My Travels – Valeria Out Loud

Top Ten Thursday- Travel Tips

Posted on January 10, 2019January 9, 2019 by Sunshine76

Hello WordPressers!

The topic for this Top Ten Thursday is an easy one for me as we are so close to our big Winter vacation. Which is super awesome, I know, but also, a big brain drain as all I have been thinking about since our last getaway is this vacation. Being away…. Ahh, away. So …far, far…away. Sunshine. Daiquiris. Ahem, OK, let me get right to this list!

Here I thought to share some of my favorite traveling tips. The list can be used for almost all types of travel, intercontinental or international, really. So let’s go!

Valeria’s Top Ten Traveling Tips

1. Copy and/or print ALL travel documents. In case you don’t have email access while away, or, anything gets lost, or, something happens to you. Have two copies of your documents. One copy stays at home in case of emergency and the other copy goes along with you, but separate from the actual documents. The documents to copy here are your passport photo page, travel visa, travel insurance, travel itinerary with hotel and car rental reservations and any pre-paid confirmations or anything else you can think of printing/copying. We like to take these along in a plastic envelope within our carry on so they are easy to grab if needed.
2. Make a packing list. Let me start with I LOVE LISTS!! I like to keep organized, and lists are the best way for me to do that. A list also helps me realize what I need, and what to pick and choose, and, best of all it keeps me focused.
3. Pack light. If your goal is to pack light, start with your list! Seeing all the items from your list together impacts your decision on what to bring before you take it out of your closets. It’s best to take travel sizes of anything you can, too. AND. Pre-plan your outfits. Clothes and shoes are the largest items most of us take away. My advice, pack smarter. Pull together outfits with interchangeable/repeatable pieces, lighter weighted materials and shoes, or one pieces like rompers or jumpsuits. Packing light actually worked out great for me in 2018. I gave myself a personal challenge to not check a bag, only to take a carry on and one large handbag, for every trip we took (and two of the trips were more than a week long)..and it was great. I didn’t feel like I was missing anything and yet it felt less stressful, somehow.
4. ‘Where are we staying?‘ If you are anything like me, you may need some help remembering where you are staying after checking in. ESPECIALLY, if you are staying in an establishment that is in a neighborhood with many similar looking hotels that have similar sounding names. Which happens a lot when traveling abroad. My advice? Take a photo. Take a photo of the hotel front with the name of the hotel displayed. Take a photo of the closest cross street sign where the hotel is located. Or, take a photo of the address from one of the lobby brochures. It sounds crazy that I would need to do this, but you have no idea how many times it has saved me when we have left our paperwork in the room or my husband and I split up to go back to the room and I don’t have the info at hand to get back. ESPECIALLY, when all the roads look the same!
5. Get lost! My husband and I travel a lot. In the 22 years we have been together we have gone from a couple traveling to a family of four traveling, and still to this day one of my favorite adventures is to get lost..intentionally. This all started when we went to Venice, Italy, in 2002, as newlyweds. What a beautiful city. But, the only drawback was the amount of people, namely tourists..haha. So, we decided to walk down an alleyway to another one, over a canal to another alleyway, and repeat, and repeat, till we felt disoriented and alone. We happened to find this great restaurant with local people hanging out. We got a prime table, ate some great food and drank beautiful wines, all as we were talking to our table neighbors about Venice’s history. It was from that night on we decided getting lost was our thing to do. Years have passed, we have gotten lost in some beautiful cities, and now in the era of smartphones, we can get lost but know how to get back to where we need to go with more ease.
6. Talk to the locals! Take a second to learn some phrases to ask the locals about their hotspots. I am not saying to go up to complete strangers, well, I sort of am, but more like those folks you naturally will encounter along your trip.. i.e., a store clerk, front desk hotel assistant, waiter/waitress, taxi driver, patrons you sit next to at a coffee shop, etc.. They may even speak English. You would be amazed at how many people will give you great tips or advice. We have had such great experiences with people; like this one coming to mind now. A shop owner in Japan back in 2004, I asked for directions to an art gallery and he took me by the hand to walk down the street to it. We were smiling at each other while he was talking to me through my travel books. So, when he took my hand to walk me down the street, I was not surprised. He wanted to make sure I didn’t get lost..that I understood. And I was so thankful. There are some real selfless, and nice people out there. The more you talk to the locals, venture out to where they hang out, the more you learn their lifestyle.
7. Always travel with cash. Travel revolves around money but it depends on where you go if you can get away with using a credit card the whole time or cash. In my experience, a lot of places are cash only, and other places I wouldn’t use a credit card. So, grab a money belt and plan on bringing enough currency to pay for anything you couldn’t book online beforehand and food/drinks.
8. Plan for the unplanned. This covers so many turbulent aspects of travel. Just be flexible. Flexibility is key. Plans can cancel, people can flake or get sick, and the weather can change on a dime, just be prepared. Pack those extra underwear, grab that mini bottle of pain reliever, bring along playing cards, stash some granola bars along with your rain poncho. Also, as you are researching your destination, figure out what the area has to offer outside of what your itinerary entails in case your needs change. AND always pack these items in your carry on!
9. Portable chargers, along with the cables for all of your family’s devices. I have saved myself lots of headaches from having a charger on hand. We got a set of chargers last year, that are life savers. They are by Ubio Labs, way cheaper this year than when we bought them. With one fully loaded charger it can load my iPhone four times. So you can imagine how handy they are for a family of four or when you forget to charge one overnight. They are slim and easy to charge. So slim that I normally carry both with two cables in a small-sized makeup bag in my purse.
10. HAVE FUN! Take in the moments. Take in the sights right in front of you not through your camera. Watch the local kids playing in the park. Glance over at the elderly on their balconies gossiping. Sit for the local street band. Listen to the sounds that surround you. Look at the horizon. Savor the cuisine. Admire the couples. Take a minute to inhale the air, taste it, let it circulate your body. Let the beauty of travel sink in; you are somewhere special, and making sensory memories are way more important than your insta-memories.

Ah, what a fun list to pull together. But, I think I like number 10 the best. 🙂

What are some your favorite travel tips that you’d like to share? Let me know below or on FB!

My Travels

San Diego Days 11 and 12

Posted on September 26, 2018 by Sunshine76

This was our day to celebrate our 17th Anniversary away, and we reserved it to do absolutely nothing but hangout at the beach and eat. Boy, was this a big day. hahaha

This is our last full day in California. We departed the 12th day.

Day 11!

We started off by waking up as early as we could. Trying to get our kids back on a somewhat normal schedule as they return to school a day after we land. We got ourselves ready for a fun last day. We made two reservations for this day, breakfast at Duke’s La Jolla and dinner at George’s on the Cove.

Duke’s La Jolla was so much fun. Like, apart from the beautiful view from the deck of the ocean, the atmosphere, decor, the staff, just everything was enjoyable from walking in. Duke is the reason the world surfs. The most I know of him was from what I learned before going to the restaurant. He was a multi-medal olympian, a hero, the first son of Hawaii, and just seemed like a really nice man.

We got checked in but our table wasn’t ready yet, so we decided to grab a celebratory drink at the bar. My husband ordered a Duke’s mai-tai which came in a large glass tiki head cup. For me, a mimosa, which came in a boring champagne flute.. ha! And, for the girls, two chocolate milk shakes. The bartenders we spoke with were so nice, like more than normal, and we joked about being all from the East Coast. We had noticed a lot of people from California are actually not natives. By the time we drank a few sips, we got greeted for our seats. We were given a big half round booth on the deck. The view of the cove below, as we were high up on a cliff, was gorgeous.

When we got seated, we ordered another round of drinks for the adults, my husband really liked that tiki cup, then we ordered our breakfasts. He got the Onolicious French Toast with a side of fried rice. I ordered the Hawaiian Breakfast with bacon, and the girls each got the French toast, too. Absolutely amazing. We shared bites, talked a lot, looked over the rail a few times at the ocean, and enjoyed it all thoroughly. We thought this was by far our favorite meal of the trip. That fried rice was definitely the best thing ever. I mean, THE BEST!! Everything was fresh and cooked right. Also, the place was sparkling clean, which is always a good thing. It was such a great experience.

After breakfast, I stopped at the front to buy my husband that mai-tai tiki cup. They have a small store set up on the side of the waiting area. Since he liked one at Trader Sam’s in Disneyland that they had run out of, the HippopotoMai-Tai; well, I just couldn’t resist. Now we both have a tiki cup souvenir from this trip!

