Geek Travel to Anaheim

Anaheim, known for being the home of Disneyland. At the end of October this year, me and my friend Nicole spent some time in Anaheim and Orange before moving onto Los Angeles for a convention. We had flown in late on Tuesday evening, and then drove out Friday morning. This gave us 3 whole days in the city. Here are some things you can get up to if you have some time in Anaheim, whether it's for a convention, or just a trip in the general SoCal area.

Where we stayed : Clarion Hotel Anaheim

The Clarion is your basic hotel. I booked this through air miles because they were offering special pricing and bonus miles when I was looking. With the special pricing they ran we got 2 double beds for approx $100 CAD a night.

The nice thing about this hotel is that it put us roughly a 15 to 20 minute walk to the front gates of Disneyland. There was a Starbucks in a neighboring hotel, and a CVS down the road. Bonus, if you are attending something like Wondercon, or Blizzcon, you can see the Anaheim Convention Center from the front doors.


Where We Ate

Watson’s Soda Fountain & Cafe. This retro styled soda bar/pharmacy was a great place to stop by in the 40 degree heat. They had inexpensive lunch options. I personally grabbed myself a strawberry caprese salad that ended up being way more food than I could handle. I also grabbed myself an orange creamsicle pop that matched a little Halloween owl I had just bought at target. If I wasn’t dealing with a stomach ache from milk I had consumed earlier, I would have grabbed an adult malt or float.

The Pizza Press. Exhausted from spending the day in the heat, Pizza Press Delivered what we needed. Legit, we ordered delivery not wanting to leave our hotel. Menu items are named with a newspaper theme, with a range of ingredients. There menu also gives you an option to just create your own pizza, picking toppings, cheese, and sauce. As two picky people, this was right up our alley.

Where We Shopped

Elsewhere Vintage. A short uber ride from our hotel, Elsewhere in located in a more historical district of orange. The area is populated with antique, vintage, and thrift shops. One shop that stood out was Elsewhere. Elsewhere carried a range of femme/women’s vintage clothing. Where I live, we lack curated shops like these. I love how clothing was organized by decade, with more valuable pieces up on the walls for display. They had stuff from turn of the century, up to the 50s. In the photo above, this the fantastic top I found at Elsewhere. The great thing about this store was all the reasonable prices. This plaid button top fit me perfectly, and was only $40.

Joyride is situated right next door to Elsewhere. Joyride carried more masculine vintage clothing. We swooned over suits from the turn of the century, and their selection of wool plaid. In that back of the store they also had a milliner, displaying all sorts of hats, and offering repairs. Nicole ended up picking herself up a cummerbund to go with a tailcoat that she had.

What We Did

Disneyland. The main reason we stayed in Anaheim for a couple of days. We ended up not going to their specific Halloween party, but the parks were still all decorated up with pumpkins and bats. I don’t know how we survived 12 hours in almost 40 degree weather, but we did it. First stop was mickey ears, and then space mountain. I finally got to ride the freaking tea cups, which was closed when I went to Disney world when I was 16 with my family. Haunted mansion also got a Nightmare before Christmas decorating. I never got a mickey shaped pretzel, but I did get a witch Minnie themed candy apple with is way more my aesthetic anyways.

These are just the best of the stuff that we did while we were in Anaheim. If you are ever in the area I would totally suggest checking out any of these places. They are all places I am totally going to hit up again if I find myself in the Anaheim area again sometime soon.