Fall Trip to CA: Northern California

Since our trip was a little on the lengthy side, I've broken it up into a series of posts; links to the additional posts can be found at the bottom of this one!

On Thursday, October 1, we flew to LAX, picked up our rental car, and headed north because we had plans to make it to Fentons for dinner.  We went to Fentons on our last trip to CA in 2013 and I was so looking forward to a return visit!  It did not disappoint and we were thoroughly enjoy our dinner and dessert when I noticed a elderly lady sitting alone, eating a sundae and drinking a cup of coffee.  This seems like the exact type of thing my own grandma might do, and while I am familiar with the idea that one should not judge a book by its cover, this lady just looked so sweet that I could not help sneaking peeks at her throughout our meal.  When I noticed that she was almost done eating, I asked our waitress if we could pay her bill.  I had hoped to do this anonymously, but our waitress told the lady's waitress, who in turn, told the lady that we were the people paying for her.  Sigh.  But since she knew it was us, I decided to stand up and say hello as she was leaving, because we had paid our bill and were getting ready to leave, too.  We had a very nice chat as we left the restaurant together, and she was as adorable as I had suspected.  It was one of those examples of 'to give is to receive' because I was so filled with good feelings after our encounter!  She was an incredibly lovely person and I am beyond glad that our paths crossed that night.

We spent the following day at The Walt Disney Family Museum, which we also visited back in 2013.  It was fantastic – and as a bonus, our admission was gifted to us by someone who works there that I met on Facebook through a Disney Weddings group!  Such generosity from someone I've never met face-to-face!

As you can tell from all of the photos below, I thoroughly enjoyed every part of the museum because I love Disney history!  Truthfully, I spent the better part of the day with tears in my eyes because I am consistently overwhelmed by all things Disney.  In a good way!

After the museum, we went back to Fentons for dinner again before calling it a night because we had an early start the next day.  No adorable older ladies dining alone this time, but dinner was still fantastic!

On Saturday, October 3, we were up early because we were driving back down to southern California, but before we left, we drove over to Emeryville to drive past Pixar Animation Studios.  Unfortunately, they do not allow tours, but it was cool to see the actual studio and its sign that is replicated at Disney's Hollywood Studios in WDW!

We drove to Santa Clarita for our tour at The Gentle Barn in the afternoon.  Loved every second of that experience!  You can read about that in a previous post.

After The Gentle Barn, we continued on to Anaheim.  For the first time, we were staying at a non-Disney hotel for three of the six nights because the Disneyland hotels are very expensive.  We chose Hotel Indigo, which is only about a ten-minute walk from the parks, and it turned out to be a very nice hotel.  My only "complaint" – not really a complaint, per se – was that I prefer to be inside the Disney "bubble" and stay at Disney's themed hotels, so it seemed weird to return to a "regular" hotel when we left the parks at night.  However, the hotel was great and if someone were looking to stay at a non-Disney hotel in Anaheim, I would definitely recommend it.  The location was great, the room was spacious and comfortable, and the staff was awesome.  Despite all this, it was not until I got home that I realized I failed to take a single photo of any part of the hotel – highly uncharacteristic of me!

That's it for this post!  Check out my other posts about our adventures on this trip...
~ Los Angeles
~ Disneyland Hotel
~ Disneyland
~ Disney California Adventure
~ Mickey's Halloween Party
~ Disneyland Tours

Happy Tails to you!