The first part of our trip took place in northern
California. We flew in to LAX on
Saturday morning and immediately began heading north to the San Jose area. We were on a mission to get to Fentons (see previous post for details) and it did not disappoint.
We spent Sunday in San Francisco at the Walt Disney Family Museum. We had no idea just how amazing this museum
would be. We planned on spending about
two hours there, but ended up being there for over four hours – and we would
have stayed longer had it not been closing time! The special exhibit was about the art of
Tyrus Wong, who did much of the scenery for the film Bambi. While that would be enough for most people,
he later designed absolutely incredible kites and at age 102 goes to the Santa
Monica Pier once a month to fly them.
His life story was so inspiring.
The rest of the museum was equally fantastic:
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| Tyrus Wong's kites |
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| Dachshund by Tyrus Wong |
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| Disney Artists' Paint Jars |
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| Model of Sleeping Beauty Castle |
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| Model of Disneyland |
Monday was spent driving down what is seriously one of my
favorite roads in the country – the Pacific Coast Highway. It is some of the most gorgeous scenery ever
and it is difficult to conceive of a better way to spend a day. On Tuesday as our drive down the coast
continued, we stopped at the Santa Monica Pier, which was something we’d never
done before. We wandered around the
pier, walked along the beach, and observed a huge flock of pelicans swooping
around – there had to be at least twenty of them flying together. What a beautiful sight! One thing I love about the ocean is watching
young children experience the waves rushing up to swallow their feet or their
sand creations – the squeals of delight are unmatched anywhere else. It is so life-affirming to witness that kind
of unbridled joy. After the pier, we
drove to Griffith Park in Los Angeles and headed to the observatory. I had not been there in thirty years, and C
had never been there, so it was definitely a place we were really looking
forward to visiting. Plus, we are
definitely space junkies, so it really appealed to our nerd side!
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| View from PCH |
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The Pacific Ocean - beautiful!
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| Santa Monica Pier |
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| LK <3 CK |
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| Griffith Observatory |
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| Monument to Great Astronomers |
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| View from the roof |
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| Albert Einstein |
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| Sundial |
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| Observatory |
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| Telescope |
After the observatory, we made a beeline for Anaheim. We spent Tuesday night at the Doubletree
because we weren’t sure how late we would get to Anaheim and we had no interest
in paying the Disney hotel rate when we didn’t know if we would even arrive in
Anaheim at a decent hour. However, we
arrived in time to check in, head over to Downtown Disney for dinner at Naples,
a restaurant that makes an amazing margherita pizza, and then go to Disneyland
in time for the fireworks (“Magical”).
Those of you who know me are well aware of the fact that I could watch
the Magic Kingdom fireworks (“Wishes”) in WDW a million times and never tire of
them. I’ve seen them dozens and dozens
of times, and I cry every single time. I
have the soundtrack and I listen to it quite often, and even if we don’t go MK
on a given day, we will often go there at night just for the fireworks. I love them.
That being said, I had not seen the DL fireworks in several years
because there is a water and light show (“World of Color”) at California
Adventure that is one of my most favorite Disney things ever and so we go there
in the evenings when we are in California because it is such a spectacular
show. This has resulted in us not seeing
the DL fireworks in the park in a really long time (we watched them from our
room at the Disneyland Hotel last year because we had a view of the park and
they played the audio track on the TV).
So I was not prepared for just how much I enjoyed them! While the fireworks were great, it was the
lighting of the castle that really impressed me – Sleeping Beauty Castle is
much, much smaller than Cinderella Castle and does not have the presence or
grandeur that Cinderella Castle has. But
that did not matter during the show because the colored lighting of the castle
(you know how I love colors!) was just spectacular. I was amazed and I was silently kicking
myself for not knowing what we had been missing!
The next morning, we checked into the Grand Californian
Hotel, which is reminiscent of Wilderness Lodge in Florida, and spent the next
four days in Disney bliss. Although DL
is relatively tiny when compared to WDW, there is a lot to do there, including
many things that aren’t found at WDW. We
really love Cars Land at California Adventure, which is a perfect replica of Radiator Springs, the town depicted in the film – it is uncanny. We were fortunate enough to see it last
summer when it opened and it was at the top of our list for this trip as
well. Disneyland was fun as always, and
being former band geeks, we love the musical performers around the park. The Dapper Dans is the signature barbershop
quartet and the Disneyland Band was awesome, too. The ceremony we witnessed for the first time
was the flag retreat at Town Square. The
Dapper Dans and the Disneyland Band performed, current and former members of the
military were invited to step forward and be recognized, and the crowd sang
along to the Star-Spangled Banner and America the Beautiful. It was so moving and just about the perfect
note on which to conclude our trip. Even
so, Saturday evening came far too quickly for our liking and there are still a
ton of things we need to experience!
This fact certainly gives us a reason to go back (not that we needed
one!).
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| Hotel Sign |
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| Fireplace in Lobby |
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| Fireplace in Lobby |
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| View of Lobby from Third Floor |
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| Sleeping Beauty Castle |
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| Nighttime View of Sleeping Beauty Castle |
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| Dapper Dans |
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| Mr. Toad's Wild Ride |
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| Teacup Chairs |
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Our Ride Vehicle for Toy Story Midway Mania - perfect!
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| Welcome Sign for Cars Land |
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| Sign for Flo's V8 Cafe |
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| Flo's V8 Cafe |
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Sign for the Cozy Cone Motel
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| World of Color |
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| World of Color |
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| World of Color |
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| World of Color |
We took the red-eye home on Saturday night, which would
normally not be worth mentioning, but I had an exciting encounter at LAX. As we were waiting at the gate, I recognized
Dustin Brown who was sitting about fifty feet away. For those of you who don’t know who he is,
shame on you! ;-) He is the captain of
the L. A. Kings, and I was wearing my L. A. Kings sweatshirt at the time! I didn’t really know how to approach him, so
I first walked past him and pretended to have to go to the bathroom in order to
assess whether it really was him. On my
way back, I just summoned up the courage to go over and talk to him, and he
could not have been more gracious. I am
not ashamed to admit that I was babbling in a rather incoherent manner…I
told him how much I love the team and how great it was to meet him. He kindly let me take his picture and stood
up to shake my hand…such nice manners! I
finally wandered back to my chair nodding at C like a maniac with a huge grin
on my face. A few minutes later when we
boarded the plane, I passed him and told him I had forgotten to mention what an
amazing Stanley Cup run they had in 2012, and then I saw him again the next
morning near baggage claim and I told him to have a great season. I am sure he wanted me to stop talking to
him. :-)
All in all, it was a fantastic trip and a great way to wrap up
the summer. The very best part was when
we got home and the girls were thrilled to see us. Five wagging tails...priceless.
Happy Tails to you!
