Summer Vacation: The End

After our two VERY FULL days at the Disney parks, we were all glad for a morning to sleep in.  We slept in, packed up, Zach walked back to get a rental car for our drive to the airport (after realizing that, with our hefty State Farm discount, just renting a car for the hour drive to the airport would be cheaper...and qualitatively way better...than taking an Uber), and then we had one more fun activity before it was time to head for home.

Breakfast with Goofy and friends at the Disneyland Hotel!!

Our buffet brunch with Goofy and friends was fantastic!!  The food was fabulous, and there was so much variety.  From the made-to-order omelets to the french toast and waffles to the fruit bar (seriously, they might have had the best strawberries I've ever had) to the huge dessert spread to some good-looking lunch options (although I primarily stuck with the breakfast foods)...and my favorite...

the specialty pizzas.  I tried the chicken and waffles pizza, the smore's pizza, and the PB & J pizza.  I'm not sure what it was about it, but I LOVED the PB & J pizza.  I had 3 pieces...on top of all the other food I was loading up on.  

While we were eating our mounds of food, we also got to meet Dale, Chip, Pluto, and Minnie as they came around the restaurant.  

All the characters spent time interacting with us, took pictures, and then a few times throughout our meal, they danced/marched around the restaurant.  

I love that my kids, even as they get older, still get excited about meeting characters and really enjoy the character meals that we do.

After we stuffed ourselves, Adelie and Briggs amused themselves on the escalators in the hotel while Zach paid the bill.

We had heard horror stories about LA traffic and the craziness of LAX airport, so we gave ourselves ample time to get to the airport, return our rental, and get through security for our flight.  In the end, all that time was totally unnecessary.  We didn't hit any significant traffic, our rental car return and shuttle ride was quick and easy, and there were literally only about 10 people in front of us to go through security at LAX.  On the plus side, we had our choice of any seats we wanted at the gate and had a few hours to read and relax before it was time to board our plane.

After 10 days of exploring and staying in hotels and rental places, driving rental cars, and mostly eating restaurant meals, it felt really good to get back home...even if we were pulling in at 2:00 in the morning.

What a fun trip we had!  One of my favorite things ever is trip planning and taking my family to places we've never been before.

I love when my kids try new things and show how capable they are.  Some of my most defining life moments were trips that I took that showed me new places, allowed me to experience new things, and often pushed me out of my comfort zone.  I want that for my children as well.

Whether it's challenging kayaking or climbing higher than they thought they could or doing a hard hike, it is so rewarding to see them prove to themselves just what they can do.

I love the bonding moments and funny memories and shared stories and all the little things that make each trip unique.

I love trip planning.  There is always give and take in my planning efforts since different members of the family value different things.  My husband would be happy hiking through national parks for weeks on end.  He would also be happy if we never set foot in a Disney park or city center again.  On the converse side, my kids typically list Disney as their favorite vacation spot and are often ready for something different after a few days of hiking.  Luckily, I'm a travel chameleon and just enjoy it all.

This trip hit a little of everything.  We had outdoors and hiking.  We had beautiful scenery and solitude.  We had wildlife and beaches.  We had time as our own little family and time with others.  We had cities and theme parks.  In the span of 10 days, we fit in a lot of experiences that encompassed different favorites for different members of the family.

No trip is perfect, and this trip wasn't either.  There was whining and complaining and arguing.  There were early mornings and late nights and tired kids and grumpy adults.  There were things that didn't go quite as smoothly as planned (flight delays anyone?) and things we could have done better or differently.  There was one certain member of the family that wore their "seriously, we got up at 6 in the morning to just stand in line" face for the first few hours of our Disney time and another family member that will be happy if we never make kayaking part of our trips again.  

But when it was all said and done, we had a great trip.  We take the good and the bad.  We store away the memories and the moments.  We mark off more National Parks and more states in our travel log.  Then we add another chapter in our family book of life.  And this chapter?  It was a good one!

Summer Vacation: Disney California Adventure

We were all exhausted after our long day at Disneyland, but that didn't stop me from waking everyone up early again to get an early start for our Disney California Adventure day.  With only one day to experience each of the parks, I really wanted to make the most of it.  We again ate a quick breakfast in our room and were on our way to get in line around 7:00. 