Once we left we took a quick drive to look at some of the cove sights again, then grab more drinks for the day before heading back to the hotel. We were all looking forward to laze around on the beach. And laze around I did. It was a super hot day, especially in the sun. So we grabbed umbrellas with our chairs and set up camp. And, I had done something I have never done before with my kids at the beach…. SLEEP!! Yup, I have never napped on the beach with my kids around. But this day, I cared two shiz less and left my husband to solely watch them, which isn’t that big of a job as the kids are very aware of their surroundings, swim like fish and play in the sand a lot. I mean, we half ass watch them when we are chilling out on the beach, so he had to use his full ass here really. 😉 haha With them supervised, I shut my eyes then immediately drifted off into a mimosa nap for a half hour. It was the most glorious thirty minutes of my life. hahah The hot sun, warm breezes, sounds of the waves, gah, it was the perfect place to nap. Which I never do. I should change that.

After a few hours at the beach, we decided to hop to the pool and hot tub before getting ready for dinner. It was real nice but short-lived as we had to get ready for dinner. I jumped up first, because I take the longest..then I have to get the girls set up with outfits, so it’s just best I shower first.

The sun was starting to set as we headed to George’s on the Cove, on the ocean terrace upstairs, for dinner. What a gorgeous view!! HOLY MOLY! The terrace over looks the cove from a huge cliff. We were not able to get a table for four at the glass railing, but one set in. Which worked out great. The menu at George’s is very eclectic and fun. I liked it a lot.

We were greeted with a Happy Anniversary right when we checked in, and everyone we saw knew it was our anniversary too. Super sweet. Our waiter was real nice. We started off with a round of drinks and with an app of homemade chips, guacamole and salsa. We ordered our dinner at our leisure, which was super. We ordered Kalbi skirt steak for me, braised short rib for my husband, shrimp tacos for our oldest and chicken tenders for our youngest.

The view from the table was perfect. The ocean was our horizon line and the sun setting was golden. Gah, just made for the perfect ambience. The breeze up there was chilly, so our girls were freezing, but as soon as food arrived they stopped complaining. I think also the breezes changed direction. Our meals were fantastic. We each shared our dishes with one another, and thought no one had one dish better than the other. Even the chicken tenders were the most delicious tenders we had ever had. At the end of our meal, the waiter gave us a gift!! Can you believe that!?!?! They gave us two bottles of olive oil from our favorite organic olive oil company. Which was ironic and so awesome, and thoughtful!

After dinner we went back to the hotel. As we were driving back we decided to park the car then take a walk over to the town to grab a sundae. It was about a five-minute walk. We went by a few cute shops in that town area. Super cute area filled with quaint shops and restaurants. Perfect beach town. We ended up stopping at this cute ice cream shop, Scoops. This place is known for its natural ice cream and ingredients. They catered to a lot of dietary allergies / vegan lifestyle. Which vegan items, if you are unfamiliar, often times contain rice or nut based products, like cashew or almond as alternatives to conventional/non-vegan products like cow’s milk or eggs..just FYI. Our oldest daughter has an all nut allergy so we are constantly asking ingredient lists wherever we go. They clearly list everything vegan, however. We got some interesting flavors.. peanut butter marshmallow crunch sundae (for me), honeycomb (for my husband), salted caramel (our oldest), and, of course, chocolate (for our youngest). We had a nice time eating our ‘sundaes’ on the street seating. They had a very nice set up outside. Ok, I do have a tiny complaint about Scoops. The place was beautiful, clean, great flavors, and if I lived in the area I’d probably go back. But not for sundaes. I don’t know if you caught my quotations there around sundae. They didn’t actually serve hot fudge!! They have listed chocolate sauce, so you read that and scratch your noggin like, ‘what?’. Sundaes is about two things, not even the ice cream so much as it’s about whipped cream and hot fudge! Bahh!

Well. By the time we had finished our chocolate syrup sundaes we saw that it was real late and headed back to the hotel. We had to be at the airport by mid morning the next day, and still had a lot to pack up in the room; and by we, I mean me getting everyone packed before it was time to hit the hay.

Ready for breakfast

View from our hotel’s steps. Palm Trees 🙂

Duke’s La Jolla

Aloha to you, too!

Duke’s La Jolla- Mai Tai and Mimosa

Cheers! To our Anniversary Celebration Day! (it was Sept 1!)

Duke’s La Jolla Deck

Duke’s La Jolla Coloring page

Anniversary Breakfast Love 🙂

Duke’s La Jolla ONOLICIOUS FRENCH TOAST!! SUPER YUMM

Kid’s french toast.

Hawaiian Breakfast 🙂 I am the eggs, toast and bacon girl. Potatoes make it even better!

BEACH TIME!

Ready for the beach!

The board…I will miss you forever

Ready for the night!

George’s on the cove

Margarita me please. 😉

Anniversary Celebratin’!

View from Georg’s on the Cove

Shrimp Taco

Braised short rib

Kids chicken tender meal

Kalbi Marinated Skirt Steak

View from Ocean Deck of George’s on the COve La Jolla

Yum peanut butter Sundae!

This cool tree on the walk to the ice cream place…all mosaic treats .

Our last day… Day 12!

Well, this is a bummer to type out, though it was a pretty great last day.

We were all packed up, dolled up and out of the hotel early to grab a bite before heading to the airport. Luckily, we were located about 15 minutes from the airport and our plane was not taking off till early afternoon. So we had some time. Which was a huge bonus, as this meant we could literally go anywhere in the area before heading over to drop off the rental.

We had planned to eat breakfast at Richard Walker’s Pancake House. We actually went. Sat down. Ordered drinks. Got to talking with the waiter, got up and left. They use peanut oil in their pans, for every dish. We couldn’t eat there. Thankfully we asked about how they deal with food allergies because their peanut oil use was not listed on the menu. So important to ask!! So, a bit deflated we couldn’t get apple pancakes, we opted to go to a bakery we had heard about, Sugar and Scribe.

Holy wow, guys! This place was unbelievable. First, just the aesthetics, it was beautiful. Rustic, welcoming; the aroma of coffee mixing with the pastries is what I figure heaven smells like. The pastry displays were so beautiful, they challenge some of the boulangeries I had seen in Paris. That is how beautiful the pastry work appeared. We grabbed some coffees, waters, an apple turnover, a chocolate ganache cromuffin, a prosciutto cheddar croissant, and a pistachio croissant. It may have been the most delicious pastries we have eaten..and we have been around, folks! (Dear Sugar and Scribe, Please open up here in my town. TYVM, Fat Me)

We wished we could stay in that bakery all day, but we had to get going! We had a car to drop off and a plane back home to catch!

The San Diego airport was so pretty, and not hectic as I had figured. We landed in LAX, which we had been to many times, and is just crazy all day every day, especially compared to this place. We boarded on time and the flight home was seamless. Our girls sat together again on this trip home, which was a huge bonus. Well, the big bonus was that we got home almost an hour earlier!! YES AN HOUR!! Sometimes those airstreams work in your favor, girl!

We got picked up by grandma, and walkd into the house and let out that huge sigh. You know, that sigh of relief that you are finally home. Home always feels so good. 🙂

Dressed for the flight home 😦

My last views of Palm Trees

Sugar and Scribe

Sugar and Scribe Apple turnover

On our way to the airport 😥

Stay Classy San Diego

With my main man Ron

She is my daughter after all, watching The Office

Even though home feels good, we had such a wonderful vacation that it was hard to say goodbye to SoCal.

Especially for me. I felt so at home everywhere we traveled. The warm sunshine. The salty ocean at our feet most days. The surfing community of Malibu. The fluttering palm trees. The postcard perfect views around Laguna Beach. The free parking all over! The natural wildlife we were able to see. Fixing our daughter’s shoe at the Eames House (she busted her flip-flops and we ‘created’ a new pair out of twine!) The unusual rock formations of the beaches in La Jolla. The art and architecture. Laughing hysterically with everyone on Indiana Jones at Disneyland. The chubby animals at the Zoo. The mirror exhibit at the Broad. Traffic all over LA. The meals that we ate steeped in culture and love. The funicular in Downtown LA. The diverse style in Hollywood. All the family moments. Gosh!! I am so grateful I can travel with my family.

It was magical …my soul sang richly with all these sights.

