Katman1356...Jason

We watched the show last week.....it was awesome. How did you two go about seeing it? We ended up buying the World of Color picnic that came with the Fast Pass seating. If only you could sit and watch it....

As much as I loved the World of Color, my favorite nighttime show between WDW and DL is the Magical fireworks show. To see Tinkerbelle flying all around the castle (not the straight shot flight she does at WDW) was amazing, but what totally made that show my favorite was when Dumbo came flying out......I loved, loved, loved that part!!!!

We had the Dinner package at Wine Country Trattoria. We got there pretty early and found a spot right up by a railing so we looked out over the small section below and the water screens didn't get us. We were very close to dead center for it. I have a couple of pictures you will see later on.

We left off right in front of the castle.

Here Silvia is heading down towards the right of the castle towards Snow White's grotto.

This is in the gift shop for Star Tours.

Tea Cups!

Photo Op!

In the queue for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

Another photo op.

From here we headed over to Pinochio's Daring Journey

Can anyone guess what meet and greet was being held here?

Then we did the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough. It is a cute little trip up into the castle with stops that tell a little bit of the story.

Sorry some of those are dark. Most are behind glass and werent showing up at all without the flash.

We headed over to the original Tiki Room but a show had just started and we had breakfast reservations with a ton of charaters, and I don't mean Fiends.

To be continued...

Sorry for not getting a post up sooner but cable went out 2 horus ago and just came back. I will start putting one together now.

I think it is called Garden Walk......we walked to that last week to eat at the Cheesecake Factory......so many great restaurants to choose from.

Thats it! Garden Walk.

Go ahead.

I'll watch part of it. I heard it's a good show.

TCD

I think it is my favorite night time show. It kills me that it is that far away.

more like this. and yes I WANT this car!!

Me too!

I you think thats long wait till i post a link for World of Color. I believe that one is 30 minutes.

Dude- you want me to watch a 15 minute long video?

I tried.

Too long.

But, I did see Tinkerbell at the beginning. And Dumbo at about 8:23. Then I had to stop.

Hopefully, I didn't miss anything important.

The flying Tinkerbell and Dumbo are pretty cool, I'm not going to lie.

But those wires look bad in the daylight.

TCD

Nope you caught the important stuff. Oh and Tink comes back out towards the end. I figured I would throw it up for anyone who wanted to see it.

Although the layout for Disneyland is about the same as the Magic Kingdom, the space is much smaller. What takes 10 minutes in the Magic Kingdom to walk to, will take less than half that at Disneyland.

Very true. and yet my feet were still killing me by the end of the day.

Love your report. Been to the San Diego zoo (it was the best zoo I've ever been to) and the Coronado Hotel. Couldn't afford to stay there either. Bought a drink and enjoyed the beach. I feel like i'm running trying to keep up with you two! Love the pics.

Glad you are enjoying them!

Very cool update!! I felt the same about Disneyland, so cool to see where Walt walked. You mentioned being next to the mall. (Was it Riverview) or something like that? I stayed at the Super 8 on Katella and was right next to that mall and some incredible restaurants.

I believe that might have been the name of the mall.

Great updates! San Diego, the zoo, mission and beach I've been to. Shockingly, never to DL. This is making me want to schedule a day on my drive down the CA coast next month, now.

You should if for no other reason than to report back on Cars Land. And to see World of Color. Oh and the Soundsational Parade. Screw it just take me with you!

Loving the California pics! I'll probably never make it that far out west, so it's great to see it through your eyes!

Glad that you are enjoying the pics.

Loving your whole TR. I hope to get to Disneyland some day. Only time I've been to Calif. was a family vacation way way back in 1979 (I was 16). I begged to go to Disneyland but my parents decided our theme park would be Knotts Berry Farm because we'd been to WDW twice so we'd already "done" Disney. I remember giving them the silent treatment for many hours about that decision.

I would probably still be holding a grudge if that had happened to me.

That is funny. We never went to California on a family trip when I was a kid, but I known my dad would have done the same thing.

Jason-

Thanks for all the Disneyland photos! I find them all so interesting. There are so many similarities and yet so many differences between Disneyland and WDW. It is really fun to look at the photos for both.

