CA Coast & Disneyland! Pics & Video - Update 9/18- Pg. 12 #177 - The End! [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

Spartangirl

06-19-2007, 10:45 AM

This is my 1st trip report! :banana:

Hi! :wave2: My name is Lynne and I'm a newbie on these boards. :disrocks:

MY DH and I are WDW vets...we go every year! So, we decided to mix it up a bit and head out to Disneyland this year. :woohoo: Around Christmas time, I brought up the idea of CA to celebrate our anniversary this summer. My DH has been dying to explore Yosemite, so I thought a trip along the coast might be a good idea. I started throwing ideas his way, and he said, "No Disneyland?" As it was, our trip was already about 8 days long in the making.....but, what's a few more days ~ especially if Disneyland is added! :yay: Our trip is now 12 days long! I went to Disneyland once as a child and my DH has never been. So, we are really looking forward to exploring both parks and taking everything in!

On to the cast:
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/Serenade3023.jpg

Me (Lynne): I'm a 31-year-old teacher. I LOVE everything Disney, traveling, and taking pictures. I'm an obsessive-compulsive planner and love making lists. This drives my DH crazy! :lmao: But, we get along well because he doesn't want to be involved in the planning...he just wants to go and enjoy the trip!

DH (Chris): My best friend and the love of my life! :love: We met in high school and began dating during our senior year. Yes, we're "high-school sweethearts." We got engaged after college and have been happily married for 6 wonderful years. DH is 31-years-old and drives for UPS. "What can brown do for you?" Yep, he drives the big brown trucks. Chris is a history buff, computer nerd :) , and basically a kid at heart. He has grown to love Disney as much as I have....lucky for me! :goodvibes

We will celebrate our 6th anniversary on June 23rd and then we're off to California from June 24th - July 5th! :yay: Five more days...

Here's the plan:

Day 1: Leave Michigan and fly into San Francisco. We will be staying at the Hilton Fisherman's Wharf. The plan is to explore the wharf and visit Alcatraz.

Day 2: Visit Union Square, Chinatown, Nob Hill, and head over to the Golden Gate Bridge. We also plan on visiting a winery in Napa. Later on, we will be taking a late afternoon cruise on the Bay.

Day 3: Explore the wharf in the morning. Head through the San Joaquin Valley and Sierra Nevada Mountains to reach Yosemite. We will be staying at the Yosemite View Lodge.

Day 4: Take a morning tour of the Yosemite valley floor in an open-air vehicle. In the afternoon we may hike or bike, depending on what we feel like at the time! :)

Day 5: Visit Carmel by the Sea. Drive the 17-mile coastal drive...taking in Seal Beach and Pebble Beach golf course. Head to Monterey. We will be staying at Portola Plaza on the Wharf. We plan to visit Cannery Row.

Day 6: A stop at a redwood grove. Next we will visit Hearst Castle in San Simeon. We will continue on to Santa Barbara for a stroll down the pier and then head to Los Angeles. We will be staying at the Beverly Hills Crowne Plaza.

Day 7: Visit Rodeo Drive, Sunset Strip, the Hollywood sign, Mann's Chinese Theater, Walk of Stars, and the Kodak Theatre. We will also be making a stop at the Getty Museum.

Day 8: Head to Anaheim! :woohoo: We will be staying at the Candy Cane Inn. The plan is Disneyland and/or CA Adventure.

Day 9: Disneyland and/or CA Adventure.

Day 10: Newport Beach during the morning/day. Downtown Disney at night!

Day 11: Disneyland...see the 4th of July fireworks!

Day 12: Head back home... :sad1:

No relaxation for us! :scared1: But, we love to travel with jam-packed schedules!

Thanks in advance for reading and I hope you enjoy my trippie...:goodvibes

serendipity

06-19-2007, 03:49 PM

foleyfun

06-19-2007, 04:45 PM

lovevacations

06-19-2007, 05:24 PM

Spartangirl

06-19-2007, 06:17 PM

Yay! This is exciting!

Your plans sound so awesome, and I'm so happy to see you're doing a trip report. I vote for doing a report of the whole vacation- I'd love to hear all about your adventures everywhere in California :cutie:

Thanks for the words of encouragement! :goodvibes I'll definitely report on the whole vacation...I can't believe that I leave in less than a week.

Spartangirl

06-19-2007, 06:20 PM

Your excitement is contagious and I live in California! I can't wait to hear your trip report. Just one quick note ... make sure you buy Alcatraz tickets in advance. They pretty much sell out everyday. I used to live in San Francisco and everybody who came to visit always wanted to go to Alcatraz, some friends were disappointed when they expected to just walk up and board a boat.

Have a great time!!

Welcome, and thanks for jumping on board! :goodvibes I appreciate your great advice about Alcatraz. Fortunately, I did my research and purchased my tickets a couple of weeks ago. So, we are all set to head to "The Rock!" :banana:

Spartangirl

06-19-2007, 06:22 PM

I am planning a VERY much like the one you have planned!!!!! We will also stay at the Hilton in San Fran, visit Monterey, Hearst Castle, take the 17 mile drive! Looking forward to all the details!! Our trip isn't until next year and we will traveling with our 10 and 8 year old daughers!!! I'm a planning and list freak too!!

Welcome to my trippie! :) I'll try to include as many details as possible. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only planning and list freak! ;)

Hound 109

06-19-2007, 11:14 PM

Spartangirl

06-20-2007, 09:10 AM

A great trip plan. :thumbsup2

My only concern would be Day 6. My recollection was that the tour of the castle was almost half a day (if you count the bus ride up & back). Or are you just stopping at the museum at the bottom & continuing on?

Day 6

- Highway 1 from Monterey
- Big Sur
- 90 miles of jaw dropping beautiful Highway 1.
- Hearst Castle.
- Cambria.
- Morro Bay.
- SLO.
- Winerys.
- Pismo.
- Santa Barbara.
- Beverly Hills.

I've only done it twice, but would think it is a minimum 2 days. But I'll defer to Cal residents if they think it's doable in 1 day.

Outside of that day....what a wonderful trip you all have planned. :banana:

Have a great time. :thumbsup2

hound :hippie:

Thank you and welcome! :goodvibes

I appreciate your words of advice for Day 6. As we booked everything, we thought it might be a tight squeeze too, but we're going to try our best to make it work. :) We're going to start our day really early and make a brief stop at the redwoods. Plus, we decided that we're going to do only one tour at the castle. Many people that I've spoken to said to try to do two of the tours, but we're pretty jam-packed in our schedule as it is. We'll probably crash once we hit our final destination for the day, but we'll be ok. ;)

Spartangirl

06-20-2007, 10:59 AM

We're going to start packing today. :woohoo: That should be a task in itself, since the weather is quite different in the cities that we are visiting. I've heard that San Francisco can be a bit chilly and it will warm up as we head south. I want to be prepared for anything! ;) I will not be sad when we leave Michigan behind and the hot, humid weather we've been having...I actually don't mind the heat. It's the sweating and dripping that begins as soon as you get out of the shower that gets to me...:lmao:

My wonderful parents are going to watch our furry kiddos while we are gone.:thumbsup2

Bailey paw: and Brandi! paw:
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/BB.png

My puppies love their "vacations" at my parent's house. They live on 3/4 of an acre and have two dogs themselves.:goodvibes

Only 4 more days to go! :jumping1:

tiggerwannabe

06-20-2007, 02:04 PM

:wave: :woohoo:

I am also getting excited for you!

Sounds like a fun filled, tour packed, extravaganza~

Regarding your clothing options...

I was VERY happy I packed as many long pants as I did. Yes, it can be warmer as you go south but even that isn't set in stone.

I cannot wait to see your pictures, esp of the Yosemite area~that's the direction I intend to head on my next trip out west :goodvibes:

I pray you good travels and great weather.

TTFN,

colleen.

Spartangirl

06-20-2007, 02:49 PM

:wave: :woohoo:

I am also getting excited for you!

Sounds like a fun filled, tour packed, extravaganza~

Thank you and welcome to my TR! :goodvibes I can't wait to leave...

:Regarding your clothing options...

I was VERY happy I packed as many long pants as I did. Yes, it can be warmer as you go south but even that isn't set in stone.

Thank you for the words of advice...I will take them to heart because I tend to get chilly. :thumbsup2

I cannot wait to see your pictures, esp of the Yosemite area~that's the direction I intend to head on my next trip out west :goodvibes:

Keep your fingers crossed that I get some good shots! ;)

I pray you good travels and great weather.

I appreciate your kind words and thoughtfulness! :flower3:

Hound 109

06-20-2007, 03:05 PM

Thank you and welcome! :goodvibes

I appreciate your words of advice for Day 6. As we booked everything, we thought it might be a tight squeeze too, but we're going to try our best to make it work. :) We're going to start our day really early and make a brief stop at the redwoods. Plus, we decided that we're going to do only one tour at the castle. Many people that I've spoken to said to try to do two of the tours, but we're pretty jam-packed in our schedule as it is. We'll probably crash once we hit our final destination for the day, but we'll be ok. ;)

:thumbsup2

"Stuff/Tips" on day 6

- Elephant Seals on the beach a few miles north of San Simeon - amazing.

- Moonstone Beach Dr. in Cambria (a one mile road along the beach that parallels Highway 1 & reconnects with it). Several B&Bs & restaurants there. Reminds me of Maine. If it's lunch time stop for a bite.

- Morro Bay - the wharf area is far prettier than Santa Barbara (imo). If lunchtime have a bite at the many restaurants overlooking the bay & the ginormous ROCK.

- If you're a bit hungry & driving through the tiny town of Nipoma. Stop at Jockos & split a Portuguese Roast Beef sandwich. (it's kind of a locals bar & cafe).

& yes...take a windbreaker etc. for the coast. It can get misty & cool.)

Have fun. :cool1:

LJH77

06-21-2007, 10:48 AM

Sounds like you're in for a fantastic trip!! I'm particularly interested in how you get on as my fiance and I are honeymooning in California and driving from San Francisco to LA and doing alot of similar things! So when I saw this thread I was really excited!!

What fantastic tips and suggestions aswell everyone - I'll be reading up on them and doing my research for our trip!

Can't wait to read your report when you get back, have a lovely time!! :cheer2:

Spartangirl

06-21-2007, 11:03 AM

:thumbsup2

"Stuff/Tips" on day 6

- Elephant Seals on the beach a few miles north of San Simeon - amazing.

- Moonstone Beach Dr. in Cambria (a one mile road along the beach that parallels Highway 1 & reconnects with it). Several B&Bs & restaurants there. Reminds me of Maine. If it's lunch time stop for a bite.

- Morro Bay - the wharf area is far prettier than Santa Barbara (imo). If lunchtime have a bite at the many restaurants overlooking the bay & the ginormous ROCK.

- If you're a bit hungry & driving through the tiny town of Nipoma. Stop at Jockos & split a Portuguese Roast Beef sandwich. (it's kind of a locals bar & cafe).

& yes...take a windbreaker etc. for the coast. It can get misty & cool.)

Have fun. :cool1:

Thank you for all of the wonderful tips! :thumbsup2 I would love to see and photograph the Elephant Seals...and I will definitely pack something to stay warm!

Sunday (The day we leave...) can't come soon enough! :woohoo:

Spartangirl

06-21-2007, 11:08 AM

CriminyCrafft

06-22-2007, 02:45 PM

Spartangirl

06-22-2007, 04:12 PM

I can't believe you leave so soon - aren't you pumped? I just re-read your itinerary - I stayed at the Hilton at Fisherman's Wharf and liked it. 17 mile drive and Carmel are fantastic. I'm jealous also that you get to go to XANADU (San Simeon) - I didn't make it there. Can't wait to read all about it. Have a great time! :banana: :banana: :banana:

I CAN'T WAIT!!! The time doesn't go fast enough...Glad to hear that you liked the Hilton, 17 mile drive, and Carmel. I don't know what I'm most excited for! :goodvibes

Thanks for jumping on board.....I'm sure I'll have LOTS to share when I return! :thumbsup2

By the way, I LOVED your trip report!

Spartangirl

06-23-2007, 01:49 PM

We leave tomorrow morning! party: I will "catch up" with all of you in a couple of weeks! :banana:

celebratelife

06-25-2007, 10:58 PM

Spartangirl:

Sounds incredibly romantic!:love: I've been to all of these places, usually with kids in tow. Alcatraz is really cool!, and so is the wharf (we'll be there in a couple weeks ourselves - can't wait!) I LOVED Hearst castle, great for a couple. Pebble Beach (17 mile drive) is gorgeous, as is Yosemete.

You pack it in like I do - My kids BEG me for a day of relief:confused3
Just remember the drives are alot longer than you might expect, so leave early. (might be easier with two, but torchure with a family of five, especially teens). I've had to learn to ease my days (unless I'm by myself on a business trip or something, then I really explore:banana: )

I love to plan (and dream - Disney lover you know) so each FULL day is important to me - need to make the most of my time off, never know when I'll be back again.

Have a great trip. Always love to see/hear things through the eyes of someone else!

Celebrate Life

cherokeemamma

06-27-2007, 08:50 AM

Hi Spartangirl,

Your trip sounds so great! I have never been out west but my family really wants to do a trip in the next year or 2.

I am excited to read your TR and see the pictures. :goodvibes

I know I missed saying goodbye since you have already left but here is some pixie dust for a magical time.pixiedust:

Have Fun
Darlene

imp&pixie

07-02-2007, 07:48 AM

I can't wait to read all about your travels. I'm getting here too late to give you any advice so I hope everything is going really well! I've lived in California all my life - grew up in Southern California going to Disneyland every year then moved to Northern California for college and I haven't been back down south for 20 years. I really, really want to take a trip to DLR and San Diego with my kids. I can't wait to hear how you enjoy my state. :goodvibes

Oh, I also wanted to say that it looks like we'll be in Washington DC around the same time (see ticker :)). My dad lives there so we travel to that part of the country fairly often. We have a great trip planned (though it's not Disney :().

Spartangirl

07-06-2007, 07:39 PM

We're back and I can't wait to share our trip with all of my DIS friends! :banana: I LOVED California and had a hard time coming back to reality. In all honesty, I would have a difficult time pinpointing my favorite part of the trip.....each city was unique and fun in its own way. Get ready to experience the California Coast and Disneyland! :woohoo:

Spartangirl:

Sounds incredibly romantic!:love: I've been to all of these places, usually with kids in tow. Alcatraz is really cool!, and so is the wharf (we'll be there in a couple weeks ourselves - can't wait!) I LOVED Hearst castle, great for a couple. Pebble Beach (17 mile drive) is gorgeous, as is Yosemete.

You pack it in like I do - My kids BEG me for a day of relief:confused3
Just remember the drives are alot longer than you might expect, so leave early. (might be easier with two, but torchure with a family of five, especially teens). I've had to learn to ease my days (unless I'm by myself on a business trip or something, then I really explore:banana: )

I love to plan (and dream - Disney lover you know) so each FULL day is important to me - need to make the most of my time off, never know when I'll be back again.

Have a great trip. Always love to see/hear things through the eyes of someone else!

Celebrate Life

Welcome to my trippie! :goodvibes I too, loved CA just like you! I'm fortunate that my DH loves a "packed schedule" as much as I do. I can understand how it might be a bit harder with a family. I hope you enjoy reading my report...

Hi Spartangirl,

Your trip sounds so great! I have never been out west but my family really wants to do a trip in the next year or 2.

I am excited to read your TR and see the pictures. :goodvibes

I know I missed saying goodbye since you have already left but here is some pixie dust for a magical time.pixiedust:

Have Fun
Darlene

Thanks for joining my report! We had such a wonderful time out west. I took over 600 pics and I'm anxious to share some of them. Maybe my trippie will give you some ideas for your future trip. :) I really appreciate the pixie dust...our trip was so magical! :goodvibes By the way, that is such a cute picture of your kids!

I can't wait to read all about your travels. I'm getting here too late to give you any advice so I hope everything is going really well! I've lived in California all my life - grew up in Southern California going to Disneyland every year then moved to Northern California for college and I haven't been back down south for 20 years. I really, really want to take a trip to DLR and San Diego with my kids. I can't wait to hear how you enjoy my state. :goodvibes

Oh, I also wanted to say that it looks like we'll be in Washington DC around the same time (see ticker :)). My dad lives there so we travel to that part of the country fairly often. We have a great trip planned (though it's not Disney :().

I can honestly say that I LOVED my time in California. Welcome aboard and I hope you enjoy my report! :goodvibes

That's cool that we'll be in DC around the same time! We love that city and it's our 1st visit in about 10 years...

Spartangirl

07-06-2007, 08:25 PM

Day 1 - The Arrival

DH and I woke up at 3:30 a.m. (eastern time). :scared1: We were feeling extremely tired, but were anxious to start our trip. After getting some much needed coffee into our systems:surfweb: , we were ready to begin our journey to the airport. After checking our bags, we quickly boarded our Frontier Airline's plane and flew into Denver, CO. We then boarded plane #2 which would take us to our final destination of San Francisco. :woohoo: When we arrived, the time in San Francisco was 10 a.m., which meant that we had gained 3 hours...more time for exploring! Upon arriving in CA, we got our bags and headed outside to book a shuttle to our hotel. We decided to take Supershuttle...what a mistake! Our driver loved the brakes and the accelerator. There was no inbetween! DH and I were rather green upon exiting the shuttle. :sick: But, there is more to the story...What should have been a 30 min. ride turned into an hour and a half ride. Apparently, today was the day of the "Gay Pride Parade" and we had to detour around it. Let me tell you, it was quite the sight! We saw many feathers, colorful costumes, and lots of "skin exposure." I'll leave that to your imagination! :lmao:

After having quite "an introduction" to San Francisco, we finally arrived at the Hilton Fisherman's Wharf. The Hilton was a very nice hotel with friendly workers.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California002.jpg

We quickly got our room and were pleased with what we saw.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California001.jpg

After unpacking a few of our belongings, we set out for the pier to walk around. We enjoyed our pleasant walk and found that it took less than 10 minutes to reach the pier.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California004.jpg
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California003.jpg

We decided to stop for a bite to eat since it had been about 10 hours since we had last eaten. Many people had recommended trying soup in a sourdough breadbowl (right at the pier)...so, that is what we did! I had clam chowder and DH had chili. It was quite tasty!
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California005.jpg

We found that we were extremely full after our meal, but happy and ready to explore. So, we set out to look around Pier 39 and took in the sights at the wharf.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California006.jpg
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California007.jpg

The pier was quite whimsical with many cute shops, restaurants, and sights.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California008.jpg
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California009.jpg

We particularly loved watching the lazy sea lions on the dock.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California010.jpg

Up Next: A Visit to Alcatraz Island Post #31

daisy_77

07-07-2007, 12:41 AM

Hound 109

07-07-2007, 01:37 AM

Spartangirl is back! :yay:

Nothing better after a "90 min. Gay Pride Parade Detour".....than a big ol' sour dough roll filled with clam chowder. :thumbsup2

Looking forward to the trippie to the mountains, the trippie down the coast and the trippie to see the mouse. :cool1:

hound :hippie:

popcorn::

serendipity

07-07-2007, 09:29 AM

Hi Spartangirl!!!

You're first installment was WONDERFUL! Sorry I haven't checked up on it recently, life has gotten in the way of my Dis-ing. However, I'm back!

I can only imagine the Pride parade, when here in NY life pretty much gets shut down, and I can imagine it only being more flamboyant there! :lmao:

San Fransisco looks exactly how you described it-whimsical. I honestly never had any interest in the city till just looking at your pictures and now I'm totally hooked on it. The sea lions were adorable! I had no idea that they migrated to San Fran, or were they part of an exhibit?

Spartangirl

07-07-2007, 02:10 PM

I just found your TR and I am enjoying your first installment!
Your hotel bed looks so cozy! The Wharf is fun...been there a few times myself. :goodvibes Lots of great shopping and people watching.

I look forward to reading more!

Welcome and thanks for jumping on board! I'm glad you are enjoying my TR. We loved the wharf.....the shopping was great, and the people watching is definitely a "can't miss" activity. :lmao:

Spartangirl is back! :yay:

Nothing better after a "90 min. Gay Pride Parade Detour".....than a big ol' sour dough roll filled with clam chowder. :thumbsup2

Looking forward to the trippie to the mountains, the trippie down the coast and the trippie to see the mouse. :cool1:

hound :hippie:

popcorn::

Hi Hound! The Gay Pride Parade was only the beginning...I have tons more to share! :thumbsup2

Hi Spartangirl!!!

You're first installment was WONDERFUL! Sorry I haven't checked up on it recently, life has gotten in the way of my Dis-ing. However, I'm back!

I can only imagine the Pride parade, when here in NY life pretty much gets shut down, and I can imagine it only being more flamboyant there! :lmao:

San Fransisco looks exactly how you described it-whimsical. I honestly never had any interest in the city till just looking at your pictures and now I'm totally hooked on it. The sea lions were adorable! I had no idea that they migrated to San Fran, or were they part of an exhibit?

Hi Serendipity! Welcome back and thank you for the nice compliments about my 1st installment. :flower3: The Pride parade truly was a sight to see. It was quite crazy! I too, was unsure of San Francisco before we went. However, I LOVED it and wish we would have had more time there. 2 1/2 days was just not enough time. The sea lions were just lounging at a dock in the bay. My DH was playing around on Google Earth and found Pier 39......there were TONS of sea lions viewable at the same dock that we saw them at....I'm assuming it's a "regular hangout." :lmao:

disneywld2002

07-09-2007, 04:18 PM

The People Watching is one of my favourite parts of a vacation. Your hotel looks amazing I can't wait for more pictures.

sherry :earsboy:

Spartangirl

07-10-2007, 04:12 PM

The People Watching is one of my favourite parts of a vacation. Your hotel looks amazing I can't wait for more pictures.

sherry :earsboy:

Thanks for joining my trippie! :goodvibes The Hilton was very nice and we enjoyed our stay. More pics will be up shortly. I'm going to work on my report right now! :thumbsup2

Spartangirl

07-10-2007, 04:57 PM

Alcatraz Island

After exploring Pier 39 for awhile, we decided to head over to Pier 33 where we would board the boat to take us to Alcatraz. It was a quick walk...maybe 5 minutes tops!

On a side note ~ Before heading to San Francisco I had purchased my tickets for Alcatraz online. This ended up working out for the best because all of the tickets were sold out for the day. In addition, one of the dock employees informed me that they often sell out up to a week in advance. So, if you are going to visit San Francisco with a trip to Alcatraz...plan ahead! :thumbsup2

Our tour at Alcatraz was listed for 2:20 p.m. However, they had us board the boat at around 1:50 p.m. Since I happen to fret over many things, particularly reservations, I made sure that we were at Pier 33 around 1:30 p.m. This drives my DH absolutely crazy, but we're always on time! ;)

Since we had a little time to spare, we took a look around the dock. There were many signs that had little sayings about Alcatraz. There was one in particular that caught my eye. It said, "Break the rules and you go to prison. Break the prison rules and you go to Alcatraz." It gave me the shivers and helped me to prepare for what we were about to experience.

We soon boarded the boat and we set sail. We sat on the upper deck which was a bit chilly. But I had gotten many helpful hints (from the DIS!) about what to wear in CA, so I was prepared with my fleece. The views were beautiful as we cruised along. Here is a shot that I snapped of the city of San Francisco.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California013.jpg

Here is "The Rock!" It was quite incredible to see, seeing as though we had only had a glimpse of it from the pier and it had looked so tiny.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California012.jpg

These are a few more pictures that I took as we approached the island.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California018.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California019.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California020.jpg

As we stepped off the boat and onto the island, we came upon a sign for "The Rock" and were greeted by a couple of employees. They gathered us round and explained the rules of Alcatraz. In addition, they told us what types of activites we could see and do for our visit today.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California021.jpg

DH and I set off with our 1st stop at the "Alcatraz Theater." We saw a brief film focusing on the history of the island. DH is a history buff, so this was right up his alley. I was surprised to find that I actually enjoyed it too. :) We continued by walking around the rest of the island. We saw many ruins which included the social hall, family quarters, and the Warden's house. I can only imagine what the grounds looked like back in the day...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California023.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California024.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California026.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California027.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California028.jpg

To be continued... Post #33

tiggerwannabe

07-10-2007, 05:02 PM

Thanks for joining my trippie! :goodvibes The Hilton was very nice and we enjoyed our stay. More pics will be up shortly. I'm going to work on my report right now! :thumbsup2

Great start! Beautiful shots!

btw~The seal/sea lion area is a marine rescue area...

