elaine amj
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2012
Just got home from a week in Disneyland - we love all things Disney and were so thrilled to visit the Walt's original park and help it celebrate its 60th birthday! Best of all, our family has lots of July birthdays so each day was "assigned" to each of us to celebrate our birthdays. We figured a week off still counted and my husband did have his actual birthday on July 21.
We flew out a week early to explore California and loved the vibe of the state. It felt awesome to be in California and the first hour or so, we kept exclaiming how we felt like we were in the middle of a movie. We hit San Luis Obispo and spent some time in the gorgeous Sequoia National Park and capped it off with whalewatching from Newport Beach. Wrapped it up with a WHOLE WEEK in Disneyland!
Would we like it? How would DLR compare to WDW?
Let's get this story started...
pretrip - ready with Minnie nails!
July 10 - Landed in Burbank, renting a convertible ($356 for a week – sweet deal for expensive California!).
After crazy bumper to bumper traffic through Santa Barbara, we had dinner in quaint Solvang, then crashed at the Hilton Garden Inn in San Luis Obispo.
July 11 - Early morning in the SLO Farmer's Market. We picked up a big tray of super sweet Cali strawberries and Kale juice (we are in Cali after all)
Then a fun 11am boat tour on the Seaweed Express in Avila Beach.
Lunch was at Custom House in Avila Beach (delish clam chowder!) and frozen cheesecake on a stick as a snack while we wandered the charming, laid back breezy beach town. Eventually, we hit the road again for a 3 hour drive to Sequoia National Park. We crashed for the night in a rather grungy (and super expensive) Comfort Inn in Three Rivers.
July 12 - FINALLY entered Sequoia National Park. How do I convey the wonder of walking through woods filled with majestic sequoia trees, the largest trees on earth? And on my birthday, no less. I stopped every few minutes for photo after photo. And many times, just to gaze in awe. WOW. I had a smile a mile wide the entire day.
And saw a bear taking a Sunday stroll.
We wrapped up the day with an all you can eat dinner at Wolverton BBQ. Yummy!
Tonight, we slept in a tent cabin in Grant Grove. It got quite chilly at night and I regretted not packing a sleeping bag for my son (blankets don't stay on him well). We didn't sleep well - The rest of us were warm enough but my son woke us up all night long with his shivering.
July 13 - Dropped DH and DS off at Hume Lake to go paintballing (DS LOVED it - perfect environment for kids) while DD and I tackled a 4 hour hike in the Sugar Bowl, the largest grove of Sequoia trees in the world. It was amazing but a couple of days later, my body was still aching.
Then checked into Hume Lake Christian Campground. Our room in the Joshua Lodge was very nice (beds a little old) and the setting was absolutely gorgeous.
The kids rented stand up paddleboards (just $10/hour!!).
July 14 - Delicious free pancake breakfast at Inspiration Point (kids slept in and ate in the cafeteria, which was ok and plentiful).
After breakfast, we drove out to Kings Canyon for a short hike in Zumwalt Meadow. It was beautiful but I don’t think we would do the (hour long each way) twisty drive again. Plus, I think it would be much prettier in the early morning/evening.
We spent the afternoon relaxing at Hume Lake. Overall we enjoyed the place – the meal plans were good value ($15/day for buffet lunch and buffet dinner) and the food is solidly decent. It was nice to see hundreds of happy teens but eventually I needed some solitude away from so many people. In the late afternoon, we were back on the road – this time to Tulare (2 hr drive) to crash for the night in a cheap hotel.
July 15 – The highlight today will be seeing the Hollywood sign! We decided to go to the Griffith Observatory (just off highway 5). It was a very hot and dusty hike up the trail to the point where we could see the Hollywood sign.
After snapping a couple of quick photos, we were ready to get back to our air-conditioned car and decided to skip the Observatory. This helped with traffic too and we rolled into Anaheim by lunchtime.
We were excited to finally set foot in the Disneyland Resort!
It was a chilled out evening in Downtown Disney. Dinner was appetizers at Trader Sams. 3 appetizers were plenty to fill us up. Yummy and the craziness in the bar was a blast.