TCD

You really have to stop and think a little when you are there, and yes look at the map, Because while the layout is similar some things are in completely different places. And there are the things that aren't in FL.

That is all.

LOL you did warn me.

Jason-

What's with the wires I see in these photos?

It looks like crap.

Very un-Disney:

Hey look, it's a mountain!

Really, why are there wires coming out of a mountain?

What wires?

TCD

They had both Tinkerbell AND Dumbo flying when we saw Magical!, which is their Summertime fireworks show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpn9VBCkbIs

I am speechless. I haven't even begun to digest all of those desert and National Park photos! We are NP nerds, too. My kids have passports and we go to them every chance we get to check them out and get our books stamped. Will be going to one in GA this weekend.

And then there is the San Diego Zoo……now there is someplace I can say I have been, too! My brother was also stationed there during his time in the Navy and I went out for spring break one year. We were at the zoo at a time when there were some sort of extra-special pandas from China there. We also went to Coronado and I stayed near LaJolla. My BIL lives in Oceanside and we need to get our kids out there to visit their cousins and see all of this cool stuff. Thank you for that reminder.

Carry on……..

Oh I will. We have several more National Parks to hit after we leave Disneyland in a couple of days.

Jason,

This is the best trip report!!! I love how you two travel!

The Disneyland pictures are getting to me...............A week ago today, we were still there...........I miss it...........

Can't wait for more!!!

Heidi

Glad you are enjoying. It's been a year for us but we can not wait to get back.

Okay that does it. Selling the house and hitting the road. :heartsmiley:

Seriously, though, what an awesome trip! Just the kind of adventure that I can't WAIT to take DD on one summer together! National Parks, San Diego Zoo, Disneyland, you guys really did it all! I'm already curious, though. Was the trip home tough? Or did you plan a totally different (and also awesome) route home? I have often thought about flying out to like Lubbock or Amarillo and renting an RV from there - my rationale is that we've just SEEN everything from here to there 875 times...

And I like Silvia's smile, too. You guys look like fun to hang out with.

Believe it or not this is only the end of the first of 3 weeks. We have several more national parks and monuments to see before this trip is over.

Disneyland looks so incredible. Just knowing Walt's personal role in it makes it so special.

It is really nice Dave. Similar to Disney World but different enough to be well worth the trip out there. And to see the actual attractions that Walt worked on is cool as well.

Moving on to Tomorrowland and the Hub.

While I was in line for Star Tours fastpasses Silvia went to take pictures.

Sleeping Beauty is a much smaller castle. The Matterhorn overshadows it.

The statues in the hub.

And the big cheese's themselves.

A look back down Main St.

A look towards Tomorrowland.

One of the Main St. Vehicles.

Looking towards Frontierland

towards Adventureland

The Matterhorn in the distance

Another Main St Vehicle.

Towards the plaza restaurant.

In front of the castle

Picture limit.

Okay let's try this again. I loaded all of our first day at Disneyland pictures. Bob should be happy as I think there will be more pics than words for a little while here.

Some of these may duplicate the previous posting and for that I apologize.

Arriving at Disneyland

Over the tunnel and in the tunnel

Entering the town square.

Deliberate duplicate as I love to see my wife's smile.

Fire house with Walt's apartment over it.

On the doors to the area with the Main St. vehicles.

The parades work a little different at Disneyland. They don't have the space to run in a loop going through the backstage area, so if there are 2 parades one starts at Small World and ends here. Then they reverse it for the next parade.

Starting down Main St.

In the next post we will visit Tomorrowland and the Hub.

Ok so after further checking there are a lot of Disneyland Pictures I don't have loaded. I think this may take a couple of hours to get them online. I will hopefully return with more later tonight.

The album's we printed were for everyone's enjoyment and let's just say that some of Silvia's family are not as into Disney as we are.

Okay. Time to get up and head over to Disneyland. According to the time stamp on the first picture we were in line and ready to head in by 7:45 am. There is no fun opening show like in Disney World. Just a voice over that repeatedly reminds people not to run . We headed straight to guest services to get our first visit pins and the lady there took a picture for us. We also had joined a photopass share so we have some pictures from that as well that I will share probably in a group at the end of the Disney report.