Looks like you had a beautiful sunny day to start your trip :goodvibes:

Keep em comin~

:hippie:

Spartangirl

07-10-2007, 05:29 PM

Alcatraz Island Continued...

The employees of Alcatraz informed us that the island is now a breeding ground for the seagulls. And these weren't just any seagulls....they were enormous! :scared1: My picture probably won't do it justice, but take my word, these were the BIGGEST seagulls that we ever saw...probably twice the size of the seagulls in Michigan, maybe more. I tried to get DH to stand next to one so that we would have a size reference...but, it just wasn't working. Every time he would approach one, it would scream and run a few steps away. I don't blame him for not wanting to get any closer...I didn't want to pose with one either. :laughing:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California025.jpg

After feeling satisfied with what we saw around the island, we headed inside to do the "cell-block" tour. We stood in line to get our own headsets and then we were off. What an amazing tour! As we listened to the audio, we were given instuctions on where to walk within the cell blocks from the former guards of Alcatraz. DH and I can say hands-down that it was the best audio tour that either one of us has experienced. We loved it! :thumbsup2

Here are a few photos that I snapped as we took our cell-block tour.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California030.jpg

Al Capone's Cell!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California031.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California032.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California035.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California039.jpg

We happily finished our tour and decided that we were ready to hop on the boat to head back. However, we had a surprise in store for us. One of the former children who grew up on the island was in the gift shop doing a book signing. :banana: When we saw that she wasn't busy, we walked up to her and talked to her for about 10 minutes. She was very kind and shared her story about her experiences growing up on Alcatraz Island, complete with pics. What a great way to end our day on "The Rock."

Up Next: We cross the Golden Gate Bridge and head into wine country! Post #42

Spartangirl

07-10-2007, 05:41 PM

Great start! Beautiful shots!

btw~The seal/sea lion area is a marine rescue area...

Looks like you had a beautiful sunny day to start your trip :goodvibes:

Keep em comin~

:hippie:

Thank you for the nice compliments! :flower3: I love taking photos!

Thanks for the info. about the seal/sea lion area. I didn't know it was a marine rescue area...I guess that makes sense. :)

We did have a beautiful sunny day! In fact, every single day was beautiful and sunny...we couldn't have asked for better weather.

LJH77

07-11-2007, 06:14 AM

cherokeemamma

07-11-2007, 08:47 AM

Hi Spartangirl,

I really am enjoying the TR and love all the photos. :thumbsup2 Thanks for sharing.
It looks like you had great weather....blue skies and lots of sunshine. :sunny:

Alcatraz looks creepy but very interesting. Thanks for the tip on pre-purchasing tickets.

Do you have any websites or tips on how to begin researching prices/tours/places to stay? I would really appreciate any help in that dept.:goodvibes

I am really looking forward to your next installment...wine country!

Darlene

tiggerwannabe

07-11-2007, 10:25 AM

I am sorry to jump in here OT but O.M.G.!

Cherokeemama,

your trippie in your sig must be closed cause I can't subscribe to it...

I had to come tell you guys, I got tears in my eyes!

...and I am only on the third post~

Spartangirl, Lucky you having had sunny weather!

In our 11 days in May, we had two.

Can't wait to see more pics...

in the meantime, I am off to read more of Cherokeemama's report...

:surfweb:

Disney-Kim

07-11-2007, 12:56 PM

Its fun to see the Pier 39 area again...reminds me of all the trips my DH and I took there when were first dating. We haven't been to SF in about 14 yrs.:cloud9:

Fun trippie !!!:thumbsup2

cherokeemamma

07-12-2007, 07:46 AM

We temporarily interrupt your regularly scheduled TR with Spartangirl:

Hi Tiggerwannabe,
Glad you found my TR and I hope you are enjoying it. We had a great time. It is in the finished thread so you can't post or subscribe to it anymore. Thank you for taking the time to read. Let me know what you think.:goodvibes
TTFN,
Darlene

Now back to you scheduled Trip Report.

Spartangirl,
Sorry to hijack.;)
Darlene

Spartangirl

07-12-2007, 02:21 PM

Great trip report so far, the pictures are great - can't wait to read the rest!

I was really impressed by Alcatraz aswell and recommend everyone visiting San Fran to go and experience it. I think it's really erie, especially since the audio tour is so good with the sounds of how the prison would have been when it was functioning.

Anyway, looking forward to the next installement!

Thanks again for reading and thanks for the compliment about my pics! :flower3: We too, were really impressed by Alcatraz. I rate it as a "can't miss." I'll have the next installment up soon...:goodvibes

Hi Spartangirl,

I really am enjoying the TR and love all the photos. :thumbsup2 Thanks for sharing.
It looks like you had great weather....blue skies and lots of sunshine. :sunny:

Alcatraz looks creepy but very interesting. Thanks for the tip on pre-purchasing tickets.

Do you have any websites or tips on how to begin researching prices/tours/places to stay? I would really appreciate any help in that dept.:goodvibes

I am really looking forward to your next installment...wine country!

Darlene

Hi Darlene! :wave2: I'm so glad you're enjoying my TR! It makes it so much more fun to write when I have people following along! :) Alcatraz is DEFINITELY worth seeing if you are in San Francisco. If you take a trip and plan on booking "The Rock," definitely go through www.alcatrazcruises.com (the official website). You're not able to book your tickets until about a month ahead of time, but you'll get the best rates for your visit. All of the other sites I checked out charged an additional fee.

As for other tips...When Chris and I first began looking into our CA trip, we paid a visit to our local Barnes and Noble. We grabbed a stack of "CA Coast" books, a Starbuck's Coffee, and curled up in the comfy chairs to start reading (dorky, I know, but we learned a lot! :) ) We then began listing the cities we wanted to visit along our journey and noted particular things that we wanted to explore. So before going onto the web, I actually had some specific cities that I was looking into, rather than being so vague. I then picked 5 cities that we planned on staying in and looked at all the big travel sites to start pricing hotels (Expedia, Travelocity, etc.). I frequently visited Tripadvisor.com to read reviews on the hotels that I was looking at. I know that you have to take reviews with a grain of salt, but I wanted to get an idea about the places that I was looking into. One tip that I will certainly give you is to go DIRECTLY to the hotel's website when looking into booking. Sometimes (not always) you can get a discount by going directly through the hotel. In addition, I made phone calls to many of the places that we were interested in staying at. I asked about special rates, AAA, etc., to get the best deal possible. I felt pretty good about all the rates we had for our hotels. As for tours, I simply typed the city name with activities or tours (i.e. San Francisco Tours) into a search engine and explored my options that way. There are SO MANY tours out there and I'm sure you'll find tons that meet your needs and interests! :thumbsup2

I hope some of this info. was helpful to you! Let me know if you have any more questions! :goodvibes

Lynne

I am sorry to jump in here OT but O.M.G.!

Spartangirl, Lucky you having had sunny weather!

In our 11 days in May, we had two.

Can't wait to see more pics...

in the meantime, I am off to read more of Cherokeemama's report...

:surfweb:

Oh no! I can't believe you only had two sunny days! We were told that we might experience "June Gloom," but we were so fortunate to have sunny skies each and every day. :goodvibes

I'll have more pics up shortly! :thumbsup2

Its fun to see the Pier 39 area again...reminds me of all the trips my DH and I took there when were first dating. We haven't been to SF in about 14 yrs.:cloud9:

Fun trippie !!!:thumbsup2

:welcome: and thanks for joining my TR! We LOVED Pier 39 and all of San Francisco. What a cool city! I'm glad you're enjoying my report! :goodvibes

We temporarily interrupt your regularly scheduled TR with Spartangirl:

Hi Tiggerwannabe,
Glad you found my TR and I hope you are enjoying it. We had a great time. It is in the finished thread so you can't post or subscribe to it anymore. Thank you for taking the time to read. Let me know what you think.:goodvibes
TTFN,
Darlene

Now back to you scheduled Trip Report.

Spartangirl,
Sorry to hijack.;)
Darlene

:rotfl2: I love it! By the way, I LOVED your trippie! It was very fun and well written! :)

Hound 109

07-12-2007, 04:21 PM

:hyper2: ....but i wanna go to the mountains, the coast & i wanna go to DisneyLand.

How much longer....?? :bored:

hound :tongue:

:duck:

Spartangirl

07-12-2007, 04:55 PM

Wine Country!

After getting a good night's rest, we were up early and ready to hit the road by 8 a.m. We grabbed a bite to eat at the restaurant at the Hilton and were soon on our way. I know this sounds crazy, but I was SO EXCITED to head over the Golden Gate Bridge. :banana: Previous to our travels to CA, I had only seen the bridge on TV and in the movies and was anxious to see it in person. Plus, I had read that it's the world's most photographed bridge and I wanted to snap a pic to add to my personal files! :goodvibes It was so cool crossing the bridge...as I looked to my right I saw the sparkling, blue water that seemed to stretch for miles and miles. And...the beautiful San Francisco skyline was in the distance. We traveled about 2 miles from the beginning to the end of the bridge. As we exited, we found a "pull-off" and jumped out with the rest of the tourists to snap some photos.

Here is the beautiful bridge.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California045.jpg

We needed a pic with the two of us to prove we were really there! :thumbsup2

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California046.jpg

After taking our fair share of video and pictures of the bridge, we continued our drive. It took quite some time, but soon we arrived in Napa Valley at Cline Cellars. What a cool winery! I immediately noticed that the grounds were immaculate and very beautiful to look at. We met our guide at the winery and got a tour of the property.

Our guide informed us that Cline Cellars is a family owned winery and some of the family members live in this house on the property.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California050.jpg

I loved looking at the vineyards......We learned that in addition to the vineyards, there are 5,300 rosebushes on the property. :scared1: Can you imagine?

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California048.jpg

Next, we learned about wine and the process to make it. Although we both found this interesting, we were anxious to get to the next part of the tour...the tasting! :drinking1

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http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California052.jpg

As we arrived at the "wine tasting area," the employees gathered our group round and gave us information about the eight different wines we would be sampling. We were going to taste two white wines, three reds, and three reserves. In addition, they set gourmet cheese and crackers on the table to compliment the wine.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California049.jpg

Chris and I both preferred the reserves over the red and white wines. My favorite was the 2005 Sonoma Zinfandel. Here's the description that was provided with it: This wine with explosive strawberry fruit flavor and velvety texture comes from Dry Creek and Alexander Valley vineyards. Its subtle nuances of vanilla and toasty American oak are complemented by its firm tannin structure.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California054.jpg

DH's favorite was the 2004 Bridgehead Zinfandel. Here's the description we got: Bridgehead Zin is a dangerous and lethal package, guaranteed to wallop...but it's got class. A beautiful balance of blackberry, pepper and spice, with notes of chocolate and toasty vanilla make this Zin a treasure.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California055.jpg

A cool fountain that we looked at as we sipped our wine...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California057.jpg

Of course I had to get a picture of the vineyards...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California056.jpg

The grapes were too cute! Look how small they are...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California053.jpg

Up Next...Sonoma and a late afternoon cruise on San Francisco Bay

Spartangirl

07-12-2007, 05:19 PM

:hyper2: ....but i wanna go to the mountains, the coast & i wanna go to DisneyLand.

How much longer....?? :bored:

hound :tongue:

:duck:

Very soon......one more installment and then Yosemite! :goodvibes

Spartangirl

07-13-2007, 09:56 AM

Hi DISers!!! I have a really busy weekend ahead of me...a bridal shower, a BBQ, and a family reunion..so, I don't know how much time I'll have for writing. :guilty: But, I'm going to work on getting my next installment up TODAY, before the weekend hits! :yay: Happy Friday the 13th!

Spartangirl

07-13-2007, 10:55 AM

Sonoma and a cruise on the Bay

After visiting Cline Cellars, we were ready to head back across the Golden Gate Bridge. But, first we decided to stop in Sonoma for a bite to eat. We ended up in Sonoma Plaza where we explored a "square block" of unique stores and restaurants. We spoke to a couple locals and they recommended the Sonoma Cheese Factory for lunch. It was a little hole in the wall place, but very good. Rather than being waited on at a table, you walk up to a grill and place your order. Then, the cook LOUDLY calls your order out and you pick it up. We sat in a back patio type area.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California060.jpg

Before leaving Sonoma, we took a peek at this statue. It symbolized the pioneers raising the flag of Bear Republic, which was the beginning of the state of California.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California062.jpg

Finally, we were headed back to San Francisco and the Fisherman's Wharf. We were scheduled to take a 5:00 tour on the Bay.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California064.jpg

After getting to the pier, we promptly boarded the "Red and White Fleet" and set sail. For this cruise we were handed headsets which gave us a tour of the coastline and the different buildings/structures that we encountered while sailing. Just like the Alcatraz ferry, we sat on the top level on this one. We had a nice, cool, refreshing breeze and just enjoyed being outdoors.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California068.jpg

Here are a couple of pictures that I snapped while cruising along the coastline.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California070.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California071.jpg

One of the highlights was going under the Golden Gate Bridge. It is just so massive.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California074.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California075.jpg

We also had another chance to cruise completely around Alcatraz Island. It was fun to watch people's reactions, who were seeing the island for the first time! :)

To be continued... Our day isn't over yet! :yay: Post #46

Spartangirl

07-13-2007, 11:38 AM

Our day isn't over yet...

Although we were a bit tired from our travels and exploration, we found out that Lombard Street (the crooked street) was only a few blocks from our hotel. Knowing that the next day we would be leaving San Francisco, we were determined to cram in as much as we could! :goodvibes

Did you know that San Francisco has 43 hills? We soon learned that as we ventured out into the city.
"Hey Lynne...look how steep these hills are!"
"I know...I bet people don't have to get gym memberships here. They can get a workout just walking around the city."

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California078.jpg

We finally reached our destination!!! Here is the view from the TOP of Lombard Street.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California080.jpg

We stood at the top for a few minutes and then decided to venture down to the bottom. We heard the best views were down there. This is one of the homes on Lombard. I can't imagine driving up and back Lombard each day to go to work. :scared1: Maybe they all take public transportation...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California082.jpg

We finally made it to the base of the street.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California085.jpg

It was kind of fun to watch the cars make their way down, zig-zagging back and forth. We stood among a whole group of people who seemed mesmerized by the cars...it's amazing what we find interesting! :laughing: As I snapped pictures, Chris took a short video of Lombard Street.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_10d42d71.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=10d42d71.flv)

We decided to venture out to see one more sight before calling it a day...we continued our long walk to Chinatown. We found the Gateway to Chinatown!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California094.jpg

Chris and I walked up and down the streets of Chinatown...it was quite busy and very ornate.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California086.jpg

After a little while, we headed back to the wharf for dinner. I asked Chris if he wanted to get some fresh seafood......he was in the mood for Mexican! :sad2: We ended up finding a little Mexican place called La Cantina. We sat out on the deck overlooking the Bay.....it was quite romantic, seeing as though we were the only ones out there. :love: However, we soon realized why there was no one else out there.......after sitting for about 10 minutes, we too moved inside because it was so COLD by the water...

Following dinner, we spent our last night hanging out at the wharf...we shopped, people watched, and enjoyed the street performers. We headed back to the Hilton at around 10:30 p.m. We didn't go to bed too soon after that because we knew we had a big day ahead of us...

Up Next: A ride on a cable car and the 1st peek of Yosemite! - Post #51

Hound 109

07-13-2007, 12:31 PM

spongemommie05

07-15-2007, 10:02 PM

i am absolutely loving your trip report , having lived in the bay area, it brings back alot of memmories and what i really took for granted. at times i miss driving over the bay bridge and pier 39 sourdough soup bowls what i would give for one of those now? i am looking forward to more, we will be taking our 1st trip(me and the kids ,Dh has been a number of times)to disneyland in Oct, And would love to hear your story.

cherokeemamma

07-17-2007, 12:25 AM

Hi SpartanGirl,

When I saw the picture/video of Lombard St., I went :eek: ! OMGosh...that looks insane. The landscaping is amazing as well. Okay, I have a stupid question. Is that a one way street?
I can only imagine that there are several brake and transmission companies in the area!:rotfl2:

I love, love, love the photo of the wine glasses...very cool :cool1:.

Looks like you guys had a wonderful time.:woohoo: Looking forward to more!

TTFN
Cherokeemamma:wave2:

Spartangirl

07-17-2007, 08:07 PM

:thumbsup2

Spartan Vacation Commandos....you guys really get around!

Great pics....i really like the one from the bottom of Lombard St.

To me it looks like it should be a FantasyLand Ride (because of it's sillyness & it's pretty flowers) that should be located between Alice (in Wonderland) & Mr. Toad. :cool1:

Keep em' coming Spartan Girl! :yay:

hound popcorn::

We do love to see EVERYTHING on vacation! :thumbsup2

Thanks for the compliment on my pics...I love taking photos! :goodvibes

I never thought about Lombard fitting into Fantasyland...it really would be perfect!

i am absolutely loving your trip report , having lived in the bay area, it brings back alot of memmories and what i really took for granted. at times i miss driving over the bay bridge and pier 39 sourdough soup bowls what i would give for one of those now? i am looking forward to more, we will be taking our 1st trip(me and the kids ,Dh has been a number of times)to disneyland in Oct, And would love to hear your story.

Yea, a new reader! Thanks for jumping on board! :yay: I'm jealous that you once lived in the bay area...I told Chris that I would have no problem uprooting and moving there. It was so beautiful!

Hi SpartanGirl,

When I saw the picture/video of Lombard St., I went :eek: ! OMGosh...that looks insane. The landscaping is amazing as well. Okay, I have a stupid question. Is that a one way street?
I can only imagine that there are several brake and transmission companies in the area!:rotfl2:

I love, love, love the photo of the wine glasses...very cool :cool1:.

Looks like you guys had a wonderful time.:woohoo: Looking forward to more!

TTFN
Cherokeemamma:wave2:

Lombard St. was insane...and it was only one way! There would be TONS of trouble if cars were going up and down! :laughing: And just think about this...people actually have GARAGES on that stretch! :eek:

I'm glad you like my "wine glasses" shot! I snapped it quickly before all the glasses were snatched up!

I should have my next installment up tonight! I'm going to start working on it! :goodvibes

Spartangirl

07-17-2007, 09:03 PM

A ride on a cable car and our 1st views of Yosemite!

We woke up nice and early this morning and headed to the restaurant in the Hilton for a nice breakfast. We both got the breakfast buffet, which was delish! We knew we needed to fuel up our bodies for the long day ahead of us........Yet again, we planned on seeing as much as we could in a short period of time. Today was our last day in San Francisco and this afternoon we were going to head for Yosemite National Park.

After breakfast, we walked about a block to reach the cable car hub. Now, Chris and I have NO PROBLEM walking anywhere....in fact, we love to walk! But, we decided to take a cable car, just to say we did! :goodvibes

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California091.jpg

We boarded the cable car and had our pick of seats because we were the first ones on this particular car! :banana: I think it was $5.00 per person, per way....:scared1: The driver told us it used to be really cheap...50 cents each way.....but, the lovely governator raised the price in hopes of making a profit. Anyway, our ride took us through various parts of the city and many people jumped on to ride to work for the day.

I snapped this pic along the way. We found out that this is the St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral. Apparantly, Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe had their pictures taken here for their wedding. They weren't able to get married in this Catholic church because both had been previously divorced.

:offtopic: FYI: I'm a pop-culture fanatic, so this was very interesting to me!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California090.jpg

Our ride continued over Nob Hill, which was quite steep....and finally we arrived at Union Square. This would be our first stop for the day!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California092.jpg

Union Square was quite impressive......everything was larger than life! There were fancy hotels and tons of shops! I could have spent a ton of money and a lot more time here! Unfortunately, we only had time to window shop because we had a few more places to see before leaving the city. I think Chris was happy that I wasn't able to shop! :rolleyes1

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California093.jpg

We had originally planned to see Nob Hill only from the cable car. However, upon seeing it, we both realized we wanted to get a closer look. Now, had we known ahead of time, we probably would have gotten off at Nob Hill and proceeded to walk to Union Square. Unfortunately, we did everything backwards....we back-tracked and headed up Nob Hill. Wow, that sure is some hill! Nob Hill is the "wealthy" part of town. It's very nice and upscale.

Here is the Mark Hopkins Hotel...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California095.jpg

And here is the swanky Fairmont Hotel...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California096.jpg

I hate to admit it, but I am addicted to the Travel Channel and was able to pick both of these hotels out because the famed Samantha Brown stayed at these two fine establishments. ;)

We continued on until we reached Grace Cathedral. Boy was it impressive and beautiful!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California101.jpg

After standing and admiring the great structure in front of us, we decided to continue on our journey. Rather than taking the cable car again, at $5.00 a pop, we started walking...

To be continued... Post #53

spongemommie05

07-17-2007, 09:09 PM

Spartangirl

07-17-2007, 09:40 PM

Continued...

We walked for what seemed like forever! And...it seemed like we were always walking uphill. With 43 hills in San Francisco, wouldn't you think some of them would go down? :sad2: Maybe we took the wrong route....we would reach the top of one hill, only to turn the corner and find another upward route. At least we had beautiful views...

Side Note: Before taking this "long walk," our hotel had provided us with a terrific map of the city. We found this extremely useful! :)

Chris taped a couple of cable cars on "one of the many" hills that we encountered...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_98c5baac.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=98c5baac.flv)

We walked several miles (I couldn't even guess how many) and finally reached Ghiradelli Square. We headed into one of the shops and tasted the yummy chocolate samples.....a small taste of heaven! :cloud9: We soon forgot the long walk we had encountered because the chocolate made everything worthwhile!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California103.jpg

In Ghiradelli Square, we came upon a restaurant called "Lori's Diner." We decided to stop for lunch. It was a cute little restaurant that was reflective of the 50's era. It was a themed diner, where even the staff dressed the part. The food was great, and not too expensive, and the diner overlooked the bay. Worn out from the walk, I forgot to take pics of the restaurant. :sad2:

After eating, we decided to head back to the Fisherman's Wharf for one last look.....it was a short walk from Ghiradelli Square.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California106.jpg

Even though it was a beautiful, sunny day, we noticed the fog on the bridge.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California107.jpg

We watched the sea lions one last time and I snapped a photo of a pelican that passed us by...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California109.jpg

Although we weren't quite ready to leave San Francisco, we knew it was time to check out of our hotel and hit the road toward Yosemite. So, we walked back to the Hilton, checked out, and began the long journey toward the National Park.

On our ride, we passed through the fertile San Joaquin Valley and climbed through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The views definitely were not lacking...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California112.jpg

We continued for many hours and stopped to snap a few pictures when we got our first views of Yosemite.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California114.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California115.jpg

After our initial glances, I knew we were in for a treat once we hit the park...

Up Next...we arrive at the lodge! - #63

Spartangirl

07-17-2007, 09:54 PM

Hound 109

07-17-2007, 11:23 PM

i have stayed at the fairmont hotel before for one of my birthdays my DH got us a room there and we saw the phantom of the opera talk about ooohhh lllllaaaaa llllllaaaa
can't wait for more.
....& I once stayed at the Mark Hopkins. :snooty:

:lmao:

But if the cable cars had been 5 bucks each way back then, I would have had to stay at the Motel 6. :rotfl:

Yeah....Mountains coming up. :yay:

(I love that first view of Yosemite valley....Isn't that after you come out of a tunnel? It's been about 40 years since I've seen it.)

hound :3dglasses

imp&pixie

07-18-2007, 10:03 AM

I am absolutely loving your report. It is so much fun to see the things that I take for granted through another person's eyes. Your photos are fantastic! I live an hour from SF so I have spent lots of time there - I went to grad school there and did internships with the California Historical Society and SFMOMA.

