surprises for my hubby

One day I was struck with the inspiration to do a Google search. And, 5 days later, that landed John and I in Southern California.

We are going with his family to Nauvoo this coming week, and John had mentioned wanting to try and catch his favorite Jazz singer, Kurt Elling, at a club in Chicago where he usually sings. But he found out that Kurt was out on tour.

Then, last week, it popped in my head to search and see where Kurt was performing. And I found out that he would be in Hollywood the following week, then off to Europe. This could be John's last chance to see Kurt live for who knows how long. And I wanted to see him, too. John introduced me to Kurt Elling when we first started dating, and I've been addicted ever since. I hadn't been a jazz fan before, but I love it. Besides, John sang one of Kurt's songs, "The Beauty of All Things," to me at our wedding.

On another note, John has been wanting to go to Disneyland for a long time. His family went while he was on his mission, and he was sad that he missed the vacation.

What is right next to Hollywood? Anaheim...

After a few hours Googling hotels, ticket prices, (airline flights... I can dream, right?), I found a wonderful steal at a hotel right next to Disneyland, $25 tickets for Kurt's show, and discovered it was only 9 hours south of Provo.

Wanting to surprise John when he got home, I said, "I need you to pack a bag for three days! We're leaving on Tuesday," right when he got home. Then I remembered that John doesn't like surprises, and I can hardly keep secrets when they're this fun. So I spilled. And John liked. And we decided to make a car trip to California.
John standing by Frank Sinatra's handprints.

We got there a little early. I had predicted bad traffic, and gave us an extra two or three hours to travel to Hollywood. But we didn't hit any, so we were early. But we walked around some shops, saw the Walk of Fame, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Kodak Theatre, and Hollywood bums. It was fun.

Kurt's show was AMAZING! He sounds even better in person than on his CDs. And he was hilarious, and such a nice, chill guy. There were two shows, and we went to the earlier one, because we had to drive about 30 minutes to Anaheim to get to our hotel that night. He played with his pianist, Laurence Hobgood, and a bassist, drummer, and Ernie Watts, who plays sax. Ernie played for Jay Leno on the Tonight Show for years before Jay left. Then Ernie joined Kurt Elling and his band to tour around.

Ernie Watts playing a solo

Kurt singing "You Are Too Beautiful"

They played a bunch of songs from their new CD, and just "jammed." A few times I didn't know if they had practiced everything, or was just making it up as they were going along. But it was all amazing. After the show, John and I went over and talked to Kurt for a while. He was such a great guy, and we got a picture with him. Then he invited us to stay for the next show! We talked to the restraunt host, and he said we could just stay and not have to pay for the show if we order a few drinks. So we got some orange juices, and stayed to watch the next show. It was amazing, as well! It was totally different, with new jokes and songs.

Me, Kurt, and John at Catalina Bar and Grill on Sunset Blvd.

The next day we were off to Disneyland! The hotel we stayed at was just a few miles down Harbor Blvd. from the park, and they had a free shuttle right to the front gate. It was wonderful, because we didn't have to drive. The shuttle started an hour after the park opened, but it gave John and I a chance to catch some more sleep and it was worth it to not have to pay for parking.

Amazingly, the park wasn't crowded at all when we got there. We stopped in to Town Hall first and picked up some buttons that we wore all day that said, "Just Married." It was so fun! All of the workers and some guests of the park congratulated us all day. We went on all the best rides (Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Mr. Toad) all within the first two hours. It started to get crowded around lunch time, but with tricky fast pass skills we managed to not wait more than 10 or 15 minutes for a ride all day. We had a wonderful time!

John in front of the ticket booth before we bought our tickets

Entry tickets!

In front of Indiana Jones.

John screaming for joy, and me screaming from terror on Splash Mountain. "Laughing Place," my butt.

Thunder Mountain Railroad

Me and my favorite goats. I think they remembered me.

This is me with a goat last time I went to Disneyland.

There is a new ride, Nemo's Adventure, where the old submarine ride used to be. For that reason, we both wanted to go on it. We got there, and saw that the line had a 45 minute wait, and we stood there debating about if we wanted to ride it. As we were staring at the line, one of the Nemo workers came up to us and said, "I see you just got married! Congratulations. That's sweet. As part of the Disneyland experience, we want to make your stay magical! So why don't I get you to the front of this line?" We were so shocked and surprised! We went right up to the front of the line and boarded the very next submarine! It really made my day.

The bride and groom

IT'S A TRAP! (Click here, here and here)

He couldn't do it...


The whole trip was SO much fun! We had a fabulous time, stayed in a giant, warm, cushy, king sized bed (We had a hard time leaving it), and enjoyed seeing California. Now we're off to Nauvoo! Ciao!

~Allie J.

Quotes of the trip:

Kurt: " Hey, do me a solid, take a picture."

and

Kurt: "You gotta be awake for that whole, living thing, to happen."

and

Me: "I wanna ride the Matterhorn."
John: "That's what she said."