Here we go. Feel free to ask questions if I forget to point something out on the tour.

Star Tours! Had to get a fast pass for this right away as it had just opened in its new form and I hadn't been on it yet. I made up for it during this visit.

While I was grabbing fastpasses for Star Tours, there was a huge line, Silvia took the camera and headed over to the hub for pictures of the Castle and area.

This is quite possible one of the coolest pictures I have seen and I really wish I had taken it but it was Silvia.

No that is not upside down. The water was that still it made a perfect reflection.

Next we rode the teacups. With the dramatically lower rainfall amounts and generally lower humidity a lot of Disneyland is open to the air.

Another thing Disneyland has outside a bunch of the rides is a photo op ride vehicle.

Mr. Toads wild ride. I never got to ride this in Florida so I am glad we did it here.

The Plaza restaurant. Kind of similar to the Crystal Palace. We had reservations adn we were going to meet a bunch of characters.

Silvia had no clue his hook was to her neck. hehehe.

I just realized a lot of our Disneyland photos did not get printed and therefor are not loaded up. I am going to pause here and check whats missing and see what I should upload to share. Probably be a while so enjoy the break. We have a lot to see here.

Okay sorry guys. I guess I am just excited reliving the trip and more importantly I know that if I slow down to much I will start to forget to post the rest. I hope everyone caught there breath and used the bathroom cause in a couple of minutes we are heading to Disneyland!

I am going to throw out a wild shot in the dark on the yellow tent. Maybe another baby care center. Like the one next to Crystal Palace. Probably not though since it would make sense to put a baby and first aid place next to the biggest little kids play area. Just a thought though. And the wifi is supposed to be so the smartphone users can actually use the new disney app with their next gen fast pass system.

Let's see how I do.

I'm always amazed at how rugged the Pacific coastline is compared to what I've seen of the Atlantic. Great updates! Looking forward to your pics of Disneyland.

it's tomorrow--you can continue now! :rofl2:

really good tr so far. the pic of you two outside the zoo is really good. it's a framer if you ask me. :)

okay--give me some DISNEY!! :rofl3:

Unfortunately you will have to wait till this afternoon. Silly work thinks I should be fixing things. Don't they know there are people waiting on this trip report!

After leaving the mission we headed over to La Jolla Cove to do some swimming. Okay so Sil did some swimming I sat on the beach and took some pictures. I am not a big beach person and it was crowded that day. I just sat and read my book.

The beach is down on the right.

Down on the beach.

Lots of seals and birds over on the rocks.

I have been threatened upon pain of death or worse if I post a pic of Silvia in her bathing suit so we will move on.

We spent a couple of hours at the beach and then packed up and headed north. We were heading towards the mecca of all things Disney parks. Disneyland.

We had looked at the pricing of staying on site there but it is just too expensive. We did some checking and I found a great deal on a suite that was just down the road with an ART bus stop right outside. The ART stands for Anaheim Resort Transit. You can get a pass for unlimited rides back and forth from several locations right to Disney's door. Since we were a couple of blocks away it was worth the break our feet got.

Heading North

There are no gates to drive thru when heading to Disneyland since it is in the middle of the city. We were staying at the Peacock Suites. This was a Shell Vacations time share resort but they didn't pressure you to sit through a presentation. Just made sure you knew they were available and sent you on your way with a welcome folder showing you all the surrounding businesses and stuff about their time shares.

I think that is all the picture we thought to take but I know there was a pull out couch in the living room area. This turned out to be a very affordable place for us. The mall was right next door with lots of places to eat. and the ART bus stopped right at the driveway. It worked very well for us. We weren't getting tickets to go into the parks until the next day so we headed over to explore Downtown Disney..Anaheim style.

We had dinner over at the mall at Fire and Ice and went to the hotel to crash. We had a lot of exploring to do and we wanted to be rested for it.

I will pick this up with Disneyland tomorrow.

Loving this trip, SD zoo is one I have wanted to visit since Marlin Perkins was on TV.

