Southern California 2006

Trip Introduction

On this jaunt, our intrepid travelers visited the wilds of Southern California between June 23rd and July 2nd, 2006. They spent time with friends and family in Irvine with a visit to LA, San Diego (with a side trip to Tijuana), and in Anaheim at Disneyland.




Friday 6/23/2006 - Heading West

James got up at 5a (EST) to get to work early and finish some things before leaving for California. We both left work around 12:30p and headed home. We had everything packed so we just needed to clean-up a few things, set Shadow’s timer, and make sure nothing was missed before heading to the airport.

Our neighbor was nice enough to drive us to the airport for our 3:30p flight. We got there in plenty of time and had no problems on our flight to Chicago. We ate dinner in O’Hare during our three-hour layover and recharged the battery on the laptop in case we wanted to finish watching Pirates of the Caribbean on the flight to Orange County.

Our flight to Irvine was uneventful; Julie slept part of the way and James watched the movie that was shown on the flight. We got into John Wayne Airport around 10:30p (PST) and called Julie’s sister when we landed. By the time we got off the plane and made our way to the baggage claim area, Jolene and her husband had gotten from their condo to the Airport and circled the passenger pick-up area 3 times. Jolene got out and waited with us for our bags while he continued to circle. After about 20 minutes our bags were finally kicked out of the chute and we were able to make the 5 minute drive to the condo. We stayed up talking and watching TV until about 12a (PST). James was pretty wiped out since he had been up over 21 hours.




Saturday 6/24/2006 - Sites of Las Angeles

James woke up early since he has the most difficulty adjusting to time changes. He puttered around and then turned on the TV around 8a because a World Cup soccer game was on. We ate breakfast and the women took their showers while the game was on. When it ended, the men took their respective turns getting ready for the day.

Jolene drove us to the beach at Corona del Mar near Balboa Island. We then drove back inland around the UC Irvine campus. We ate lunch at an In-N-Out Burger before heading into downtown LA. Our first stop in downtown was the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It is a landmark piece of architecture by Frank Gehry and is home to the LA Philharmonic Orchestra. We did not take the time to go on a tour, but James purchased a souvenir paperweight and we took pictures of the exterior.

We then headed west towards Grauman’s Chinese theater and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. We parked a few blocks away from the theater (because we were not really sure where it was) and looked at the stars in the sidewalk as we went. We were there the weekend after Aaron Spelling passed away and saw the flowers people had started to pile around his star. When we got to the theater, we found the foot and handprints of several of our favorite actors and actresses including Johnny Depp, Julie Andrews, and others. We then got a snack at the shopping area next to the theater before heading back to the vehicle.

We drove out to the coast passing through part of Beverly Hills and Santa Monica before heading back into Irvine for dinner. We all sat around talking and enjoying the company before going to bed for the night.




Sunday 6/25/2006 - South to San Diego

James got up early again on Sunday and had the soccer game on as everyone else was waking up. We again took turns getting ready to go before heading to San Diego and the Zoo.

After the game ended and we finished getting our stuff together, we headed south to La Jolla where Jolene's sister-in-law and her family lived on the UC San Diego campus. Mitchelle and her family were nice enough to let us stay with them through Wednesday morning.

After dropping off our luggage, all eight of us headed to the San Diego Zoo. We had been warned and it was reaffirmed the San Diego Zoo is very hilly. While looking at the bears, lions, and rhinoceroses, you spend a lot of time and energy climbing and descending hills. Because of this, it seemed to us there was a lot of empty space between the birds, Komodo dragons, and lemurs. It also resulted in some interesting signage. The tigers were sleeping; but we had lots of time for pictures with our faces in flowers or behind cutouts with turtles painted on them.

After we saw most everything we wanted to at the zoo, we headed back to campus for dinner before Jolene and company returned to Irvine. Those of us who lived/were staying in the San Diego area rested and watched some TV before heading to bed.




Monday 6/26/2006 - SeaWorld Comparison

Our hosts all had to work on Monday so Julie and James took this opportunity to go to SeaWorld San Diego. We were interested to see what was different between this park and the one in Orlando.

The layout of the park is much more compact. There were many similar shows and animal exhibits, but they were themed differently. Both the Clyde and Seamore show as well as the Pets show had different themes with similar tricks. The Shamu show was the same as the one in Florida. They had some different attractions like Cirque de Mar which was a gymnastics type show both in and out of the water. There were a couple of different rides, but we did not feel like getting wet so we did not ride them. The one main difference we noted was none of the shows were covered. The weather is nice enough year-round, there was no need for shade structures at the shows. Thus, the tops of our legs got sunburned from sitting so much.

