How to Do Disneyland in the Heat

I was in Disneyland at the beginning of July and managed to be there during the hottest day Disneyland has ever had. The temperate hit a record 116 degrees that day and to say that it was hot is an understatement. 

That day was an unusually hot day but summer in Disneyland can easily be in the 90s and does get into the low 100s on some days so if you go between May and October you have to be prepared for Disneyland in the heat.  That day I was there aside as long as you are prepared Disneyland in the heat can be quite nice.

The first thing you have to make sure you are doing when the weather is hot it drink plenty of water.  Disneyland has water fountains next to almost all of their bathrooms so I always make sure I take a few drinks every time I use the restroom.  If you bring your own bottle this is also a great time to fill your bottle or you can use the little filtered taps that some of the counter service places have like The Mint Julip Bar.  Another great way to fill your water bottle is to go into any counter service restaurant and ask for a cup of water. You can then dump the water into your bottle and continue with your day.  Sometimes they even have a tray of waters out for you to grab when the weather is especially hot.

When it is hot outside the obvious choice is to seek air conditioning and the indoors.  There a couple of places that are great places to achieve this. In Disneyland take advantage of the air conditioning in the Star Wars Launch Bay in Tomorrowland. You can look a props from the movies, play video games or my favorite thing, meet characters.  The queues for Pirates of the Caribbean and  It's A Small World are at least partially outside but once you get on the rides you are in air conditioning for at least 10-15 minutes which makes them great ways to cool off.

In California Adventure one of the best places to enjoy the air conditioning is inside the Animation Academy.  You can meet Ana & Elsa if you are in the mood for characters, see Turtle Talk with Crush, visit Beast's Library or draw a character.  If you do all 4 things it will easily give you an hour in the air conditioning.  Another place to enjoy the air conditioning is in the Frozen show.  The show isn't quite as good as the Aladdin show that was there before but it is still cute. 

The obvious choice for a snack when it is hot out is ice cream and Disneyland has no shortage of places to get ice cream. For soft serve I like the Cozy Cone motel and you can never go wrong at the Gibson Girl for traditional ice cream.  Every time I have been there the line at Adorable Showman has been outrageous so I have not tried their lemon soft serve yet but I have heard good things.

If you are in the mood for something cold that is not ice cream than I highly recommend the Boysen Apple Freeze from Maurice's Treats near the entrance to Fantasyland. It is a nice slushy drink that is not too sweet and so refreshing.  There are a couple of places around the park to get other slushy drinks but this one is my favorite.  Bing Bong's just opened and has a whole variety of slushy drinks but from what I have heard they are very sweet so I am hesitant to try one on my next trip.

Sometimes on a hot day you just need to go somewhere indoors to eat (and have a cocktail). All of the restaurants in Downtown Disney have indoor seating that you can take advantage of but if you walk a little further you get to the Disneyland Hotel which houses one of my favorite spots to have a cocktail.  Trader Sam's is not only has an indoor space but despite the fact that it is a bar kids are welcome until 8 PM. The food is good there and the cocktails are even better but the atmosphere is the best.

If you want to stay in the parks my favorite air conditioned place to eat in California Adventure is the Carthay Circle Lounge.  Sometimes there is a line to get in since they don't take reservations but if you don't go directly at lunch time the wait is usually no more than about 15 minutes.  The food and drinks here are fantastic. Get the tacos and you won't regret it.  An added bonus of a sit down place is that they bring you glass after glass of water to keep you hydrated. 

The final place I recommend heading to on a hot day takes a little more pre-planning because reservations are required.  If you know it is going to be a hot day I completely recommend getting reservations for Afternoon Tea at the Disneyland Hotel. Make them for right in the middle of the hot day and you will be glad you did. You will feel all swanky (and cool) sitting there eating scones, little tea sandwiches and delicious desserts. They serve both hot tea and iced tea too.  Read all about my fun time at tea here for more about the full menu.

Another important thing to remember when the weather is hot (and even when it is not) is to wear sunscreen.  Even if you to stay in the shade and walk in the stores (another great way to get some air conditioning) you will still spend a considerable amount of time in the sun so protect your skin! Speaking of your skin, if you are like me and definitely don't have a thigh gap wearing shorts or a dress in the heat can present a unique problem. After walking all day in the heat you may notice your thighs rubbing together a bit too much for your liking and chafing isn't fun. I have found the best way to prevent this is with an anti-chafe stick like Megababe or BodyGlide.  You put it on like deodorant and it does the job. Like sunscreen you do have to reapply it in the middle of the day but if you are reapplying sunscreen anyway just add this in.