Yup, I'm old...so's dirt LOL

Okay time for me to hit Google. You pulled a name I have never heard of before. I am usually a pretty good fount of nearly useless information but this time you got me.

The next morning we loaded the car back up and headed out for some history. We like to visit museums and other things that are significant to a places history. This morning we went to the first Spanish mission opened in California. Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcala'. We were a little early for opening so we spent some time taking pictures of the grounds outside.

Once inside we paid for our photo copied map and went on our way. The map actually has some information in it and each area has displays and plaques telling about what you are seeing. I think It was $10 a person to go in.

This was the padre's quarters.

This chapel is still in use to this day and holds all the usual ceremonies.

Then we went into the courtyard. A lot of artists like to come here and paint because of the beautiful flowers and architecture.

We then proceeded through an open air corridor towards the back of the mission and a museum detailing the history of the mission.

Being musicians we were drawn to some parts of the museum more than others.

There were some other exhibits in the museum are but really it was just one room with some trinkets found during the restoration and rebuilding of the mission.

There was also a small chapel in the back of the mission.

and the larger courtyard in the back of the mission has a large fountain.

The mission is a very beautiful place to visit and is a very peaceful and serene place. You definitely some away with a feeling of having a weight lifted from you that you didn't even realize was there.

Up next The Beach!!

Our next stop after leaving the zoo was a trip over to Coronado Island. I wanted to get Silvia over to the pacific and our beach day was the next day so I popped over. I also wanted to show her some thing over there.

Here's the beach

A very happy Silvia.

Is that the Grand Floridian?

Nope that's the Hotel del Coronado which the Grand Floridian was modeled after. Very pretty to look at and about the same price to stay at. Which is why we are in a Comfort Inn and not here.

After that we headed back to the hotel to clean up a little and get ready to go to dinner.

Silvia loved the palm trees that looked different from teh ones in Florida and snagged a picture

I took Silvia over to Ocean Beach to a place I had been to last time I was here. It was so good last time me and my buddy came back the next night. This place was also featured on Diner's, Drive Inn's, and Dive's on the Food Network. Fabulous Burgers and shakes just a short walk from the beach. Tiny place so there is always a line but it is worth is.

The name of the restaurant is Hodad's

Inside Hodad's

I even have food pictures of kitties for Dave!

Outside Hodad's

And down by the pier. I will call these Sunset on Ocean Beach

We returned to the hotel to get some rest and I did some laundry. We were changing locations tomorrow and I didn't want to spend any time where we were going doing laundry.

to be continued.

So it is now day 5 of our Road trip and we wake up in San Diego. We had a couple of things to do today and we were looking forward to them. First up was the San Diego Zoo. My wife thought I was crazy when I told her we would need a full day to cover this. We came close we hit about 85%. That will probably take a few posts of pictures so I will pick up the story in a later post. For now enjoy.

Just thought I should elaborate a little more on the Zoo for everyone. It really is huge and is built on the side of a canyon with terraced levels. you can walk around the zoo to your hearts content and they also have a sightseeing bus that drives around to the most popular animals and is high enough to see over the fence. Everything is completely handicapped accessible you just may have to go around some of the more direct paths sometimes.

They also have a sky tram that takes you over the zoo. Being completely afraid of heights I wasn't going near that thing. There are also lots of restaurants in the Zoo with many choices of food and levels of eating. It really is like going to a Disney park but almost all of the attractions are the animals.

One last thing. The zoo is in Balboa park. This is the museum mecca of San Diego. You could probably spend a week in Balboa Park alone and not see everything. So if you head out there check out what might be right next door. There may be something you would love to see.

Okay on with the pictures.

Going down the canyons headed for our first stop of the day.

The panda.

There is a limit to how many people can go into the enclosure area to see the enclosure area to see the panda at one time. As the day progresses the line backs up. I highly recommend this as a first stop early in the day as the line can get to over an hour.

Next up some mingo's. Sorry no purple ones.

Then onto the Polar Bears

I dont think I can remember the name of every single animal so I am just gonna post pictures now and throw shout outs when I recognize them.

Deer/antelope hiding in the bush

Best to let sleeping kitties lie I think.

Elephants!

