Luke was born and raised in Winnipeg, so he has always been a Jets fan. In 2015 when they made the playoffs (for the first time in 19 years) he was so excited – he started looking at ticket prices, but of course StubHub prices for the games in Winnipeg were ridiculous – like I’m talking $500+ per ticket per game. He jokingly sent me a text saying we should go to California to watch the two games being played in Anaheim, as tickets could be had for a fraction of the cost. I immediately went to talk to a co-worker, who is a travel agent on the side and after her initial shock at my request, got back to me quickly with prices. Despite the fact we had only been living in our new house for 6 weeks, we felt the cost of the flights and hotel was something we could afford, so we went ahead and booked it (after Luke and I talked to our bosses and got approval to take short-notice vacation). That happened on a Monday afternoon. Thursday morning we woke up, drove to the airport bright and early and flew to the John Wayne airport in Santa Ana, California.
We knew we wanted to avoid LAX, so John Wayne was a much smaller and closer option (and only cost us about $30 more than flying into LAX – the hour we saved getting from the airport to our hotel is worth way more than that!). I booked transportation from the airport to our hotel with SuperShuttle – it was cheap and easy. The ride to our hotel was quick too!
I figured if I was taking the time to fly all the way to California to cheer on the Jets, I could spend the $140 and buy a jersey for myself before I went. Luke of course already owned his.
Whenever we travel, we tend to always book fairly cheap hotels, we typically don’t spend much time in our room anyways. For this trip, we stayed at the Super 8 on Katella Ave, which wasn’t the fanciest, but it did the trick. Plus, they had availability on our short-notice schedule!
Thursday after arriving at our hotel and checking in, we left our luggage with the front desk since our room was not yet ready, and went for a walk. We were right beside the Anaheim Gardenwalk so we stopped at the Cheesecake Factory for lunch.
That night we went to game 1 of the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs between the Anaheim Ducks and the Winnipeg Jets. It was a great game, but unfortunately the Jets lost 🙁 Our seats were in the nosebleeds, but we were still in the arena for an NHL playoff game – check that off my bucket list!
Friday we spent the entire day at Disney’s California Adventure Park (I’ll link to the report for that day once I have it up).
Saturday we did some shopping at the Outlets at Orange, ate lunch at In N’ Out burger (I don’t understand the hype about that place at all, it was just ok) and then went back to the Honda Centre to watch game 2 of the series. In the few days we had between booking the trip and actually flying to California, I had done a bit of research and managed to get us a reservation at the Standing O’ restaurant located inside the arena prior to the game.
The game was another great one, but it also ended in another heartbreaking loss for the Jets.
Sunday we spent the day at Disneyland (again, the trip report link will be posted once I have it up).
Monday morning we woke up and had a bit of time before we needed to catch the SuperShuttle, so we walked back over to the Gardenwalk and went to Bubba Gump’s for lunch.
After eating, it was time to head back to the airport and head home. We both had to be back to work on Tuesday morning.
It was a very quick trip, but so worth it (despite the Jets losing both games). We both really loved the city of Anaheim, and we fell in love with Disney while we were there – we came home and almost immediately booked a trip to Orlando to visit Walt Disney World. Plus, hockey tickets are so cheap in Anaheim! It’s too bad the Angels were on the road, I would have loved to have caught a baseball game while we were there as well! Oh well, save that for another trip (perhaps plan it when the Blue Jays are visiting the Angels?)