That is what travel does, doesn’t it? No matter the destination, seeing new environments and cultures enriches us. From within. It leaves us with a feeling that nothing else can create which sticks with us a liftime. It’s something truly extraordinary.

xoxo

You Stay Classy, San Diego!

My Travels

San Diego Zoo and La Jolla Tide Pools and Caves Day 10

Posted on September 25, 2018September 24, 2018 by Sunshine76

I LOVED THIS DAY SO MUCH!!

Day 10!

It was another day of leaving our hotel in bathing suits because we had a big day lined up. First, we hit up the Donut Bar for breakfast. We read online that this was the place to get unique donuts…and that there is always a line; and yup, there was definitely a line when we showed up. My husband went to grab us coffee, at Achilles Coffee and Starbucks nearby, while the girls and I waited in line for donuts. The wait was about 25 minutes, but the people watching in the area was so abundant that the 25 minutes flew by fast! The place inside was adorable, and the amount of donuts on display was something else! There were your average donuts, of course, but also some creative ones like a grilled cheese donut!!

Also, just something I noticed… The donut money is pretty lit in San Diego because the owner had a Ferrari out front with personalized Deadpool and Donut Bar advertising all over it. (Who knew!?)

We grabbed our order of donuts and took off for our next destination, where we were going to enjoy those fried babies! Oh where were we off to? Well, THE SAN DIEGO ZOO!! SANDIEGOZOOOMG!! <– That was my tagline the whole morning. I have been dying to go to the San Diego Zoo since I was a kid. It’s the work-home of Joan Embery, guys!! JOAN EMBERY!!

Hmm, I don’t feel your excitement. Do you know who Joan Embery is? Well, professionally she is the goodwill ambassador for the Zoological Society of San Diego, but my memories are that she was the only “guest” I cared about watching on The Late Night with Johnny Carson. She would bring on some of the coolest animals that I had ever seen!! And that those animals would make Johnny and his guests squirm, made it fun!

We took the donuts, coffee and our kids to a seated are right across from the zoo inside Balboa Park. The donuts were delicious! The perfect start to this fun day. After we wolfed down those donuts we trekked right over to the zoo. We had purchased the tickets before leaving for this California trip, and mapped out where we wanted to start, to make the most of our one day there. We walked in, took a hard left towards the Skyfari. This is a sky ride from one side of the park to the other. It is super fun, and a great way to cool down. The aerial views from the Skyfari were fantastic; you could see inside a lot of the fenced in areas. Super cool!

After the Skyfari we walked down to the polar bears while stopping at each African animals along the way. The polar bear exhibit was so great. We got inside the area where you can see them in the water. They spent a lot of time just chilling above, so all we could see were their chubby bums. Once in a while they’d dip their head in or bite at some food that was chained underwater. Once we walked to the exterior of the pool we could see them up close. through the glass. They were playing with one another, swimming around and floating. Their floss like white fur outside the water was so fluffy!

From the polar bear we took a walk down the hill towards the hippopotamus. At first I thought the animal was alone leaning on a small rock, but as soon as I walked to the right I saw the rock was a baby hippo!! Aweee! We back tracked to the entrance of the hippos to make our way to the panda bears. Now, this is the part of the zoo I have been dying to see since we made these plans. We have never seen a panda up close before! My gosh how cute and CHUBBYYYY!! We saw a mother and son panda, who were so docile and happy just being. I wanted to jump into the area with them to lounge with them, scratch their bellies and feed them some bamboo. But I was told I couldn’t go in with them. Bummer.

From our visit with the pandas we walked up the hill towards the entrance to the treetops. This zoo is just the coolest place! We got up to the top, then went to check out some birds and an ape exhibit to the left, then went down an incline to cross the bridge. We ended up right outside the elephant area, well, right outside a refreshment stop. We grabbed slushies for everyone, except Mum and Dad’s were vodka soaked. 🙂

So, I love elephants. They are such a beautiful, smart and bold animal. This was my favorite part of our zoo trip. The space was beautiful, and the elephants seemed so happy. They had two Asian elephants and two African elephants. They were doing their own things, eating, scratching, frolicking, uhm, poopin’. haha We spent a lot of time in this area watching them all. There were other exhibits peppered around, but it was an elephant sanctuary really.

After we exited the elephants, we made our way up the prairie towards Australia to see the koalas. This was another stop that we enjoyed. Koalas are absolutely adorable!! They are so furry and slow paced. They were climbing up their poles that were laced with eucalyptus. Munch, munch, munch, snooze. I swear each lil koala would be awake and asleep in seconds. They were also chunky, I just wanted to squeeze them!! We took a walk through Africa before exiting the zoo. We saw a lot of beautiful animals, and learned so much. I wish this zoo was closer!

We were all a little munchie, but we had another destination before heading back to the hotel, so we had to make a stop to an In and Out Burger. We had to! Their burgers and fries were too good to pass up, and I even had a Coke! I never drink soda, but man a fountain Coke is hard to pass up in the heat. Mmmm mm… soooo good!

Our next stop was to Nicholson Point / La Jolla Tide Pool area. The plan was to check out that one spot then go to the hotel, but instead we got to the tide pools then explored the whole way down seeing the Children’s Pool, hiking up a cliff, and walking all the way to Shell Beach where we ended up seeing caves. I want to say that trek was about a mile, but not a straight one because of the turns from beach to cliff/walking path.

This area was the most beautiful sight. Really, what a special place. There were tide pools, cliffs, caves, seals, pelicans, lots of waves, sea moss and so much to look at around us. At this point, the sun was starting to come down, so the sands glowed a warm gold and the ocean was glimmering like a dream. Our girls were having a blast splashing in the waves then walking in the caves or looking into the pools. My husband and I had fun doing that, too! When we exited the top of Shell Beach it spilled out onto a big park. There were so many people around getting ready to enjoy their nights on the beach. I loved seeing everyone. San Diego is hyper diverse.

Our first 24 hours there, and I was in love with everything that we were seeing. ESPECIALLY THE BEAUTIFUL WEATHER!!!

After we explored the beaches, we headed to our hotel to soak up more sunshine! The sun was still hot, even though it was starting to set more. We got at least an hour of sunshine time. Once the sun set we hit up the pool area again. The kids went to swim with my husband, because they like the abuse of being thrown around by a 6’3″ monster! And, well, I stayed in the hot tub! Ooh the heat of the hot tub was perfection. While in there I got to meet some nice people. Once they disappeared my husband got in. We got to have a lot of alone time to talk. He is a great conversationalist, and I love hearing his point of view of things we experience together.

I also loved that he reminded me that it was time to eat and how he wanted a burrito. hahah So we got out of the tub to run to get ready for dinner. By the time we got cleaned up we realized how late it was, so we went to grab take out again.

Where? THE SAME PLACE AS LAST NIGHT! haha It was too good to pass up! And one of my vacation goals was to eat a lot of burritos while in San Diego. This time we ordered a few more dishes to try. Holy glutton over here. But it was worth every calorie. EVERY ONE.

Before we knew it again, it was almost midnight, and even though our last full day in San Diego would be a relaxing one, we wanted to get to bed.

What a fun day!!!

First things first…bathing suit for our big day ahead

ready for the day!

How cute are these two goons?

Donut Bar line

Donut Bar money is this big huh???

Donut Bar- Flavors

Donut Bar- San Diego

Donut Bar- San Diego- Unicorn Donut

Donut Bar- San Diego- Oreo Birthday Cake Donut

Donut Bar- San Diego- of course I get the Nutella donut 🙂

San Diego Zoo

Skyfari San Diego Zoo

Skyfari across to our destination

San Diego Zoo- Skyfari

San Diego Zoo

San Diego Zoo

Hippo- Looks like she is leaning on a rock right?

BUT IT WAS HER BABY!!

San Diego Zoo

San Diego Zoo- pandas

San Diego Zoo

San Diego Zoo- Talking tram up to Bashor Bridge area/Treetops

San Diego Zoo

Big Slushies

We needed a refreshment…

But ours was spiked! 🙂

San Diego Zoo- California Sun turned my hair purple

San Diego Zoo

My fav animal.. not me, the elephant!!

San Diego Zoo

KOALAS

San Diego Zoo

Leaving the zoo 😦

In and Out Burger~ YUMZ

La Jolla Tide Pools

La Jolla Cove

La Jolla Cove

La Jolla Cove- isn’t it spectacular?

La Jolla Love 🙂

La Jolla Cove

La Jolla Shell Beach

La Jolla Cove

La Jolla Children’s pool

Pelicans

Seals n Sea lions

the caves

from inside the cave

La Jolla Cove

Ready for the beach at our hotel!

