Our Trip

Well here's a quick synopsis of the trip! OUr first day we arrived in LA about 10:30am and we went to Hollywood where we ate ice cream at Disney's Soda Shop on Hollywood Blvd., we then wanted to drive up to Griffith Park to get a good look at the Hollywood sign, but the park was jammed packed and we would've had to walk at least a mile up hill, so we decided to wait to do that. So we went down to Anaheim, about an hour and a half away, with traffic, checked into our hotel which was literally across the street from the gate to Disneyland. We then walked over to Downtown Disney for dinner and preview shopping (checking out what they have and what we might want to buy). The next day we got up at our usual time unfortunately that's only 6:30ish in California!! Well the parks didn't open until 9 and since it was Sunday and I brought my CVS stuff we went out and went to CVS, which was one of my best experiences in a CVS!! Sonya, they even had that scanner thingy that prints out coupons, it didn't give me any I wanted but I loved it anyway!!!! After that we had breakfast at McDonald's and then went back to the hotel. It was raining all morning, but we had brought ponchos and coats, so we were good. We were at Disneyland when it opened and the crowds were very light. We went first to Fanytasyland and rode everything that was open in under 30 minutes, plus there was someone from the Disney Dream Team handing out Dream Fastpasses there so we got those which meant for that day we had a fastpass for everyride that had the fastpass option. It was the best day ever. We ended up staying all day to wait for the fireworks (the rain ended about 1ish, but the wind was still pretty bad), but they didn't do them because of the wind. We got to do so much though including all the 3 mountains (space, splash and big thunder), plus Disneyland's fourth mountain the Matterhorn, almost all of Fantasyland, pretty much all of tomorrowland (Star Tours, Buzz ride, Autopia cars, Astro Orbiter, but not the new Nemo ride, we saved that for later,), we rode the big riverboat, pirates of the caribbean, etc...and we even hopped over to California Adventure and rode all the big rides there and went to Bugs Land. THe crowd level was so low, probably from a combination of weather and the Super Bowl, but it was awesome. I was so completely exhausted as we sat on a bench waiting to see if the fireworks were going to happen (they were only doing them twice while we were there, so we wanted to make sure they weren't going to do them that night), but I just sat there and realized that this was probably one of our best days at Disney ever, I didn't want it to end!!!

The next day we went to LegoLand which is closer down to San Diego. That park was fun but a little outdated. The crowds were very light there as well. The weather was great, it was about 60-65 and sunny, in fact the weather only got warmer as the week went on, with our last day being close to 85!! The kids loved the park, but if they were a few years older, I think they would've found it a bit boring. The rides were very kiddieish. There were a few that I enjoyed, but not worth the price of admission!! We only paid for one adult and one child, with coupons, so that was good, and I am really glad that we went because of how much Noah is into Legos, but it's not a favorite. I like Kings Island better!!! I thought the neatest part was Mini Land where they had lots of our big cities made out of Lego, that was cool.

The next four days we spent at either Disneyland or Disney's California Adventure. California Adventure is not currently as disnified as other parks, but they are beginning right now a big 3 or 4 year plan to make it much more disnified. They are putting in new stuff, changing some of the old stuff and doing lots of retheming. That was my biggest complaint of that park. It was kind of strange how little Disney was there, but hopefully with the changes it wil be much better!! With so many days at the parks, we got to do everything we wanted at least twice and some things 4 or 5 times. It was so nice. On Thursday we left the park in the middle of the day to drive out to Newport Beach. We hadn't been to that beach before, but I really, really loved it. THe water was absolutely freezing, but we rolled up our pants and jumped in it anyway!! We chased seagulls and found sea shells, that was just such a nice beach.

So on Saturday our last day, we didn't have tickts left to visit the park, so we went back up to Hollywood and got to see the sign this time, then we drove through Beverly HIlls where I saw the Beveryly Hills CVS, picture to come soon!! We had all day to waste because our plane didn't leave until 10 at night. So went back down and hung out at Downtown Disney for awhile, then went to have dinner and finally to the airport. Abby and I were on a different flight and we left at 10, STeve and Noah left at midnight. We ended up all getting to Lexington around 10:45 and we drove up to get our pup at Sonya's house, the best dog sitter ever!!! So that was pretty much the trip. It was really nice. It was a shock to the system to get on a plane in LA where it was in the 80's and stop in Detroit where it was single digits!!

I'll post more pics soon!