Coming soon...whale watching in Newport Beach (would we see whales?) and we'll finally set foot in the parks!
We flew out a week early to explore California and loved the vibe of the state. It felt awesome to be in California and the first hour or so, we kept exclaiming how we felt like we were in the middle of a movie. We hit San Luis Obispo and spent some time in the gorgeous Sequoia National Park and capped it off with whalewatching from Newport Beach. Wrapped it up with a WHOLE WEEK in Disneyland!
Would we like it? How would DLR compare to WDW?
Let's get this story started...
pretrip - ready with Minnie nails!
July 10 - Landed in Burbank, renting a convertible ($356 for a week – sweet deal for expensive California!).
After crazy bumper to bumper traffic through Santa Barbara, we had dinner in quaint Solvang, then crashed at the Hilton Garden Inn in San Luis Obispo.
July 11 - Early morning in the SLO Farmer's Market. We picked up a big tray of super sweet Cali strawberries and Kale juice (we are in Cali after all)
Then a fun 11am boat tour on the Seaweed Express in Avila Beach.
Lunch was at Custom House in Avila Beach (delish clam chowder!) and frozen cheesecake on a stick as a snack while we wandered the charming, laid back breezy beach town. Eventually, we hit the road again for a 3 hour drive to Sequoia National Park. We crashed for the night in a rather grungy (and super expensive) Comfort Inn in Three Rivers.
July 12 - FINALLY entered Sequoia National Park. How do I convey the wonder of walking through woods filled with majestic sequoia trees, the largest trees on earth? And on my birthday, no less. I stopped every few minutes for photo after photo. And many times, just to gaze in awe. WOW. I had a smile a mile wide the entire day.
And saw a bear taking a Sunday stroll.
We wrapped up the day with an all you can eat dinner at Wolverton BBQ. Yummy!
Tonight, we slept in a tent cabin in Grant Grove. It got quite chilly at night and I regretted not packing a sleeping bag for my son (blankets don't stay on him well). We didn't sleep well - The rest of us were warm enough but my son woke us up all night long with his shivering.
July 13 - Dropped DH and DS off at Hume Lake to go paintballing (DS LOVED it - perfect environment for kids) while DD and I tackled a 4 hour hike in the Sugar Bowl, the largest grove of Sequoia trees in the world. It was amazing but a couple of days later, my body was still aching.
Then checked into Hume Lake Christian Campground. Our room in the Joshua Lodge was very nice (beds a little old) and the setting was absolutely gorgeous.
The kids rented stand up paddleboards (just $10/hour!!).
July 14 - Delicious free pancake breakfast at Inspiration Point (kids slept in and ate in the cafeteria, which was ok and plentiful).
After breakfast, we drove out to Kings Canyon for a short hike in Zumwalt Meadow. It was beautiful but I don’t think we would do the (hour long each way) twisty drive again. Plus, I think it would be much prettier in the early morning/evening.
We spent the afternoon relaxing at Hume Lake. Overall we enjoyed the place – the meal plans were good value ($15/day for buffet lunch and buffet dinner) and the food is solidly decent. It was nice to see hundreds of happy teens but eventually I needed some solitude away from so many people. In the late afternoon, we were back on the road – this time to Tulare (2 hr drive) to crash for the night in a cheap hotel.
July 15 – The highlight today will be seeing the Hollywood sign! We decided to go to the Griffith Observatory (just off highway 5). It was a very hot and dusty hike up the trail to the point where we could see the Hollywood sign.
After snapping a couple of quick photos, we were ready to get back to our air-conditioned car and decided to skip the Observatory. This helped with traffic too and we rolled into Anaheim by lunchtime.
We were excited to finally set foot in the Disneyland Resort!
It was a chilled out evening in Downtown Disney. Dinner was appetizers at Trader Sams. 3 appetizers were plenty to fill us up. Yummy and the craziness in the bar was a blast.
Coming soon...whale watching in Newport Beach (would we see whales?) and we'll finally set foot in the parks!
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