Although I bought Genie Plus again for our day, I REALLY wanted our family to ride Radiator Springs Racers, which is the premier ride in Cars Land that doesn't take Genie Plus.  Our early morning and wait paid off as we had a low wait for the ride.  It ended up being down for a portion of the day later on, resulting in large wait times the remainder of the day, so I was so glad we got to do it first thing in the morning.

Cars Land was amazing!!  It is probably my favorite of any themed Disney land in any of the parks.  And the ride was great!  It was one of my top 2 favorite rides at DCA. We rode in a car that took us on a fun tour of Radiator Springs and ended with an actual race against another car full of people.  (Much like Test Track at Disney World, but way better.)  I liked a lot of the rides at DCA, but this ride had amazing theming and very cool effects and was just a lot of fun.  We had hoped to do it again at the end of the night, but the line was prohibitively long due to the extended down time so I'm so glad we started our day with it.

We all really enjoyed our day at DCA.  We used Genie Plus to ride Spiderman: Webslingers, Toy Story Mania, Incredicoaster, Guardians of the Galaxy (twice), The Little Mermaid, Monster's Inc, and Soarin'.  There were a lot of fun and novel rides at this park that we all really enjoyed.

We also did a variety of other rides that had low wait times.  We did Grizzly River Run multiple times in a row as we did it earlier in the day when the temperatures were cooler.  It might not have been the best time of the day for getting wet, but it was definitely the best time of the day to avoid the line.  The girls ended up doing it 4 times in a row, Briggs and I joined in for 3 of those times, and Zach did it once.  We also did Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind, Jessie's Critter Carousel (Adelie and Briggs), Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, Silly Symphony Swings (twice for Briggs and I), Turtle Talk with Crush, Toy Story Mania (4 times for at least some of us), and Ariel (twice for the girls and I).

We really enjoyed just walking around and taking in some of the entertainment.  There were lots of free roaming characters to see/meet in all the lands around the park, and we saw several cool action sequences in Avenger's Campus with a cool robotic Spiderman flipping through the air, Wakanda warriors, Black Panther/Black Widow/Falcon fighting bad guys, a dance off with Star Lord and Gamora, and Zach saw Dr. Strange's mystic show while the kids and I did the Incredicoaster.

I was really proud of Adelie and Briggs for trying the Incredicoaster.  It was a really fast roller coaster that had a loop and was the biggest coaster they had ever been on.  They were both nervous but were willing to try it.  They decided that they didn't love it and both felt a little woozy afterwards, but I was proud of them for facing their fears and giving it a try.  Staley and I both really enjoyed it.

Guardians of the Galaxy might have been my favorite ride in all of DCA (although it's a really close call with Radiator Springs Racers).  It was essentially the Tower of Terror ride redone with Guardian's of the Galaxy theming.  It had a funny pre-show, a cool animatronic Rocket, music that can change with each ride (although we got the same song twice), fun thrills, and great show scenes during the ride.  Staley and I were the only ones in the family who wanted to ride it, so we were able to do it twice in a row using the rest of the family's Genie Plus passes.

We also really enjoyed the Pixar Pals parade that we saw.  It wasn't as good as the parade at Disneyland, but it was still a really fun parade with great performers, fun floats, catchy music, and lots of our favorite Pixar characters.  I'm a sucker for a Disney parade.  They just make me happy.

We had lunch at Pym's Kitchen in Avenger's Campus.  It was an Antman themed restaurant, so there were lots of clever foods to join in with the theme.  Staley and Zach both had the humongous taco salad.  It had plenty of people stopping to gawk as they walked by.

Adelie went with the not so little chicken sandwich.  All our food was really good, but the novelty of the presentation and the restaurant made it even a little more fun.  And we had found a great table outside the restaurant where we were able to watch some of the Avenger's action while we ate.

We liked the restaurant and the food so much that we went back later in the day for a sharable quantum pretzel.  It was gigantic...and really yummy!!

When dinner rolled around, we ate at Flo's V-8 Cafe in Cars Land.  The food there was also really good, and it was just fun sitting in Cars Land and taking it all in.  I just really enjoyed the atmosphere in that area of the park...especially at night when it was all lit up just like in the movie.

