Apparently this comes as a shock to most people, but even after living in Southern California for over a year and going back to visit on an extremely regular basis, I have never been to Disneyland. Either that, or I might have been there when I was an infant, but I was far too young to remember… or maybe that was Universal Studios? Not sure.
I’m not really that big of a fan of amusement parks because I don’t really understand what the “magic” is behind the environment. If anything, I feel more of a dislike of that kind of environment because it feels too forced and artificial—there is insultingly joyful music, the decor on the street is unnaturally colorful, and there are too many screaming infants in mouse ears. Yes, I do understand the irony of the “forced” and “artificial” statement coming from someone who lives on the Las Vegas Strip, but still.
While I was in
Anaheim for DreamHack, I met up with a group of co-workers who wanted to go to the Downtown Disney District. Apparently there is a difference between Disneyland and Downtown Disney, where Disneyland is the amusement park where you have to pay an admission fee to get in, while Downtown Disney was open to the public for free.
Our first stop was at the Ballast Point Brewery, where I got some ahi tuna poke.
We were sitting in the outdoors area of the brewery, when Anaheim decided it would be a fantastic idea to dump a torrential downpour of rain on us. I fled back inside.
After we finished eating, we actually went
back to DreamHack Anaheim to meet up with a few more staff members, and to make sure that one of our Fortnite players would make it to his press interview.
Of course, making one round trip obviously isn’t enough, so we went back to Downtown Disney again for dinner. Keep in mind that the walk from the Anaheim Convention Center to the Downtown Disney District is just shy of a mile and a half, so at this point, I’ve already walked over 3 miles back and forth and an additional 2 miles or so inside the Convention Center, and my legs are starting to hurt.
Dinner was either at Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar, or Tangaroa Terrace Tropical Bar & Grill. Maybe we had dinner at both? Maybe they’re the same restaurant? I never found out, but I had a Hawaiian burger with pineapples in it. It was interesting.
And of course, my co-worker and I had driven from our hotel to the Convention Center, so after dinner, we had to walk
back to the Convention Center parking garage. With those two three-mile round trips, as well as all the additional walking I did in and around the Convention Center, my fitness tracker clocked in at the end of the day at 22,473 steps, equaling 10.31 miles. Apparently I set a personal one-day record for distance walked.