. This is good practice.

We’re pretty good parents. We’ve only had Boo for 3 weeks and she’s already learned a bunch of tricks and she’s super smart and she’s awesome. And these things can only be attributed to how awesome we are. So you’re welcome Boo, and you’re also welcome future Kleist kids.

 

Pictured: Awesome Parents

 

The Kleist Gals

Jul

11

Meet Boo the Boston

Adventures  Posted by / 2 comments

So 21 days after our wedding and just 10 days after we got home from our honeymoon Jason and I decided that we could probably think of no better time than July 1st to get a puppy. So that’s what we did…

Boo (aka Boo Boo Bear Kleist)

I (Rachel) have wanted a puppy forever. Every 2 weeks or so I’d ask Jason why he hadn’t gotten us a puppy yet and he’d say things like, “I live at the Walkers & this is not my house.” or ” You work at Parchments, we don’t have any money.” or “We’re not married so, who’s really going to take care of the dog?” or just simply, “No”. That last one was a popular one, it always hurt my feelings.

So when we moved into our town home I saw this as my opportunity to finally get the puppy I’d always wanted. Then, to my dismay, the landlord said “No pets”. This was hard for me, but the place we’re living is just too perfect to pass up. So, I lowered my head and kicked a little rock across the pavement and whimpered “Fine, I’ll just get a puppy never”. (Like a child)

Then the wedding happened and I kinda forgot about getting a puppy and focused more on all those wedding details and my trip to Disneyworld.

But then we came home. And every time I walked in the door and there wasn’t a puppy there to greet me or to vacuum clean the crumbs off the floor… I became a little more sad about it. So, I gathered up all my courage and e-mailed our landlord to ask if we could get a dog. I realize this is a risky move, he could have been like, “No, you’re dumb”. But, I’m awesome and he said, “Ok, I like you guys, get a dog”. BOOOM.

2 hours later I was on www.daybostonterrier.com finding my new pooch. J and I fell in love with “Bonnie” so, I called the breeder in Merced and asked him to please hold that gal for us so we could come meet her the next day.

It was truly love at first sight…

LOOK AT THAT FACE

She climbed into our laps and we knew it was over. The breeder let us know that she could never be a show dog because of her imperfections (coloring on her face is off, she has a dewclaw, her ears aren’t perked-up all the way up), but all of those things just made us love her more.

So we changed her name to Boo (from Monsters Inc.) and brought her to her new home at Castle Von Kleist. She was a perfect little sleeping baby in the beginning but, now she’s crazy. Seriously, she just takes off running and slams into walls and chairs and people but she obviously has a really high pain tolerance because she does it over and over and over again.

We even tried to make her swim the other day, to tire her out, she did good but then she slept like this for almost 2 hours… (success)

They made me go in water 🙁

Anyways, if you’d like to meet her come on over, she’s a sweetie and we want to make sure she meets lots of people and kids and other dogs. Here’s some more pics… and a video for your viewing pleasure.

Just sleepin’ on some hairy legs

Whaaaaa?

And here is her favorite game of all time… what a weirdo.

 

Jul

05

Disneyland is still Better

Adventures  Posted by / 0 comments

We’re married!

June was probably one of the biggest months of our lives. As a recap we got married:

Marriage.

And then we went on a 10 day honeymoon. Here’s the story:

We woke up the day after the wedding in the same bed and that’s when we knew that being married was pretty cool. At around 1pm we left on a jet plane for Orlando with a quick (really quick) stop in Denver on the way. We touched down on Orlando soil and immediately started sweating – heat and humidity would be our friend for the next 9 days.

Orlando is weird but we eventually made it to the hotel around 2am with a grand feast in hand.

4 cheeseburgers, 20 piece chicken nug, 2 large fries and 2 cokes

McD’s is the ultimate fuel for Disneyworld, which is where we went the next morning.

magic

Disneyworld is huge. There’s like 6 miles of magic, which can be a little overwhelming. Our first stop was the Magic Kingdom. In an attempt to make it more magical (?) they surrounded the Magic Kingdom with water. Your only options to get to the gates are by ferry or monorail.  I opted for the ferry ride which was super hot and sticky and was the wrong choice. Jason opted for the monorail which, in hindsight, would have been the right choice because he is usually right when it comes to things like that.

After 67 minutes (not exaggerating) and a small arm sunburn later, we were in the park. We bought 100+ proof sunscreen and then made our way to Tomorrowland.

duh.

After spending several days in the Magic Kingdom we’ve become experts and our expert advice is: Disneyland is probably better than the Magic Kingdom. So you’re welcome, for those of you who were thinking about spending lots of money on plane tickets and Dramamine and rental cars. (Everything is better in California)

Except for Epcot.

Epcot doesn’t exist in California and this is probably the only reason why I’d recommend Disneyworld to anyone (over Disneyland).

the golf ball

Epcot exists for 1 thing, and that 1 thing is food. You get a chance to travel the world’s cuisine without actually traveling the world. Seriously, we ate brats in Germany (and beer), fish & chips in the UK (and cider), curry udon in Japan, lamb and hummus in Morocco, and pastries in France. You could even do that all in one day if you’d like (not recommended).

We broke away from our 7 day excursion in the Happiest Place on Earth to visit Universal Studios (but mostly just Harry Potter Land).

Hogwarts

There are a few things about Universal that suck. First of all they don’t let you take bags onto any ride so, after waiting in line forever, and passing several people who work at Universal, we would get to the front of the line for a ride and be turned away because we had a bag. Second, the rides are always broken. Don’t get excited about a ride because you’ll most likely walk all the way over there only to find that it’s broken down. These things are dumb and that’s why Disney will always be better.

However, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter changed my life: I drank butter beer and came almost face to face with Ron Weasley.

omg, butterbeer.

The only other ride worth riding in Universal is Jurassic Park and maybe the Hulk roller coaster.

Jason and I did a lot of theme park things but we also ate dinner at Seasons 52 where we had one of the best low-cal dinners we’ve ever tasted.

Rainbow Trout and other delicious things

We also smoked.

J’s version of Disneyworld

After 9 days of Disney honeymooning we were ready to come back to the Bay where streets are regulated by policemen and it doesn’t rain every afternoon at 4pm.

We give Disneyworld a B+ and Orlando a C-. We give Disneyland an A and California an A+ so, that’s why Disneyland is better.

The Disney experts

and a hidden mickey.

 

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox

Join other followers