Believe it or not, I have never been to Napa! We are taking a short trip up there in Sept. and I can't wait to see the beautiful wineries.

I have spent a few weeks in Yosemite doing search & rescue training and it is probably the most breathtaking scenery I have ever encountered.

Can't wait to read more! :yay:

rb1124

07-18-2007, 01:22 PM

Wow you went everywhere, I love SF especially the Bread Bowl Clam Chowder at Boudini's. Never been to the National Park though. Where's the video?

tiggerwannabe

07-18-2007, 02:25 PM

I can't wait to see your Yosemite pictures!

How long did it take you to drive from San Fran to Yosemite?

Spartangirl

07-18-2007, 10:01 PM

....& I once stayed at the Mark Hopkins. :snooty:

:lmao:

But if the cable cars had been 5 bucks each way back then, I would have had to stay at the Motel 6. :rotfl:

Yeah....Mountains coming up. :yay:

(I love that first view of Yosemite valley....Isn't that after you come out of a tunnel? It's been about 40 years since I've seen it.)

hound :3dglasses

Wow....I would love to stay at either the Fairmont or the Mark Hopkins...I mean, the Hilton was nice and all, but c'mon! :goodvibes

I love your Motel 6 comment...:lmao:

Hopefully I will be able to post on the "Mountains" tomorrow! :thumbsup2

I believe we did exit a tunnel when we saw our first view of the valley...

I am absolutely loving your report. It is so much fun to see the things that I take for granted through another person's eyes. Your photos are fantastic! I live an hour from SF so I have spent lots of time there - I went to grad school there and did internships with the California Historical Society and SFMOMA.

Believe it or not, I have never been to Napa! We are taking a short trip up there in Sept. and I can't wait to see the beautiful wineries.

I have spent a few weeks in Yosemite doing search & rescue training and it is probably the most breathtaking scenery I have ever encountered.

Can't wait to read more! :yay:

I'm glad you are enjoying my report! :goodvibes Thank you for the nice compliment on my photos! :flower3:

You will love Napa!!! I'm glad to hear that you will finally have your chance to make the trip!!! We loved wine country...I wish we would have had more time to visit some of the other wineries.

I agree with you...Yosemite was absolutely breathtaking! I hope my pictures do it justice....I think I was just in awe when we first stepped into the valley.

Wow you went everywhere, I love SF especially the Bread Bowl Clam Chowder at Boudini's. Never been to the National Park though. Where's the video?

:welcome: Thanks for joining my trippie!

We did see a lot!!! :lmao: If you ever have a chance, DEFINITELY head to the National Park....it is so beautiful!

I have video on posts #46 and #53 so far. The clips are mixed into my report. Look for a picture that looks like it has film strips at the top and the bottom. Click on it, and it will show my short clips. :thumbsup2

I can't wait to see your Yosemite pictures!

How long did it take you to drive from San Fran to Yosemite?

I think it took us about 5 hours. It was a long ride, but I kind of lost track of the time between my short naps and watching the beautiful scenery.

Trissy

07-19-2007, 11:52 AM

mom2ian

07-19-2007, 03:29 PM

Hi! Loving the trip report so far. Gorgeous pictures and a great story! :thumbsup2

On my first trip to DL when I was about 12, the parents had rented a motorhome and we drove from Oregon to DL. Of course, we went part-way on Hwy 101 to stop at San Fran. We drove across the Golden Gate bridge. Well, my dad, not being familiar with the area, accidently got in the wrong lane and tried to drive the motorhome through on a car lane. Needless to say, the motorhome got stuck at the tollbooth. We must have been "stuck" on the Golden Gate for a good 2 hours, backing up traffic and all. At the time, it was terrible! But, now we can all :rotfl2: about it!

My other comment is - I can't wait to see the Yosemite photos. I've never been there but have a trip planned for early September.

Lissete

07-19-2007, 06:25 PM

Hi! Hopping in a bit late but enjoying our TR. We did a very similar trip around the same time last year and loved it. We weren't in commando mode though!:rotfl:

I absolutely LOVE your photos! What type of camera do you use? I so need to take some photography classes! Can't wait for the rest of your report. Thanks for sharing!

Spartangirl

07-19-2007, 06:28 PM

We arrive at the lodge!

After our initial views of the valley, we drove for quite some time before reaching the lodge. The Yosemite View Lodge is actually outside of the park. But, we did have the Merced River right outside our door.

The lodge itself was pretty cute, with several buildings scattered all about. It was nice, but we soon learned that the VIEW is what you pay for. All I can say is WOW!

Here is the building where you check-in. Throughout our stay, we came here a few times to look around in the store within the building. There were all sorts of shirts, trinkets, and snacks inside.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California122.jpg

Chris shot a short video to show the actual size of this building when compared with the scenery surrounding it.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_b158e19f.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=b158e19f.flv)

Here is an outside shot of the building that we stayed in.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California121.jpg

Our room was actually quite spacious. It even had some touches of home...we had dishes in the cabinets and a refridgerator!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California117.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California118.jpg

Best of all, we had a BALCONY! In fact, all of the rooms at the lodge have balconies. The views were amazing! During both nights of our stay, we sat out on the balcony and enjoyed the sights and sounds. As it got dark, we could see many (I couldn't venture to guess how many) bats catching bugs up in the sky.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California119.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California120.jpg

After getting situated in our room, we decided to go in search of dinner. Now, you have to realize, we were in the middle of nowhere! But, we did have two options for food at the lodge. The first was a nice, moderately-priced sit-down restaurant. We decided we would eat breakfast there in the morning. So for dinner, we opted for choice #2.......a pizza parlor/sandwich shop. We decided to order a Hawaiian pizza and each got a salad from the salad bar. The pizza was fantastic....I guess we weren't expecting much, but it was so good! Now this little restaurant had both indoor and outdoor seating. We opted for the outdoor seating to enjoy the view.

Here's what we looked at while dining...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California123.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California125.jpg

After dinner, we explored the property for quite some time. We saw the Merced River and even snapped a photo of a hummingbird. The hummingbirds were out in full force! I think we saw 5 chasing each other at a time!!! They are so quick, but fun to watch!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California124.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California126.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California127.jpg

After we explored the property, we decided to head back to our room to sit out on the balcony. On the way, we stopped to talk with a couple of people who informed us that a bear had been spotted one building over from us! :scared1: Apparently, the bear had been walking along the first floor rooms checking out the garbage cans. I think my heart started to beat a little faster at the thought of a bear...both from fear and excitement. We continued our walk and didn't end up seeing anything. We ended up sitting on the balcony for quite some time, soaking up nature and the beautiful surroundings.

Up Next: We hit the park!!! - Post #69

Spartangirl

07-19-2007, 06:53 PM

HI LYNNE!
I swear it's like reading myself. We sure have quite a bit in common. This is one of my dream trips. The weather in your pics looks fabulous. I'm a west coast MI girl myself, hoping to move back next year, of course that's every year. Anyways, enough about me. Thanks for posting this TR because I'm soooo interested in going to CA and the places you went. I thought my DH and I were the only young 30's with no kids, any plans?

Welcome to my trippie!!! :banana: This trip was also one of my dream trips too! I loved EVERY moment of it and had a hard time coming home.

Nope, you're not the only young 30's with no kids! :) We would actually LOVE to have children, but it just may not be in our cards. To make a long story short, we went through 2 hard, stressful years of testing and no results. We may eventually adopt! :goodvibes But, for now we're enjoying each other, life, and traveling. Any plans for you?

Hi! Loving the trip report so far. Gorgeous pictures and a great story! :thumbsup2

On my first trip to DL when I was about 12, the parents had rented a motorhome and we drove from Oregon to DL. Of course, we went part-way on Hwy 101 to stop at San Fran. We drove across the Golden Gate bridge. Well, my dad, not being familiar with the area, accidently got in the wrong lane and tried to drive the motorhome through on a car lane. Needless to say, the motorhome got stuck at the tollbooth. We must have been "stuck" on the Golden Gate for a good 2 hours, backing up traffic and all. At the time, it was terrible! But, now we can all :rotfl2: about it!

My other comment is - I can't wait to see the Yosemite photos. I've never been there but have a trip planned for early September.

I'm glad you're on board!!! :woohoo: Thank you so much for the nice comments about my pictures and my TR. :flower3:

I can just imagine the motorhome getting stuck at the tollbooth! :rotfl:

You will LOVE Yosemite......nature at it's best! :goodvibes

Hi! Hopping in a bit late but enjoying our TR. We did a very similar trip around the same time last year and loved it. We weren't in commando mode though!:rotfl:

I absolutely LOVE your photos! What type of camera do you use? I so need to take some photography classes! Can't wait for the rest of your report. Thanks for sharing!

Welcome and thanks for joining in!!! :yay: Isn't California beautiful? We LOVED our trip too! We always seem to be in commando mode.........we always say we're going to be more relaxed, but it just doesn't happen! :)

Thanks for the compliment on my photos! :flower3: I use a Nikon D80 and I absolutely love it. I'm self-taught.........I just love taking pictures!

Lynne D.

07-21-2007, 01:17 PM

This is one of the best trip report I have read. I wish I was taking this trip and now I planned to. Thank you SpartanGirl for a wonderful trip report.

byoung

07-21-2007, 04:37 PM

Great report and fantastic pictures, thanks.

lovevacations

07-21-2007, 05:02 PM

Keep it coming!!!! I've been busy planning our trip! We are now starting in San Diego and finishing in San Fran. We will have 17 nights!
San Diego
DLR and Universal Studios
Pismo Beach
Hearst Castle and the elephant seals
Monterey
San Fran

Can't wait to for your next posts!!

Spartangirl

07-21-2007, 09:38 PM

This is one of the best trip report I have read. I wish I was taking this trip and now I planned to. Thank you SpartanGirl for a wonderful trip report.

Welcome to my TR and thank you for the wonderful compliment! :flower3: By the way, I spell my name the same way...I never find too many people who spell Lynne with an E at the end. :goodvibes

Great report and fantastic pictures, thanks.

Thanks for jumping on board!!! :woohoo: I appreciate the wonderful compliments! :flower3:

Keep it coming!!!! I've been busy planning our trip! We are now starting in San Diego and finishing in San Fran. We will have 17 nights!
San Diego
DLR and Universal Studios
Pismo Beach
Hearst Castle and the elephant seals
Monterey
San Fran

Can't wait to for your next posts!!

Yea...I'm so excited to hear that you're planning away! :thumbsup2 It sounds like a wonderful trip....and 17 nights...WOW! I do hope you write a trip report too! ;)

Spartangirl

07-21-2007, 10:42 PM

On to Yosemite!!!

We woke up nice, early, and well rested the next morning. We headed to the restaurant at the lodge and enjoyed some fresh coffee and a wonderful breakfast buffet. I was happy to see that there was tons of frest fruit and a wide variety at that. Chris had his eyes on the "hot stuff"....eggs, waffles, pancakes, bacon, and sausage to name a few things. We ate our fill and left the lodge at around 8:30 a.m.

We arrived at the park within a 1/2 hour. We got our bearings and checked in for a morning sight-seeing tour that we planned on taking. Our tour was not scheduled until 10 a.m., so we walked around and did a little bit of exploring.

We stopped and had someone snap our photo in front of a lovely waterfall...we were surprised to see water still streaming down! :) We had been told that the waterfalls tend to dry up by about mid-June and here we were at the end of June. It was definitely a nice surprise!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California133.jpg

This was a litle bird that I happened to snap a picture of. He was very inquisitive.....watching me and "playing a game of hide-and-seek" around the tree.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California135.jpg

We decided we should head back to check-in for our tour. We were told to be on the vehicle about 15 minutes prior to departure. We boarded our open-air transportation and headed out promptly at 10 a.m. Our guide was fantastic. She is both a ranger in the park and one of their photographers. We enjoyed our morning tour of the scenic Yosemite valley floor. We saw cedar, pine and fir trees, magnificent waterfalls, many types of birds, deer, a bear, and two towering granite monoliths known as Half Dome and El Capitan (I'll point these two out later in my pics! :thumbsup2 ).

Here are some of my pics from our tour. Rather than ramble on, I'm going to let my pictures do the talking! ;)

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California139.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California141.jpg

This is El Capitan! To me, it looks like a face on the side of the granite. :laughing: By the way, we were able to see some rock climbers on the side of El Cap. They looked like little ants. Our guide mentioned that it takes 7 days to reach the top! :eek:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California143.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California144.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California145.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California146.jpg

We were able to hop off the vehicle for a couple of photo opportunities, which I loved...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California147.jpg

Note the sign in this pic. The water level was up to the line on the sign...Chris is 6'3". He doesn't seem so tall anymore!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California149.jpg

This is one of my favorite shots from the valley floor!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California150.jpg

Look at the size of the pinecones! :scared1:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California151.jpg

To be continued...

Spartangirl

07-21-2007, 11:11 PM

Yosemite Valley Tour continued...

Here are a few more photos from one of our stops. The views were so amazing!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California152.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California153.jpg

Chris shot a quick video to try to capture the beauty of the park!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_06968f0d.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=06968f0d.flv)

We hopped back on our vehicle, got moving, and the views still continued to leave us in awe.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California156.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California157.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California158.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California160.jpg

Here is Half Dome! :)

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California161.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California162.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California163.jpg

Our 90 minute tour ended and Chris and I agreed that Yosemite National Park is one of the most beautiful places in the world and that we definitely had to "get out" and explore some of it by foot...

Up Next: We hike and explore the Ahwahnee... - Post #71

Spartangirl

07-24-2007, 10:00 PM

Hiking and the Ahwahnee

After our morning tour, we were feeling a bit hungry, so we decided to stop for some lunch before attempting a hike in the park. We followed a large crowd to the park's cafeteria. Here we found salads, soups, burgers, pizza, etc, along with LONG lines. We soon filled our bellies and were ready to hit the road again.

We learned that Yosemite National Park has its own bus system to transport people to the different points within the park. This is FREE to visitors. We hopped on the 1st available bus we saw and headed to our destination.

We soon arrived at a point in the park which led to 4-5 different hiking trails, with varying difficulty and length. We wisely chose the "Misty Falls" trail, which was a 1.5 mile hike. Some park rangers had suggested this one since we said that we wanted a "scenic route." In addition, we didn't want to walk TOO FAR because it was quite hot on this day.

The views were spectacular, of course! :thumbsup2

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California168.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California166.jpg

The squirrels were so cute! This little guy was following us on the path. He kept standing on his hind legs and walking toward us with his arms outstretched. I felt bad that we didn't have anything to give him. :confused3

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California165.jpg

Here are some of the views we encountered on our hike!!!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California167.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California169.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California171.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California172.jpg

When I asked Chris to describe the hike we took he responded with, "Uphill." :rotfl: We always seemed to be moving in an upward direction. It wasn't a very difficult hike, although we saw many people resting at different points along the way. The picture below shows our trail off to the right side of the photo. Note the "tiny people" in the picture.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California173.jpg

Hold up that rock!!!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California174.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California175.jpg

The hike took us about an hour and a half. Could we have finished it sooner? Sure, but we stopped MANY times for photos and just to enjoy the beautiful views.

After hiking, we hopped back on the bus and headed for the Ahwahnee Hotel. We heard that this is "The Place" to stay in Yosemite.

The Ahwahnee was certainly impressive! It was gorgeous both on the inside and the outside. However, we soon learned that the Ahwahnee was quite rustic, stuffy and hot inside. Being an older hotel, there is no air-conditioning. Call me crazy, but I was happy to be staying at the lodge. Maybe I would have enjoyed staying here at a different time of the year, but definitely not in the summer.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California180.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California181.jpg

From the Ahwahnee, we walked to the Ansel Adams Photography Museum. I LOVE his work, so we spent a little bit of time looking around. We then walked next door to the Yosemite Post Office where we sent postcards back home to our family. :)

Although we would have liked to stay longer in the park, we were both a little exhausted from a full day. So, we decided to head back to the lodge. As we drove off, we took our final glances of Yosemite.

Back at the lodge, we decided to sit by "one of the many" pools. We saw at least 5 pools on the property, each with a hot tub to accompany it.

We then decided to eat at the "pizza parlor" restaurant again. Only this time, we tried the turkey sandwiches. They were delish!!! :thumbsup2 We sat for awhile, relaxing and talking about our wonderful trip so far. Finally, we headed back to our room to enjoy sitting on the balcony for one last night...

Up Next: Carmel, 17-mile drive, Seal Beach, Lone Cypress, and Pebble Beach golf course! - Post #74

Lynne D.

07-24-2007, 10:10 PM

Spartangirl

07-25-2007, 07:17 PM

Lynne, your posts are very informative to anyone planning a similiar trip. Thank you for all the information. I have a friend who is traveling to San Francisco and to Yosemite next week and I have mentioned your thread to her for thoughts and ideas. Thank you for posting.

I am traveling myself through your words and pictures. Beautiful!

Thanks for following my thread and for passing it along!!! :goodvibes I also appreciate the words of encouragement. :flower3: There is more to come!

Spartangirl

07-25-2007, 08:12 PM

Carmel, 17-mile drive, Seal Beach, Lone Cypress, and Pebble Beach!!!

We woke up bright and early the next morning and headed down to the lodge restaurant for some breakfast. Once again, we had the breakfast buffet since it had been so good the day before. It did not disappoint!!!

We headed out from the lodge at about 7:30 a.m. We had to get an early start because we had a few stops that we wanted to make on our way to Monterey. Our journey began by heading west past the San Luis Reservoir, which was part of the California irrigation project.

After some time, we reached the town of Carmel by the Sea. This was a cute, artsy town. It had a charming downtown filled with shops, galleries, and outdoor cafes. I believe we were told that the "cheapest" home in Carmel costs between 1 and 2 million dollars. :scared1:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California183.jpg

We explored the town a bit and then walked toward the beach. Although it was a bit chilly outside, there were some brave people swimming in the cool water.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California186.jpg

As we were standing on the beach, Chris noticed that we could see Pebble Beach Golf Course across the water.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California187.jpg

We stayed in Carmel for about 1 1/2 hours and then headed off to our next stop. As we were leaving the town, I snapped a picture of the Carmel Mission.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California188.jpg

We continued on our journey until we reached 17-mile drive, which was about 5 minutes from the town. :yay: It was $9.00, just to drive along 17-mile drive. Honestly, we were quite surprised to find out that there was a cost involved to travel along that stretch of road.....but, we wanted to see what all of the hype was about! :) The coastal drive was lined with palatial homes and delightful natural wonders! We even saw the home where Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" was filmed.

Our first stop was Seal Beach where we were able to view the harbor seals.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California192.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California194.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California196.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California197.jpg

We then continued on until we reached the Lone Cypress. This "tree" is the logo for Pebble Beach Golf Course.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California199.jpg

Finally, we reached Pebble Beach!!! :thumbsup2 Note "Lone Cypress" on the sign.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California202.jpg

We enjoyed looking around the pricy shops.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California203.jpg

Then we headed down to take a video of the clubhouse.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_475e4f1e.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=475e4f1e.flv)

We walked over and stood about 20 yards from the 18th hole. We figured that it was better for us to "look around," rather than play golf because one round of golf costs $475. :eek:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California206.jpg

Up Next: We reach Monterey! - Post #80

Angrypenguin

07-26-2007, 04:29 PM

karin6996

07-28-2007, 09:24 PM

Hi Spartangirl! I as well as Angrypenguin am a former Michiganian, now living in Orlando. However, I made the right decision just as you did, to attend the best University in the state, MSU!:cheer2:

What a fabulous trip you had! Your pictures are a beautiful illustration of your words. I will be making a trip to DL and San Fran in just 24 day. I am so much more excited after reading your report! :woohoo: Thanks for sharing!

cherokeemamma

07-28-2007, 10:31 PM

Hi Lynne,

I absolutely loved your latest installment. :thumbsup2
Oh my goodness...Yosemite is beautiful. :cloud9: When I saw Half Dome I instantly thought of Ansel Adams. I am sure the exhibit of his work was outstanding. I have always admired his work very much. Your photos are wonderful as well.:goodvibes The couple shots of the bird and squirrel were great...I have to tell you though, I have a hidden fear of squirrels. They just terrify me. :eek: Not really sure why. :confused3
It looks like you and your DH were having a wonderful time.
Looking forward to more....:rolleyes1

TTFN
Darlene

One quick question: How much time would you recommend spending here?

spongemommie05

07-28-2007, 11:46 PM

i am loving your tr i have never been to yosemite it is so beautiful:goodvibes i am excited to hear about monterey:woohoo: i have been there:laughing: wow:scared1: $475 for one round of golf. i would just stand next to the 18th whole too:rotfl:

Angrypenguin

07-29-2007, 12:25 AM

Hi Spartangirl! I as well as Angrypenguin am a former Michiganian, now living in Orlando. However, I made the right decision just as you did, to attend the best University in the state, MSU!:cheer2:

*sigh* it's a shame that some minds are deluded to think MSU is the best. Or even comparale.;) :rotfl: Just kidding! I love all Michiganders. Well, most anyway. :hug:

Spartangirl

07-29-2007, 05:05 PM

Monterey!!!

We continued on our journey and found ourselves in Monterey. We were staying at the Portola Plaza on the wharf. This hotel was quite upscale and very beautiful! Check-in was a breeze....before heading to our room, we were presented with freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. That was a nice surprise! :thumbsup2

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California217.jpg

Our room was very cute with nice decor. After walking around and checking out our new digs, I noticed that the bathroom was fully stocked with Bath and Body Works products. And....they were in my favorite scent...Coconut Lime Verbena. I could tell that I was going to like this place already.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California212.jpg

We noticed that our room was a bit stuffy and warm. Chris went over to the thermostat to turn on the air. HEAT started blowing out!!! :eek: We couldn't seem to get the air to work, so we headed down to the front desk. A nice lady at the counter informed us that there is NO air-conditioning at the hotel, or at MOST of the hotels in Monterey because the weather is usually on the cool side. The woman offered to send a fan up to our room, but we decided we would just open up some windows. So, we headed back to our room and did just that! There was nice breeze blowing and we got some fresh air in our room. It really was no big deal without the air. We were just surprised.

Since this was going to be our only night in Monterey, we wanted to head out and explore as much as we could. We walked out of our hotel and found a nice courtyard area with some specialty stores. We looked around and took a few pictures.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California218.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California220.jpg

We continued on our walk and literally reached the Fisherman's Wharf in about 2 minutes. The Portola Plaza definitely has a prime location on the wharf.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California222.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California221.jpg

The wharf was a fun, little area. It was much smaller than San Francisco's wharf, but it still had many shops and restaurants. We walked in and out of many of the shops and purchased a few shirts and small items. We then continued our journey. We followed a smooth path along the water and took a couple of neat pictures along the way.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California224.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California225.jpg

We walked for about 10-15 minutes until we reached a colorful fishing section of town called Cannery Row.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California227.jpg

We continued up and down the streets of the town, just taking everything in. We even found the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Although I've heard many good things about it, we didn't have time to stop to see it.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California226.jpg

We began feeling a bit hungry, seeing as though we hadn't eaten for awhile and had been out and about for quite some time. We decided that we would head back to our hotel to check out one of the restaurants. As we began walking, we noticed a streetcar stop. We decided we would catch the streetcar back to the plaza because it was FREE!!! Within a couple of short minutes, we were back at our hotel and on our way to eat at Jacks.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California230.jpg

Jacks was an upscale steakhouse that had a nautical theme throughout the restaurant. I didn't take a picture of the interior because it just didn't seem appropriate........I really did want to though. ;)

We both ordered the filet mignon. It was so good it melted in our mouths.