At the end of the night, Zach and Briggs went to do Toy Story Mania again while the girls and I rode the Ariel ride again.  After realizing that we weren't willing to wait in the really long Radiator Springs Racers line to end our night, we hustled back to do one last ride as a family on Toy Story Mania.  While we were walking around and doing our final rides, we were able to catch part of the World of Color show that had colored fountains and projections.

We were some of the last people getting off the ride at the end of the night, so the park was pretty empty as we were walking out.  We had again filled our full day from park opening to park closing.  Zach had a craving for a hot fudge sundae, so we made a quick stop at the McDonald's by our hotel on the walk back.  Those really hit the spot!!

I really loved DCA.  I had enjoyed Disneyland the day before, but DCA might be my favorite of any Disney park on either coast.  It had so many fun rides!  I loved Cars Land, and Radiator Springs Racers was one of my favorite rides.  Guardians of the Galaxy is just like Tower of Terror, but better.  Incredicoaster is better than Rockin Roller Coaster.  Grizzly River Run is way better than Kali River Rapids.  And some of our favorites like Toy Story Mania, Ariel, and Soarin' were the same on both coasts.  The free roaming entertainment and characters were a lot of fun, the restaurants we ate at were good and well themed, and the park was easy to navigate.  With the help of Genie Plus, we didn't wait in many lines and were able to accomplish so much while still enjoying the ambiance of the park.  It was truly a great day at Disney...even if we were all thoroughly exhausted when we got back to our hotel.

Summer Vacation: Disneyland

We had kept the Disneyland portion of our trip a secret from the kids until the day before we were heading there.  We wanted to make sure they could enjoy all the other parts of our trip without the anticipation of Disney.  They were very surprised...and excited.  They were also a bit worried that they hadn't known to pack their Disney shirts and ears.  (As if they've never been on a trip with their mother and were unaware of her trip preparation skills.)  We have been to Disney World 4 different times, but this was our first time visiting the Disney parks on the other coast.  

We got to our hotel in the early afternoon, so we had most of the afternoon to swim and play at the water park area of our hotel.  We stayed at the Courtyard Anaheim Theme Park, which was right across Harbour Blvd from the Disney parks.  It was about a 10 minute walk to the parks and had this fun water park/pool area.  But the primary reason I chose this place was that the room had 2 queen beds plus a bunk bed so all the kids had their own bed, and it also had a tub and separate shower, so 2 people could shower at the same time.  For a family of 5, both those things make a hotel stay better.

After swimming, we got showered up and headed into the Disney resort.  Unlike Disney World, Disneyland is very compact.  We walked through security to enter the Disney resort area, and then Disneyland park is on the right, Disney California Adventure park is on the left, and Downtown Disney is straight ahead.  So easy to walk everywhere!  (Which is why we returned our rental car as soon as we got into Anaheim...we didn't need it anymore.)

We explored Downtown Disney a bit, looking in the Disney store and the Lego store.  Then we headed to the Grand Californian Hotel for our dinner reservations at the GCH Craftsman Bar.  It was a poolside restaurant at the hotel, and the service and the food were great!  We all really enjoyed our meal.  I had wanted a reservation for that first night so that we wouldn't have to worry about a long wait or trying to decide on a restaurant.  It worked out well.

After dinner, we walked through the hotel lobby and saw this edible Star Wars creation.  It's all made out of cake!  That must have wakened our need for sweets, so we stopped at Salt and Straw (an ice cream place in Downtown Disney) for some ice cream to eat on our way back to the hotel.  They had lots of novel and unique flavors.  It was really good!!

We were able to watch some of the Disney fireworks from our hotel balcony before heading to bed.

We got to Disneyland Park bright and early the next day after eating breakfast in our room.  The park opened at 8, so we left our room before 7.  When it comes to Disney and getting ahead of the crowds, the early bird gets the worm.  Getting there that early got us towards the front of the crowd heading into the park.

We started our day in Fantasyland and tried to do most of the Fantasyland rides before the lines arrived.  We were able to do Peter Pan, Snow White's Enchanted Wish, Storybook Land Canal Boats, Casey Jr. Circus Train, and Pinocchio's Daring Journey all with little to no wait to start the day.

