Hopp's Hockey Weekend: LA Edition

It's that time again! The annual father/daughter hockey weekend. This year we packed our bags and headed to sunny CALIFORNIA. Except it was not sunny and definitely not warm, and after a series of delayed flights we hit the highway and raced (or slowly crawled due to LA traffic) toward Irvine and the SoCal Hops.

It's always great to see Jim and his family. But holy smokes his girls (Mckenna and Madison) are so grown up! Like I knew they were growing up, but time flies and they have become such wonderful young women! We also met their dog, the cutest labradoodle. Harley, who looks like a stuffed animal was so cute. My dad and Jim, the girls, and myself hung out for a little while, and after awhile it was late and I was exhausted so we all went to bed. It was wonderful to catch up with the family, even if just for a bit.

Friday we woke up and went to the Happiest Place on Earth! Disneyland! Well, California Adventure, but nevertheless it was wonderful. Mainly because I LOVE Disney. We started our day planning our route around the park (which ended up not being effective at all, which the Industrial Engineer in me just had to get over). And we started by grabbing our fast passes to Cars. That ride is the best so while we were waiting for our fast passes to kick in we headed to Soarin'. We waited in line, it wasn't bad, and the ride was AWESOME! It was fun to fly over the Taj Mahal and the Eiffel Tower which I had just traveled to. But my favorite part was flying over the Desert Southwest and Monument Valley, because that felt like home.

My dad and I took my cousin Mckenna on her first upside down roller coaster and she mastered it like a champ. I think it was just the wind that made her shed a tear. After lunch we went back to Cars Land to get our kicks on Route 66 (and use out Fast Passes)! I love Cars Land. It's such a perfect imagery of the good 'ole days along Route 66. From the Cozy Cone Motel (like the Wigwam in Hollbrook) to the Red Rocks (like outside of Gallup), Cars Land make me feel at home around Route 66. And the ride itself is perhaps my favorite.

The rest of the day was filled with Frozen the Musical (aka adult nap time), and attempt to ride Guardians of the Galaxy (two and a half hour wait? No thanks!), going on the interactive Toy Story Ride which includes a game (possibly my second favorite ride, and I obviously won the game), and a wonderful day with my dad, uncle and cousins.

We ended the day at In-N-Out. Don't judge us.

Saturday was GAME DAY! We headed over to the Staples Center to see the Hawks take on the Kings for the #battleofthebottom. But seriously, both teams were on the STRUGGLE BUS this year. LA was trying to win to end a 10 game losing streak, and well Chicago was just trying to pick up two points. As always we watched warm up. One of these days I will get a puck (even if I have to make a sign)! And then the game started.

And it was a rough one. After going down 0-2 after two penalties the game was pretty much over. There was still some good hockey, the hawks just could not recover from the early setbacks. But it was the first time in a while that Toews and Kane played the same line. Which was a treat because they are our favorite players.

The game didn't end the way we wanted but that didn't mean our evening was going to end the same way.

Enter: Shake Shack. I hyped this burger to my dad. Like really hyped it up. Pretty much talking about it for two straight days. So instead of trying to find a great local place to eat dinner. We went to Shake Shack (you can read about my love of Shake Shack here). We got a couple of ShackBurgers, some cheesy fries, and a shake. And according to my dad, it was not an over-hyped burger.

We didn't have much time Sunday before we flew out, but it was another great weekend that I got to spend with my Dad. I'm a pretty lucky girl to have a dad fly all around the country to chase a hockey team and spend some time with me!