After quite the meal, we decided we needed to walk. We had pretty full bellies. So, we headed back to the wharf. Night was drawing near, and the wharf was quite a sight. It seemed to come alive, the darker it got. We took a few pictures.......wish I would have had my tripod. But, we enjoyed the sights none-the-less.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California233.jpg

We shopped, took photos, people watched, and enjoyed each others company for a little while. Then, we decided to call it a night and head back to our room. The next morning would be another early one, with much to see, of course! :)

Up Next: Big Sur and Hearst Castle! - Post #85

Spartangirl

07-29-2007, 05:32 PM

Hey Spartangirl, I'm really enjoying your trip report! I'm another west coast Michigander (do we still use that term?) out here in LA; I'm originally from Rochester Hills Michigan. You name aside, (I'm a Wolverine, class of '04pirate: ) I'm loving the pictures of San Fransisco and along the coast. You're hitting places I hope to go to in the near future!

Anyways, keep up the great report! :thumbsup2

Hello and :welcome: to my TR (even if you are a Wolverine! ;)) !!! Wow...Rochester Hills, MI...that's only about 45 minutes from where I live in Livonia.

Thanks for the compliments about my report! :flower3: I'm glad you're enjoying my pics too! I hope that you are able to make it along the coast in the future......the sights are truly spectacular!

Hi Spartangirl! I as well as Angrypenguin am a former Michiganian, now living in Orlando. However, I made the right decision just as you did, to attend the best University in the state, MSU!:cheer2:

What a fabulous trip you had! Your pictures are a beautiful illustration of your words. I will be making a trip to DL and San Fran in just 24 day. I am so much more excited after reading your report! :woohoo: Thanks for sharing!

First of all, welcome to my trippie!!! :goodvibes

Yea!!! Another STATE grad! :cheer2: Go Spartans!!! I bleed green and white seeing as though they got my money for both undergrad and graduate school. :)

Our trip was incredible!!! Thanks for the compliment about my photos. :flower3: It's so nice to be able to share them! I am so excited for you.......wow, just 24 more days!!! You're going to love your trip to the west coast!

Hi Lynne,

I absolutely loved your latest installment. :thumbsup2
Oh my goodness...Yosemite is beautiful. :cloud9: When I saw Half Dome I instantly thought of Ansel Adams. I am sure the exhibit of his work was outstanding. I have always admired his work very much. Your photos are wonderful as well.:goodvibes The couple shots of the bird and squirrel were great...I have to tell you though, I have a hidden fear of squirrels. They just terrify me. :eek: Not really sure why. :confused3
It looks like you and your DH were having a wonderful time.
Looking forward to more....:rolleyes1

TTFN
Darlene

One quick question: How much time would you recommend spending here?

Hi Darlene!

Glad to hear that you like Ansel Adams too......his work is fantastic and so inspiring! Thanks for the compliment about my photos as well....:flower3:

That's funny that you say that you have a hidden fear of squirrels. I couldn't believe how close the one squirrel got to us. I snapped his picture, and then ran a few feet away from him. Chris was laughing...:rotfl2: It scared me a bit......but, they really seem unaffected by humans.

We spent only a day and a half at Yosemite and wish we would have had more time......I would say that you would want at least 2-3 days, especially if you enjoy the outdoors. We LOVED our time in the park and felt that we only experienced an "overview" of what was really out there.

i am loving your tr i have never been to yosemite it is so beautiful:goodvibes i am excited to hear about monterey:woohoo: i have been there:laughing: wow:scared1: $475 for one round of golf. i would just stand next to the 18th whole too:rotfl:

I'm glad that you are enjoying my TR!!! :goodvibes Yosemite was quite breathtaking and we loved Monterey too. We honestly wish we would have had more time in both places......there is much more to come!!!

spongemommie05

07-30-2007, 12:45 AM

what beautiful pictures , can't wait for more. you will have to take another trip and stay a lil longer ..:cloud9:

Angie_Ohio

07-30-2007, 09:53 AM

Hi
I have been lurking for several days but just decided to post. I am planning our first family trip west of the Mississippi for June of 08. We already have reservations for 4 nights in Yosemite. We have been debating wether to do San Francisco or San Diego along with our DL portion. I have 3 sons 13, 11, and 9 making this trip (5DS in all). I think they would like Alcatraz and the coastal drive. Thanks for the great trip report. Your pictures are awesome and inspiring. My DH is an avid golfer and would have loved to golf at Pebble Beach. I even checked it out for a surprise but the cost is steep. Were you allowed to get close to the 18th hole? How much of the course would you be allowed to see without paying a greens fee? I think our 10 day trip just might become 2 weeks.
BTW Go BUCKS!
Angie

blackjackdelta

07-31-2007, 10:10 AM

I thought I would chime in and let you know that I really enjoyed your TR. I have lived on this side of the country for along time and I sometimes forget that many people do not have the opportunity to enjoy the type of trip you had. We are blessed with some of the best scenery in the US.
Again, thanks for the fantastic trip report.

Jack

Spartangirl

07-31-2007, 05:29 PM

Big Sur & Hearst Castle!

We woke up nice and early hoping to get a jump-start on our day. Today would be our longest day of travel. We headed back to Jacks for breakfast, seeing as though our dinner was so great the night before. We each got the breakfast buffet and once again, Jacks did not disappoint. In addition to the huge spread, there was a person making cooked-to-order omlettes. Yummy! :yay: And....much to my delight......all of my favorite fruits were present!

Upon finishing our breakfast, we checked out of Portola Plaza and hit the road by 7:15 a.m. We continued our journey south, along the Pacific Ocean through Big Sur. It was truly a spectacular 80 mile drive between Carmel/Monterey and San Simeon. Chris and I both agreed that it was the most beautiful coastal drive that we've experienced. On one side of us was the sparkling, turquiose Pacific Ocean with its pounding surf, and on the other was the Santa Lucia Mountain Range.

I'll let my picture do the talkin' for Big Sur...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California234.jpg

We stopped along the way to take a picture of Historic Bixby Bridge. This bridge was built in 1932 has been used in countless commercials and movies.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California236.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California237.jpg

Here are a few more photos that I snapped at the site of Bixby Bridge...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California240.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California238.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California241.jpg

We continued our journey for a little while until we came upon Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. While in California, we knew that we wanted to see the "redwoods" that we had heard about. We had been told that Pfeiffer Park did not have the largest redwoods in the state, but it supposedly had the tallest. I thought the trees we saw were both large and tall.

Take a look...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California242.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California244.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California243.jpg

"Hug a Tree" :)

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California245.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California246.jpg

To be continued... -Post #86

Spartangirl

07-31-2007, 06:06 PM

Big Sur & Hearst Castle Continued...

The redwoods were definitely the largest and most impressive trees that I had ever seen! I think we were in awe...

We continued to drive along the coast until we reached Vista Point. This is where the Elephant Seals can be found.......talk about interesting animals! We watched these unique creatures for about 20 minutes....we definitely COULD have stayed much longer.

We witnessed several of them fighting. We were told this is quite common...:confused3

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California248.jpg

I loved watching them flip sand all over their bodies...I'm assuming this was to help keep cool.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California249.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California250.jpg

Chris captured a clip of them "spreading the sand!"

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_1c538484.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=1c538484.flv)

They were kind of cute in a way....but, look at the noses on them!!!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California251.jpg

It was really funny to watch them move. They would push themselves across the sand for a very short period of time and then REST. Then, the process would begin again.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California253.jpg

Of course we have a short clip!!! :goodvibes

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_0bd769d6.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=0bd769d6.flv)

Like I said before, we COULD have stayed much longer to watch the Elephant Seals......they were unlike anything that I had ever seen before. But, we were scheduled for an 11:00 tour at Hearst Castle.

We continued our travels until we reached San Simeon, which was where William Randolph Hearst's estate and the Hearst Castle were. We easily found our check-in point, boarded a bus, and headed up the HUGE hill that lead to the castle.

Here is a pic I took out the bus window...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California255.jpg

We unloaded the bus and met our tourguide. She was very informative and we learned that Hearst originally built the castle to house his collection of Medieval and Renaissance treasures. He eventually turned the castle into his dream home.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California256.jpg

The view from Hearst's castle...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California257.jpg

Our first stop was the Neptune pool. What a fabulous pool! We found out that the castle was the "in" spot for Hollywood celebrities. Frequent visitors included Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, and Charlie Chaplin. The pool was quite the "hang-out."

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California259.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California267.jpg

To be continued... -Post #87

Spartangirl

07-31-2007, 06:31 PM

Hearst Castle continued...

After the Neptune Pool, we continued our tour by heading toward a couple of the guest houses.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California268.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California269.jpg

Look at the attention to details!!!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California270.jpg

We were able to walk through one of the guest homes. I didn't take many pictures because we weren't able to use a flash and I didn't have a tripod. Here is a photo of one of the bedrooms.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California271.jpg

After walking through the guest house, we continued on through the gardens...all I can say is B-EA-U-TI-FUL!!!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California273.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California274.jpg

Here is the oldest statue on the property.....It's an ancient Egyptian piece that is 3,000 years old! :eek:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California276.jpg

We finally reached the main house!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California277.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California278.jpg

We saw many sights including the main meeting room, the movie theater, the dining room, and the indoor swimming pool.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California281.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California285.jpg

Chris and I enjoyed our castle tour and would have loved to take a 2nd tour in which we could have seen different parts of the castle. I believe there were at least four different tours. We just didn't have time for more than one because we had lots more on our agenda.

Up Next: A brief stop in Santa Barbara and on to Beverly Hills! -Post #90

Spartangirl

07-31-2007, 06:48 PM

what beautiful pictures , can't wait for more. you will have to take another trip and stay a lil longer ..:cloud9:

Thanks again for the compliment about my pictures! :flower3: Taking photos is one of my favorite things to do!

I'm game for another trip! :thumbsup2

Hi
I have been lurking for several days but just decided to post. I am planning our first family trip west of the Mississippi for June of 08. We already have reservations for 4 nights in Yosemite. We have been debating wether to do San Francisco or San Diego along with our DL portion. I have 3 sons 13, 11, and 9 making this trip (5DS in all). I think they would like Alcatraz and the coastal drive. Thanks for the great trip report. Your pictures are awesome and inspiring. My DH is an avid golfer and would have loved to golf at Pebble Beach. I even checked it out for a surprise but the cost is steep. Were you allowed to get close to the 18th hole? How much of the course would you be allowed to see without paying a greens fee? I think our 10 day trip just might become 2 weeks.
BTW Go BUCKS!
Angie

I am SO GLAD you decided to come out of lurkdom! :goodvibes Welcome to my report! Your trip sounds like it's going to be fabulous! 10 days would be great, but 2 weeks would be even better! :thumbsup2

Thank you so much for the compliment on my photos. :flower3: I do love to share them.

The cost at Pebble Beach is steep......that's why we only "looked" at it. We were actually able to get about 20 yards from the 18th hole. You can walk right up to it......there's a roped off area. I wish I could be more of a help with your other question. I'm not sure how much more of the course you would be able to see. We walked around the shopping area, the practice green, the clubhouse, and down by the water at the 18th hole. We really didn't check out any of the other greens.

I thought I would chime in and let you know that I really enjoyed your TR. I have lived on this side of the country for along time and I sometimes forget that many people do not have the opportunity to enjoy the type of trip you had. We are blessed with some of the best scenery in the US.
Again, thanks for the fantastic trip report.

Jack

Hi Jack! Welcome and thanks for chiming in!!! :goodvibes I'm glad to hear that you've enjoyed my TR. You truly are blessed with some of the best scenery in the country. We had a REALLY hard time coming home and getting back to reality. I definitely wouldn't mind uprooting and moving out west.

tiggerwannabe

07-31-2007, 10:33 PM

One word so far...GORGEOUS!

You make me want to go back even sooner!

I see Yosemite in mine and my husbands future~

Keep em coming...I cannot wait to see more...

Spartangirl

08-01-2007, 11:37 AM

Santa Barbara, Beverly Hills, and Hollywood!

After our tour of the castle, we continued driving until we reached Santa Barbara. It was quite the hike from San Simeon to Santa Barbara, so this was a good chance to get out and stretch our legs before continuing the drive. Plus, I had been to the Santa Barbara pier as a child and wanted to see it again as an adult.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California288.jpg

There's really not too much to the pier, but it brought back a lot of memories. We walked all the way to the end, got some ice cream, and made our way back. We saw many people fishing off the pier and tons of pelicans eagerly awaiting a fish to get loose from the fishing lines.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California290.jpg

We got back on the road and drove with the goal of reaching Beverly Hills in mind. On the way we saw Santa Monica and the pier and passed through Malibu. Finally, we reached Beverly Hills...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California298.jpg

...and the Beverly Hills Crowne Plaza, where we would be staying for 2 nights.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California293.jpg

The hotel was very nice and we were pleased with our room.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California291.jpg

We quickly put our suitcases down and did a little unpacking. Then, we were off in search of food. It was already 7:00 p.m. and our stomachs were growling. We talked to a member of the hotel staff, and he pointed us in the direction of SEVERAL restaurants. Within walking a few blocks, we found ourselves on Beverly Dr. which showcased stores and restaurants galore!

We chose to eat at a place called Burger 90210.

(Side note: Whenever, I hear 90210, I think of Beverly Hills 90210 and its theme song......I used to watch that show back in my late teens and in college.)

Anyhow, Burger 90210 had a huge autographed picture of the GOVERNATOR on the wall. We figured that anything good enough for Mr. Arnold himself would be good enough for us! :laughing:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California294.jpg

Chris had a burger and I had a turkeyburger. Both were delish! It was a sitdown restaurant, but you had to walk up to the cook at an unusually large grill to place your order. It was kind of neat!

After dinner, we walked up and down Beverly Dr. and the surrounding streets. It was a fun atmosphere...people were definitely out and about! We soon decided to call it a night. We were exhausted from our day of sightseeing and driving and knew that we had a lot to see the next day. We headed back to the Crowne Plaza and I'm SURE both of us were out as soon as our heads hit the pillows......

The next morning we got up, ate breakfast, and hit the road for another exciting day of sightseeing. As I mentioned earlier in my report, I'm a pop-culture fanatic, and here we were in the middle of Beverly Hills....you can say I was a bit excited for the day!

Our first thought was to hit Hollywood. We drove out of Beverly Hills and into West Hollywood and the Sunset Strip. Here we saw the "Riot Hyatt."

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California301.jpg

It's really not much to look at, but so many musicians have stayed in this hotel. Adjacent to the Hyatt was the House of Blues and the Comedy Store. We also passed the Roxy, Viper Room, and the Whiskey A Go Go while on Sunset Boulevard.

I quickly snapped a picture as we passed the acclaimed Chateau Marmont......a hang-out for MANY celebrities. :)

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California303.jpg

It was kind of hard snapping photos as we cruised down Sunset, but I even managed to get Johnny Depp's house! :banana: His home is the "pink one" high atop the hills.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California302.jpg

About two years ago, Chris and I visited Hollywood and took a tour. That is how we knew about Johnny's house........we couldn't forget that one! ;)

We continued on and came across the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel......

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California305.jpg

and Hollywood Boulevard!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California306.jpg

We were ready to begin our exploration of Hollywood!!!

To be continued... - Post #91

Spartangirl

08-01-2007, 12:09 PM

Hollywood continued...

Our first stop in Hollywood was Grauman's Chinese Theatre.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California304.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California309.jpg

We had tons of fun reading and seeing all of the stars handprints and footprints in the cement.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California308.jpg

We couldn't forget to get Johnny! :thumbsup2

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California311.jpg

Upon reading the dates under the hand and footprints, we learned that all of the stars from "Ocean's" had been there just a few weeks before us......yes, this included Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Matt Damon! I would have LOVED to have been there for that! :love:

We continued by walking down Hollywood's famous sidewalk, known as the Walk of Stars. We took MANY photos of the stars, but I thought I would post the most important two that I saw! ;)

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California330.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California333.jpg

I was excited to see the Kodak Theatre. This is the site of the Academy Awards and home to American Idol!!!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California323.jpg

As we continued our journey we came across some pavers in the ground that said..."The Road to Hollywood." We proceeded to climb the stairs in front of us. I snapped this picture on our way up...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California317.jpg

At the top, high in the hills, we saw the famous Hollywood sign! :woohoo:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California318.jpg

We decided to walk across the street after seeing the sign. Here, we came across two very important buildings.

The first was El Capitan! On the day that we were there, the theatre was having a premier for the children to see Ratatouille.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California315.jpg

The second was Disney's Soda Shop! We took a quick peek and saw the long lines. We didn't end up getting any ice cream, but it smelled heavenly!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California316.jpg

After seeing all that we wanted to see in Hollywood, we decided to head out. I snapped this photo before we left! :rotfl:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California331.jpg

Up Next...We explore posh Rodeo Drive! -Post #97

Spartangirl

08-01-2007, 12:17 PM

One word so far...GORGEOUS!

You make me want to go back even sooner!

I see Yosemite in mine and my husbands future~

Keep em coming...I cannot wait to see more...

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! :flower3:

You would love Yosemite.....it's a photographer's dream! :thumbsup2

There's plenty more to come...

tksbaskets

08-01-2007, 04:55 PM

Spartangirl

08-02-2007, 10:13 PM

Hi,
I'm so glad I saw your post on another trippie! I'm enjoying the heck out of your report. The only place I have been in CA is Disneyland. Your pictures are just great. Thanks for sharing :thumbsup2

Hello and :welcome: I'm so glad you're enjoying my TR and thanks for the compliment about my photos. :flower3: It was a wonderful trip and I'm happy to share it......there's lots more to come!

lovevacations

08-05-2007, 02:03 PM

Can't wait to read more!!!

Spartangirl

08-06-2007, 09:13 AM

Can't wait to read more!!!

There is more on the way!!! :banana:

Spartangirl

08-06-2007, 09:47 AM

Rodeo Drive!

We set out to visit Rodeo Drive, America's most celebrated shopping district. Here we explored a three block stretch of shops and boutiques.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California345.jpg

We even found the "Pretty Woman" hotel on Wilshire Blvd. :yay:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California335.jpg

I snapped a picture of McCormick and Schmick's. We had 6:30 p.m. dinner ressies for later this evening. The restaurant was nestled between Versace and Tiffany & Co.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California339.jpg

It was fun to walk up and down posh Rodeo......of course, we did a lot of window shopping....but, it was nice to dream!!!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California341.jpg

This guard was standing outside of a store called Bernard K Passman. He stood so still that I didn't even see him blink! :laughing:

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It was nice to see all of the upscale stores........

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And we loved looking at the cars too!!!

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We came across this store called Bijan. This is a men's clothing store that requires a reservation, just to look. We learned that if you do not buy anything, you still have to pay the owner $10,000 for taking up his time. A suit costs $15,000. :eek: We were a bit speechless...

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I snapped a last photo before leaving Rodeo Drive...

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Although we were returning for dinner later on, we wanted to spend the rest of our afternoon at the Getty Museum.

Continued... - Post #98

Spartangirl

08-06-2007, 10:17 AM

J. Paul Getty Museum

Chris and I enjoy visiting museums, but they are usually not our top priority. However, we had heard that the Getty was a modern architectural masterpiece that offered spectacular views of LA. We decided to check it out to see what the hype was about.

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The Museum boasts five two-story pavilions, set around an open courtyard. Our first stop was a lunch break in the cafeteria. The cafeteria was huge, with many food options at reasonable prices. After eating, we continued on by walking through the various pavilions. We saw many European paintings including those by Cezanne, Van Gogh, Monet, and Renoir. Although the pavilions were nice, we especially enjoyed the grounds of the Museum.

The gardens were spectacular!!! :thumbsup2

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The architecture was quite impressive too!!!

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Walkways between the pavilions offered panoramic views of Los Angeles. I honestly don't know if we could have found more spectacular views of the city!

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We explored the Getty Museum for about 2 1/2 hours. After being hesitant about initially going to the museum, we were happy that we went. The art was nice, but the grounds and views were even more impressive!

We headed back to the Crowne Plaza to shower and get changed for our swanky dinner. We relaxed for a little while and then headed back to Rodeo Drive to eat at McCormick and Schmick's. Dinner was fantastic!!! We feasted on salmon and enjoyed our night out. We didn't document the night out with photos, so we only have our memories.........

After dinner, we slowly walked down Rodeo Drive and then drove back to our hotel. We wanted to get a good night's sleep because tomorrow we would be headed for Disneyland!!! :banana:

Up Next: We're going to Disneyland!!! - Post #99

Spartangirl

08-06-2007, 12:14 PM

We're going to Disneyland!!!

We woke up bright and early the next morning......without an alarm!!! I think we were a bit excited for the day to begin! Today we were headed for Disneyland!!! :yay: We packed up our belongings, ate breakfast, and hit the road. We headed for LAX because we were not going to have transportation in Anaheim, since we were staying so close to the parks. We had pre-purchased tickets for the Disneyland express, so we were ready to go as soon as the bus arrived.

We waited, and we waited, and we waited.........the time SLOWLY went from 9:00 a.m. to about 10:10 a.m. We were not overly thrilled with the wait time, since it was taking up precious Disney time, but were excited to FINALLY see the bus! We hopped on and headed toward Anaheim. The bus stopped at two hotels and then ours, the Candy Cane Inn.

It was a cute, little hotel, with beautiful grounds.

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Even though we still had a few hours before the check-in time, we were promptly given a nice room on the 2nd floor. The staff was extremely friendly here! :goodvibes

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We quickly unpacked a few things and then we were ready to head out to the parks. The Candy Cane Inn has a shuttle that leaves about every 1/2 hour. But, since it was just after 11:30, we didn't want to wait until noon for the next one. So, we set out walking. The walk was actually pretty nice....only about 10 minutes. We found it quite pleasant.

As we reached the parks, huge smiles were set on our faces as we took in the atmosphere around us and listened to the Disney music that filled the air. To our left was California Adventure and to our right was Disneyland. We decided to head right. We wanted to start our adventure by seeing the castle first!

Our first view of Disneyland!

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I love, love, love this sign!!! As we walked under it, we both felt like we stepped back in time to when we were children. We were kind of giddy and so excited to start our time in the parks!

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We walked down Main Street, U.S.A. toward the statue and the castle. Now, I had many people warn me about the size of the castle before we headed to CA. Yes, it was small, when compared with WDW's castle. However, we found it to be both beautiful and cute! And, we knew that this was the original castle, so it had to be special! :goodvibes

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After having our picture taken in front of it, Chris did joke that he covered most of the castle in the photo...:rotfl:

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We headed into Tomorrowland to pick up some Fastpasses for Space Mountain. Then, we were off for Fantasyland. Together, we had decided that we would make use of Fastpass, but we also wanted to take it easy in the parks....if that was indeed possible! :laughing: Disney is not generally a relaxing vacation for us, but we really wanted to soak up as much as we could in the parks, and just enjoy ourselves. Now you have to understand, I am a planning freak, and this was really hard for me to do. Chris is the kind of person who takes things as they happen.......so, I told him I was willing to try my best! :thumbsup2

We headed for the Matterhorn Bobsleds and were surprised to find a 10 minute wait. :cool1: Here we were only a few days away from the 4th, with very little crowds. This would tend to be the trend for the rest of our time at Disney...

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This ride was fun, but very bumpy! The yeti is so funny looking compared to the one in Expedition Everest at WDW.....but then again, this is one of the original rides!

We continued walking until we reached the Storybook Land Canal Boats. This looked like a cute ride, so we joined the line. Little did we know what we were about to encounter......

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As we hopped on our boat, I got my camera ready for some shots, and Chris held on to the video camera. We positioned ourselves at the front of the boat, sitting across from each other. We smiled at each other, knowing that we would be able to get some great shots since we had prime seats.