I purchased Genie Plus in order to skip some lines and make the most of our day, so we used our Genie Plus reservations to experience many of the other rides while filling in with lower wait time rides.  In Toon Town, we used Genie Plus for Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railroad and then hopped on Chip and Dale's Gadget Coaster.

Toon Town was really cute and well-themed.  We explored, checked out some of the interactive play areas, walked through Mickey Mouse's house, and enjoyed this cute area.

While Disney World has lots of dedicated meet and greets where you wait in a line to meet a character, Disneyland has way more free roaming characters that you just happen upon.  We saw lots of characters walking around at Disneyland.  It was harder to get pictures, but more fun to see them interacting with the guests.

Throughout the day, we rode lots of rides.  We used our Genie Plus to ride Autopia, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Buzz Lightyear, Indiana Jones (which Briggs REALLY did not like and cried his way through), It's a Small World, Matterhorn (twice for the girls using Zach's reservation), Space Mountain, and Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railroad.

Space Mountain (which was themed to Star Wars currently, so was called Hyperspace Mountain) was a favorite for Staley and I.  (The rest of the family didn't ride it.)  But Adelie and Briggs did do the other roller coasters, including the Matterhorn which Adelie and Staley did twice.  Briggs did not care for the Yeti on the Matterhorn.  Zach skipped the roller coasters, but took advantage of that time to ride Pirates of the Carribean without us.

Between our Genie Plus reservations, we checked out characters and rode other rides like the Disneyland Railroad, Alice in Wonderland, Finding Nemo, It's a Small World (again), and Jungle Cruise.  Zach also waited in an absurdly long line with the little 2 for Dumbo while Staley and I rode Space Mountain, only to finally bail when the line just wasn't really moving.

We also snacked on beignets and frozen lemonade drinks, watched the parade (which was very cool!), checked out the Swiss Family treehouse, walked around Star Wars land, and ate an early dinner of Mexican food at Rancho del Zocalo Restaurante.  It was very good!!  We also watched part of the fireworks and projection show on It's a Small World.

Our Rancho del Zocalo reservation was a package that gave us priority seating for the evening Fantasmic show.  Fantasmic incorporated fireworks, fountains, fire, characters, music, boats, rafts, and lots of cool special effects.  The Peter Pan fight scene on the large pirate ship might have been the coolest, although Adelie loved seeing Ariel on one of the rafts since we had not seen her anywhere else during our day at Disneyland.

Disneyland was very similar to Disney World's Magic Kingdom Park in terms of rides and layout (with the addition of Star Wars Land and Toon Town).  However, it felt more compact so walkways and lines felt a little more cramped and busy.  Star Wars Land was exactly the same as the Star Wars Land at Hollywood Studios.  Our one major misstep of the day was waiting until too late in the day to try to do Rise of the Resistance.  We ended up opting out of waiting in line as we were worried about missing our Fantasmic show time.

Our Disneyland day was a success.  We rode lots of rides, saw lots of characters, enjoyed lots of entertainment, ate good food, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.  We also walked over 30,000 steps, waited in plenty of lines, had to navigate crowded areas, and spent over 16 hours in the park.  It was a big, full, tiring day of Disney fun.  There were things we could have done differently (like not make Briggs go on the Indiana Jones ride), things we didn't get to that we wanted to (like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and Rise of the Resistance), snacks we missed out on ordering (here's looking at you, Dole Whip), and things we could have skipped (like the Pixar Pals dance party that we popped into or Autopia, which ate into the time we could have used for Rise of the Resistance).  But all in all, it was a great day and fun to compare our east coast Disney experiences with our west coast one.

Summer Vacation: Joshua Tree and San Diego

We drove the 3.5 hours from Channel Islands to our AirBnb in Joshua Tree.  We made a quick stop at Wal-Mart close to our house so I could grab some groceries.  Staley got her streak-keeper mile done in the Wal-Mart parking lot while I shopped.  It felt really good to settle into our Joshua Tree home after a long day of exploring and driving.  We have rented many great homes all over the country, but this ranked high on our list of favorites.  

The house itself was spacious and really nicely decorated with all the things we like in a rental...multiple bedrooms and bathrooms, big washer and dryer, fully stocked kitchen, complimentary coffee, plenty of towels and hot water.  But the best part was the backyard!