We saw many!

La Jolla Sunset

Dinner on the beach

Fire on the beach

Now it’s hot tub time- do I shove everyone out or just start yelling “im peeing!!” to get them to leave?

Dinner time

Keeping it classy!

The guacamole here is sensationally good

Next up…our last days, 11 and departure, in San Diego.

And yes, I had to update the look of my blog …again. The phone viewing feature was confusing some people because it was starting the page with the menu rather than the actual post. This is much cleaner now! Woo!

My Travels

Our First Day in San Diego Day 9

Posted on September 19, 2018 by Sunshine76

About five years ago, we had mapped out a whole different California trip than the one we actually took. We planned landing in San Francisco, spending a few days road tripping in a vintage convertible all the way down the coast. Hitting all the major attractions and cities along the ride then stopping in San Diego for a few days. We even planned out a whole new trip a second time, two years ago, going in reverse up the coast in a giant SUV from San Diego to Seattle!! But. Such is life and as other travel opportunities arose, we had always postponed this California trip. Then when my husband brought it back up last year, I was not going to let it go by again. We just went for it, editing it down to what we really all wanted. So if you have been following along, or not, we came up with landing in LA then driving with stops to San Diego, in a normal SUV!

Absolutely happy that we got to make this trip happen this year. And this trip allows us to go back to California to finish our original plans.

Notice that San Diego was always a destination point? Well, go look! I have dreamed most of my adult life about San Diego; even if I had never been before. Weird, I know, but there has always been this draw. Maybe because my genes are direct from Sicilian, where it’s hot, desert-like weather combined with the ocean and an easy going-ness? Who knows, but I think it may be due to the fact that I am growing tired of Boston’s ten minute Summers, and fifty year Winters. I mean, who needs this much time out of the sun and in the gloom!!?? Not this bird!!

Ok, I will stop sounding like I am 75yo. :)~

Day 9! Woo! We made it to San Diego!

We sadly left Anaheim at 11AM. We said goodby to Disneyland and made a bee line straight to La Jolla, which was an hour and a half away. We knew our room would not be ready, but we took off in our bathing suits with hopes that we could make it to enjoy the beach. My husband is such a sweet person, he changed all the drive coordinates this whole trip so we could drive along the coast (EVEN ON OUR LAST DAY DRIVING TO THE AIRPORT! I know he is pretty awesome). He even took us on a fifteen minute drive after we got to La Jolla just to see some of the ocean. Explanation… Where we were driving the whole time was not vistas of the ocean so much, but of cliffs as high as buildings! The ocean was in the distance, but the cliffs were so impressive it didn’t matter where the ocean was. IT WAS SO COOL!! Everything so far was perfect, and I already felt so at home.

We rolled up to the La Jolla Shores Hotel. This hotel is very pretty, and in such a convenient location, close to the smaller downtown area of La Jolla, and with parking beneath the building. It is built in the Spanish style, most likely in the 70s; lots of brown tiles, fountains, piazza in the middle. It was also located right on the ocean. The view was spectacular! As soon as we arrived, we checked in (rooms not ready) and ran straight to the beach. Ahh that sand, how much do I miss it!

We got into our rooms not too long after we hit the beach. So we each took turns to check it out and put some stuff away. We finished up at the beach at around 7PM, then went to hang out at the pool/hot tub for a bit. The pool was a real decent size, and the hot tub was fun. The kid swam a long time, and my husband and I sat in the hot tub. Which was so hot that I didn’t want to get out. The jets were in the perfect spots, the timer was over 15 minutes for sure and all the kids stayed away. Man, I miss that hot tub.

One of our traditions on beach trips is to eat a meal on the beach if we can. Keeping it casual. We grabbed some drinks from a local liquor store then take out from the Taco Stand in downtown La Jolla. This place rocked and was hella-busy! We got a mix of burritos and tacos. Everything was amazing, so big!, and their salsa was one of the best I have had in a long time. Totally a must eat spot when you are in San Diego..we know there are a couple of locations in the area.

This day turned to night so quickly! We were having such a great time laughing and snuggling up that before we knew it the clock said midnight. So, off to bed we went. We had another big day ahead of us!

There is always traffic in California..always

made it to San Diego- look at the ocean from here!

La Jolla Shores Hotel

La JOlla Shores Hotel

La JOlla Shores Hotel- they gave us two sleepers which made our girls happy!

La JOlla Shores Hotel- our room

La JOlla Shores Hotel- the sliders to the piazza

Happiness is doing what makes you smile 🙂

the first seagull of the trip!

The seagulls made a cool pattern in the sand

Sunset

La Jolla Sunset

Angry Orchard Rose… is the only beer type or cider type thing i will drink. 🙂

These burritos were HUGE!

$And so frackin good!$

And so frackin good!

Day 10 is next where we go to San Diego and La Jolla Cove, probably my favorite day of this whole trip. 🙂 San Diego is a beautiful place.

My Travels

Disney California Adventure Day 8

Posted on September 17, 2018 by Sunshine76

Day 8!

Our only real plan was to eat breakfast at Flo’s V8 Cafe in Carsland on this morning. Oh, and getting MAXPASS. Which was a big help getting us on the rides we wanted, or repeating rides!

It was another hot day, but not as hot as the day before. Yep, I brought it up again! We got to the park in the same happy manner, the Pixar Fest music playing in the background as we walked to the gates. We entered Disney California Adventure (DCA) with such a positive outlook, we were all so excited for our day ahead.

Now, DCA’s entrance felt like the old MGM Studios at WDW to me, which as we all know it now as Hollywood Studios, but it will always be MGM to me. And I don’t care. You enter this park on Buena Vista Street, the main drag of the park entrance. Which is named after a street in Burbank where Disney’s studio company is or was, and that’s the connection from the top of my head. The street is not all that long, but it branches to the themed areas of the park, from counterclockwise: Grizzly Peak, Paradise Pier, Pacific Wharf, Carsland, a Bug’s Land, and Hollywood Land. FYI, a Bug’s Land is on its way out soon in favor of a Marvel theme land.

Our visit started with a walk down to Starbucks then we made a bee line right over to Carsland for breakfast at Flo’s V8 Cafe. It was really hard to not get distracted with trying to do other things before fueling up. But we did it! We were floored at Carsland, like, we all were shocked at how engulfed in Radiator Springs we all felt. We know this Pixar movie pretty well as our oldest daughter was obsessed with it for years and then our youngest jumped on board when she was at that same age. They both said they wanted to live in that land, and I agreed! It was spectacular.

Flo’s V8 Cafe was .. just super. The design was set up after a 1950’s diner with everyone working there dressed from that era. It was so cute. We opted to grab breakfast to eat outside in the ‘gas pumps’. It was perfect. We had a good spread of food, which was all a great start to our day. The girls got the brioche French toast with bananas, my husband the waffle and I got the chicken tamales plate, so my husband could eat the eggs. As I don’t eat scrambled eggs. Everyone left an empty plate, so I think that answers the food question. The French toast was delicious and the waffle was, well, a waffle! My tamale tasted great, but it was a little bit on the dry side. (I am a tamales-aholic, so I know my tamales!)

After breakfast we started our big day!