A huge family proceeded to join us on the boat.....no problem, right? There were about 4-5 adults, and the rest were children. Now, being a teacher, I love children......so, I didn't think twice about anything that was happening. Ryn, our guide, mentioned that two of the children could sit up in front of the boat......Chris and I gladly helped them find their seats.

We started our tour and headed for the whale's mouth. This is when everything went from good to BAD!!! One of the children began throwing an absolute tantrum because he was not able to sit at the front of the boat. He was screaming, kicking, and standing up on the boat. Ryn, our guide, had to repeatedly tell him to sit down, and was looking for support from his parents. They were laughing about the situation, and not doing much. The boy's crying set off a couple more children in the boat. Soon, we had one throwing a tantrum, and two SCREAMERS..........and no parents helping the situation. This went on for the ENTIRE ride......I whispered to Chris that this was the WORST experience that I've EVER had on a ride. We didn't hear any of the commentary due to the screaming, and couldn't enjoy the sights because we were getting kicked.

As we were exiting the boat, Ryn pulled us aside and profusely apologized. We smiled at her and told her that we knew it wasn't her fault. She then asked if we wanted to ride in her boat again so that we could ENJOY the experience. We agreed and reboarded. This time around was completely different. We had a couple of nice families on board with us and we thought it was a cute ride.

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Upon exiting, we thanked Ryn for the "Disney Magic" that she had given us. We also jotted ourselves a note to stop at guest relations to rave about the treatment that we received from Ryn. We thought it would be appropriate to give her special acknowledgment, seeing as though she had already made our day more magical. pixiedust:

We continued on and came to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I remembered this ride from my childhood and was excited to ride it again.......it was one of my favorites!!!

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The wait was only 10 minutes.....another good sign!!! We were almost to the front when we heard...."This ride is experiencing technical difficulties...etc." Next thing we knew, the lights came on and the ride stopped. We looked at each other and rolled our eyes. What could we do? This seemed to be the pattern for the day....

Many people started to leave the line......we debated, but ended up staying. I snapped a picture of the "broke-down" ride.

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Within 5 minutes, the ride was back up to par. Whew! We breathed a sigh of relief and quickly boarded our car. It was as good and as fun as I remembered......Chris loved it too!!!

Up Next: Disneyland Continued... - Post #104

Angrypenguin

08-06-2007, 12:54 PM

ronny1

08-06-2007, 01:40 PM

Awesome trip report! I can't wait to go back next year. We always stay at the Candy Cane too. This year we're doing an Adventure by Disney (can't wait) but I will really miss Disneyland too. Your report is just great! Thank you for including so many pics. I love it!

kitsch

08-06-2007, 07:02 PM

Great trip report.

The view from the Getty is quite nice isn't? But to be honest, the best time to go is during winter after a huge storm.

The rain just washes the air clean and you can see the snow capped San Gabriel Mountains & downtonw to the east, Palos Verdes Peninsula to the south, and Santa Monica all the way to Catalina Island to the west. It's just spectacular.

Spartangirl

08-06-2007, 08:58 PM

Hey Spartangirl, great pics as usual! :thumbsup2 I'm glad you were able to go to the Getty Museum; it's one of my favorite places out here in LA. If by chance you're out here, again, you should really check out the Getty Villa in Malibu as well; it's a recreation of an ancient Greek estate. It's free, but you do have to make an appointment in advance.

Anyways, can't wait to hear more about Disneyland! :woohoo:

Hi Angrypenguin! :wave2:

Thanks for the compliment about my pics! :flower3: We had debated whether or not to go to the Getty Museum and were so happy that we went. It definitely lived up to the hype! The Getty Villa in Malibu sounds great! I'll have to put that on our list for next time...

There is much more to come on Disneyland! :banana:

Awesome trip report! I can't wait to go back next year. We always stay at the Candy Cane too. This year we're doing an Adventure by Disney (can't wait) but I will really miss Disneyland too. Your report is just great! Thank you for including so many pics. I love it!

Hello and :welcome: to my TR! I'm glad you're enjoying it!!! And...thank you so much for the compliments about my report! :thanks: It makes it so much more worthwhile to write when I have readers!!!

The Candy Cane Inn was fantastic.....we'll be sure to stay there again in the future! Oooohhhh....Adventures by Disney....which destination did you choose? There are so many good choices!

Great trip report.

The view from the Getty is quite nice isn't? But to be honest, the best time to go is during winter after a huge storm.

The rain just washes the air clean and you can see the snow capped San Gabriel Mountains & downtonw to the east, Palos Verdes Peninsula to the south, and Santa Monica all the way to Catalina Island to the west. It's just spectacular.

Welcome to my trip report!!! Glad to have you aboard! :goodvibes Thanks for the compliment about my report! :flower3:

The view from the Getty was amazing! But, I'm thinking that we're going to have to make a trip in the winter now....:rolleyes:

Spartangirl

08-08-2007, 09:58 AM

Disneyland Continued...

We continued our jouney through Fantasyland...we were amazed at all of the little details and the amount of different rides that we didn't have at WDW.

We came across Pinocchio's Daring Journey.

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When you wish upon a star...your dreams come true! I think we boarded this ride within 5 minutes. It was a cute ride and quite fun since it was new to us. We enjoyed seeing the streets of Geppetto's village, Pleasure Island, and the belly of Monstro the whale.

We were a bit hungry and decided to make a stop at the Village Haus Restaurant since it was so close. It had the normal park fare, but it tasted great in our empty bellies.

After lunch, we continued walking and I snapped a few pics along the way.

We saw the Mad Tea Party, but decided not to ride since we didn't think it would be a good combo right after eating. ;)

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As we continued our journey, we passed the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. We really wanted to stop, but the 2 1/2 hour wait time encouraged us to keep walking. Looking back, we seemed to think that EVERYBODY was in line for this ride during our time in the parks.........that was fine with us because all of the other lines were short! :)

I had to take a picture of the monorail!!!

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We exited Fantasyland and found ourselves heading into Tomorrowland. I love the retro feel of this land!

The Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters had a short line.....maybe 10 minutes. So, that's where we were headed!

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We LOVE this ride! And...it seemed to be a little better in DL because you can actually lift the blasters from their holsters and aim them in any direction. In WDW the blasters are mounted on the Space Cruisers. This usually causes Chris and I to battle over the joystick to control the direction we are firing in. :rotfl: Anyhow, we had a blast and Chris beat my score, but not by much!

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Up next, we headed to Space Mountain. We were ready to use our Fastpasses.

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This ride did not disappoint! We liked being able to sit next to each other, rather than one in front of the other like at WDW. The ride was smooth, dark, and fast! So much fun!!! :woohoo:

Next, we headed over to Adventureland. Our first stop was Indy, to grab some Fastpasses. Then, we hiked back to the Jungle Cruise, where we knew the wait was only 5 minutes.

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Here we traveled on the world's most exotic rivers to see the ancient ruins and animals! The cruise was pretty much the same as WDW's version. Nonetheless, we still enjoyed the ride and the corny jokes.

We noticed the Tiki Juice Bar shortly after exiting the Jungle Cruise. Dole Whips were next on the agenda! We couldn't pass them up since they are one of our favorite treats!!!

Dole Whips in hand, we headed to New Orleans Square. This is where we came across one of my favorite rides, Pirates of the Caribbean.

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DL's version is hands-down better than WDW's. We liked going through the Blue Bayou Restaurant and the Pirate's Lair. The ride was much longer than WDW's version and even had an extra drop!!!

We loved New Orleans Square!!! It brought back our memories of Bourbon Street and staying in the French Quarter in Louisiana.

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We found the infamous door to Club 33. This is definitely on our list of "to-dos" for the future!!!

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As we walked, we stopped to glance at the pirate ship! That was a neat addition to the park. At WDW, we only have the Riverboat.

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Our next stop was the Haunted Mansion.

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The theming was fabulous and the special effects were awesome!!! We loved the "Bride in the Attic" scene. It sure was creepy! I hope they eventually revamp WDW's version to be more like the one at DL.

More to come on our day at Disneyland!!! - Post #105

Spartangirl

08-08-2007, 11:03 AM

Disneyland Continued...

The time passed quickly and we realized it was time for our Indiana Jones Adventure.

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WE LOVED THIS RIDE!!! The theming was spectacular and we liked all of the little details that were put into the ride. By the way, for those of you who have dared, Chris "pulled the rope!" :laughing:

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After quite the experience, we decided to head back to the Candy Cane Inn for a short break. It was pretty hot outside and we wanted to cool off by taking a short swim. We did just that!

After a couple of hours, and feeling refreshed, we headed back to the park. As we walked in, we noticed the Walt Disney Theatre on our right. It caught our attention and we decided to check it out.

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We watched a film titled, "Disneyland: The First 50 Magical Years." We really enjoyed it! Steve Martin took us on a tour through the first 50 years of Disneyland. Donald Duck was his side-kick!!! It was fun to see all of the old photos and footage, and we learned that Steve Martin used to work at DL in a magic shop when he was younger.

After the film, we explored some of the shops along Main Street.

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It was nice to "take it easy" in the parks. I didn't think I would survive, being in non-commando mode, but I really was enjoying myself. :lmao: As we walked, we stopped to take in the little details of the park.

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We found ourselves in Tomorrowland and decided to take a short break at the Tomorrowland Terrace. We split a sandwich and listened to "Elvis" and his band.

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Although the entertainment was nice, we were ready to continue with the rest of the park! We hiked all the way over to Frontierland because we wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

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The wait time said, "0 minutes." :banana: We couldn't believe our luck! We happily got right on and had so much fun with all the twists and turns.

Now, what to do next? We really wanted to see Fantasmic!, but we were cutting it a bit close on time. We decided to try anyway since we were already in Frontierland. It was 8:20 and the first show was at 9:00 p.m. We started to walk toward the Rivers of America and noticed the huge crowds. We made our way until we found a space that we were able to squeeze into. I knew that I wouldn't be able to get any great pictures, since I had quite a few people in front of me. However, I thought Chris would have a chance at videotaping it since he is so tall! Luckily, I was right on that!

The show was amazing! We loved the Peter Pan & Captain Hook battle on the Pirate ship. That scene is exclusive to DL's version. Here is a short clip from the battle!

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Here is a scene from the last part of Fantasmic!, with Sorcerer Mickey! Enjoy!!!

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Overall, we loved the show! It was great being so close to the action! The only downside was the lack of seating. For that part, we do prefer WDW's stadium seating.

We decided that we would try to find a spot to view the "Remember...Dreams Come True" Fireworks. We knew we had to hurry since they began at 9:25 p.m. At the front of the castle, we saw crowds, and more crowds! Wow!!! :scared1: It sure was packed, but by this point in time, we were determined to see the show. Again, we found a place to squeeze in and within a couple of minutes, the show began.

This has got to be the BEST fireworks show that we've ever seen! We absolutely LOVED it. And, I'm a Tink fan, so I was thrilled to see her flying around the castle.

Here is a video clip from the end of the fireworks....it makes me teary-eyed everytime I watch it!

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As the crowds moved and started to thin out, we walked closer to the castle to get a couple of photos.

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We took our time walking back on Main Street toward the exit and stopped to explore a few stores.

Before leaving, we glanced up to see that "the light was left on for Walt."

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We smiled at each other, knowing that we had a perfect ending to our perfect night. We happily headed back to the Candy Cane Inn and prepared to dream about our magical day at Disneyland.

Up Next: California Adventure! - Post #113

tksbaskets

08-08-2007, 01:04 PM

LOVED the updates! :cool1: I can't wait for our trip next summer!

Misskitty3

08-08-2007, 06:02 PM

As the crowds moved and started to thin out, we walked closer to the castle to get a couple of photos.

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How did you take these pictures? The castle and both of you look so neat!

karin6996

08-08-2007, 07:53 PM

Disneyland Continued...
The Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters had a short line.....maybe 10 minutes. So, that's where we were headed!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California422.jpg

We LOVE this ride! And...it seemed to be a little better in DL because you can actually lift the blasters from their holsters and aim them in any direction. In WDW the blasters are mounted on the Space Cruisers. This usually causes Chris and I to battle over the joystick to control the direction we are firing in. :rotfl: Anyhow, we had a blast and Chris beat my score, but not by much!

Sounds like a blast!! We are WDW vets and know all of the secret spots to hit for big points, but somehow I always end up last. This trip, I'm playing it sneaky as I have been researching the DL attraction to find the super spots!! My family will never know what hit them :cool1:

Our next stop was the Haunted Mansion.

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The theming was fabulous and the special effects were awesome!!! We loved the "Bride in the Attic" scene. It sure was creepy! I hope they eventually revamp WDW's version to be more like the one at DL.

Well it looks like you are going to get your wish!!! :wizard: The HM is down for rehab right now at WDW and the Mickey Monitor states they will be putting some of the DL upgrades into the WDW version.:yay:

Spartangirl

08-09-2007, 12:21 PM

LOVED the updates! :cool1: I can't wait for our trip next summer!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! :goodvibes

How did you take these pictures? The castle and both of you look so neat!

First of all, welcome to my TR and thanks for the compliment!!! :flower3: I actually positioned a mini-tripod on a trash can. :laughing: Rather than using the self-timer, I used my mini-remote to snap the picture of us. I played around with the night settings, and used the two of us as the focal point...therefore, blurring out the castle and background. I tend to "play around" with the different settings on my camera and take lots of pictures until I get the effect that I want! :)

Sounds like a blast!! We are WDW vets and know all of the secret spots to hit for big points, but somehow I always end up last. This trip, I'm playing it sneaky as I have been researching the DL attraction to find the super spots!! My family will never know what hit them :cool1:

Well it looks like you are going to get your wish!!! :wizard: The HM is down for rehab right now at WDW and the Mickey Monitor states they will be putting some of the DL upgrades into the WDW version.:yay:

One time, I scored 999,999 at WDW and beat Chris........he was pretty amazed!!! I never thought to research the secret spots for DL. Good luck!!! You must be pumped.......you leave so soon!!! :banana:

Thank you for the info. about the HM!!! :woohoo: I must have missed it somehow........I am so excited!!! We're headed back to the world in December........maybe it will be done by then!

karin6996

08-09-2007, 07:45 PM

Thank you for the info. about the HM!!! :woohoo: I must have missed it somehow........I am so excited!!! We're headed back to the world in December........maybe it will be done by then!

You are in luck again!! The HM is scheduled to repon on 9/13!!!:maleficen

spongemommie05

08-10-2007, 10:08 AM

loved the tr . i was excited to see pictures of DL we are getting ready for our 1st family trip in oct... can't wait for more..

Spartangirl

08-10-2007, 01:58 PM

You are in luck again!! The HM is scheduled to repon on 9/13!!!:maleficen

You just made my day!!! :banana:

loved the tr . i was excited to see pictures of DL we are getting ready for our 1st family trip in oct... can't wait for more..

Glad you are still enjoying my report!!! :goodvibes

Your family trip is going to be a blast!!! I loved DL and I'm hoping to get back sooner than later! ;)

:) TO ALL MY READERS: I'm going to try to get one more update in before my vacay. Chris and I leave for Washington D.C. this weekend! :yay: We'll be gone for a week, but I promise to finish the report upon my return!!!

Spartangirl

08-10-2007, 02:35 PM

California Adventure

We decided to sleep in a little today, seeing as though we didn't have much opportunity for that earlier in the trip. Plus, we wanted to go to California Adventure and it didn't open until 10 a.m. We excitedly got out of bed around 8:30 a.m., showered, and headed down to check out the free continental breakfast at the Candy Cane Inn. We each grabbed a bagel with cream cheese, a piece of fruit, and a coffee. Not bad, considering the fact that we didn't have to go anywhere to buy a breakfast.

After eating, we started to head toward the parks........however, we noticed the time and decided to jump on the CCI shuttle since it was going to be departing in the next 2 minutes. We made it to the parks in record time and got in line for California Adventure.

We got our tickets scanned, entered the park, and noticed this large sign on our lefthand side.

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In front of us we saw a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge......we felt like we were back in San Francisco! :goodvibes

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Even further ahead of us, we found a huge, metallic sun!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California446.jpg

This park seemed to remind us of MGM at WDW. We definitely liked the vibe here! We decided to head left, into "Hollywood."

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California447.jpg

Our first stop was Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California448.jpg

We enjoyed the adventure through Monstropolis!!! This was a new ride for us and we thought it was cute.

As we exited the ride, look who we ran into....how perfect!!! :thumbsup2

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California456.jpg

We continued walking through the Hollywood Pictures Backlot and had fun playing around...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California449.jpg

Upon reaching the Hyperion Theater, home of Aladdin, we noticed that there were no shows playing today......it just meant that we would have to make a point to come back on our next park day! This was definitely a show that we didn't want to miss!!!

Up in front of us was this!!!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California451.jpg

I suddenly became all giddy......the Tower of Terror is one of my favorite rides!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California452.jpg

I love the hotel lobby.......the details are fantastic!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California453.jpg

Chris and I enjoyed "our stay" at the hotel! The ride was fun......it had a few different effects than WDW's version. However, we both agreed that we preferred the ride at WDW......we love the element of surprise with the different drop sequences.

California Adventure continued... - Post #114

Spartangirl

08-10-2007, 03:14 PM

California Adventure continued...

After the thrill of riding the Tower of Terror, we decided to take it easy. So, we headed to the Animation Academy.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California457.jpg

Now let me just tell you, we LOVED this place! There was so much to do!

We started off in the Sorcerer's Workshop...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California458.jpg

In here, we had a chance to learn about what Disney character we were most like. I went first. I sat down and smiled to have my picture taken in the mirror in front of me. Next, I had to answer a few multiple choice questions about myself.

After providing my responses, here is the answer that I received...

"You...
are confident
logical
love adventure
have an artistic side.

You are most like:

Jane, from Tarzan"

Chris immediately started laughing.....he said, "You must like wild men!" :rotfl:

He was up next! To see who he was most like, click on the video below! :)

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_b9.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=b9.flv)

We definitely had fun in the Sorcerer's Workshop and got a good laugh out of it!

Next, we headed to the Animation Academy...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California459.jpg

Here we learned how to draw Mickey!!! :mickeyjum

These are our sketches...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California460.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California461.jpg

After completing our drawings, we found out that it was just about time for Turtle Talk with Crush to begin...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California462.jpg

Here is a short video clip from our show...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_c.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=c.flv)

As usual, the show was very funny and cute! I love how Crush interacts with the kids!!!

We decided that we should make use of Fastpass, so we headed over to Soarin' to get our first one for the day!

With Fastpasses in hand, we came across these two characters from one of our favorite Disney movies, Cars!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California463.jpg

Here's Lightning McQueen!!!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California466.jpg

And here's Mater!!!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California465.jpg

Chris had fun trying things on in a little store next to the characters...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California467.jpg

Up Next: Paradise Pier - Post #123

lovevacations

08-11-2007, 08:46 AM

Spartangirl,
Do you use Tour Guide Mike when you go to WDW? It would appeal to your planning side and the forums there are a ton of fun!!! Your TR has been wonderful!

Hound 109

08-11-2007, 03:29 PM

We're going to Disneyland!!!
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California408.jpg

This ride was fun, but very bumpy! The yeti is so funny looking compared to the one in Expedition Everest at WDW.....but then again, this is one of the original rides!

We continued walking until we reached the Storybook Land Canal Boats. This looked like a cute ride, so we joined the line. Little did we know what we were about to encounter......

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California410.jpg

As we hopped on our boat, I got my camera ready for some shots, and Chris held on to the video camera. We positioned ourselves at the front of the boat, sitting across from each other. We smiled at each other, knowing that we would be able to get some great shots since we had prime seats.

A huge family proceeded to join us on the boat.....no problem, right? There were about 4-5 adults, and the rest were children. Now, being a teacher, I love children......so, I didn't think twice about anything that was happening. Ryn, our guide, mentioned that two of the children could sit up in front of the boat......Chris and I gladly helped them find their seats.

We started our tour and headed for the whale's mouth. This is when everything went from good to BAD!!! One of the children began throwing an absolute tantrum because he was not able to sit at the front of the boat. He was screaming, kicking, and standing up on the boat. Ryn, our guide, had to repeatedly tell him to sit down, and was looking for support from his parents. They were laughing about the situation, and not doing much. The boy's crying set off a couple more children in the boat. Soon, we had one throwing a tantrum, and two SCREAMERS..........and no parents helping the situation. This went on for the ENTIRE ride......I whispered to Chris that this was the WORST experience that I've EVER had on a ride. We didn't hear any of the commentary due to the screaming, and couldn't enjoy the sights because we were getting kicked.

As we were exiting the boat, Ryn pulled us aside and profusely apologized. We smiled at her and told her that we knew it wasn't her fault. She then asked if we wanted to ride in her boat again so that we could ENJOY the experience. We agreed and reboarded. This time around was completely different. We had a couple of nice families on board with us and we thought it was a cute ride.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California411.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California412.jpg

Upon exiting, we thanked Ryn for the "Disney Magic" that she had given us. We also jotted ourselves a note to stop at guest relations to rave about the treatment that we received from Ryn. We thought it would be appropriate to give her special acknowledgment, seeing as though she had already made our day more magical. pixiedust:

We continued on and came to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I remembered this ride from my childhood and was excited to ride it again.......it was one of my favorites!!!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California414.jpg

The wait was only 10 minutes.....another good sign!!! We were almost to the front when we heard...."This ride is experiencing technical difficulties...etc." Next thing we knew, the lights came on and the ride stopped. We looked at each other and rolled our eyes. What could we do? This seemed to be the pattern for the day....

Many people started to leave the line......we debated, but ended up staying. I snapped a picture of the "broke-down" ride.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California415.jpg

Within 5 minutes, the ride was back up to par. Whew! We breathed a sigh of relief and quickly boarded our car. It was as good and as fun as I remembered......Chris loved it too!!!

Up Next: Disneyland Continued... - Post #104

Great report SpartanGirl. :thumbsup2

- Amazing pics.
- I've never done the Getty....I need to do it.
- The Matterhorn, StorybookLand Canal Ride & Toadie are favorite "old school" rides of mine.
- But you're right, the Matterhorn is bumpy.
- I'm glad you re-boarded Storybookland...it's so nicely done.
- Toadie came thru for you.:woohoo: So what did DBF think about the judges sentence? :lmao:

And a couple of comments:

- I love/love/love the pictures. Especially the coast pictures.
- I told you...you should have given the Coast 2 days. :)
- Why wouldn't you let DBF play Pebble??? It was only $475!!

I'm catching up....great job. :yay:

hound - popcorn::

ChrisLei

08-13-2007, 03:51 PM

Your report is amazing! Love the pics.

mt mommy

08-13-2007, 04:53 PM

Loved your BEAUTIFUL pics in front of the castle!!! Great TR!!:thumbsup2

Grog

08-16-2007, 05:18 PM

Fantastic trip report :goodvibes I'm looking forward to the rest of it :)

MAGICFOR2

08-21-2007, 12:36 AM

Subbin in, Spartangirl. I love your TR! Your pics are incredible! The bird in Yosemite looks 3D and the light hitting the bridge and some of the cliffs looks professional - like a magazine! We took the drive from Anaheim to Santa Cruz and then home to Oregon a couple of years ago - loved Monterey, but it was really cold! DL is our stopping ground a couple of times a year - it's great to see it through a "WDWer" view! Can't wait for the rest! Hope you had a great trip to DC:banana:

SoonerGirl

08-21-2007, 11:39 PM

I'm so excited that I found your TR! I just began planning a similar trip for next summer, although I will be going with two kids aged 12 & almost 8 so we won't be able to squeeze in quite as much as you did! Your photos are fabulous! Can't wait to read the rest of your report.

Spartangirl

08-22-2007, 04:08 PM

Spartangirl,
Do you use Tour Guide Mike when you go to WDW? It would appeal to your planning side and the forums there are a ton of fun!!! Your TR has been wonderful!

