A few weeks ago we went to Disneyland with two of our friends! We visited the California Adventure park and got to see lands like the Pixar Pier, Cars Land, San Fransokyo, and Grizzly Park. Since she grew up in Florida, Ria is a big fan of the Disney parks (borderline Disney adult…). Jena hadn’t been to any of the parks around Caltech yet (Universal, Six Flags, Knotts Berry Farm to name a few), so we decided to go together!

With Caltech only being an hour drive from Disneyland, our day started at 9 am and we arrived around 10 am. When we got to the park, we noticed that the biggest ride in the park had a wait time of only 30 minutes so we immediately knew where to start. We bolted to the famous Radiator Springs Racers, excitingly racing another car while surrounded by beautiful orange rocks. We did a few other rides in the Cars Land area before heading to lunch.

We then went on to ride some of the most famous rides – Guardians of the Galaxy, Goofy’s Sky School, the Ferris Wheel, and the Incredicoaster (which we loved so much we rode 9 times!). We especially enjoyed posing for the different pictures on the rides, trying to coordinate as much as we could. We went on a few rides that included a game component. Our friend was assigned a beaver on one of the game rides, showing her Caltech spirit!

By the end of the night, we had gone through most of the rides we wanted to, and had even ridden some more than once. However, there was one ride – the Zephyr – which we got continually unlucky with. The ride is kind of like a circular swings ride but you’re in a rocketship instead! Both times that we have come to California Adventure in the past, it had been closed so neither of us had ever ridden it before. Thus, we were disappointed to see that it was closed the day we went due to wind conditions. We even went back a few more times to check and it was still closed. After giving up hope, we were riding the Ferris wheel around sunset and from the tallest point in the park, we saw that the Zephyr was indeed running. As soon as we got off the Ferris wheel, we booked it to the Zephyr and were luckily able to ride it 10 minutes before the park closed.

A few hours before leaving the park, we joined the notoriously long Din Tai Fung waitlist. One recently opened in Downtown Disney so it was only a 5 minute walk from the park. We concluded the night with scrumptious spicy wontons and chocolate xiao long bao around 10 pm before driving back to Pasadena.

Luckily, this term none of us had classes on Fridays so we were able to get the cheaper weekday price and shorter lines! This was a great way to destress after a long midterms week. Even though Caltech is stressful, its location in southern California provides access to so many fun attractions in the broader Los Angeles area to take your mind off of work and spend quality time with friends!