The rides and attractions we experienced, almost in order:

Carsland: Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree- Our first ride of the day! You sit in a hitched trailer that a tractor pulls around in a frenzy of whipped turns. It was sort of like if a Tilt-a-whirl tied to the Scrambler, if you know amusement park rides at all. Super fun, and lots of laughs.
Carsland: Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters- This ride is adorable! You sit in roadsters that move along in a choreographed dance to a song sung by Luigi. You can’t help but laugh on this ride because the cars go in a sequence you won’t quite know because there is no track ahead of you as everything is under the ground. It’s a lot of driving across the ‘dance floor’!
Carsland: Radiator Springs Racers (twice) – Ok, we all love love love this ride! It is similar to Test Track in WDW, the idea being you are in a car that goes through the building then speeds out onto a track… but this BLOWS TT OUT OF THE WATER! It is so fun! We experienced a different ride, we got on twice, and on the second one we got to race one another (we sat single rider).
Pixar Pier: Toy Story Midway Mania- We all love this game! It’s point and shoot gallery style game on big screens as you ride through, competing with your car mates. Though this is the same as WDW’s attraction, we all thought it felt like it lasted a bit longer here. We rode this twice, and both times we got off the ride thinking it was way better than WDW’s!!
Paradise Gardens: Golden Zephyr- Super fun ride gliding in a big silver zephyr in the sky. The view from this ride was special for sure! We don’t know why it’s called golden when they’re silver; so if you know, pls dm me.
Paradise Gardens: Jumping Jellyfish- What a fun ride! This is a parachute ride that brings you high up into the sky then let to float down. So cute and the belly giggles from everyone going up and down make your laughter even harder. Super cute!
Paradise Gardens: Goofy’s Sky School (twice)- My my. I wasn’t a fan of this like my kids were. This is a very jerky coaster. It reminded me of the one and only ride I don’t like at Disney’s Animal Kingdom … Primeval Whirl. It’s the same ride disguised with my main man, Goofy! Jerky at every turn!
Pixar Pier: Incredicoaster (twice)- My husband and oldest rode this roller coaster twice, and they thought it was AWESOME! The coaster goes along with Jack Jack and his newly discovered powers.
a bug’s land: Heimlich’s Chew Chew- This is not a dig at this land at all, but a Bug’s Land was meh overall. This train was sweet and perfect for anyone with a baby/toddler. My kids were not all enthralled even if I laughed the entire two seconds the ride lasted. 🙂
a bug’s land: Flik’s Flyers- It’s a super cute ride as it’s fashioned as if the bugs used discarded items for this ride-like a Chinese food container, Cool Whip tub, etc. This ride Goes up and twirls around softly.
a bug’s land: Tuck and Roll’s Drive’em Buggies- This ride was a bummer for us as it broke down as they were on it. It’s bumper cars but the kids didn’t get to bump anyone else. hahah
a bug’s land: Dot Puddle Park- The kids definitely took advantage of the water fountains as it was hot! The theming was great, and the other kids looked like they were having a blast.
Hollywood Land: Red Car Trolley (is this a ride?)- This is a great way to give your feet a break and got us from Hollywood Land to the top of Buena Vista. The perfect place to get us back to Carsland!
Hollywood Land: Monster’s Inc Mike and Sully to the Rescue- On this ride you are whisked away in a taxi following along the rescue story of Boo of Monster’s Inc. The best part of this ride is Roz at the end before you exit, she is real-time interactive!! She made fun of some folks in glasses then called me out for recording her on Snap… which was super unexpected!
Hollywood Land: Sunset Showcase Theater Disney Animation- Our kids are into the arts, and they miss the Magic of Animation/Animation Station at WDW Hollywood Studios, you know, MGM. When they heard there was the Sorcerer’s Workshop they had to go to there. They had a blast drawing moving cartoons and checking out the Beast’s Library.
Hollywood Land: Guardians of the Galaxy- Mission Breakout- This was ridden by my husband and oldest, it’s a free fall ride that was originally fashioned for Tower of Terror… renovated for this theme. They said it was just as fun, but a little different. Not sure what that means, but that’s what I got folks! 🙂
Grizzly Peak: Soarin’ Around the World – This was our last ride of the night. I won’t be talking about this ride, it is exactly the same ride at WDW except it was a little smoother on take off. Which is awesome. What I am going to talk about is this special wait getting on. The park was closing and we had one last Maxpass for 10PM; the line got pretty long real fast. There was a little boy with his dad behind us. He was pretty amped up talking a mile a minute (his father was making the glazed over face like he was all set). So, I did what I do, I talk to strangers, especially cute ones. 😉 I knelt down, getting eye level is key with kids, then started a conversation I will never forget as long as I live. This little boy, myself and my two children had the funniest time talking, which lasted forty-five minutes. The ride had an issue, so we ended up waiting in the line together conversing. What a cutie. He was three years old, but wise beyond his years. He spoke Spanish and we got to exchanging words. We played some games, talked what normal three-year olds talk about, like “colors we liked”, “our favorite animals” and “favorite numbers”. He had an accent, sounded a lot like Miguel from Coco, HE WAS THE SWEETEST BOY EVER. He grew so attached to us in this short amount of time that he didn’t want to leave my side. Especially when we got separated into our seating zone lines. He started bawling his eyes out, crying for us and his father couldn’t console him until he saw that there was a fence between us. He could see me, it broke my heart. He ran up to the fence, reaching through, trying to hold my hand. 😦 It was sweet but I felt so sad for him. After the ride he found me, dragged me by the hand to meet his mother. Gah what a special kid!

-Symphony Swings was down off and on during this day and we couldn’t catch it while it worked.

We drank and ate:

Skim latte, skim decaf caramel macchiato, skim double choc chip Frappuccino- Starbucks inside Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Cafe
Chicken Tamale Breakfast- Flo’s V8 Cafe
Cars themed Waffles- Flo’s V8 Cafe
Brioche french toast w bananas- Flo’s V8 Cafe
Vodka Pomegranate Limeade w lemon fizzy foam (two)- Cozy Cone
Mac n Cheese- Cozy Cone Motel
Corn Dog- Corn Dog Castle
Mint chip milk shake- Shmoozies
Affogato- Shmoozies
Corn on the cob w butter
Sourdough bread samples from the bakery tour
Water, water, water
Carne asada rolls- Lamplight Lounge
Lobster nachos- Lamplight Lounge
Chicken sandwiches- Lamplight Lounge
Cheddar Burgers – Lamplight Lounge
Scream Canister (drink)- Lamplight Lounge
Open Ocean with a Splash (drink)- Lamplight Lounge
The Last Word (drink)- Lamplight Lounge
Graham cracker white chocolate caramel apple
Mike Wazowski shaped Rice Krispie treat
water, water, water, water!!

Dinner reservations were at the Lamplight Lounge. If I had to rate this place on a star system, I’d give it a solid 3.5.

We got seated downstairs on the deck right on the water to the right. Wow. The location of this restaurant on the water, with the view of the park – namely the Incredicoaster of Pixar Pier- was perfect. Seriously, it is probably the most beautiful restaurant setting of any amusement park Disney owns. The aesthetics were real nice. They designed it with very large cozy chairs set up around oversized coffee tables, which made it feel more relaxed and bar-like. Which was perfect. The waiter we had was super nice and very well-rounded with the menu. The cocktails were actually way better than we had thought they’d be. I got The Last Word, which was so good..I would go back for that! But the food? Well, I hate giving anything but good reviews but it was just …meh. Nothing really blew us away. We got the lobster nachos and carne asada rolls to start. The rolls were good for the most part, but the nachos were just ok. Then we got burgers and sandwiches for mains. We got the chicken sandwich, which felt like it was missing something, and the burgers were decent. It just felt like something was missing from the things we weren’t all that happy with, know what I mean?

Forgot to get a snap of my ootd so here it is from the hallway.. our hotel had the colorful lights in each area

Disney California Adventure trolley

First starbucks of the disney trip!

With her caramel macchiato. smh

large enough to share, my latte…

Pixar Pier

Radiator Springs Signage

Flo’s V8 Cafe- Carsland

Inside Flo’s

Pixar Fest Food Guide- Disneyland

Outside Flo’s V8 Cafe

Brioche french toast w bananas

chicken tamale breakfast w scrambled eggs

Cars Waffles- Flo’s v8 Cafe

Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree

Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree

Jumpin Jellyfish

Jumpin Jellyfish- this was so fun!

Toy Story Mania

OOOO I finally kicked the butt of the master! 😛

Goofy’s!!

OOf this ride smh

Corn Dog- Disney California Adventure

Golden Zephyr!

The Bakery Tour

Luigi’s Casa Della Tires

Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters

Radiator Springs Racers

HUDSON HORNET- Radiator Springs Racers

Luigi e Guido! Radiator Springs Racers

Radiator Springs Racers

Mac n Cheese in a cone

Carsland- vodka pomegranate limeade with fizzy foam

Carsland toy model

a bug’s land

a bug’s land- the saddest train I have ever ridden.

a bug’s land

a bug’s land- The ride finally starts…

and two minutes later? Broken

Heart at my feet 🙂

a Bug’s Land Flick Fliers

On the trolley

Making Pixar Fest Wall-E. Nemo and Dory cake pops

Corn on the cob in the middle of the day

one of my fav treats irl- affogato 🙂

It was sooo good!

Pixar Fest Mint Chip Sulley Smoothie from Schmoozie

Monster’s Inc Mike and Sully to the rescue

Monster’s Inc Mike and Sully to the rescue

Monster’s Inc Mike and Sully to the rescue

Monster’s Inc Mike and Sully to the rescue- She caught me taking her photo! Called me out!