There is a funny story about this elephant. He was posing so nicely eating some hay as I snapped his picture. I was going to bring out my video camera to get some nice video of him. Just as I was about to start filming he decides he need to go to the bathroom. Mothers were grabbing children and covering there eyes. Teenagers started giggling. Let me put it this way. His "other trunk" was as long as his regular one. Then he turned around and left a number 2 on it. I so wanted to tape because really I am a kid at heart and potty humor is always funny. But Silvia made some threats if I did so I didn't. But i did share it with you guys so don't tell her. LOLOL

Continuing on.

Free range peacock.

Timon!

Hyena

another meerkat posing oh so nicely for me.

Cheetah

Mingo

Zebra

Koala

Sloth Bear

Waterfall in an aviary

Gorilla

Tiger...eating dinner

Giant cactus

and Silvia

Galapagos Tortoise

This guys was over 120 years old if I remember correctly.

and we didn't get one on the way in sooo....

We took over 300 pictures in the zoo and were there from 9:15 to almost 5. They have so many animals that I can't remember all of them. Also for the kids and Disney Fans they do a special tour and take you around to all the animals from the Lion King. For a price if I remember correctly.

Next post seeing the Pacific and ...wait are we on the right coast?

Your pictures are beautiful! It looks like you had a sunnier day than we did.

Congrats on your contest win!

Thanks!

This is the freakiest sh*t I've ever seen!!

Great info on the annual passes.

You're pictures are outstanding! Though I'm sure in your eyes they can't compare to the real thing. This is probably the closest I'll ever get to that area, so I am digging it!

I'd be....petrified to be driving out to the middle of nowhere. Yep, you can always count on me for a corny joke.

:stooges:

I think Clark Griswold traveled some of those same roads on his way to Wally World.

Luckily Disneyland was not closed when we got there or I would have bought a real gun I think. Glad you are enjoying.

Jason,

I am just loving your trip report!!! Since I am still feeling sad that our almost three week road trip is over, your trip report is cheering me up!

Love your pictures at the National Park sign! We do that to! I think my favorite National Park signs is the one at Crater Lake National Park and one of the ones at Glacier National Park. We have noticed that when a National Park has several entrances, some of the signs are nicer than others.

So sad to hear that people have over time taken bits of the petrified wood. I have to admit that I also particiapated in a blunder similiar to that when I was 7-8 years old.....every summer, my folks brought us travleing to the National Parks out west (its where I got my love of travel!) anyway, when I was quite young we visited the Badlands National Park. Beofre we left, I scooped up just a pinch of the strange rock. I didnt know what I did was wrong, I just wanted a souviner. Later that day, I happily showed it to my Mom, who was furious at me...............to this day, I remember what she told me, "if everybody took a piece of the Badlands, eventually there would be no Badlands"..........geez, I felt terrible..........

Keep the pictures coming!!!

Heidi

I will admit that I have a piece of petrified wood on my entertainment center right now. I bought it at the unofficial gift center right outside that gets it from legal sources in other parts of the country. We will have to wait till later in the trip to see if I remain a fine upstanding citizen.

I'm the opposite Stef!! Those views call to me!!!! I can't WAIT to drive out there and be able to see the horizon in every direction!!!!!

and I can't wait until I can get back there.

I just got the chance to read this TR, what I trip. Your pictures are beautiful, I hope I can make a trip like that one of these days. I am chicken thou I would have to have my MH.

I would have loved to have had a MH but the rental was just not in the budget. The one downside to Bottomless Lakes is the bugs at night. They consider regular Off to be gravy and just come after you even more. This time through I knew that so I brought some 100% deet off with us just for this occasion. Worked like a charm.

Awesome tr! we have been thru roswell many times and never stopped to see the sites - thanks for sharing. the pics are great! I have a chunk of petrified wood sitting by my fireplace. Love how it looks and it is soooo heavy.

I agree-always keep a full tank. where you think a gas station should be-it won't be.

How cool is that! Glad you won and have a great time.

Thanks! We are very excited but I think having more time to spend there might end up costing me more in the long run. Ah well you only live once.

What a cool trip! I'm enjoying following along. Great pics!

Glad you enjoying them! Many more to come.

Count me in!