We left the park a little before 5p and headed back to La Jolla. We had a good dinner with our hosts and then went out for ice cream after a spectacular sunset. When we got back, Mitchelle took us on a golf cart tour of the UCSD campus. We then discussed the itinerary for Tuesday before heading to bed.




Tuesday 6/27/2006 - Sites of San Diego and Slightly South of There

Mitchelle had Tuesday off so the three of us were doing a “Sites of Southern California/Northern Mexico” day. We started off with taking her daughter to school and then heading to breakfast at Kono’s on Pacific Beach. The food was good and we ate on the outdoor terrace overlooking the beach. We then drove through the hills back into La Jolla looking at some of the large homes. We stopped at the top of Mount Soledad to look at the memorial and out over the valleys around San Diego. It was slightly overcast and actually sprinkled. This prompted our tour guide to ask “who did NOT get the memo” about the weather.

After picking up the rental car, we drove south toward the border. James had this crazy idea that he needed to go to Mexico. We parked in a commuter type lot and paid to take a bus across the border into Tijuana’s Plaza de Revolucion. We strolled down the plaza and picked up some post cards for our friend who watched Shadow while we were away before getting back on the bus to come back into the US. Once we got back to our car, we found the nearest McDonald's for the restroom and some drinks.

We then took a drive onto Coronado Island; here I must note our guide was somewhat disturbed by the fact that it is a peninsula, not an island, but everyone calls it an island. We drove by the military housing, some nice condo buildings, and a beautiful hotel before driving over the bridge back into San Diego. We stopped at Horton Plaza to do some shopping and to look at a downtown redevelopment where they have connected several restored buildings with complex exterior walks, escalators, and elevators.

We then headed to the two-story Target store in San Diego (big time tourist stuff here). We bought a couple games and some lotion for our sunburns before grabbing some Taco Bell and returning to campus for the night to play the Disney Trivia Game we bought.




Wednesday 6/28/2006 - LEGOLAND California

Wednesday morning we rose and got our stuffed packed as we were leaving San Diego and heading to the Disneyland Hotel. After Mitchelle returned from taking her daughter to school, we went on a daytime golf cart tour of campus so James was able to take pictures. He took pictures of the Dining Facility of the Eleanor Roosevelt College, The Theodor Geisel Library, and several other buildings on campus. We then stopped near the central student union to buy discounted ticket vouchers to LEGOLAND.

After getting the Go San Diego Card, we got in our rental car and headed back North to Carlsbad, CA. We arrived at LEGOLAND California around 11a, parked, exchanged our vouchers, and headed into the park. James was extremely excited (almost giddy) since he has been collecting/playing with LEGO since he was 8 years old. The park was divided into several themed lands (similar to the Disney parks) each based on a different series of LEGO sets.

The first area we went to was based on the more technical sets like the Mindstorms robotics and Technic modeling sets. There were several interactive areas here, but one was a 45-minute robotics class (which we did not feel we had time for) and another was closed for a school group. In this area, we found a sports themed restaurant and had lunch.

The next land of the park was based on the Castle series of LEGO sets. This was the first area where there were lots of freestanding models made from the actual pieces. We saw a witch with her cat, Harry Potter and Hagrid, a dragon in front of one of the rides, and Julie liked the blacksmith. There was also a miniature golf course inside this area of the park with different woodland creatures around it. These included a bear and a raccoon, some deer with rabbits, and the ever dreaded gophers.

The park had recently opened a new section based on the Pirates series theme. The activities here were all water based and geared to younger kids. They did have some nice monkeys.

There were lots of things to see in the City themed area from details like a cat chasing a bird on the ledge to the fireman trying to help a little old lady get her cat down to a phone booth with a line. There is a “ride” where kids 6-13 can drive around a small streetscape; James could not go on the ride, but he did get a LEGOLAND driver’s license. There was also a very helpful sign giving distances to different points of interest.

The area geared most to smaller children had a ride with scenes from different children’s stories. There was a boat ride that takes you through a safari to see giraffes and elephants. A sleeping fisherman was stationed on the bridge near the ride. Another boat ride took us past several models of famous buildings including the Sydney Opera House, Taj Mahal, Eiffel Tower, and Mount Rushmore.