Always Watching

Sorcerer’s Workshop

Sorcerer’s Workshop- Thomas was amazing. He walked my daughter through on how to make a cartoon image to show her friends 🙂

Sorcerer’s Workshop

Sorcerer’s Workshop- Beast’s Library

Sorcerer’s Workshop

as we split up they had a photo op 🙂

She did so well, and broke he streak to hit 96K! woo!

Carsland

view from Lamplight Lounge

Lamplight Lounge

Lamplight Lounge

Lamplight Lounge

Lamplight Lounge

Lamplight Lounge- Lobster Nachos

Lamplight Lounge- carne asada rolls

Lamplight Lounge

We split up again and she got her photo op!

Pixar Pier Photo

Paint the Night parade

From across the street!

Carsland at night 🙂

One more ride on the Racers!

Last ride of the night… 😦

Well, after dinner we ran across the park, caught the Paint the Night Parade on our way to Carsland. We all wanted to see that area lit up at night and ride the Radiator Springs Racers one more time! It was so beautiful at night!! After this, we closed out the park riding Soarin’ then took a leisure stroll down Buena Vista shopping and buying treats for the rest of our trip.

Everything about this park felt spectacular, and we all left saying that this was our favorite Disney Park of them all. OF THEM ALL!!! There was something about the size and the overall theming. It felt more like being at an amusement park, the kind of park that leaves you with lots of great family memories. It left us all feeling, just simply, happy. It was uncomplicated and fun!

We had a hard time leaving Disneyland behind. We always felt sad leaving WDW, especially as we spend a ton of days there, settling into a way of life, but Disneyland…it was truly magical. 🙂

My Travels

Disneyland First Timers! Day 7

Posted on September 11, 2018September 12, 2018 by Sunshine76

Sorry for the delay! I have been dealing with a lot at home, and just hadn’t any time to draft this up. Which is why I am using my lunch break to make this magic happen!

——

As much as we loved the bustling city and relaxing beach stops of our Southern California trip thus far, this part, Disneyland, was as special. We thoroughly enjoyed Disneyland (DL) just as we had hoped.

Day 7!

This was an extremely hot day! It was pretty humid and the heat index was off the charts.

We started by having a pretty big (delicious) breakfast at our hotel before walking over to the parks area. We entered the parks via South Harbor Blvd, which was the opposite side of where we went the night before to Downtown Disney. Being this close to the parks was fantastic. We all commented on how it felt like going to the Magic Kingdom (MK) from the Bay Lake Towers (BLT) at the Contemporary in Walt Disney World. Which is a resort we all enjoy staying due of the proximity to MK. *With the major differences here of being outside of the property and way more people walking along with you. The MK walk from BLT is literally like your own private entrance!

The walkway to the Disneyland Parks here had the most charming, manicured, square-cut trees. With Pixar Fest happening, there was that faint Pixar music that we heard at Downtown Disney being piped in, which I loved so much. Who doesn’t get amped up hearing The Incredible’s movie theme song early in the morning!? Your stride changes a bit, you seem to have a bounce in your step and a smile on your face. It’s pretty magical from that point on.

Since we planned one day per park, we realized this was going to be a challenge because of the amount of people slated to be at the park as they just reopened annual pass holders back from Summer. Also, DL’s fast pass system is the old school paper tickets, and being unfamiliar with the park (wanting to see more) was a big obstacle, but also we were fighting time.

If you have never been to DL, but have gone to WDW, the set up is basically similar to MK. Meaning they both have themed areas at almost in the same directions as one another; with three exceptions in DL. They have the following… Main Street, U.S.A., Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Mickey’s Toontown, Frontierland, Critter Country, New Orleans Square and Adventureland. Knowing where these are at WDW, you know Main Street USA is where you enter down to the castle. The castle is the central point with Tomorrowland to its right, Fantasyland behind it, Frontierland and Adventureland to its left. Did I get that right? Yes, ok. So. Knowing generally where the rides we wanted to get on first were, and how the fastpass system worked, we planned to opt out of chasing down characters we had met before, or, rides that we had gone on at WDW IF we had to skip something for time.

There is a MAXPASS system in place at the parks. It’s $10 a person per day, which we didn’t get the first day, stupidly. We both thought it was $40 a person, for some reason. I am not sure what we were thinking, but we did get it on our next visit which was a HUGE help getting us on rides faster. The MAXPASS grants you access to book fastpass (FP) and to see/save photopass pictures through their app. The rule is you book one FP per person, you can’t get another electronically till that one is spent. Like at WDW, except you get three per person to book in advance to start.

Even with the FP set back, we did a lot. And since they had opened the gates that day for their annual pass holders return from the Summer off, the amount of crowds was manageable. There were a lot of people there.

We did a lot for what we had to deal with and time!!

The rides we got on:

Snow White’s Scary Adventure*- I loved this when it was at WDW, it was the very first ride my husband had taken me on during my first visit. (Snow White is my favorite Princess of all time.) Naturally, we had to ride this first to show the kids. This ride makes its way through the Seven Dwarfs lives in the cottage and glimmering mines, the haunted forest, the Evil Queen’s room and exits to the happily ever after. I miss this ride a lot!
Pinocchio’s Daring Journey*- This was a cute ride, similar to Snow White’s, with all its plot twists along Pinocchio’s story. I loved seeing Figaro everywhere, he is my favorite cat.
Big Thunder Mountain- We all love this ride at WDW, and this one was very different but still the same. It wasn’t as jerky, which made it a little more enjoyable, and I felt like it was more daring with its drops and swoops. We definitely wished we lived closer to ride it more and more!
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride*- This was a first for me and the girls, my husband had ridden this at WDW as a kid. The ride moves along pretty quick, though, but we thought it was a lot of fun!
Storybook Land Canal Boats*- This is the sweetest water ride to ever exist. It is a simple cruise down a canal overlooking all the homes of the storybook characters and some Disney ones from over the years. It was so well constructed, and adorable.
Mad Tea Party (twice)- This is a ride also at WDW, but it is outdoors adorned with colorful lanterns above. So pretty at night! I noticed it wasn’t as big, not as many riders can get on at once, so the line took some time to get through. Overall, aesthetically we liked this location, but the short length of the ride and wait in line was a bummer.
Indiana Jones Adventure*- So, we all loved this ride a whole bunch. It was super fun, thrilling and kinda creepy! Lots of twisty turns, bringing the action as close to you as possible. Lots of effects that surprised us all. I wish they create this at WDW… but make it a little less jerky, please.
Jungle Cruise- This is a ride I have not gotten on in years, since my first visit in 2002 to be exact. Each time we have brought our kids it was either down or they didn’t care to go on it. This time, because it was so frackin hot and the line was at 15 minutes, we jumped on! So happy we did. The cruise takes you on an adventure with animatronic exotic animals and people along the way. I re-lived a lot of the funny jokes.
Space Mountain (twice)- When I say ‘we’ rode this, I mean my husband and oldest daughter did. Our youngest would rather die than ride it again. ha They did say that it was different from at home, one loved it more and one loved it less.
Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage*- This is a super cute ride, that is themed with the Pixar movie Nemo, but used to be 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea- Submarine Voyage ride, which I never got to ride. It is an underwater adventure where you go “deep” into the ocean for exploration, then it turns into a Nemo adventure looking for him all over again. Our kids really enjoyed it, looking at all the under sea ‘fish’. BUT…if you are claustrophobic, do not go on this ride. Like I don’t even have claustrophobia and I was feeling a little too uncomfortable for my taste. But to be fair, it wasn’t the whole time, just when we had a small leak that dripped on another guest in our submarine. My brain, apparently, was not having it. hahah
Autopia-Take a ride in the coolest gas-powered cars! This is a racecar ride that most amusement parks have, but the cars at Disneyland were tres cool! We had a blast letting the girls each take the wheel, as we feared for our lives… we keep doing this to ourselves. To our surprise this time, they did great! In my car, with our youngest, we only slammed into the guard rails at the center like 50 times while she screamed and let go of the wheel but leaving her lead foot on the gas.
Disneyland RR- After our non-stop running around, we decided to get to our next destination, dinner, by railway. This was actually totally fun, and different from WDW’s. The RR rides around the park, but also through tunnels of time. Cute.
Roger Rabbit’s Cartoon Spin*- We had to hustle to get here after dinner. Toontown closes early for the fireworks display, it was around 8:30PM this night. It was such a fun ride, sort of like Mr Toad’s Wild Ride, but bouncy and kookier. The girls loved it!
it’s a small world- This begins outside in DL, which is great, and it definitely went longer than its sister location at WDW. There seemed to be more lands/countries and I appreciated them way more! I actually love looking at all the details of the cultures, clothing, and the DL version was just a touch better than at WDW because they peppered in some Disney characters. Hands down cute!
Alice in Wonderland*- The ride takes you on the adventure of Alice in Wonderland in a giant caterpillar car. Immediately you are shrunken down to fit through the doors. You avoid chases by the Queen of Hearts and her staff of cards. And you end up at the Mad Tea Party. It’s really cute.