It was a nice big fenced back yard with hammocks, a hot tub, a gas fire pit (that we didn't use), a big patio with table and chairs, and...

a cowboy pool!  The kids used it after a hot day of hiking in Joshua Tree, and Staley and Zach used it again the next day after a hot morning run.  We all enjoyed the hot tub in the evening, and Adelie and Briggs made good use of the hammocks for reading books and writing stories.  We really enjoyed the yard on our few days there.

After a good night of sleep and a big breakfast at our house, Uncle Eldon met us for a day of hiking and exploring in Joshua Tree National Park.  He lives about 2 hours away and frequents the park, so he was a great tour guide for our day of exploring Joshua Tree.  We primarily hiked on unmarked areas around the Jumbo Rocks campground, so we didn't have to share the trails with lots of other people.

It was a really neat area to explore.  The day was bordering on hot (got up in the low 80's) and sunny, but was very pleasant, especially by May in the desert standards.  There were lots of great rock formations and cool cacti and desert plants to see along the way...

including lots of Joshua Trees.

We did 3 different hikes around the Jumbo Rocks campground area that Uncle Eldon led us on.  We then did the Heart Rock/Arch Rock trail.

The hiking was cool, but the kids' absolute favorite thing to do was, of course,...

climbing on all of the rocks.  All our hikes took way longer because the kids wanted to stop every few feet to climb on another cool rock formation.  Our rule of "Don't climb up on anything you can't get down from" worked out pretty well.  We didn't have to leave anyone stranded up on a rock in Joshua Tree.

Our final hike of the day was the Hidden Valley loop.  It was maybe the prettiest hike of the day...a desert valley surrounded by a wall of amazing rock formations.  We saw rock climbers setting up all their gear to scale some of the big rock faces while we were hiking.  Combining all our hikes, we hiked about 6 miles during the day...although the kids got way more steps than that with all the climbing they did.

After our great day of exploration, we headed back to our house.  Staley and I went for a run, the littles tried out all the things in the back yard, and Zach made a taco dinner.  We showered, did laundry, played a family game, and got a good night of sleep.

We were able to enjoy a leisurely morning the next day.  Zach and Staley went for a run, the littles enjoyed the back yard again, we got all packed up, ate a big breakfast, and then headed out for one more hike in Joshua Tree before heading on to our next destination.

We followed Uncle Eldon's recommendation and hiked the 49 Palms Oasis trail.  It was a 3 mile out and back hike to a desert oasis.  It was moderately strenuous.  There wasn't much shade so it was a little warm, but we enjoyed seeing some cool lizards and new variety of cacti along the way.

It was pretty neat to be hiking through the desert and, all of a sudden, see great big palm trees in the middle of the barren nothingness.

It was a cool finale to our time in the park.  After our hike, we got back in the car, stopped for smoothies and Starbuck's drinks as a light lunch, and then headed on to spend some time with Uncle Eldon, Aunt Maggie, and my cousin Jenna and family.

Our time with Jenna and her family was great!  It took very little time for our kids and Jenna's kids to warm up to each other.  They played a little soccer, talked for a bit, and then started swimming...and swimming and swimming and swimming.  It wasn't overly warm, but they had a great time together in the pool.  They swam for several hours while we visited, only getting out when it was time for supper.

Stefano used his outdoor pizza oven and amazing Italian cooking skills to make some scrumptious wood-fired pizzas for dinner.  The kids then slept out in a tent in the yard (minus Briggs, who ended up back in the house a few hours into the night.)  The next day brought about more swimming, more playing, more visiting, more (leftover) pizza, and more Italian cooking.  We had such a good time with them!

Our next destination was San Diego, which is only about an hour from Jenna and Stefano.  So after we packed up, they decided to join us for the afternoon in San Diego.  We stopped for some oh-so-good gelato at EscoGelato on our way to do a little hiking at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve in San Diego.

We enjoyed hiking and spending more time with family along the picturesque coastline in San Diego.

The weather was gorgeous, the views were spectacular, and the kids were having so much fun with their cousins.