The final “land” of the park was in the center called Miniland USA. Over half of the LEGO bricks used in the park were used in this area where the Master Builders built several scenes from different cities and parts of the country. The first area we came to was a farm scene that expanded to a New England shipyard to a busy port with its own ancient ship wreck. Then we saw the area based on New York City. There was a model of the Guggenheim Museum as well as other landmarks within the New York skyline. There were also cityscapes of New Orleans, LA and San Francisco. We then entered an area with landmarks from Florida including the Daytona International Speedway and the Kennedy Space Center Visitor’s Complex complete with a Shuttle on the launch pad. Finally, there was a cityscape of the National Mall in Washington, DC.

After one last photo near the shops, we left LEGOLAND around 3:30p and drove back to Newport Beach to visit Jolene’s office before checking into the Disneyland Hotel where we would stay for the remainder of the trip. We went to supper with the family before watching the fireworks form the parking lot of our hotel.




Thursday 6/29/2006 - Disneyland

We woke early on the 29th because we had to return the rental car around 8a. After getting cleaned and dressed we filled the car up with gas and turned it in at one of the hotels near the convention center across from Disney property. We then walked, with several other families, toward the main entrance of Disneyland Resort.

We noticed several differences between the resorts right away. One of the first differences was the proximity of the two parks at the Disneyland Resort. Coming from Florida where it is not unpractical to drive from one park to the other, it was different to go through the security bag check and then enter a plaza where you could go to either park’s entrance. It also felt odd to us that the ticket booths were after the bag check; if you wanted to buy tickets for another day, you still had to pass through the security check. We already had our tickets, since we had booked the room through Disney Travel, so we passed these lines and headed straight to the entrance. Another difference was, in Florida, all passes now had to do the bio-metric fingerprint scanners and the passes have magnetic strips while in CA, the passes have bar codes and you still have to get your hand stamped to re-enter the parks if you leave. We noted annual pass holders have their pictures on their passes for identification purposes (we also noted the annual passes there were substantially more expensive for two parks than the ones in Florida for four). Another difference was the current marketing campaigns, Walt Disney World – Happiest Celebration on Earth; Disneyland – Happiest Homecoming on Earth.

Once we entered the park, and Julie grabbed three park maps because Captain Jack Sparrow was on the front, we put on some sunscreen and headed for Main Street. When we rounded the corner out of the main square, we saw what was really the only major shock to us: how relatively small Sleeping Beauty’s Castle is compared to Cinderella’s. We had been warned everything was smaller and closer together, but it did not quite prepare us for this difference. Everything else seemed an appropriate scale given the smaller park area, but the castle does not dominate like the one in Florida does.

We headed towards the then newly reopened Pirates of the Caribbean ride, but the line was fairly long so we decided to wait. We enjoyed many of the attractions that are not in Florida like Tarzan’s Treehouse, Indiana Jones Adventure, and Matterhorn Bobsleds. We also thought it was fun going on the attractions that are in Florida like Haunted Mansion to see what was different. Many of the rides have scenes in slightly different order or with differences in the set pieces. Some of the rides were shorter like the Jungle Cruise and others were longer like It’s a Small World. We felt Space Mountain was much better since it has side-by-side seating and there is music playing as you ride. The other main difference between the parks is in California, much of the queues (lines) are outside and many are not covered. We know the weather is nice out there, but it really did not help our sunburns. We went back to Pirates early in the afternoon hoping people would be getting ready for the parade; the line was a little better, but again, most of the queue was outside so it was not as bad as we thought it would be. Another little something Disneyland had done was to create photomosaic images, from guest submitted photos, around the park of various scenes and characters from their movies.

After enjoying the refurbished and slightly modified pirates ride, we went to the Disney Gallery above the entrance to Pirates. We got there in time for an impromptu tour explaining the gallery was actually housed in what would have been Walt Disney’s private apartments if he had lived longer. This part of the park was still under construction when he died so he never lived there, but it was designed to hold more people than the first apartment he had in the Fire Station on Main Street. The gallery held some of the props from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and several storyboard and artist’s sketches from the film on display. The movie had premiered there the Saturday before our visit.

We left the park around 3:30p and went back to our hotel to rest for a while. In doing so, we experienced one of the other differences between Florida and California. The monorail at Disneyland runs from Tomorrowland, inside the park, to a station in their Downtown Disney shopping district that separated our hotel from the parks. We did not get our hands stamped until we were leaving the monorail station. This was how the hotel guests gained early entry into the park.

