Tinker Bell Half Weekend: part 1

I decided after my twitter poll yesterday and uploading pictures to my computer that my Tinker Bell Half Marathon recap would occur in 2 parts.  I have so many pictures I want to include that one post would be crazy long (heck, this one is long enough!).  I can't believe it's actually been 6 months since I booked this race and that I was in Nevada visiting Kirsten when I did - seems like forever ago.

The weekend started with my flight in to Orange County Friday night after working all day.  I had one of these on the plane to try and relax a bit and sleep, but I was too hyped up.  

Vodka Cranberry? Yes, Please!

The flights were both great, except for the last 30 min heading into Orange County.  Let's just say I have a whole new appreciation for the Santa Ana Winds.  Yikes.

Beki picked me up at what was about 1:30 am my time and we headed to our hotel and crashed.  Well, after chatting and catching up for a bit :)  Still, even though I was completely exhausted, I woke up at 5:30 am (which was 8:30 my time) and couldn't get back to sleep.  I checked the weather and it looked beautiful out.  The winds were still blowing really strong too.

Check out those palm trees!

We finally crawled out of bed and walked to IHOP for breakfast.  Bad, starving blogger I am-I didn't take a picture of my carb and protein loaded breakfast.  After we finished eating, it was off to the Disneyland Hotel for the Tinker Bell Half Marathon Expo! 

On our way to the expo - pic from Beki

Beki and I made it into line and even though the line was long, picked up our race packets in no time.  They had a couple cute places to pose for pictures.

I love the limited edition Disney pin and necklace I bought. 

After we got our numbers we headed upstairs into the expo area.  Beki and I were disappointed that the Dooney & Bourke purses were already sold out, but I got some other fun swag. 

We ran into some friends at the expo, too! This is Peter Pan, I mean Carrie from #teamsparkle. (I could have sworn I had pictures of Tiffany and Anna, too, but I guess I don't - bad blogger.)

After hanging out at the expo for a couple hours, we headed over to Disneyland!! (I've been to Walt Disney World in Florida many times, but this was my first trip to California and I couldn't let the opportunity to play at Disneyland and California Adventure pass me by!) The weather was absolutely PERFECT - too hot almost for this Michigan girl (but I wasn't going to complain).

After playing in Disneyland for most of the day, we headed back into Downtown Disney to find some dinner. Sadly, the Italian restaurant had a 1.5 hour wait (note to self-reservations next time) so we settled on burgers and fries as our prerace dinner.  We had park hopper tickets, so Beki and I headed into California Adventure for a little while and took in the sights and a couple rides.

California Screamin' was A.Maze.Balls - only I rode this one.

After our quick trip through California Adventure (which I'd love to visit again sometime) we headed back to the hotel and got our stuff ready for our 3:15 wake-up call.  Lights out by 9:00 pm.

Stay tuned...part 2: Race Day coming later this week!