Birthday 2023

This year, my birthday was on a Saturday, so we had a full weekend to celebrate!

We had a trivia night at a new brewery on Wednesday. It was a small place with only a few teams, but we met some new people and won! Friday we went for a potluck at Makbule's with all the international postdocs. We didn't stay all night because it gets cold in the evenings, but that's always fun.

Saturday was my birthday, so after cooking some pastries for breakfast, we went to Starbucks for my free birthday drink, and to pick some cupcakes to take on our picnic. 

Mitchell drove us up to Oak Glen Preserve and we walked around the trail to the picnic area. We'd brought sandwiches and the picnic blanket and had a lovely day in the sun. The evening we ordered sushi and watched a movie. 

Sunday was free museum day in lots of LA museums, so we got tickets for the La Brea Tar Pits. We arrived super early and got in as the last few parking spaces were being taken. The museum was filled with all of the fossils they'd excavated from the surrounding tar pits, including hundreds of direwolf skulls and some Colombian mammoth skeletons. They even had a section where you could see real scientists working on the fossils in a fish bowl in the middle of the museum. 

Outside the museum, you could walk around the park and see the tar pits where they'd found everything. The one they've been working on for the last couple of years had a viewing station over the top where you could see the active site and fossils half buried within. 

After exploring all around, we walked over to The Grove for some lunch. It's a really fancy feeling outdoor shopping mall, with the covered Farmers Market at the end. They had lots of food stands and we got tacos and some baked good to take home. 

That was our weekend, but the birthday festivities weren't over yet! On Tuesday, we headed out to LA again for our day at Disneyland! We parked in their enormous parking structure and after going through security, we got on the shuttle tram to the park gates. We entered the park and walked through main street, past all the gift shops and candy stores selling t-shirts, hats, giant cookies and candy apples. 

We walked through Sleeping Beauty's Castle to get to Fantasy Land. It was decorated as a small European city with tiny turrets, a carousel, and a town square. Our first ride was the Matterhorn bobsleds which went through a fake mountain, chasing a yeti through the dark. 

We then made our way over to Tomorrowland, which was all space themed. We went on Space Mountain which was a fast rollercoaster which went through rooms lined with stars and mirrors which was pretty and exciting! We also went on Nemo's submarine adventure which was an actual submarine which went around a lake, showing projections of the characters from Finding Nemo. 

We then went to Star Wars Region which was very new and very built up, just like a city from Star Wars. We went on two of the new rides and walked through the market, which sold Star Wars merchandise, but was set up like a street from the movies, which Mitchell found very cool. 

After that it was time for lunch at the Hungry Bear Restaurant, and a ride on Splash Mountain where I got VERY soaked. I was wearing denim dungarees and every part of me was wet other than the backs of my calves. Luckily it was a warm day and I did dry out before the sun went down. 

After this, we went to get some treats in Pooh Corner and then moved over to New Orleans. All the houses and shops were built like they were in New Orleans and decorated for Mardi Gras. There was even a big, 1920s style riverboat that circled around the lake. 

Here's where we got on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It started inside, and there was an entire restaurant on the other side of the indoor river. It was dark and lit with lanterns like we really were in Tortoga on a summers evening.

Next up was Adventure Land where we went on the Jungle Cruise, which was a funny tour along a river with animatronic animals. Our last area to visit was Frontierland which was all wild west themed and we went on Thunder Mountain which was a train rollercoaster which went through a mining town. 

After that, we'd hit all of the rides we wanted to and decided to take a look at some of the shops we'd passed earlier. I picked out a t-shirt and a puzzle for my birthday and then we went to Pizza Planet for some dinner before the end of day light show. We stood in front of the Castle and watched the display being projected on top with music, celebrating the 100 years of Disney. 

We'd had a long day, but it was so much fun seeing everything and going on the rides. It was a shame that a lot of the rides based on the Disney Classics were only for little kids, but we got to see all the areas and more.

Lots of love,

Emily and Mitchell

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