We ate dinner at a small stand that served chicken strips and fries at our hotel before going to the AMC movie theater to see Disney/Pixar’s Cars. After the movie we headed back into the park for the fireworks. We did not get back in time to get seats on Main Street so we watched them from Fantasyland. This put us between the large sky shots that are fired from behind the park and the effects lasers and small-scale fireworks around the castle itself. We still enjoyed them though. We headed back to our room knowing we could sleep in since California Adventure did not open until 10a the next morning.




Friday 6/30/2006 - Disney's California Adventure

We slept in until about 8a and leisurely got cleaned up and ready for the day. We walked under their version of the icon hat and through the Downtown Disney district stopping at one of the bakeries for some breakfast. After eating, we headed into the park. California Adventure seems to be geared more to the younger crowd with more thrill rides and shows. It is the kind of park where the teenagers separate from the parents and younger kids and they all get back together again after lunch.

We decided we would go to the back corner of the park where the roller coasters were, hoping to ride them before the crowds picked up, and then do the stuff at the front of the park later. James went on California Screamin’ which was their icon roller coaster with the large golden Mickey; Julie refrained since the ride goes upside down. After that we took a ride on the Sun Wheel. It was basically a Ferris wheel except some of the cars are on rails and slide back and forth from the center to the outside as the wheel turned. From a distance this did not look so bad since the car never goes as high as the outside of the wheel; however, the extent of the swinging motion of the car as it slides back and forth can more than make up for the fear of heights for people who get motion sick. I was able to get one good shot near the top of our circuit showing some of the features of both parks including Grizzly Mountain and Soarin’ in California Adventure and Space Mountain and the Matterhorn in Disneyland. After getting our land legs back under us, we went on a smaller scale rollercoaster called Mulholland Madness and watched a film about the history of California. We then went on a (then) new attraction at the park which was based on the Monsters Inc. Pixar film. After grabbing a bite for lunch, we headed over to the Hyperion Theater to see Aladdin: a Musical Spectacular which was a Broadway style show lasting about 45 minutes. When the show let out, we headed over to the Mission Tortilla Factory and the Bakery Tour where we learned how both flour tortillas and sourdough bread are made. By this time our feet were starting to hurt so we walked around the Grizzly Peak Recreation Area through the Grand Californian Hotel on our way back to our room.

We had a dinner reservation at Granville's Steakhouse in our hotel for Friday night to celebrate our Anniversary (a week late). After a wonderful dinner we went into Disneyland to do some shopping and then got back to our room early so we could get into the park early on Saturday.




Saturday 7/1/2006 - Disneyland with Friends

We woke early on Saturday since this was the day we could get into the park early because we were staying at one of the Disney Resorts. We actually got into Disneyland around 7:30a and took the extra time to go on some of the Fantasyland rides that have the longer lines later in the day with all the families with small children. We had also picked up some scavenger hunt quests from the Virtual Magic Kingdom booth in Fantasyland on Friday night after we had done our shopping. We spent much of the rest of the morning going all over the park finding the answers to the questions.

Mitchelle and family were starting their vacation on Saturday and, being huge Disney fans, drove up to spend the day with us in the park. They arrived around 12:30p and we went out to have some pictures taken in the entrance plaza and near the castle. We grabbed a quick bite to eat after they got their Annual Pass photos taken and spent the afternoon going on the rides they liked. We also showed them the scavenger hunt lists since Mitchelle is as much a Disney freak as we are (hard to believe, but true). After getting fast passes for Splash Mountain that were not good until after 9:00 PM, we all went to ride Pirates and to the Disney Gallery.

Around 5:30p we split up and went back to our respective hotels for a bit of rest and dinner. We met back at the park entrance around 8:30p to go on a couple more rides and look at the picture taken by a park photographer earlier in the day. After the fireworks started, we snuck to the front where Julie and I headed to our hotel to finish packing since we needed to be at the airport around 6:30a the next morning. Mitchelle agreed to take us to the airport the next morning so we did not have to pay for a cab; then they headed off to use their Splash Mountain fast passes.




Sunday 7/2/2006 - Back Home

Sunday started early so we could make sure nothing was left in the furniture and be ready for our 6a ride to the airport. We stopped at the entrance to the hotel for one last photo. We had good flights from Orange County to Denver and from Denver into Orlando. We got home around 7p and Shadow checked to make sure nothing funny had been slipped into our luggage.