I haven't used Tour Guide Mike, yet!!! Since we go to WDW every year at the BUSIEST TIME (Week between Christmas and New Years) and haven't had a problem seeing everything we've wanted to, I guess I never thought about using TGM. However, with what you've mentioned, it may be worth looking into! :goodvibes Thanks for the compliment about my TR! :flower3:

Great report SpartanGirl. :thumbsup2

- Amazing pics.
- I've never done the Getty....I need to do it.
- The Matterhorn, StorybookLand Canal Ride & Toadie are favorite "old school" rides of mine.
- But you're right, the Matterhorn is bumpy.
- I'm glad you re-boarded Storybookland...it's so nicely done.
- Toadie came thru for you.:woohoo: So what did DBF think about the judges sentence? :lmao:

And a couple of comments:

- I love/love/love the pictures. Especially the coast pictures.
- I told you...you should have given the Coast 2 days. :)
- Why wouldn't you let DBF play Pebble??? It was only $475!!

I'm catching up....great job. :yay:

hound - popcorn::

Glad you're still onboard, Hound! :) We LOVED the "old school rides" too!

Thanks for the compliment about my pictures! :flower3: I do WISH we would have had more time for the coast, but what we saw was beautiful. DH would have LOVED to play Pebble, but for $475, the view was quite enough! :rotfl:

Your report is amazing! Love the pics.

Welcome!!! :yay: Thanks for the compliments about my TR and pics!!! :flower3:

Loved your BEAUTIFUL pics in front of the castle!!! Great TR!!:thumbsup2

:wave2: Welcome to my TR! Thank you for the compliments!!! :flower3:

Fantastic trip report :goodvibes I'm looking forward to the rest of it :)

:welcome: I'm so glad you're here and enjoying my report!!! :)

Subbin in, Spartangirl. I love your TR! Your pics are incredible! The bird in Yosemite looks 3D and the light hitting the bridge and some of the cliffs looks professional - like a magazine! We took the drive from Anaheim to Santa Cruz and then home to Oregon a couple of years ago - loved Monterey, but it was really cold! DL is our stopping ground a couple of times a year - it's great to see it through a "WDWer" view! Can't wait for the rest! Hope you had a great trip to DC:banana:

Welcome to my report!!! :goodvibes Thank you for the wonderful compliments about my TR and especially my pics! :flower3: You just made my day!!!

There's more on the way.....and yes, we had a wonderful trip to DC!!!

I'm so excited that I found your TR! I just began planning a similar trip for next summer, although I will be going with two kids aged 12 & almost 8 so we won't be able to squeeze in quite as much as you did! Your photos are fabulous! Can't wait to read the rest of your report.

Welcome!!! Glad to hear that you're planning a similar trip......it won't disappoint!!! :banana: Thanks for the compliment on my pics! :flower3: There will be more up shortly on my TR...

Spartangirl

08-22-2007, 05:12 PM

On our way to Paradise Pier!

We decided we were a bit hungry as we walked by "Taste Pilots' Grill" and smelled the food. We headed inside and placed our order. We both got chicken sandwiches which were pretty good. After finishing our meal and feeling quite stuffed, we decided to continue exploring the park. We were about to head toward Grizzly Peak, but there was some music that caught our attention, coming from Sunshine Plaza. We quickly made our way over there, and this is what we saw....

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_c2.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=c2.flv)

After watching the HSM Pep Rally pass us, we headed back the other direction. We happened to glance at our fastpasses and noticed that it was our time to fly! We headed over to Soarin'.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California471.jpg

As usual, we LOVED this ride! It's exactly the same as the one in WDW. However, the ride was different for us this time........we liked it even more seeing as though we had just visited so many of the places in the video. That made it extra special!!! :banana:

We were definitely on :cloud9: as we left the ride. Our next stop would be a few quick pics by Grizzly River Run and then we were off to the Pier!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California468.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California469.jpg

We decided we didn't want to walk around wet for the rest of the day, so we bypassed GRR. It did look like a great ride though...

We were really excited when we reached Paradise Pier!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California475.jpg

There were so many rides that we wanted to try! But, there was one that caught our eyes first.......California Screamin'!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California474.jpg

We had it in our minds to Fastpass the ride, giving us time to take in some of the other rides......

On our walk over, we stopped to watch the coaster take off........

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_c4.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=c4.flv)

Upon reaching CA Screamin', we noticed that the wait time was 5 minutes! We double-checked it to make sure that we were reading it right........:banana: No need for fastpass here!

We happily boarded the coaster and loved every second of the ride!!! The take-off is amazing and the music was kind of fun! It's very similar to WDW's Aerosmith ride, which is a favorite of ours.

Since the wait time was practically non-existent, we chose to ride again. :yay:

Up next, we had our sights on the Sun Wheel.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California473.jpg

We were determined to ride the "sliding cars" until we saw this...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_c5.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=c5.flv)

Now, usually Chris and I don't shy away from too many things. Although we both suffer from motion sickness, we always try something once to form our own opinions. However, seeing as though we had recently eaten, we were thinking that the stationary side might be best.

We decided to play it safe!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California476.jpg

The ride was very peaceful and enjoyable and the views were great!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California478.jpg

Although we enjoyed our ride on the stationary cars, we were kind of wishing we had chose the sliding ones. We knew that we would have to make a point to come back to the pier at some point in time.

We continued on our journey and rode Mulholland Madness and the Orange Stinger. Both were pure fun!

We enjoyed our time on the pier and loved the whole "carnival vibe."

The sun was feeling a bit hot at this time in the day, so we decided to head back to the hotel for a short break and swim.

To be continued... - Post #124

Spartangirl

08-22-2007, 06:41 PM

Continued...

The swim at the pool was so refreshing! We even met a nice woman, a DL Vet, who gave us great tips about where to view the Electrical Parade later in the evening.

After feeling relaxed and refreshed, we headed back to the park. Our first goal was to get some pictures of the "California" letters, seeing as though that was next to impossible earlier in the day.

Now seemed to be the perfect time! There was hardly anybody around! :yay:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California482.jpg

C A L I F O R N I A happens to have both of our 1st initials! :woohoo:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California483.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California484.jpg

As we walked through the front gates, I immediately noticed the giant sun. It seemed to sparkle so brilliantly in the light, so I had to snap a photo!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California485.jpg

Before seeing the parade, we decided that we wanted to see some new parts of the park that we had missed earlier. We ventured into "A bug's land" and took a peek around. It was nicely set up and a perfect playground for children! :thumbsup2 We then made our way back to the "Golden State" to check out some of the tours.

We were impressed to find out that there was a winery.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California486.jpg

There were even tiny grapes on the vines...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California487.jpg

We continued on until we reached the Bakery Tour.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California489.jpg

We loved seeing the designs in the sourdough and the free samples were great!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California490.jpg

Up next was the Mission Tortilla Factory.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California491.jpg

We liked this tour the best. It was neat to see the tortilla production. It didn't hurt that there were free samples either!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California492.jpg

We explored the park a bit more and just soaked in all of the sights. Seeing as though we ate a couple of samples from the tours, we decided we weren't in the mood for dinner tonight. However, we both wanted a snack instead. Chris opted for "loaded fries." I wanted a Mickey pretzel! ::MickeyMo

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California493.jpg

We happily ate our snacks and headed off to find primo spots for the parade.

Up Next: Disney's Electrical Parade Post #128

tksbaskets

08-23-2007, 07:24 AM

Continued...

The swim at the pool was so refreshing! We even met a nice woman, a DL Vet, who gave us great tips about where to view the Electrical Parade later in the evening.

We happily ate our snacks and headed off to find primo spots for the parade.

Up Next: Disney's Electrical Parade

Oh no....I have to wait to find out where the primo spot for the parade is???? I'm tuned in and waiting to add your sage advise to my trip planning spreadsheet for next June.....
popcorn::

burly

08-24-2007, 12:29 AM

I'm all caught up. so good. when is the next update?popcorn::

Spartangirl

08-26-2007, 03:14 PM

Oh no....I have to wait to find out where the primo spot for the parade is???? I'm tuned in and waiting to add your sage advise to my trip planning spreadsheet for next June.....
popcorn::

I was actually surprised about the location of the "primo spot." It's coming right up in my next installment...;)

I'm all caught up. so good. when is the next update?popcorn::

Glad to have you onboard!!! :goodvibes The next update will be up shortly.....I'm working on it now! :thumbsup2

Spartangirl

08-26-2007, 03:45 PM

Disney's Electrical Parade

Looking back to my childhood, the one thing that stood out in my mind from our family trip to Disneyland was Disney's Electrical Parade. I could still picture the floats, the lights, and the music. I don't know why this particular parade had such an impact on me when I was younger, but I knew that I wanted to experience it again.......and, I wanted to share it with Chris.

It was about 7:35 p.m. and the parade was due to start at 8:45 p.m. Many people were already sitting on the curb and reserving their spots. With just over an hour before the parade, I was a little worried about getting our "primo spot." The woman from the pool all but guaranteed that we would have no problem finding our spot just an hour ahead of time. So we headed off...

The DL Vet said to head toward the start of the parade and to look for benches right across from the Orange Stinger over at Paradise Pier. We headed in that direction, and much to our delight, found several open benches with no problem. We sat directly across from the Orange Stinger and right in front of the S.S. rustworthy.

These truly were the perfect seats! We literally saw the floats as they first appeared!!! During the parade, not only did we have the bench to ourselves, but there was no one in front of us, or behind us! :woohoo:

Here are some of my pictures from the delightful parade...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California494.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California495.jpg

Here is a short video clip from the parade.......I just LOVE the music! It's exactly how I remembered it!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_c8.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=c8.flv)

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California496.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California498.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California499.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California500.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California501.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California502.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California503.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California504.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California505.jpg

To Be Continued... Post #129

Spartangirl

08-26-2007, 04:41 PM

Disney's Electrical Parade Continued...

I absolutely adore Dopey!!!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California506.jpg

Pete's Dragon was one of my favorite movies as a child!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California507.jpg

Here is a short video clip from this cool float...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_d7.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=d7.flv)

I love the "American" theme at the end of the parade!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California508.jpg

Chris and I were both humming the music by the end of the parade.....he was really happy to have experienced it! :goodvibes

We decided that we wanted to get a few night shots of Paradise Pier before we left the park.

This happened to be the perfect opportunity because the pier was relatively empty due to most people watching the parade and a park closing time of 9 p.m.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California509.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California510.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California511.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California513.jpg

After snapping a few shots, we happily headed toward the front gate. As we exited the main gate, we looked up in the sky as it exploded with the fireworks from Disneyland. We stood with a large crowd of people and watched the fireworks until they ended. It was quite a different view than what we had experienced the other night, but we still enjoyed it.

Not feeling too tired at this point in time, we decided to head into DL to catch a couple of rides. Going in was quite the challenge, since we were going against the flow of those who were leaving after the fireworks. But, once we made it down Main Street, we were good to go!

We headed into Tomorrowland and grabbed Fastpasses for Buzz. We decided we wanted to battle it out once again. While waiting for the time to pass, we decided to hit Autopia, since it looked cool, and we hadn't experinced it yet. The wait time said 15 minutes. That wasn't bad, so we hopped in line.

What should have been a 15 minute wait, soon turned into 40 minutes. Instead of using all of the lanes of cars, the CM's went down to one lane of cars, since it was late in the evening. That would have been so nice to know before we got in line. This ended up being the LONGEST line that we waited in for the entire trip. We usually averaged wait times of 5 - 15 minutes for everything else!

Although we had to wait for awhile, we made the best of it. The ride was actually very cute......we loved driving the cars!!!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California514.jpg

Since we had to wait in such a long line for Autopia, the time quickly passed and it was time to use our Fastpasses for Buzz.

We headed over and boarded the ride. I didn't do so well, but look how serious we are.......can you tell we're competitive??? :rotfl:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California516.jpg

Although it would have been nice to stay and do a few more rides, we were both wiped out! We decided to head back to the Candy Cane Inn to get some rest so that we would be up and ready for tomorrow's events!!!

Up Next: Newport Beach by day and Downtown Disney by night! Post #137

SoonerGirl

08-26-2007, 09:58 PM

Amazing night pictures of Paradise Pier! Your parade photos are great too - thanks for the tip on where to watch it!

tksbaskets

08-27-2007, 09:44 AM

Your pictures were awsome. How did you get the great night time shots? I have already copied the secret viewing directions and they are on my spreadsheet for June :thumbsup2 Thanks for sharing!

burly

08-28-2007, 01:42 AM

Stayed at the Candy Cane in also when we went in 2005. Loved it, did you?

Spartangirl

08-29-2007, 08:38 PM

Amazing night pictures of Paradise Pier! Your parade photos are great too - thanks for the tip on where to watch it!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! :goodvibes The spot for the parade was awesome! :)

Your pictures were awsome. How did you get the great night time shots? I have already copied the secret viewing directions and they are on my spreadsheet for June :thumbsup2 Thanks for sharing!

Thanks! :flower3: The secret is the use of a tripod.....I just used a mini one. In addition, I used the self-timer to minimize the movement of the camera during the shutter release. You can either manually use a slower shutter speed or the night setting on your camera. :thumbsup2 We LOVED our parade seats!!! :yay:

Stayed at the Candy Cane in also when we went in 2005. Loved it, did you?

We loved the Candy Cane Inn too!!! :goodvibes It was quaint, friendly, and had a great location...we would stay there again in a heartbeat! :)

spongemommie05

08-30-2007, 07:59 PM

MAGICFOR2

08-31-2007, 12:04 AM

Once again, awesome pics! I love California Screamin'! One thing: when they say, "keep your head back" they mean it! I leaned forward just as we took off one time, and my head was stuck forward for the entire ride!:rotfl2:

Spartangirl

08-31-2007, 09:13 PM

okay i am all caught up now .. i am so scared of the bixby bridge and i think we have to go :scared1: over it on our way to disneyland.
oh by the way i have the ancient egyptian statue that the hearst castle has it is sitting in my back yard...:rolleyes1 i love egyptian things..
i love your picts of disneyland it was making my kids way excited for our trip they were screaming in my ear...:sad2:

Yay, you're caught up!!! :yay: I can't believe you have to cross the Bixby Bridge.........we just "looked at it." :) Glad to hear that your kids are so excited for your trip, but not about the screaming in your ear! :rolleyes:

Once again, awesome pics! I love California Screamin'! One thing: when they say, "keep your head back" they mean it! I leaned forward just as we took off one time, and my head was stuck forward for the entire ride!:rotfl2:

Thank you for the compliment about my pics....it really does mean a lot! :flower3: We LOVE California Screamin' too!!! :goodvibes And...I know what you mean about "keeping your head back!" :lmao:

Spartangirl

08-31-2007, 09:54 PM

Newport Beach by day and Downtown Disney by night!

Before our trip, after much thought and consideration, we decided to book a tour that headed to Newport Beach for the day.

We woke up nice and early the next morning and headed down for our usual continental breakfast at the CCI. We were scheduled to be picked up from our hotel at 8:20 a.m. for our O.C. Experience Tour. At about 8:22 our bus showed up and we quickly boarded. We headed to a few more hotels and then were dropped off at the Gray Line Depot. Here, we stood in line to turn in our vouchers for our tour tickets. Finally, we were able to board a bus for our 9:15 a.m. narrated driving tour of the O.C.

Our driver was quite witty and told us many interesting facts about Newport. The ride was quite enjoyable and it only took about 20 minutes to get to the beach......the ride was so much shorter than I had anticipated. :banana:

I was very impressed with my first sights of Newport!!! I loved the cute little rows of "million dollar" homes.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California515.jpg

Our driver took us to the "Balboa Fun Zone" where we would be boarding a boat to take us on a Newport Harbor cruise. We had some time to kill, so we did a little exploring. The "Fun Zone" was cute! There was a small ferris wheel, a carousel, and some little shops.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California517.jpg

We briefly stopped in the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California523.jpg

Soon, it was time to board the "Queen."

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California525.jpg

Although much of the seating was on the inside of the boat, Chris and I headed straight for the front. Before boarding, one of the workers gave us a "tip" that the front right was the best viewing area. We decided to take her advice. Plus, we really wanted to sit outside to enjoy the views and the beautiful weather.

The tour was fantastic!!! We loved the sights and the commentary from our guide.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California527.jpg

We soon learned that the homes in Newport Harbor go for $4 million dollars and up! :scared1: I can't even imagine........

Here is Dean Koontz's (Author) Home...Note the gentleman in white, in the picture. Don't know if that's Dean Koontz himself???

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California529.jpg

And here is Shirley Temple's childhood home...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California530.jpg

And look at these guys on the buoy!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California534.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California533.jpg

The sights were truly spectacular!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California535.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California536.jpg

We even got to see "Giligan's Island!" This little patch of beach with the cave was used in the opening scene of the television show where the S.S. Minnow washed ashore. It looked much smaller than it seemed on T.V. :rolleyes:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California537.jpg

To be continued... - Post #138

Spartangirl

08-31-2007, 10:31 PM

Continued...

The Gillette home was quite impressive.......yes, that is Gillette of the "razor empire!"

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California538.jpg

It was so much fun being out on the water!!! We loved looking at all of the boats.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California539.jpg

Here is a home that was featured on the cover of Architecture Digest.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California540.jpg

After our Harbor cruise, we walked over to Newport Beach and Balboa Pier.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California543.jpg

It was great watching the waves crash on the shoreline and against the pier.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California544.jpg

Chris and I spent a great deal of time watching the people who were body surfing. It was quite amusing!

Here is a short video clip....

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_b1.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=b1.flv)

And here is one of my favorite action shots that I took!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California549.jpg

While standing on Balboa Pier, we vowed then and there, that we would return to Newport Beach for a longer period of time in the future. Renting a condo near the beach would make a wonderful week-long escape! Notice that I said "near the beach" and not "on the beach." Don't think we could quite afford the latter........believe me, we actually checked into it while we were there! We truly fell in love with Newport!!! :love:

We soon returned to our tour bus because we had one more stop in store for us...Fashion Island!!! :woohoo: On the way, our driver took us along Newport Coast, with the multi-million dollar homes of many of the rich and famous.......all I can say is, WOW! :eek:

We then made our way to Fashion Island where we would spend about 2 hours in the open-air shopping plaza.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California553.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California554.jpg

I cannot say enough about how much we enjoyed Newport....other than the fact that we wanted much more time there.

Soon, it was time to return to Anaheim. Our driver dropped us off at the Candy Cane Inn and we headed to our room to freshen up. Then, it was time to check out Downtown Disney. Rather than waiting for the bus, we decided to take the leisurely walk.

Upon entering Downtown Disney, the first place we stopped was our favorite, The World of Disney.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California556.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California557.jpg

We had fun both looking and buying!!! :yay:

We made our way in and out of just about every store that we could find. Then, we saw Ralph Brennan's and decided to give our feet a break and grab a bite to eat.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California559.jpg

The Creole cuisine was YUMMO!!! After feeling a bit full, we wanted to "walk off" some of the calories we had just put in our bodies. We made our way to the Disneyland Hotel and did some exploring. The hotel was really nice and we enjoyed the gift shop too!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California560.jpg

Although we would have loved to keep going, we realized that we had experienced another long day and were ready to head back to the CCI. Tomorrow was the 4th of July and we wanted to be awake and ready to take in our last full day of our vacation. Little did we know what magical moments would be in store for us the next day...

Up Next: The 4th of July!!! -Post #150

burly

09-01-2007, 02:35 AM

Still here along for the ride:moped: The Newport Beach pics are awesome. Looked like a beautiful place.:upsidedow

SoonerGirl

09-01-2007, 08:03 AM

I feel like a broken record, but once again, great photos! I've actually been on that little ferris wheel in Newport Beach. We only had one evening there, but really enjoyed the area. It's so sad your trip is almost over - I want more! :rotfl:

Claire L

09-01-2007, 10:31 AM

Oh great trip brings back memories of our 2nd and 5th wedding anniversary trips, we got married the week before you in 2001! In 2003 we went from SF to Carmel then Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara and ended in Newport Beach. Then in 2006 we did SF, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, California desert, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas.

Your trip included alot of the areas we love, with some great pictures you have I can just imagine being back in SF again.

Claire ;)

Spartangirl

09-01-2007, 11:43 AM

Still here along for the ride:moped: The Newport Beach pics are awesome. Looked like a beautiful place.:upsidedow

Glad you're still here!!! :yay: Newport Beach was amazing...we really do want to go back....preferably sooner than later! :goodvibes

I feel like a broken record, but once again, great photos! I've actually been on that little ferris wheel in Newport Beach. We only had one evening there, but really enjoyed the area. It's so sad your trip is almost over - I want more! :rotfl:

Thank you so much for the compliment on my pics! :flower3: We never got to ride the ferris wheel because it wasn't open yet on the morning we were there. It was cute though! :) Thanks for staying onboard......I know that there's only one more day left to cover, but we did A LOT and we had a couple of "magical moments" along the way. I still have a few posts left to go.....stay tuned! ;)

Oh great trip brings back memories of our 2nd and 5th wedding anniversary trips, we got married the week before you in 2001! In 2003 we went from SF to Carmel then Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara and ended in Newport Beach. Then in 2006 we did SF, Lake Tahoe, Yosemite, California desert, Grand Canyon and Las Vegas.

Your trip included alot of the areas we love, with some great pictures you have I can just imagine being back in SF again.

Claire ;)

So glad you're onboard and enjoying the trip down memory lane! :goodvibes Sounds like you experienced some wonderful trips too!!! :thumbsup2 We LOVED our time in California and really want to head back again!

spongemommie05

09-01-2007, 01:41 PM

wow newport is beautiful i have been addicted to watching The O.C on soap net and some of those sites i have seen on there like the open mall ... love the picts ,,,:goodvibes

MAGICFOR2

09-01-2007, 01:47 PM

Can't wait to see what's in store for you on the 4th!:surfweb:

DisDancerina

09-03-2007, 12:54 AM

I'm so jealous, your dogs are cute and you have great picture taking karma! 2 Thumbs Up -:thumbsup2 :thumbsup2

Spartangirl

09-03-2007, 07:42 PM

wow newport is beautiful i have been addicted to watching The O.C on soap net and some of those sites i have seen on there like the open mall ... love the picts ,,,:goodvibes

Newport was beautiful......I too, used to watch the O.C. and was curious to see some of the places featured on the show before we went! ;) Thanks for the compliment on my pics! :flower3:

Can't wait to see what's in store for you on the 4th!:surfweb:

The 4th was really exciting for us!!! :yay: I can't wait to write about it! Hopefully I'll have the next installment up soon.....School starts tomorrow and I'll have a brand new class of 1st graders. Things will definitely be a bit busier, but I'll be sure to make some time for the DIS!!! :goodvibes

I'm so jealous, your dogs are cute and you have great picture taking karma! 2 Thumbs Up -:thumbsup2 :thumbsup2

Thanks for joining in!!! :welcome: I appreciate the compliments about my dogs and my pictures! :)

Lynne D.

09-03-2007, 08:21 PM

Best Wishes on your first day of school tomorrow. We will patiently wait for the next installment. :)

SoonerGirl

09-04-2007, 08:22 AM

Good luck with your new group of 1st graders! I have one in my house - I couldn't imagine dealing with a whole classroom full of them :scared: :laughing:

Spartangirl

09-04-2007, 06:52 PM

Best Wishes on your first day of school tomorrow. We will patiently wait for the next installment. :)

Thanks for the well wishes on my first day! :goodvibes I made it through the day!!! :lmao: I'm working on getting an installment up tonight! :thumbsup2 My next few installments may be shorter than the past ones, but I'm hoping to get them up sooner by doing that! :)

By the way, how was your CA trip? :)

Good luck with your new group of 1st graders! I have one in my house - I couldn't imagine dealing with a whole classroom full of them :scared: :laughing:

Thanks for wishing me "luck!" I think I needed it! You know, even with this being my 9th year of teaching, I still get butterflies in my stomach for the first day! :eek: First grade is definitely tough to teach, but I love it!

