The 7 Wonders of California (Riverside and surrounding areas) (listed in the order visited)
On our way to California we listened to Mary Poppins and other
various Disney favorites in preparation for our Disney filled day Friday. I was
pretty excited since I hadn’t been since I was 6 or so. Frankly, we were all
just excited about 80 degree weather in February. We stayed with Lara’s mother
who lives in California.
Wonder #1 --Disneyland
We got to Lara’s mom’s house at around 1:00 am Friday morning.
We went straight to bed and were off to Disneyland by about 9:15. A 1-day
hopper pass to Disneyland and California Adventure is about 130 dollars. Luckily,
Lena got two free tickets because of some connection she has with her editing
work for BYU. Yeah, we got all kinds a hookups 'round here.
I know what you're thinking. What is that giant peace of meat I'm holding?! We purchased a giant turkey leg for lunch since my co-worker told me
about it, and it was humungous. We were all picking at it with our fingers and
it was really messy. We didn’t know any other way to eat it, so it was pretty
funny.
Disneyland was fun. Contrary to the popular saying—It is most definitely
NOT the happiest place on earth. It’s something I would like to do maybe once
every decade or so. It’s just too crowded. I could maybe enjoy something like
that much more if there weren’t a million people. But we had a good time none
the less. My favorite rides were probably the pirates ride, the Jungle Safari
and maybe Space Mountain. The new Cars ride is really awesome too, over at
California Adventure. Cars Land was probably my favorite thing.
The parades were super fun and a definite highlight of the day
for me. We saw one over in the California Adventure park and then another one
in Disneyland. It’s really fun because all characters of certain movies go
through together and they are usually pretty complete. For example we saw the
Incredibles with pretty much all the main characters, Finding Nemo, Toy Story,
and many others. I was kinda bummed that we didn’t see many Disney characters
throughout the park. We really wanted to see Jack Sparrow and get our picture
with him, but he didn’t come out at least while we were around.
Wonder #2--The Beach
Saturday we had
another full day, but more laid back. We went to Huntington beach first and
just chilled. We looked for seashells and walked on the beach, in the water. We
did some ballet, karate and meditation and enjoyed the sand and the sun. Then
we ate lunch at Ruby’s on the pier and took the ferry over to Balboa
Island. 
Wonder #3--Balboa Island
Balboa Island is a fun little island that is small enough that you can walk all
the way around it in about an hour. We enjoyed seeing all of the cute beach
houses and we stopped to take a short nap on the beach. The weather was just
beautiful. We bought some fresh strawberries—so delicious! And we stopped in a
few of the shops on the Island.
Wonder #4--The Mission Inn
According to Lara, it was originally built for
monks to live there and teach/tutor Native Americans. Now it's a fancy Hotel
and lots of Celebrities and other important people stay there. I totally loved
exploring this place! It was so awesome! The architecture was SO stunning, and
I was amazed that they let visitors just wander around the place. I was truly
amazed by it.
Wonder #6--Miguel’s Jr.
Lara raved about this place and its burritos and I must say they
were quite delicious. After exploring the Mission Inn to our hearts' content,
we each devoured a delicious burrito and headed home feeling very
satisfied.
Wonder #7--California State Historical Citrus Park
We were in orange citrus heaven! Oranges
EVERYWHERE! We just parked and walked through the orange groves-smelling
as hard and as much as was possible for our little sniffers. We even saw a
couple of grapefruit trees as well.
And one tasty California breakfast.
And so we experienced the 7 wonders of Riverside California. And they were good.
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