Final tip for hot weather in Disneyland: DRINK WATER!

What's Up Wednesday

It is time for another What's Up Wednesday since the month is almost over.  I can't believe we are more than halfway though the year.

What we're eating this week:  It has been pretty warm here recently so I have been trying to avoid using the oven too much.  I would like to avoid using the stove too but that is easier said than done.  I have been loving salads with grains in them recently.

What I'm reminiscing about: I have been fairly busy lately so I have really been wishing for a beach vacation to just sit and soak up the sun while reading a good book. It probably won't be happening anytime soon but I can dream.

What I'm loving: I am loving that my youngest sister has an summer job about half an hour away so she has been living at our house for the past month.  She is only here another week but we have done some fun things while she has been here.  Last weekend we even went to Raging Waters.









What we've been up to: This past weekend my husband and I went down to my parents' house to celebrate my dad's birthday.  My mom bought a bunch of cheese and said make this look pretty.  I think my cheese plate turned out pretty well!

What I'm dreading: I have had a bunch of doctor's appointments recently and been on some medication recently so I am hoping all of this comes to an end soon. Sorry to be vague but more on this topic at a later time. Nothing life threatening but still no fun.

What I'm working on: I am working on eating healthy and continuing to go to the gym consistently.  I got some new workout leggings at the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale and they have been getting plenty of use.

What I'm excited about: I have some exciting things potentially happening later in the year so I am trying to focus on those instead of the less fun things in life.

What I'm watching/reading: Earlier this year all 15 seasons of ER showed up on Hulu so I am slowly working my way thorough that. I have seen some whole seasons and others episodes as reruns but have never watched the whole thing in chronological order. I am a couple of episodes away from the end so I should finish the whole series by the end of the week.

What I'm listening to: Mostly whatever comes on my Pandora which is usually a mix of country and a random mix of 90s-00s pop music.  Everyone needs some Britney in their life every once in a while.


What I'm wearing: I just got part of my Nordstrom order (the rest is supposed to arrive today) so I have lots of new fun things to wear.  It is still a little too warm to wear this dress and this fun plaid shirt but as soon as the weather cools off I will be ready.  In the meantime I bought two new versions of t-shirt since I love the other ones I have from previous years.  I have lots of solid color ones so this year I got two different striped versions.

What I'm doing this weekend: My sister's birthday is today so I think we are going to celebrate by wine tasting in Carmel Valley with some of my family.  It should be fun and the weather there is always cooler than it is at my house so that is always a plus.

Happy Wednesday!

The Food of Pixar Fest

In addition the the opening of Pixar Pier last month Disneyland is celebrating all summer with Pixar Fest. The new foods of Pixar Pier are a permanent addition but the foods of Pixar Fest are only available until September 3rd. 

The cheeseburger pizza in Disneyland and the color changing noodles in California Adventure have been getting lots of press but those aren't the foods I was looking forward to trying. I always like a good Disney cake pop so I was excited to try the Luxo Ball cake pop.  There are some other fun Pixar inspired cake pops too (the Dug is super cute) but I choose this one because it is vanilla not chocolate. I know I am weird but as much as I like chocolate in other things I don't really like chocolate cake.  This vanilla cake pop was delicious! It is available at all the candy stores in both parks and in Downtown Disney.

Another thing I was very excited to try was this Temperamental Taste Shifting Corn Dog at the Corn Dog Castle in California Adventure. It was a hot link on one end and a chicken Cajun sausage at the other end with pepper jack cheese in the middle and a blackberry serrano chili dipping sauce. The dipping sauce and the cheese portion were delicious but one of the sausages had a really think casing on it that made it hard to get a good bite through.  If it were just a battered cheese stick like the special at Halloween time it would have been fabulous. 

The Dole Whip doughnut from the Cappuccino Cart in Disneyland has been all over social media and looked delicious but it was not available while I was there. Since the specialty doughnuts sell out quickly I went there first thing in the morning to see what they had. This Up! doughnut was too cute to resist.  I thought it might have a filling in it but it was just a cutely decorated doughnut.  The balloons were little chocolate balls so this doughnut was not short on sugar.  It had so much sugar that I couldn't eat it all in one sitting so I recommend sharing this beauty with someone.