You sound like the parents from my class.........whenever I invite them in to help out, they go home exhausted!!! :rotfl: They always say that they can't imagine having a class full of six-year-olds day-in and day-out! :rotfl2:

Spartangirl

09-04-2007, 07:50 PM

4th of July!!!

Chris and I woke up bright and early the next morning. We had mixed emotions about this day......we were super excited since it was the 4th of July, but sad that it was the last day in the parks and of our vacation.

We showered, got dressed, and headed down for our usual continental fare. After breakfast, we didn't even glance in the direction of the CCI shuttle.......we decided to walk and just enjoy the beautiful morning.

Our plan was to hop between both parks today, with the majority of the time spent in Disneyland. We decided that we would head to California Adventure later in the afternoon to see Aladdin, since it was up and running on this day.

At around 9 a.m. we entered the turnstiles and headed for Indy. We wanted to pick up some fastpasses for later on......this ride was awesome the first time around and we wanted a second go at it! :woohoo:

After scoring our fastpasses, we wanted to meet with our favorite pirate! pirate: We walked over to Pirates of the Caribbean and got in the 5 minute line. "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!"

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California563.jpg

I couldn't resist video taping a "certain someone" in the ride! ;) Take a peek!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_a1.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=a1.flv)

LOVE that ride!!! We decided to head toward the Haunted Mansion.....along the way, we stopped for a photo op!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California564.jpg

This staircase is just so cute!!!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California565.jpg

We made it to the Haunted Mansion and found ourselves in yet, another 5 minute line! :yay: Being the 4th, we expected many more people and LONG lines.........so, we were happy with what we were finding!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California566.jpg

After riding the HM, we continued walking through New Orleans Square and into Critter Country. We stopped near the water and watched a few ducks for awhile........they looked so peaceful and relaxed.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California567.jpg

We soon found ourselves at The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Since we had yet to ride this one, and the wait time was nonexistent, we hopped right on.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California568.jpg

It was a cute ride......similar to WDW's version, but no "bounces" during the Tigger portion. :tigger:

Upon exiting the ride, we found ourselves in a fun, little shop. We took a look around and I found a giant Eeyore! :banana: He's one of my favorites, so I had to get a picture!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California569.jpg

We continued our journey and soon found ourselves in Fantasyland. Chris decided to try his luck with the "Sword in the Stone." It just wasn't happening today...:rotfl:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California570.jpg

Next up was It's a Small World........We were definitely impressed with the outside of the building......so much cooler than WDW's!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California571.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California572.jpg

Other than starting outside and heading inside (rather than just being an inside ride), this ride was very similar to WDW's version........Yes, the song gets stuck in your head for the rest of the day......but, we like the ride all the same! ;)

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California573.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California574.jpg

It's a classic, and the trip just wouldn't be complete without going on it! :)

We decided that now would be a good time to head on over to Indy. We turned in our fastpasses and got in line........we were halfway through the tunnels when TONS of people started shuffling past us to head back out to the entrance. The ride was down and it wasn't looking too good. We waited for about 5 minutes as people continued to pour out.........we joined the crowd. However, on our way out, we politely asked for fastpasses for later........the CM gave them to us with no questions asked! We would definitely be headed back! :yay:

Up Next: Toontown, Aladdin, and a "nice surprise from a CM!" Post # 157

tksbaskets

09-04-2007, 08:33 PM

Great installment! Where did you find the great cartoon Jack Sparrow?

TK

SoonerGirl

09-04-2007, 09:58 PM

Enjoyed this installment - I had to watch your Captain Jack video a couple of times....... :woohoo:

Spartangirl

09-05-2007, 05:07 PM

Great installment! Where did you find the great cartoon Jack Sparrow?

TK

Thank you! :goodvibes The painting was on the left as we entered the building for the ride.

Enjoyed this installment - I had to watch your Captain Jack video a couple of times....... :woohoo:

Glad you liked this installment........gotta love Captain Jack! :love:

KimAshton

09-08-2007, 06:41 AM

I just read your whole TR and love it so I subscribed. There is so much to do in CA and I have been there tons but never done it all.

Spartangirl

09-08-2007, 11:23 AM

I just read your whole TR and love it so I subscribed. There is so much to do in CA and I have been there tons but never done it all.

I'm so glad you're enjoying my TR and that you're onboard!!! :welcome: I agree, there is A LOT to do in California. We did a TON, but we want to head back to do some of the things that we missed and "redo" some of the things that we've already experienced. :yay:

KimAshton

09-08-2007, 12:07 PM

I'm so glad you're enjoying my TR and that you're onboard!!! :welcome: I agree, there is A LOT to do in California. We did a TON, but we want to head back to do some of the things that we missed and "redo" some of the things that we've already experienced. :yay:

I have been to Northern CA since I have a friend that lives in San Jose and been to San Fran. Go every July for events out in LA. And I have been to San Diego. I just never thought about doing a driving tour.

Spartangirl

09-08-2007, 12:15 PM

Toontown, Aladdin, and a "nice surprise from a CM!"

Seeing as though Indy was "down," we headed over to Toontown since we hadn't experienced it yet. Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin caught our attention first, so we decided to give it a whirl! The ride wait time was just over 10 minutes.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California575.jpg

Since we both love the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", we found this attraction to be very cute! Plus, we loved the fact that it was a ride unique to DL, since we don't have it at WDW. It was great fun to spin the cartoon taxis through the back alleys of Toontown! :woohoo:

We continued our adventure by "playing our way" through Toontown. Mickey and Minnie's homes were darling and we loved Chip 'n Dale's Treehouse! The detail throughout Toontown is amazing!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California579.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California576.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California578.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California577.jpg

We decided that we should hop over to CA Adventure to see Aladdin, so that we could make it back in time for the afternoon parade at DL. With that in mind, we headed through Fantasyland toward the castle. Before walking through the castle, we stopped for a quick picture.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California580.jpg

Then, we were off down Main Street, and headed toward CA Adventure.

Our first stop was Soarin', where we picked up Fastpasses for later. Then we headed to the Hyperion Theater for the 12:20 show time.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California582.jpg

All I can say is that we LOVED this show!!! :banana: The genie was hilarious and the carpet soaring through the air was magical!

Here is a short clip from the show:

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_a7-1.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=a7-1.flv)

After Aladdin, we walked around the park for a little while and found ourselves with a fun photo opportunity!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California583.jpg

We then decided that we should use our Fastpasses for Soarin' and then head back to DL for the parade...........

Upon arriving back at DL, we stopped a CM near City Hall and questioned him about the best places to watch the parade from. He happened to be from Michigan, like us, so we talked for quite a while! :goodvibes Chris told him that we had never seen the "Parade of Dreams," and we were anxious to see it, take pictures, and videotape it. He pointed out a few good viewing areas and then told us to wait a moment...

The CM walked into City Hall and disappeared for about 5 minutes or so. He finally returned to us with some wonderful news! He told us to report to the platform on the trainstation at 3:00 p.m. because he had reserved seats for us in the "roped off" section up top. We couldn't believe it!!! We were going to be able to sit in the benches up on the platform AND we wouldn't have to sit around and wait for the parade.........What a wonderful surprise!!! :banana:

Since we had some time to kill, we headed off to see what was happening with Indy. We happened to be in luck! :woohoo: Things definitely seemed to be "magically working in our favor" on the 4th! We used our Fastpasses to ride Indy for the second time this trip!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California584.jpg

After the ride, we grabbed a bite to eat. Then, we decided to head over to the train station. I snapped a picture of the beautiful castle as we walked by it.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California587.jpg

We were on :cloud9: as we approached the train platform. These appeared to be the "best seats in the house!" However, we would soon realize that we had more in store for us...:yay:

Up Next: Part 2 of our surprise, a celebrity sighting, and the Parade of Dreams! Post #164

Spartangirl

09-08-2007, 12:25 PM

I have been to Northern CA since I have a friend that lives in San Jose and been to San Fran. Go every July for events out in LA. And I have been to San Diego. I just never thought about doing a driving tour.

The driving tour was so much fun!!! :banana: It was a first for us too, but definitely not a last!!!

Hound 109

09-08-2007, 01:53 PM

double post.

Hound 109

09-08-2007, 01:55 PM

Must be nice to have "friends in high places".......:snooty:
:lmao:

So if i tell em' I'm from Michigan do you think i might score some of those deluxe hoity toity seats for the parade too??? :laughing:

Spartan Girl, every time i see another pic of the pink castle I like it more. It's gotten to the point when I see a pic of that castle in Orlando, it looks to me like a gaudy McMansion. :rotfl:

Wasn't the line que (sp) of Roger Rabbit neat?

Great report & pics SpartanGirl....thanks for posting.

hound - :3dglasses

MAGICFOR2

09-08-2007, 07:09 PM

Wow! What a great surprise! Can't wait to see what else....

I love both castles for their individuality. DL is imaginative and fun - like a fairytale, and MK is elegant and beautiful!:flower3:

KimAshton

09-09-2007, 10:05 AM

More More more More. :)

Spartangirl

09-09-2007, 04:36 PM

Must be nice to have "friends in high places".......:snooty:
:lmao:

So if i tell em' I'm from Michigan do you think i might score some of those deluxe hoity toity seats for the parade too??? :laughing:

You never know!!! ;) In all honestly, we couldn't believe the luck that we were falling into.......we were thanking our lucky stars because our trip truly was "magical!" :)

Spartan Girl, every time i see another pic of the pink castle I like it more. It's gotten to the point when I see a pic of that castle in Orlando, it looks to me like a gaudy McMansion. :rotfl:

We loved the pink castle too! However, we also love WDW's castle since it is our "home" park. :goodvibes

Wasn't the line que (sp) of Roger Rabbit neat?

Great report & pics SpartanGirl....thanks for posting.

hound - :3dglasses

The que of Roger Rabbit was fabulous!!! :yay: It was actually very fun to walk through.

Thanks for the compliments about my report and pics! :flower3: I'm enjoying sharing my trip with everyone.

Wow! What a great surprise! Can't wait to see what else....

I love both castles for their individuality. DL is imaginative and fun - like a fairytale, and MK is elegant and beautiful!:flower3:

It was a great surprise!!! :woohoo: We talked to the CM for about 10 or 15 minutes.......he was really cool! :cool1: Just wait to hear what else was in store for us......:rolleyes1

I agree with you.......I LOVE both castles too! They are so different from one another and are each unique in their own ways. :goodvibes

More More more More. :)

Glad you're enjoying my TR!!! "More" should be up this week! :banana: I'll try to post sooner than later......I have "Open House" this week, so it's going to be busy.

Spartangirl

09-11-2007, 04:37 PM

Part 2 of our surprise, a celebrity sighting, and the Parade of Dreams!

Standing on the platform, we looked into a roped-off section of benches. We glanced around and found a CM who could hopefully help us with our parade reservation. We were in luck! We gave the CM our name, she checked her list, unhooked the rope, and guided us into our seats. However, before she let us loose, she said, "Please make sure that you are back here to check-in about a half-hour before the 4th of July fireworks start."

"What???" :confused:

She smiled and said, "You are booked for tonight's fireworks too! Make sure you're here early because it will be packed!"

The CM from earlier truly did grant us a dream!!! :woohoo:

This was a magical day!!! :banana:

We happily sat down, front and center, and prepared to watch the Parade of Dreams. We were on :cloud9: yet again today!

The parade was incredible!!! We absolutely LOVED it! And to start everything off, being the 4th and all, there was a special "American tribute!" Enjoy the pics!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California585.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California586.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California588.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California589.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California590.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California591.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California592.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California593.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California594.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California595.jpg

To be continued... Post #166

Hound 109

09-11-2007, 04:49 PM

:thumbsup2 Pinocchio is my favorite Disney Movie. Nice to see Gepetto in good form.

& "Rats on Main St." :scared1:

:rotfl:

hound - :3dglasses

Spartangirl

09-11-2007, 04:56 PM

Continued...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California596.jpg

I had to include this next video clip because it seemed as if we got our own special wave from the Mouse himself!!! :goodvibes

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_c8-1.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=c8-1.flv)

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California597.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California598.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California600.jpg

As Chris and I found ourselves totally emersed in the parade right in front of us, we didn't seem to notice that the seats around us had filled in. At the end of the parade, Chris leaned over to talk to me, and noticed that Jason Lee, from My Name is Earl, and his family were sitting a few seats away from us. I was so excited!!! Very casually, I leaned over and snapped a picture.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California599.jpg

Chris laughed and starting calling me the "Paparazzi." :rolleyes:

However, I disregarded his comments and snapped one more photo when Jason was standing right in front of us. We thought about going over to talk to him, but then decided not to bother him since he was with his family. I was happy just getting some pictures.

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California601.jpg

As the crowds started to disperse, we headed down from the platform. We decided that we would take the next couple of hours to walk around the park, grab a bite to eat, and just enjoy being in Disney on our last night.

Up Next: The 4th of July Fireworks & A Magical Moment! Post #177

KimAshton

09-11-2007, 05:32 PM

Man i never see anyone famous while I am in LA. That is cool that you saw him.

SoonerGirl

09-11-2007, 08:05 PM

Wow, VIP seating for BOTH the parade and the fireworks! What a great surprise!

MAGICFOR2

09-12-2007, 12:21 AM

What can I say? :confused3 Wow! What a Magical Day!

burly

09-12-2007, 12:47 AM

Unbelievable amount of pixie dust all in one day.pixiedust: pixiedust: pixiedust: Sounded like a great day. Staying tuned for more. popcorn::

Spartangirl

09-13-2007, 04:36 PM

:thumbsup2 Pinocchio is my favorite Disney Movie. Nice to see Gepetto in good form.

& "Rats on Main St." :scared1:

:rotfl:

hound - :3dglasses

:rotfl2:

Man i never see anyone famous while I am in LA. That is cool that you saw him.

Throughout our trip, especially in LA, I had been keeping my eyes open for celebs.......I really wasn't thinking about spotting anyone in DL and that's when it happened! It was pretty exciting!!! :goodvibes

Wow, VIP seating for BOTH the parade and the fireworks! What a great surprise!

I know!!! :woohoo: We really couldn't believe it.........and, there is still one more magical moment to come!!! ;)

What can I say? :confused3 Wow! What a Magical Day!

It was wonderful!!! We didn't see the Dream Team, but we managed to get "dreams" anyway! :banana:

Unbelievable amount of pixie dust all in one day.pixiedust: pixiedust: pixiedust: Sounded like a great day. Staying tuned for more. popcorn::

It was a magical day!!! pixiedust: Believe it or not, we had one more ounce of "magic" given to us later in the evening!!! ;)

Goofster57

09-13-2007, 04:45 PM

Are you sure your trip was only 12 days? :rotfl:

tksbaskets

09-14-2007, 05:50 AM

Holy smokes! What a huge treat to have special seating for the parade and the fireworks!! I'm so glad you have posted this trip report. I'm getting lots of good ideas for what to see in June :goodvibes

Spartangirl

09-14-2007, 03:18 PM

Are you sure your trip was only 12 days? :rotfl:

I know!!! We did so much that it seems like we were gone for months...:lmao:

Believe it or not, there is only ONE MORE installment to go!

Holy smokes! What a huge treat to have special seating for the parade and the fireworks!! I'm so glad you have posted this trip report. I'm getting lots of good ideas for what to see in June :goodvibes

It was a WONDERFUL surprise!!! :banana: We really did have our dreams come true!

I'm glad you're able to "take something away" from my TR to use in June! :goodvibes

Goofster57

09-14-2007, 04:10 PM

Believe it or not, there is only ONE MORE installment to go!

Sorry to hear that it has been enjoyable

Spartangirl

09-17-2007, 08:12 PM

Sorry to hear that it has been enjoyable

Glad that you're enjoying my report!!! :goodvibes I'm hoping to get the last installment up soon...

Spartangirl

09-18-2007, 08:30 PM

The 4th of July Fireworks & a Magical Moment!

Around 8:00 p.m., we found ourselves wandering around Fantasyland toward Tomorrowland. We happened to walk by the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage and noticed that the line was still about a 3 1/2 hour wait. :eek: It looked like Nemo was going to be a "no-go" for us on this trip. As much as we both would have liked to experience it, we just weren't willing to stand in that long of a line. It just meant that we would have to plan a return trip!!! :yay:

We continued our journey until we hit a mass amount of people!!! :scared1: Being the 4th of July, people had started claiming their fireworks seats EARLY and the park was rapidly filling up.

Even though we had VIP seating, we still wanted to head to the platform early to claim our seats. Plus, we figured it wouldn't be half-bad to get out of the crowd!!!

We made it to the train station at around 8:30 p.m. We were the first to arrive for the "roped-off" section, so we claimed the benches that were front and center. :banana: It was quite fun to people-watch! The crowds were getting larger by the moment and there was so much action around us. I snapped a couple pictures of the castle from up top......notice the crowds, particularly in the 2nd shot!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California604.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California605.jpg

As we quietly laughed and talked amongst ourselves, we noticed many people trying to "sneek in" to the VIP seats. They were promptly "kicked out" by the CM's. We received a few angry glares from some of the unhappy people who were not able to join us in the section, so we were actually quite relieved when another couple showed up. The man, who was pushing his wife in a wheelchair, asked if we minded if they sat next to us for the fireworks. We happily motioned for them to join us, and we quickly became fast friends.

I think we talked the entire time until the fireworks began. The woman was re-cooping from chemo treatments, after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Even though she was quite ill, her husband wanted to take her on a "Dream-Filled" Vacation. She told us that her doctor gave her less than a year to live, and she wanted to enjoy the rest of her life to the fullest! She truly was an inspiration to both Chris and I!

The four of us continued to chat like old friends and got a good laugh when the CM told a group of people that the VIP seating was for their "Celebrity Clientele." Hardly...:rolleyes: However, we did watch Jason Lee and his family sneek into the section about 2 minutes prior to the start of the fireworks.

Soon, the fireworks began and all I can say is SPECTACULAR!!!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California608.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California612.jpg

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California619.jpg

The "Dreams Come True" Fireworks were amazing once again, and the special 4th of July fireworks were truly magical. This was definitely our BEST 4th of July to date!!!

Here is a clip that features the 4th of July fireworks finale...

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_d6.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=d6.flv)

At the conclusion of the fireworks, we sat and talked with our new friends for about 10-15 minutes, since we knew it would be near impossible to head down into the crowds and make it out of the park. We were comfy, we had great conversation going, and we were content just sitting around for a few.

Our new friends were going to be in DL for the next 3 days, and we were giving them the low-down on all of the great shows and rides to see. :goodvibes They happened to ask about the Nemo ride, being that "Nemo" was one of their granddaughter's favorite movies. We mentioned that we didn't ride it due to long lines. They continued on by saying, "We were thinking of heading over there right now...would you like to join us?" They also said that they were able to get right on all of the rides due to the wheelchair/illness.

We politely declined, not wanting to abuse the "power of the wheelchair" at a park. They basically scolded us and said that they would be offended if we didn't go with them, since we were their new friends. We smiled and agreed to join them! :woohoo:

Rather than fighting the crowds down below, we decided to hop on the train to head over to Nemo. Being nighttime, the air was a bit brisk, but we enjoyed the ride all the same. As we unloaded the train and approached Nemo, we noticed that the wait was still over 3 hours long! :eek:

We quickly joined the line with our "new friends," :hug: and boarded the ride in about 3 minutes. :yay: What a cute, cute ride! We LOVED it.......the special effects were fabulous and the company made it even more special!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/California622.jpg

After departing the ride, we sadly said our goodbyes and shared many smiles and hugs. :grouphug: Our new friends told us how "special" we had made their night and we told them that our evening was so "magical" due to them!

Chris and I smiled at each other as we walked away. We glanced back once, only to watch our friends disappearing into the crowd behind us. We thought about catching a few more rides on our last night, but soon decided against it. I mean, what could top riding Nemo? We felt like we were floating on air as we headed back to the CCI.

************************************************** **************************************************

On our final morning, we slept in, got picked up by the Disneyland Express, and headed to the airport. We were relieved to have an "uneventful" flight home.

************************************************** **************************************************

Looking back, we have some fond memories of our California trip that will indeed, last a lifetime. California is a beautiful state, and we were fortunate to see so many of the wonderful places that it showcases. Disney was and is always so MAGICAL, and we feel thankful to have shared in the magic of the "Original Park."

Thank you to all my readers who followed me on this journey!!! :goodvibes

lovevacations

09-18-2007, 08:56 PM

Spartangirl- YOU ROCK!!! I have truely enjoyed your report. What a special an amazing way to end your trip!!!!

tksbaskets

09-18-2007, 11:07 PM

Thank you for sharing your trippie. I know how much time it takes to put in so much detail. I really felt like I was there with you. Can't wait for another trip. :cool1:
TK

SoonerGirl

09-19-2007, 07:18 AM

Awwwww, it's over :sad1: Thanks so much for sharing your trip, I enjoyed every minute of it! And, it's made me even more excited for my own California vacation next summer!

Goofster57

09-19-2007, 10:10 AM

Enjoyed ever bit of your report, glad you liked California I think it's a great place to live...but being a Native I am a little Bias.

Spartangirl

09-19-2007, 04:28 PM

Spartangirl- YOU ROCK!!! I have truely enjoyed your report. What a special an amazing way to end your trip!!!!

So glad that you enjoyed my TR!!! :goodvibes I couldn't have asked for a better ending to our vacation!

Thank you for sharing your trippie. I know how much time it takes to put in so much detail. I really felt like I was there with you. Can't wait for another trip. :cool1:
TK

I LOVED sharing my trip.....yes, it does take a lot of time, but I had fun writing it! :thumbsup2 Glad you enjoyed it!!!

Awwwww, it's over :sad1: Thanks so much for sharing your trip, I enjoyed every minute of it! And, it's made me even more excited for my own California vacation next summer!

I'm glad you enjoyed my report! You're going to LOVE California!!! :thumbsup2

Enjoyed ever bit of your report, glad you liked California I think it's a great place to live...but being a Native I am a little Bias.

Glad you liked my TR!!! California is a WONDERFUL state! :goodvibes

lillybug

09-20-2007, 12:04 AM

I have really enjoyed reading your report! :goodvibes

MAGICFOR2

09-20-2007, 12:45 AM

Spartangirl: Just read your final installment :guilty: Great video! I have so enjoyed your TR - I have looked forward to each part. I am glad you had such a magical time - sometimes we forget the magic and just rush from ride to ride - thanks for sharing! My prayers are with your new friend :grouphug:

P.S. Thans for the boo!

Spartangirl

09-20-2007, 04:15 PM

I have really enjoyed reading your report! :goodvibes

So glad you liked it! :goodvibes

Spartangirl: Just read your final installment :guilty: Great video! I have so enjoyed your TR - I have looked forward to each part. I am glad you had such a magical time - sometimes we forget the magic and just rush from ride to ride - thanks for sharing! My prayers are with your new friend :grouphug:

P.S. Thans for the boo!

I'm glad you enjoyed my TR! Our trip really was magical......usually we are the people who "rush from ride to ride," but it was nice to stop and take everything in. We're headed to WDW in a few months and I'm hoping to be a little more relaxed than we usually are. :) Thanks for the prayers for my friend. She definitely needs them! :goodvibes

P.S. You're welcome! :thumbsup2

Hound 109

09-21-2007, 08:06 AM

Perfect ending to a perfect trippie. :thumbsup2

Thanks for sharing SpartanGirl. :hippie:

hound - :cool2:

Spartangirl

09-21-2007, 04:20 PM

Perfect ending to a perfect trippie. :thumbsup2

Thanks for sharing SpartanGirl. :hippie:

hound - :cool2:

Thanks so much, Hound! :goodvibes

I was happy to share my trip! :thumbsup2

jaycns

09-24-2007, 07:41 PM

Spartangirl

09-25-2007, 06:25 PM

I have just started your trip report (I am only on page 4) but I am enjoying it already! We are thinking about a Disneyland trip sometime in the near future and our trip would include seeing more of CA as well!