It was so nice to have that extra time with them, and it was a great kick-off to our stay in San Diego.  While hiking, a fellow hiker pointed out some whales off in the distance.  We could just see their blow holes and water spouting, but sea life is always so interesting to me.

After hiking, we headed to find our AirBnb (which was a little tricky with non-roads and back alley parking places and lots of traffic/crowds), but we figured it out.  We got settled, did a quick run and walk along the boardwalk by the beach, watched the sunset, and then stopped at a little overpriced convenience store for some cereal, milk, and bagels to eat for dinner (since we'd had a big Italian lunch).

Our San Diego AirBnb was a cute little downstairs apartment with a private courtyard, a parking space (which, after seeing the parking and traffic situation, was a life-saver), and, although not big, had plenty of space for our family with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  The Mission Beach area where we stayed was right on the beach and the bay, but had a bit of a frat-house/spring break vibe.

My favorite part of our place was that it was literally 50 yards from the boardwalk and the beach.  When I booked it, I had imagined us doing a little 'beach time' but the weather was on the cooler side (60's) and overcast.  Not ideal for hanging out on the beach.  That worked out fine as Adelie had told me even before our trip, "I am not going to go in the ocean because of sharks and jellyfish, but I'll play on the beach and look for crabs."  We enjoyed our beach time primarily by walking and running along the boardwalk in front of the beach.

We used our next day to go explore the San Diego Zoo.  We got there close to opening time, paid the exorbitant entry free, and then enjoyed a full day of zoo fun.  We are definitely a zoo family, so even though it was expensive, we felt like our zoo family needed to visit one of the best zoos in the country when we got the chance.  So we did!

We made it a full day of zoo-time fun.  We enjoyed a ride on the Skyfari to start the day before lines got too long, and then we made our way from the back of the zoo to the front.

It was a beautiful zoo!  The enclosures were big and natural.  There were SO many animals and exhibits.  The lush landscaping and walking paths sometimes made you feel like you were in the jungle.  It was definitely a first-class zoo!!

There were lots of great animals and things to see at the zoo.  Some highlights included the laughing kookaburra, the capybaras with their babies, the over 100 year old tortoises, seeing the sloth in the wildlife show, watching the rhino play with his ball, the little orangutan annoying the big one, so many snakes in the huge reptile house, and...

the adorable koalas!!

We walked SO much, covered the entire zoo, bought a stuffed monkey and snake with special vacation money from grandparents, and then headed back to our place mid-afternoon (after spending a good 7 hours at the zoo).  Staley and I went for a beach-front run, and then met back up with the rest of the fam to finish walking along the boardwalk to Pacific Beach for dinner and dessert.

We ate at Rosemarie's Burgers for dinner.  It was FABULOUS!  It was the favorite meal of the trip or nearly so for multiple members of the family.  They had a variety of different specialty sliders and the fries were also heavenly.  Definitely worth the mile or two of walking to get there!

Because we hadn't done quite enough walking or eating, we followed Rosemarie's with a stop at the Baked Bear in Pacific Beach for ice cream and homemade ice cream sandwiches.  The portions were huge, but it was so, so good!!

We enjoyed our desserts while we walked the few miles back to our place for the night.  It was cloudy, so there wasn't a sunset to see.  Once back, I did a little laundry and we went to bed.  It was a bit unfortunate that the washer and dryer were just in the corner of the kids' room, but they were tired enough that the noise didn't seem to keep any of them from falling asleep quickly.

Our next day started with one last run along the boardwalk for Staley and Zach, eating breakfast, and packing up.  We then headed north towards La Jolla Cove.  We enjoyed walking along and seeing all the seals and sea lions that hang out there.

We learned the differences between the seals and sea lions, saw (and smelled) both, and enjoyed watching them swim, climb, and move along the rocks, beach, and water.  There were hundreds and hundreds of them!  Our favorite was when they'd all be sleeping/resting in a bunch and then one would just be walking/flopping over all the rest of them to get somewhere.  We also heard lots of sea lion barking...and they could be so loud!

After our sea lion and seal viewing and smelling, we stopped at Goldfish Point Cafe for some sandwiches and goldfish crackers for lunch.  The food was good.   After lunch, we were on our way to the final stop of our trip...

DISNEYLAND!!!