At the Golden Horseshoe in Frontierland I got the mac and cheese bites with cheese sauce and cowboy caviar.  It wasn't the hugest portion but it was delicious. I am a big fan of cheese in pretty much any form so I was confident that I would like it. This was the vegetarian option but they also had mac and cheese bites with hearty meat chili on them too.  I loved the vegetarian version but the meat version also looked delicious.

The item I was most excited to try was actually the Monster's Inc Mint Milkshake from Smoozies in California Adventure.  I love mint chip milkshakes and this one with all the fun Monster's Inc colors in it looked so fun.  It tasted delicious and looked so pretty to start with but once the chocolate sauce got mixed in the whole shake was kind of a brown color. Take your pictures at the beginning and then enjoy!

I didn't get a chance to try a couple of the things I was hoping to try but there is always a chance I will get to go back before Pixar Fest ends. 

Nordstrom Anniversary Sale Picks

In case you haven't been on social media recently (since it seems to be all over) the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale started this past Thursday if you are a Nordstrom card holder. Those who don't have a Nordstrom card will have to wait until this Friday but since I have a card I have been doing some shopping.

There are certain things that I know go on sale every year that are a staple part of my wardrobe so I always make sure to budget for those in July.  I always buy a few fun things but I don't go crazy and try to stick to the staples. 

My husband always jokes that I buy a years worth of underwear but that really isn't much of a stretch.  My favorite every day underwear are the mid rise Hanky Panky and I always stock up on basically as many as I will need to get me to next year's sale.  I also stocked up on these underwear to wear when I don't feel like wearing thongs. I got a new t-shirt bra and instead of just getting basic nude I decided to also get it in pale pink too.

Another thing I always stock up on are Zella leggings since I wear them all the time.  I love the high waisted cropped leggings with the fun cut out that were part of the sale this year.  I have my eyes on these leggings in navy blue but they must have not made very many of them because they are already sold out.  Pro Tip: If you see something you want at the sale that is sold out just keep checking because sometimes they restock things and other times people return things and if you catch it at the right time you can snag it.

I needed a new pair of jeans so I got this pair. My other pair of jeans I have is the same brand so I am hoping the pair I got are as great as the pair I already have. They didn't have my size left in the store so I had to order them. They should arrive this week so hopefully they fit!

In addition to stocking up on some basics I also go a few fun pieces to wear this fall and winter when the weather cools down. I had to order the correct size but I am super excited about this dress and hoping it fits.  It is going to look so cute with ballet flats to work or cute little tennis shoes for running errands. Apparently varsity stripes are having a thing this year because I also picked up this shirt for weekends.

One of my favorite purchases from the sale this year is the most fabulous pair of rainbow glitter flats from the kids department.  Another Pro Tip: If you wear a size 7 in woman's shoes you can wear a size 5 in big kids shoes. Kids shoes are much cheaper than adult shoes and often the same styles come in adult and kids sizes. Most kids shoes go up to a size 5 and many actually go up to a size 6 so even if you wear a size 8 in woman's you may be able to wear kids shoes.

I bought a few more things and ordered more so once everything arrives and I decided what I am keeping I will do another post on all much purchases. Happy Shopping!

Stitch Fix #34

There were a couple of really cute things in my box this month but for various reasons again I didn't end up keeping anything.  I am only trying to buy things I love or need to add/replace in my closet so that ended up being the reason much of this box went back.

These shorts were cute and fit well once I got them on but because they didn't have a zipper they took quite the effort to get them on and off.  This was the main reason I ended up sending them back but the color also wasn't a color I wear much.

I loved the fit and cut of this shirt but since it was white it was a bit see though and I can't have that. I wish it had been a different color because I really liked it.

This dress was also pretty cute but for some reason I just wasn't in love with it.  I think it was that the fabric was a little too artificial for my taste especially the slip underneath. 

This was the one thing that I knew from the second I pulled it out of the box that it was going back.  I didn't like the color and I just don't like criss cross strap things across the neckline of shirts.  

This grey and while striped shirt was cute and the material was soft but I just didn't feel like it was anything special so I sent it back too.

I am excited to get my next box because while I didn't end up keeping anything this time most of it fit and was my style.