STL—>MSP—>LAX; 13,823 steps

Are you ready for a look at the “Happiest Trip on Earth?!?”

To celebrate Turkey’s and Bunny’s graduation, the three of us went on a trip to California, where we visited Disney California Adventure and Disneyland! Two weeks ago, we set out from St. Louis’ Lambert Airport:

Even I, an airport novice, could tell that Lambert is a very small airport:

It was the first time either Turkey or Bunny had flown, and it’s probably been 25 years since I have, so it was quite an adventure for us!

We had a decent layover in Minneapolis-St. Paul, so we had plenty of time to explore the airport, which we all really liked. It was big and bright and busy, and almost like a mall, with shops and restaurants everywhere. There was plenty to see (and lots of moving sidewalks, which I love, because they’re so much fun), so the time passed quickly.

We stopped at Shake Shack (another first for us) for lunch, and we absolutely loved it!

I also got to introduce Turkey and Bunny to Caribou Coffee (something I really enjoyed when I lived in Chicago)…we’re very excited that they’re slated to come to the St. Louis area soon!

Our gate was much bigger and more modern than the one in St. Louis:

We settled in for our long flight of the day, to Los Angeles:

I won’t lie, the airplane snacks and being able to watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off made me much more comfortable on this long flight!

It was fascinating to watch the landscape change from 35,000 feet as we traveled across the country…we even saw snow on the Rocky Mountains!

As we approached L.A., we were impressed by just how sprawling the city really is:

The airport was busy, although we certainly didn’t see much of it!

We took an Uber (another first for us) to our hotel, the Castle Inn and Suites, a “Disneyland Good Neighbor Hotel” just a few blocks from the parks:

I loved the theming!

Our room was simple, but nice:

I’m not going to lie…it was hard to get to sleep knowing that we were going to visit Radiator Springs the next day!