* Not at Walt Disney World

FYI- The Matterhorn and The Haunted Mansion, the two rides I was looking forward to most, were shut down.

We got to meet for the first time:

Kylo Ren
Rey
Darth Vader

We drank and snacked on:

Dole Whip (No swirls at DL, folks!)
Churros
Mickey Bars
Mickey Shaped Ice Cream Sandwiches
Frozen Lemonades
Frozen Lemonades with Cherry
Waters..like I think fifteen waters a piece! It was really hot.

Aside from all this, we did stop to have dinner. We had booked reservations for the Cafe Orleans in New Orleans Square. This was a nice area of the park, set up to look like New Orleans. If you have ever stayed at the Port Orleans Resort at WDW, which we had our first family trip- on the French quarter side, it had the same feels of that location. Very ornate and pretty.

Cafe Orleans was pretty fun.The aesthetics inside and out felt like we were somewhere else; we sat outside on the patio. The mint julep drink was so pretty AND super delicious! We ordered dinner at a snail’s pace because we found out that some of their items, like their fries, were fried ahead of time in my husband’s allergen. With a little maneuvering he got to order basically what he wanted. Just no fries. Which was a bummer, because those fries rocked! Hey, I felt bad the whole time I ate them with the kids in front of his face. 😛

The waitress refilled our glasses a lot, which we needed in the heat. Even though the kids were drinking Sprite and Coca Cola, which I don’t normally let them unless we go out or are away, I wasn’t caring at all. They needed the sugar and liquid to make the rest of the night. Did I mention enough how it was sweltering hot out there? I feel like I haven’t. Not nearly enough. The sun was shining bright and the sky had no cloud in sight. Perfect but the humidity was over the top ridiculous. I wore a sheer top that I was boiling in. And I can handle high temps. My kids were just sweating standing in the shade and every twenty minutes we finished a bottle of water running for another one. We even drank from the weird water bubblers around the park when we had no water bottles in sight. It was so hot! OHMYGOD, I forgot to mention, it was so hot that an older woman fainted in front of us waiting to get on Big Thunder Mountain! She was about to get on and just dropped. That is how hot it was!

Ok, back to dinner..in the heat. As the food arrived it felt like a scene from some eating contest. The plates were overflowing with food, holy portions! The kids and my husband ordered 2 monte cristos and a three cheese monte cristo to split up, and I got the nicoise salad..with fries. 🙂 Their meals were not sandwiches, they were like donuts! GINORMOUS SQUARISH & TRIANGULAR SHAPED DONUTS! It was obscene! I was pretty happy to see that none of them could put a dent in their dishes.

After dinner, we had to run on a few rides before the Pixar Fest ‘Together Forever – A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular’ Fireworks started. I put a list of all the rides above, basically, in order of how we got on them.

Once the night sky got real dark, the show started. We got to watch the show by the it’s a small world building. WOW! We were told they were pretty special there, and they weren’t kidding. What a view! We got to stand pretty close to the projections on the ride, and, there was a lot of space for people to sit on the ground! It floats through all the music and scenes of Pixar’s great movies. The best part for me, however, was Wall-E and Eve. It was magical and perfect with the fireworks.

We did all this and we still had time to take our time walking down Main Street USA to shop around… twice! I got the girls some birthday surprises, which they both celebrate their big days in September. We left the parks by walking back to the hotel. We were absolutely spent after all the running around and non-stop fun.

Two eggs w bacon and toast – and french toast in background- Breakfast at Indigo Hotel

Churro Waffles- Indigo Hotel

Chicken and waffles Indigo Hotel

Walking to Disneyland

Before walking on property

Pixar Fest signage was so cute at the gate

ahhh the sights and smells of Disney!

🙂

Our First Timers Pins!

Well and happily ever after pin too. 🙂 if they had any Birthday ones it’d be the trifecta of buttons for this family!

Disneyland Family Shot

This is when I played the Evil Queen

Who at the apple

Pinocchios Daring Journey

Mad Tea Cups

Big Thunder Mountain time!

I love the lady behind the kids. 😛

Storybook Land Canal Ride

Indie!!

The film before the ride…i uhm caught it at the wrong point 🙂

Dole Whip

On the Jungle Cruise

We never got to meet Vader before.. he is creepy af in person. I was trying to move away from him cuz he had it for me.. smh

Meeting Rey was meh.. our youngest who loves her left there disappointed somehow.

These photo ops are always weird…

Nemo Sub Voyage

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Nice pole in my view 🙂

Churros! Disneyland

The granite ball on water

On autopia

Here comes the train!

Cafe Orleans

Mint Julep- Cafe Orleans, Disneland

Three cheese Monte Cristo.. holydiabeetus

Toontown at night

Jessica Rabbit’s door

At Minnie’s house..finally!!!

We love Minnie!

it’s a small world

Pixar Fest Nighttime Spectacular

Pixar Fest Nighttime Spectacular

At Mad Tea Party again…

Leaving Disneyland 😦

Well, Esmerelda, was that about this trip or about that weird guy about to go down his pants in front of me? (VOMIT)

So if you know me at all, you would know why this is here…

becuz..I love…

….Charlie Chaplin. Always will.

This was another great day! We all felt that Disneyland had a great magical feel. We fell asleep looking forward to our next big adventure…Disneyland’s California Adventure Park! YEE!!

My Travels

Victoria Beach, Crystal Cove Beach and the Big Disneyland Reveal- Day 6

Posted on September 6, 2018 by Sunshine76

Hey Everyone!

Day 6! I loved this day so much…the beaches and THE BIG SURPRISE! We drove from Laguna Beach to Anaheim; telling our kids it was “on our way to San Diego”. Don’t you go north to go south? :)~ Well, they had no idea what direction we were going, so it worked for us.

Before Anaheim we did make two stops. One to Victoria Beach to see the Pirate Tower, and, one to see the cliffs and tide pools of Crystal Cove/State Park. Laguna may be the most beautiful beachy place on American soil.

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Victoria Beach/Pirate Tower

We got straight into bathing suits and water shoes before breakfast because our first stop of the day was to Victoria Beach, south five minutes from our hotel. A quick FYI- you will need to pack water shoes to walk most of the beaches we visited this trip. These are no places for flip-flops as they’ll get wrecked guaranteed.

Victoria Beach is down an obscure set of stairs in a residential area. So there is some searching for it, but this website I referenced in my research earlier in the Summer definitely helped us find it. Well, his lens perspective seems wonky now that I have been there and looking back on his site, but he tells you were to go, address included. There are a lot of stairs, and the parking is on the major street a block or two away, which is also a highway. Though it was free for two hours. So depending on your activity level, you may need to look into this area further if you need assistance with path ways.

The second you hit the beach from the stairs the views are picturesque. Truly beautiful. The beach is rather large, which wasn’t expected. You are facing a long-span of beach to the left and cliffs to the right. We had seen a lot of locals hanging out and walking towards the left, so of course, we went right. Wow, JUST WOW! We started off our walk along the surf. The water was so blue, looked lushly weighted as it was rushing over these volcanic like rocks. It seemed like a dream, really. Then to the right we saw another gathering of rocks, a man-made wall and there was the Pirate Tower! Super awesome!

The Pirate Tower was constructed for a former senator at the beginning of the last century as a walled in spiral staircase, but was adopted later by the next residents and the neighbors with pirate lore. It is nestled in the cliffs by what looks like a built out area where people had made a wading pool of some sort. Then to the right beyond the tower were a collection of jagged rocks that housed the greenest sea moss and tide pools. The tide was active, and the waves rolling into the cracks of the rocks would fill up the basins created between the rocks and exploded out on the outer side. it was absolutely beautiful mayhem. The booming sound of the waves surfacing above was spectacular!