Thanks for writing it! :thumbsup2

Glad you are enjoying my TR! :goodvibes California/DL is a wonderful trip to take!!! With all the magical moments we experienced in DL and all the beauty in the state of CA, we would go back in a heartbeat! :thumbsup2

Juliah

09-25-2007, 06:36 PM

chibichibirei

09-25-2007, 10:07 PM

I just read your report in one sitting and all I can say is WOW! It looks like you had a wonderful time, and I enjoyed reading every last bit of it! Your photos and videos were amazing!

The last installment has me crying, its so wonderful that her husband took her there to have a magical vacation.

Makes me want to book a vacation again soon!:goodvibes

tiggerwannabe

09-25-2007, 10:16 PM

I just read your report in one sitting

:( I used to be able to do that when I had a desk job ;)

I am hoping to get back to your report soon, I haven't been back since Disneyland~I will be in FL this weekend, taking pictures on my newest adventure...I am looking forward to reading the rest of this, I don't even have to see it to know it's gonna be good!

:wave:

chibichibirei

09-25-2007, 10:19 PM

:( I used to be able to do that when I had a desk job ;)

LOL I started at like 5pm :lmao:

tiggerwannabe

09-25-2007, 10:24 PM

Actually, I used to print out all my new favorites and take them home to read every night...

:ssst:

tiggerwannabe

09-25-2007, 10:37 PM

I had been following Spartangirl from the beginning, there are quite a few days in between my reading and her being ready with the next chapter.

I got sidetracked, finished my own trippie from Cali and got really busy at work since I read her report last.

I read alot from my blackberry (phone) it does no justice to her pictures so I prefer to wait til I can look at them from a real pc.

...just sayin...

sorry Lisa, I needed to explain my real reason for delay~

no worries, right?

So Spartangirl, when's your next trip to Disney?

December?

;)

:wave:

chibichibirei

09-25-2007, 10:55 PM

Oh goodness no worries :thumbsup2 I understand...now if only I could convince fiance that we need to go soon :rotfl:

Spartangirl

09-26-2007, 06:50 PM

Thank you so much for sharing your trip! We have been considering a trip to Southern California, but after reading your report, I think we might go a ways up the coast, too. Thanks for all the great information.

Glad you enjoyed my TR! :goodvibes Southern California is wonderful, but the coast is quite breathtaking!!! :thumbsup2 We would take the exact same trip again.....it really was fantastic! :)

I just read your report in one sitting and all I can say is WOW! It looks like you had a wonderful time, and I enjoyed reading every last bit of it! Your photos and videos were amazing!

Our trip was wonderful and I'm so glad you enjoyed reading about it!!! :goodvibes Thank you for the compliment about my photos and video! :flower3:

The last installment has me crying, its so wonderful that her husband took her there to have a magical vacation.

Makes me want to book a vacation again soon!:goodvibes

Sorry that you were in tears...I LOVED meeting those amazing people! Although she was quite worn out and tired, her spirits were so high!!! And, her husband was doing everything he could to make her dreams come true! They really were unique and special people.

:( I used to be able to do that when I had a desk job ;)

I am hoping to get back to your report soon, I haven't been back since Disneyland~I will be in FL this weekend, taking pictures on my newest adventure...

Yay! A new adventure!!! :woohoo: I can't wait to hear all about it and see your wonderful pics!!!

I am looking forward to reading the rest of this, I don't even have to see it to know it's gonna be good!

:wave:

You are too sweet! :flower3:

Spartangirl

09-26-2007, 06:57 PM

LOL I started at like 5pm :lmao:

Oh my gosh!!! :scared1:

Actually, I used to print out all my new favorites and take them home to read every night...

:ssst:

That's a great idea!!! :thumbsup2

I had been following Spartangirl from the beginning, there are quite a few days in between my reading and her being ready with the next chapter.

I got sidetracked, finished my own trippie from Cali and got really busy at work since I read her report last.

I read alot from my blackberry (phone) it does no justice to her pictures so I prefer to wait til I can look at them from a real pc.

...just sayin...

sorry Lisa, I needed to explain my real reason for delay~

no worries, right?

So Spartangirl, when's your next trip to Disney?

December?

;)

:wave:

Yep...December! :lmao:

Oh goodness no worries :thumbsup2 I understand...now if only I could convince fiance that we need to go soon :rotfl:

Love it!!! :rotfl2:

tiggerwannabe

09-26-2007, 09:07 PM

Hubby and me will be back in wdw for our anniversary December 8th to the 13th. :woohoo:

Our 21yo son is coming and so again is rose...dd will be home tho, somebody needs to feed the dogs ;)

thmar

09-27-2007, 01:09 PM

All I can say is AWESOME trip report...loved the photos. Thanks for sharing!!

Spartangirl

09-27-2007, 03:47 PM

Hubby and me will be back in wdw for our anniversary December 8th to the 13th. :woohoo:

Our 21yo son is coming and so again is rose...dd will be home tho, somebody needs to feed the dogs ;)

How exciting!!! :yay: We will be in WDW to celebrate the New Year! :banana:

All I can say is AWESOME trip report...loved the photos. Thanks for sharing!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! :flower3: I was happy to share my trip!

punkin413

10-10-2007, 06:23 PM

i can't believe i just realized you have a TR!!! what a dork i am. i have a lot of catching up to do!

Spartangirl

10-11-2007, 04:18 PM

i can't believe i just realized you have a TR!!! what a dork i am. i have a lot of catching up to do!

Lol! :lmao: No worries! :goodvibes

spongemommie05

10-12-2007, 01:36 AM

DisDancerina

10-12-2007, 04:43 PM

I Just <3 This Trippie! Don't You? :cloud9:

Spartangirl

10-13-2007, 09:30 AM

i am so sorry:guilty: i just finished reading,:rolleyes1 i have been getting ready for our 1st trip to disneyland in 7 days.:cool1: :banana: :woohoo: wonderful pictures:goodvibes loved it:love: thank you for sharing...

I'm glad you liked my TR! :goodvibes Thank you for the compliment on my pics! :flower3: Have a wonderful trip to DL!!! :woohoo:

I Just <3 This Trippie! Don't You? :cloud9:

Glad you enjoyed my report!!! :goodvibes

Lifelong_Dreamer

10-14-2007, 08:27 PM

tiggerwannabe

10-16-2007, 03:46 PM

...

We decided that we would try to find a spot to view the "Remember...Dreams Come True" Fireworks. We knew we had to hurry since they began at 9:25 p.m. At the front of the castle, we saw crowds, and more crowds! Wow!!! :scared1: It sure was packed, but by this point in time, we were determined to see the show. Again, we found a place to squeeze in and within a couple of minutes, the show began.

This has got to be the BEST fireworks show that we've ever seen! We absolutely LOVED it. And, I'm a Tink fan, so I was thrilled to see her flying around the castle.

Here is a video clip from the end of the fireworks....it makes me teary-eyed everytime I watch it!

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/th_b4.jpg (http://s195.photobucket.com/albums/z17/spartangirl/?action=view&current=b4.flv)

...

1st of all, YES, I am just now getting to the Disney photos from your trip...

Second of all, YES! you totally got me teary eyed with this and I absolutely ADORE you for it!!!

When we were there we got to do pretty much every ride on our list. What we didn't see was Fantasmic (it wasn't running when we were there) or the fireworks :(

Thank you for the quick look at a most fabulous evening. Thank you for giving me these tears :hug:

...going back to check out the rest...

tiggerwannabe

10-16-2007, 04:29 PM

Spartangirl- YOU ROCK!!! I have truely enjoyed your report. What a special an amazing way to end your trip!!!!

Perfectly said!

Thank you L & C. You guys truly Rock!

I know this has been asked of you but I must ask again, what camera did you use for your stills and your video camera (after seeing the zoom in on Tink) has an awesome reach!

Can't wait to see your Christmas photos~

...til next time...

colleen.

Spartangirl

10-16-2007, 05:53 PM

I just read through your report. It sounds like it was an amazing trip! I really enjoyed reading about your experiences. I lived in Monterey for 2 years when I was a child and I love it there. I can't wait to visit California again in a few years. I plan on visiting many of the same sites that you went to so I really liked looking at all your pictures.

It was an amazing trip!!! :goodvibes Glad you enjoyed the read! :thumbsup2 California is such a beautiful state with so many things to do......I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time when you visit. :)

1st of all, YES, I am just now getting to the Disney photos from your trip...

:rotfl: Hey, better late than never! ;)

[b]
Second of all, YES! you totally got me teary eyed with this and I absolutely ADORE you for it!!!

When we were there we got to do pretty much every ride on our list. What we didn't see was Fantasmic (it wasn't running when we were there) or the fireworks :(

Thank you for the quick look at a most fabulous evening. Thank you for giving me these tears :hug:

...going back to check out the rest...

I'm glad you were able to get a glimpse of the fireworks! :hug:

Perfectly said!

Thank you L & C. You guys truly Rock!

I know this has been asked of you but I must ask again, what camera did you use for your stills and your video camera (after seeing the zoom in on Tink) has an awesome reach!

Can't wait to see your Christmas photos~

...til next time...

colleen.

Colleen-

So glad that you enjoyed the rest of my report! For my stills I used a Nikon D-80 DSLR. Our video camera is just a little Sony Handycam with a 20X optical zoom (model DCR-HC28). :)

I'm sure I'll have plenty of Christmas photos!!! :goodvibes But, I think you head to WDW first??? So, I'll be looking for yours too! :thumbsup2

tiggerwannabe

10-16-2007, 06:48 PM

tiggerwannabe

10-16-2007, 06:51 PM

Yes, I go back from 12-8 to 12-15. It's not really a wdw trip tho :(

I am going with hubby and son. They like universal. and Sea World. I like Disney, I'm getting at least one day of Disney.

Spartangirl

10-16-2007, 07:20 PM

You're kidding me!?!>?!

I am contemplating buying the D80! Seriously, is $1200 a good price or can I do better? and the Sony?!?!? How do you upload video from it? I've got the Boo to you parade from WDW's MNSSHP and can't figure out how to get it out...can you help me???

I found at D80 on B&H with a 18 to 135mm lens and 2 2gig memory cards. You clarity is gorgeous, I so want that camera :faint:

You won't regret it if you get the camera...I LOVE MINE!!!!

I got my D-80 kit with a 28-80 mm lens and a 70-300 mm lens for about $1200 - $1300 (can't quite remember, it was last X-mas). I only have one 2 gig memory card and have put 650 pics on it with room to spare. Check out Ritz Camera....or Wolf Camera.....you may find some deals. I checked out B&H and the lens that you are looking at is a better quality lens than the 2 that came with mine. However, as you can see from my pics, the quality from the standard lens is quite superb and I do have the ability of a longer zoom. Back to the deal you're looking at.....the price looks pretty good for the camera and that lens.

To upload from the Sony....you should use a DV cable, aka firewire. You can use a USB cable, but you get better quality from the DV. I upload directly into Windows Movie Maker and store the video on my computer. I then upload the video into Photobucket.

If you have Windows Movie Maker, it takes you through the process step-by-step. Let me know if you have any more questions! I'm happy to try to answer them!

Spartangirl

10-16-2007, 07:22 PM

Yes, I go back from 12-8 to 12-15. It's not really a wdw trip tho :(

I am going with hubby and son. They like universal. and Sea World. I like Disney, I'm getting at least one day of Disney.

One day of Disney is better than none! :goodvibes

tiggerwannabe

10-16-2007, 07:30 PM

One day of Disney is better than none! :goodvibes

Thank you for the advice...

and

Absolutely! That's why I insist on at least one. I get my fix for that trip and I am happy. I also just got back-that helps immensly. I also always get a day at downtown disney and try to finagle an ADR at one of their hotels to get a touch more.

I like the other parks,

I like the variety I can get no matter how often we go down.

chellebelle

10-19-2007, 12:52 PM

You trip report was awesome!!! I love all of your posts & the pictures are amazing!! Makes me want to go back so bad!! HOpefully in the next year we will be able to make it back to DL!

Spartangirl

10-19-2007, 04:00 PM

You trip report was awesome!!! I love all of your posts & the pictures are amazing!! Makes me want to go back so bad!! HOpefully in the next year we will be able to make it back to DL!

Thank you! :flower3: I want to head back soon too! DL is such a magical place! :goodvibes

travelmel

10-24-2007, 05:16 PM

Hi,
LOVE LOVE LOVE the DL trippies - especially ones with OUTSTANDING photo's and video. Thank you! I love to hear the comparrison. I am dying to ride all of the old school DL rides at WDW aka: Old Space Mt, Old Astro Jets, Old Swiss Family Robinson. :) I'm sad that you guys updated the HM as I preferred the old version. Also, unpopular as I will be, I could definitely have used 5 or 6 less Jack's in the new PotC. I'm a traditionalist! I do love the seasonal stuff like Jack Skellington's Xmas HM (if you get the chance this is FANTASTIC) and Xmas iaSWaa. Goodtimes.

Oh, and! We missed you by one day! We were there July 5th (my first RD in 37 yrs of DL visiting). We used Ridemax touring and it worked REALLY well. Now I'm a TGM person and will be trying that for our first WDW trip next year.

Thanks again for the wonderful reading
Melissa

Spartangirl

10-27-2007, 11:19 AM

TinkerKell-ey

11-03-2007, 09:37 PM

TinkerKell-ey

11-03-2007, 09:38 PM

Ooops! I didn't spell Spartan wrong on purpose - I swear :rolleyes1

Spartangirl

11-05-2007, 03:35 PM

Hi Lynne,
Thanks so much for the fabulous TR! We leave Wednesday for our first trip to DL and I've taken notes. :) I would love to copy your trip, but we will just do DL for 4 days,Legoland and Long & Huntington Beaches.

Kindof strange-we have some things in common . . .I'm a WDW vet, our parents liked extra E's (I'm KellEy AnnE and my sister's middle name is LynnE, I'm also in MI and my DD (a miracle after years of hope) is in first grade.

Oh, I absolutely LOVE my D80 too. Your pics have inspired me ... do you shoot RAW or JPEG? I've taken a bunch of classes at the local college and can't wait to try my skills "on location". Did you ask CM's to take your pictures, I mean the ones with you in them? (FYI Our last trip to WDW (11/06) the photographers were using Nikon D70's, I had the D70s at the time so it was a extra perk exchanging tips with a couple of them. Did you notice what camera they were shooting with in DL?

Sorry for blathering on here (and sorry about the Sparten loss today - we were rooting for Blue today - it was close! ) :cheer2:

Take care and thanks again!

Hello and thank you so much for the nice compliments! :flower3: First off, have a wonderful trip! :goodvibes Only 2 more days to go!!! :woohoo:

Very cool about all that we have in common! :thumbsup2 And...no bad feelings about the Spartans! It was a close game.....there's always next year! :rolleyes:

Glad you love your D80 too! I shoot JPEG. I did ask the CM's to use my camera for pictures of the two of us. However, I used a tripod for some of the shots too! The CM's never had a problem using my camera......they loved using the D80. I believe they used the D70s at DL as well as WDW. :)

Again, thanks for the compliments and have a great trip! :goodvibes

cdotla

12-28-2007, 09:37 AM

Wow - I just linked over here from your New Year TR. I am going to have to spend a couple hours reading it but what I have seen so far is :thumbsup2 , :thumbsup2 , :thumbsup2 !!!

Spartangirl

12-28-2007, 05:45 PM

Wow - I just linked over here from your New Year TR. I am going to have to spend a couple hours reading it but what I have seen so far is :thumbsup2 , :thumbsup2 , :thumbsup2 !!!

Thanks for subbing in to read about my California trip!!! :goodvibes I'm glad you like what you've read so far... We had a really great trip! :)

Eventer98

12-29-2007, 08:15 AM

kmab00

01-01-2008, 09:37 PM

Hi Spartangirl! I randomly ran across your trip report about Disneyland and just HAD to read along!!

My DH and I are very much WDW visitors and are VERY unfamiliar with DL. We are thinking about taking our 1 year anniversary trip to DL this upcoming April and I'm trying to find out more about California! It's all so new and different to me...I feel so lost! :laughing:

DH and I just sat and read your entire trip report and it sounds like you both had a blast travelling up the coast and making your way to DL! I LOVE your picture-filled trip report!!! Those kind of TR's are my favorite! ;)

We think that we are going to stay on property at DL all week and just have a nice relaxing vacation but we aren't quite sure at this point! I wanted to go to the beach/Hollywood...he doesn't really. Reading your TR kind of helped us see "what else" is out there!! Thank you for writing this very informative and USEFUL trip report!!! The pictures are all very beautiful! :)

punkin413

01-01-2008, 11:48 PM

hey, lynne! i owe you an apology. i subbed to this TR LONG ago and i kept putting off reading it, thinking, "oh, it's about DL.......i'll read it later." let me tell you that i just read this entire thing in one sitting! what a great TR!!!!! i'm sorry it took me so long to get over here! and thank you for sharing your experience with all of us. i LOVE the fireworks at DL with tink flying around the castle! and i also love the scene with captain hook and peter pan in fantasmic. SO COOL!!!!!!! i know how long it takes to upload those videos so thank you for doing it! i'm impressed with the amount of tink-ness at DL....i wonder why she's so elusive at WDW???? must be the love bugs. :lmao:

i also loved reading about your other non-disney adventures. i'm PMing you about those right now! ;)

Spartangirl

01-07-2008, 04:03 PM

I also just came over from you Xmas TR....maybe it will bump up this TR for others to read! I really enjoyed this one...I took a 10K mile cross country trip in 1999 but had to skip Yosemite. It was the exact week there were some murders in the park. Thanks for the pictures..now I know I will have to go back someday!!! :goodvibes

Thanks for coming over to read this report too! :goodvibes Yosemite is absolutely gorgeous....if you can go back sometime, do! Wow...that's kind of eerie that you were there the week of the murders......I think DH saw a special about them on tv, but at least it was after we got back! :eek:

Hi Spartangirl! I randomly ran across your trip report about Disneyland and just HAD to read along!!

My DH and I are very much WDW visitors and are VERY unfamiliar with DL. We are thinking about taking our 1 year anniversary trip to DL this upcoming April and I'm trying to find out more about California! It's all so new and different to me...I feel so lost! :laughing:

DH and I just sat and read your entire trip report and it sounds like you both had a blast travelling up the coast and making your way to DL! I LOVE your picture-filled trip report!!! Those kind of TR's are my favorite! ;)

We think that we are going to stay on property at DL all week and just have a nice relaxing vacation but we aren't quite sure at this point! I wanted to go to the beach/Hollywood...he doesn't really. Reading your TR kind of helped us see "what else" is out there!! Thank you for writing this very informative and USEFUL trip report!!! The pictures are all very beautiful! :)

Thanks for reading my TR! Glad you enjoyed it!!! And...thank you for the compliment on my pics! :flower3: We had such a great time in California and would repeat the same trip in a heartbeat!!! Disneyland is tons of fun and we loved our time spent there, but there is so much more to do in CA. We spent 2 weeks there and didn't get to see EVERYTHING that we wanted to! :rotfl: Good luck in whatever you decide to do for your anniversary...you really can't go wrong with Cali! :goodvibes

hey, lynne! i owe you an apology. i subbed to this TR LONG ago and i kept putting off reading it, thinking, "oh, it's about DL.......i'll read it later." let me tell you that i just read this entire thing in one sitting! what a great TR!!!!! i'm sorry it took me so long to get over here! and thank you for sharing your experience with all of us. i LOVE the fireworks at DL with tink flying around the castle! and i also love the scene with captain hook and peter pan in fantasmic. SO COOL!!!!!!! i know how long it takes to upload those videos so thank you for doing it! i'm impressed with the amount of tink-ness at DL....i wonder why she's so elusive at WDW???? must be the love bugs. :lmao:

i also loved reading about your other non-disney adventures. i'm PMing you about those right now! ;)

Thanks for coming back and reading my report! ;) I'm glad you enjoyed it!!! Tink really was EVERYWHERE at DL! It was kind of cool because like yourself, I'm a big fan too! :goodvibes

I'm off to PM you back! :thumbsup2

caitlinsdad

01-31-2008, 11:26 AM

Thank you for such a great TR,
We are thinking of taking a Calif trip this year, and this is a great resource.

Thank you again

Spartangirl

01-31-2008, 03:13 PM

Thank you for such a great TR,
We are thinking of taking a Calif trip this year, and this is a great resource.

Thank you again

You're welcome!!! :goodvibes

laurie31

03-19-2008, 02:38 AM

Hello!

I am planning a similar trip for this June and chanced upon your trip report in a search for "yosemite" on the boards. Wow, what a gem! Your pics and vids were awesome, and I loved reading about your trip!

Due to the amount of time we have, we will not be able to make it to LA and Disneyland...we're mostly going to Yosemite, but we are also doing San Francisco and Monterey :) We keep adding stuff - lol. We may try to throw Tahoe in as well...

I can't wait to taste that chowder in a bread bowl!

What a magical trip you had! The end was so beautiful!

I hope we have your luck with weather and pixie dust!

MAGICFOR2

03-19-2008, 03:02 AM

Hello!

I am planning a similar trip for this June and chanced upon your trip report in a search for "yosemite" on the boards. Wow, what a gem! Your pics and vids were awesome, and I loved reading about your trip!

Due to the amount of time we have, we will not be able to make it to LA and Disneyland...we're mostly going to Yosemite, but we are also doing San Francisco and Monterey :) We keep adding stuff - lol. We may try to throw Tahoe in as well...

I can't wait to taste that chowder in a bread bowl!

What a magical trip you had! The end was so beautiful!

I hope we have your luck with weather and pixie dust!

Oh! Take your kids to Santa Cruz - just a little farther North - Really fun boardwalk with rides and games. The beach is nice, too! Monterey is quite cold, but also artsy and fun.

Disneygrl36

03-21-2008, 09:24 AM

Just read your enchanting trip report. Thanks for sharing your magical trip with us. I can't believe how beautiful California is & I can't wait for our trip in December.

Spartangirl

03-22-2008, 11:26 AM

Hello!

I am planning a similar trip for this June and chanced upon your trip report in a search for "yosemite" on the boards. Wow, what a gem! Your pics and vids were awesome, and I loved reading about your trip!

Hello and thanks so much for reading about my trip!!! :goodvibes I appreciate the compliment about my pics and video! :flower3:

Due to the amount of time we have, we will not be able to make it to LA and Disneyland...we're mostly going to Yosemite, but we are also doing San Francisco and Monterey :) We keep adding stuff - lol. We may try to throw Tahoe in as well...

We LOVED Yosemite and San Francisco! We truly wished we could have spent more time in both places! I think we'll have to make a trip back! Monterey was beautiful too! We didn't have nearly enough time there. If you have a chance, you may want to try to hit the aquarium there. I heard it's really amazing!!! :thumbsup2

I can't wait to taste that chowder in a bread bowl!

It is REALLY good! And add in the people watching as you eat....:thumbsup2 :thumbsup2

What a magical trip you had! The end was so beautiful!

It really was magical!!! Thanks again for reading! :goodvibes

I hope we have your luck with weather and pixie dust!

Here's sending good luck and pixie dust your way! pixiedust:

Oh! Take your kids to Santa Cruz - just a little farther North - Really fun boardwalk with rides and games. The beach is nice, too! Monterey is quite cold, but also artsy and fun.

Monterey was a little chilly, but definitely artsy and fun! :goodvibes

Just read your enchanting trip report. Thanks for sharing your magical trip with us. I can't believe how beautiful California is & I can't wait for our trip in December.

Thanks so much for reading my TR!!! :) California was amazing and I know you'll have a wonderful adventure!!! :thumbsup2 Chris and I still talk about our trip last summer and all of the great memories we have. I can definitely see another trip in our future!!! ;)