Golden Birthday Extravaganza: Surprise Day at Disney!

The day after my birthday was the day we were scheduled to head home, we were so sad to say goodbye to beautiful sunny California and Disneyland. We packed up and drove to the airport, when we got there we were greeted with chaos.  The lines were super long and not budging, then we started noticing that flights were getting labeled as cancelled on the flight screens.  Our flight, was one of those flights.  So, when it was finally our turn at the counter, we discussed all our options.  In the end, our best option was to stay one more day and catch the same flight tomorrow morning.  So what do you do when you find yourself with an unexpected day in Anaheim....? DISNEYLAND!!!  Every time a vacation comes to an end, I secretly hope something happens so that we get one more day,  I could NOT believe it was actually happening, and in Disneyland!

We dumped all our luggage at the airport hotel and headed straight to Disney.  It was so fun to see all the festive halloween decorations during the day, and to have more time to take it all in!  We were rushing around everywhere the night of the party so I didn't have time to soak in all the decorations.

I took lots of pictures of them

This was the first time I had noticed the wall paper in the front entry of the Haunted Mansion, it's gorgeous!  So call me nerdy but I had to take pictures of it because I am obsessed with anything art nouveau and this was such a cool example of that style.

We also didn't have time to check out the carnival during the party so I was so happy to be able to see it!  It was so fun and so adorable.

One carnival tent was called "Summon a Villain"  we went in to check it out.  I was just as excited as all the kids, it was pretty fun.

We summoned Captain Hook!

Then it was time for lunch.  We had a reservation that we had made that morning at Cafe Orleans, the best restaurant in Disney!  More southern food!

I had my first ever Disney style mint julep

The halloween special, braised short ribs 

and PUMPKIN BEIGNETS with vanilla cream anglaise

Pumpkin beignets.  They were better then they sound.

Disney's Day of the Dead decorations were so fun and festive, I loved them.

Then we said goodbye for real and flew home the next morning.

Here are a couple of pictures from our first day in Anaheim, we spent it in California Adventure.  I didn't have enough pics for a whole post, so I am just tacking them on to this one.  Laura was picking Bethy up at the airport, so that is why most of the pics are of me and Ang.  But we got a few group shots when lu and B met up with us!

Angie had made these adorable ears when she moderated the book club discussion on Walt Disney's Biography.  To see pictures from that fun night click HERE.  She made a pair for each of the lands in Disneyland.  Tomorrow Land, Frontier Land, Fantasy Land, and New Orleans square.  So we each got to represent a different land!