One more shot from our balcony before we leave our hotel….

I’m ready..

Victoria Beach, Laguna

Pirate Tower- Victoria Beach, Laguna

Victoria Beach, Laguna

Victoria Beach, Laguna

Crystal Cove State Park

From Victoria Beach we headed to Crystal Cove State Park. I hadn’t researched much about this location. Only learned that they had a huge state park with a natural beach that had various entrance points, some tide pools and a large beach. During our last afternoon on Laguna’s Main Beach we looked up this area just to get a handle of what’s to see, how to get there. Well, this was way more than we expected.

We went into the state park via the Pelican Point entrance, parked in lot 2. Parking is $15. Now, this is a little fuzzy, but I think this lot was for the Reef Point part of the beach. The walk from the parking lot to the beach was magnificent. You aren’t really sure what is waiting for you as you park. The lot is surrounded by desert like spaces and to get tot he beach you walk to a boarded walking path. It really looked like a desert. Along the way there were signs by the conservancy explaining what wildlife is in the area, like coyotes, and the ‘dry’ vegetation, and what not to do, like do not touch or take anything from the beach that is protected. This means things like NO taking shells, and, NO touching sea life. Reading the last sign there is when we noticed a purple hummingbird in a sparse tree. Super cool to see such a colorful animal in a dead environment like that.

As the path goes to sand, you can walk to the left or straight. First we went straight; saw a panoramic view of below. WE WERE SO HIGH UP ON A CLIFF! Then we went down to the beach on the other path walking along the cliff. This path was fun, but if you have mobility issues I believe there is a paved path from another parking lot I saw online. The path went from flat, to steep, to a gnarly wooden staircase that basically broke off onto a huge mass of rocks. We loved it! The rocks were jagged, scattered and cracked like no where I had ever seen before. Everything looked and felt like a desert, but with ocean water feet away. So unexpected.

There was a twelve-foot uprooted tree/drift wood that was laying across a section of the rocks. The waves were gracing over the rocks slowly, leaving tide pools of all types of creatures behind. We saw minnows and other silvery fish, crabs and hermit crabs, snails, and we even got to see a huge sea slug! He was about 5 inches long, black, and fluttering like seaweed from beneath whenever the water floated over him!! We had never seen one of those before. SO COOL! (I am still giddy re-living this right now!)

We ended up looking around the rocks for an hour or more, there were so many tide pools around as it went to a large stretch of beach/sand. When we looked down the beach we realized we were the only people there! We walked down to the left side to set up our site with towels and snacks, then went right into the water. We swam around for an hour or so, then got our things together to hike back up the cliff to our car.

This was the most surreal place I had ever been. It felt like I would go there often if we lived nearby. I also think this was the most typical Californian location…natural, rugged, beautiful, hot. Authentic in every way.

Crystal Cove State Park

Crystal Cove State Park- view from above

Crystal Cove State Park- walk from parking lot above

Crystal Cove State Park- view from above of rock plates/tide pools

Crystal Cove State Park- me and our youngest at the end of the path

Crystal Cove State Park

Crystal Cove State Park- Steps

Crystal Cove State Park

Crystal Cove State Park- driftwood

Crystal Cove State Park

cliffs at Crystal Cove State Park

making fun of me taking so many pictures… har har

Crystal Cove State Park-

Crystal Cove State Park

Crystal Cove State Park- tide pools

inside tide pool-Crystal Cove State Park

SEA SLUG Crystal Cove State Park

only ppl at Crystal Cove State Park

Crystal Cove State Park

heart shell – Crystal Cove State Park

Surprise! Trader Sam’s and Downtown Disney

Our kids definitely knew beforehand that Anaheim was home to Disneyland, and a stop for us along our drive in So Cal. So, naturally they did ask if we were going to the Disneyland parks. Which we fake explained no; how we couldn’t afford going this leg of the trip, but since we were so close to the city we’d spend a night so we could go to dinner and shop around Downtown Disney. The reality was that we were in Anaheim for three nights, going to the two parks for a full day each. Our plan was to take them to the park instead of breakfast that first day to really stun them.. but..

We arrived at the Indigo Hotel Anaheim around 3PM. This location was spot on perfect for this leg of our trip. It was a ten minute walk to Disneyland, if that. We jumped right to swimming because it was so hot and humid there. The pool and hot tub were pretty decent, and we got to hang out in the cabana with some drinks, which was pretty and relaxing. From the pool area you could see the back of the Guardians of the Galaxy ride! Super fun.

When we got on the elevator from the pool the girls noticed an advertisement that shared the price of Disneyland tickets per day for both parks, and all the combo ticket prices. Our kids were like “woaHhhh” when they saw it. Which made us reply, “I know, right?”. And that little seed of doubt, ‘maybe my parents couldn’t really swing it’, shadowed over their faces. WHICH WAS PERFECT!! mwuahahaha! :}

At Trader Sam’s we got to sit on the deck, which was perfect. The weather was now breezy. The tiki torches were all ablaze, and they had a live Hawaiian band playing, who were excellent! All the elements just right for Polynesian food and cocktails outside. We ordered a ton of stuff by the way, and I mean A TON. It was all so good! plus. My husband has food allergies that can be a bummer for him when we eat Asian food, so when we find a place that doesn’t inundate us with it he goes overboard sampling. Like the five dishes of gyoza/dumplings he ordered.

During dinner the girls talked further about Disneyland, which we couldn’t help as the entrance to Disneyland from the Disneyland Resort was literally in our view. Like it is huge and lit us up! So. The reveal came out by chance around the service of dinner. We had a few cocktails in us, a lot of gyoza, so when our oldest daughter started to compute how much going would be out loud, I replied, “I know, now add another day to that because Disney California Adventure is across the way, right?”. So she factored that in. Our daughter was floored just knowing how much two days cost there. This was so great!

So, my husband said to her, “Don’t forget to add in snacks, drinks and meals. Then it gets crazier.”. She looked at her sister all disappointed, “how much does food cost then?”. I motioned to her, like, see why we can’t go? My husband and I looked at one another all sly like two awesome parent foxes. Then with our internal dialogue we telepathically spoke like, “so that bright Disneyland sign for the entrance is making me want to tell them so bad! You too, right?”. He obviously said yes. 🙂 I mean, telepathically.. Just as quick as we smiled to one another, I turned to the girls and replied, “Super expensive. Then there is Starbucks and all the Pixar Fest themed food that is around that I would need to see and eat.” Then I took a sip of drink as my husband said, “I have been dying to see Carsland. And ride Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride again.”. My reply came out so fast. “I know, me too. So just imagine how much fun tomorrow is going to be!”, turned to our kids quickly, ” Hey. I brought your Minnie Ears, you know.”.

They looked at us confused. It was noisy from the band and all the people (it was slamming!). Then it registered and they FREAKED the eff OUT! Like literally got the whole deck excited along with us! It was so awesome! There were tears, screams of joy, hugs, disbelief, and just odd noises; and that was just from me… 😛

So happy how it went down! Because the rest of the dinner we talked about what we researched for them, and oddly HOW MUCH THEY KNEW about the parks’ rides! Those are definitely my girls.

Dinner at Trader Sam’s was fun otherwise too. The cocktails even funn..er. We had some interesting drinks like we shared the uh ah. This was fun but not my favorite. It came in a castle shaped tiki cup adorned with sugar cubes and cinnamon. Our waitress lit the rum soaked sugar cubes and we all took pinches of cinnamon to sparkle in the fire as she chanted something. It was super fun. Then I got the piranha pool which was strawberry and blue curacao slush (in a piranha tiki). My husband got the hippopotomaitai (no tiki mug), and the tiki tiki tiki tiki tiki rum (you know you all just sang that!!). I grabbed the piranha tiki cup as my sole souvenir of my trip.

We walked Downtown Disney as we planned. I wasn’t exactly impressed with this area, but our girls were ecstatic, so that got me going. We walked into the downtown area to find a band playing; who were real good! We walked into each store trying on all the Halloween ears one could get their hands on. All the decorations up for Pixar Fest were so clever. They had modern art topiaries at each seated area set to each Pixar film with alternating Pixar music piped in softly. My favorite character made of bushes was Edna Mode though, her topiary was hilarious.

We huddled together as we watched the fireworks display that was visible from over at Disneyland. It was so great from our spot! Also, another live band was playing in the restaurant nearby, which made for great fireworks music.